<![CDATA[Tag: Celebrity News – NBC New York]]> https://www.nbcnewyork.com Copyright 2023 https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2019/09/NY_On_Light@3x-3.png?fit=552%2C120&quality=85&strip=all NBC New York https://www.nbcnewyork.com en_US Tue, 20 Jun 2023 04:44:31 -0400 Tue, 20 Jun 2023 04:44:31 -0400 NBC Owned Television Stations Bebe Rexha taken to the hospital after fan throws a phone at her face midconcert https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/bebe-rexha-taken-to-the-hospital-after-fan-throws-a-phone-at-her-face-midconcert/4435082/ 4435082 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/BEBE-REXHA.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Pop star Bebe Rexha was smacked in the face by a cellphone that sailed from the audience onto the stage during her New York City concert over the weekend, landing one man in police custody.

Video shows Rexha bring her hands to her face in shock, then drop to her knees as crew members rush onto the stage behind her.

“Absolutely great show ruined by a fan throwing their phone at @BebeRexha hopefully she is ok after that,” wrote a Twitter user who shared the clip online.

The New York Police Department said it arrested 27-year-old Nicolas Malvagna of New Jersey and charged him with assault.

Rexha was taken by EMS to an area hospital in stable condition, police said.

Rexha posted an update on TikTok on June 19, sharing a video that shows her with a bruised eye and bandages across her eyebrow.

“I’m good, yeah I’m feeling all right,” she sings in the video, a nod to the lyrics in “I’m Good (Blue),” her remix with David Guetta.

The concert, held at Pier 17 in New York City on June 18, was cut short early, according to fans who shared angry messages on social media and posted videos of Rexha being escorted off the stage.

NBC News has reached out to Rexha’s team and will update this post with more information when available. 

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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Mon, Jun 19 2023 01:12:12 PM
Bebe Rexha hit in face by cellphone thrown on stage during Manhattan concert https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/bebe-rexha-hit-in-face-by-cellphone-thrown-on-stage-during-manhattan-concert/4435032/ 4435032 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/Bebe-Rexha-1.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Singer Bebe Rexha was left injured and fell to her knees on stage after a cellphone was hurled from the audience and struck her in the face during a concert in Manhattan, police said.

Video showed what happened at the Brooklyn-born artist’s performance at The Rooftop at Pier 17 in lower Manhattan Sunday night, as she was in the middle of a song when the phone came flying in from the crowd, striking her very close to her left eye.

Rexha immediately turned and went to the floor after getting hit. She was taken by am ambulance to the hospital, where she was treated her for her injuries. As she was recovering on Monday, Rexha posted a video on TikTok showing the injuries, which appeared to include a cut above her eye as well as bruising to the area.

In the 5-second video, she said simply “I’m good, yea I’m feeling alright,” a nod to her 2022 hit song with David Guetta.

Police said that a 27-year-old New Jersey man threw the phone and was taken into custody. Nicolas Malvagna, of Manalapan, was charged with assault for the incident.

According to court documents, Malvagna chucked the phone at Rexha because he was “trying to see if I could hit her with the phone at the end of the show because it would be funny.” There have been similar incidents with other artists where fans have tossed their phones on stage, hoping for a photo.

Malvagna was represented by Todd Spodek at his arraignment Monday evening and faces multiple counts of assault and harassment.

Rexha is scheduled to perform Tuesday night in Philadelphia.

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Mon, Jun 19 2023 09:40:00 AM
Comedian Pete Davidson charged with reckless driving after Beverly Hills crash https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/comedian-pete-davidson-charged-with-reckless-driving-after-beverly-hills-crash/4430535/ 4430535 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/AP23156846652674.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,197 Los Angeles prosecutors charged former “Saturday Night Live” star Pete Davidson with reckless driving Friday, three months after authorities said he crashed into a Beverly Hills home.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed one misdemeanor count of reckless driving against the actor and writer but did not release details about the March 4 collision in Beverly Hills.

“We believe that Mr. Davidson engaged in reckless driving, which ultimately resulted in his involvement in a serious collision into a home,” the DA’s office wrote. “Luckily, no one was seriously injured as a result of this collision.”

