Entertainment
Hilarie Burton On Return to The Walking Dead Universe After Family Loss
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NEED TO KNOW
- Hilarie Burton says her recent cameo on The Walking Dead: Dead City was tough to shoot
- In an interview with PEOPLE, Burton reveals she and husband Jeffrey Dean Morgan filmed the emotional reunion days after his father’s death in July 2024
- Burton hopes to reprise her role as Negan’s wife, Lucille, in the future
Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 finale.
Hilarie Burton‘s surprise return to The Walking Dead universe earlier this month wasn’t easy to film.
“Please forgive me if I get upset,” Burton, 42, exclusively tells PEOPLE of reprising Negan’s wife Lucille on TWD: Dead City‘s June 15 episode. “I just watched it. I didn’t see it on Sunday. This was a really hard episode to shoot.”
In the episode, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) hallucinates his dead wife after sustaining a head injury.
In a brief conversation, the usually tough-as-nails leader lets down his guard. Visibly upset, he apologizes for failing to keep his cancer-stricken wife alive.
Burton, also Morgan’s real-life wife, says that all the emotion fans witnessed between their characters was real.
“What people didn’t know is that, throughout this season, Jeff’s dad was dying. He had died like six days before we shot this scene,” Burton says of filming the scene last July. “Watching this man that I love so much hold that grief and really have to focus at work and hold it together, I wouldn’t cry except I just watched it.”
Robert Clark/AMC
“It was really, really amazing to watch the person you love most in the world be able to do that,” Burton, who has been with Morgan, 59, since 2009, adds of filming their scene together. “He was able to channel a lot of the grief he was feeling for his dad into this episode while not letting anyone down.”
Morgan’s father, Richard, died July 2 after a brief illness. Burton says the Walking Dead spinoff crew, whom she previously worked with on White Collar, gave him a couple of days off from filming so the family “could go say goodbye to his dad” in California.
“It really was a family affair,” the One Tree Hill alumna says. “Everyone knew that he was dealing with this tragedy, but these storylines had been written well in advance. We had no idea when we got the news that his dad was sick that we would have to film this scene within days of seeing him for the last time. And we definitely had no idea this episode was going to air on Father’s Day. It was a lot.”
Robert Clark/AMC
“I wish people knew what was going on behind the scenes when they see someone’s work,” Burton says of sharing such a vulnerable moment. “Anybody who’s in this line of work is usually tapping into something hard. The thing he was tapping into was really hard, but also very fresh. Working when you’re raw like that is a special skill set.”
She and the crew weren’t the only ones to offer Morgan support. Burton and Morgan’s two children, George and Gus, were also on set. Burton says their oldest, Gus, 15, an aspiring actor who now towers over his parents, showed up in a big way.
Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty
“Our kids were there with us and in his trailer hanging out, so he could just be silly with them in between every take,” Burton says. “Even when I wrapped, our son stayed with him at work and just shadowed the director and got to hang out with the camera crew. And so the balm that eases loss like that is being surrounded by the people who are still here and that we get to love on. Our son stepping up and being there for his dad at work was also a very cool turn of events.”
Could Lucille return to Dead City again?
While a third season of Dead City hasn’t been announced, Burton hopes fans will get to see more of her character.
“Anytime Jeff asks me to do anything, the answer is always yes,” says Burton. “He pushes me in a good way. And I really like that group of people. We’ve been with them for so long that it’s always a nice reunion.”
On Sunday’s season two Dead City finale, fans get to see a bit of the old Negan return. In a throwback to the controversial season six finale, Negan starts reciting “Eeny Meeny Miney Moe” before bashing in Bruegel’s (Kim Coates) skull.
Robert Clark/AMC
“He definitely loves old Negan, and so do I,” Burton says of her husband getting to revisit the iconic moment on Sunday’s episode. “I’ll never forget laying in bed when he got the script for this part that wasn’t named Negan — It was all secretive at the time. And he knew exactly who it was, and he knew that he wanted to do it, and he was so excited to be bad.”
Burton says the overwhelming fan response to Glenn’s death in season seven was tough on their whole family.
“I think it was hard on all of us because we went from being able to be anonymous out in public to everyone recognizing him and also being really, really angry with him,” Burton says, adding it wasn’t all bad. “There’s a silver lining to it in that anytime my kids have an issue at school, he’s really great to bring into those meetings. He doesn’t have to say anything. He’s just kind of a scary guy now.”
Robert Clark/AMC
Burton hopes viewers get to see more of “old Negan” moving forward.
