Seth Macfarlane Page 2

When Seth Macfarlane's 2012 comedy Ted became a massive hit, work predictably started on a sequel. But MacFarlane was keen to do something new, so this film pushes both the talking teddy bear Ted (voiced by MacFarlane himself) and his human pal John, played by Mark Wahlberg.

Mark Wahlberg insists his character definitely hasn't settled down

Despite ending up with the girl in the first film, Wahlberg insists that John hasn't settled down. "That wouldn't be any fun," he laughs. "No, no, no, they're crazier than ever!"

Continue reading: 'Ted 2' Gives Mark Wahlberg A Chance To Get Crazy

A copyright lawsuit against Seth Macfarlane concerning the inspiration for the movie Ted has been dismissed. On Monday (March 23rd), a Los Angeles federal judge ruled that Macfarlane had not copied an animated bear named Charlie in the creation of his successful comedy character ‘Ted’.

Bengal Mangle Productions had brought a lawsuit in July 2014 claiming that their creation ‘Charlie the Abusive Bear’ was substantially similar to ‘Ted’ in terms of his personality and general attitude, as well as his liking for drink, drugs and foul-mouthed humour. They also contended that ‘Ted’ was “strikingly similar” to their character, who was created in 2008 and featured on a number of websites including YouTube.

'Ted' creator Seth Macfarlane

Continue reading: Seth Macfarlane Wins 'Ted' Copyright Lawsuit

ITV has bought the rights to Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show, as well as the new series Bordertown. The cartoons - previously shown on BBC3 - will be shown on ITV2.

Family Guy regularly pulled in half a million viewers for BBC3

The move comes as the BBC continues to migrate a lot of its BBC3's content online, before the channel's closure.

Continue reading: ITV Buys The Rights To 'Family Guy' And 'American Dad!'

Now definitely one of the world's favourite teddy bears, Ted is back for another round of crude jokes, raucous partying and a whole load of trouble with his best friend John in Seth Macfarlane's highly anticipated sequel 'Ted 2'.

The dubious duo are back with more hijinks

We never thought it would happen but Ted has finally tied the knot to his busty blonde long time girlfriend Tami-Lynn, in a wonderful ceremony surrounded by friends and locals who are, by now, totally unperturbed about having a talking bear living amongst them. Ted wants to go that step further, however, and bring up a child of his own; the only problem is he needs a donor because... well, he's a bear.

Continue reading: Seth MacFarlane Proves Ted's Got Soul In 'Ted 2' Teaser [Trailer + Pictures]

Neil Patrick Harris is hosting the Oscars and the Academy has awarded us with a sneak peek of what's in store. As we expected the ceremony and Harris' hosting to be, the preview is quick, witty and light-hearted. The short 16 second clip is just what we need to lighten the mood after a week of over eating and making small talk.

Neil Patrick Harris is hosting the 87th Academy Awards in 2015.

Read More: Neil Patrick Harris Reveals Strategy To Prepare For Hosting 2015 Oscars.

Continue reading: Neil Patrick Harris Is Hosting The Oscars - Watch His Seasonal Themed Promo!

Seth Macfarlane – frat guy favorite and walking controversy generator – is now involved in an intellectual property lawsuit over his 2012 hit, Ted. A Cali-based production company, called Bengal Mangle Productionsis suing MacFarlane, claiming that its 2008 screenplay Acting School Academy featured a raunchy teddy named Charlie. Like Ted, Charlie lives in a "human, adult world with all human friends. Charlie has a penchant for drinking, smoking, prostitutes, and is a generally vulgar yet humorous character," the lawsuit states. It also claims that the two fictional characters reside and similar environments (both spend substantial amounts of time on a living room sofa) and behave in a similar manner, including their speech and delivery. The suit was filed this past Tuesday and names producer and distributor Universal Studios and MacFarlane’s own production company Fuzzy Door Productions, along with MacFarlane himself. The suit alleges copyright infringement and seeks unspecified damages.

More: Ok, Seth MacFarlane, You've Had Your Fun, Now Where Are We With Ted 2?

The lawsuit is unlikely to affect the Ted 2 project in any significant way.

Continue reading: Copyright Lawsuit Questions The Originality Of Seth MacFarlane's "Ted" Character

Seth Macfarlane has promised to match up to $1 million dollars in Kickstarter pledges in order to fund an online version of Reading Rainbow. The project already has $4 million but, if backers contribute even more, MacFarlane has pledged to double the donations. Actor LeVar Burton, who is championing the cause, hopes backers will contribute a million so the project, with MacFarlane's contribution, will begin with $6 million.

Seth MacFarlane has pledged up to $1 to Reading Rainbow.

The project is being fronted by Star Trek: The Next Generation star Burton who also presented Reading Rainbow when it aired on PBS between 1983 and 2006. The show was intended to encourage young people to read. Each episode was themed and a celebrity guest would appear on the show reading a children's book. Such guests included Eartha Kitt and Bill Cosby. 

Continue reading: Seth MacFarlane Offers To Double Kickstarter 'Reading Rainbow' Donations

The Wedding: Kim and Kanye got married last weekend. Kthxbai. It has been pretty hard to avoid but if you want to know more about their wedding, click here, get the goss on their weirdly un-Kardashian honeymoon, head here, or find out why Kim's brother Rob decided to skip the wedding here.

