Once Considine heard that “Game of Thrones” was “about dragons,” he wasn’t interested.
With so many spin-offs in development following the show’s dominant eight season run, it’s easy to forget what a risk “Game of Thrones” was for HBO. The show is credited with revitalizing the fantasy genre, with countless viewers becoming addicted to its cocktail of sex, violence, and Shakespearean power struggles. But before the show aired, taking a fantasy role was considered a serious career risk by many actors.
In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Paddy Considine revealed that when his agent approached him about starring in “Game of Thrones,” he declined the offer without even looking at the script.
“He said, ‘It’s about dragons,’” Considine said. “I went, ‘No thanks.’ I didn’t even read it.”
That decision led to Considine missing out on the opportunity to star in one of the biggest television shows of all time. When he got a second chance to join the franchise, he made sure not to make the same mistake. He jumped at the chance to join the upcoming prequel “House of the Dragon,” where he plays King Viserys Targaryen.
Considine revealed that the character was inspired by his mother, who battled a serious case diabetes. Watching the decline of someone he respected, while seeing her maintain her kind spirit, informed his portrayal of a king at a breaking point in his dynasty.
“If anything Viserys was based on my mother. She was the most powerful woman I knew, for a long time. Until she neglected herself,” he said. “By the end of her life my mum had diabetes. I adored my mum. But her illness became her comfort zone. It was tragic to see that decline and I put that — plus her kindness and her love — into Viserys”
According to HBO’s official description of the character, King Viserys was “chosen by the lords of Westeros to succeed the Old King, Jaehaerys Targaryen, at the Great Council at Harrenhal. A warm, kind, and decent man, Viserys only wishes to carry forward his grandfather’s legacy, but as we’ve learned from ‘Game of Thrones,’ good men do not necessarily make for great kings.”
“House of the Dragon” premieres on HBO on Sunday, August 21.
In an excerpt from an upcoming ITV interview that was published by The Daily Mail on August 6, Federline made a series of statements about his ex-wife’s conservatorship, her relationship with her sons, her nude photos, and her father, Jamie Spears. Kevin and Britney were married from 2004 to 2007 and share two teenage sons, Sean and Jaden. In 2008, Britney’s father and an attorney were granted a temporary—then permanent—conservatorship over her assets, estate, and business affairs. The conservatorship was finally terminated in November 2021 and Britney was able to marry her partner Sam Asghari in June 2022.
“The boys have decided they are not seeing her right now,” Kevin claimed in the new interview. “It’s been a few months since they’ve seen her. They made the decision not to go to her wedding.” Federline pointed specifically to “nude” photos on his ex-wife’s Instagram page as one source of their discomfort. To add insult to injury, Federline’s current wife, Victoria Prince, was also interviewed about their family. “This is a normal home, a family… full of love,” Victoria said. “Whatever is happening outside has nothing to do with this home.” You can read the rest of the interview here.
On the same day, Britney Spears described the interview as “hurtful” in her response. “It saddens me to hear that my ex-husband has decided to discuss the relationship between me and my children,” she began in an Instagram story on August 6. “As we all know, raising teenage boys is never easy for anyone…It concerns me the fact that the reason is based on my Instagram…it was LONG before Instagram…I gave them everything…Only one word: HURTFUL.”
Malayalam superstar Mohanlal recently visited Cochin Shipyard to see India’s First Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC), Vikrant. The actor took to social media and shared several photos from his visit and called Vikrant “a true engineering marvel”. For the event, the actor wore a navy blue suit with white shirt and a matching tie.
He captioned the photos as, “Honoured to be onboard India’s 1st Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC), soon to be commissioned as Vikrant, built in Cochin Shipyard Limited, Kerala. After 13 long years of dedicated construction, she sets sail as a true engineering marvel that further fortifies the Indian Navy and speaks volumes about India’s shipbuilding capabilities. I express my heartfelt gratitude for this matchless opportunity, especially to the Commanding Officer, Commodore Vidhyadhar Harke, VSM, and Mr Madhu Nair, the Chairman & Managing Director of Cochin Shipyard Limited, for their warm reception.”
“Witnessing the unmatched peculiarities of this mean machine urges me to triumphantly salute all the people behind IAC Vikrant, the wonder. May she always be victorious at sea!” added Mohanlal.
In the photos, Mohanlal is seen posing with the officers of Indian Navy, who were explaining the actor about IAC Vikrant.
On the work front, Mohanlal is joining hands with Jeethu Joseph for his next project. The upcoming drama is titled Ram and the film was announced in 2020. Reportedly, after much-delay due to COVID-19, the cast of the film has started shooting in Kochi and will also shoot in London. He will also be seen in Alone, which is being directed by Shaji Kailas. He was last seen in B Unnikrishnan’s Aaraattu, which was released in february.
“Batgirl” wasn’t the only nearly completed Warner Bros. film that was killed last week, but in the case of the animated sequel “Scoob! Holiday Haunt,” the film’s producer and co-writer opted to continue working on the film even after it was canceled.
Both “Batgirl” and “Scoob! Holiday Haunt” were effectively killed last week by Warner Bros. Discovery, which now has no plans to release either film in theaters or on HBO Max despite the fact that both were nearly completed. But “Scoob! 2” co-writer and producer Tony Cervone found himself in a unique position – the stage and musicians had already been paid to record the score for the movie. So when that date came after “Scoob! 2” was canceled, Cervone decided to have the musicians record the score – written by Dara Taylor – anyway.
Cervone posted a picture of musicians on the stage to his Instagram with a note: “So what do you do when the movie is canceled, but you’ve already paid for the stage and the musicians? You record the damn score!”
Director Bill Haller shared on Twitter that he watched the scoring session from home. “Thanks for all the love and support this week,” he said. “Scoob fans are the best in the world! This weekend watched on zoom our score being magically produced by our already paid for musicians while I’m ironically recovering from Covid. It was glorious to my ears! #SaveScoobHolidayHaunt”
Shortly after news broke that “Scoob! Holiday Haunt” was being scrapped, Cervone took to Instagram to reveal that the film was “practically finished and turned out beautifully,” noting he was “beyond heartbroken.”
The film was a Christmas-themed sequel to 2020’s animated “Scooby-Doo” reboot, and was intended to debut on HBO Max in December. The voice cast included McKenna Grace, Ming-Na Wen, Mark Hamill, Michael McKean, Andre Braugher and Cristo Fernandez.
While Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav explained that “Batgirl” was killed out of a desire to focus DC films on theatrical but also out of a concern over quality, the reason for scrapping “Scoob! Holiday Haunt” is less clear. The filmmakers and fans of the franchise, however, have been rallying online to save the film with the hashtag #SaveScoobHolidayHaunt
While it was initially reported that Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson split over their busy schedules and long-distance struggles, a new report suggests Kardashian may have had another reason to end things.
According to a source who spoke with Entertainment Tonight, Kardashian felt “the spark between” them had “faded” after nine months together. The source added that Davidson is “so sweet, but she didn’t feel ready for something serious with him.”
“They had tons of chemistry, and still do, but she kind of wants to be single and date,” the source continued. ”Kim still adores Pete and will always be friends with him. She still thinks he’s the nicest and sweetest guy in the world and there’s no drama or anything weird between them now.”
Ultimately, what started out as a “fling” quickly spiraled out of control. “She felt like Pete was the extreme opposite of Kanye and it was good for her then,” the source said. “She initially thought it would be a fun fling, but then it got more serious when they were spending so much time together. Kim wasn’t feeling like she was willing to settle down with him just yet.”
Instagram content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
This certainly tracks, given the circumstances that led to their romance. Following her tumultuous split from Kanye West, with whom she shares four children, Kim Kardashian admitted she made the first move on Davidson after her Saturday Night Live debut in October 2021 because she was “basically DTF.”
“I did SNL, and then when we kissed in a scene, it was just a vibe,” she said in an episode of The Kardashians. “And I was like, ‘Oh, shit. Maybe I just need to try something different!’” Kardashian was disappointed when Davidson didn’t show up to the after-party, adding, “Everyone was at my after-party—[Pete] does not give me the time of day.”
How will the story evolve in the fourth season of the Westworld TV show on HBO? As we all know, the Nielsen ratings typically play a big role in determining whether a TV show like Westworld is cancelled or renewed for season five. Unfortunately, most of us do not live in Nielsen households. Because many viewers feel frustrated when their viewing habits and opinions aren’t considered, we invite you to rate all of the fourth season episodes of Westworld here.
An HBO science-fiction thriller series, the Westworld TV show stars Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Luke Hemsworth, Aaron Paul, Angela Sarafyan, and James Marsden with Ariana DeBose, Aurora Perrineau, and Daniel Wu. Created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the drama series unfolds in a pricey, futuristic theme park, where visitors pay to act out their Wild West fantasies while interacting with lifelike robot “hosts.” The fourth season picks up over seven years later after the protracted war and humanity is finally free. Or so it seems. Maeve and Caleb begin to suspect that Hale and a host version of The Man in Black are trying to regain control of the human race. Meanwhile, Bernard returns from The Sublime. A young writer, Christina, begins to question the nature of her reality.
What do you think? Which season four episodes of the Westworld TV series do you rate as wonderful, terrible, or somewhere between? Do you think that Westworld should be cancelled or renewed for a fifth season on HBO? Don’t forget to vote, and share your thoughts, below.
“The intent was to go our separate ways in a way that is supportive of each other,” The Kid Mero said in a recent interview.
One of the more shocking pop culture developments of 2022 was the breakup of Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, the longtime comedy duo who turned their hit podcast “Bodega Boys” into a comedy empire that culminated in the late night talk show “Desus & Mero,” which ran for four seasons on Showtime. Last month, the stars abruptly revealed that they would not only be ending their Showtime series, but also their creative partnership as a whole.
At the time, a Showtime spokesperson told IndieWire, “Showtime’s late-night talk show ‘Desus & Mero’ will not be returning for a fifth season. Its final episode aired Thursday, June 23. Desus Nice and The Kid Mero will be pursuing separate creative endeavors moving forward.”
Since then, fan speculation has run rampant about whether the breakup was the result of a feud between the two comedians. But that’s not the way Desus and Mero see it. In a new appearance on Sirius XM’s “Basic!” podcast (via Variety), The Kid Mero claimed that the separation was amicable and planned well in advance.
Related
Related
“Desus and I had discussed pursuing separate interests over a year prior to the show coming to an end and that conversation solidified us in signing overall agreements that recognized our intent to operate independent of one another,” Mero said. “As far back as June of last year we were both pitching or looking to join existing projects as individuals.”
He added that there won’t be animosity between the two as they pursue separate opportunities in the future.
“The intent was to go our separate ways in a way that is supportive of each other,” he said. “It’s not like I’m breaking up with my girlfriend on the phone. It was a strategy and one that we all agreed on.”
More than anything, Mero says, the breakup came from a place of wanting to end on a high note, rather than let the partnership fizzle out over time.
“At the end of the day, things wind up and wind down and when things are winding down you got to recognize that they are winding down,” he said. “And not supermax Patrick Ewing when he has two [knee pads] and his career is coming to a close.”
Just over a year ago, I began my tenure as IDA’s first Latinx executive director. I accepted the position hoping to address the systemic inequities and biases that undermine the documentary industry. But this endeavor was interrupted by numerous staff resignations, causing turmoil and confusion in the larger community.
I humbly admit that during this period, the board and I struggled to effectively communicate to the community what was happening. This was due to the legal constraints involving confidential personnel matters. I also regret that I did not effectively manage declining staff morale while working to rebuild the senior leadership team, deliver programmatic commitments, and address the concerns of our members and the community. Today, however, IDA is on the path to addressing staff concerns and uniting our constituents.
Some of the actions IDA has taken include hiring a human resources consultant to develop and implement best employment practices. We are now well on our way to ensuring our organization adopts policies appropriate for a nonprofit of our size.
When 11 IDA staff members voted to form a union last March, the board and I voluntarily recognized their efforts. We embrace the unionizing process and have hired labor attorney and workers’ rights advocate Kathy Krieger to represent IDA in the bargaining process. We look forward to negotiating in good faith so that IDA can continue meeting its mission with a staff that feels supported to do so.
Our new leadership team is the most diverse and inclusive in the organization’s history. Abby Sun, Director of Artist Programs, a former programmer at True/False Film Festival, is leading the programming for Getting Real ‘22. Keisha Knight, Director of IDA Funds, co-founded Sentient.Art.Film, an organization dedicated to expanding distribution opportunities for filmmakers. Director of Development Brian J. Davis honed his fundraising skills at nonprofits that serve LGBTQ youth. Zaferhan Yumru, Director of Marketing, Communications, and Design, joins us from the New Orleans Film Society, where he helped significantly grow their audience. Louise Rosen, IDA’s Interim Managing Director has been working in independent media and the arts for over 30 years, starting her career in international film and television as Director of Sales and Co-productions at Boston PBS station WGBH, later launching her own distribution company and sales agency.
IDA also elected new board officers and three new board members deeply committed to supporting the vital work of documentary storytellers. Led by Chris Pérez, Grace Lee, Amir Shahkhalili and Marcia Smith, the board is enacting a set of best practices under the guidance of nonprofit board consultant Tim Kittleson, whose clients have included the Academy of Motion Picture Arts Sciences and currently serves on the Outfest board as co-chair of the Governance Committee.