“I think Negan has been on a grief and mourning tour for a long period of time,” Burton says of Negan’s redemption arc that played out in later seasons of The Walking Dead. She adds that pep talks from Lucille and Negan’s current wife Annie (Medina Senghore) on Dead City reminded him: “You’re not a villain.”
“That was an important moment that gives him permission to move forward,” Burton says, adding, “I think Negan is hilarious and really dynamic to watch when he’s at his worst. Lucille will continue to haunt him and hopefully pop up whenever he needs a pep talk because I like him bad.”
Entertainment
Jennifer Lopez busts a move in lace-up jeans from 2001 ‘Ain’t It Funny’ music video

Jennifer Lopez is giving us nostalgia served hot!
The pop star, 56, slipped into the exact same jeans she wore in her 2001 “Ain’t It Funny” music video to re-create an “Off Campus” scene with actress Mika Abdalla.
For the cheeky clip — which Lopez posted on social media — she paired the ultra-low-slung lace-up denim with a white cropped turtleneck that made the most of her impressive abs.
“It’s a new Jeneration of party people…🎶,” she captioned the video, giving a nod to lyrics from her 2011 collaboration with Pitbull, “On the Floor.”
One observant X user commented on the singer’s “INSANE” pants and shared a snippet from the “Ain’t It Funny” video.
Lopez confirmed the fan’s suspicions by replying, “They’re the same ones from that video 😀.”
As for Abdalla, she went with her own throwback-inspired look by pairing a brown backless halter top with baggy jeans and a vintage belt.
The clip began with the 26-year-old standing outside Lopez’s dance studio while mouthing her “Off Campus” co-star Khobe Clarke’s line, “I don’t know her personally, but I’m pretty sure that’s J.Lo.”
Abdalla then made her way inside to find the Grammy nominee rehearsing with her crew.
Lopez turned around and mouthed back, “Oh, my God. Wait. This is me! Now!” which Abdalla’s character, Allie Hayes, squealed in a now-viral scene from Prime Video’s new romantic drama series — while wearing a replica of J.Lo’s iconic 2000 Grammys Versace jungle dress.
“Love this shooooww,” the songstress — who gave the plunging gown a second lap while closing Versace’s spring 2020 runway show in Milan — gushed alongside a clip of the aforementioned scene.
Meanwhile, Abdalla recently described just how much work went into creating the “unreal” garment, telling Betches UK that “five fittings” were involved.
Entertainment
‘Euphoria’ kills off Jacob Elordi’s Nate Jacobs

He’s not feeling euphoric.
Warning: Spoilers ahead! Do not proceed unless you’ve watched “Euphoria’s” seventh episode of Season 3.
“Euphoria” catapulted Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney and Zendaya into their current status as A-listers, and now, one has been axed from the show.
Season 3 killed Elordi’s controversial character, Nate Jacobs.
He was buried alive in a coffin, with a pipe leading to the surface so that he could breathe. A rattlesnake slithered down the pipe and bit him.
He had been placed there by Naz (Jack Topalian), the gangster he owes about a million dollars to.
Naz’s plan was to leave Nate down there (with a pipe to breathe) for 72 hours while his wife, Cassie (Sweeney) could get the money together.
Unfortunately for Nate, before 72 hours was up, a snake got him. Naz also didn’t make it out alive, as he was fatally shot by Season 3’s other gangster, Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). Cassie and Maddy (Alexa Demie) scrambled to get the money together as Nate got dug up, but they got a nasty surprise, as they were met with his dead body.
In the “inside the episode” segment at the end, Elordi said in his post-mortem interview, “It was a cool way to go, Nate is somebody who’s made so many mistakes and so many dark choices.”
First premiering in 2019, the Sam Levinson-created drama initially followed its characters in high school. Elordi, Zendaya and Sweeney were lesser known at the time.
“Euphoria changed my life,” Elordi, 28, told Variety in 2023.
“Saltburn” was the Australian star’s big-screen breakout that same year. Per Vogue Australia, his “Wuthering Heights” co-star Margot Robbie (who produced “Saltburn”) suggested him for the role at the time after watching him in “Euphoria.”
The “Frankenstein” star told GQ UK in 2023 that before landing on the HBO show, “I wasn’t booking jobs. I think I had – I don’t know, $400 or $800 left in my bank account – and ‘Euphoria’ was my last audition before I went home for a little while to make some money and recuperate.”
In the first two seasons, Nate was the show’s villain. He was a high school jock with anger issues – he manipulated, threatened and blackmailed everyone around him, choked his then-girlfriend, Maddy (Alexa Demi), and struck up a relationship with her best friend, Cassie (Sweeney).
