The Lower East Adams Lake wildfire is estimated at 10,004 hectares and has generated several evacuation alerts and orders — including orders for the two small communities of Scotch Creek and Lee Creek on Friday afternoon.
B.C. wildfires: Thousands ordered to evacuate Okanagan
The bridge closure has resulted in the shutdown of all road access for the small community, with the regional district adding that firefighters have had to back off due to fire behaviour and that sprinklers are on.
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The regional district says search-and-rescue boats will be available at the wharf (4248 Ashe Rd.) and will transport people across the lake, where buses will transport them to an evacuation reception centre in Kamloops.
A temporary comfort centre for the evacuees of the West Adams Lake Fire has been opened at the Lakeview Community Centre in Anglemont at 7703 Squilax-Anglemont Road. The centre will remain open as needed. #ESRD#BCWildfire#YourCSRD#SEPpic.twitter.com/0lvgitzZHA
— Columbia Shuswap Regional District (@ColShuRegDist) August 19, 2023
The province’s fire ranking goes from 1 (smouldering ground fire) to 6 (blow-up or conflagration; aggressive fire behaviour).
Earlier Friday, the BC Wildfire Service says it doesn’t send crews into Rank 5 or 6 scenarios.
B.C. declares provincial state of emergency amid worst wildfire season on record
“When there is a Rank 6 fire, and in even in Rank 5, we don’t use initial attack. We don’t put crews in front of it,” said fire information officer Shaelee Stears.“That creates an extremely dangerous situation and poses very significant safety hazards.
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“When those conditions are (present), that’s when we utilize parallel or indirect attack methods and take the fire suppression farther away from the head of the fire.”
SPOILER ALERT:This article contains spoilers for “Blue Beetle,” now playing in theaters.
Warner Bros.’ “Blue Beetle” has arrived, and it marks another in-between point for the DC Universe, which is in the middle of being rebooted by James Gunn and Peter Safran, the new co-CEOs of DC Studios.
The most recent DC movie, June’s “The Flash,” effectively rebooted the entire superhero universe by smashing together different worlds and timelines of beloved heroes. That movie intertwined multiple versions of Flash, Batman, Superman and Supergirl, leaving behind a mixed-up, mainline world that has yet to define who sits on the current roster of heroes.
So where does Blue Beetle fit into that new DC world?
Besides a few mentions of Batman, Superman, the Flash and cities like Gotham City, Metropolis and Central City — Jaime rocks a Gotham Law hoodie, while Uncle Rudy (George Lopez) jokingly scoffs at Batman, calls the vigilante “a fascist” — “Blue Beetle” mostly stands on its own from the rest of DC. There aren’t any surprise cameos from other heroes, but the mid-credits scene does hint at more to come from the “Blue Beetle” mythos.
At the end of the movie, Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) finally bonds with the Scarab and masters the Blue Beetle suit. His crush, Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), also takes over Kord Industries after they defeat her aunt Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), who planned to weaponize the Scarab and create a robot army.
Then, in the mid-credits scene, Jenny’s father Ted Kord, who was a previous Blue Beetle that disappeared — and was presumed dead — sends a message to an empty Beetle Cave headquarters revealing he’s still alive.
In the comics, Ted Kord was the second Blue Beetle, following the original hero Dan Garrett, who also gets mentioned in the movie. There has been no word yet on a “Blue Beetle” sequel, but it seems likely that Ted could make an appearance somewhere in the DC Universe in the future.
Gunn wrote in an Instagram post from the “Blue Beetle” premiere that Jaime Reyes will be “an amazing part of the DCU going forward,” which Safran credited in part to Xolo Maridueña’s “star-making performance.” While Gunn and Safran plot out their rebooted DC Universe slate, there aren’t any confirmed future appearances for Jaime, but fans of the Blue Beetle comics point to one upcoming title where he could fit in.
In addition to movies and shows like “Superman: Legacy,” “The Brave and the Bold” and “Lanterns,” Gunn and Safran’s upcoming DC slate includes a live-action “Booster Gold” TV series. In the DC comics, Booster Gold is a superhero from the 25th-century who travels back to the present using futuristic, time-hopping technology. He’s a fan-favorite for his goofy, showboating personality, and frequently teams up with Ted Kord’s Blue Beetle. The super-friends have been known to cross over into each other’s comics, band together as part of the Justice League and recently co-led a series titled “Blue and Gold.”
Not much is known about the “Booster Gold” series, but it doesn’t seem far-fetched to imagine Jaime Reyes making an appearance or a version of Ted Kord debuting on the show. The two are often depicted as a package deal, so their live-action team-up might be what Gunn is teasing as a part of the DC Universe’s future.
The Writers Guild of America met again with negotiators from the major studios on Friday afternoon, but the sides appeared to make little progress toward ending the 109-day strike.
The guild has held talks each of the last four days with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but the two sides remain far apart on the major issues, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.
Top executives from the studios, including several CEOs, held a conference call earlier in the day to discuss next steps. The executives shared their frustration over the lack of progress, but it does not appear that the AMPTP intends to walk away from the table, according to the sources.
At the same time the management side has resisted making further concessions, saying they do not want to negotiate against themselves.
The WGA has not updated its membership about the negotiations since last week. Guild leaders have admonished members not to trust studio leaks about the talks.
The AMPTP renewed bargaining with the WGA last Friday, delivering a package of proposals on issues like TV staff size, streaming data transparency and artificial intelligence.
The WGA gave its response to the studios on Tuesday. The negotiators spent much of Wednesday and Thursday talking about how to regulate AI, and were believed to be making some progress on that issue, though obstacles remained.
The WGA strike began on May 2, shuttering most scripted TV and film production in the U.S. and upending the fall broadcast schedules. The SAG-AFTRA strike, which began on July 14, has shut down film production both in the U.S. and overseas, and led to a number of postponements on the film calendar.
On Thursday, the WGA issued a report criticizing Netflix, Amazon and Disney for consolidating power over the entertainment industry. The report accused the corporate giants of engaging in a series of abusive business practices, including suppressing wages, predatory pricing and reducing the output of content.
Since May 2, the WGA has maintained strong turnout on picket lines in Los Angeles and New York. Picket activity has been canceled for Monday due to the approach of Hurricane Hilary on the West Coast.
Jennifer Maas, Cynthia Littleton and Matt Donnelly contributed to this story.
“A League of Their Own” series co-creator Abbi Jacobson has responded to the cancellation of the show by Prime Video.
The actress posted on Instagram hours after the streamer revealed that they were reversing the show’s renewal for a shortened second season.
“To blame this cancellation on the strike is bullshit and cowardly. But this post isn’t about all that.,” Jacobson wrote on Instagram. “About all the ways this show has been put through the ringer. Not today.”
Along with “The Peripheral,” an individual with knowledge of the matter told TheWrap that Amazon Studios’ reversal of the two shows’ renewals stems from delays caused by the ongoing Writers’ Guild of America strike, which started May 2, and the SAG-AFTRA strike, which started July 14.
“What luck I have had to get to tell these stories and play this character I love so much,” Jacobson wrote. “What a rare thing in life. And so I am sad today.”
“A League of Their Own” was co-created by Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson. Jacobson also starred as Carson Shaw, a married woman who took a chance and tried out for the All American Girls’ Professional Baseball League when her husband Charlie (Patrick J. Adams) was off at war, because she didn’t feel fulfilled at home.
Once she makes the Rockford Peaches, Carson grows close with Greta Gill (D’Arcy Carden), and the two spark up a romance in the safe space of their teammates even though Carson is engaged. Season 1 left off with Charlie walking in on Carson and Greta sharing a goodbye kiss.
The television version of Penny Marshall’s 1992 film launched its first season in the summer of 2022, diving deeper into race, sexuality and other identity aspects of the players who participated in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was formed when the men had to go fight in World War II. After nearly a year’s wait for any news of a renewal, The Hollywood Reporter first leaked the discussion of renewing the show for a second, shortened season, comprised of four episodes.
“This post here is about the special show I was lucky to make with so many incredibly talented artists and actors and writers and crew,” she continued. “A show I’m so proud of. Filled to the brim with stories worth telling. Full of so much heart and soul and value. Thank you for watching. To the five. ❤️”
Nick Offerman as Coach Dove Porter and Abbi Jacobson as Carson Shaw in “A League of Their Own” (Prime Video)
The “A League of Their Own” fanbase fought valiantly for a better outcome for the show that appealed to a large audience, LGBTQIA+ and otherwise. They met the shortened second season confirmation with a chartered plane that flew a banner with the hashtag #MoreThanFour over Amazon Studios headquarters in Culver City.
Graham explained the plans for future seasons of “A League of Their Own” in a post mortem interview with TheWrap after Season 1.
Calling media consolidations “one of the root causes” of its 109-day-old strike, the WGA West today issued a “Call to Action,” urging members to file public comments with the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice in support of proposed revisions to their Merger Guidelines – a policy document designed to guide law enforcement around consolidation.
The “Call to Action” comes after the fourth straight day of bargaining with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to end the writers strike and the day after the WGA West released a report calling for more government regulation of what it calls the “anti-competitive practices” of Disney, Amazon and Netflix, which it accuses of “abusing their dominance to further disadvantage competitors, raise prices for consumers, and push down wages for the creative workforce.”
“Make your voice heard about the harms of media consolidation,” the guild said in a message to members today. “Share your thoughts on media consolidation with policymakers at the FTC and the DOJ!”
“More than 100 days into our strike, as we continue to fight for the sustainability of our profession, events in Washington, D.C. provide an opportunity for writers to shine a light on one of the root causes of the strike: media consolidation,” the guild said.
The message goes on to say:
“For decades, the WGA has advocated for stronger antitrust oversight, bringing attention to the ways that mergers and vertical integration in our industry – from AT&T-Time Warner to Warner Bros.-Discovery to Amazon-MGM to Disney-Fox – have consolidated the power of our employers and harmed writers as well as the diversity of content.
“In numerous reports and policy filings – including a new report called The New Gatekeepers: How Disney, Amazon and Netflix Will Take Over Media, released yesterday – the WGA has documented the threat to our industry from past and future consolidation and called for more aggressive antitrust enforcement.
“Our current strike highlights the urgency of the issue; studios gained power through anti-competitive consolidation and vertical integration and then used that power to push down wages and impose more precarious working conditions for writers while profiting off of their work, and currently – together – refuse to bargain a fair contract for writers to mitigate those harms.
“Last month, the FTC and DOJ jointly released proposed revisions to their Merger Guidelines, a policy document designed to guide law enforcement around consolidation. These new Draft Guidelines are part of an effort by these agencies to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement. Compared with prior versions of Merger Guidelines, they give significantly more weight to the ways that mergers can be harmful and, for the first time, explicitly direct agencies and courts to consider how mergers can hurt workers. The Draft Guidelines have been released for public comment, and the FTC and DOJ want to hear from people who have been affected by consolidation – people like you.”
The FTC and DOJ are accepting comments on their revisions of the Merger Guidelines until September 18.
No matter if you’re a horror die-hard or an occasional toe-dipper, here’s an end-of-summer guide to slashers, thrillers, creature features, kid comedies and other scary movies.
Grab a Seat
The buzzy new horror movie in theaters is “Talk to Me,” an Australian demon-possession film by the brothers Danny and Michael Philippou. Despite some messy storytelling — does anybody work at the local hospital? — it’s a propulsive movie about trauma, parenthood and the afterlife that manages to be both harrowing and tender.
New York’s repertory theaters are always offering opportunities to discover or revisit horror’s past. The Alamo Drafthouse has two very different creepy films on tap: “Psycho,” the groundbreaking and still terrifying 1960 proto-slasher (Aug. 18, 20 and 22 at the exhibitor’s Staten Island location), and “Killer Workout” (Aug. 22, Brooklyn), a 1987 schlocky slasher about an aerobics studio under siege from a maniac.
Take a time machine to grindhouse-era sleaze at the Nighthawk in Williamsburg, which is showing “The Honeymoon Killers” (Aug. 23), a 1970 thriller based on the lives of Martha Beck and Ray Fernandez, otherwise known as the Lonely Hearts Killers.
Laptop, schmaptop: See it big in “See It Big,” a series dedicated to 70-millimeter films now at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. The disaster film is a horror-adjacent genre that warms my fear-seeking heart, so I’d go with a progenitor: “Airport,” (Aug. 25-26), the 1970 camp-as-heck drama with a starry cast that includes Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin and Jacqueline Bisset.
Brooklyn’s Spectacle Theater is known for its out-in-left-field repertory programming. Its Dark Side of Summer series hits a Gen X home run with “Cutting Class” (Aug. 19 and 24), a wacky 1989 high school slasher-comedy starring a baby-faced Brad Pitt and a sourpussed Roddy McDowall.
“What better way to cool down in the sweltering August heat than by watching two chilling black-and-white gay serial killer flicks?” That’s how Anthology Film Archives bills its experimental double feature on Aug. 18, part of the Narrow Rooms series of subversive queer cinema. On tap are “Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men” (1989), a wordless cinematic adaptation of a theater piece about the serial killer Dennis Nilsen, and “Pig” (1998), a short film about a ritual murder.
If it’s too hot to open the front door, I say turn the lights out, crank up the AC and stream some of the year’s most popular horror movies, including “Scream VI” (Paramount+), “M3gan” (Amazon Prime Video), “Evil Dead Rise” (Max), “Infinity Pool” (Hulu) and “Knock at the Cabin” (Peacock).
For new international horror, head to Netflix. Two recent standouts include “The Strays,” a dark drama about secret traumas that haunt a family in suburban England, and “Troll,” a teen-friendly, folk-horror creature feature about a towering moss-covered monster that ravages Norway.
Tubi, the ad-supported streaming service, has a terrific roster of classic horror, including “Ringu” (1998) and “Last House on the Left” (1972). But for a Friday night at home with friends and pasta — manicotti, to be exact — you can’t get funnier than the new adults-only gross-out animated comedy “Pastacolypse,” about a chef named Alfredo Manicotti who turns into a maniacal noodle monster out to corrupt a gluten-free world.
Two of the year’s most experimental and renegade horror movies are streaming, too. “Skinamarink,” now on Hulu, is a starkly minimalist and macabre mood piece about children and the night terror they encounter inside their home. “The Outwaters,” on Screambox, is a brutal and gory film — an experience, really — about an entity that assaults a group of friends in the Mojave Desert. Consider yourself warned.
Get Out
A sweeping view of Times Square is a perk of the Rooftop Cinema Club, which shows films atop the Embassy Suites Hotel on West 37th Street in Manhattan. Horror movies on the calendar include the comedy “Scary Movie” (Aug. 20) slasher classic and the family-friendly comedy “The Addams Family” (Sept. 1). But my must-see pick is “Jennifer’s Body” (Sept. 3), a deeply unsettling feminist fable from 2009 about the aftermath of a woman’s traumatic sexual assault.
Some of my favorite childhood memories are watching scary (but not too scary) movies by moonlight. The 2022 animated sci-fi adventure “Strange World” (Aug. 26) is showing for free at Police Officer Nicholas Demutiis Park in Queens as part of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation’s Movies Under the Stars series.
Take a Ride
Creepy costumes and a hunger for nostalgia are encouraged at the Rosendale Theater in Rosendale, N.Y., an Ulster County cinema about a two-hour drive from New York City. The theater has a robust calendar of genre movies all year, but I’m a fan of its Saturday Creature Features series. The theater is showing a gem, “Them!” (Aug. 19), the gonzo 1954 B-movie about larger-than-life monster ants who tear up Los Angeles.
Over Labor Day weekend, the Mahoning Drive-in in Lehighton, Pa., about a 90-minute drive from New York, is hosting “Camp Blood,” a 35-millimeter camping-themed horror movie extravaganza. The schedule is heavy on slashers, including “The Burning,” a 1981 revenge slice-and-dicer with Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter (to be followed by an actual campfire); “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter,” the of-course-not-final film in the slasher franchise, from 1984; and “Sleepaway Camp,” the queer but controversial vengeance fantasy that turns 40 this year.
The weekend includes raffles, live music and games, including an eyeball toss and the Crystal Lake Morgue Body Bag Race. I recommend visiting hungry: The concessions, including vegan options and my favorite, pierogies, are affordable and pigout-worthy.
The growing pains and dramatic throes of girlhood can be character building, traumatic, and cathartic — for both cinematic protagonists and their audience. It’s certainly not an easy time for the heroine at the center of “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah,” whose impending rite-of-passage ushers in an adulthood she’s not quite ready to handle. Director Sammi Cohen and screenwriter Alison Peck bestow this hilarious, heartrending adaptation of Fiona Rosenbloom’s novel with an uplifting, effervescent vision and vitality, giving voice to a young Jewish girl’s struggle to figure out who she is before the most important night of her life so far.
Seventh grader Stacy Friedman (Sunny Sandler) is serious about her Bat Mitzvah … sorta. She’s put more thought into having a legendary party than studying the ceremonial text from the Torah. She has big dreams for a lavish New York City-themed bash, which would include a yacht on the Hudson River, superstar Olivia Rodrigo arriving on a jet ski to perform and a smooch from her crush Andy Goldfarb (Dylan Hoffman). The reality is Mom and Dad (played by reunited “Uncut Gems” co-stars Idina Menzel and Adam Sandler) draw a hard line. She’ll have to make do with a decorated hotel ballroom, DJ Schmuley (Ido Mosseri) spinning pop songs and no hope of landing a kiss from Andy. At least she can count on her childhood best friend Lydia Rodriguez Katz (Samantha Lorraine) to be at her side — or so she thinks.