Davidson’s arraignment is set for July 27. His representatives and Beverly Hills police did not immediately return requests for comment.

Prosecutors used the high-profile case to highlight the “devastating consequences” of reckless driving.

“In 2022, traffic fatalities in Los Angeles have reached the highest levels seen in 20 years,” the office wrote in its statement. “This is an alarming trend that we cannot ignore. As a result, it’s crucial that we take all allegations of reckless driving seriously and hold those responsible accountable.”

Davidson’s latest show, “Bupkis,” debuted on Peacock last month.

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Fri, Jun 16 2023 08:09:34 PM
Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, dies at 92 https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/daniel-ellsberg-who-leaked-the-pentagon-papers-dies-at-92/4429656/ 4429656 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/AP23062281448445.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,200 Daniel Ellsberg, the history-making whistleblower who by leaking the Pentagon Papers revealed longtime government doubts and deceit about the Vietnam War and inspired acts of retaliation by President Richard Nixon that helped lead to his resignation, has died.

He was 92.

Ellsberg, who announced in February that he was terminally ill with pancreatic cancer, died Friday morning, according to a letter from his family released by a spokeswoman, Julia Pacetti.

Until the early 1970s, when he revealed that he was the source for the stunning media reports on the 47-volume, 7,000-page Defense Department study of the U.S. role in Indochina, Ellsberg was a well-placed member of the government-military elite. He was a Harvard graduate and self-defined “cold warrior” who served as a private and government consultant on Vietnam throughout the 1960s, risked his life on the battlefield, received the highest security clearances and came to be trusted by officials in Democratic and Republican administrations.

He was especially valued, he would later note, for his “talent for discretion.”

But like millions of other Americans, in and out of government, he had turned against the yearslong war in Vietnam, the government’s claims that the battle was winnable and that a victory for the North Vietnamese over the U.S.-backed South would lead to the spread of communism throughout the region. Unlike so many other war opponents, he was in a special position to make a difference.

“An entire generation of Vietnam-era insiders had become just as disillusioned as I with a war they saw as hopeless and interminable,” he wrote in his 2002 memoir, “Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers.” “By 1968, if not earlier, they all wanted, as I did, to see us out of this war.”

As much as anyone, Ellsberg embodied the individual of conscience — who answered only to his sense of right and wrong, even if the price was his own freedom. David Halberstam, the late author and Vietnam War correspondent who had known Ellsberg since both were posted overseas, would describe him as no ordinary convert. He was highly intelligent, obsessively curious and profoundly sensitive, a born proselytizer who “saw political events in terms of moral absolutes” and demanded consequences for abuses of power.

As much as anyone, Ellsberg also embodied the fall of American idealism in foreign policy in the 1960s and 1970s and the upending of the post-World War II consensus that Communism, real or suspected, should be opposed worldwide.

The Pentagon Papers had been commissioned in 1967 by then-Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, a leading public advocate of the war who wanted to leave behind a comprehensive history of the U.S. and Vietnam and to help his successors avoid the kinds of mistakes he would only admit to long after. The papers covered more than 20 years, from France’s failed efforts at colonization in the 1940s and 1950s to the growing involvement of the U.S., including the bombing raids and deployment of hundreds of thousands of ground troops during Lyndon Johnson’s administration. Ellsberg was among those asked to work on the study, focusing on 1961, when the newly-elected President John F. Kennedy began adding advisers and support units.

First published in The New York Times in June 1971, with The Washington Post, The Associated Press and more than a dozen others following, the classified papers documented that the U.S. had defied a 1954 settlement barring a foreign military presence in Vietnam, questioned whether South Vietnam had a viable government, secretly expanded the war to neighboring countries and had plotted to send American soldiers even as Johnson vowed he wouldn’t.

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Fri, Jun 16 2023 02:34:17 PM
Who could replace Pat Sajak on ‘Wheel of Fortune'? Here are 7 potential hosts https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/who-could-replace-pat-sajak-on-wheel-of-fortune-here-are-7-potential-hosts/4425840/ 4425840 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/web-230615-vanna-white-ryan-seacrest-whoopi-goldberg.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 “Wheel of Fortune” has a new puzzle to solve for the first time in over 40 years.