Nate’s issues stemmed from finding his father Cal’s (Eric Dane) sex tapes at a young age.
In Season 3, which is set five years after high school, Nate had a dramatically different personality.
His rage issues inexplicably seemed vanished, his demeanor was softer and nicer and he appeared to genuinely love Cassie (instead of using her, like he was in Season 2).
Instead of being menacing, he did a goofy dance at his wedding. After he didn’t get his way in front of a board of bureucrats, rather than blackmail or threaten them, he just pathetically cried and begged.
Outraged fans criticized “Euphoria” for Nate’s inexplicable personality change and slammed it for giving the character a “lobotomy.”
Season 3 saw Nate take over his dad’s construction business, but he ran into issues when he had to stop his build because of an endangered flower – the white fritillary.
The show also revealed that he conned people into giving him money for his construction projects, including the gangster Naz.
In the third episode of Season 3, when Nate didn’t pay Naz the half a million dollars he owed him, Naz interrupted Nate and Cassie’s wedding and had him brutally beaten on his wedding night. It all culminated in Naz cutting off Nate’s toe. However, Nate later got it sewn back on.
Topalian exclusively told Page Six that Elordi did most of his own stunts during the scene where Naz’s henchmen threw Nate around.
“That’s [Elordi] really doing the struggling and the fighting and the falling and all of that,” he told us.
He called Elordi “committed,” “giving,” and “prepared,” but “between scenes, he’s back to being Jacob.”
“Obviously, he gets back into character really quickly,” he went on. “But once [the director calls ‘cut’] even though he’s been beaten and abused, he’s still having a lot of fun. He’s still cracking jokes and doing things like that.”
Elordi told Entertainment Weekly in November that his acting process was different in Season 3. He noted that he likes to “obsess over” his work, and take the time to prepare by going through “every element and construct it and put it together.”
The booked and busy actor – who was in “Frankenstein” and “Wuthering Heights” back to back – noted that he had “no time” to prepare for Season 3.
“And I didn’t have scripts in any kind of full sense. I sort of just had creative conversations with Sam, so I had no choice.”
The “Priscilla” actor also noted that he “loves” Nate, even though most fans hate him.
“I act to understand a different experience, to express an experience that’s different to my own,” said Elordi. “Playing him taught me a lot about empathy and patience, which is strange with a character like that.”
Elordi also told the outlet that Nate’s dark deeds didn’t bother him.
“It’s a real treat to be a part of that show, and to play the quote-unquote bad guy,” he said. “It’s always more fun. You don’t wanna play some morally superior, world-saving loser.”
Entertainment
Robert De Niro had no idea ‘Taxi Driver’ would become a classic

You talkin’ to him?
Robert De Niro had no idea his 1976 film “Taxi Driver” would be lauded as a classic.
“You never can think that you’re doing something that’s going to have an impact,” the actor, 82, exclusively explained to Page Six in a recent interview alongside his fellow Tribeca Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal to promote next month’s event.
The Oscar winner “just never look[s] at it that way,” he adding, noting that success is “out of your control.”
The neo-noir drama, directed by Martin Scorsese, stars De Niro as an unhinged taxi driver named Travis Bickle, whose mental state deteriorates over the course of the movie.
De Niro acted in the iconic role alongside Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, and Albert Brooks.
The project generated controversy at the time for graphic violence and 12-year-old Foster’s casting as a child sex worker — and, later, for inspiring John Hinckley Jr.’s attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
Nevertheless, it is considered one of the greatest movies ever made and, in 1994, was designated as “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant by the U.S. Library of Congress when selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
The movie, which turned 50 this year, is being screened at the June film festival — and De Niro and Scorsese, 83, will reunite for a conversation about the project.
Their sitdown is just one of many special talks and screenings taking place at this year’s 25th Tribeca Festival.
Not only are interviews with Madonna, Sean Penn and Josh Safdie also scheduled, but there will be special anniversary screenings of “Cable Guy” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary.”
“There are so many great things to see,” Rosenthal told us. “There’s so much music, everybody from Earth, Wind and Fire and Madonna to Noga Erez and Sarah Bareilles and Peter Frampton.
“There’s just a lot to see,” the 69-year-old continued, stressing that the festival is “a welcome festival for all New Yorkers [with] tickets available” now.
The annual event, which runs from June 3 through June 14, was established in 2002 to spur the revitalization of Lower Manhattan following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
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