A dare by the popular squad and a brash bid for Andy’s attention lands Stacy embarrassed and temporarily on the outs with Lydia. Swallowing her pride, she attends Lydia’s house party hoping to reconcile. Before she can, however, she finds her ride-or-die bestie making out with her crush. Lydia’s betrayal sends Stacy spiraling, causing her to do underhanded things, like passive-aggressively poison Andy against his newfound lady love, botch her Mitzvah Project helping the elderly and spitefully splice Lydia’s upcoming Bat Mitzvah entrance video with humiliating clips (which we just know will come back to haunt her). Stacy’s changing attitude is also noticed by Rabbi Rebecca (Sarah Sherman), who warns her that she needs to shape up or there will be no party in her future.
Cohen and screenwriter Alison Peck innovatively harness and transform rom-com-inspired story beats (especially in the third act) to tell this relatable tale about self-reflection and self-acceptance. Playing like a cross between Judy Blume’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” and John Hughes’ “Sixteen Candles” in scale, scope and sound without being derivative, its characters, conflicts and conundrums are filled with potent, earned emotions. Sequences portraying a Carnivale-themed B’Nai Mitzvah for a non-binary teen and a sports-themed Bar Mitzvah for a boy broaden the film’s spectrum and reach, as sentiments on inclusion and exclusion supplement the larger thematic overtones.
Stacy’s journey from selfish to selfless is the primary focus. However, it’s meaningfully balanced with Lydia’s subtle secondary arc — hiding her true wants so she doesn’t hurt Stacy’s feelings, and struggling with her parents’ divorce. Their friendship is filled with complexity, as both make mistakes and conciliatory overtures, keeping it from devolving into the toxicity of two women sniping at each other like in “Bride Wars.”
Cohen, who turned in a solid first feature last year with “Crush,” has a gift for amplifying teenage angst and anxieties in a way that doesn’t condescend or pander to its target market, and doesn’t offend its adult audience. Cohen continues to mature in visual dexterity, utilizing squeeze zooms, fantastical asides and fluid camera pans to root us in the protagonist’s psyche. To indicate Stacy’s world being rattled post-betrayal, cinematographer Ben Hardwicke turns down the brightness on the saturated-color palette almost imperceptibly. Brian Robinson’s edits provide a crisp electricity and comedic timing, most notably in the frenzied sequence where Stacy ruthlessly cobbles together Lydia’s entrance video, overlapping images at a brisk pace. Este Haim and Amanda Yamate’s score gives scenes warmth and a propulsive drive.
Though Adam Sandler, tackling the role of caring dad, and Jackie Sandler, playing Lydia’s spendthrift mom, bring a sense of sweetness and amusement, this is really their daughters’ show. Real life Sandler sisters Sunny and Sadie — who plays Stacy’s sassy yet supportive older sister Ronnie — are compelling performers. The camera and dialogue capture the genuine, natural ease of their sisterly bond, whether they’re playfully teasing or placating one another. Sunny is a revelation, nimbly negotiating the quick-shifting tone of the material from silly to sincere. She can toss out a one-liner and flex her skills at slapstick, yet brings an insightful vulnerability to the role of an ordinary girl seeking the extraordinary. Lorraine delivers the goods as her friend-turned-foe with assured earnestness.
It would’ve been nice to spend more screen time with Stacy’s other friends Nikki (Millie Thorpe) and Tara (Dylan Dash) since they both add a delightful comedic presence, and perhaps less with the running gag of DJ Schmuley’s vehicular mishaps. Still, what’s there is funny, lovely and surprisingly poignant. Representing the awkwardness that goes along with growing up is a tough feat, but these filmmakers prove themselves capable and clever, and that feels every bit as celebratory as the titular event.
“You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah” premieres Aug. 25 on Netflix.
The blockbuster crossover will bring together characters from Black Widow, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and the Captain America and Ant-Man franchises.
Thunderbolts‘ cast will include the likes of Sebastian Stan, Florence Pugh, David Harbor, and more familiar faces, along with the MCU debut of The Walking Dead‘s Steven Yeun, seemingly as the superhero Sentry.
2024’s Thunderbolts Will Be a ‘Personal’ Movie
Marvel
Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier – who previously directed the acclaimed Netflix dark comedy Beef – offered an exciting update to Collider on his MCU movie, teasing how it will focus on characters, despite being a crossover blockbuster.
The director explained how the movie really is “about characters,” teasing “something specific” to them which will bring the Thunderbolts together for a unique superhero story:
“Obviously I can say so little, but I think it’s about characters and is there something specific to those characters that bring them together and something that they’re going through that isn’t the most traditional superhero story to be told?
Comparing the MCU project to Beef, Schreier went into how the cast “brought so much of [themself] to it,” noting how that “specific” character focus can make it “something universal:”
“And I think if you can hit that and if you can make it specific – I think if you look at something like Beef what makes it what it is is that it’s so specific on so many levels. Sonny (Lee Sung Jin) brought so much of himself to it, Ali and Steven, everyone, and in being that specific, it becomes something universal.”
The Emmy-nominated filmmaker added how, even with the goal to make a “big universal movie,” the story will still be “something that feels personal:”
“And I think that’s sort of similar to the way that we’re looking at Thunderbolts is that there is a real clear take and perspective on these characters, and there’s a specificity to it that. In the end, obviously, we want to make a big universal movie that everyone can connect to, but that you can only do that by making something that feels personal, and I think that’s what’s exciting about the project to us.”
Speaking in a previous interview with Collider, Schreier noted how Thunderbolts tells “a new kind of story” which is “not a sequel,” even with being packed with many familiar faces from the MCU:
“It was just a really different approach and a new kind of story to tell amidst that, which I know they’ve made so many things, but it’s not a sequel. Yes, these characters have appeared before, but it is a new story being told and a story, I think, with a very different perspective than maybe people aren’t expecting, and I think that that felt exciting and felt like a real challenge worth taking on.”
Why Fans Should Get Excited for Thunderbolts
As a whole, Thunderbolts doesn’t seem to be surrounded by anywhere near as much anticipation from fans as next year’s other MCU movies of Deadpool 3 or Captain America: Brave New World – but why is that?
For one, many were disappointed by the Thunderbolts line-up, which is primarily devoid of superpowers and quite bland compared to its comic counterpart, throwing out crazy anti-heroes in favor of spies and Super Soldiers.
Nonetheless, the promise of a “personal” and character-focussed movie that will bring its Thunderbolts together in a “specific” and exciting way sounds rather intriguing.
After all, in massive crossover movies, it’s easy for the character and relationship elements to be brushed away in favor of crazy action. But these parts seem to be a priority for director Jake Schreier and the crew.
The MCU crossover looks to have been crafted as the franchise’s next big ensemble event to fill the long gap between Avengers movies – with a seven-year release gap between 2019’s Endgame and 2026’s The Kang Dynasty.
Not only will Thunderbolts bring plenty of character, heart, and team moments, but there will also undoubtedly be all the blockbuster action and exciting MCU consequences which fans expect from a big crossover.
If you are as excited about this release as we are, you can check out the full, official press release and trailer below!
BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM
WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY CELEBRATES 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF HERALDED
FAN FAVORITE ANIMATED FILM WITH FULLY REMASTERED EDITION
FOR 4K ULTRA HDTM
AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE ON SEPTEMBER 12, 2023
BURBANK, CA (July 26, 2023) – Celebrate the 30th anniversary of the most universally acclaimed film in the Dark Knight’s legendary cinematic history when the newly-remastered animated movie Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, comes to 4K Ultra HD for the very first time. From Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, the film will be available to purchase on 4K Ultra HD on September 12, 2023.
The release will also include an all-new featurette Kevin Conroy: I Am The Knight, which takes a look at the legacy of Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman for 30 years in film, television, video games and more.
Rooted in DC’s acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series and released theatrically on Christmas Day 1993, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm has not only been ranked by Time magazine as one of the 10 best Super Hero movies ever, but is also arguably the core fans’ all-time favorite Batman film. The movie has been rated at the top of the Dark Knight film franchise by such popular entertainment media as Empire, Screenrant and Paste. And in the ultimate mainstream salute for its time, Gene Siskel & Robert Ebert didn’t initially review the film during its theatrical release, but later dedicated a portion of their At The Movies weekly TV series to pay compliment to the film – and voice their regret for not giving it the attention it deserved during its original run – when Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was distributed for home entertainment.
The 4K HDR/SDR remaster of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was sourced from the 1993 Original Cut Camera Negative and was scanned at 4K resolution. Digital restoration was applied to the 4K scans to remove dirt, scratches and additional anomalies, but special care was given to not touch the film grain or the animation cel dirt that was part of the original artwork. This is the first time since its theatrical release that it is presented in its 1.85 aspect ratio. The original 2.0 mix and the 5.1 tracks were remastered to remove or improve defects such as pops, ticks, dropouts and distortion.
The animated film features an all-star cast headed by the quintessential voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy, alongside Dana Delany (Desperate Housewives, China Beach) as Bruce Wayne’s love interest, Andrea Beaumont, Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise) as the Joker, Stacy Keach (Nebraska, Prison Break, Mike Hammer) as Phantasm/Carl Beaumont, Abe Vigoda (Barney Miller, The Godfather) as Salvatore Valestra, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (The F.B.I.) as Alfred, Hart Bochner (Die Hard) as Arthur Reeves, Bob Hastings (McHale’s Navy, The Poseidon Adventure) as Commissioner Gordon, Robert Costanzo (Forget Paris, City Slickers) as Detective Bullock, Dick Miller (Gremlins, The Terminator) as Chuckie Sol, and John P. Ryan (The Right Stuff) as Buzz Bronski. Additional voices included Pat Musick, Marilu Henner, Neil Ross, Ed Gilbert, Jeff Bennett, Jane Downs, Vernee Watson, Charles Howerton, Thom Pinto and Peter Renaday.
The Batman: Mask of the Phantasm filmmaking team is composed of the award-winning core group behind Batman: The Animated Series. Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm directed the film from a screenplay by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Martin Pasko and Michael Reaves, based on a story by Burnett.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm will be available on September 12, 2023 to purchase Digitally from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu and more. 4K Ultra HD Discs will be available to purchase online and in-store at major retailers. Pre-order your copy now.
SYNOPSIS:
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm opens with the city’s most feared gangsters being systematically eliminated, and assumed blame falling on the Caped Crusader. But prowling the Gotham night is a shadowy new villain, the Phantasm, a sinister figure with some link to Batman’s past. Can the Dark Knight elude the police, capture the Phantasm and clear his own name? Unmasking the Phantasm is just one of the twists in this dazzling animated feature, which provides new revelations about Batman’s past, his archrival the Joker, and Batman’s most grueling battle ever – the choice between his love for a beautiful woman and his vow to be the defender of right.
SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE*:
Kevin Conroy: I Am The Knight (New Featurette) – For 30 years, Kevin Conroy defined Batman for multiple generations using only his voice, best exemplified in the landmark film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Conroy passed away in November 2022, but his legacy lives on in 15 films, nearly 400 episodes of animated television series, a dozen video games, and as a live-action Bruce Wayne in the Arrowverse’s 2019-2020 “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event. Several of Conroy’s contemporaries – including animation legend Bruce Timm, Batman producer Michael Uslan and revered voice actress Tara Strong – pay tribute to the star who remains the Dark Knight for millions of Batfans.
Bonus episode of Justice League: Unlimitedfeaturing a cameo from Phantasm.
*Special features are not available in 4K Ultra HD.
Pricing and film information:
PRODUCTSRP
Digital purchase $ 14.99
4K Ultra HD + Digital Version** $ 33.99 SRP USA
4K Ultra HD $ 39.99 SRP Canada
4K/Blu-ray Languages: English, Spanish, French
Blu-ray Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Running Time: 76 minutes
**Digital version not available in Canada
About Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment (WBDHE) distributes the award-winning movies, television, animation, and digital content produced by Warner Bros. Discovery to the homes and screens of millions through physical Blu-ray Disc™ and DVD retail sales and digital transactions on major streaming, video-on-demand cable, satellite, digital, and mobile channels. WBDHE is part of Warner Bros. Discovery Content Sales, one of the world’s largest distributors of entertainment programming.
About DC
DC, part of Warner Bros. Discovery, creates iconic characters and enduring stories and is one of the world’s largest publishers of comics and graphic novels. DC’s creative work entertains audiences of every generation around the world with DC’s stories and characters integrated across Warner Bros. Discovery’s film, television, animation, consumer products, home entertainment, games, and themed experiences divisions, and on the DC Universe Infinite digital comic subscription service. Learn more at DC.com
About Warner Bros. Animation
Warner Bros. Animation (WBA) is one of the leading producers of animation in the entertainment industry, producing and developing projects for multiple platforms, both domestically and internationally. WBA’s current series include Batman: Caped Crusader, Bat- Family, Batwheels, Bugs Bunny Builders, Creature Commandos, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, Harley Quinn,Jellystone!, Looney Tunes Cartoons, Merry Little Batman, My Adventures with Superman, Noonan’s, Teen Titans Go!, Tiny Toons Looniversity, and Velma. The studio is currently in production with New Line Cinema on the upcoming original anime feature film, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. WBA’s full-length theatrical film, Teen Titans GO! to the Movies, was released in summer 2018. As home to the iconic animated characters from the DC, Hanna-Barbera, MGM and Looney Tunes libraries, WBA also produces highly successful animated films — including the DC Universe Movies — for DVD, Blu-ray® and digital media. One of the most-honored animation studios in history, WBA has won six Academy Awards®, 40 Emmy® Awards, the George Foster Peabody Award, a BAFTA Children’s Award, an Environmental Media Award, a Parents’ Choice Award, the HUMANITAS Prize, two Prism Awards and 21 Annie Awards (honoring excellence in animation).
As part of Pokemon GO Fest 2023: Global, an exciting meetup event will be held in Brazil where the Pokemon GO community will come together to celebrate what makes the game special. The event will take place on August 26 and 27, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. local time, at Cidade São Paulo Shopping Mall in São Paulo, Brazil.
During the event, attendees will experience a range of activities that both experienced and new players can participate in. These will include both in-game events and in-person activities. Trainers will even be able to interact with physical PokeStops!
Notable Pokemon GO players will be invited to the event, and attendees will have the opportunity to converse with them, take photos together, and receive their signature. Each of these popular Pokemon GO players will also host activities that change daily.
You can find the event location at the following address:
Cidade São Paulo Shopping Mall Paulista Av., 1230 – Bela Vista, São Paulo/SP – Brazil
If you are unable to make the main event, there will be many opportunities to participate in local opportunities all over Brazil.
The celebrations will be held at the following time and locations.
Date & Time August 26 and 27, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. local time
Locations – Parks in Brazil
Alfenas/MG – Praça Getúlio Vargas
Amargosa/BA – Praça do Bosque
Belém/PA – Estação das Docas
Belo Horizonte/MG – Praça da Liberdade
Boa Vista/RR – Praça da Pirâmide
Brasília/DF – Parque Ana Lídia
Curitiba/PR – Passeio Público
Fortaleza/CE – Parque do Cocó
Goiânia/GO – Parque Flamboyant
João Pessoa/PB – UFPB – Praça do CCHLA
Londrina/PR – Praça Marechal Floriano Peixoto
Manaus/AM – CSU do Parque 10
Mogi das Cruzes/SP – Parque Centenário
Natal/RN – UFRN – Setor de Aulas II
Piracicaba/SP – Engenho Central de Piracicaba
Porto Alegre/RS – Parque Moinhos de Vento (Parcão)
Recife/PE – Praça do Marco Zero
Rio de Janeiro/RJ – Quinta da Boa Vista
Salto/SP – Praça Antônio Vieira Tavares
Salvador/BA – Shopping Salvador
Santo André/SP – Parque Central
São José do Rio Preto/SP – Parque da Represa Municipal
São José/SC – Beira Mar de São José
São Luís/MA – Palácio dos Leões
São Paulo/SP – Parque Ibirapuera – Oca (Portões 1 e 2)
Sete Lagoas/MG – Praça da Feirinha
Sobral/CE – Praça São João
Teófilo Otoni/MG – Praça Tiradentes
Vila Velha/ES – Parque da Prainha
It is great to see Pokemon GO continuing to expand locations where events are held. With a mix of in-person and global events so far, 2023 has been a good year for Pokemon GO players.
About the Author
Priscilla Wells
Priscilla is a weekend editor and freelance writer for Prima Games. She is an Australian living in the United States with her family. Priscilla has grown up playing video games, and most often plays her PS5 and Nintendo Switch consoles.
Alex Buono is a director, producer, cinematographer, and executive producer who is known for his work on television shows such as Saturday Night Live, Documentary Now! and Russian Doll. He is currently working as the Directing Producer on a tv series, Based on a True Story, which is now available for streaming.
In this episode, No Film School’s GG Hawkins speaks with Director Producer Alex Buono to discuss:
Working at SNL soon after graduating film school
How his time at SNL forced him to develop dexterity in his work
Figuring out how to create different styles for each episode of Documentary Now!
