Netflix’s Bridgerton made a major change from Julia Quinn‘s book series by having Penelope replaced as Lady Whistledown.

During part 2, which premiered on Thursday, February 26, Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) made the decision to stop writing Lady Whistledown’s scandal sheet. The retirement didn’t last long, though, because very quickly someone else emerged to take over for Penelope — without her knowing their identity.

“Penelope went through such a giant growth arc last season. She’s not the powerless girl who needs Whistledown to take back her voice anymore,” showrunner Jess Brownell told Tudum about the decision. “While she stands by everything she believes about gossip being information, gossip being power for the voiceless, she realizes that it’s time for her to stop being in that role.”

Brownell expressed excitement at deviating from the book series, which never had anyone else filling in for Penelope.

Related: Biggest Differences Between ‘Bridgerton’ Season 4 and Julia Quinn’s Book

Season 4 of Bridgerton pulls inspiration from Julia Quinn‘s book An Offer From a Gentleman — but there were also a few major changes. The latest season of Bridgerton follows Benedict’s (Luke Thompson) love story with Sophie (Yerin Ha) from the third novel in Quinn’s series. As some fans know, Benedict’s world gets turned upside […]

“Penelope was Julia Quinn’s Whistledown, so we knew we couldn’t really play with that reveal for too long because people could just Google it,” she added. “But now, we get to play with audience expectations.”

Brownell hinted how the shakeup will affect future seasons, saying, “Starting with Genevieve, the modiste in season 1, to Penelope as Lady Whistledown, and now looking at Sophie as a maid, it’s really key for us to explore the lives of these women who do work, because it’s a time period in which women had so few options and so little agency.”

She concluded: “Showing that there were women who didn’t just settle for what was handed to them, but tried their very best to make more of their station, it broadens the female experience in the show.”

While season 1 unmasked Penelope as Lady Whistledown, Brownell chose not to reveal who is currently behind the scandal sheet. Some popular fan theories include Hyacinth (Florence Hunt) or Eloise (Claudia Jessie).

Bridgerton is no stranger to book changes since its premiere in 2020. Season 1 centered on Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon Basset (Regé-Jean Page), who were the leads of the first book, The Duke and I.

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Related: ‘Bridgerton’ Cast and Crew Explain Why the Show Isn’t Following Book Order

The decision for Bridgerton not to follow the exact order of Julia Quinn‘s book series certainly hasn’t been favored by all. The historical drama, which premiered in 2020, focuses on the members of the wealthy Bridgerton family as they search for love in 19th century London. Season 1 focused on Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and […]

Season 2 took inspiration from The Viscount Who Loved Me, which followed Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) as he found love with Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley). Despite Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) being the subject of the third novel, An Offer From a Gentleman, his love story with newcomer Sophie (Yerin Ha) wasn’t explored until season 4.

The third season instead focused on Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Coughlan) as seen in Quinn’s book Romancing Mister Bridgerton.

From going out of order to gender-swapping pivotal characters, Brownell has found ways to surprise the audience from season to season.

“I am really not trying to shake things up too much. I really believe in the vision of the show,” Brownell told Refinery29 in April 2024. “I really want to serve the stories and the books the best way possible.”

Bridgerton is currently streaming on Netflix.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 13 seconds ago

How do you fix a controversial show that audience members keep complaining about? Simple: through blatant fan service!

Starfleet Academy has been under constant fire from Trekkies who think the brand is being worn by it like a skinsuit. In an effort to combat this, the new spinoff has been making more and more callbacks to classic shows, attempting to strengthen its ties to some of the franchise’s best episodes from Star Trek’s golden age.

The latest Starfleet Academy episode, “Life of the Stars,” takes fan service to the next level by serving as a direct sequel to a forgotten Voyager episode. In “Real Life,” the Doctor used Voyager’s holodeck to create a family for himself, but thanks to the realism of his simulation, his digital daughter died after a freak accident. While he never seemed all that bothered about it in subsequent episodes, Starfleet Academy just revealed that he has been carrying around the horrific trauma of her death for over 800 years.