Throughout this period of transition, we delivered on our programmatic commitments. We concluded the open call for the Enterprise Fund, and launched The Sarowitz Project Completion Fund. We renewed our grant with the New York Community Trust, which supports the IDA Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund, and pivoted to a virtual edition of the IDA Documentary Awards when the Omicron variant prevented an in-person event. We celebrated a special set of honorees at an intimate luncheon at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival; and opened submissions for the 38th IDA Documentary Awards.
In September the community will come together for Getting Real 2022. Our highly anticipated conference is a chance to address issues related to the present and future of the documentary field. This year’s theme, Flipping the Frame: Community, Imagination, Reverberation, encompasses the work that lies ahead of us.
We live in tumultuous times: war, mass shootings, an evolving global pandemic, a surge of hate crimes against multiple communities, and the dismantling of abortion rights in the US. We must not be seduced by misinformation, or impulses to sustain divisions. My goal for IDA and my leadership is to strive for reconciliation and restorative engagement.
Ron Laquaglia, head coach for Team B.C., said that with their baseball program only being five years old, this huge victory will garner worldwide attention.
“You honestly don’t ever think that this is going to happen,” said Laquaglia. “We have no home field; we play every game on the road and keep going and persevere.
Story continues below advertisement
“This group of kids, I can’t say enough about their effort, their determination, their joy of the game.”
Neo Foster, the pitcher for the Battalion, said this year was especially tough with no home field and the difficulty finding places to practice, but the championship victory is “really amazing. This is something we’ve been working towards for a long time.”
Team B.C. will represent Canada on August 14th against the Latin America Regional Team.
John Oliver addressed the increasing numbers of monkeypox cases in the U.S. on Sunday night’s episode of HBO Max’s Last Week Tonight. The comedian expressed his frustration that “despite the fact we’re still in the middle of the COVID pandemic, we seem to be replicating some of its key mistakes.”
Oliver listed that some of the factors that don’t contribute to getting a hold of the monkeypox outbreak include “persecuting strangers, spreading misinformation, and badly mismanaging the public health response.”
The talk show host explained that monkeypox is a “pox virus” and “part of the same family as smallpox” but not as transmissible or as fatal. It was in 1958 that monkeypox was first discovered in captivated monkeys in Denmark that “like got them from rodents.” Oliver then shared an ABC News report from 2003 talking about a monkeypox outbreak that was linked to pet prairie dogs in the midwest.
California declared a State of Emergency on August 1st after recording close to 800 cases and the U.S. followed suit declaring a Health Emergency after cases topped 7,000 across the nation.
Oliver detailed that a majority of cases recorded as of now are “among gay and bisexual men and their sexual networks. The virus spreads through sustained skin-to-skin contact and it is currently believed to be spreading most commonly during sex, though in rare cases it can be spread through respiratory droplets.”
Despite knowing about the virus and having some tools to control a widespread outbreak, Oliver called out the fumbled containment of the virus.
“As of early June, we were only conducting 10 tests per day in total across the country — increasing to just 60 by the end of the month,” Oliver said.
Although testing has ramped up, the only FDA-authorized test detects the virus by swabbing lesions but a person would have to wait until they appear to run the test, which is not conventional as they could have other symptoms beforehand. Oliver noted that until testing gets better, there won’t be a good indicator as to how widespread the virus is.
“Every part of our early response to this made it harder than it needed to be,” he added. “I will say, there have been some improvements recently. We’ve seen some progress on testing, more vaccines are finally coming with large numbers set to start arriving in October.”
However, Oliver then questioned if the delays in fixing the problems had anything to do with “who’s been getting hit the hardest.”
“You have to believe that if monkeypox was spreading largely through heterosexual sex things would be drastically different,” Oliver said. “It is not homophobic to acknowledge who is currently most affected, which is gay and bisexual men, sex workers, and people who participate in sex with multiple partners. What is homophobic is when you blame or shame the people who are suffering or when you decide you don’t need to care about this because you don’t see their lives as valuable or their suffering as consequential and that is where there are strong echoes of the AIDS crisis in some of the discussion around monkeypox.”
Oliver suggests information around protecting yourself from monkeypox be framed in a more “sex positive” light as it would be more likely to be well-received.
“The next 6 to 8 weeks are going to be crucial so we need to be ramping up testing and data collection and getting vaccines and anti-virals to those who need them the most,” Oliver suggested for the short term. “We also need to make quarantining be more logistically possible for people because monkeypox can require up to 4 weeks of isolation and for many, that is going to be difficult to manage without extra support.”
In the long term, Oliver suggested, “We badly need to restructure our public health system so it is better able to respond to a viral outbreak.”
Warner Bros. Discovery executives outlined the company’s plans in streaming Thursday, revealing that the new global service will launch in the U.S. in summer 2023, with other markets to follow.
CEO David Zaslav also said that, after its new service gains a foothold, the company also plans to launch a free, ad-supported streaming service with some of its content, part of a “diversified approach” to streaming.
“Our streaming strategy has evolved over the last year, and reflects the importance of, rather than the dependence on [streaming],” Zaslav said on the company’s earnings call, adding that the company will roll out its free or “FAST” service, “once our SVOD service is firmly established in the market.”
The streaming service is targeting profitability in the U.S. by 2024, and 130 million subscribers by 2025, up from 92 million as of today.
For now, however, streaming is still a money-loser, with the company reporting a $1.5 billion loss in the quarter for its streaming division.
Wall Street and the entertainment world writ large have been wondering about the company’s plans, given that it owns and operates 2 major streaming services, HBO Max, and Discovery+. The company had been telegraphing for some time that it planned to ultimately go to market with one major streaming service.
JB Perrette, who leads the company’s streaming business, dove into more detail on the plans.
For starters, there will be one service, under one brand, name still to be determined. The U.S. launch will be summer 2023, with Latin America to follow later that year, and Europe and other markets following in 2024.
The service will feature the full “unique and complementary” content libraries of both services, but will use the tech stack of Discovery+, which Perrette said received more positive feedback from users than HBO Max’s interface.
He added that the combined service will launch with a “big, noisy” marketing campaign meant to highlight the enormous library of content.
As for the free service, Perrette noted that the company currently licenses much of its content to free AVOD services, but will reevaluate those deals.
“There is much work to be done over coming months,” Perrette said. “We are determined to get it right, which will take a bit of time.”
Earlier on Thursday, WBD revealed that programming from Magnolia Network would join HBO Max, while some CNN original programming would join Discovery+. That announcement teed up the fact that no merger between the services was imminent.
Perrette said that other content may shift between services ahead of the launch of the combined service.
Ultimately, the combined content will be the differentiated content.
“In an already crowded market, consumers know these brands, and they trust them to deliver quality,” Perrette said, adding that “looking ahead, we will continue to have healthy content investment,” albeit at a “more measured pace” than prior plans.
To that end, Zaslav said that the team “could not find” an economic model that supports expensive direct-to-consumer movies like Batgirl, which the company killed after principal photography was completed.
Britney Spears called out her ex-husband Kevin Federline for sharing details about her relationship with their teenage sons, calling his comments “hurtful.”
“It saddens me to hear that my ex-husband has decided to discuss the relationship between me and my children,” the “Baby One More Time” singer posted on her Instagram story Saturday. “As we all know, raising teenage boys is never easy for anyone.”
Spears’ statement comes just hours after Daily Mail released an exclusive interview with Federline, in which he broke his decade-long silence about Spears’ life and revealed that their sons, Preston (16) and Jayden (15), have chosen to avoid contact with their mom.
Federline also told Daily Mail that Preston and Jayden chose not to attend to Spears’ June wedding to “Slumber Party” music video co-star and long-time love Sam Asghari. Federline added that Spears’ nude selfies have not been easy on his sons, saying, “I can’t imagine how it feels to be a teenager having to go to high school.”
“It concerns me the reason is based on my Instagram,” Spears responded. “It was LONG before Instagram.” The “Toxic” singer then called the comments “hurtful” and expressed that she gave her sons everything.
“I’ll say it… My mother told me ‘you should GIVE them to their dad’ … I’m sharing this because I can … Have a good day folks!!!” she concluded.
The pop star continued her response through an Instagram post on Saturday, saying, “Reminder that the trauma and insults that come with fame and this business not only affect me but my children as well!!!!!”
In the same post, Spears also expressed that she has been “enlightened” by her experience living without a conservatorship, in which she was “controlled and monitored for nearly 15 years,” and noted that she “should embark on doing WAAAY more than going topless on the beach.”
“I needed permission just to take Tylenol,” the 40-year-old star said of her 13-year conservatorship battle with her father Jamie – which was finally lifted last November.
As a young college student exploring his sound, Fireboy DML wasn’t sure how to stand out in the vibes-saturated Afrobeats scene, but he knew one thing: “I want to be a fucking superstar.” Once a nerdy kid who rarely ventured beyond school, church, and home, the Nigerian pop singer now finds himself at the forefront of the globalization of Afrobeats. The first Afrobeats artist to perform on the BET Awards mainstage, he’s made a name for himself as an Afropop ambassador in the age of virality and snippets. On his latest album, Playboy, the 26-year-old grapples with newfound fame and attempts to shed his characteristic loverboy reputation as he leans into a Starboy-esque cool-guy persona. The formerly earnest Fireboy sporadically peeks through while the newborn star parties, seduces, and manifests success, not just for himself but for his entire continent.
Since the success of 2020’s Apollo, Fireboy DML has embraced the universal appeal of Afrobeats and been welcomed in turn. His jet-setting, snare-punctuated single “Peru” achieved global TikTok fame and caught the attention of Afrobeats admirer and Ghanian flag tattoo enthusiast Ed Sheeran, who hopped on a remix. With megastars like Beyoncé, Drake, and Madonna also tapping into the Afrobeats wave, some critics have been wary of Western musicians taking from the continent, especially while African artists’ contributions often go unrecognized. Assured in the cultural power of Africa, Fireboy DML doesn’t see a reason to gatekeep. “Historical, deeply-rooted genres like hip-hop, Afrobeats, reggae, amapiano, they cannot be taken away,” he insists. “It’s only right that we collaborate, merge cultures and build bridges for the future.”
As if to make up for the time lost chasing elusive women on his 2019 debut Laughter, Tears and Goosebumps, on “Ashawo,” Fireboy DML adopts a laissez-faire approach to love. “If I cheat on you I’m sorry and if you cheat on me no worry,” he seems to assure his lover, but it really sounds like he’s assuring himself. He desperately tries to keep his affections for women on a purely physical level, but his mask slips on “Adore,” a collaboration with Dominican American rapper Euro, and on the smooth, R&B-influenced “Diana,” he can’t help but beg for her not to go. Though it comes at the cost of a Chris Brown feature, “Diana” proves that Fireboy is in his element when he does what he’s been doing since his breakthrough single “Jealous”: yearn. The only woman featured on the album, Jamaican dancehall singer Shenseea, lends her honeyed vocals as the song’s fictional muse.
“ Bodies Bodies Bodies ” might just be the first great Gen Z thriller. In director Halina Reijn’s film is a razor-sharp satire of a very specific kind of modern privilege set inside an escalating murder mystery in a remote mansion as a hurricane rages outside.
Dripping in neon, platitudes, sweat and fear, “Bodies Bodies Bodies,“ opening in New York and Los Angeles Friday, is playful, cutting and never dull. The events are limited to one long night, but the toxic tensions were boiling over long before an actual corpse is introduced to the party.
Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) has decided to take her new girlfriend, Bee (Maria Bakalova), to meet her oldest friend, David (Pete Davidson), who is hosting a kind of end of the world rager in his parents’ mansion to ride out a hurricane. Sophie reassures Bee that her friends aren’t as nihilistic as they seem online and Bee looks on like anyone in a new relationship would: With nervous hope.
It is not immediately evident that this film is about the young adult children of obscene wealth until Sophie drives up to a mansion that Daisy Buchanan might find impressive. This is no 1980s-greed-is-good portrait of young affluence, with cashmere cable knits and Lacoste polos, nor is it a ‘90s version bedecked in designer logos. These are the kids who only other wealthy kids would recognize as wealthy, who know enough to apologize for their privilege but also enough to be wary of outsiders. Not that those friendships borne out of the same boarding schools and tax brackets are somehow intrinsically safer, they’re just the devil they happen to know.
In the back of the house David, his girlfriend, Emma (Chase Sui Wonders), and their friends Jordan (Myha’la Herrold) and Alice (Rachel Sennott), all excellent in their roles, are in the pool partying with an exhibitionists’ abandonment, like they want everyone they hope is watching to think they think no one is watching. It soon becomes wildly clear that Bee is one of those outsiders and that Sophie was not, exactly, expected. They are anything-goes youths, except when it comes to the sin of not having responded “yes” in a text chain.
The title of the film is derived from a game they play that involves slapping, shots and a fake killing. When the lights come back on, they have to find the body and figure out the murderer. But this tense game only brings out the festering wounds in the group and several quit in protest, including Alice’s boyfriend Greg (Lee Pace), who is trying to fit in with a crowd that is probably two decades younger then him. And then the real murders start.