Bending genres and finding tone for the show, Based on a True Story
Getting certain shots out of your system
Being influenced by Brian De Palma and the Cohen Brothers
Good exercises for young filmmakers to try out
Being a Directing Producer – it’s not for everyone
How directing and producing is like being a project manager
Being the copilot that helps bring someone else’s vision to life
KABC-TV chief meteorologist Dallas Raines has been at ABC’s flagship Los Angeles station since 1984, so you’d think he’s seen everything he could ever see when it comes to Southern California weather. But Hurricane Hilary is a first, even for him, and he’s ready for it.
“It’s really a crazy situation,” he tells Variety. “This is my 40th year of forecasting weather in Southern California, and there have been many opportunities for tropical cyclones that have come up out of Mexico. I would go year after year during hurricane season, ‘Maybe this is the year that conditions are gonna be perfect to bring something up into Southern California.’ Every year, it would be no. You need a perfect situation for these cyclones to actually come up on that trajectory and hold together once they encounter the cold water that’s off the California coastline. It’s about a once-in-a-century event.”
But this is that year. For the first time since 1939, when a tropical cyclone hit Long Beach, a hurricane is on pace toward Southern California. By the time it comes here, it will likely be a tropical storm. But Raines warns that it could still pack a wallop.
“I’m more concerned about the flooding situation,” he said. “Because in the 1939 storm, there was a lot of flooding in the desert. There were a lot of roads and bridges washed out. And of course the population has tremendously increased across Southern California since then… Even in the L.A. basin, in the 1939 storm, we had five inches of rain in downtown Los Angeles in a 24-hour period. So it just shows you the potential there even for the L.A. basin to see some flooding, some flash flooding, we could see that happening. And then many of the roads in the mountain areas could be impassable by early Monday morning. You could see flooding out in the desert areas.”
Wind will also still be a problem: Raines is expecting gusts similar to Santa Ana winds, east and northeast winds leading through those canyon passes. For wildfire concerns, the rain that comes with the storm will likely prevent serious problems. But there’s still the possibility that heavy winds will come before the rainfall arrives, still making for a dangerous situation with the dry brush in the canyons, hills and mountains. “There is a chance that you could see wind through those canyons up to 30, 40 and even 50 miles per hour,” Raines said. “And of course, if a fire were started, it could be explosive, even though we have moisture.”
The only thing nearly as unusual as hurricanes in Southern California are tornadoes (although those do pop up here every once in a while). In the case of this storm, Raines said there’s also the possibility of isolated, small F1 tornadoes.
“In these feeder bands that wrap around the tropical cyclone, small twisters can drop out,” he said. “It happens on the east coast all the time. They’re not the F4s and F5s like you see in Kansas and Oklahoma. But they’re moving very quickly. They’re usually going about 50 or 60 knots. They touch down briefly and they can create quite a bit of damage. So a tornado threat is going to be there.”
Raines said he wouldn’t be surprised to see a tornado watch issued for the area alongside a tropical storm watch, which he said for the region is “remarkable.”
Additionally, keep an eye out for the surf. “The storm right now is generating big swells,” he said. “It has 40-to-45-foot swells in and around the center of this 130 mile-an-hour storm. And those swells will be arriving starting tomorrow afternoon and continue all the way into Sunday, into Monday. This would be a south-facing situation. Areas in Orange County like Huntington Beach, for instance. We could be looking anywhere from five to 10 foot breakers coming in from the south. Maybe a little higher, not out of the question. But definitely that’s going to be a big deal.”
Raines warned that people going to the beach and getting into the water would be in danger of serious rip currents. “I would imagine that along the L.A. beaches and Orange County beaches, they’re going to more than likely try to keep people out of the water,” he said. “I don’t know if they can keep the surfers out but it would definitely be a danger for the average person. These rip currents are much more powerful during hurricanes than they are in the storms that we might have during the wintertime.”
As for how KABC/ABC7’s “Eyewitness News” team is preparing for the storm, assistant news director Dan Rasmussen said they’re in a bit of uncharted territory. “I’ve been here for for 10 years and I think of all of the large events that we cover the breaking news: Earthquakes, fires and mudslides and big storms over the winter. But the thing that we always talk about is we never get the hurricanes, like people on the East Coast,” he said. “So it is it is a different approach for us to ramp up for that. We have the muscle memory, we’re used to covering big stories and breaking news. But it’s like, OK, this is different. Where do we need to be, what resources do we need to provide, how do we make sure we’re serving people leading up to it?”
It’s also hard to plan, he added, because at the moment Los Angeles is experiencing a clear, blue sky day. “I mean, I look out my window right now. It’s beautiful,” Rasmussen said. “My son’s got soccer games both days this weekend. And it’s hard to think that, by Sunday, it’s going to change. Because we’re not we’re not used to that. It’s about maximizing our people, spreading out our resources, obviously, it’s going to last for a while so it’s the coverage on Sunday night, Monday morning, into the day Monday. Preparing people for this.”
Rasmussen said Raines will also be at the center of this weekend’s coverage. The weekday weather anchor will be at the station on Sunday, and KABC is adding an extra newscast at 6:30 p.m. that night (which will also be simulcast on KGO San Francisco and KFSN San Diego, both also ABC-owned stations) to focus on the storm.
“We’ve been doing a live blog, live update, and a live stream of the storm track online since yesterday afternoon,” he added. “There’s a lot going on. We’re teaming up with ABC News and AccuWeather and UCLA to get expertise and additional resources.”
Raines reports that via a reconnaissance aircraft that has been sent into the northern edge of Hurricane Hilary, it currently rates at 130 miles per hour sustained winds, which is on the low end of a Category 4. “Looking at the very latest couple of images, it looks like it’s already starting to weaken because it’s entering cold water,” he said. “And another thing that destroys or is very destructive to tropical cyclones is what we call wind shear. When you get winds that are in the mid troposphere, say about 20,000 feet that come in from the west, they bring in dry air, and tropical cyclones don’t like that. All that being said, this storm is going to come up into Southern California, and with it, it will bring a moisture field associated with it that is tremendous.”
Hence the concerns about flooding, especially in the deserts and mountains. “I think probably for Southern California, the main issues will be people who might go to the beach and then people who may think that they can drive in situations like this,” he said. “Those are probably the type of people that usually get in trouble most and the fact is, we have about 20 million people here. And very few of them have gone through hurricanes or tropical storms. The average person, if they’re not out on the road and putting themselves in a difficult situation or a dangerous situation, they’re going to be OK.”
But for Dallas Raines, this is his moment. Actually, the wild weather that now seems to be the norm in this era of climate change has definitely made his job in Southern California busier.
Raines remembers leaving CNN in Atlanta 40 years ago, and his friends there warning him that he was going to miss all of that region’s dramatic weather. “The last few years I’ve called them and said, ‘no, we got it,’” he said. “Don’t worry. We’ve got all kinds of weather.”
Don’t expect a new breakup hit from Justin Bieber anytime soon. It turns out there may not be much to the rumors that the 29-year-old pop star split from longtime manager Scooter Braun.
According to a new Puck report published on August 18, Bieber and Braun allegedly “haven’t spoken in months” despite their 16-year history. Braun has been with Bieber since the beginning of his career after discovering the “Baby” singer in 2007. Now, Puck claims Bieber is taking his business to Britney Spears’ ex-business manager Lou Taylor and that “lawyers are involved.”
However, Us Weekly reports that reps for both parties have denied the report, telling the publication, “This is not true.” If something did go down between Bieber and Braun, clearly it wasn’t too late now to say sorry.
A split like this would definitely come as a shock to music buffs, though you’re probably more used to hearing Braun’s name in connection with Taylor Swift. He is, after all, the entire reason the “Anti-Hero” singer has been re-recording her first six albums over the course of the past few years. Back in 2019, Taylor Swift’s former label, Big Machine Records (run by Scott Borchetta), sold the master recordings of her first six albums to Braun without consulting Swift or giving her the opportunity to buy them herself. At the time, Swift described the sale as her “worst-case scenario” in an emotional Tumblr post.
“All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years,” Swift wrote, also calling out Bieber for allegedly participating in Braun’s bullying. “Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”
At the time, Justin Bieber apologized for posting the “hurtful Instagram post” Swift referenced in her statement but vehemently defended Braun, describing his manager as “someone I love.”
It was a battle of the sexes all over the place on Minx Season 2 Episode 5, which saw the backdrop of the infamous Billie Jean King versus Bobby Riggs tennis match create a real-time divide between the women and men.
While Joyce and Doug were off in Vegas trying to sell the international rights to Minx, Tina was dipping into her fun bag by hosting a party at Bottom Dollar.
And it was messy all around, as Joyce ran into some familiar faces and Tina struggled to keep things under control.
Minx Season 2 has been a mixed bag thus far, as so much of what made the first season fun seems to be missing this time around.
I can’t put my finger on what’s missing, but it lacks some of that charm that made the characters so endearing.
It makes sense, with Minx’s success, for everyone to be engaged in a transition period as they acclimate to their new roles and deal with overnight success. It’s not easy to suddenly have everything you think you want.
Nor is it easy to feel unsteady and unsure about your position in this new paradigm, as Richie and Bambi do.
You have to feel for Bambi because she’s out of her element now and doesn’t have a proper role within the company. She’s desperately looking to find her place at Bottom Dollar, but she’s lost, and no one really sees that.
It’s not as if it’s anyone’s responsibility to, but at the same time, they’re all friends here (which was much clearer in the first season). And Bambi isn’t exactly shy in expressing how lost she is, yet no one seems to be taking it seriously.
Everyone has painted Bambi into this box of who they think she is, and they assume she’s happy and will be fine because everyone loves Bambi and she’s always there when you do end up needing her, but Bambi is confused, and Bambi needs her friends to understand that.
It’s unclear whether Doug ever hired her full-time, so what is she doing at the company?
Tina: Wait, are you shadowing me? Jumped off the Doug bus on to the Tina train? Bambi: Yes. It’s just you’re always calm in the eye of the storm. And I got so invested in Club Minx. I just want to be cool like you. Tina: I don’t want to be your role model. I just want to have fun. Why won’t anyone let me have fun?
Here, she followed Tina around, hoping she would rub off on her somehow, but that didn’t exactly happen because Tina was going through her own mini-crisis, and being Bambi’s role model wasn’t something she had time for.
Tina was on this quest for fun during this installment, but I’ve never cataloged her as a character who was unfun per se. She’s a more work-oriented and serious person than others, but that doesn’t make her someone in desperate need of a good time.
When she wasn’t invited to the off-site party, she took that as a personal slight and brought the party in-house. But without Doug or Joyce around, all the responsibility fell on her shoulders, and an awful lot was going on at that party.
Only at Bottom Dollar would there be an impromptu tennis match with rackets attacked to the male genitalia.
Those models were pure caricatures, as they paraded around naked and disparaged women any chance they got.
This was an episode that, outside of the costumes, could have taken place in the present day because a lot of that old-fashioned thinking is still prevalent today.
The whole “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match originated because Riggs, coming off another match in which he defeated a woman, began taunting other female tennis players. So, Billie Jean stepped in, got paid handsomely, and beat the man for the world to see.
But a man taunting women and reveling in his superiority? Where have we seen this before?
We saw it while Joyce was up on that panel, surrounded by men who were the leaders of their women’s magazines, and immediately took the opportunity to pit Joyce and Maggie against one another.
Joyce and Maggie left on strained terms when we saw them back in Minx Season 1, and Joyce wasn’t ready to let bygones be bygones until she saw Maggie floundering under the weight of that panel, which was precisely what Maggie was banking on.
Maggie and George’s sole mission was to get eyes on their magazine, and they knew they could do that through Joyce. It was reminiscent of the last time Joyce saw Maggie, and they argued about how Joyce treated Maggie’s guests, who were only interested in delving into the sordid parts of her life.
She accused Maggie of basking in her reflection, and Maggie decided to take that and spin it on its head.
Joyce teaming up with Maggie and not being against her opened up people’s eyes to Gal, which had a lot of overlapping qualities with Minx. And she knew the only way to get Joyce on her side authentically was to get the other guys thinking everyone was in on the schtick and would play it in a way that benefited them all.
It was actually a pretty intelligent plan, and it almost worked if not for Doug swooping in to point it out to Joyce.
Doug is a lot of things, but he’s not dumb. He saw Maggie’s playbook from a mile away, and his and Joyce’s little chat at the casino reminded me why they can work well together: they balance one another.
Joyce mentioned more than once during this half-hour how valuable Doug can be, and it’s true. They both see things the other doesn’t, and they would have never reached the heights they’ve currently reached without the other.
Buying up Gal should have been exciting for Joyce, but it was another victory that ran hollow for her. And I’m wondering if the current projectory of Minx will ever bring her legitimate joy because it doesn’t seem like it’s what she really wants.
Is she happy Minx is successful? Surely. But with each success, it may be starting to feel like she’s getting away from the central message behind Minx.
With only a few episodes left, we get a little tease here with Joyce believing Doug should lead the international Minx, but what will Constance want? She’s been deferring to Joyce for most things, but this is a major decision.
She seems much more keen on Tina than Doug right now, so is it crazy to think she takes that decision entirely out of Joyce’s hands?
Everything Else You Need To Know
Shelly feels like she’s due for some kind of break because she’s hanging on by a string. She and Lenny seem to be doing better, but it doesn’t feel like Shelly is all that cheerful right now.
Constance is laser-focused on the business side of the magazine and making money, and you can see little instances where everyone wants to push back but ultimately doesn’t. I think someone will snap.
Doug Renetti walking into a casino in a different city and immediately getting punched in the face by someone from his past was totally on-brand for him.
I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I need Richie out of Minx. Not only is he not being fulfilled creatively, but he needs to be heard. And he’s far too gracious and talented to be stifled in his current role.
Bottom Dollar and Minx are only getting bigger, but no one seems happier right now!
Let me know in the comments where you think things are headed over the final three episodes of this season and what you thought about this week’s installment!
Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
The veteran sportscaster appeared on a recent episode of The Megyn Kelly Show where she accused The View creator of assaulting her following a segment about former U.S. President Barack Obama, while also discussing her controversial departure from ESPN. During the conversation, Steele stated that there were other witnesses to the alleged physical altercation prompted by Walters, who was the creator as well as a co-host and producer on the show for more than 15 years and passed away in 2022.
“It was Barbara, Whoopi [Goldberg] and myself in the dark green room off to the side,” Steele recalled during the podcast episode, which released on Thursday. “I was probably about four feet from the wall and the trash can and Barbara was standing over here in front of me.”
Steele goes on to describe Walters’ movements, saying that she began to “back up toward me and looked at me and got close and elbowed me.” She added that the physical contact “pushed me back into the wall and the trash can,” leaving Steele to wonder what Walters had just done.
“This 140-year-old woman just tried to tackle me,” the former SportsCenter co-host continued. “Some of the producers saw it. Whoopi saw it. And Whoopi was like, ‘Come here.’ She was great. She pulled me aside in her little area and she’s like, ‘Don’t you let her do it.’ And I’m like, ‘Am I in a movie right now?’ One of the legends in this industry just tried to beat me up!”
In a statement, a rep for Walters’ estate told The Hollywood Reporter, “This is impossible to believe and uncharacteristic of Barbara!”
Steele also discussed her recent departure from the network, just days after settling a lawsuit against ESPN, in which she alleged the company had retaliated against her and infringed upon her free speech rights after she made controversial statements regarding its COVID vaccination requirement and, separately, questioned Obama’s race while appearing on the “Uncut with Jay Cutler” podcast in 2021.
Steele shared that despite departing ESPN, she “loved” her more than two years on SportsCenter, and called her former producers and co-host Matt Barrie “the best team.” But said that “there were different rules for me than everyone else” who shared their personal opinions on either the network or on other platforms.
Steele settled the suit with ESPN, it was announced on Tuesday, saying in a statement on X/Twitter, “Having successfully settled my case with ESPN/Disney, I have decided to leave so I can exercise my first amendment rights more freely. I am grateful for so many wonderful experiences over the past 16 years and am excited for my next chapter!”
5:15 p.m. Updated with the statement from Barbara Walters’ estate.
Two men who have accused Michael Jackson of sexually abusing them as children are able to resume their lawsuits against companies owned by the singer, who died in 2009, a California appeals court ruled on Friday.
The men, Wade Robson, 40, and James Safechuck, 45, have alleged that Mr. Jackson sexually abused them for years and that employees of the two companies — MJJ Productions Inc. and MJJ Ventures Inc. — were complicit, acting as his “co-conspirators, collaborators, facilitators and alter egos” for the abuse. The suits say that employees of the companies owed a “duty of care” to the boys and failed to take steps to prevent abuse.
Mr. Robson’s and Mr. Safechuck’s stories were featured in the 2019 HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland,” in which the men accused Mr. Jackson of molesting them and cultivating relationships with their families to access the boys’ bodies.
“Everybody wanted to meet Michael or be with Michael,” Mr. Safechuck said in the film. “He was already larger than life. And then he likes you.”
The two companies are now owned by Mr. Jackson’s estate, which has repeatedly denied that he abused the boys.
“We remain fully confident that Michael is innocent of these allegations, which are contrary to all credible evidence and independent corroboration, and which were only first made years after Michael’s death by men motivated solely by money,” Jonathan Steinsapir, a lawyer for Mr. Jackson’s estate, said in a statement after the decision.
