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When Grey’s Anatomy writer Elisabeth Finch was suspended from work in March 2022, it marked the moment her house of cards finally came tumbling down. The former True Blood and The Vampire Diaries writer had appeared to be a powerful Hollywood success story. She claimed to have drawn on her real-life experiences of battling a rare form of bone cancer to inspire storylines on the hit medical show. In fact, she was spinning a jaw-dropping web of deceit that is now being explored in-depth in the new Peacock docuseries Anatomy of Lies.

This much is true: Finch grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and attended film school at the University of Southern California. She got her career started by writing a short film called Looking for My Brother, which was released in 2006. That brought her to the attention of True Blood, which hired her as a writers’ assistant in 2008. After gaining several writing credits, she moved on to The Vampire Diaries in 2012 where she wrote a string of episodes and earned the nickname “Vampire Girl” for the niche she seemed to be carving out for herself.

However, her dream was to write for Grey’s Anatomy, and she grabbed the medical drama’s attention in 2014 with a personal essay she wrote for Elle magazine. In the article, Finch recounted her experience of being diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, a rare and usually fatal form of bone cancer, but made it clear that the diagnosis didn’t get in the way of her work. She recalled one doctor criticizing her for returning to a writers’ room to “[punch] up dialogue about vampire-werewolf hybrids” while dealing with a shunt in her spine.

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Shortly after the Elle piece was published, Grey’s Anatomy super-producer Shonda Rhimes offered Finch the job she’d been dreaming about. Less than five years later, Finch’s story about battling bone cancer had become a plot line on the series. In the Finch-written episode “Anybody Have a Map?”, which aired in November 2018, surgeon Catherine Avery (Debbie Allen) learns she has chondrosarcoma.

Finch, who was by then showing up to work bald with a scarf around her head, claimed she’d been living with the cancer since 2012, and was the only one in her clinical trial to have survived. She was given time off to have chemo at the Mayo Clinic, and wrote about her experiences for shondaland.com to promote her episodes.

As Finch told it, cancer was only the start of it. She told friends she’d unexpectedly fallen pregnant and had to choose to have an abortion rather than cease her treatment. She had a kidney transplant. A close friend died in the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in October 2018. Her brother, who had abused her in their youth, unsuccessfully attempted suicide – and she was the one who had to pull the plug.

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It wasn’t until February 2022 that Finch’s coworkers at Grey’s realized something wasn’t right. That month, Rhimes received an email from Finch’s estranged wife, Jennifer Beyer. Beyer warned Rhimes that Finch had been fictionalizing her own life. She told her the writer with the tragic backstory was not to be trusted.

Finch was suspended from work the following month, and in December of that year finally came clean. “I’ve never had any form of cancer,” she admitted in an interview with The Ankler. “What I did was wrong. Not OK. F***ed up. All the words.”

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She also confessed to lying about her brother’s death by suicide – he’s still alive and living in Florida. She revealed she’d shaved her head to look like she was undergoing chemo, and had taped a dummy catheter to her arm.

Finch said she felt relieved to be coming clean. “When you get wrapped up in a lie you forget who you told – what you said to this person and whether this person knows that thing – and that’s the world where you can get caught,” she said. “I don’t have to worry about that now.”

Anatomy of Lies is on Peacock from October 15.

Actor Kathy Bates is taking on a new role in the CBS legal drama series, “Matlock,” at a time she said she considered going into semi-retirement.

“Then all of the sudden, I got this script, and I thought, ‘Oh wow. I’ve got to do it.’”

Bates revealed in an interview with “CBS Mornings” that at 76 she didn’t think an opportunity like this would happen.

“That was also a big deal for me about being invisible. There’s so many women my age who really do feel invisible, and these years are difficult to put that despair at bay to get through everyday,” she said. “I think if I wasn’t doing this show, I might feel the same way. But it’s all changed overnight.”

The series is inspired by the original hit TV show of the same name. Bates, who said she was considering not taking the role initially, plays a lawyer named Madeline “Matty” Matlock. Her character decides to rejoin the workforce, and uses her age and wit to get a job at a prestigious law firm.

“At first I thought this was just going to be another episodic, but the twist at the end where Mattie goes around the corner and gets into a chauffeur-driven car and drives up to the Westchester and you realize that she’s there undercover to actually get justice for her daughter who died of opioids.”

Beyond tackling ageism in the workforce, Bates said she feels healthy after losing 100 pounds over the years.

“I just feel like a different woman, I really do,” she said. “I look in the mirror and I go ‘oh my gosh’ or I go into my costume fittings and I’m wearing a size 10 and it’s just so different from being a 3x and being able to walk and move and pick things off the rack … How these two things coincided in my life, being really healthy and then suddenly being given this gift, just every day feels like a miracle.”

Passionate about her work, the Emmy and Academy Award winner said she just sees herself as a “working actor.”

“It’s always about the work for me. It’s about the work and the accolades are wonderful and all of this is really exciting … it’s the work that gets us there and it’s the work that we all love to do.”

ACTOR Chris Pine has broken his silence on the brand new The Princess Diaries movie after a third edition of the franchise was revealed to be in the works.

20 years on from the last edition, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, fans have been left over-the-moon after it was confirmed that Disney would be bringing the movie back to life once again with an all-new edition.

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Whilst rumours have been swirling for the past two years about a new film, Disney insiders have finally suggested that the movie will film next year after signing Adele Lim up to direct and seemingly getting a yes from actress Anne Hathaway about returning to the big screen.