Bee becomes our innocent eyes and ears to whole confusing, debaucherously bloody endeavor in which the social contract expires along with everyone’s cell phone service. The film, written by Sarah DeLappe and based on a story by Kristen Roupenian (who wrote the viral New Yorker story “Cat Person”) acutely exposes how quickly social dramas and slights can seem like cause for murder. And yet even as things devolve and more friends are murdered, the dwindling surviving characters try their best to avoid microaggressions and triggering words as though navigating a fight on Twitter.
I won’t deprive anyone of the pleasure of the surprises to come. But the reveal just makes you want to watch the whole thing again.
“Bodies, Bodies, Bodies,” an A24 release playing in New York and Los Angeles Friday and nationwide on Aug. 12, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “for violence, bloody images, drug use, sexual references, and pervasive language.” Running time: 95 minutes. Three stars out of four.
—-
MPA Definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
—-
Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr
SHARE:
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)
Sign In
Register
Conversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the Code of Conduct. The Star does not endorse these opinions.
Gunn confirmed that none of his upcoming HBO Max projects will meet the same fate as “Batgirl.”
This week’s announcement that Warner Bros. Discovery would be scrapping its completed “Batgirl” film sent much of the entertainment industry into a panic. The decision to deny the film a theatrical or streaming release in favor of writing it off as a tax loss was a largely unprecedented one, and many feared it would have ramifications for other HBO Max original properties.
The move was part of a strategic shift that will see Warner Bros. moving away from expensive DC streaming content, preferring to use its comic book intellectual property to make theatrical films. But many noted that the some of the most promising Warner Bros. superhero projects in recent years have been developed for HBO Max. The studio’s attempt to establish a big screen cinematic universe for its DC characters has gotten off to several rocky starts, but James Gunn’s “Peacemaker” was a critical darling, with several planned spin-offs in development.
Related
Related
In the wake of the “Batgirl” news and the general uncertainty surrounding HBO Max that it created, many were worried that they had seen the last of John Cena as Peacemaker. As it turns out, that was a false alarm. Responding to a fan on Twitter on Sunday, James Gunn revealed that everything is still running smoothly on his side of the DC universe.
“No need to be worried on behalf of #Peacemaker,” Gunn tweeted. “Our friend will still be making lots of peace in Season 2.”
The news shouldn’t be surprising, as “Peacemaker” had previously been renewed for a second season. Many were more concerned about Gunn’s other planned “Suicide Squad” spin-offs for HBO Max, including a show about Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, that hadn’t yet aired. But when a fan asked about his other HBO Max projects, Gunn once again assured everyone that there is nothing to worry about.
“Everything is beyond good on all fronts, yes,” he wrote.
While Gunn has not spoken publicly about the “Batgirl” cancellation, he was in contact with the film’s directors, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Arbi took to Instagram this week to thank his Hollywood friends for the outpouring of support that they received, citing Gunn as an ally who particularly helped.
“Thanks for all the messages of support all over the world,” he wrote. “Shoutout directors Edgar Wright and James Gunn, your kind words and experience mean a lot and help us through this difficult period.”
Keanu Reeves will star in Hulu’s limited series Devil in the White City, the streamer announced during the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Thursday.
The eight-episode series follows Daniel H. Burnham, a demanding but talented architect who strives to leave his imprint on the world, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, a serial killer and the brains behind the Murder Castle during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
Reeves has been in talks for the project, in which he will both star and serve as an executive producer, since January.
The project has been in various production phases since Leonardo DiCaprio purchased the film rights to the book in 2010. It was previously set it up as a movie at Paramount to be directed by Martin Scorsese. However, in 2019, Hulu revealed that it was developing the concept into a high-budget television series, according to Deadline.
The streamer has also ordered The Other Black Girl, based on the novel of the same name by Zakiya Dalila Harris, to series.
The series tells the story of Nella, an editorial assistant fed up with being the only black woman at her workplace. Though she’s thrilled when Hazel is hired, Nella spirals out of control and learns something dark as Hazel starts to shine.
“These two new series both speak to the kind of distinct storytelling with uniquely compelling characters and forward-thinking narratives we continue to aim for in all that we do,” said Craig Erwich, president of Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment. “Both were best-selling books that pierced the culture as they hit shelves, and we look forward to the honor of continuing to tell those stories on screen.”
A great podcast today as I believe this is the first interview released today with the women of FBoy Island – Louise, Mia, and Tamaris – talking about their finale which dropped on HBO Max earlier today. You will find out what went into each of their decisions, any regrets they may have, an update on where they’re at with their relationships, and a whole lot more. One thing in particular I want you to pay attention to is in my 11 min open, reading one of the awful DM’s that Tamaris received today. I know it’s become the norm now to send death threats to contestants, but that certainly doesn’t make it right. I can’t believe losers are taking time out of their day to do this to a woman they saw on TV for 10 episodes. Even though I say I can’t believe it, I know it happens. To all contestants on all reality shows. What kind of miserable pathetic life are you leading if you’re sending harassing and disgusting DM’s to contestants on reality shows? I’ll never get it. Be better, people. I fell awful for Tamaris and I hope others do too.
You can listen to today’s podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in by clicking the player below:
(SPOILERS) I begin by briefly giving a spoiler warning for the podcast and unfortunately read a DM one of the women received this morning that repulsed me. Then the women join me (11:41) to talk about the finale, how they came to their decisions, what did they think of the twist at the end, would any of them do anything differently, where they stand with their decisions now, and much, much more.
Also today’s Daily Roundup was posted earlier this morning talking about Gabby and Rachel’s reaction to Hayden’s apology, a wedding called off, Big Brother blindside coming, Challenge thoughts, & more on FBoy Island.
You can listen to today’s podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in by clicking the player below:
NBC’s iconic daytime soap “Days of Our Lives” might not have had a chance for survival if not for its move to Peacock, one of the show’s Emmy-winning directors, Scott McKinsey, told fans in a Facebook message Friday.
McKinsey took to social media to assure “Days of Our Lives” fans that, from what he knows, “there will be no perceptible change to the show as it moves from NBC to Peacock.”
“IOW,” he wrote, “the show has not been canceled, and/or ‘picked up’ by Peacock. This is a big difference from the sad demise of ABC’s [‘One Life to Live’] and [‘All My Children’]. All of your favorite characters will remain on the show for the foreseeable future. In fact, the prospect of ‘Days’ remaining in production for the long term just increased as a result of this move. Without Peacock, ‘Days’ might have been numbered on the Network.”
NBCUniversal Television and Streaming chairman, Mark Lazarus, announced Wednesday that the 57-year-old daytime drama (aka, soap opera) was leaving NBC for its streaming service Peacock starting Sept. 12, which would benefit both Peacock and NBC. “With a large percentage of the ‘Days of Our Lives’ audience already watching digitally, this move enables us to build the show’s loyal fanbase on streaming while simultaneously bolstering the network daytime offering with an urgent, live programming opportunity for partners and consumers,” he said in a statement.
Long-time viewers of the show, however, saw the shift as a downgrade of sorts and, in addition, have expressed their anger and disappointment that “Days” will only be available in the tier that the audience has to pay for – meaning, ya gotta subscribe to Peacock.
“I understand Peoples’ sour reaction to being asked for money to remain viewers, but let’s look at the positives,” McKinsey began. “The monthly subscription includes access to every show DOOL has ever aired, (as I understand it). It allows you to watch a new episode anywhere you have internet access. So you don’t have to view it on your DVR at home, (or lose the episode because your DVR is full, or because the network preempted it for a car chase!)”
McKinsey went on to encourage “cord-cutting” by dropping cable company access and instead sign up for individual streaming channels. And he urges fans to make Peacock one of those channels… for the sake of securing a home for “Days of Our Lives.”
“In an effort to keep the show airing, I’m going to ask you a favor,” he wrote. “Please consider signing on to Peacock for at least a month, near the date of September 12th, to demonstrate your interest in following ‘Days’ to its new platform. This will help solidify ‘DOOL’s’ chances of remaining viable with Peacock. They will understand that the increased subscriptions around that date are associated with ‘Days’ viewers. After that, I understand if you can’t elect to stay subscribed. But please send us over to Peacock with as much support as you and your friends can muster.”
NBC, Corday Productions and Sony Pictures Television announced in May 2021 that “Days” had been picked up for two more years, insuring that it would run through Seasons 57 and 58. To date, it has earned 58 Emmy Awards, including most recently 2018’s Outstanding Daytime Drama, and 372 nominations, as well as multiple People’s Choice Awards, GLAAD Media Awards, and Prism Awards.
The network dipped its toe in the streaming world with the launching last year of the“Days” (also known as “DOOL”) sister show, “Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem.”
You can read Scott McKinsey’s entire message to fans by clicking here.
Beyoncé’s new album Renaissance has landed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, Billboard reports. In its first week, the album earned 332,000 equivalent album units and sold 190,000 physical copies. Renaissance is Beyoncé’s seventh solo album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (of seven solo albums total), most recently following Lemonade, Beyoncé, and 4. She’s the first female artist to have her first seven solo albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
So far in 2022, the only album with a bigger debut week on the Billboard 200 charts than Beyoncé’s LP was Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, which racked up 521,500 total units and set a new record for first-week vinyl sales, beating previous record-holder Taylor Swift.
Beyoncé’s chart success isn’t limited to the 200 albums chart. In 2016, the Houston native set a new record when every song from her sixth studio album Lemonade charted on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first female artist to ever have 12 or more songs on the chart at the same time. Over the course of her solo career, she’s had seven songs rise to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, too, and had 20 tracks land in the top 10.
Renaissance was released on July 29, 2022. The album was billed as “Act I”—the first of a “three act project” that she recorded during the pandemic. On her website ahead of the release, she wrote: “My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgement. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking.” The album’s lead single, “Break My Soul,” was released in June.
All products featured on Pitchfork are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
About: The rise and fall of the Oscar- and Emmy-winning Will Vinton, the “Father of Claymation” who revolutionized the animation business during the 1980s and ’90s only to see his carefully sculpted American dream came crumbling down.
Nick Kyrgios’ career-best season has continued with the Australian securing his first ATP Tour title in three years with a straight-sets win in the final of the Citi Open in Washington.
Kyrgios took just 81 minutes to defeat Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka 6-4, 6-3, completing a tournament where he held serve 64 times without being broken. It is Kyrgios’s seventh ATP title and first since he won in Washington in 2019.
After the match, the 27-year-old said he had come a long way since he lost in the first round of last year’s Citi Open and admitted he had lost some of his competitive edge.
“It was emotional for me to see where I was last year to now, it’s an incredible transformation,” Kyrgios said. “I just came out with great energy because I knew I had the experience on my side today.
“I love this court, I played so many good matches here. I’m just really happy with myself. I’ve been in some really dark places and just to be able to turn it around …
“There’s so many people who have helped me get there but myself, I’ve shown some serious strength to just continue and just persevere and get through those really tough times and still be able to perform in tournaments like this one.”
Kyrgios is also chasing a third doubles title of the year, having reached the final in Washington alongside American Jack Sock where they will face Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek in the decider.
Having reached the Wimbledon final, Kyrgios is seemingly on track to secure an all-important seeding for the US Open starting on 29 August in New York ahead of big events in Montreal and Cincinnati.
Of Nishioka, Kyrgios said: “He’s a tricky opponent and he deserves every minute of celebrating getting into his first 500 final. That was insane, the players he beat to get there were not easy at all, so I have to give him high praise.”
The 63-year-old celebrity uploaded a film to social media that was assembled from still images, and for it, she wore her go-to outfit in her favorite color with outstanding detail.
White lace-up ankle boots, a blue tracksuit with white stripes, bright blue-rimmed glasses, and a corset were all that Madonna wore as she made her public entrance.
The celebrity apparently made this bow herself without the assistance of a stylist, relying on provocative angles and color contrast.
The pop star was spotted in Manhattan’s Neil Simon Theater after the article went live. The actress donned black leather mitts and a long dress with sheer black lace as she entered the musical MJ: The Musical. She also wore matching-colored panties underneath.
Although nothing has been officially confirmed, it has been said that 28-year-old Julia Garner , actress in Inventing Anna, will portray the Material Girl hitmaker.
And Madonna revealed that she was fed up with males wanting to narrate her narrative in a patriarchal way when she decided to produce the film.
I’ve lived an exceptional life; I must make an extraordinary picture, she said Variety. Several individuals were attempting to make movies about me, so it was also a preventative measure. Mostly male misogynists. I forced open the door by declaring that I would be the only one to speak my story.
It happened after the legendary musician revealed her intention to rerelease her old repertoire. I’m just searching for unique, enjoyable ways to rerelease my collection and offer my music to a new audience, she said, adding that this was her only goal.
It happened after the legendary musician revealed her intention to rerelease her old repertoire. The singer for Vogue also made a hint that she would want to go on another tour.
The entire Frozen experience was enjoyable until one day, Madonna got up and declared, “I’m sick of living in the past!” I want to go on tour once more because I was made for the stage. That’s where I’m happiest.
Mr. Jones, the supplement-slinging conspiracy theorist, was ordered to pay more than $45 million in damages to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of a 6-year-old who was murdered in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The jury’s verdict came after Mr. Jones was found liable for defaming Mr. Heslin and Ms. Lewis, whom for years he falsely accused of being crisis actors in a “false flag” operation plotted by the government.