Vince Finaldi, a lawyer for Mr. Safechuck and Mr. Robson, said in a statement that the court had overturned “incorrect rulings in these cases, which were against California law and would have set a dangerous precedent that endangered children.”
Mr. Robson and Mr. Safechuck filed their suits against the companies in 2013 and 2014, respectively, but both cases were dismissed in 2017 because they exceeded California’s statute of limitations. They were reopened in 2020 after a new state law provided plaintiffs in child sex abuse cases an additional period to file lawsuits.
In October 2020 and April 2021, the suits were again dismissed when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled that the two corporations and their employees were not legally obligated to protect the men from Mr. Jackson.
But on Friday, California’s Second District Court of Appeal ruled that “a corporation that facilitates the sexual abuse of children by one of its employees is not excused from an affirmative duty to protect those children merely because it is solely owned by the perpetrator of the abuse.”
In a concurring opinion, Justice John Shepard Wiley Jr. said that for the purposes of civil liability, the corporations did the sole bidding of Mr. Jackson, who had a duty of care to Mr. Robson and Mr. Safechuck.
“So did Jackson’s marionettes, because Jackson’s fingers held every string,” he said, adding, “These corporations could have taken cost-effective steps to reduce the risk of harm.”
The cases, which were consolidated in the appeals court, will now go back to a trial court.
In his lawsuit, Mr. Robson, who is now a choreographer and director, says that Mr. Jackson molested him from age 7 to 14. After meeting Mr. Jackson through a dance competition when he was 5, Mr. Robson performed in his music videos and released an album on his record label.
According to his suit, the abuse started in 1990 when Mr. Jackson invited Mr. Robson and his family to stay at his Neverland Ranch in California. Mr. Robson and Mr. Jackson slept in the same bed and touched each other’s genitals, according to the suit. Over the next seven years, the suit said, they engaged in sexual acts including masturbation and oral sex.
The suit says that employees of MJJ Productions witnessed the abuse and that employees of the two companies took steps to ensure that Mr. Jackson was alone with Mr. Robson and other children.
Mr. Safechuck’s lawsuit says he was one of several children entrapped by the companies’ “child sexual abuse procurement and facilitation organization.” According to his suit, Mr. Safechuck met Mr. Jackson during filming for a Pepsi commercial in late 1986 or early 1987 and later became a dancer for Mr. Jackson.
Mr. Jackson showed the 10-year-old boy how to masturbate while on tour in 1988, the suit alleges, and abused Mr. Safechuck hundreds of times over the next four years. The employees of MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures coordinated the visits, according to the suit.
Before these lawsuits, Mr. Jackson twice faced criminal investigations into the possible sexual abuse of children.
In 1994, the district attorneys for Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Counties decided not to proceed with charges that Mr. Jackson had molested three boys because the “primary alleged victim” decided not to testify. Mr. Jackson, who denied any wrongdoing, had reached a $20 million civil settlement with the boy’s family.
In 2003, a Santa Barbara County district attorney charged Mr. Jackson with several counts of child molesting and serving alcohol to minors. After a 14-week trial in 2005, he was acquitted by a jury.
We’re an Anglo-American musical group called SQUARE HALO and we’re keen to get songs from our Lyme disease awareness album ‘The Lyme Years’ featured in independent films. We have original, evocative, catchy, high-quality songs for sync licensing and we’re happy to waive the licence fee too!
Exclusively for Raindance, here are our favourite musicians made famous by their songs being used in film.
Singer-songwriter Demetrios Loukas of SQUARE HALO:
The 1983 film ‘Flashdance‘ was a vehicle for two very good songs: ‘Flashdance… What a Feeling‘ by Irene Cara and ‘Maniac‘ by Michael Sembello, an Italian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, composer and producer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to ‘Flashdance‘, Sembello worked as a session guitarist for Stevie Wonder.
The song ‘Maniac‘ which features on Sembello’s debut album ‘Bossa Nova Hotel‘ was the second best-charting song from the Flashdance movie soundtrack (after the title track ‘Flashdance… What a Feeling‘ by Irene Cara) and the ninth biggest single of 1983. Sembello went onto produce other artists and more of his songs were featured in other hit films such as ‘Cocoon‘ and ‘Independence Day‘ but ‘Maniac‘ which was selected for inclusion in ‘Flashdance‘ still remains his biggest hit.
‘Maniac‘ from beginning to end is like a non-stop dramatic car chase! At the very start of the song, you get 12 seconds of warm-up percussion but when the arpeggio comes in, it’s like an accelerator pedal!
Sembello: ‘Can you imagine, it’s like, here I am, I just wanna be a jazz guitar player, you know, I’m a songwriter for Warner Brothers and all of a sudden, here I am up with a number one record too and then it become this huge hit record!‘
The 1990 film ‘Pretty Woman‘ featured some great songs by established artists and bands, including Roy Orbison, Natalie Cole, Roxette, and Go West. However, ‘Fallen‘ by American singer-songwriter, voice-over artist, and producer Lauren Wood was both beautiful and captivating, and this was the first I’d heard of her.
‘Fallen‘ which featured on Wood’s second studio album ‘Cat Trick‘ was actually released as a single in 1981 but it was its inclusion in the film ‘Pretty Woman‘ (9 years later) that put Lauren Wood on the map.
At the Los Angeles Women’s Festival in 2003, Wood performs ‘Fallen‘ live. Just before she launches into the first verse, Wood shares with the audience: ‘This song changed my life‘ and I believe her!
Composer, arranger and producer Treyvonce Ambers-Moore of SQUARE HALO:
The movie ‘8 Mile‘ featuring the song ‘Lose Yourself‘ with rapper Eminem is not only a hit song within a film but also is one of the worlds most recognized songs in the hip hop community! I can still remember being only 10 years old and sneaking to watch the VHS version with my older brother. We would rerun the movie till we started mimicking the dialog of Eminem’s rap battles and as soon as we heard the dark grungy guitar intro of ‘Lose Yourself‘, we’d jump on the bed and prepare to rap all the words.
In a wider view, this song is a staple for millennials everywhere because whenever the phrase ‘Mom’s spaghetti‘ is uttered it’s a LAW to rap the next words regardless of the context of the conversation! It’s a shock factor whenever someone doesn’t get the ‘Mom’s spaghetti’ joke.
‘Lose Yourself‘ is legendary because it gave Eminem his first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single and maintained that position for twelve consecutive weeks. Also, it reached the top of the charts in nineteen other countries and won two Grammys! One being Best Male Rap Solo Performance & the other being Best Rap Song.
Even crazier is that ‘Lose Yourself‘ became the first rap/hip-hop song to win the Oscar for Best Original Song. When this came to my knowledge, I just felt very happy to know that Hip Hop/Rap has come a very long way.
Composer and co-writer Omar Shelesh of SQUARE HALO:
For this category, two songs immediately spring to mind, the first emerging from the 1991 movie, Buddy’s Song. While the movie itself did only moderately at the box office, it featured the single, ‘The One and Only‘, which became an international chart success. It’s easy to see why this song was popular; performed by the then 19-year-old musician and actor Chesney Hawkes, whose vocal talent and stage presence appealed to teenage audiences of the time, it was also skillfully penned by distinguished British songwriter, Nik Kershaw.
With simmering verses, an anthemic chorus with resonating lyrics to match, and a bridge leading to a lucid guitar solo, it is a masterclass in exemplary pop songcraft.
The second track on my list is the theme song from the 1982 movie, Rocky III. Interestingly, ‘Eye of the Tiger‘ came into existence through a request by the Rocky actor and director himself, Sylvester Stallone. Stallone’s intention was to use a song already made famous by Queen, ‘Another One Bites the Dust‘, but after he was turned down he approached the rock band Survivor to commission a new song to accompany the third Rocky installment.
At the time, Survivor had had only moderate chart success with one release making it into the US top 40, so the opportunity to record for a major movie franchise would be a real boon for the band’s profile. And it was: the single would go on to become an iconic anthem associated with the Rocky film series, reaching number 1 on Billboard Hot 100 chart, and achieving gold and platinum status in multiple regions around the world. Musically, the song is pure hard rock with a hooky, driving rhythm, and power chord stabs played in the way Rocky throws punches.
The song also cleverly makes use of minor/ major key transitions between the verse and chorus, creating a dynamic contrast that accentuates the emotional impact of the music. Combining this with motivational and empowering lyrics really takes the song to an extramusical level.
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‘SQUARE HALO’ are a trio of creatives from across the globe: we have London-based singer-songwriter and Lyme disease lobbyist Demetrios Loukas, Minnesota-based music producer Treyvonce Ambers-Moore and Demetrios’s long-time co-writer Tokyo-based composer Omar Shelesh.
Their story begins with Demetrios, a former primary school teacher who contracted Lyme disease back in 2005 whilst on a school trip to a farm in Oxfordshire. The infection went undiagnosed and untreated for 8 years and during this time his health deteriorated with the infection spreading and his life hanging in the balance. He was however clinically diagnosed in 2013 and since then, his health has improved.
In 2015, Demetrios reached out to Treyvonce online and they started collaborating remotely. Their debut album ‘The Lyme Years’ took the group over 5 years to complete.
Whilst still suffering from the disease, Demetrios managed to turn this experience on its head and was inspired to fight back and thus two projects were born, the first being ‘The FIGHT LYME NOW Campaign’ and the second ‘SQUARE HALO’. We have a mismatch of science and music combining forces with two main objectives – to spread positivity and awareness of Lyme disease through musical collaborations and also lobbying for the recognition of chronic Lyme disease (which is currently dismissed by the international medical establishment) and the need for effective treatment for both acute and chronic Lyme disease including Lyme disease co-infections (which are currently not considered, much less treated).
Talks continued but no sign of a Friday afternoon breakthrough.
Deadline understands that the WGA met once again with the AMPTP earlier today, the fourth time the two sides have sat down this week to try and hammer out a deal that would end the writers strike.
The latest discussion between the writers guild and the AMPTP comes after studio CEOs once again spoke amongst themselves as the likes of Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Disney’s Dana Walden become more directly involved in the process. The bosses are trying to determine what their next step is in these negotiations as they try and find concessions for the writers.
Earlier this week, the AMPTP made another offer to the writers.
Sources tell Deadline that the rumors that a deal is done is not true, coming after many in town were starting to express optimism that a major breakthrough had been made.
The fact that the two sides are still talking, however, given that they spent much of the first 100 days apart, offers some hope.
One issue that has become the topic of conversation this week has been the “preservation of the writers’ room” through minimum staffing and guaranteed days of employment.
A group of top-level showrunners declared their support for mandatory minimum staffing on social media this week. The likes of Veep’s David Mandel, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert head writer Ariel Dumas, Suits creator Aaron Korsh and Hacks co-creator Jen Statsky all came out in support of minimum staffing.
Welcome to The Hollywood Reporter’s inaugural Travel Week! Hollywood stars and insiders log millions of miles for filming, festivals and wherever else the red carpet takes them, so why not look to these frequent flyers for travel inspiration? Withsummer destinations still beckoning (and plenty of time to plan for fall trips), this week we’re highlighting insider-approved essentials, style and travel tips, new gear, hotel-inspired decor, deals and more. Allons-y!
Amid soaring flight delays and cancellations, the golden age of air travel may never return to the gate. (The cocktail lounges! The designer uniforms! Legroom!) Timex’s Pan Am Waterbury watch is one way for timepiece collectors and history enthusiasts to fly back in time — and after selling out last year, the exclusive collab is back in stock.
Priced from $179-$219, the Timex x Pan Am collection features the watchmaker’s lassic Waterbury in a 42mm stainless steel case with a leather strap. The nostalgic watch is available in a chronograph movement or a date display, and nods to “the precision, ergonomics, and unencumbered legibility all but required by early aviators as they took to the skies, incorporating bold Arabic indices on its uncomplicated navy-blue dial.”
Pan Am-inspired design touches include the iconic airlines’ globe logo on the accent plates, crown, strap hardware and case back, while the metallic blue dial and luminant hands channel the defunct airway’s colorways. The watches are water resistant up to 50 meters, and they come in a colorful collector gift set with a vintage-inspired lapel pin.
Founded in 1927, Pan Am once billed itself as “the world’s most experienced airline” and represented the luxurious Jet Age. It filed for bankruptcy in 1991, and has starred on the big and small screens, including in the retro ABC series Pan Am, two Indiana Jones movies, plenty of 007 films and others. (Let’s not forget that Leonardo DiCaprio played con artist and faux Pan Am pilot Frank Abagnal Jr. in Catch Me If You Can.)
Davis Guggenheim comes from a prestigious family in terms of legendary documentary filmmakers. His father was the late great Charles Guggenheim, winner of several Oscars as well as numerous other nominations in the field. Perhaps that is why initially his son ran in another direction in the business, directing episodes of such landmark TV series as ER, NYPD Blue, 24, Deadwood and Melrose Place. Eventually, however, the family business could not escape Davis’ grasp, and he became known for a slew of award-winning docs of his own including the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth in 2007, It Might Be Loud, Waiting For Superman, He Named Me Malala, Inside Bill’s Brain, and many more. He was also responsible for the short films shown at the Democratic National Conventions for Barack Obama and Joe Biden among others.
The last thing Guggenheim thought was that he would be doing a doc on a movie and TV star, but that is exactly why he is now at the forefront of the Emmy race with Apple TV+’s Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, which has been nominated for seven Emmys including two individual noms for Guggenheim.
Guggenheim joins me for today’s edition of my Deadline video series Behind the Lens to talk about his wide-ranging career, those aforementioned achievements, and his father and what all those Oscars meant to him. Of course we also discuss working with Fox to make this extraordinary doc on his life, using innovative techniques including the novel use of film clips from Fox’s career in order to tell the whole remarkable and moving story of a star who never gives up despite the many setbacks life has dealt him.
To watch our conversation, click on the video above.
Join me every Monday and Friday during Emmy season for another edition of Behind the Lens.
Michael Jackson accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck got approval from a California appeals court Friday to take their abuse claims to a trial.
In a 3-0 ruling, the appellate court found that Jackson’s companies can be held accountable for Jackson’s alleged misconduct, reversing a lower court decision.
“Plaintiffs had every right to expect defendants to protect them from the entirely foreseeable danger of being left alone with Jackson,” the justices wrote.
The allegations were detailed in the 2019 HBO documentary series “Leaving Neverland,” in which they claimed that the pop sensation sexually abused them when they were children.
Jackson died in 2009. The pair first attempted to bring their case to court in 2013 and 2014, but the lawsuits were dismissed due to the statute of limitations. But when California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law in 2020 that extended the statute for child sexual abuse allegations, Robson and Safechuck got another chance. While their cases were dismissed again in 2021, now three appellate court judges have ruled in favor of Robson and Safechuck to see the case go in front of a jury in the lower courts.
Robson, now 46 years old, alleges that Jackson began sexually abusing him when he was 7 years old during his first visit to Neverland in 1990.
Safechuck, 40, alleges his abuse by Jackson began in Paris in 1988 when he was 10 years old. “In Jackson’s hotel room in Paris, Jackson told [Safechuck] he ‘was going to change [his] life by showing him how to masturbate,’” the opinion states, citing the allegations. “Jackson demonstrated on himself, and then made [Safechuck] try.”
The document continues, “From 1988 through 1992, Jackson abused plaintiff hundreds of times in various locations. Jackson performed a ‘marriage’ with plaintiff with a ring and a signed document to pretend they got married. He also trained [Safechuck] to exchange ‘declarations of love’ with him, and [Safechuck] developed a significant emotional attachment to Jackson.”
Mariano Quindoy, an estate manager who worked at Neverland during the time of the alleged abuse, claims to have witnessed “several incidents of suspicious activity” while working at the Jackson ranch. This included “finding Jackson’s and plaintiff’s underwear lying next to Jackson’s bed. He also saw Jackson put his hand down the front of plaintiff’s shorts while the two were in the jacuzzi. Mr. Quindoy heard gossip among the Neverland staff that Jackson was ‘having an affair’ with plaintiff and they were sleeping together,” it says in the legal document. Quindoy also stated that Norma Staikos, former executive director of MJJ Productions, once told Quindoy and his wife to “never to leave children alone with Jackson.”
The defense has argued that Jackson’s two companies — MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures — were solely owned by Jackson, and thus had no authority to supervise him or manage his conduct.
In a concurring opinion, Associate Justice John Wiley Jr., dispatched with that argument, saying that for practical purposes, “Jackson’s corporations were Jackson. They did his bidding and his alone.”
“The question in this case is whether Michael Jackson, as puppetmaster of his two wholly-owned corporations, could have taken cost-effective steps to avoid the harm the plaintiffs allege he inflicted upon them,” Wiley continued. “The answer is yes. Jackson could have restrained himself. From a social standpoint, this harm avoidance would have been costless. It merely required law abiding self-control, which the law expects of every person.”
Jonathan Steinsapir, attorney for Jackson’s estate, said in a statement to People magazine, which first reported the news of the new trial, “We are disappointed with the Court’s decision. Two distinguished trial judges repeatedly dismissed these cases on numerous occasions over the last decade because the law required it. We remain fully confident that Michael is innocent of these allegations, which are contrary to all credible evidence and independent corroboration, and which were only first made years after Michael’s death. We trust that the truth will ultimately prevail with Michael’s vindication yet again. Michael Jackson himself said, ‘lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.’”