Pat Sajak announced on Monday that the show’s upcoming season will be his last. The 76-year-old has been host since 1981, becoming the Guinness World Record holder for “longest career as a game show host for the same show.”

Who will step into Sajak’s shoes on “Wheel of Fortune”? Let’s look at some celebrities who have tossed their own name into the mix, along with others who could be a potential fit.

Vanna White

If “Wheel of Fortune” is looking for continuity in the post-Sajak era, it could turn to the show’s iconic letter turner.

Vanna White celebrated her 40th year with the show last December. She has experience stepping in for Sajak, too, taking her first spin as host in 2019.

Maggie Sajak

White may have 40 years of experience, but Maggie Sajak has been around “Wheel of Fortune” since she was born.

Maggie Sajak debuted on the “Wheel of Fortune” stage as a 1-year-old with her father hosting. She has since stepped in as a letter turner during White’s temporary hosting stint and became a social media correspondent for the show in 2021.

Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goldberg professed her interest in the “Wheel of Fortune” job on “The View.”

“I want the job,” she said on Tuesday’s show with “Jeopardy!” host Ken Jennings as a guest. “I think it’d be lots of fun.”

Goldberg has game-show experience after being the center square on “Hollywood Squares” from 1998 to 2002. The Oscar-winning actress has been on “The View” since 2007.

Ryan Seacrest

Ryan Seacrest is one of the most recognizable hosts in America, and he reportedly is already in the mix for the “Wheel of Fortune” job.

Seacrest has already been talking to the show’s producers with some people saying he’s the “frontrunner,” Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw reported.

He also got an endorsement from his former “Live!” co-host, Kelly Ripa, who said “he’d be perfect for that.”

Wayne Brady

Speaking of longtime hosts, Wayne Brady’s experience on “Let’s Make a Deal” and “Don’t Forget the Lyrics!” makes him a sensible option. He also made a special appearance on “Wheel of Fortune” during a holiday episode back in 2003.

LeVar Burton

LeVar Burton was in the mix to replace Alex Trebek on “Jeopardy!” before Jennings and Mayim Bialik were named permanent hosts. He got a chance to guest-host the show in 2021, but “Wheel of Fortune” could be his chance at a full-time game-show gig.

Stephen A. Smith

Lastly, one of the biggest names in sports media announced his interest in hosting the game show.

“I want to throw my name in the hat,” Smith emphatically said on his podcast, “The Stephen A. Smith Show.” “If ‘Wheel of Fortune’ called to ask me to host a show for a couple of days, I wouldn’t mind. I wouldn’t mind hosting that show.”

Smith mentioned that he wouldn’t want to sacrifice his day job with ESPN’s “First Take” or his podcast.

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Thu, Jun 15 2023 11:32:12 AM
‘Everwood' star Treat Williams' final moments detailed by crash witness days after actor's death https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/everwood-star-treat-williams-final-moments-detailed-by-crash-witness-days-after-actors-death/4425535/ 4425535 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/web-061223-treatwilliams.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 New details on Treat Williams‘ final moments have been disclosed.

Two days after the Everwood actor’s fatal motorcycle accident, Vermont resident and auto repair shop owner Matt Rapphahn—who was present for the collision—shared that the 71-year-old was “conscious and verbal” in the moments before he was rushed to the hospital.

“I ran over to [Treat]” Rapphahn told People June 14, “and then I ran back to the shop and called 911.”

As Rapphahn recalled, the “Chesapeake Shores” star was struck by a Honda and thrown from his motorcycle, noting that the driver got out of the car to “console” him.

“It was hard to tell [it was Treat] with the helmet on,” Rapphahn continued. “But [the driver] knows him—knew him—and he was saying, ‘Oh, my God, it’s Treat.'”

After paramedics arrived, Williams was still “verbal” but was “in a great deal of pain.”

“But they had to get him onto the backboard to get him onto the stretcher,” Rapphahn added, “and then onto the ambulance.”

Celebrity Deaths: 2023’s Fallen Stars

After being airlifted to Albany Medical Center in Albany, New York, as police previously confirmed June 12, the actor was pronounced dead.

Shortly after his passing, Williams—who played Dr. Andrew “Andy” Brown on “Everwood”—was honored with a tribute shared by those closest to him.