The movie is expected to be a continuation of the existing two movies as opposed to a reboot meaning the door is open for each and every one of the film’s characters to make a comeback.

It has led to rife speculation that Chris Pine, known for his role as Nicholas Devereaux in the second movie, could be set for a comeback.

Appearing on talk show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Chris addressed the speculation for the first time and remained rather coy on the matter.

As Jimmy asked Chris about the film, he insisted it was “incredible” news that bosses had decided to bring it back for another go-around.

Pressing him, Jimmy asked for all the details on “the plot and the script” in a joking manner to a put-on-the-spot Chris.

He further asked him, “are you in it?,” before Chris successfully swerved the question and avoided revealing anything.

The actor said: “What I will say, it’s been 20 years, it’s been a long time – I can’t believe it’s been that long.

“But, I have more people come up to me about that than anything I’ve ever done.”

Chris added: “It was an incredible experience, but I don’t, unfortunately… I really…

“The first time that I heard about it was on the internet when someone sent me a screenshot of Anne lounging in a nice garden with some glasses on.”

It led fans to quip that they thought his trouble with directly answering the questions ensured he ‘knew something’ and as such was likely to have signed up for the hit movie.

Commenting on a clip of his appearance, one fan said: “He totally knows something.”

Someone else penned: “He better be in it.”

Before a third echoed: “He knows, we know!!! This is some marvel level secret…and okay, we’ll be patient, but we ALLLLLL know.”

In another interview on Today with Hoda & Jenna, he once again tried to dance around the subject as he told the daytime talk show hosts: “The answer is honestly I don’t know anything about it. I think it’s fantastic.”

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Zoe Saldaña, known for her roles in “Avatar” and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” stars in and executive produces season two of “Special Ops: Lioness” on Paramount+. 

The series follows undercover CIA operatives working to assassinate terrorists. Saldaña returns as Joe, a tough CIA operative. She said there was more fighting a lot more physical scenes in season two. 

Saldaña credits the show’s creator, Taylor Sheridan, with knowing her background as a dancer and stunt performer.

“I like surprising myself. I like taking myself to these extremes to see if I can pull them off,” she said.

One of the key moments in the new season involves her character, asking a potential recruit, “Do you love your country?” The weight of that question, Saldaña explained, goes beyond just words. 

“I think it’s understanding the sacrifices that you have to make when you give your oath to a nation,” she said. “Knowing that at any moment, you’re going to be expected to do everything in your capabilities to keep the nation safe. By saying the nation, you’re talking about people.”

For Saldaña, this season brings an added complexity to Joe’s character, as she struggles to balance her duty with being a mother.

“Now that she’s older, it’s entertaining a level of fear that she never had. You know, when you’re young, you’re absolutely fearless,” Saldaña said. “The moment you get older, and like, you have children, you begin to accept your own mortality, you feel your mortality. And I think that’s where Joe is.”

Saldaña also said she connects with Joe’s journey on a personal level, especially when it comes to being underestimated. 

“I’m here today because of that. I rise, and I feel that it is innate in me to give 120%—not for others. You have to live for yourself first, and then, in turn, you’re living for others,” she said.

Season 2 of Special Ops: Lioness premieres on Oct. 27 on Paramount+.

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Former CBBC presenter Angellica Bell has claimed that she “failed a generation” during her stint on the channel after belatedly realising the impact she had on Black children’s lives at the time.

Bell worked on CBBC between 2000 and 2006 where she mainly worked as a presenter between the various children’s shows that the BBC broadcast at the time, as well as being the main anchor on shows like 50/50 and Short Change. In 2021 she released the podcast Rewirement.

Bell, now 48, has now opened up about her time in the role and fought back tears while speaking about the influence that she’s been told she had on Black people’s lives.

Speaking to Fleur East on Hits Radio, Bell admitted that she “didn’t realise the impact of being on CBBC at that time”.

She said: “There was this guy, and he was like ‘Angelica, you were my childhood’. And I’m grateful for those experiences and maybe the tough times that I went through where I was trying to work out who I was. I’m like ‘Actually, it was worth it’.”

East complimented Bell on the legacy that she helped create but also touched on the fact that she said that she wasn’t comfortable wearing braids on her hair while in the job, which she feels didn’t matter.

The rapper, who has worked on Hits Radio since 2019, explained to Bell: “You just being on TV, for all the young black kids just watching you on TV gave people hope. Maybe if you’d had more of an example before you got in that position, you’d could’ve stepped into who you are a lot sooner. Thank you, on behalf of a whole generation.”

Moved by the compliment, Bell broke down, saying: “Sometimes I think I failed. Sometimes I think that I haven’t done enough.” East consoled her, telling Bell: “Never ever think that you haven’t done enough. You’ve done more than enough.”

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The presenter who most recently worked on TheMartin Lewis Money Show, has since been showered with praise on social media for her emotional comments.

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Current Newsround presenter De-Graft Mensah told Bell “you have never failed us! The amount of times you come up in conversation as someone who was SO important to have on TV growing up. Your impact and legacy will never be forgotten. A genuine ICON.”

Another Newsround presenter Shanequa Paris added: “Honestly @angellicabell watching you inspired me to join CBBC and I’ll have my braids, twist out and cornrows on Newsround all the time you paved the way!”

Fellow broadcaster Oré Olukoga echoed the sentiments saying: “Seeing Angelica Bell & Reggie Yates on television when I was younger was a real game changer for me. They are the reason I wanted to be a broadcaster.”