14 Sex And The City Moments Where Carrie Was A Bad Friend
1.
When she blew off dinner with Miranda last minute to have dinner with Big.
2.
When Miranda was struggling with being a new mom and Carrie just talked to her about Aidan and what he must think of her since their breakup.
3.
When she sent Aidan to help Miranda, who was naked, injured, and immobile.
4.
When she showed up to “comfort” an injured Miranda but used it as an excuse to talk about herself.
5.
When she blamed Miranda for Big leaving her at the altar.
6.
When she guilt-tripped Miranda into staying at lunch after Charlotte made disrespectful comments about Miranda exploring her sexuality.
7.
When she completely dismissed Charlotte’s concerns about Miranda’s drinking.
8.
When she threw Charlotte’s insecurities in her face just because Charlotte told her it was a bad idea to have dinner with Aidan since Carrie was now married.
9.
When she expected Charlotte to offer her $30,000 so she could pay the down payment to buy her apartment.
10.
When she was at a benefit for Charlotte’s kids’ school, saw a guy she went on ONE bad date with, and tried to leave the benefit early even though she was an auction item.
11.
When she body-shamed Samantha after she gained weight.
12.
When she judged Samantha after accidentally walking in on her having oral sex with a delivery guy in her office.
13.
When she pressured Samantha to come to her book launch party after her chemical peel went wrong and then shamed her appearance at the party.
14.
And when she rekindled her romance with Aidan and completely forgot her summer plans with Seema.
One of my favorite parts about visiting the Orlando International Airport (aside from the fact that it means that I am starting my Walt Disney World vacation) is that MCO has not one, but two, Walt Disney World stores.
As opposed to the more generic convenience stores and newsstands that populate most of the country’s airports, MCO’s Magic of Disney Stores give visitors one last taste of Disney magic before they board their plane home.
Photo: Orlando International Airport
Spooky Season in Walt DIsney World
If you have visited Walt DIsney World in the last couple of weeks, you know that Halloween has descended on the resort and spooky season is in full gear.
As with the arrival of any new season, this means that Walt Disney World’s stores are brimming with new Halloween merchandise, which are the perfect souvenirs from an autumn visit to the parks.
(Matt Stroshane, Photographer)
With happy haunts, jack-o’-lantern-Mickeys, and eerie Mickey ears galore, Walt Disney World is the best place to get any and all Halloween-themed items.
Halloween Comes To MCO
Well, I am happy to report that Disney is spreading spooky fun to the Orlando International Airport, and all kinds of Walt Disney World Halloween merchandise can now be bought at the airport’s two Magic of Disney stores!
Photo: Orlando International Airport
From apparel to mugs to throw pillows, the Disney stores at MCO have the perfect final Walt Disney souvenirs to bring home.
If you missed your opportunity to get one of these items before you left Disney property, now you have a second chance!
Photo: Also Orlando International Airport
Additionally, these festive releases would make the perfect souvenir to bring back to your loved ones.
So, if you plan on traveling through MCO this Halloween season, be sure to stop by the Magic of Disney stores!
Photo: Orlando International Airport
Where To Find Disney’s Stores
You can find the Disney stores in Terminals A+B on Level 3, pre-security, and in Terminal C’s Palm Court.
With this many Disney Halloween items to choose from, you are sure to find something gourd!
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DC recently revealed the names of the centerfold artists (and the characters they’ll be showcasing) for the upcoming G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition one-shot!
Fans will get to see Poison Ivy by Jen Bartel, Nightwing and Barbara Gordon by Jorge Jimenez and Alejandro Sánchez, and G’nort himself, by Simon Bisley! The centerfold artwork will be revealed in the coming week.
Also revealed were the back covers to G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. All four covers will feature the “Gotham Magazine” artwork that Batman holds over his face on the front of J. Scott Campbell’s variant, giving fans the chance to snap an “I’m Batman” selfie for themselves.
Check out the full press release below:
THE CENTERFOLD ARTISTS FOR DC’S G’NORT’S ILLUSTRATED SWIMSUIT EDITION ARE REVEALED: JEN BARTEL, JORGE JIMÉNEZ & SIMON BISLEY
G’NORT’S ILLUSTRATED SWIMSUIT EDITION WILL BE AVAILABLE AT LOCAL COMIC SHOPS ON AUGUST 29
You may know G’nort as the bumbling Green Lantern who protects Space Sector 68. Then again, you may not know G’nort at all. Whatever the case, get ready to see him in his newest role as host and proprietor of this very special swimsuit comic—G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition! Join our favorite fuzzball as he showcases some of DC’s best swimsuit covers and most swim-tacular stories! From Batman in a bat(hing) suit to Poison Ivy pin-ups, this very special one-shot is summer fun from (bikini) top to (bikini) bottom.
Plus! Each copy of G’Nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition features a randomly inserted centerfold, distributed in equal quantities: Poison Ivy by Jen Bartel, Nightwing and Barbara Gordon by Jorge Jimenez and Alejandro Sánchez, and G’Nort himself, by Simon Bisley! You’re not going to want to miss the all-new pin-ups of DC’s beach-body babes!
Thanks to the magic of comics, you can join in the beach blanket fun by recreating J. Scott Campbell & Tanya Lehoux’s variant cover for yourself! Grab a friend, pull on your swim trunks, hit the beach with your copy of G’nort’s Illustrated, and snap a photo—the back cover of G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition features the same “Gotham Magazine” artwork that Batman holds over his face on the front!
G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition collects some of the splashiest, steamiest, swimsuit covers from DC’s best talent, all in one place for the very first time, along with Steve Orlando, Paul Pelletier, Norm Rapmund, Adriano Lucas and Rob Leigh’s Midnighter and Apollo story, “Out There” from DC Cybernetic Summer, anda new 8-page story “Baewatch” featuring The Penguin—clad in the tightest bathing trunks you can imagine—by Julie Benson and Shawna Benson with art by Meghan Hetrick, Marissa Louise and Steve Wands.
Featuring 48 pages of art by Amanda Conner, Paul Pelletier, Nicola Scott, Mikel Janín, Jeff Dékal, Daniel Sampere, Gleb Melnikov, Derrick Chew, Stanley “Artgerm” Lau, Emanuela Lupacchino, Joëlle Jones, Megan Huang, Terry Dodson, Babs Tarr, Pete Woods, Joe Quinones, Hélène Lenoble, Otto Schmidt, Michael Allred, Sweeney Boo, David Talaski, Jenny Frison, and others, G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition will publish on August 29, 2023, available in comic book shops and participating digital retailers.
G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition will feature a main cover by Vasco Georgiev along with open-to-order cardstock variant covers by J. Scott Campbell & Tanya Lehoux, Adam Hughes, and a 1:25 variant cover by Pablo Villalobos. All four covers will feature J. Scott Campbell’s “Gotham Magazine” artwork on the back.
For the latest information on the World’s Greatest Super Heroes, check out the official DC website at www.dc.com, and follow @DCComics and @thedcnation on social media. The DC UNIVERSE INFINITE digital subscription platform (DCUI) has an incredible selection of classic issues of DC’s comic books, in addition to a great lineup of titles featuring Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, and more. For more information and a free trial, visit the website at www.dcuniverseinfinite.com. DC UNIVERSE INFINITE is not available in all countries and is not intended for children.
DC, part of Warner Bros. Discovery, creates iconic characters and enduring stories and is one of the world’s largest publishers of comics and graphic novels. Its creative work entertains audiences of every generation around the world with DC’s stories and characters integrated across Warner Bros. Discovery’s film, television, animation, consumer products, home entertainment, games, and themed experiences divisions and on the DC Universe Infinite digital comics subscription service. Learn more at DC.com.
A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit.
Emmy voting has begun! Oscar season has begun! What a weekend!
It appears to be the battle of the Academy viewing portals as final Emmy voting begins and the Television Academy is not only offering the digital ballot to the 20,000+ eligible voting members, but also a corresponding link to videos of the shows they are being asked to consider. Meanwhile the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has opened their digital viewing portal for Oscar season which kicks off in earnest in a few days at Venice, Telluride, and Toronto (but really is already well in progress thanks to “Barbenheimer”). More on the latter in a beat, but first….
Although I certainly didn’t have to be told voting was beginning (ballots are due back by 10pm PT August 28) as I answered the door Thursday morning to receive an FYC pie from Baking It (although it didn’t specify if Emmy nominated hosts Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph had cooked it themselves), I have to really congratulate the TV Academy and their digital savvy voting system. Yes, I am a longtime member but I have never seen such an easy and smooth operation when it comes to encouraging fair voting by making it so easy, with just a touch of the button really, to be able to watch all the nominated shows before casting your ballot. And rules are simple. You must have watched at least one episode of a series before voting in individual categories, and nominees are locked out of voting for themselves in the category in which they are personally nominated. Also, unlike Oscars, final voting is open only to members of individual branches for their votes, other than 15 program categories in which everyone gets a vote.
‘Succession,’ ‘The Last Of Us’ and ‘The White Lotus.’
HBO
For instance I am in the writers branch (and a former Governor there for six years as well) and I get to weigh in on all six writing categories for which actual scripts in addition to videos are a click away on the portal. Additionally like everyone else, I will vote on the 15 general program categories open to the entire membership. They are Comedy, Drama, Limited or Anthology, Television Movie Talk Series, Variety Specials in the separate categories of Pre-Recorded, Live, and Scripted, Hosted Non-Fiction Series or Special, Game Show, Reality Competition, Unstructured Reality, Structured Reality, plus Short Form Comedy Drama Variety Series, and Short Form Non-Fiction or Reality.
‘Poker Face,’ ‘Ted Lasso’ and ‘Abbott Elementary’
Peacock/Apple/ABC
What is great is that the Academy has provided simple viewing options on their portal for all of it. Six episodes each are provided for the eight Drama and eight Comedy series nominees. Limited or Anthology have all the episodes available and ready on the member’s ballot.
For most of the other categories, it is the individual nominated episodes that are provided. Outstanding Talk Series is a different situation as those are mostly daily shows so the nominations are represented on the site only by one single episode chosen by the producers of each. For Jimmy Kimmel Live it is the 20th Anniversary Special in which Jimmy interviews his younger self; For Late Show With Stephen Colbert it is the rare episode in which he did a pre-taped interview with Steven Spielberg and John Williams; for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah it is the Noah’s final show; for The Problem With Jon Stewart it is the episode focusing on the “war over gender”; and for Late Night With Seth Meyers it is a show with Kate Hudson and a “Day Drinking” segment in which he gets drunk with Lizzo. In light of recent negative publicity regarding Lizzo, that entry (chosen before those headlines) takes on perhaps a different feel watching it now as opposed to when it aired – or not depending on your state of mind.
Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah and Jon Stewart
Getty
In the Variety Scripted category, perennial Talk Series winner John Oliver has been moved for the first time to compete with two other weekly shows. His episode chosen is one where he talked about “museums.” Competitor and the usual winner here, Saturday Night Live chose the episode hosted by Pedro Pascal (who is also individually nominated in the Guest Actor Comedy category), while A Black Lady Sketch Show chose an episode dealing with “True Crimes Against Culture.” All of the above are easily available to watch on the portal before you cast your ballots folks, and a responsible voter should at least try to do that. The Academy certainly gives you the opportunity and no excuses not to do it.
The 75th Primetime Emmys, originally scheduled to take place September 18 on Fox, have of course been delayed due to the strikes and will now air on MLK day, January 15. But the decision was made not to move the voting schedule out of August since unforeseen events could possibly influence the way people might vote. The Academy wisely kept it all in place as originally planned. Accountants Ernst & Young will just have to keep it all quiet for a very long four and a half months.
MOTION PICTURE ACADEMY WELCOMES OSCAR SEASON – AND FYC MONEY
The other digital portal to keep voters occupied is the one run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for the long, very long, Oscar season and “The Academy Screening Room” just went live today for its 10,000+ membership. It ain’t free for distributors, though. If you have a studio movie, it is $20K just to get your movie in front of the voters, and if you are an independent film, it will cost you $8K. Docs, International entries, and Animation are free but only for their one individual category — if you want to be considered for others, you have to pay. AMPAS makes quite a bit of cash off this service, and in fact beginning with last season nearly doubled the original fees it requested. You might recall last season’s surprise Best Actress Oscar nomination for Andrea Riseborough for the truly independent To Leslie…, a little-seen movie that benefitted big time from forking over the money to be on the portal. Despite its controversial grass roots, WOM campaign it is highly likely it never would have landed a nomination without the access to voters through the AMPAS portal. The $8k discount price indicates AMPAS is trying to even the playing field between the haves and the have-nots. Nine films are the first this year to join the portal. They are below in this screenshot:
No Barbie, Oppenheimer, or Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One so far. Those are the first movies since before the pandemic to draw turnaway crowds at their official AMPAS screenings at the Goldwyn Theatre earlier this summer so a lot of Oscar voter eyes have obviously seen them. The portal works well for movies that might not be as widely viewed, although Amazon’s Air and Universal’s $1 billion + grosser The Super Mario Bros Movie are likely an exception. The latter is going for a Best Song nomination in addition to Animated Feature. Air would seem to be a strong contender in numerous categories despite its spring release. Sony Classics’ wonderful Yogi Berra docu It Ain’t Over deserves serious consideration in Documentary Feature. IFC’s terrific indie, Blackberry is worthy in many ways including Glenn Howerton’s supporting turn. That is the kind of film that really could benefit from its early arrival on this portal, which as the season goes along will undoubtedly get quite crowded.
In a letter to members this morning about the opening of the Academy’s member only streaming platform AMPAS notes the service isn’t just for hopeful Oscar nominees, but also features Museum programming, features and shorts preserved by the Academy Film Archive, member spotlights, and much more.
THE WOMAN RESPONSIBLE FOR BET’S SOLE 2023 EMMY NOMINATION
But back to the Emmys and what I think is one of the most interesting Emmy Nominations of the season. It belongs to Mary Lou Belli, a veteran television director of countless shows, as well as a true mentor, through her books and classes to so others, and many getting opportunities with her guidance and advice. The interesting part is that Belli represents the sole 2023 Emmy nomination for Black Entertainment Television (BET) and she happens to be Caucasian. In fact, this is the second year in a row Belli finds herself in the running for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for the Black sitcom, The Ms. Pat Show.
‘The Ms. Pat Show’ (BET+/Everett Collection)
This year the nomination came for the episode, “Don’t Touch My Hair” and she is thrilled no doubt to be in a category that otherwise includes such high profile contenders as Barry, The Bear, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Wednesday, and last year’s winner in the directing comedy category, Ted Lasso. Belli is just so happy to bring attention again to the series and all who work on it. In fact, she said she was so proud this summer when the show’s directorial team including the likes of Tasha Smith and Debbie Allen were honored by the African American Critics Association. She remembers the break she got when as a woman she was able to hit the glass ceiling and get hired in what was largely a man’s job in TV. She knows what it is like.
“Really, I was a minority when I was being hired. I just wasn’t, you know, in the black minority. And to be perfectly honest, then there were some wonderful African American directors, but the bench wasn’t quite deep enough,” she said but now hopes that is changing. She is constantly pushing for diversity as a Directing Branch Governor in the Television Academy and on various committees on which she serves in the Directors Guild, as well as her own aforementioned mentoring activities.
Mary Lou Belli IMDB
As for this second Primetime Emmy nomination for Ms. Pat, it is something special for her. “I’m so honored to be with these heavyweights and to have it for a second year in a row, I think lends some credibility to the fact that TheMs. PatShow is doing something extraordinary in its own right and deserves to be seen, not only for that special storytelling, but for the universal storytelling and this episode in particular,” she said. “It’s about an abusive mother, and a daughter who is coming into her own strength and realizing she can heal from that. The hair is part of the episode but it really is so much more and the story is so universal. Whether it’s a mother daughter situation or not, we all have demons to face, you know, and it’s part of growing up and going on with our lives and facing those obstacles in our way.”
The war between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Big Chunk Of Florida Owner The Walt Disney Corporation has been raging for more than a year at this point. It’s a conflict that is, on paper, about things like taxes, development rights, and control over special administrative districts in the state—but which is, in the real world, largely about who’s more willing to hurl the most shit at who at any given moment.
5 memorable moments from Coachella 2023
Now, Disney seems increasingly prepared to hurl another load of legal feces in DeSantis’ direction, as THR reports that the mega-corp is pushing forward with plans to launch a brand new countersuit against the governor—who kicked this particular hornets’ nest with his various anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-women, pro-right-wing-base initiatives over the last several years, causing angry Disney employees to prod their employer to get off its ass and actually use some of that considerable power it’s spent the last century accruing to oppose the governor’s general loathsomeness. DeSantis then (allegedly) retaliated against Disney critiques of his “Don’t Say Gay” law by putting a law in place last year that let him appoint the members of the board overseeing Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District—a 40 square mile patch surrounding the Florida park that Disney basically ran autonomously for the last 50-odd years—taking control of the district away from the company.
