Where Is Will Ferrell's 'Talladega Nights' Character Now?

Will Ferrell's longtime collaborator Adam McKay has revealed what happened to Ferrell's Talladega Nights character Ricky Bobby as part of a "Where are they now" series devoted to fictional athletes.

Unfortunately, it was all downhill for Bobby after his footrace to the finish in the Talladega 500, McKay writes in Sports Illustrated. Bobby suffered a series of downgrades in sponsors, going from driving the Coke car to the Herbal Essences car to the Bear Stearns car.

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But it was his tribute to catch-can man Alfred Ah, after a top-five finish at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, that brought Bobby's racing career to an end.

Bobby yelled, "I want to give a huge thank you to Al Ah! Those that don’t recognize Al Ah are my enemy!!"

The crowd booed.

And now Bobby and his friend Cal Naughton Jr. run RB's Smoke and Toke shop in Keneshaw, Ky., where they sell "quality water pipes and vaporizers," for use with tobacco products.

McKay and Ferrell run Gary Sanchez Productions and co-wrote Talladega Nights, Step Brothers and both Anchorman films.

Roland Emmerich: 'Independence Day' 2 to Feature Gay Character

More details are emerging about Roland Emmerich’s sequel to his 1996 blockbuster Independence Day.

In the latest tidbit to drop, the director and LGBT activist revealed the sequel will feature a gay character. Emmerich, who said he has been closely following developments in the Supreme Court concerning same-sex marriage, was asked if he would consider incorporating gay rights issues into his films.

"Actually in the next Independence Day there is a gay character," Emmerich told The Huffington Post.

Pressed for more details, the director played coy.

Would the White House be blown up, yet again? “I don’t know," Emmerich said.

Will Bill Pullman -- who played the courageous President Whitmore -- return?

Emmerich simply responded, “Yeah.”

Last week, 20th Century Fox announced that Independence Day 2 will open on July 3, 2015. None of the original cast has been officially announced as being on board, but Emmerich said last week that Will Smith will not return.

"Will Smith cannot come back because he's too expensive, but he'd also be too much of a marquee name," Emmerich told the New York Daily News. "We have maybe half of the people that you would know from the first film, and the other half people who are new," Emmerich added.

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The director, who is openly gay, indicated in April that he would like to work on a smaller budget film about the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York. The landmark gay rights event saw police raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the East Village. The Stonewall’s clientele pushed back and the resulting three-day event sparked similar demonstrations in other major cities.

“It’s one of these civil rights moments, like Rosa Parks,” Emmerich told Empire magazine “And very little is known about it. Even gay people don’t know much about it.”

Emmerich’s next film, White House Down, hits theaters Friday.

 

Joelle Carter on Her 'Justified' Character: She's 'Married Into the Outlaw World' (Video)

FX’s Justified is not only  critically acclaimed – it also gives actors a chance to practice their crafts at a level not afforded on every show, says star Joelle Carter.

“When you meet Ava, she’s just born again in a way. She’s given herself her own freedom from a very confined relationship. She was abused,” Carter says of her first season arc on Justified, which included her killing her abusive husband. “She wants so much to go out into the world she’s missed for so many years. When she gets out there, she finds out it’s not quite the place she expected.”

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The show, which stars Timothy Olyphant as deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, returns for a fifth season in January.

“As we go into season 3 and 4, she’s marrying into a new way of life. She’s married into the outlaw world and she immerses herself in that in season 4,” says Carter, describing her relationship with Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins). “We get to see her struggle with the fact that she’s not really an outlaw, but she’s kind of found a place she belongs and she so desperately wants to fit in."

Carter says the character lets her show her “strong side of being a woman,” which she says “at times you don’t get to do in other shows.”