The Real World

“Real Life” was an episode of Voyager’s third season in which the Doctor wanted to learn more about what it meant to be a human. Accordingly, he programmed a family in the holodeck, giving himself a wife and two children.

After Tom Paris and B’Elanna Torres (who visit for dinner) tell him everything is a little too perfect, the Doctor tweaks the program to make it more realistic. This results in more rambunctious teenage children: the son falls in with a bad crowd of local Klingons, while the daughter starts playing the dangerous fictional sport of Parisses Squares.

While it looks like the Doctor’s son is in the most danger (it isn’t very long before he wants to get involved in Klingon bloodletting rituals), things take a turn for the worse when his daughter receives a fatal injury while playing sports. The Doctor’s attempts at treating her fail, and he shuts the simulation down out of sheer pain; however, after Tom Paris reminds him that families must support each other through even the worst tragedies. The holographic healer resumes the program and stays by his daughter’s bedside until she dies.

An Unexpected Callback

Star Trek: Voyager was a very serialized show, so it never really followed up on how the Doctor felt after watching his daughter die. However, the Starfleet Academy episode “Life of the Stars” dropped the bombshell revelation that he has been carrying around the extreme trauma of that event for more than 800 years. This also provides a retroactive explanation for why the Doctor has been so weird about SAM, his fellow hologram: she has reminded him of his daughter since day one, and he shut down her attempts to reach out to him because spending time with her reopened old wounds that had never fully healed.

SAM is glitching out in this episode, and the Doctor helps her mysterious alien race diagnose the problem: namely, that she never had the benefit of growing up, so she lacked the emotional resilience to process the recent trauma (namely, the Doctor’s own rejection of her) that she has experienced. In order to help her do so, the Doctor makes the radical decision to raise SAM on her homeworld, giving her 17 years of life experience before she returns to Starfleet Academy. But thanks to some timey-wimey stuff with her home planet, what feels like 17 years to SAM and the Doctor only amounts to about two weeks back at the academy.

Fan Service Done Right

Some critics of Starfleet Academy have complained that previous fan service episodes (mostly “Series Acclimation Mil,” which focused extensively on Deep Space Nine) are just naked attempts to please the audience. That doesn’t make them bad, necessarily; for example, some DS9 fans were happy to finally learn more about what happened to the Sisko. But “Life of the Stars” arguably takes fan service to the next level by making a perfect (albeit obscure) Voyager episode even better nearly 30 years later.

“Real Life’ is an underappreciated gem of an episode that allowed Robert Picardo to do some of his best work as an actor. He channeled some major pathos back then to portray the grief of a man experiencing grief over losing a daughter he never realized he loved until she was gone. Starfleet Academy brings that pathos back, letting Picardo give a master class in acting while adding some much-needed depth and complexity to his character.

Even if you’re not a huge fan of the show (maybe you even outright hate it), Starfleet Academy just added serious rewatch value to one of Voyager’s best episodes. The show also did this while giving explicit callbacks to the golden age of the franchise. Now that the show is finally getting decent (even downright good on occasion), let’s hope that this new Star Trek spinoff can defeat the ultimate no-win scenario of them all: premature cancellation by Paramount.

Singer-Songwriter Neil Sedaka
Rushed to Hospital

Published
February 27, 2026
10:36 AM PST

As a decade, the 1990s is probably now more nostalgic than some people would like to admit, or acknowledge. If a movie came out during this decade, it is, at the time of writing, at least a quarter of a century old, and some of the earliest ones are pushing 40. Time comes for everyone and everything, movies included. Ruthless.

As for specific genres, sci-fi seemed to do pretty well throughout the decade, as far as movies are concerned. That once far-off and futuristic-sounding year of “2000” was right around the corner, so maybe stories about technology and the future were on people’s minds to an even greater extent. Whatever the case, these are some of the best – and hardest to fault – science fiction movies of the ‘90s.

10

‘Starship Troopers’ (1997)

Image via TriStar Pictures

Starship Troopers does feel pretty different depending on how old you are when you watch it. As a piece of satire, it does feel on the nose if you’re of a certain age, but if you’re young enough, maybe it mostly feels like a cool and kind of edgy sci-fi flick about a futuristic military force waging a war against aliens that are basically giant bugs.