To be clear, Disney is already suing over all this, having launched a federal suit against DeSantis back in April, claiming he was using government power to retaliate against the company for exercising its free speech rights. Now, though, it’s filed for a second set of legal actions, a countersuit claiming that DeSantis’ actions constitute both breach on contract and violations of Florida’s state constitution. (The counter is in response to a suit from the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, claiming Disney illegally stripped the newly appointed board of its authority in the last days before DeSantis passed the new law.) And while DeSantis has publicly told Disney he’s “moved on” from their feud—having presumably milked as much money and votes as he expects to get from publicly boxing with a giant mouse—Disney doesn’t seem to be backing down.
If it’s not clear, the thing that seems to be mostly at risk here—besides public domain over a very expensive pissing match, and a public forum on the general willingness of state governments to use the levers of power to punish detractors—is control over development in the region immediately around the Walt Disney World Resort. Disney already owns the majority of the land in the region—Walt having snapped it up quietly while he was laying down plans for his second park in the last years of his life, determined to stop his personal utopia from being surrounded by the same array of businesses and other third parties that were already tightly encircling California’s Disneyland. But Reedy Creek (now the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District) has been one of the main instruments that Disney has used to keep tight controls on who gets to build what near the park; for good or ill, losing those controls is likely to have long-lasting impacts on the financial health of the park.
Lawsuits from two men who accused Michael Jackson of abusing them as children in the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland have been brought back from dismissal.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal on Friday reversed a ruling from a Los Angeles Superior Court judge dismissing the suits from Wade Robson and James Safechuck. They will be able to proceed with claims that a pair of corporations owned by the singer had a legal duty to protect them from sexual abuse Jackson is alleged to have inflicted on them when they were children.
The justices found that it would be “perverse” to find that the corporations should be excused from a responsibility to oversee the safety of the plaintiffs because they’re solely owned by Jackson.
The ruling marks the second time the suits, filed in 2013, were restored after being dismissed. In 2020, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Young found that Robson and Safechuck can’t sue the Jackson-controlled corporations for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty because they didn’t have the ability to stop his alleged sexual abuse of the children. Their suits were initially dismissed in 2017 because the statute of limitations had expired, but were brought back under legislation that gave a three-year window of victims of sexual abuse to sue.
The court rejected the corporations’ arguments that they didn’t have a duty to protect the men because “they had no ability to control Jackson—their sole owner—or his interactions” with children. “To treat Jackson’s wholly-owned instruments as different from Jackson himself is to be mesmerized by abstractions,” wrote Associate Justice John Shepard Wiley Jr. in a concurring opinion.
A Los Angeles judge will now reconsider the accusations against Jackson.
The estate for Jackson has denied claims that he abused either of the men, who accused the singer of molesting them after meeting him on video and commercial shoots.
After more than a decade, Sammi Giancola has finally returned to the Jersey Shore franchise — and she’s still the sweetest bitch you’ll ever meet. In only the first two episodes of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation’s latest season, the drama is at an all-time high between Angelina Pivarnick and the rest of the girls, thus prompting Angeliners to bring Sammi back as an ally. However, when the former castmate resolves her beef with the group moments after their emotional reunion, it’s clear that there’s still more work to be done if the Staten Island-native also wants back on their good side. With Sammi’s return bringing back all the feels, the Jersey Shore family finally feels whole once again.
Los Angeles and the rest of Southern California is bracing for a potentially historic weather event this weekend as Hurricane Hilary barrels up the Mexico coast. The National Weather Service today issued the first-ever tropical storm watch for the region from San Diego northward to the Ventura County border as Hilary threatens most of the region and its 20 million inhabitants. NWS Los Angeles this afternoon expanded its tropical storm watch to not just Los Angeles, but the mountains, valleys, and foothills of Ventura County as well.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass today called the storm “potentially an unprecedented extreme weather event” at a news conference called to discuss storm preparedness. LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said the city has more than 3500 firefighters standing ready to assist with emergency situations. Sheriff Robert Luna told residents that officials were ready with a declaration of a tactical alert if more deputies are needed, for example, to help people evacuate.
This is the first tropical storm warning ever put in place between Hawaii and Texas, the NWS said. Weather officials are warning of “life-threatening rainfall and flooding” as the area from San Diego to Santa Barbara could see four inches of rain. Some SoCal areas could get two to three years worth of rain in just two or three days, particularly in the desert areas including Palm Springs. Some areas could see up to 10 inches.
The National Weather Service’s excessive rainfall alert graphic took a drastic change today as a large section warning of “high” risk of flash flooding was added from the Mexican boarder through inland San Diego County to Victorville in the north. It is bounded by Indio on the east and the City of Riverside in the west. There is also a “high” risk swath up around Death Valley. See overview and close-up images below.
That fuchsia blob indicating “high” likelihood of flash flooding is very roughly 150 miles long by 50 miles wide and contains hugely varied topography, from desert plans like the one on which Palm Springs sits, a large body of water like the Salton Sea and some of the highest peaks in Southern California, which will likely drive orographic precipitation and increase runoff.
Hurricane Hilary was upgraded Thursday night to a Category 4 storm, meaning winds of 130-156 mph that can cause “catastrophic damage.” It peaked on Friday at 145 mph. Hilary has intensified rapidly, going from a tropical storm to a Cat 4 hurricane in just 24 hours. It will weaken as it crosses into Southern California, but NWS warns that flash flooding is possible across Los Angeles and Ventura counties and perhaps Santa Barbara County. Rare and dangerous flooding also is possible across the mountains.
Sand berms are in place along the peninsula in Long Beach on Friday.
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The speed of the storm counts a lot. If it rolls slowly over land, it could be more destructive with winds and rain for longer periods.
Authorities up and down the coast and inland to Palm Springs and beyond are making preparations and urging residents to take the storm seriously.
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No tropical storm has made landfall in California in 84 years, and only three have happened in recorded history. The 1939 storm caused widespread damage, and the affected areas are much more heavily populated now. Nearly a year ago, the remnants of Hurricane Kay broke daily-rainfall records for Los Angeles, and there were more historic totals in March of this year.
City News Service contributed to this report.
People store objects inside a yacht at the Los Cabos Marina area before the arrival of hurricane Hilary at Los Cabos resort in Baja California state, Mexico on August 18, 2023.
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General view of the Medano beach before the arrival of hurricane Hilary at Los Cabos resort in Baja California state, Mexico on August 18, 2023.
For many, Jessica Alba will always be Sue Storm from The Fantastic 4. All of us who grew up in the 2000s remember her with platinum blonde hair and an ultra-tight navy blue suit. But over the years, the 42-year-old actor has shown us that she is as multifaceted as they come. In 2011, she showed a new version of herself as an entrepreneur with The Honest Company, a clean baby and beauty products company. And in 2023, she added home renovator to her resumé with Honest Renovations alongside Lizzy Mathis.
For Jessica Alba, working in interior design and decoration is not completely unexpected (the tour of her $10 million house is one of the most emblematic episodes of Architectural Digest), but now the actor is getting into the remodeling business with a Roku-exclusive show in order to change the lives of several families.
The promotion of her new show has also prompted Alba to leave her Los Angeles residence for a few days in rainy New York City. That’s good news for us, as it means we’ll have plenty of wardrobe inspiration, from the vibrant orange dress she wore a couple of days ago to an iconic power suit that proves that when in doubt, denim-on-denim will always be the answer.
Jessica AlbaGotham / Getty Images
With this blue denim monochromatic look, Jessica Alba gave a lesson on how to wear denim to the office. The key: structure. Alba brought the look together with a blazer with wide lapels and shoulder pads, which she paired with a denim bustier and on-trend flared hip jeans. After all, 70s pants will remain the competition for Y2K low-rise jeans. To accessorize, the actor wore white pumps, a shoulder bag in the same shade, sunglasses, and celebrity-favored hoops.
Evacuees from Yellowknife continue to pour into Calgary with 26 flights arriving on Friday and more coming in after a long journey by car or truck.
The Calgary Emergency Management Agency continues to provide shelter and other supports, but it’s a long, difficult process for travelers.
By the time they reach Calgary, they’ve already been through days of fearful waiting.
Summer Lee Brideau-Dryneck and her partner arrived at the Yellowknife Airport at around 4 a.m. on Thursday.
“By around 2 or 3 o’clock [p.m.] they told half the people to go home and come back tomorrow,” said Brideau-Dryneck. “I’m like, ‘I spent all night staying up. No sleep.’”
Evacuation efforts intensify as Yellowknife residents seek escape from smoke and danger
Many others arrived in Calgary, exhausted and hungry.
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“Just waiting for the line to go,” said Izaak Wezin. He joined many others Friday, lined up for hours as they waited to register at the Calgary airport’s evacuation reception centre.
“They keep giving us snacks and food,” said Dennis Scott. “It would be nice to get some hot food I guess. It would have been nice to have it planned out a little better, so we could have our rooms.”
The City of Calgary said Friday’s arrivals bring the total number of N.W.T. evacuees to Calgary to about 3,500. The city has said it has capacity for 5,000.
Fort Providence rallies around Yellowknife evacuees
Hundreds are checking in at local hotel rooms provided by the city.
Evacuees said they are being given $50 per day as a per diem for food.
“Fifty dollars. I would say that’s a dinner meal in Yellowknife,” said Brideau-Dryneck. “It’s not enough.”
The city said it is working to ensure it’s helping as many people as possible, given the volume of evacuees and the extent of the response.
‘Run for your life’: NWT residents flee wildfires, find refuge in Alberta
It’s leaning on other Calgary organizations like the Salvation Army, who’s hosting 17 vulnerable evacuees from it’s Yellowknife facility at Calgary’s Centre of Hope.
The United Way, meanwhile, is mobilizing resources to provide what supports it can. At this point only monetary donations are being accepted.
“People have lost everything,” said Yvette Biggs, with the United Way. “So how do we connect people to get food, clothing, shelter? A lot also is psychological first aid.”
“There’s a lot of trauma that has happened”
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The Aboriginal Friendship Centre is also among those on site at the reception centres, preparing for difficult days ahead.
“I don’t want to think of it burning,” said Brideau-Dryneck. “On Canada’s side, it’s an indigenous part and its a lot of historic side for my people. It’s a lot.”
Chris Pine, 42, soaked up the last days of summer by enjoying a vacation in Sardinia, Italy, on Aug. 16 (SEE PHOTOS HERE)! The Star Trek actor opted to go shirtless while enjoying a day on the water and rocked a pair of bright orange swim trunks with palm trees on them. Chris accessorized his look with black sunglasses and clear goggles that hung around his neck. He was notably accompanied by a mystery brunette, who looked chic in a sage green bikini and similar sunglasses to Chris’.
Chris Pine rocked a classic tux during a prior outing. (Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock)
Later, the two got cozy and took a dip in the ocean together. The mystery woman had her arms wrapped around the 42-year-old’s neck while they swam in the crystal-blue water. The two returned back to dry land and rocked different ensembles once they got off the boat. Chris, for his part, looked dapper in a pair of black shorts and white linen button-up shirt.
He opted to wear the shirt unbuttoned and added a straw beach hat and black sunglasses to protect himself from the sun. His date also looked stylish in a pair of white shorts, a blue linen shirt, and tan sandals. She completed her beach-side attire with black sunglasses, one again similar to Chris’.
Chris Pine is an actor known for his work on ‘Star Trek’ & more. (Lucia Sabatelli/Action Press/Shutterstock)
This is not the first time that Chris has enjoyed a romantic vacation in Italy, as he previously visited the country in Aug. 2018 alongside British actress Annabelle Wallis, 38, as reported by PEOPLE. At the time, he and The Mummy star vacationed with his parents, Robert and Gwynne. Annabelle and Chris were first linked to each other in Mar. 2018 but did not confirm their romance until Jul. of that year.
His romance with the 38-year-old eventually fizzled out, as they reportedly split in early 2022, per Entertainment Tonight. A source close to the matter claimed that they “have broken up and haven’t been together for a few months,” during the Mar. 2022 interview. Interestingly, Annabelle dated Coldplay‘s Chris Martinfrom 2016 to 2017. Prior Annabelle, Chris was linked to Sofia Boutella, who he co-starred alongside on Star Trek Beyond in 2016. The Los Angeles native has notably never been married.
New chatbots powered by artificial intelligence upended public schools and universities across the United States last winter. Some colleges and districts raced to block student access to the A.I. tools over fears they could enable widespread cheating.
Now, as the new academic year begins, some educational institutions are embracing the chatbots, while others are not. We’d like to hear about your experience.
We’re asking educators and students to tell us how they are using A.I. chatbots as education tools. We’d also love to know how the new A.I. tools have changed your academic life.
If you’d like to participate, please fill out the form below.
We will not publish any part of your submission without contacting you first. We may use your contact information to follow up with you. Please fill out this form only if you are 14 or older. If you are between the ages of 14 and 17, a reporter will ask to get in touch with your parent or guardian before talking with you further. No A.I.-generated responses, please.
One does not simply build Mordor. It takes weeks of preparation, countless extras, days of shooting, 9,000 visual effects, several real, exploding geysers and meticulous shot planning and sound mixing.
But before the Amazon series “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” crew could really go full-Mordor destruction, they needed to shrink everything down to a singular point of view with the show’s hero, Galadriel (played by Morfydd Clark).
Attentive viewers noticed Mount Doom’s destructive climax, complete with a storm cloud sweeping across land, was reflected in the elf warrior’s face, a threat she met head-on, eyes open. “When you watch the series in a row, Episode 6 ends with Galadriel’s perspective and Episode 7 starts with Galadriel’s perspective,” “Rings of Power” sound editor Robbie Stambler explained. “You’re completely in her head for it happening and then the aftermath and the wake-up.”
“We knew that we wanted to start Episode 7 with her waking up in the hellscape that we created, it was important for us to bookend with her,” cinematographer Alex Disenhof said, revealing that this idea originated from Charlotte Brändström, the director of Episodes 6 and 7.
“I always find it important to shoot a scene through somebody’s POV,” Brändström explained. “Whenever I get a script or a scene, I look at perspective. It gives a point of view for the audience to identify with…it had to become Galadriel’s point of view because she’s sort of the red thread all season. She’s so badass and she’s our warrior, so we had to be her.”
Director Brändström, cinematographer Disenhof, VFX producer Ron Ames and supervising sound editor Stambler sat down for Variety’s “Making a Scene” series, presented by HBO, to unveil all the work that went into creating Mordor, “Lord of the Rings” author J. R. R. Tolkien’s realm of evil and future home of villain Sauron.
The importance of these two episodes was not lost on the crew. “Very early on when we were talking about this particular episode, we knew that we were coming to Mount Doom,” Ames said. “Throughout all of it, [VFX Supervisor] Jason Smith and I would listen and the writers and creators would tell us their idea and then we’d go in the other room and go, ‘Oh my God, how are we going to do this?’”
First and foremost, the crew would need to map out an entire blueprint of how everything was being built. “There was this key that we had been teasing throughout Season 1, this broken sword,” said Disenhof. “By putting it in this stone and turning, it would essentially unlock the dams that would then allow the water to flow underground into these tunnels…under the village all the way to the mountain, hitting the magma lava and causing the explosion, which is loosely based on real science and how it would cause something like that.”
“There was no part of this that we allowed to not be connected to true physics,” Ames agreed. “We designed roughly what that machine was going to do and be, and it was a waterworks, basically a dam that had been built in and disguised into the side of the mountain, looked like a small waterfall.”
The fact that this disaster is unleashed on the Númenorean warriors and Southland people in the middle of the day was all intentional. “They had won the battle, they felt they were out of it,” said Brändström. “They felt that they were safe, everything was good. And that’s why I feel like it was such a surprise and so strong at the end of that episode because… it was completely unexpected when the water started spurting.”
The geysers themselves were all practical on set, but due to the tight shooting schedule the extras only had a couple takes to get soaked (the team couldn’t keep drying them off) but it was impossible to get that visceral reaction and that wet look without creating the effect in real life. As for the lava, Stambler incorporated the sound of a wet sponge on a hot fryer.
The details behind this expansive, multi-episode sequence is impressive, watch the full conversation about the making of Mordor above.
Image Credit: Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock / David Fisher/Shutterstock
Wizards of Waverly Place alum Selena Gomez, 31, and Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus, 30, have both announced their dropping singles on Aug. 25th! And rather than competing, they’ve both decided to show each other love ahead of the big day. In a hilarious throwback video of a Hannah Montana episode, Selena (as her former character Mikayla Skeech) feuded with Miley’s Hannah while working the phones at a telethon. But there was no sign of their onscreen feud in Miley’s caption. “@selenagomez and I are both dropping our new SINGLEs SOON….. I SAY WE #USEDTOBEYOUNG,” she wrote alongside a re-tweet of the clip.
.@selenagomez and I are both dropping our new SINGLEs SOON…..
Meanwhile, the Only Murders In The Buildingactress took to Instagram stories to share the same adorable clip. “@mileycyrus and I both have a SINGLE SOON and we are both releasing on the same day,” she captioned the video. “We have been friends since we USED TO BE YOUNG. Excited for August 25!!!”
The tweet sent many of the “Flowers” singer’s 46.5 million fans on the platform into a frenzy, and they rushed to the comments thread to rave. “Double the awesome,” quipped a follower, while another gushed, “MOTHERS.” “WOMEN SUPPORTING WOMEN / ICONS SUPPORTING ICONS,” remarked a third.