To the victims of Mr. Jones’s harassment campaigns, and to those who have followed his career for years, the verdict felt long overdue — a notorious internet villain finally facing real consequences for his actions. The families of the children killed at Sandy Hook, many of whom have waited years to see Mr. Jones pay for his lies, are no doubt relieved.
But before we celebrate Mr. Jones’s comeuppance, we should acknowledge that the verdict against him is unlikely to put much of a dent in the phenomenon he represents: belligerent fabulists building profitable media empires with easily disprovable lies.
Mr. Jones’s megaphone has shrunk in recent years — thanks, in part, to decisions by tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter to bar him from their services. But his reach is still substantial, and he has more influence than you might think.
Court records showed that Mr. Jones’s Infowars store, which sells dubious performance-enhancing supplements and survival gear, made more than $165 million from 2015 to 2018. Despite his deplatforming, Mr. Jones still appears as a guest on popular podcasts and YouTube shows, and millions of Americans still look to him as, if not a reliable chronicler of current events, at least a wacky diversion. (And a wealthy one — an expert witness in the trial estimated the net worth of Mr. Jones and Free Speech Systems, his holding company, at somewhere between $135 million and $270 million.)
In the coming weeks, Mr. Jones — a maestro of martyrdom — will no doubt spin his court defeat into hours of entertaining content, all of which will generate more attention, more subscribers, more money.
But a bigger reason for caution is that, whether or not Mr. Jones remains personally enriched by his lies, his shtick is everywhere these days.
You can see and hear Mr. Jones’s influence on Capitol Hill, where attention-seeking Republican politicians often sound like they’re auditioning for slots on Infowars. When Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, suggests that a mass shooting could have been orchestrated to persuade Republicans to support gun-control measures, as she did in a Facebook post about the July 4 shooting in Highland Park, Ill., she’s playing hits from Mr. Jones’s back catalog. Mr. Jones also played a role in fueling the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, in ways we are still learning about. (The House panel investigating the insurrection has asked for a copy of the text messages from Mr. Jones’s phone that were mistakenly sent to the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in his defamation case.)
You can also see Mr. Jones’s influence in right-wing media. When Tucker Carlson stokes nativist fears on his Fox News show, or when a Newsmax host spins a bizarre conspiracy theory about an effort by Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, to have Justice Brett Kavanaugh of the Supreme Court killed, it’s proof that Infowars’ DNA has entered the conservative bloodstream.
Even outside politics, Mr. Jones’s choleric, wide-eyed style has influenced the way in which a new generation of conspiracy theorists looks for fame online.
These creators don’t all rant about goblins and gay frogs, as Mr. Jones has. But they’re pulling from the same fact-free playbook. Some of them focus on softer subject matter — like the kooky wellness influencers who recently went viral for suggesting that Lyme disease is a “gift” caused by intergalactic space matter, or like Shane Dawson, a popular YouTube creator who has racked up hundreds of millions of views with conspiracy theory documentaries in which he credulously examines claims such as “Chuck E. Cheese reuses uneaten pizza” and “Wildfires are caused by directed energy weapons.”
Certain elements of left-wing and centrist discourse also owe a debt to Mr. Jones. The “Red Scare” podcast, which is popular with an anti-establishment “post-left” crowd, has interviewed Mr. Jones and shares some overlapping interests. Much of the unhinged coverage and analysis of the legal battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, which dominated social media this summer, had a Jonesian tinge. Even Joe Rogan, the popular podcast host (who has hosted Mr. Jones on his show and has defended him as “hilarious” and “entertaining”), has borrowed some of the Infowars founder’s connect-the-dots paranoia in arguing, for example, that Covid-19 vaccines can alter your genes.
It would be too simple to blame (or credit) Mr. Jones for inspiring the entire modern cranksphere. But it’s safe to say that many of today’s leading conspiracy theorists have found the same profitable sweet spot of lies and entertainment value. It’s also probable that we’ve become desensitized to conspiracy theories, and many of the outrageous falsehoods that once got Mr. Jones into trouble — such as the allegations about Sandy Hook parents that were at the center of his defamation trial — would sound less shocking if uttered today.
Other conspiracy theorists are less likely than Mr. Jones to end up in court, in part because they’ve learned from his mistakes. Instead of straightforwardly accusing the families of mass-shooting victims of making it all up, they adopt a naïve, “just asking questions” posture while poking holes in the official narrative. When attacking a foe, they tiptoe right up to the line of defamation, being careful not to do anything that could get them sued or barred from social media. And when they lead harassment campaigns, they pick their targets wisely — often maligning public figures rather than private citizens, which gives them broader speech protections under the First Amendment.
That’s not to say there won’t be more lawsuits, or attempts to hold conspiracy theorists accountable. Fox News, for one, is facing a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, which claims that the network knowingly made false statements about voter fraud in the 2020 election.
But these cases are the exceptions, not the rule. The truth is that today’s media ecosystem is overflowing with Infowars-style conspiracy theories — from History Channel shows about ancient aliens building the Egyptian pyramids to TikToks made by yoga moms who think Wayfair is selling trafficked children — and it’s not clear that our legal system can, or should even attempt to, stop them.
Social media companies can help curb the spread of harmful lies by making it harder for fabulists to amass huge audiences. But they have their own limitations, including the simple fact that conspiracy theorists have gotten more sophisticated about evading their rules. If you draw a line at claiming that Bigfoot is real, attention-seeking cranks will simply get their millions of views by positing that Bigfoot might be real and that their audiences would be wise to do their own research to figure out what Bigfoot-related secrets the deep-state cabal is hiding.
To this new, more subtle generation of propagandists and reactionaries, Mr. Jones is an inspiration who ascended the profession’s highest peaks. But he’s also a cautionary tale — of what can happen when you cross too many lines, tell too many easily disprovable lies and refuse to back down.
Mr. Jones isn’t done facing the music. Two more lawsuits brought against him by Sandy Hook family members are still pending, and he could end up owing millions more in damages.
But, even if Mr. Jones’s career is ruined, his legacy of brazen, unrepentant dishonesty will live on — strengthened, in some ways, by the knowledge of exactly how far you can push a lie before consequences kick in.
Sheryl Lee Ralph is no newcomer to the business, but finally she is an Emmy nominee. Nommed for her role as veteran teacher Barbara Howard in the hit ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary, this longtime star has found a role that brings her an even wider audience.
A Tony nominee as the original dreamgirl Deena Jones in the 1981 Broadway hit Dreamgirls, Ralph has had a buoyant career in all mediums including television, where she previously starred in such series as It’s a Living, Moesha and Instant Mom. She was an Indie Spirit winner for To Sleep With Anger, and on screen has acted opposite the likes of Denzel Washington, Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro.
As you will see in this week’s edition of my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side, she is also a real live wire. We talk about her fantastic career, the teachers in her own family who inspire her, working with the Abbott Elementary ensemble and creator Quinta Brunson, and why this show has come at exactly the right time in a troubled world. Plus so much more.
To watch our conversation, click on the video above, and join me every Wednesday during Emmy season for a new episode of The Actor’s Side.
Gotta love the Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting. No matter what your background is, the annual tradition is always a good one. NBC’s coverage of the event topped Nielsen’s Social Content Ratings Wednesday night, easily topping the night’s usual winner, Empire.
On the sports side, the North Carolina – Indiana basketball game led the social chart. (Indiana won.)
Clu Gulager, a rugged character actor who appeared in critically acclaimed films like “The Last Picture Show” as well as low-budget horror movies, and who memorably portrayed gunslingers on two television westerns, died on Friday at his son John’s home in Los Angeles. He was 93.
John Gulager confirmed the death. He said his father’s health had been in decline since he suffered a back injury several years ago.
Mr. Gulager’s rough-hewed good looks and Southwestern upbringing made him a natural for the westerns that proliferated on television in the 1950s and ’60s. He was seen regularly on “Wagon Train,” “Bonanza,” “Have Gun — Will Travel” and other shows.
An appearance as the hit man Mad Dog Coll on “The Untouchables” in 1959 persuaded the writer and producer Sam Peeples to cast Mr. Gulageras the legendary outlaw Billy the Kid on “The Tall Man,” a television series he was planning about Billy’s friendship with Sheriff Pat Garrett. (By most accounts the title was a reference to Garrett’s honesty and rectitude, and to the show’s opening credits, in which Garrett’s long shadow stretches in front of him.)
“He’s exactly what we were looking for, an actor with a flair for the unusual,” Mr. Peeples said in a TV Guide profile of Mr. Gulager shortly after the show first aired in 1960. “He lends a certain psychological depth to Billy.”
The friendship between the lawman (played by Barry Sullivan) and the gun-toting rustler was fictionalized and greatly exaggerated over the show’s 75 episodes; many historians believe that Sheriff Garrett actually shot and killed Billy in 1881. Their fatal encounter never happened on the show, which ended abruptly in 1962.
Mr. Gulager played a more lawful character on “The Virginian,” the first of three 1960s western series that ran for 90 minutes, which starred James Drury and Doug McClure. Mr. Gulager’s character on the show, Emmett Ryker, was introduced in the show’s third season when a rich man tried to hire him to murder a rancher. Although he refused to be a hired killer, he was framed for killing the man. After clearing his name, Ryker channeled his penchant for violence into the service of the law.
On the series “The Virginian,” Mr. Gulager played a character who channeled his penchant for violence into the service of the law.Credit…NBC,via Photofest
In Mr. Gulager’s first scene, Ryker was typically unflappable. He walked into a saloon and within moments angered a man playing cards. Ryker drew his gun on the card player before he could stand up, ending the conflict.
Moments later a deputy sheriff asked Ryker where he learned to draw like that.
“In the cradle,” he replied.
Mr. Gulager’s acting career, which lasted well into the 21st century, was not relegated to the frontier. He appeared on non-western television shows including “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Knight Rider” and “Murder, She Wrote,” and in several notable movies.
He and Lee Marvin played hit men in “The Killers,” a 1964 film noir directed by Don Siegel and based on a short story by Ernest Hemingway that also starred Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes and, in what turned out to be his last movie, Ronald Reagan.
In 1969 he played a mechanic in “Winning,” a film about auto racing with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. He played an older man who has a fling with his lover’s beautiful daughter in “The Last Picture Show,” Peter Bogdanovich’s celebrated 1971 study of a fading Texas town.
He was also in more lowbrow fare, like the Keenen Ivory Wayans blaxploitation parody “I’m Gonna Git You, Sucka” (1988) and the horror films “The Return of the Living Dead” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2” (both 1985).
His movie work continued well into his later years, including roles in the independent productions “Tangerine” (2015) and “Blue Jay” (2016). His final screen appearance was as a bookstore clerk in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” (2019).
Mr. Gulager left the cast of “The Virginian” in 1968 to focus on directing and teaching. (The show remained on the air until 1971, becoming the third-longest-running western in television history, after “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza.”) His directing career foundered after the short film “A Day With the Boys” in 1969, but he became a popular teacher, running a workshop that focused on horror film acting and directing.
“I tell the young students in my class that what we do is as important as the work of a man who grows the wheat, the doctor who saves lives, the architect who builds homes,” he said in an ABC news release before he starred in the TV movie “Stickin’ Together” in 1978. “What we do, in our best moments, is provide humanity with food for the spirit.”
William Martin Gulager was born in Holdenville, Okla., on Nov. 16, 1928. He often said that he was part Cherokee; the name Clu came from “clu-clu,” a Cherokee word for the birds, known in English as martins, that were nesting at the Gulager home.
His father, John Delancy Gulager, was an actor and vaudevillian who became a county judge in Muskogee, Okla., and who taught him acting from a young age, well before he graduated from Muskogee Central High School. His mother, Hazel Opal (Griffin) Gulager, worked at the local V.A. Hospital for 35 years.
Mr. Gulager served stateside in the Marines from 1946 to 1948 before studying drama at Northeastern State College in Oklahomaand Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He continued his education in Paris, where he studied with the actor Jean-Louis Barrault and the mime Etienne Decroux.
He married Miriam Byrd-Nethery, and they acted in summer stock and university theater. In 1955 both were in a production of the play “A Different Drummer” on the television series “Omnibus.” He continued acting in New York until 1958, when the Gulagers and their infant son, John, moved to Hollywood.
Mr. Gulager’s wife died in 2003. Besides his son John, survivors include another son, Tom, and a grandson.
John Gulager is a director of horror movies, notably the gory “Feast” (2005), which starred Henry Rollins and Balthazar Getty. That film and its two tongue-in-cheek sequels also featured the older Mr. Gulager as a shotgun-toting bartender battling fanged monsters in a Midwestern tavern. The second “Feast” movie was even more of a family affair.
“You know, there are three generations of Gulagers in this movie,” John Gulager told the blog horror-movies.ca in an interview. One of them, named after Clu the elder, was Clu Gulager’s infant grandson.
“He was 11 months old when we filmed it,” John Gulager added. “My dad said, ‘We have to get Baby Clu’s career started now.’ ”
Academy Award-winning actress Viola Davis will star in The Women King, set to hit theatres this September. The Sony Pictures production, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, is set to portray actual events in Africa in the 18th to 19th century in The Kingdom of Dahomey.