Some of that bug action is still fun in a mindless sort of way, but it’s the rest of Starship Troopers that elevates it, and makes it feel like more than simply a B-movie that just so happens to have the kind of budget usually reserved for A-grade films. It’s the sort of thing Paul Verhoeven, in his prime, was incredibly good at doing (see also the original RoboCop, which was one of the best sci-fi movies of the 1980s).

9

‘Ghost in the Shell’ (1995)

Image via Production I.G

If you’re talking about great dystopian anime movies, it’s always going to be tough to top Akira, which came out in the late 1980s, but Ghost in the Shell is still worth considering as a competitor. It’s got some lofty themes alongside being entertaining as a futuristic crime movie of sorts, with terrorists here who can hack people’s brains, and police officers who’ve been enhanced by cybernetics.

Great science fiction can be escapist, or it can dig a little deeper and get a bit heavier, with Ghost in the Shell arguably being in the latter camp more than the former. Still, it’s tremendously engaging and inventive, and the quality of the animation here also holds up tremendously well more than 30 years later. Also, more than 30 years later, we’re almost at the point in time when Ghost in the Shell is set: the year 2029.

8

‘Face/Off’ (1997)

Image via Paramount Pictures

The 1990s was a time when a movie star could sell a movie more so than the 2020s so far (not that there aren’t people worthy of being considered movie stars), and so when you throw two big names into the mix and promise a “face off” between them, you’ve got almost inevitable gold. Enter Face/Off, which is about John Travolta vs. Nicolas Cage, effectively, but with both playing each other.

Okay, okay, technically, their characters are facing off, and their characters swap faces, but again: it was the 1990s, and people probably saw this for the stars over anything else. If you were into it because it was directed by John Woo, though, then that’s also valid, since he directs the hell out of it all. And if you can’t get on board with the goofy sci-fi stuff for whatever reason, hopefully you can easily enjoy the action Face/Off offers.

7

‘Godzilla vs. Destoroyah’ (1995)

There have been various eras of Godzilla movies, with the Heisei one having most of its entries come out in the 1990s (all besides The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Biollante). Of those 1990s Godzilla movies, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is probably the best, and it’s good enough just as a movie to be one of the most impressive science fiction films of its decade, too.

It brings the Heisei era to a close in a dramatic fashion, and the stakes here have the whole thing feeling more dramatic (and eventually tragic) than your average Godzilla movie. Also, Destoroyah is one of the best foes Godzilla has ever taken on; perhaps even the best to only appear in a single movie to date… at the time of writing, at least. Never say never, fellow Destoroyah fans.

6

‘Open Your Eyes’ (1997)

Image via Sogepaq

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Some people might be more familiar with the remake, Vanilla Sky, but 1997’s Open Your Eyes is superior. Penélope Cruz plays the same role in both, though, which is kind of interesting; like the acting equivalent of Michael Haneke directing both versions of Funny Games. But to focus on Open Your Eyes, it’s a psychological thriller/mystery movie that’s also kind of a sci-fi movie.

There’s also a romance element to it, as there was with Vanilla Sky, and things jump around tonally as well as genre-wise, seemingly all in an effort to keep you, as a viewer, on your toes, and maybe even a little confused, but not necessarily in a bad way. Open Your Eyes also rewards repeat viewings and analysis if you’re willing to dig in… or you can just appreciate the strange ride it takes you on, from a purely emotional/visceral standpoint.

5

‘The Iron Giant’ (1999)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

A more approachable and optimistic animated film than the aforementioned Ghost in the Shell, The Iron Giant is also a cult classic; famously one that got buried, to some extent, in the cinematically crowded year that was 1999. It’s got a familiar sort of story, about a boy befriending some sort of unusual being, but it does that well-worn premise effectively… think E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, but with a giant robot instead of a much smaller (and initially terrifying) alien.

There’s also something irresistibly retro about The Iron Giant, as it was set in the past and also had a traditional animation style at a time when computer animation was starting to take off, and had almost become the norm. It packs a lot of humor, creativity, and heart into a runtime that clocks in at under 90 minutes, and it’s also hard to imagine many people watching The Iron Giant and coming away disappointed or underwhelmed, even with its lofty reputation preceding it.

