Bonus Episode: Will & Grace creators, Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, on Creating Mid-Century Modern (And How Ryan Murphy Helped)

No matter how long Ncuti Gatwa plays The Doctor in the legendary sci-fi series Doctor Who, he still can't quite believe he gets to play the part. "I just feel very honored to be a part of the Who-niverse, because it made me feel very included." Going into his second season as The Doctor, "It always blows my mind whenever I speak to someone from over the pond that knows about Doctor Who, because [it] just feels like our tiny, little British TV show." Thanks to the international reach of Disney+, "the show is getting bigger, and more people have access to this wonderful little secret that us nerds had for a little while just all to ourselves." Gatwa acknowledges he "had great teachers" in past Doctors. "They each had something really different." And this season will bring even more nostalgia. "Classic Who fans will be happy about this season, there's lots of Easter eggs in it for them." But Gatwa, as the first Black Doctor, is especially proud that "little Black kids are gonna be looking at me like, 'I might be the Doctor,' or they might feel a little more relatability to the show." Read and watch the full chat with Ncuti Gatwa: https://www.newsweek.com/2025/04/11/doctor-whos-ncuti-gatwa-has-many-easter-eggs-longtime-who-fans-2053340.html See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If there’s anyone who knows how to play a wealthy man with a secret, it’s Jon Hamm. From Mad Men’s Don Draper to Andrew Cooper turning to a life of crime to maintain his lavish lifestyle in his new series Your Friends and Neighbors (Apple TV+), Hamm knows. “I’m really good casting for this, if I do say so myself,” Hamm laughs, “absurd wealth is what we’re looking at here,” and the secrets its pursuit can reveal. “Late-stage capitalism and rampant materialism, and what does it really mean? Why are we measuring ourselves against other people using the metric of just who has a bigger pile of stuff?” While he knows “not everybody can resonate with having to make their $300,000 mortgage” like his character, “people can certainly identify with losing their job through no fault of their own.” Between Mad Men and some of his Emmy-nominated work on The Morning Show, Fargo and Landman, Hamm is confident that he’s “earned my place,” but is mostly “fortunate” that he gets to work with those he admires. “To work with those people is a tremendous gift.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We all know Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott loves ‘The Golden Girls.’ (He has them tattooed on his arm.) So obviously Rachel Ekstrom Courage had to stop by to talk about her fantastic new book ‘Murder by Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery.’ Rachel talks about how the book came about, why ‘The Golden Girls’ are perfect characters in a novel, and even talks about whether she’ll do more Golden Girls cozy mysteries.  Subscribe to Newsweek’s For the Culture newsletter to watch the full chat with Kit. https://www.newsweek.com/newsletter/the-culture/ Order ‘Murder by Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery’ - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/770129/murder-by-cheesecake-by-rachel-ekstrom-courage/ Follow Rachel Ekstrom Courage - https://www.instagram.com/rachelekstromcourage/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Getting a show made is hard these days. Getting a show about unconventional families is even harder to get made. Despite these hurdles, Kit Williamson was able to do it. The end result? Unconventional, Revery’s first original scripted series, follows queer siblings and their partners as they grapple with creating unconventional families. Kit joined Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott to talk about the show, how it came about, and why it’s important now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When Will & Grace premiered on NBC in 1998, it was groundbreaking because of the sheer lack of queer representation on network TV. Since then, numerous sitcoms have increased LGBTQ+ visibility on TV, but rarely gay characters of an older generation. To fill that void, those same Will & Grace creators, Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, developed Hulu’s Mid-Century Modern to show that while a multi-camera sitcom with three gay male leads is rare, the stories they are telling are universal. Led by Nathan Lane’s Bunny Schneiderman, Mid-Century Modern finds undergarment tycoon Bunny inviting his two best friends—Jerry (played by Matt Bomer) and Arthur (played by Nathan Lee Graham)—to move in with him and his mother, Sybil (played by Linda Lavin). It is after the passing of one of their mutual friends that Bunny opens up his Palm Springs home. Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott chats with Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer and Nathan Lee Graham about Mid-Century Modern, how it came about, and why it’s so important right now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this bonus episode, Will & Grace creators, Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, chat with Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott about how Mid-Century Modern came about, how a dinner with Ryan Murphy started it all, and the way Linda Lavin’s sudden passing during production impacted the new Hulu series. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if Harriet Tubman came back to modern-day America to make a hip-hop album in order to continue her work as an abolitionist? That’s exactly the world Bob the Drag Queen creates in their new novel Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert. “It is the most remarkable story in American history,” Bob says of Tubman’s life. “Harriet Tubman sees how remarkable African American culture is, what it's become, how hip-hop has saved the nation, saved the world and she wants to take part in it.” In addition to the physical book, the audio experience of the novel is just as enthralling, complete with original music. “A part of Harriet Tubman’s story is music. [She] did use music in her work as an abolitionist.” And the music included in the audiobook is “the best music I've ever written. Easily. I am so proud of this book. I cry when I listen to this music.” And true to form, Bob, a past winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, is creating a live show based around the book. “The book really is about freedom and what freedom means to you. We get to define what our freedom is... and in this book, Harriet is trying to help people get free.” Bob spoke with Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott about how the book came about how much it would take for him to return to RuPaul’s Drag Race. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ben Falcone isn't exactly known for making kid-friendly projects. His films with wife and frequent collaborator Melissa McCarthy are "R-rated quite often, but I do think there's a certain sweetness that we usually try to hit." And it's that sweetness he's bringing to his first kids' book, What's Scarier Than Thunder? "My secret goal is that it's something that kids will think is funny, but that parents will, too." The story follows Claire, who is afraid of thunderstorms. For future stories, Falcone sees many other things to be scared of: "Heights, first day of school, remember that one? Meeting someone new, auditions..." Another story he's actively involved with is the podcast Hildy the Barback and the Lake of Fire, which he created with McCarthy and Steve Mallory. "There's going to be a season two, so we're excited." And even though "the industry is clearly changing," Falcone says he believes in comedy. "Melissa and I, our big goal is to try to be a very small part of the bigger push to get comedies back in the theaters. I think it's so good for people to get together and laugh."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney, famous for chronicling her gender transition online in “365 Days of Girlhood,” posted a sponsored video promoting Bud Light, it quickly went viral, but not necessarily in a good way. “I would have never taken that offer had I known it would have brought me anything but joy.” She shares her experience in a new book Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer (March 11). “I felt so supported by the internet and in my life that I wasn’t really weighing the gravity of what working with a brand with that scope and that broader audience really meant.” But when the spotlight from “Beergate” shined on her, “there was this energy of, Do I just not talk about this? Do we pretend it didn’t happen?... No! The way that I navigate life is to share. Unfortunately, I’m addicted to oversharing and so I couldn’t not.” But with the book, a new podcast and other projects in the mix, Mulvaney is ready to focus on her ultimate goal: “This year, every decision I make is coming back to, Does this help me become a Broadway diva?”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We've got new winners from Peacock's Traitors! Dolores Catania, Dylan Efron and Ivar Mountbatten spoke with Newsweek about sleuthing out the traitors and why this season was so chaotically wonderful. If you watched, then you know the actual traitors were a mess. Instead of murdering faithfuls, they all seemed to be going after fellow traitors. This made for a chaotic and messy game, sending faithfuls into a confused tizzy. But Dolores, Dylan, Ivar and and Gabby Windey somehow figured out that if they stuck together, they could just let the traitors sabotage themselves. This smart move led the four of them to win it all. (They'll split the $204,300 prize.) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.