The trailer also hints at a noteworthy soundtrack, playing Beyonce’s “My Power” as the trailer’s theme, leaving audiences hopeful that a fierce and catchy movie album will accompany the film at its release.
Drawing heavy inspiration from African history,The Women King shares the incredible story of the Agojie, an all-female army that gave their lives to defend The Kingdom of Dahomey from its French invaders back in the 18th century.
The movie takes audiences on an emotional journey, filled with action-packed fight scenes, histological characters, and breathtaking cinematography. Viewers will follow the female-dominated regiment as they unite and undergo rigorous training to protect their home from its unwelcome visitors.
The film’s notable casting should not go unnoticed, as it brings several prominent Black female actors such as Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu, and Sheila Atim to the forefront of the powerful yet overlooked history of the Agojie. Actor John Boyega also makes an appearance, taking on the role of King Ghezo, who was the existing leader of Dahomey from 1818 until 1859.
‘THE WOMAN KING’, starring Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Shiela Atim, Thuso Mbedu and John Boyega, will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September. pic.twitter.com/gxkSVo9vvs
Filming for this Sony Pictures production began in November of 2021 and took the star-studded cast to beautiful South Africa. Make sure to save the date so you don’t miss out on this action-packed, histological timepiece hitting theatres on September 16, 2022.
Roger E. Mosley, who portrayed Theodore “T.C.” Calvin, the helicopter pilot and buddy of Tom Selleck’s character on all eight seasons of the original Magnum, P.I., died Sunday. He was 83.
Mosley died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of injuries incurred in a car accident in Lynwood, California, thee days earlier, his daughter, Ch-a, told The Hollywood Reporter.
On the big screen, Mosley was at his most memorable as blues and folk singer Huddie Ledbetter (“The Midnight Special”) in the period piece Leadbelly (1976), directed by Gordon Parks. In his review, Roger Ebert wrote that Mosley played the part “with great strength” and called the film “one of the best biographies of a musician I’ve ever seen.”
Mosley also was a standout in blaxploitation films, playing the angry brother of the fresh-out-of-prison Goldie (Max Julien) in the classic The Mack (1973) and starring in Hit Man (1972), Sweet Jesus, Preacherman (1973) and Darktown Strutters (1975).
And in The Greatest (1977), Mosley — a sturdy 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds in his prime — portrayed Sonny Liston and got whupped by Muhammad Ali.
The likable actor appeared on 158 of the 162 episodes of CBS’ Magnum, P.I., created by Donald Bellisario and Glen A. Larson. T.C. was a buddy of Selleck’s Thomas Magnum from their days in Vietnam; his character owned a helicopter charter company in Oahu called Island Hoppers, which came in handy on the series that aired from December 1980 through May 1988.
According to Mosley, Gerald McRaney was all set to play T.C. before the producers realized they needed a person of color in the main cast. Selleck thought of Mosley from a prison film they had done together, 1973’s Terminal Island, and suggested him for the part.
The Los Angeles native was busy making movies at the time and didn’t want a job on a television show, but his agent talked him into at least doing the Magnum pilot.
As Mosley remembered it, his agent told him: ” ‘It’s starring this guy Tom Selleck. Tom Selleck has made about five pilot shows … and none of them has sold. So here’s what you do, Roger: Sign up for the show, go over to Hawaii, they’ll treat you good for the 20 days it will take to shoot the [pilot], you’ll get a lot of money, and then you come home. A show with Tom Selleck always fails, and you’ll be fine.’
“Well, 8 1/2 years later … “
Mosley in real life was a licensed private helicopter pilot (something the producers discovered after he was hired, he said) but not allowed to fly on the series.
At the start, the writers had T.C. as the owner of a struggling helicopter business, but Mosley refused to “be the only Black person in Hawaii and be broke,” he said. “And they reversed. They decided Tom would be broke, and I would be financially well off — except I was always bailing him out.”
Mosley also made his character a graduate of Grambling State University, a lover of books and poetry and a guy who didn’t party.
“They [the Magnum writers] keep writing for me to smoke and drink, but I won’t do it,” he said in a 1982 interview in Ebony. “I never get high, smoke or drink on the show or in real life. That’s not what I want Black kids to see.”
Born on Dec. 18, 1938, Roger Earl Mosley was raised by his mother, Eloise, in the Imperial Courts project in Watts. He was a wrestler in high school and a swimming coach in the neighborhood.
As recounted in a 1976 People story, Mosley was studying acting under Raymond St. Jacques at the Mafundi Institute, a community arts school in Watts, when a director from Universal came to lecture the students on self-sacrifice and said, “I know actors who had to eat ketchup sandwiches.”
Mosley got up and shouted: “You have the audacity to tell us to eat ketchup sandwiches for our art. I know people who are eating ketchup sandwiches to survive. We need somebody to give us a break.”
The director invited Mosley to visit the studio the next week.
Mosley made one of his first onscreen appearances in 1971 on an episode of CBS’ Cannon, then had small roles in The New Centurions (1972) and Hickey & Boggs (1972).
He later worked with John Wayne in McQ (1974); with James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson and Louis Gossett Jr. in The River Niger (1976); and, as football player Puddin Patterson Sr., in Semi-Tough (1977), starring Burt Reynolds.
Post-Magnum, he starred opposite Nell Carter on the CBS sitcom You Take the Kids, as Coach Ricketts on ABC’s Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper and as Milt Johnson on Showtime’s Rude Awakening. He also appeared in the movies Heart Condition (1990), Unlawful Entry (1992), Pentathlon (1994) and A Thin Line Between Love & Hate (1996).
Survivors also include his wife, Antoinette (“Toni”) — they were together for nearly 60 years — son Brandonn; grandson Austin; and Rahsan, among his many nieces and nephews
Ch-a wrote on Facebook: “We could never mourn such an amazing man. He would HATE any crying done in his name. It is time to celebrate the legacy he left for us all. I love you daddy. You loved me too. My heart is heavy but I am strong. I will care for mommy, your love of almost 60 years. You raised me well and she is in good hands. Rest easy.”
Roger E. Mosley, best known for playing helicopter pilot Theodore “T.C.” Calvin on the CBS crime drama Magnum, P.I., died early Sunday morning. He was 83.
His daughter, Ch-a Mosley, confirmed the news via Facebook writing: “He was surrounded by family as he transcended peacefully. We could never mourn such an amazing man. He would HATE any crying done in his name. It is time to celebrate the legacy he left for us all. I love you daddy. You loved me too. My heart is heavy but I am strong. I will care for mommy, your love of almost 60 years. You raised me well and she is in good hands. Rest easy.”
No cause of death was given, however, his daughter also posted early Saturday morning that the actor was involved in a recent car accident that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down and in critical condition.
Mosley starred on the original Magnum P.I. for all of its eight year run between 1980 and 1988. He appeared in 158 episodes (of 162) opposite Tom Selleck. Mosley’s character ran a helicopter business in the show, and was often helping Magnum escape danger by flying him all over Hawai’i. The actor later returned to the rebooted series in 2019 for a cameo, albeit, as a different character named John Booky.
Magnum reboot star Stephen Hill, who plays the updated version of T.C. Calvin, posted a tribute to Instagram Sunday to commemorate Mosley’s life. “Rest In Power to the King, Father, Husband, Friend, Trailblazer, Black Power-Man, Coach, Gentleman, Powerhouse Talent, and Mentor Roger E. Mosley,” he wrote. “We have all been honored by the example of your life.”
In addition to Magnum P.I., Mosley appeared on shows such as Love Boat, Night Gallery, Sanford and Son, Kung Fu, Kojak, McCloud, The Rockford Files, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, Starsky and Hutch, You Take the Kids, Night Court, Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, Walker, Texas Ranger, Rude Awakening, Las Vegas and Fact Checkers Unit, among others.
He also lent his talents to many TV movies throughout the decades including The Other Side of Hell, Cruise Into Terror, The Jericho Mile, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Attica.
On the film side of things, Mosley appeared in several Blaxploitation films in the ’70s including The Mack, Hit Man, Sweet Jesus, Preacherman, Darktown Strutters and The River Niger. Also on his film acting resume were McQ (co-starring John Wayne), The Greatest, Semi-Tough, Heart Condition,Pentathlon and A Thin Line Between Love & Hate (co-starring Martin Lawrence).
This sketch — a callback to season one’s “Basic Ball” — was shot on location at RSI Locations in Pomona in an abandoned medical campus. “We had a bunch of tinsel and our title card lit up with marquee lights, and we wanted to bring those elements over to this sketch,” explains Chao. The high-angled pitch of the ceiling made this room, which in reality is a small banquet hall, resemble a church space. Chao and Yu lit the room with “a rainbow of colors,” with Chao noting that the funeral scene “wasn’t about a loss of life, but more about a celebration of life. We populated it with big, bold statements and florals to make it more of a fun atmosphere.”
That mixed tone also applies to the mood on set. “This is a sketch comedy show, so there’s the perception that we’re working fast but being silly about it,” says Yu. “I don’t know that we’ve ever worked on anything where everyone is taking it so seriously.”
Yu adds that the speed at which the production works requires a certain level of professionalism. “All of these sketches are really mini-movies,” she says, and putting all the pieces together for so many sketches requires an incredible amount of planning. “It’s intense and immense, and it’s very helpful to be working in the art department with people who have that approach. All of our job is in prep, and the more prep that we do, the better it’s going to be.”
Chao also notes that this sketch was shot out of order, which added more challenges for the art department. “We dressed the space for the funeral ball, and then we had to reset it to its original state for the start of the sketch,” she explains. Adds Yu: “There are no pickup days on this show — we’re shooting it and we’re out.”
Ashley Nicole Black (left) and Robin Thede play two white-wine-drinking, motivational catchphrase-quoting women who are ‘live, laugh, loving their way through life.”
Courtesy of HBO (2)
One of the things Cindy and I love joking about with Robin [Thede, A Black Lady Sketch Show‘s star and creator] is bad Zillow postings,” says Michele Yu, who cites intricately staged real estate listings as the inspiration for this sketch’s homey setting. “Sometimes we’ll come across a real winner — like, this is what you do to attract [buyers] to your property?”
Cindy Chao and Yu filled this space — the sketch was shot on location in an empty house — with items that featured cheeky catchphrases. “It’s about women who are live, laugh, loving through life,” says Chao, “but [the reveal is that they are running] a sweatshop in their house,” in which other women are crafting tea towels and mugs with inspirational quotes.
A framed poster that reads “In this house, we do hugs,” throw pillows that command one to “pray boldly,” a clock that chimes when it’s “wine o’clock” — all these brought a realistic silliness to the sketch and sparked hilarious improvisational reactions from Thede and co-star Ashley Nicole Black.
But Chao and Yu didn’t just decorate this set with jokey decor. “You always need artwork, and there are certainly plenty of places you can get cleared artwork to put up. You just go to Hollywood Studio Gallery, you get a group of stuff and you put it on the walls,” says Yu. “But it’s A Black Lady Sketch Show, something that was created to celebrate Black women. We realized that this was an opportunity to feature other Black female artists. It’s not much harder to reach out to Black women [artists] who might like the exposure, who might enjoy being included in the process and who might get a kick out of seeing their work onscreen.”
That effort is not just a show of goodwill and solidarity, but also heightens the authenticity of a location — particularly in this sketch, which is set in a Black woman’s home. “That helps some of these interiors feel more real and specific, rather than just renting another landscape painting that’s easy to clear,” says Yu.
Gabrielle Dennis as Ms. Miller in this elementary school classroom-set sketch, which incorporates numerous set dressings designed to look like they were crafted by schoolchildren.
Courtesy of HBO (2)
This sketch — another callback to a character seen in season one — was also shot in an empty classroom at the RSI Pomona location. “There was a beehive,” Chao recalls of the space, which required cleaning before their team could begin dressing the room, which is not unusual. “A lot of these locations [need to be fixed up] before we even get down to design the space.”
The elementary school classroom required a lot of background details, from the drawings on the chalkboard to the posters on the walls, some of which were crafted with construction paper and glue to resemble artwork made by children. The latter items included science fair placards, such as one about volcanoes, and posters celebrating Black literary achievement — including re-creations of the book covers for Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Octavia Butler’s Dawn and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.
“Our core mission is to celebrate Black women,” says Yu. While the humor in every sketch might not lead with that objective, Chao and Yu imbue that celebration into each of their set designs.
This set highlights the production designers’ ability to add narratives to the background of a scene. “Cindy and I have been working together as a team for over a dozen years at this point, and we come from an indie film background,” says Yu. “We’ve developed a [talent] for making the most out of what you have and using all the resources you possibly can to tell the story. Every inch of space on a set is something that could possibly support a story.”
That consideration applies to thinking how the characters in the sketches would decorate the spaces they inhabit. “The pace of this show is so rapid-fire and quick,” says Yu, whose first task is to figure out the basic items required in each setting. Once those are identified, they begin thinking about who the characters are and how they can help tell their stories: “We try to understand the person as a character, where they are coming from and what they would choose themselves.”
Yu also adds although production prep took place during the Trump presidency, the sketch was set in the Obama era. “It was such a relief,” she says with a laugh, “because we could include images of the [former] president and his wife, as opposed to who the president actually was when we were prepping.”
Thede as an explosives specialist whose retirement party is cut short when he has to quickly help a security guard (Black) detonate a bomb over the phone.