4

‘Until the End of the World’ (1991)

Image via Warner Bros.

You can’t really overstate how impressively ambitious Until the End of the World really is, so long as you make sure to watch the director’s cut over the theatrical version. Yes, doing so involves finding almost five hours of free time, which is a pretty high demand, but it’s worth that sort of undertaking. Also, the movie earns such a runtime, since it’s a fully global road movie that crosses into various countries, rather than “just” different states or territories.

The sci-fi elements of Until the End of the World are underplayed for certain stretches of the film, though that’s okay when significant chunks of it are about humanity’s relationship with technology, and the (then) near-future. It also really makes use of everywhere it ended up being shot, and the resulting film is among the best-looking ever made on such a scale.

3

‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ (1991)

Image via Tri-Star Pictures

There was a little movie in 1984 called The Terminator that isn’t really a little movie anymore, in hindsight, but maybe it felt like that at the time. James Cameron wasn’t a household name or anything, and Arnold Schwarzenegger had been in Conan the Barbarian, but also wasn’t a star the way he’s now known, but The Terminator ended up doing so much for the careers of both men.

And then Terminator 2: Judgment Day had to feel like a big movie when it came out, because it couldn’t really sneak up on people or be a sleeper hit like the first one. There needed to be a good reason to continue this story, and upping the stakes and spectacle was also a must, and so that’s what Terminator 2: Judgment Day did on just about every front, to the extent that it can easily count itself among the most exciting and entertaining sci-fi films ever made.

2

‘Jurassic Park’ (1993)

Image via Universal Pictures

Even among entertaining Steven Spielberg movies (there are a bunch of them), Jurassic Park stands out as being particularly thrilling, fun, and easy to revisit. Lots of the other movies here are perfectly paced, or close enough to it that they might well be perfectly paced, but even then, Jurassic Park is still probably the best paced. Hell, call it the best-paced sci-fi movie of the 1990s, then… why not?

It spends the right amount of time developing the characters, getting to the island (while building anticipation for it), explaining the science that’s plot relevant, and then showcasing all the various things going wrong, with each big set piece marking a point of escalation. Calling Jurassic Park a blast is a big old understatement, as it is, quite plainly, one of the best blockbusters ever, science fiction-related or otherwise.

1

‘The Matrix’ (1999)

Image via Warner Bros.

Some of the best action scenes of the 20th century were saved for the very end of it, as The Matrix has a few sequences that are absolute all-timers. If it were just an action movie, and not also an amazing science fiction movie, it would still be a classic, but the fact that it manages to do both at the same time is truly impressive. Hell, it’s more than just one sort of action movie, too, as there are martial arts fights and heroic bloodshed-esque shootouts here, and sometimes, you get a bit of both at once.

Narratively, it’s inventive, and thematically, there’s also so much to dig into when it comes to The Matrix, especially if you want to break down what it has to say about identity and conformity. It satisfies intellectually and also satisfies as spectacle, so you get the best of both worlds in a movie that’s sort of about two worlds, one of them simulated. There really is something for everyone here.

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The Matrix

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Release Date

March 31, 1999

Runtime

136 minutes

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Fans Are Ecstatic With News Of Amy Slaton’s Surgery

More Fans’ Reactions To The News

What Prompted The TV Personality To Go Under The Knife 

Peak Mental Health Was Top On Amy Slaton’s List.

A New Orleans judge ordered actor Shia LaBeouf to return to drug and alcohol rehabilitation and set a $100,000 bond on Thursday. That comes after the film star was charged with two counts of battery over an alleged assault outside a bar during Mardi Gras.

RELATED: Videos Showed Shia LaBeouf Cuttin’ Up In New Orleans, Now Police Say He Used Slurs During His Attacks

Shia LaBeouf Learns Next Steps After Throwing Hands In NOLA

LaBeouf appeared in court wearing a fleece jacket and jeans tucked into cowboy boots.
Orleans Parish Criminal Court Judge Simone Levine called him out for allegedly yelling homophobic slurs while hitting multiple people near the French Quarter. The police report said LaBeouf dislocated one victim’s nose. Shia LaBeouf now has to submit to weekly drug tests, including one on the spot in the courthouse.  He agreed and his attorney said the test did not show illegal substances in his system. Judge Levine said the episode was a concern for “the safety of this larger community, especially relative to a marginalized community that has gone through so much terror,” referring to the LGBTQ+ community.