The Outrage: Seth Rogen has been forced to abandon his goofy bear act this week to stand up against Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday, who wrote a controversial column implying that the "frat-boy" style movies comedians Rogen and Judd Apatow produce could have fuelled Elliot Rodger's horrific mass shooting last week. Rogen and Apatow let Hornaday have it...and it wasn't even slightly funny. Read more.

Continue reading: A Week In News: Weed, Boobs, Ghosts, Guns...And A Wedding

Okay, ready for another awards season? The dust has barely settled on 2014’s selfie-centric Oscars, but the Academy are already looking ahead to another winter of speculation by confirming Neil Meron and Craig Zadan are returning as producers for a third ceremony in a row. 

Zadan and Meron will work on The Oscars again 

It’s not as if the pair have gleaned critical acclaim for their last two efforts; Seth Macfarlane’s ceremony was considered to be too focussed on musicals, while DeGeneres’ was criticised for being too boring. Perhaps the producer pair can find some middle ground considering they’re taking on the middle of the decade in 2015. 

Continue reading: Oscar 2015: Neil Meron And Craig Zadan Are Back For A Third Oscars Ceremony

The directorial duo Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have become favorites around Hollywood come awards season and now they’ve been called on again to produce the 2015 Oscars ceremony. This will be Zadan and Meron’s third consecutive year running the live broadcast after this year’s ceremony brought in the best ratings in 14 years. Almost 44 million viewers in the United States tuned into the ABC live telecast of Hollywood's biggest night, hosted by comedian, talk show host and potential demigod Ellen Degeneres, 8 percent more than the previous year and the highest number since 2000, according to Nielsen ratings data, via Reuters.

Zadan and Meron's last turn at the Oscars was nothing short of a rousing success.

Whatever Zadan and Meron are doing – so far they have been banking on broad social media appeal – has been working.

Continue reading: #Oscars2015? Zadan And Meron To Produce Academy Awards For Third Consecutive Year

Popular American cartoons Family Guy and American Dad are both set to disappear from British television sets as BBC3 away from televisions and onto the Internet exclusively. What’s more, licensing and rights issues prevent The BBC from offering these shows on the iPlayer.

Stewie isn't delighted with the BBC's decision (still from S12E06)

Basically, you won’t be able to watch Family Guy and American dad late at night any more – on your TV anyway. "We will be speaking to all our suppliers, following last week's announcement," a BBC spokesperson said. "However, at the moment due to rights issues, we are unable to make Family Guy or American Dad available on BBC iPlayer."

Continue reading: 'Family Guy' And 'American Dad' Disappearing As BBC3 Migrates To Online Only

Bill Murray has led the influx of celebrity tributes to the actor and director Harold Ramis, who died aged 69 on Monday. Murray most memorably starred alongside Ramis in the 1984 supernatural comedy Ghostbusters in which they played a team of contract ghost hunters.

Bill Murray Has Added His Voice To The Tributes For Harold Ramis.

Ramis had been suffering for some time with an infection that resulted in complications from autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, though his death has still shaken the Hollywood community and has saddened the talented filmmaker's fans across the globe.

Continue reading: Bill Murray On Harold Ramis: "He Earned His Keep On This Planet"

Seth Macfarlane is replacing Mila Kunis with Amanda Seyfried as the female lead in Ted 2. According to Deadline, Kunis will either appear in a small role in the sequel or not appear at all. Apparently there’s no bad blood between Kunis and Macfarlane. The casting change was just a creative decision and Kunis continues to provide the voice of Meg Griffin on MacFarlane’s longrunning Family Guy.

Kunis [l] is out, to be replaced with Amanda Seyfried [r].

There might be some dramatic twist coming in the Ted sequel, if Kunis’ character Lori Collins is no longer in the picture. At the end of Ted Lori married Mark Wahlberg's John Bennett, so there must be some shakeup in the story – either between the two movies or at the beginning of the second one. The rest of the primary cast – Mark Wahlberg and MacFarlane himself as the voice of the foul-mouthed teddy bear – are, of course, reprising their roles.

Continue reading: Mila Kunis Is Out, Amanda Seyfried Is In For Seth MacFarlane's 'Ted 2'

Grammy Awards Glory: Last Sunday's Grammy Awards proved probably the most spectacular ceremony in living memory. The most enviable of all performance line-ups entertained a near-record 28.5 million viewers, with Madonna, Daft Punk, Beyoncé and Jay Z, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Kendrick Lamar, Imagine Dragons, Stevie Wonder, Nile Rodgers, Ringo Starr, Sir Paul McCartney, Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age and Dave Grohl all showing off their skills.

As for the small matter of the actual awards, Pharrell Williams, Daft Punk and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were the evening's big winners whilst newcomer Lorde picked up two gongs and Jay Z and Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Kacey Musgraves and Black Sabbath were also prominent victors. This, year, perfect pop princess Taylor Swift went home empty-handed, which made for some pretty funny videos.

Continue reading: A Week In News: Grammys Glory, Bad Boy Bieber, Retiring Rockers, And The Wild, Wild West

A man getting his head squished by a giant block of ice. A photographer being burnt alive. A woman dying from surgery for a splinter. All these unfortunate endings make up the new movie - and first trailer - for Seth Macfarlane's A Million Ways to Die in the West.

Charlize Theron [L] and Seth MacFarlane [R] in 'A Million Ways to Die in the West'

The Family Guy creator directs, co-writes and stars in the western comedy, playing a farmer who enlists the help of a gunslinger's wife (Charlize Theron) in the hope of winning back his ex-girlfriend.

Continue reading: 'A Million Ways To Die In The West' Red-Band Trailer. Are You Ready For This?