Courtesy of HBO (2)
This bomb shelter location was, in real life, a drab room being used for storage at the Petroleum Club in Long Beach, which Yu describes as “a very old-school club for oil executives.” The show spent a week on-site during production, using various spaces as locations. (A singles-night sketch was shot at the club’s restaurant.)
This sketch in particular alternates between two locations. The club’s rock-walled lobby served as a corporate front desk, where a security guard (another returning character from season one, played by Black) talks on the phone with a bomb control expert (played by Thede), who is interrupted from celebrating his imminent retirement in his office when Black’s character requests help dismantling an explosive device.
Particular features immediately appealed to Chao and Yu when they found this space: the large, dropped lighting fixtures in the center of the room, plus the mirrored, smoked-glass wall panels on either side. “We really leaned into the mirrors,” says Yu, who adds that the DP was able to work with “cool lighting” thanks to the reflective walls. “We decked the whole room out with multiple desks, to suggest other people were working there,” Yu adds of the additional details for the scene, which include the party balloons and a half-eaten cake.
The end result, however, was a dark office and a tight shot on Thede in character, with cool blue-green lighting emanating from the ceiling. “The drop-ceiling lights were perfect,” says Chao of the room’s eye-catching feature, which brought an almost supernatural mood to the sketch.
While much of Chao and Yu’s extensive work is visible in this sketch only for fleeting moments, they say that doesn’t discourage them from their detailed efforts to create the world in which a sketch like this takes place. “We have to get very creative with the spaces, because we never know what’s actually going to make it into the cut while we’re dressing them,” Yu explains. “We really have to dress the whole world just in case.”
This story first appeared in the Aug. 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
The Offspring are in the midst of a Canadian tour and things haven’t quite gone according to plan. On Friday, while en route to Rimouski, Quebec to play a show, one of the band’s vehicles caught fire. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but unfortunately, everything inside the SUV was destroyed.
“While traveling through Canada yesterday, something flew off the vehicle in front of us and became wedged underneath one of our SUVs and it caught fire,” The Offspring wrote on Twitter, showing footage of the vehicle engulfed in flames. “Everyone got out safely, but the luggage, passports, laptops and pretty much everything else was destroyed.”
While traveling through Canada yesterday, something flew off the vehicle in front of us and became wedged underneath one of our SUVs and it caught fire. Everyone got out safely, but the luggage, passports, laptops and pretty much everything else was destroyed. pic.twitter.com/8CjLep1Bei
Noodles also shared the scary news on Instagram, posting photos of the roasted SUV. “No one was hurt. Everyone got out of the vehicle unscathed. Unfortunately about half our crew lost all their belongings in the fire, including luggage, computers, & passports. But it could’ve been much worse. The band & I are so thankful & relieved that all involved are OK,” The Offspring guitarist wrote. “No one is sure what started the fire yet, but the SUV hit something big & heavy, possibly a lost trailer hitch, and within seconds the vehicle was in flames. You can see from the video that they didn’t even get off the Highway before everyone had to bail. No time to save any belongings. Scary shit!”
He then gave a special thank you to the band’s crew. “Our crew do all the heavy lifting so that we look & sound as good as possible when we take the stage,” he wrote. “They’re travel & workdays are always longer & more arduous than ours, and we can’t thank them enough for all they do. To see them have to go through something like this is heartbreaking & frightening. I am so glad they are all OK!”
After one more show in Canada, The Offspring embark on a world tour, including dates in Japan, Australia, Brazil, and Europe. See a full list of upcoming tour dates here.
“American Insurrection” on PBS’s Frontline investigates vigilante groups active in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Correspondent A.C. Thompson of ProPublica studies how groups such as the Proud Boys and Boogaloo Boys are constantly shifting.
Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions. Reader discretion is advised.
The prosecutor seeking to sentence Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz to death let the facts speak for themselves as he presented his case: terrifying witness accounts; heartrending statements from parents and spouses; chilling surveillance videos; gruesome autopsy and crime scene photos; and, as a capstone, Thursday’s jury walk-through of the three-story building where it happened, bloodstains and Valentine’s Day cards still clinging to the floors.
Lead prosecutor Mike Satz, the 80-year-old former Broward County state attorney, then rested his case against the defendant who murdered 14 students and three staff members at Parkland‘s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.
Cruz’s attorneys repeatedly objected that Satz’s case went beyond what was legally allowable or necessary and was aimed primarily at inflaming the jurors’ emotions— objections that were denied by Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer.
There was never any doubt Satz would be able to prove the killings were “cold, calculated and premeditated,” that Cruz’s actions were “heinous, atrocious or cruel” and “created a great risk to many persons ” and four other aggravating circumstances listed in Florida law that make him eligible for a possible death sentence. But Satz also had to give them heft as they must, in the jurors’ unanimous opinion, “outweigh” the mitigating factors the defense will soon present.
“I didn’t think there were any surprises, but what surprises could there have been?” said Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University in suburban Fort Lauderdale. “The jurors knew walking in what Cruz had done. … The question that kept running through my mind was, `Was it too much?”’
“He did a fantastic job,” said David S. Weinstein, a Miami criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor. “He has built a case that I think has given the jury more than enough to find these aggravating factors and was not over-the-top at all.”
After a one-week break, the sides will spend a week without the jury arguing before Judge Scherer over what evidence Cruz’s defense can present about how his birth mother’s drinking and drug abuse during pregnancy affected his brain and whether defects can be seen on scans.
Father of teen killed in Parkland shooting interrupts Biden during speech on gun law
Father of teen killed in Parkland shooting interrupts Biden during speech on gun law – Jul 11, 2022
Jennifer Zedalis, a University of Florida law professor, said such arguments over fetal alcohol syndrome scans go back 20 years.
“Brain scans, MRIs, we can learn from them _ the argument will be over whether the evidence reaches a the standard of relevance and reliability to be permitted,” Zedalis said. She said if the evidence’s admissibility is borderline, she would expect the judge to side with Cruz’s lawyers as appellate courts have said “a defendant on trial for his life deserves wide latitude.”
Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder; the trial is only to decide whether the former Stoneman Douglas student is sentenced to death or life without parole. Once they begin deliberating, likely several weeks from now, the jury will take separate votes for each victim. For each death sentence, the jury must be unanimous or the sentence for that victim is life.
Story continues below advertisement
After Scherer rules, lead defense attorney Melisa McNeill is expected to give her opening statement Aug. 22 and then she and her team will present their case.
“That’s when the trial really begins,” Jarvis said.
Instead, they are expected to focus on his life, starting with his birth mother’s addictions; his severe emotional and behavioral problems that began in preschool and the holes in his treatment; his adoptive father’s death when he was 5; his adoptive mother’s death three months before the shootings; his alleged sexual abuse at the hands of a “trusted peer”; that he was an immature 19-year-old; and the bullying he endured from his brother and his brother’s friends.
McNeill and her team are unlikely to downplay the severity of Cruz’s actions — they have conceded in court several times that the murders were horrible and wiped away tears during some parents’ statements about their dead child.
The defense will argue, “If you send him to death, you are ignoring all of that and that is just wrong,” Jarvis said.
Weinstein said the defense has a tough task. The jurors all swore they could vote for either death or life, based on the evidence. Even if the defense can prove some mitigating factors, he said, it will be difficult for those to outweigh 17 people murdered in cold blood.
Story continues below advertisement
“I don’t think you can paint a picture of Cruz as sympathetic, that he’s not as bad as what the prosecution has said,” Jarvis said. “Instead, they have to show that he is a victim, that he fell through the cracks, that society failed him from the outset. …Society created this monster and failed to stop this monster.”
Weinstein said the prosecution will argue if the death penalty “is not appropriate in this circumstance, why do we have it? What could happen that’s possibly any more egregious than this?”
Kylie Jenner and Travis Scottenjoyed a rare night out to themselves, after the pair welcomed their second child together back in February. The gorgeous makeup mogul and her handsome rapper beau were spotted holding hands as they made their way to a restaurant in London for an intimate dinner date on August 6. Kylie was every inch the fabulous fashionista in her ripped denim miniskirt, black pumps and designer shades. She topped off the chic look with a red and white leather jacket, which Travis twinned with as he added a pair of baggy cargo pants to his ensemble.
Travis Scott and Kylie Jenner held hands for a dinner date in London in August 2022. (Old Boy’s Club / BACKGRID)
The adorable UK outing comes after Kylie made a TikTok to reveal she was struggling a bit after giving birth for the second time. Using a sound bite from her 2017 show, Life of Kylie, Kylie mouthed the words, “I’m getting my personality back though like. I’m feeling like myself again. I really was not myself.” She captioned the clip, “when your postpartum hormones start leveling out.”
This isn’t the first time Kylie has opened up about her post pregnancy struggles since she and Travis welcomed their baby boy, whose name has yet to be revealed. The reality star, who also shares 3-year-old daughter Stormi with the rapper, spoke out about it back in March on Instagram. “I just want to say to my postpartum moms that postpartum has not been easy,” she admitted. “This experience for me, personally, has been a little harder than with my daughter.”
Kylie was also in her feels about being a parent this past Mother’s Day. She shared a slew of photos and clips of her baby girl Stormi and one of her son’s hands. Kylie has yet to share a photo of what he looks like. As mentioned, his name is also a mystery, although at one point they had decided to call him Wolf Webster. However, weeks after they confirmed the name, Kylie explained that they decided to change it.
EVGA has just reduced the price of its base RTX 3090 Ti graphics card to $1,000 below the MSRP in the US, in a clear sign that high-end GPU prices are still coming down rapidly.
Yes, an eagled-eyed denizen of Twitter spotted that there’s a clear thousand bucks off the FTW3 Gaming model (opens in new tab), which has a recommended price of $2,150 and is now $1,150 at the card maker’s online store, so it’s now pretty close to half-price.
Holy Crap, but Jay said to buy now? pic.twitter.com/G96qqouSqHAugust 6, 2022
See more
The FTW3 Ultra Gaming model isn’t much more expensive at $1,200, coming with a slightly higher boost speed (so it’s certainly another option should the base FTW3 graphics card sell out of stock).
Note that the official MSRP for the RTX 3090 Ti is $2,000 (£1,879, AU$2,499), but EVGA put a slight premium on its FTW3 versions due to beefed up cooling systems that allow the GPU to run a bit faster.
Analysis: To buy, or to wait?
To put this price into perspective with the rest of the range, EVGA’s RTX 3080 Ti is running at $1,100 right now, so you can get the 3090 Ti for only fifty bucks more, making it a total no-brainer for those who want a top-end Ampere graphics card from EVGA at the moment (assuming their PC case, thermals and PSU can cope with the 3090 Ti, of course).
As you may recall, recently Nvidia officially reduced the RTX 3090 Ti to $1,500 (along with price cuts to other top dog Ampere graphics cards), but the flagship GPU appears to be quickly tumbling from even that reduced level. At Newegg you can pick up a Zotac 3090 Ti for $1,240 now, for example, but EVGA’s price undercuts that by almost a further hundred dollars.
Something we’ve been hearing on the grapevine consistently in recent times is that Nvidia’s partners have excess stock of RTX 3000 cards to clear, and this would seem to be a pretty clear indication that this may indeed be the case.
It’s certainly a big price reduction by EVGA, and if next-gen Lovelace GPUs are coming close to launch now, the first one out the door will purportedly be the RTX 4090 – so it makes sense that the biggest discounts should be applied to the top end RTX 3090 and 3090 Ti first, as these will rapidly become less tempting propositions as the Lovelace release timeframe nears.
What could happen now is that more graphics card manufacturers lower their 3090 Ti prices (and maybe other high-end Nvidia models), and we could see a race to sell them off – potentially. That said, if we’re looking at almost half-price already, there has to be a limit to how low things will go, and at its current price, the EVGA RTX 3090 Ti looks none too shabby to say the least.
On the other hand, when Lovelace arrives, rumor has it that the RTX 4070 could be the equal of the 3090 Ti (or maybe even a touch faster) – but then it’s expected to be the most popular model of the higher-end Lovelace offerings, so buying it at MSRP could prove challenging (or even buying it at all, perhaps, initially). Especially if the 4070 offers as much of a jaw-dropping price to performance value proposition as speculation seems to suggest.
And with the RTX 4070 potentially not arriving this year, as another rumor contends, grabbing the RTX 3090 Ti when it gets even cheaper may not be such a bad move after all – at least for those who don’t have the patience to see how the Lovelace rollout and stock situation pans out. We’d still advise waiting ourselves, but then again, we’d understand those who want to make the leap now…
The actor decided to “put it out into the universe” that he wants to take over Patrick Stewart’s iconic role.
With “Better Call Saul” firmly in the homestretch of its final season, many fans have wondered what their favorite cast members will do next. “Breaking Bad” turned Bryan Cranston into one of Hollywood’s most popular actors, and many hope Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seehorn, and Giancarlo Esposito will take similar paths.
Over the weekend, Esposito shed some light on what he hopes will be his next role when he addressed fans at the TJH Superhero Car Show & Comic Con in San Antonio. In a clip that has gone viral on TikTok, the actor praised the Marvel Cinematic Universe and spoke about his desire to appear in it. He also revealed that he has met with executives at the company to discuss potential roles, though nothing is official yet.