Though rumors of a feud have plagued the former Disney Channel actresses, none seems to actually exist. A source told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY in 2020, after Selena appeared in an Instagram Live with Miley, that their friendship was “back on” — and addressed ongoing rumors of a collab. “Miley and Selena‘s friendship is back on, they are both following each other on Instagram now and will continue staying in touch,” the insider told HLat the time.
Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock / David Fisher/Shutterstock
“There’s no way to really say where things will go from here but Miley is thrilled that they did the show and she’s really got nothing but praise for Selena,” they continued. “She’s so honored that Selena was willing to get so honest with her like that, she really respects her for opening up and is calling her brave. Miley loves collabing with different artists so it’s not out of the questions that she could do a song with Selena down the road. It’s not something on the table now but never say never.”
Aarush Verma expresses his displeasure over not getting to watch OMG 2 because of A certification.
Aarush Verma played the on-screen son of Pankaj Tripathi in Akshay Kumar starrer OMG 2.
Akshay Kumar starrer OMG 2 has been making headlines ever since it was announced. The film that finally got released on August 11 along with Sunny Deol’s Gadar 2 has received great reviews from all around. Not only that, the film that highlights the importance of sex education has managed to mint Rs 111 Crores. Interestingly, the film was awarded an A certificate by the censor board.
Reacting to the same, one of the main actors from the film Aarush Verma has expressed that he is not able to watch his own film.
The 16-ywars old actor that essayed the role of Vivek, Pankaj Tripathi’s on-screen son told India Today,”One of my biggest desires and ambitions was to see myself on the big screen, which I couldn’t and that kind of pissed me off. I couldn’t watch it because they’ve turned it into an A-rated film. It just felt annoying. And if they’re (CBFC) making that same movie 18 +, it kind of defeats the point of making such a film,”
In a viral video shared by the official Instagram handle of Viacom18, Akshay Kumar can be seen addressing a hoard of fans who had turned up to catch the screening. The actor can be heard saying, “Kamaal ki baat bataun, pehli adult film hai joh teenagers ke liye bani hai. Actually yeh sab school main dikhana chahiye (The funny thing is that this is the first adult film which is made for teenagers. This should be shown in schools).”
Playing the messenger of Lord Shiva in OMG 2, Akshay Kumar makes appearances throughout the film to help Pankaj Tripathi, who is battling a court case based on sex education. In one scene, Akshay announces his arrival by singing the iconic track ‘Udd Jaa Kaale Kaava’ from Gadar, which has been retained for Gadar 2 as well. “O ghar aaja pardesi, ke teri meri ek jindri…” Akshay sings as he enters and exits the scene. The placement of the song comes as a surprise, especially since both films are locking horns at the box office.
OMG 2 is the sequel to Akshay Kumar’s 2012 film, OMG. The actor plays the role a messenger of Lord Shiva in the movie. The film was put on hold by the Censor Board and about 27 changes were directed to the filmmakers. After making the changes, OMG 2 was given an ‘Adults Only (A)’ certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
Apart from Akshay Kumar, the film stars Pankaj Tripathi. The film also features Yami Gautam as a lawyer. The recently released trailer revealed that the film revolves around sex education.
News18’s review of Akshay and Pankaj’s OMG 2 reads: “The strongest superpower the film has its script. Director Amit Rai doesn’t try to add unnecessary elements to pack in the punch. The horse blinders are set to focus on sex education and that’s everything the film does. Amit also tackles the subject with sensitivity, making it a powerful and thought-provoking film. The second half is bound to feel preachy because the objective of the film is to urge people that it’s okay to talk about sex but it needs to be handled with care.”
Yatamanyu is a multi-disciplinary Journalist & Photographer who dabbles in Films, Poetry, Music, Politics, Pop-Culture and everything in between. …Read More
Chris Peluso, a stage actor who starred in Broadway’s “Mamma Mia!” and “Wicked,” as well as “Miss Saigon” in London’s West End, died this week. He was 40.
A year ago, it was publicly announced that the prolific actor had stepped away from performing to seek treatment for schizoaffective disorder. Peluso’s family confirmed his death to Playbill this week but did not disclose his cause of death.
The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, where Peluso studied before starting his stage career, also confirmed his death.
“The Michigan Musical Theatre family is heartbroken as we announce the passing of our dear family member/alum, the loving, charismatic, and divinely gifted Chris Peluso,” wrote Linda Goodrich, the department’s interim chair, in a statement posted Thursday on Instagram. “Our hearts go out to his family.”
Peluso made his Broadway debut in the 2004 Tony-winning revival of “Assassins” as an understudy for the part of the Balladeer. He continued to be a respected understudy for musicals including “Lestat” and the original-cast run of “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.” Peluso landed a starring role as a replacement during the 14-year run of “Mamma Mia!” playing the main character’s love interest, Sky. He later toured the U.S. performing as Fiyero in “Wicked” and had starring roles in the Broadway classics “Les Miserable” and “West Side Story.”
In 2015, Peluso moved to London to star as male lead Chris in the West End’s version of “Miss Saigon.” He was cast alongside Eva Noblezada, starring as Kim, who would go on to reprise the role in the Broadway revival a year later and land a 2017 Tony nomination. Peluso called his role in “Miss Saigon” the favorite of his career.
In interviews, Peluso spoke glowingly of his new life in London, lauding the city’s cuisine. In his downtime, he enjoyed walks with his dog. He also loved the ritual of doing physical and vocal warmups together with the entire acting company prior to performances, a custom he said was not done in the U.S. on Broadway. Now a seasoned veteran, he had grown comfortable onstage as a performer.
“I’m definitely in the moment of the song,” Peluso told radio host Alex Belfield in 2015. “I’ve performed now for 25 years, a long time … so honestly I’m comfortable in the circumstances now, where I can look out into an audience — in fact it energizes me, rather than weakens.”
The following year, Peluso starred in the 2016 West End revival of “Show Boat,” a musical he had connected with — particularly its song “Ol’ Man River” — when he was a young actor.
“The first time I heard it was a musical theater class when I was a freshman in college — I remember having a cassette tape, oh I’m old,” he said while laughing at himself during an interview with See Tickets. “I hit play on the cassette tape in my car and I just was crying, it was just beautiful.”
Peluso is survived, according to Today, by his wife, Jessica Gomes, and their two children, Aria Li Gomes-Peluso and Caio Lian Gomes-Peluso.
The second MCU film led by Brie Larson’s superhero is yet to hit screens, but director Nia DaCosta is already addressing the possibilities of a Captain Marvel 3.
The Marvels is the next big release on Marvel Studios’ theatrical slate and will combine the stories of not just Captain Marvel, but those of Kamala Khan (aka Ms. Marvel) and Monica Rambeau as well.
The movie will force the three unlikely teammates to work together to save the universe from Zawe Ashton’s Kree revolutionary. The Marvels’ place in the Phase 5 schedule also means the film will set the stage for the trio’s future adventures, which could include Avengers 5 and beyond.
Is Captain Marvel 3 In the Works?
Marvel
In the latest issue of Total Film magazine, Nia DaCosta spoke about the possibility of more Captain Marvel adventures beyond The Marvels.
The director said she’d received mixed reactions after pitching future stories to Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, sometimes thinking she’s “got a movie going” and other times feeling there’s “a whole other plan I’m not part of:”
“I’ll pitch Kevin 17 versions of what can happen with all these women, and why and how, and this and that. And he’s like, ‘Okay, girl’, and sometimes I think I’ve really got a movie going after this. And then other times, I’m like, ‘Oh, they have this whole other plan that I’m not a part of.'”
Captain Marvel 3 would likely also hinge on the box office results of The Marvels.
Speaking on the success of female-led films in 2023 DaCosta said it’s “really about whether or not the movie’s good:”
“In terms of women-led films and women as superheroes in particular, and excitement around that, I think it’s really just about whether or not the movie’s good. Especially now we have more and more films that are female-led that are action-based or superhero- based.”
DaCosta added that the success of something like 2023’s Barbieis “so specific”, explaining that for female superhero films, like The Marvels, it’s the quality of the film that will “keep the audiences coming back:”
“‘Barbie’ is so specific – it’s Barbie. Every girl in the world pretty much probably had a Barbie, and a lot of men. So I think that’s a phenomenon that’s probably gonna make a billion dollars.”
“But I think for women-led superhero films, as long as the quality stays up, that’s what’s gonna keep the audience coming back.”
How Far Could Captain Marvel Fly?
Captain Marvel’s box office success in 2019 meant that a sequel was almost inevitable. With Disney in the business of reducing its content output right now, it means The Marvels will need to see similar success if Captain Marvel 3 is to be assured.
In any case, it seems like DaCosta is willing and ready to go on a sequel to The Marvels and there is no shortage of storylines to draw from within the comics of the three female heroes.
There’s also the question of whether these characters fit into Kevin Feige’s overall plan for the MCU. While The Marvels has been confirmed to impact the MCU going forward, there’s no telling where Captain Marvel and her team will stand after the events of Avengers: Secret Wars.
That being said, The Marvels features some of the MCU’s most popular heroes. Captain Marvel has proven herself a bankable character after raking in over a billion dollars and Ms Marvel remains one of the most highly-rated MCU series on Rotten Tomatoes.
With even more attention being placed on the trio in The Marvels, it seems like they could have a big future ahead of them in the MCU.
The Marvels is scheduled to release in cinemas on November 10.
Filmmaker James Gunn responds to concerns about overcrowding in Superman: Legacy, comparing it to the number of characters in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
Some fans worry that the abundance of characters in superhero films like Captain America Civil War and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 can lead to bloated stories and lack of character development.
The example of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame shows that having a large number of characters can lead to meaningful and emotional interactions, suggesting it may not be an issue for Superman: Legacy.
Who would have thought Superman: Legacy would ever be compared to The 40-Year-Old Virgin?Divisiveness has always been a part of the online culture, and now a fan is calling out filmmaker James Gunn for including too many characters in his upcoming Detective Comics Universe (DCU) film Superman: Legacy. Gunn took to social media to discuss his favorite songs of 2023 when someone brought up the question of overcrowding the movie on Threads. @pharhud wrote:
“James, don’t you think there is too many characters in Superman: Legacy? I just feel like there won’t be much time for Superman himself.”
@jamesgunn responded:
“I don’t understand this fear. There are less characters than in 40-Year-Old Virgin. Did you think Steve Carell got enough time?”
It turns out that the fear of having too many characters in Superman: Legacy is a legitimate concern for some fans. @weaselcatcher isn’t bothered by the notion, personally, but the Threads’ user did point out the fact that superhero flicks like Captain: America Civil War, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Iron Man 2 are all arguably guilty of committing the sin of excess.
Are There Too Many Characters in Superman: Legacy?
DC Studios/DC Comics
James Gunn’s first official entry in the DCU hasn’t even taken flight yet, but some fans worry that Superman: Legacy might be a little too crowded for the new Man of Steel (David Corenswet) already. @phrankvalencia also addresses the concern, but is still clearly supportive of the project. The user said in the same Threads post:
“I hope you are right James, but we know from previous films when you have too many characters the film can be seem bloated and the character development for the main character suffers. It takes balance, but I admit seeing Superman interact with other DC characters does sound very cool. I honestly hope you succeed.”
Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame are arguably the two leading examples of the old cliché, the more the merrier. The Russo Brothers included an almost countless array of characters in those Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) entries which included a vast number of meaningful and emotional superhero interactions.
@iofrosteminus cited these MCU films when arguing that more characters won’t be an issue for Superman: Legacy, and even a reference to Christopher Nolan’s historical drama Oppenheimer found itself in the mix:
“Did people complain about too many characters in Infinity War or Endgame? Or Oppenheimer? I wonder how many characters would be the sweet spot for them. It is a strange one. Unless it’s specifically a one-man-show, I don’t understand this concern either.”
At the time of this writing, the Last Son of Krypton will only be flanked by a handful of super-powered characters that Gunn has gone on record and confirmed — a couple of those being Guy Gardner’s Green Lantern and Hawkgirl. Indeed, fans should resign themselves to the fact that more characters are sure to be included. While speculation on the internet runs rampant, as to whether it will be Brainiac or Lex Luthor, it’s important to remember that Superman: Legacy hasn’t even officially cast its villain yet.
Twitch announced this week that an upcoming change will allow streamers to block banned users from tuning into their streams. “You can choose to have your banned chatters no longer be able to watch the stream,” Senior Product Manager Trevor Fisher revealed on Twitch’s Patch Notes podcast (viaTechCrunch), stressing that the feature won’t be enabled by default. The new blocking feature will roll out in the next few weeks.
“The way that it will work is if you ban somebody and they’re currently watching, then the stream playback will be interrupted for them so that they immediately lose the ability to view the stream,” he explained. “And then if you go offline, you stream again, they won’t be able to watch your subsequent streams either until you choose to un-ban them.” He said it would have the same effect regardless of whether the streamer or a moderator bans someone: That person can’t watch your streams until they’re unblocked.
One significant limitation to the new feature is that it only applies to logged-in users: Anyone viewing a stream while logged out of their account can still watch it. Twitch isn’t blocking IP addresses (at least for now), which leaves room for the noteworthy exception.
“Abbott Elementary” garnered a lot of comparisons to “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation” when it debuted in 2021, and for a good reason. The Quinta Brunson-created ABC comedy utilizes the workplace mockumentary format that made those shows stand out, and more specifically, it shares with them a key creative: director and producer Randall Einhorn. But when it came to developing “Abbott,” Einhorn felt that the device needed some updating.
“We wanted the teachers to appear favorably, because they’re doing a thankless task for very little money,” Einhorn says, noting the contrast with Steve Carell’s Michael Scott, whose incompetence anchors the American version of “The Office.” “We wanted them to look like heroes. That’s why this looks different than ‘The Office,’ which comes with low ceilings and floor lights. It’s like a place where you serve time, whereas I really wanted ‘Abbott’ to feel warm and inviting, a place you want to get back to.”
And when “Abbott” returned for its second season, it leaned into one of the most storied sitcom tropes of all: the will-theywon’t-they. Since the pilot, viewers have clung to the slow-burn flirtation between Janine (Brunson) and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) that came to a head in Season 2. The success of that tension has much to do with the visual tastes Einhorn developed while working on shows like “Survivor” and “Fear Factor” before he made the move to scripted television.
“Coming from reality and documentaries, when you see people coming together to have an intimate moment, my instinct is always to back up,” he says. “So, when Janine and Gregory come together, we’ll put a doorframe in there to imply that they can’t see us. In reality TV, you back up so that people can have an honest conversation. But when we package it with really long lenses, the viewer feels privileged to be part of it. I don’t want passive viewers — I want people to go, ‘I can’t see around that corner. Show me more!’”
During two key episodes of Season 2 that Einhorn directed, “Abbott Elementary” wordlessly elevated Janine and Gregory’s feelings for each other to a point that the characters could no longer ignore. In “Holiday Hookah,” the two young teachers end up at the same night club. Feeling too embarrassed to speak, they dance instead, getting closer and closer together.
After they exit, they almost kiss.
“There were these unspoken moments: looks checking in with each other and checking who’s watching them. Creating those quiet, intimate moments in a sea of people was really fun,” Einhorn says. “We rented some really, really long, big, thick lenses. There’s a lot of scouting and design that went into making the club feel like they could be alone and still be surrounded.”
In “Teacher Conference,” Janine and Gregory sneak into an educational exhibit after its closing time. In a classroom made up of floor-to-ceiling flowers, ducking to avoid getting in trouble, they finally do share a kiss.
“We designed it so that the cameras could film on the outside of the space and not be in the room with them — peeking through, just barely catching what we see. It gives us this richness and makes them feel caught. We worked with our production designer, Michael Whetstone, to ensure that it was difficult to film, but we could get enough of it. In struggling to get those shots, we made it feel more authentic.”
Einhorn invokes an adage from behindthe-scenes on “The Office” that’s as true of filming romance as it is of romance itself: “Everything that makes it harder makes it better.”
We hear the decision was made out of an abundance of caution as the storm is expected to make landfall on Sunday. Further cancelations could be made depending on the gravity of the damage.
It marks the first time that picketing has been canceled in LA since the beginning of the writers strike, 109 days ago. In July, picketing was canceled for a few days as a result of the heat.
Tropical Storm Hilary formed off the coast of Mainland Mexico and strengthened into a hurricane early Thursday. Over the next 24 hours, the storm’s maximum sustained windspeed rapidly intensified from 75 to 145 mph by Friday morning as an intense Category 4 hurricane. The 2 p.m. update from the National Weather Service indicated the maximum sustained winds had dropped to 130 mph, slowing it down to the bottom end of Cat 4.
The remnants of Hurricane Hilary are forecast to hit Southern California including Los Angeles this weekend with tropical-storm-force winds (39-73 mph) and very heavy rain. By Sunday, Hilary is expected to slow down to a tropical storm potentially stopping in Southern California and Los Angeles, especially at higher elevations later in the day. The storm was about 360 miles SSW of Cabo San Lucas by late morning on Friday.
It’s important to note there are multiple variables at play that could change the organization and location of the storm up to the very last minute. However, SoCal residents should prepare for heavy rain and potential electrical power loss.
Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Aug. 14-20. Details and times are subject to change.