“This defendant does not take his alcohol addiction seriously,” Levine said. “This court does not believe he understands the level of seriousness when it comes to these allegations.”

Jude Levine ordered LaBeouf to stay away from the victims and the bar where the fight occurred.

The judge denied a request by Shia LaBeouf to travel to Rome in March for “religious observations, including his father’s baptism.” Levine said during the hearing that she was concerned whether LaBeouf “could handle his alcohol.”

“Frankly,” LaBeouf’s attorney Sarah Chervinsky told the judge, “being drunk on Mardi Gras is not a crime.”

Man Shia LaBeouf Allegedly Punched Previously Spoke Out

Jeffrey Damnit previously told The Associated Press that LaBeouf repeatedly punched him and used homophobic slurs while threatening his life. Damnit said he believed LaBeouf had targeted him because he wore makeup and eyeliner.

“This guy wants me to be dead because I wear makeup,” Damnit said. “It’s a screwed-up thing.”

The judge released Shia LaBeouf without bond within hours of his arrest on Feb. 17. She said on Thursday that she had not previously had access to a police report that said the actor allegedly used homophobic slurs as he returned to a bar. He also hit people with a closed fist after being asked to leave. Videos of the altercations have surfaced showing LaBeouf striking multiple people.
After LaBeouf was released from custody, the actor was seen in the French Quarter dancing in the streets on Mardi Gras.

What Is The Actor Saying About It?

LaBeouf posted bond and declined to comment to reporters. He has not yet formally entered a plea to the charges.

“No, I won’t say a word,” he said in a court hallway while returning from taking a drug and alcohol test before the judge’s order. “God bless you, leave me alone.”

RELATED: Former Prince Andrew Arrested On Suspicion Of Misconduct In Public Office Over Ties To Jeffrey Epstein

Associated Press/Report for America writer Jack Brook contributed to this report via AP Newsroom. 

Ioan Gruffudd’s Divorce Filing Left Alice Evans ‘Utterly Shocked’

Gruffudd’s Instagram Reveal Deepened The Heartbreak

Ioan Gruffudd’s Restraining Order Battle Turns Personal

Gruffudd’s Divorce Feud Extends To Money And Custody

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Delivery Turns Deadly Outside Hospital

According to the Chicago Police Department, 28-year-old Daniel Figueroa was found unresponsive outside Loretto Hospital around 2 a.m. on Monday after completing an Uber Eats delivery. Authorities say that after dropping off food for a doctor at the hospital, Figueroa walked back outside and discovered his delivery van was being stolen. Surveillance footage reportedly captured him attempting to stop the theft before he was dragged nearly half a block. Police said he was fatally struck by his own vehicle as the suspects fled the scene. He was transported to another hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Arrest Made As Search Continues For Other Suspects

Investigators later arrested 33-year-old Montoya Perry in connection with the incident. She was charged with murder and vehicular hijacking and remains in custody without bond ahead of her next court appearance. Authorities have not released details about the other two individuals — reportedly two men. Furthermore, they were allegedly involved in the carjacking, but no additional arrests have been announced.

Working Two Jobs, Gone Too Soon

Figueroa’s girlfriend, Sandra Guerrero, shared that he had just completed a shift at Amazon before starting his late-night Uber Eats deliveries. She described him as a hardworking man who took care of her and her young son as if he were his own. Loved ones say he routinely worked two jobs to make ends meet and had simply been trying to support his family when the tragic incident occurred.

While officials have not publicly released a detailed cause of death beyond confirming he was struck by the vehicle, the investigation remains ongoing as authorities work to identify and apprehend any remaining suspects.

RELATED: Whoa! 10-Year-Old Hospitalized After Reportedly Plummeting 20 Feet While Zip Lining On Birthday (VIDEO)