“I have not worked for Marvel yet. I’ve been in a room with them and talked to them,” Esposito said. “And to answer your question I think what they do is on the lines of that mythological journey that Joe Campbell talked about, who happened to be a friend of George Lucas, that George Lucas put into his stories. It is our dream and intention to save the world, our environment.”
Related
Related
After praising the stories that Marvel movies tell, Esposito addressed speculation about potential roles he could play.
“There’s been talk of Magneto, there’s been talk of Dr. Freeze, there has been talk of Doctor Doom,” he said. “There is Professor X.”
While the actor is open to playing many characters in the MCU, he made it very clear that his first choice is to play Professor X, the character recently vacated by Sir Patrick Stewart.
“I’m gonna go for something that is a little bit different,” he said. “I’m gonna go put it out into the universe that it is Professor X.”
This isn’t the only time Esposito has been open about his future ambitions. He previously spoke about his desire to continue playing Gus Fring in another spin-off after “Better Call Saul” ends.
“I do think there’s more life in Gus,” he said. “Maybe not this year, maybe not next year. But there’s something that we all are intrigued by and we want to find out about. Even me.”
He added that his idea would focus less on Gus’ drug empire and more on his personal life, making him a more fleshed out character.
“In ‘Breaking Bad,’ I wanted Gus to have a family… I wanted people to know that Gus has a family,” he said. “That’s in my mind — you never saw that, you don’t know that. But he really was a wonderful family man… hiding in plain sight.”
A familiar face! Kavan Smith has been stealing the show on the Hallmark Channel for nearly a decade — and fans still can’t get enough of him.
The 52-year-old actor got his Crown Media Family Network start in 2015’s Hello, It’s Me. The same year, he made his When Calls the Heart debut as Leland “Lee” Coulter, who he has played throughout the show’s nine-season run. (The series was picked up in June for season 10.)
In 2017, Smith teamed up with his When Calls the Heart love interest, Pascale Hutton — who plays Rosemary Coulter on the series — for the first of the network’s Perfect Bride films. The twosome reunited for the sequel, The Perfect Bride: Wedding Bells, two years later and worked together on 2021’s You Had Me at Aloha.
“It’s really about sort of broken relationships. This guy Boone Taylor is a man who’s lost his wife and is trying to raise two boys on his own,” Smith explained during a Thursday, August 4, Facebook Live interview. “For me, it was less about the ‘boy meets girl’ and more about ‘broken family meets other broken family and we try to make it together as new family.’ And that’s really what spoke to me with this one.”
The movie, which was based on the book by Linda Lael Miller, is different than many of the rom-coms that the Wedding Bells actor has done for the network.
“Every day just got better and better and better,” Smith recalled of his and Vaugier’s time on set. “And we had such a great script based on such a good book. It was kind of unlike a lot of the other Hallmark movies. We sort of stand out a little bit.”
Last month, the Irresistible Blueberry Farm actor shared a behind-the-scenes look at the movie, posting a photo of his 46-year-old costar giggling during a take.
“So much fun making this little movie with @emmanuellevaugier can’t wait for peeps to see it,” Smith wrote via Instagram on July 1. “#BigSkyRiver No laughs were had in the making of this movie …”
The Godiva’s alum teased his onscreen evolution later that month, poking fun at his transformation into a cowboy for the role. “When I told my kids I was playing a cowboy they answered, ‘You? A cowboy?’” he recalled in a July 6 Instagram post, showing off his cowboy duds. “Kids what are you gonna do? Tune in despite my kids.”
Gigi Hadid, who has modeled for the biggest fashion designers since she was two years old, may be utilizing paparazzi photos to act as a walking billboard for her upcoming knitwear line, Guest in Residence.
On August 4, Hadid shared a peek at her latest business venture in an Instagram dump. “Been workin on something …. with love, @guestinresidence ?? :),” she captioned the series of photos, which include Hadid looking over color swatches and plenty of cozy-looking knitwear. Of course, there is plenty of black swatches on the board.
Many of Hadid’s 75.1 million followers, including her famous friends, are excited to get their hands on some Gigi Hadid originals. “So excited about this ?,” Hailey Biebercommented, while Laura Brown dubbed Hadid “The Mayor of Snuggletown.”
Instagram content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
As of August 4, the Guest in Residence Instagram account has yet to post and the bio simply reads, “KNITTERS,” with a link to a website that doesn’t give fans much to go on. So far, there is only a logo and the option to subscribe to a newsletter. Watch this space.
British actor Sam Gannon – who appeared in TV soap Emmerdale – has died suddenly while travelling in the U.S., his family has announced.
Gannon, aged 31, was visiting relatives in California when he passed away, his family revealed. The cause of death was not yet revealed, although his mother told the BBC her son had suffered from a heart condition from birth which had “reared its ugly head” recently.
The actor played Kev in the popular soap in 2019. In addition, he appeared in TV series Tales ofBacon, and the film Babes with Blades.
Gannon’s family has created a crowd-funding page to appeal for money to help bring their son home to Yorkshire in the UK. The sum raised has already reached £7,600 ($9,175) of its £17,000 ($20,520) target.
Each day (except Sunday) during the main TV Season we post the TV Ratings for the previous nights primetime shows for the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC).
Cable Network ratings will be added to the Ratings Database.
Normally between 4pm-5pm GMT we post the official early overnight Total Viewers and 18-49 Demo numbers in the table above.
When the final adjusted ratings numbers are released, these are then posted in the Ratings Database as well as the above
tables.
The Final Adjusted numbers are what we use for all our Renew/Cancellation Tables, Full Season Tables, Ratings Scorecards etc . Final Adjusted numbers will be posted each night around 9pm-10pm UK apart from the weekend.
Ratings Provided by Nielsen.
Remember: ALL SPOILERS must be put inside the spoiler tags. If you post spoilers without tags your comments will be deleted. Repeat offences will result in you being banned.
Please stay on Topic. If you want to chat about anything at all please use the Open Discussion
Threads.
Viewers of the Emmy-nominated Angelyne on Peacock might be surprised to learn just how little of star Emmy Rossum they actually saw. Rossum said during a panel appearance at Deadline’s Contenders Television: The Nominees event that 10 prosthetic pieces transformed her face and body into that of Los Angeles billboard queen Angelyne.
“Nothing of me is me,” Rossum said. “There’s two contact lenses in each eye. There’s a chest piece that wraps around up into the neck and the hairline. Even earlobes, hands — everything is not recognizable [as myself].”
Emmy-nominated makeup department head Kate Biscoe said the prosthetics created a unique paradox. Biscoe normally is tasked with making prosthetic material look like human skin. However, Angelyne herself has altered her body with plastic surgery.
“It’s all very meta because she has put inorganic material in herself to put this other identity and reinvent herself as something else,” Biscoe said of the real Angelyne. “It was such a tightrope and such a balancing act of trying to make something that’s inorganic look like skin but also portray that it is inorganic in some aspects while not losing the identity of the version of the person that we are trying to have the viewer empathize with.”
Rossum also plays Angelyne before she undergoes her first surgery. Even then, Biscoe’s team altered her appearance.
Emmy Rossum in ‘Angelyne’ Peacock
“There isn’t a single look where I don’t have a prosthetic on of some sort,” Rossum said. “Whether it’s just a nose and sometimes PVC piping in my nose, I think it’s a catheter ring to alter the shape of my nose from the inside out.”
Prosthetic designer Vincent Van Dyke said he hopes his Emmy-nominated work is imperceptible to audiences.
“At the end of the day, the biggest goal here is to not distract,” he said. “To make it feel like it seamlessly blends into this world.”
Van Dyke and Biscoe added that providing old-age makeup for co-stars including Michael Angarano helped illustrate how different Angelyne’s look is. Both actors appear as 70-year-olds, and makeup artist David Williams was in charge of the supporting cast.
Rossum said she wore more than 100 different costumes as Angelyne. Costume designer Danny Glicker found the same fabric Angelyne wore and oversaw the custom design of Rossum’s costumes.
“I was able to really work with her through many decades to track not only the styles of the day and the sort of specific trends that Angelyne herself followed,” Glicker said. “But also this evolution of herself as being the embodiment of a very specific hot-pink sparkly, magical, fluffy truth.”
Rossum did meet with the real Angelyne and paid her for life rights to support her contributions to culture.
“She has a real Tinkerbell energy — simultaneously moving incredibly quickly and also seeming to kind of hover and float in midair,” Rossum said.
Jewel and her tour crew are safe after a bus fire, the singer-songwriter said in an update to fans.
“We had a full bus fire,” Jewel, who’s been on the road playing shows with Train and Blues Traveler, revealed on her official TikTok account. “Nobody was hurt. It happened on an off day in the parking lot of a hotel. The fire department came. Everybody is safe.”
“We saved the vintage guitar and guitar amp,” she added. “All’s well that ends well, but how ’bout this bulls—?”
Text on the video clip noted that “the front desk saw the fire and called our bus driver and the fire dept.”
Jewel’s tour with Train stops at Red Rocks in Denver, Colorado, on Saturday night (Aug. 6).
Her latest album, Freewheelin’ Woman, was released in April as the follow-up to 2015’s Picking Up the Pieces, which peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard 200.
See her video about the bus fire on TikTok, where she’s been documenting tour life.
Video has emerged as the undisputed winner among all types fo content to engage internet users. The importance of video marketing for boosting your brand visibility and growth is undeniable.
Video marketing is the future of digital marketing and now is the time for businesses big and small to invest in it.
Why do I say that?
Because a whopping 96% of the users surveyed by Wyzowl say that they have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or software.
According to the same survey, 92% of marketers consider videos to be a vital part of their digital marketing strategy. Many of them readily invest in top video marketing tools and get great ROI.
If you have a business that has not yet invested in video marketing, I am listing 6 strong and valid reasons why you should.
Let’s take a look at them.
6 Reasons Why Video Marketing Should Be a Part of Your Marketing Strategy
The importance of video marketing is undeniable. One look at the top social media platforms is enough to gauge its popularity.
Following are the 6 reasons why your brand should incorporate video marketing into your marketing strategy to gain an advantage over your competitors.
Here they are.
1. Builds Brand Credibility
One of the key marketing goals for any brand is to earn customer trust. You need to establish yourself as a credible and authoritative brand and video marketing can help you gain customer trust and do that.
Videos not only deliver information but also help connect your brand with your target audience. The importance of video marketing is that it engages your audience and triggers emotions in them that are necessary to build a long-term relationship.
Video marketing can be used as a medium to communicate with your target audience, share your values and visions, address their needs, and win their confidence to trust your brand. That’s the importance of video marketing.
2.Helps Educate Consumers About Your Products or Services
If you are launching a new product or service, there is no better way to educate your audience than to create a series of explainer videos.
In fact, according to the above-mentioned Wyzowl survey, 73% of users said that they prefer watching a video to learn about a new product compared to any other form of content.
If your customers are laying so much importance on video content, it is imperative that you invest in video marketing. You can use a good online course creation platform to explain how your products or services can add value to your customer’s life.
Take a product demo presentation, for example, that may run for several pages. But all that information can be fit into a few minutes of an animated explainer video. That’s the importance of video marketing that you need to realize.
3. Boosts Conversions and Sales
Let’s face it, it’s a competitive market and you would do anything to improve your conversion rates. That’s where the importance of video marketing lies.
According to Google, Nike Korea realized a 54% increase in conversion rates from tailored, event-driven video campaigns in 2021.
Adding a video to your landing pages can increase the likelihood of converting traffic into customers. The logic behind this is simple—videos are a powerful tool to convince visitors of the value of your products or services.
By seeing a video, your potential customers feel more confident in making a buying decision. And that’s how video marketing can directly improve your sales.
4. It’s Essential for SEO
Not only do your audiences love videos, but Google loves them as well, especially the YouTube ones.
In fact, by having at least one video embedded in the page that you want to rank, you can multiply your chances of ranking higher in the search results. A simple strategy here would be to make a video about the topic that you’ve written about on a particular page. This can improve its chances of ranking higher in the SERPs.
As you can see here, Google displays video content above the all-text results.
Image via Google
And if you are considering investing in ads on Google, videos are a great way to boost your efforts.
The importance of video marketing is that it can work in two ways to bring more traffic to your website—by engaging your viewers and by helping you rank higher.
5. Caters to Mobile Users
Did you know that there were about 2.33 billion mobile phone video viewers in 2021, globally? Also, users are 1.5x more likely to watch a video daily on their smartphones than on a computer.
These numbers clearly emphasize the importance of video marketing to impress mobile phone users. As more and more smartphone users have access to the internet wherever they go, there’s more demand for engaging and entertaining video content.
Your marketing team can use a good YouTube video editing tool to make creative videos about your brand and products to cater to mobile users and establish a strong brand presence.
6. Boosts Social Sharing
Consumers love sharing the videos they like on social media. If you have tried TikTok marketing, you know how videos have a tendency to go viral overnight.
So, if you create engaging and insightful videos, your audience will enjoy watching them and even share them with their connections.
Social sharing can improve your brand visibility, establish your authority, and drive traffic to your website.
You can use videos on social media to market your products, promote your affiliate marketing program, and do much more than what you can accomplish with text posts.
Are You Ready to Invest in Video Marketing?
Hopefully, by now you’re clear on the importance of video marketing for your business.