Monday
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1940) 4 p.m. on TCM. Before we were introduced to Colin Firth or Matthew Macfadyen as the moody but endlessly charming Mr. Darcy, there was Laurence Olivier in the role. The story, based on the novel by Jane Austen, follows the Bennet family, who are excited by the prospect of two wealthy and eligible bachelors coming to town. Upon meeting, Elizabeth Bennet (Greer Garson) and Mr. Darcy fall into one of the most memorable enemies-to-lovers arcs of all time.
Tuesday
THE LOVE EXPERIMENT 10 p.m. on MTV. If the many dating reality shows that already exist (see: “Love Island,” “Love is Blind,” “The Ultimatum,” “Are You the One?” “Bachelor in Paradise”) don’t tickle your fancy, MTV has a new one. This show is as if you were in a dating app and all the men are actually ready for relationships: the three best friends Marcia, Paige, and Tamara (who are in their 20s and 30s) are put inside a “dating utopia” where they go on dates, test compatibility and do some challenges to try to find their lifelong partners.
Wednesday
GORDON RAMSAY’S FOOD STARS 9 p.m. on Fox. On this show you can’t just be good at cooking — you also have to be an entrepreneur in the making. As this season wraps up, the three final contestants compete for Gordon Ramsay to make a personal $250,000 investment. Who knows, the person who wins this season could also have six restaurants in Las Vegas, just like Ramsay himself.
TEMPTATION ISLAND: SECRETS REVEALED 9 p.m. on USA. Just like “Love Island” has its unseen bits episode or how “Big Brother” lets you watch livestreams inside of the house even when episodes aren’t airing, “Temptation Island” is releasing their own version of that. The finale of the fifth season will air later in August, but before that happens, they are showing bloopers and some interesting moments that happened between couples that were left out of the final edit of the show.
THE WONDER YEARS 9:30 p.m. on ABC. This remake of the 1980s sitcom about a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Ala., is wrapping up its second season this week. In the hour long finale, there is a birthday celebration, a trip to Florida and some classic family squabbles.
Thursday
THE WEEKND: LIVE AT SOFI STADIUM (2023) 8 p.m. on HBO. On Netflix you can throw on Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” tour. On Disney+, you can watch the BTS “Permission to Dance” concert. And now, The Weeknd has joined the ranks of many artists to come before him who have released televised versions of their concerts. Filmed in Los Angeles in November 2022, his set includes a pretty intense light show and performances of some of his most famous songs.
PRAISE PETEY 10 p.m. on Freeform. This show could be “Schitt’s Creek” in an alternate, cartoon universe. In this show, Petey learns that she has inherited a small town from her dead father, but it turns out he is still alive and running a cult in the town. The kicker is that both shows star Annie Murphy. The cartoon is wrapping up its first season and has not yet been renewed for a second.
Saturday
50 FIRST DATES (2004)6:30 p.m. on TBS. Set in Hawaii, this movie follows Henry (Adam Sandler), a marine veterinarian, as he tries to woo Lucy (Drew Barrymore) every day. The problem? Lucy has short-term memory loss and relives every day over and over, which obviously makes it hard for Henry who has to reintroduce himself to her every single day. The movie is a comedy but a Psychology Today article points out that it is a pretty realistic interpretation of a condition called “anterograde amnesia.”
HER NAME WAS GRACE KELLY 7 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). Grace Kelly captured the attention of the world as she lived what seemed to be a real life fairy tale: After starring in popular films, she married Prince Rainier III and became the Princess of Monaco. A car accident in 1982 took her life, but she has remained in the public’s imagination ever since. This documentary features archival footage and home videos of Kelly, with tapes going back to three years old.
BRIDESMAIDS (2011) 8 p.m. on Bravo. “I’m ready to party with the best of them” is what Annie (Kristen Wiig) says after she takes an Ambien and a glass of whiskey on the plane ride to the bachelorette party of her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph), before wreaking absolute havoc on the flight. (I say the same thing every time I watch this movie.) The story follows Annie as she reaches emotional rock bottom, all while trying to support her childhood best friend during her pre-wedding festivities. The plot almost takes a back seat to the amazing chemistry between Wiig and Rudolph.
Sunday
FROZEN MARATHON 4:35 p.m. on Freeform. As we settle into the mid-August heat, I wouldn’t hate a trip to Arendelle. If you want to be transported to Elsa’s frozen land full of amazingly catchy songs, sisterly drama and, more important, sisterly love, you can catch both FROZEN (2013) and FROZEN II (2019) back to back on Freeform.
This article first appeared as part of Jenelle Riley’s Acting Up newsletter – to subscribe for early content and weekly updates on all things acting, visit the Acting Up signup page.
Charlene Lee and Claire Koonce want actors to succeed. At CLCK casting, which they founded in 2019 after working together on various projects, they share similar work ethics and values. “Charlene and I really focus on inclusivity, authenticity and kindness,” says Koonce. “We feel there’s a lot of talent in this town. And the way that every single person is treated throughout the casting process is important to us. We want to cast authentically and inclusively and do quality work, but kindly.”
That skillset came in handy when the pair were tasked with casting “Beef,” Netflix’s heralded limited series starring Ali Wong and Steven Yeun as Amy and Danny, strangers who continue to antagonize each other after a random road rage incident. The dark and funny show created by Lee Sung Jin is populated with characters who make some questionable choices. And while they don’t always come off as likable, they are always presented as human. Notes Koonce, “Even within that darkness, everyone deserves empathy and grace, that’s a universal story. But there’s also such specificity to this world and each one of these characters. It’s so fun to work on something so specific and yet so universal.”
While Wong and Yeun were already attached when the pair came on board, the duo set out to build the world around them which is populated with some familiar faces (Maria Bello shines as an affluent businesswoman) and some breakthrough newcomers (Young Manzino plays Danny’s brother Paul and Joseph Lee is Amy’s husband George) And the process clearly worked — “Beef” has received 13 Emmy Award nominations, including five for its aforementioned actors and a nomination for Lee and Koonce for casting.
What are some of your favorite casting moments — maybe times where you were particularly happy to see an actor book a role or someone you had supported or fought for got a part? Lee: One huge casting challenge on “Beef” was in episode one — there are a lot of flashbacks. You see parents and the younger versions of the main characters. It was like putting together a puzzle in a way, but really satisfying.
Koonce: I don’t think there was anyone we really had to fight for, because it felt like the whole team was on the same page. But many times, it comes down to smaller roles and you’re like, “Okay, you might not know this actor very well, but we’ve known them for 10 years and trust us, it’s going to be fantastic.” That happens on a lot of projects. For example, Lee and I had auditioned Brie Larson for several things and then we were working on “Skull Island.” She had done “Room,” and we were excited about potentially capitalizing on having her as the lead.
At the same time, we also get really excited when there’s someone we haven’t seen before. Like Young Manzino; it was exciting to meet him during this process and then watching him go the distance and get the job.
Lee: Both Young and Joseph Lee were actors we found through extensive searches. And the George character was particularly hard to cast because I think that character is really tough — you have to understand why he and Ali’s character are fighting for their relationship. It’s easy for that character to be one-dimensional but he avoided that. And when Joe got the role, it was just so satisfying.
The relationships in the show are so essential. Were you able to do any kind of chemistry reads for casting? Or was it all over Zoom? Lee: The majority of it was on Zoom, as it was during COVID. But we were fortunate to do some sessions in person. One of our first callback auditions was in a parking lot, actually. It was so hot and were using a tent. But it was important to try and do the chemistry reads in person when possible and make sure it was safe.
Obviously, casting changed dramatically during the pandemic and now much more is done virtually. Are there things you like about that system? Koonce: I feel like there are unexpected pros and unexpected cons. One of the pros is that it truly democratizes the process; it opens up the pool of talent that we’re looking at worldwide. We can see actors who don’t just live in Los Angeles. But it also ends up putting more work on the actors who can get overloaded with tapes and don’t know how to prioritize. The biggest casualty of doing everything over self-tapes is that the relationship we have with an actor is paramount.
Lee: Something we’ve tried to do, even during the height of the pandemic, is if we see something in a read that needs to be adjusted, we go back and give notes. Or call people back and try to work with them and give them a chance. It’s something we’re still navigating. We try to give actors as much information as possible for a self-tape. If there’s a tone that’s tricky to navigate, if there’s any piece of information we think might help, if we can tell them who’s involved — all those things that can help inform how they approach a tape.
Koonce: The one thing I really want to stress is that it is incredibly important to us that the entire process be free. So get as good as lighting and sound as you can get for free. If props help you focus, great, but we don’t require them. Our focus is on the actor and what they’re doing in the scene, the choices they make and what they bring to the character.
Lee: Obviously we want to be able to hear and see you, but we don’t need it to be done at a fancy facility. The performance will shine through.
Koonce: There was a project I worked on as an associate and the guy who was cast as the lead was someone who, if you were to take a checklist of all the self-tape guidelines that people send out these days, he missed every single one of them. It was blurry, you could barely hear him, it was vertical … but he did a wonderful performance. At the end of the day, that’s what we care about.
You work with agencies and have other ways of finding talent. What are some of the other ways you’ve located actors? Lee: When I was working on “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” I had to do a search for sherpas and Chilean trawlermen. I was basically going around New York, be it Himalayan restaurants or different markets and cafes, just figuring it out. It was a lot of talking to people and getting recommendations and a really fun process.
Koonce: I worked on Disney’s “Jungle Book,” and we were looking for our lead character. And at one point, I was walking around the Taste of India festival in Cerritos and handing out flyers to parents standing around.
Lee: On “Beef,” we have to give a shout out to CAPE, the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment. We worked a lot with them, and they helped us get the word out on a variety of roles. Outreach is really important beyond the traditional methods of breakdowns, agency submissions, things like that.
Koonce: And that means finding the communities and then just getting the word out there for people who don’t have necessarily access to the same information that people in our industry have.
You mentioned bringing kindness into the process. Why is it important to make the experience positive for everyone? Lee: We have a lot of respect for actors and it’s tough to put yourself out there and audition. As much as possible, we try and create an environment where people can do their best work. At the end of the day, there’s multiple people who could get a specific role and there’s a variety of factors that go into one person getting it. And it’s challenging, and we understand that.
Koonce: At the end of the day, it is a business and it’s an industry. But we in casting get to hold this sacred little space where people have the courage to step in and share a piece of their soul. They’re standing on a stage completely exposed and letting us judge them. And we have to make that space for them. Starting with kindness truly leads to a better creative product, in our opinion. Treating people with respect, treating the craft with respect — without forgetting the pragmatic and logistical sides to it — makes for a better product and a nicer world.
In the halcyon days of pandemic TikTok, anyone mindlessly scrolling the app would almost certainly have seen the beaming face of Addison Rae. A sweet Southern blonde with a signature nose scrunch, she had dropped out of Louisiana State University for a wildly successful career emoting and dancing online, becoming the app’s highest-paid personality in 2020. You could watch her throw it back at TikTok’s first content mansion, the Hype House, or lip-sync to a bitchy Kardashians conversation with an actual Kardashian. Before the Kid Laroi was a Billboard-charting star, he was riding her coattails. “I need a bad bitch/Uh, Addison Rae,” he sang on his early viral hit, “Addison Rae.”
Social media celebrity is fickle, so Rae diversified her endeavors, acting in a Netflix rom-com and launching her pop career with a middling, Selena Gomez-esque debut single, “Obsessed.” The quality of these projects invited ridicule, and Rae’s sheer level of online exposure made both petty backlash and legitimate grievances inevitable. But it is often when a beautiful young singer “flops” that she encounters a new, more niche type of fame. Rae’s unreleased tracks leaked and began spreading online, resuscitated by queer pop-culture obsessives who noticed her hanging out with Charli XCX and listening to Burial and Arca. This smidge of subcultural status, combined with slightly more compelling vocals from Rae, were just enough for these poptimists to say: “Wait, this is kind of a serve.”
Now bidding for pop’s middle class, Rae has released a few tracks from her “lost” album, including the Gaga reject “Nothing On (But the Radio),” the Charli-assisted “2 Die 4,” and her latest, “I Got It Bad,” a bedazzled turn-of-the-millennium pop song that activates the same basal pleasure system as Lily Rose-Depp’s diegetic Idol smash “World Class Sinner/I’m a Freak.” On “I Got It Bad,” Rae is the generic innocent heroine falling for a bad boy, ready to submit to the extremes of obsession—“I don’t want something right down the middle”—and the mechanizations of the pop machine. And submission feels good—or at least, there’s an immediate reward in the song’s blingy flourishes and bass-heavy breakdown. “This is definitely something that could ruin my life,” Rae sings, sounding like someone familiar with the thrill of turning an ordinary character into an object of unusual fixation.
The Writers Guild of America has canceled its scheduled pickets in Los Angeles for Monday “in an abundance of caution” ahead of Hurricane Hilary’s expected arrival.
The guild plans to resume pickets on Tuesday outside of Disney, NBC Universal, Radford and Warner Bros., Amazon, Fox, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, and TV City.
The category 4 tropical storm is expected to deliver harmful flooding to the southwestern U.S. as it climbs up the coast along the California-Mexico border. For the first time in history, the National Hurricane Center has issued a tropical storm watch which is in effect for the area including the Orange County-Los Angeles County area and Catalina Island.
Here are the 2 PM PDT Friday, August 18, Key Messages for Hurricane #Hilary. Life-threatening and potentially catastrophic flooding is likely over much of Baja California and southern California this weekend and early next week. pic.twitter.com/JYY53C1Oz0
On Friday morning, Hurricane Hilary was located nearly 360 miles south of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, moving northwest at 10 mph with sustained winds of 145 mph.
Forecasters project the hurricane will lessen in strength after moving up from Mexico, but will bring heavy rainfall to Southern California, which, according to NBC News, mostly on Sunday and Monday.
SAG-AFTRA has yet to announce any coming changes in plans in preparation for the storm. As of Friday mid-afternoon, pickets are still scheduled to resume on Monday. A rep for the guild did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment, but sources say that a cancellation is likely.
The pickets are just one set of events that have experienced changes due to the coming weather. The Hollyshorts film festival closing night has switched locations from the Hollywood Highland Ovation Center’s outdoor courtyard over to Bardot’s indoor venue. (Originally, only the afterparty was scheduled to be held at Bardot.)
The Palm Springs and Yucca Valley areas of the Southern California desert are likely to be among the most affected, and Joshua Tree National Park will be closed from Saturday until Tuesday.
Kid Rock.Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for Chruchill Downs
Kid Rock has seemingly changed his tune when it comes to his beverage of choice.
The rocker, 52, was spotted sipping on a cold Bud Light while attending a Colt Ford concert in Nashville on Thursday, August 17, according to photos obtained by TMZ. Rock looked relaxed as he drank the alcoholic refreshment and laughed with friends, who also enjoyed the blue-canned beer.
Rock went viral in April when he shared a video of himself shooting several cases of Bud Light in response to the brand rolling out a series of cans with pride colors to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.
“Grandpa’s feeling a little frisky today. Let me say something to all you and be as clear and concise as possible,” Rock said in the Twitter clip before taking aim at the beverages with a firearm. He then turned back to the camera, stating, “ F—k Bud Light and f—k [brewing company] Anheuser-Busch.”
Two days prior to Rock’s outburst, influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who is transgender, appeared in sponsored post for Bud Light as part of the company’s March Madness campaign. The ensuing backlash led to “more bullying and transphobia than I ever could’ve imagined,” she said in an Instagram video the following month.
Weeks after Mulvaney’s post — in which she promoted Bud Light’s contest to win $15,000 — Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth issued a statement saying the company “never intended to be a part of a discussion that divides people.”
“As the CEO of a company founded in America’s heartland more than 165 years ago, I am responsible for ensuring every consumer feels proud of the beer we brew. We’re honored to be part of the fabric of this country,” Whitworth said, adding that instead of any division, “we are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”
Andy Kropa/Getty Images
Mulvaney, for her part, revealed no one from Anheuser-Busch reached out to her over the controversy despite the fact that she was receiving violent threats from people. She also noted that “for a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse, in my opinion, than not hiring a trans person at all.”
“The hate doesn’t end with me,” she continued. “It has serious and grave consequences for the rest of our community.”
This wasn’t the first time Rock has sparked controversy over his conservative beliefs. The musician came under fire in March 2020 when his Nashville eatery, Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock N’ Roll Steakhouse, stayed open after Mayor John Cooperasked the city’s bars and restaurants to close as the Coronavirus pandemic exploded. (The restaurant temporarily closed its doors in May 2020 after initially resisting.)
In December 2016, he sold concert T-shirts that supported then–President Elect Donald Trump at his concerts, including one that labeled the states that had voted for Hillary Clinton “Dumbf—kistan.”
Featuring 48 pages of art by Amanda Conner, Paul Pelletier, Nicola Scott, Mikel Janín, Jeff Dékal, Daniel Sampere, Gleb Melnikov, Derrick Chew, Stanley “Artgerm” Lau, Emanuela Lupacchino, Joëlle Jones, Megan Huang, Terry Dodson, Babs Tarr, Pete Woods, Joe Quinones, Hélène Lenoble, Otto Schmidt, Michael Allred, Sweeney Boo, David Talaski, Jenny Frison, and others, G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition will publish on August 29, 2023, available in comic book shops and participating digital retailers.