When done right, you can achieve specific goals and get great ROI with video marketing. The trick is to use the right kind of videos for different purposes and use visual storytelling and emotional appeal to connect with your audience.
If you are convinced of the importance of video marketing, go ahead and include it in your marketing strategy this year. It’s a great way to get your business future-ready.
Gaurav Sharma is the founder and CEO of Attrock, a results-driven digital marketing company. Grew an agency from 5-figure to 7-figure revenue in just two years | 10X leads | 2.8X conversions | 300K organic monthly traffic. He also contributes to top publications like HuffPost, Adweek, Business 2 Community, TechCrunch, and more.
Conservatives MPs want to do a deal with Boris Johnson for him to quit parliament and in return axe the inquiry into whether he misled them over Partygate, as allies of the prime minister branded it a “witch-hunt”.
Some of Johnson’s critics want him to stand down as an MP, to avoid the process keeping the spotlight on a deeply embarrassing issue for the party that has strained relations between colleagues.
The investigation, which is being led by a committee with a Tory majority that chose Labour’s Harriet Harman to chair it, is expected to drag on for months.
A tranche of evidence has been demanded by the committee, including Johnson’s diaries covering the 12 days parties were held in Westminster in defiance of Covid rules, emails and WhatsApp messages, photographs, internal notes and a list of deleted documents.
If Johnson is found to have misled parliament, he could face suspension from the Commons and a recall petition, which, if signed by 10% of his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituents, would trigger a byelection.
Unlike when Conservative MPs were whipped to save Owen Paterson, which sparked unrest within the party’s ranks over sleaze and scandal, some of Johnson’s fiercest Tory opponents said they would happily support ending the Partygate probe if Johnson stepped down as an MP.
One source said: “I think there’s a case – not just for the parliament party, but for everyone – that we just move on from this psychodrama.”
They added the “quid pro quo” for backing a motion that would effectively wind up the probe would be Johnson “getting out of the Commons”.
Another Tory MP who helped bring down Johnson said if the incoming prime minister decided to spare Johnson’s fate by tabling a motion in the Commons to end the investigation and asked for colleagues’ support, “that’s fine”.
“I can see the benefit of him going being satisfactory,” they said. “The overriding political objective has been achieved. It depends if our next leader wants to continue this internecine warfare in the Conservative party or will just take the hit.”
If Johnson did quit as an MP, a byelection would be triggered. He won the west London seat in 2019 with a majority of just 7,210. As the Conservatives have not held a poll lead since December 2021 and lost a string of safe Tory seats over the past year, holding Uxbridge and South Ruislip would not be a certainty.
One of Johnson’s closest allies, culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, insisted he would stay in politics, but suggested the privileges committee inquiry should be ended anyway.
“If this witch-hunt continues, it will be the most egregious abuse of power witnessed in Westminster,” she tweeted on Sunday. “It will cast serious doubt not only on the reputation of individual MPs sitting on the committee, but on the processes of parliament and democracy itself.”
Dorries also accused the seven MPs behind the investigation of operating a “kangaroo court”, and said he had been “brutally removed”.
She called for fellow supporters of the outgoing prime minister to unite behind Liz Truss, the frontrunner in the Tory leadership race.
Asked what Johnson would do next, Dorries told the Sunday Express: “Boris absolutely will stay in politics. You won’t get rid of Boris.”
Zac Goldsmith, another Johnson ally who was made a peer by the prime minister when he lost his seat in 2019, said the Partygate investigation was “clearly rigged”.
“It is a jury comprised of highly partisan, vengeful and vindictive MPs, nearly all of whom are already on the record viciously attacking the person they are judging,” he tweeted. “It is an obscene abuse of power.”
Tory backbencher, Bill Cash, has drafted a motion calling for the scrapping of the inquiry, claiming it is “unnecessary” given Johnson’s departure from Downing Street at the start of September.
The privileges committee was contacted for comment.
Bobby Berk is just like Us! The Queer Eye star may be a Netflix sensation, but his everyday life is all about work and quality time with his loved ones.
Berk, 40, who is an interior designer and author, not only works as the home renovation expert on his hit reality series but is also a business owner himself. The Texas native owns Bobby Berk Interiors + Design, which specializes in interior design services. The TV personality exclusively dished about his routine in the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.
Every morning, Berk begins his day by focusing on his pearly whites. “My husband Dewey Do is an oral surgeon, so we put a huge emphasis on our oral care routine,” Berk told Us.
The interior designer, who tied the knot with husband Do in 2012, then moves straight into taking care of the head of the household — mini labradoodle Bimini.
“Taking care of [my dog] Bimini is a top priority,” Berk told Us, noting that within minutes of waking up, the pup “is ready to eat and then play ball for about an hour.”
After Bimini gets her workout, it’s time for Berk to focus on his own physical fitness. The design expert meets up in the late morning hours with his personal trainer and chef Zach Morgan — someone the Texas native doesn’t take for granted.
“I feel so lucky to have someone who helps me keep my health in check,” Berk said of the fitness guru, whose been working with the reality star since before the coronavirus pandemic.
After a long day at the office, Berk finally finds time for his favorite thing – spending time with his hubby.
The couple, who have been together for over a decade, enjoy going on long hikes together. In June 2020, Berk shared with Us that he and the surgeon take advantage of warm evenings for sunset walks while living in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic.
One month prior, Berk had previously revealed to Us that he and Do were working on scheduling more bonding time with each other. “I keep trying to get him to not work anymore,” he joked, but “we do more date nights at home. That’s my favorite. We watch a lot of documentaries!”
Two years later, the lovebirds are still focused on taking time to be with each other — especially at the end of the day. “We take this time to unwind, unplug and reconnect. It’s a perfect way to slow down,” the Masked Singer alum shared with Us in August.
Want to know how else Berk spends his time? Scroll down to see what a typical day in her life as a mother of three looks like:
The seventh and final season of “Queen Sugar” is set to premiere Sept. 6 on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Created and executive produced by Ava DuVernay, the Season 7 premiere will air at 8 pm ET/PT.
“Queen Sugar” is about the life of the Bordelon siblings, Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner), Nova (Rutina Wesley) and Ralph (Kofi Siriboe). When their father tragically passes away, they must come together to decide what to do with the 800-acre sugar cane farm in Louisiana that is their inheritance.
Totaling at 88 episodes, the show is exclusively directed by women as part of an initiative DuVernay created in 2016. Nearly three dozen women have made their directorial debuts on the series, according to OWN.
Among other honors, the series won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2017 and 2022.
“Queen Sugar” is produced for OWN by DuVernay’s ARRAY Filmworks and Harpo Films in association with Warner Bros. Television. Executive producers are Ava DuVernay, Oprah Winfrey, Paul Garnes and Shaz Bennett. The series is based on the book by Natalie Baszile. All previous seasons of “Queen Sugar” are currently available to stream exclusively on Hulu.
Britney Spears’ ex-husband Kevin Federline has broken his nearly decade-long silence about the troubled pop star’s tumultuous life in recent years – including her breakdown, legal battles and conservatorship – and how their teenage sons have chosen not to see her.
Federline opened up in a series of interviews with The Daily Mail, Federline said that Preston (16) and Jayden (15) have chosen to not see their famous mom, even though she recently bought a mansion not far from where he and the boys live.
“The boys have decided they are not seeing her right now. It’s been a few months since they’ve seen her. They made the decision not to go to her wedding,” Federline said in a wide-ranging interview.
Britney Spears poses with sons Sean Preston Federline and Jayden James Federline during the Teen Choice Awards 2015 at the USC Galen Center. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
The 13-year conservatorship battle with her father Jamie – which was finally lifted last November – “saved her,” Federline believes, but the airing of so much dirty laundry over such a long period of time was bound to impact their sons. Healing that has become Federline’s prime focus, he said.
“This whole thing has been hard to watch, harder to live through, harder to watch my boys go through than anything else,” he told Daily Mail. “It’s been tough. It’s the most challenging thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”
And with Spears’ newfound freedom comes all new scrutiny on her every move – like the posting of nude selfies on social media, which also has not been easy for Preston and Jayden.
While insisting to the outlet (and the public in general) that their sons love their mother very much, he said he tries to explain to them that “maybe that’s just another way she tries to express herself. But,” he added, “that doesn’t take away from the fact of what it does to them. It’s tough. can’t imagine how it feels to be a teenager having to go to high school.”
Federline remarried in 2013 to former volleyball player Victoria Prince, whom he had been seeing since 2008, and they have an 11-year-old daughter, Jordan Kay.
Earlier this year, Spears landed a $15 million book/memoir deal, which Forbes called “one of the biggest book deals of all time.” In June, she married “Slumber Party” music video co-star and long-time love, Sam Asghari.
In 20 years and 10 movies the Fast and Furious series has relentlessly insisted that its saga is really, truly about family.
With all due respect to Vin Diesel’s Toretto clan, I must disagree. The Fast and Furious movies are really about reaching new nitro-injected realms of absurdity. If you can stomach the macho melodrama, these movies are ridiculous big-screen ballets, with cars shooting out of skyscrapers and airplanes, that at their best are the right kind of stupid. More than family or cars, they’re about the movies’ whiz-bang capacity for ludicrous grandiosity for stepping on the gas and leaving logic in the rearview.
It wasn’t always like this. The Fast and Furious movies, which have moved so speedily that their original articles flew out the window somewhere along the way (the first entry was 2001’s The Fast and the Furious), began more humbly on the road-racing streets of Southern California. But, particularly by the time of Justin Lin’s Fast Five,” the series grew ever more expansive, reaching around the globe and, finally, by F9, into space. As if always searching for another gear of outrageousness, the franchise has hunted new, implausible roads for gravity-defying mayhem and unexplainable traction. Cars here, cars there. Cars everywhere.
So when I sat down for F9, which opens Friday in theaters, I was looking forward to some of that good, old stupid fun. F9, gets there eventually, courtesy of a comic, cosmic foray by Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Chris Ludacris Bridges) in a rocket-fueled Pontiac Fiero. But for a healthy amount of the movie’s 145-minute running time, it feels more like a franchise running low on gas. There’s a bit of a hangover to F9, and not just because it sat on the shelf for the past year while waiting until the pandemic was more blockbuster-ready. F9, in which Lin returns as director after a seven-year break from the franchise, follows the most dramatic chapter in the Fast and Furious run, when real-life tragedy added an echo of pathos in the death of Paul Walker and off-screen squabbles led to a spinoff for Dwayne Johnson, with Jason Statham, in Hobbs and Shaw.
But if it feels like the dust has settled, F9″ promptly sets about rekindling old beefs, introducing new ones and, within the first half-an-hour, detouring to Central America to let the autos of Fast and Furious” swing through the jungle like Tarzan. But first we have a flashback that Lin and co-writer Daniel Casey return to throughout the film. It’s 1989 and Dominic Toretto (Diesel as an adult, an absorbing Vinnie Bennett when younger) and his younger brother (John Cena later, Finn Cole here) are teenagers working with their racing father at a speedway when he dies in a fiery crash. A possibility of foul play is there, and the fallout sends one brother to jail and their acrimony over their father’s fate drives them apart.
Years later, Jakob (Cena) turns out to have designs on taking over the world in order to show up his older, estranged brother. (Family dramas aren’t small potatoes in the world of Fast and Furious.) Part of those plans is Cipher (Charlize Theron), a villain from the last one returned here as a glass-box captive who’s nevertheless sure of her powers. It’s a limiting position for the potent Theron, whose presence in these movies mostly serves as a reminder that if you want gas-guzzling action, the magnificent Mad Max: Fury Road is still idling nearby.
Both the rock-jawed Cena and a steely Theron don’t open the movie up to much fun, nor does the often-returned-to backstory that saps some of the movie’s velocity. What gives F9 a boost? Well, Helen Mirren does, in a stop over in London. Best are Ludacris and Gibson, who, more than anyone else, lend F9 a much-needed wink of self-awareness. It’s Taj who says one of the most defining lines for a franchise that never brakes for scientific reality: As long as we obey the laws of physics, we’ll be fine.
They’re at that moment preparing to launch into orbit in a car/rocket ship that makes Doc’s time-traveling DeLorean look like a comparatively sensible vehicle. I don’t know why exactly they shoot into space something about destroying a satellite but I loved every minute of it. Much of F9 is kind of a slog. There are some not very dynamic car chases, a lot of flashbacks, ho-hum villains and an oddly prominent role for magnets. But when Taj and Roman reach zero gravity, the movie finally takes flight with goofy grandeur. Some, surely, will be less enthused about Fast & Furious turning full-on cartoon, but I’d take that over the solemn speeches about family any day. The Fast and Furious movies are best when they’re neither fast nor furious but kind of foolish.
At some point, when some combination of four-wheelers was soaring through the air, I started to wonder how these movies will look to future generations possibly generations that will have moved beyond the car, at least the gasoline variety, or that are living with more dire effects of climate change. Will Fast and Furious seem like a reflection of our dubious belief in the limitless capabilities of automobiles, of our propensity to live through our cars? Or an acknowledgement of just how preposterous that addiction is? Either way, the joy ride probably can’t last forever. Vin Diesel’s contract will one day run out.
F9, a Universal Pictures release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for sequences of violence and action, and language.