“As you can imagine, we are shocked and greatly bereaved at this time,” his family shared in a June 12 statement obtained by NBC News. “Treat was full of love for his family, for his life and for his craft, and was truly at the top of his game in all of it. It is all so shocking right now, but please know that Treat was dearly and deeply loved and respected by his family and everyone who knew him.”

His family went on to note they are “beyond devastated.”

“To all his fans,” they continued, “please know that Treat appreciated all of you and please continue to keep him in your hearts and prayers.”

(E! and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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Thu, Jun 15 2023 08:15:11 AM
DJ Khaled shares video of his painful surfing accident https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/dj-khaled-shares-video-of-his-painful-surfing-accident/4425489/ 4425489 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/GettyImages-1258432590.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,217 DJ Khaled is feeling low after suffering injuries in a surfing accident.

The musician fell off his surfboard during a recent tropical vacation, as seen in footage shared to his Instagram on June 11. In the video, Khaled attempts to balance on the board, before falling on top of it with his chest.

“I’m in so much pain,” Khaled said in an Instagram clip June 11, which shows him getting a massage. “I tried to golf this morning. I played, I made it to the eighth hole and then I had to stop myself because I know I’m going to golf everyday. So, I came to get a massage and make sure I get better.”

While he said he was going to consult with a doctor that evening to make sure there were no grave injuries, his masseuse informed him that the muscles around the impacted area appeared “really irritated and disturbed.”

DJ Khaled’s Son Asahd’s Cutest Celebrity Moments

For now, Khaled is rethinking how much time he spends golfing while on the mend.

“It’s affecting the process of the progress,” the 47-year-old shared. “And I can’t have that. I’m updating you because I was depressed leaving the golf course today ’cause I never stop. But I gotta be smart, so I can play every other day. And every day I don’t want to hurt myself and not be able to play golf.”

Yet, he was back on the course two days later, with his golf game better than ever. As he captioned an Instagram carousel, “TODAY BELIVE IT OR NOT MY INJRUY HELP MY GOLF GAME MADE MY SWING SMOOTHER.”

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Wed, Jun 14 2023 10:08:57 PM
Kevin Spacey plans a comeback if he is cleared of sexual assault allegations https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/kevin-spacey-plans-a-comeback-if-he-is-cleared-of-sexual-assault-allegations/4423256/ 4423256 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/KEVIN-SPACEY.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Actor Kevin Spacey has said he plans to make a comeback after the conclusion of his trial over alleged sexual offenses in London, which is expected to begin later this month.

“I know that there are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London,” Spacey, 63, told German newspaper Die Zeit’s ZEITmagazin in an interview published Wednesday. “The second that happens, they’re ready to move forward,” he said in the interview, which took place last month and was billed as his first since the scandal.

The two-time Oscar winner is facing a total of 12 sex offense charges relating to events that are alleged to have taken place between 2001 and 2013. A four-week trial is expected to start on June 28, according to British newspaper The Guardian.

The actor pleaded not guilty last July to five of those charges, which featured four counts of sexual assault and one of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent. Then, in January he pleaded not guilty again to seven more sex offense charges, denying a number of alleged sexual assaults against one man between 2001 and 2004.

Read more at NBCNews.com.

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Wed, Jun 14 2023 04:17:49 PM
Marlon Wayans cited after luggage dispute with United worker at Denver airport https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/marlon-wayans-cited-after-luggage-dispute-with-united-worker-at-denver-airport/4419833/ 4419833 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/GettyImages-1250866889-e1686685536723.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,200 Comedian and actor Marlon Wayans was cited for disturbing the peace after a dispute he said he had with a United Airlines employee over carry-on luggage at the Denver airport last week, police said Monday.

Wayans said on Instagram that a gate agent told him he had too many bags and, despite consolidating his luggage, he was told he would have to gate check his bag rather than carry it on. Wayans, who said his treatment constituted harassment, said he took his ticket and began walking onto the plane.

In response to questions about what had occurred, United issued a statement that did not refer to Wayans by name.

“In Denver on Friday, a customer who had been told he would have to gate-check his bag instead pushed past a United employee at the jet bridge and attempted to board the aircraft. The customer did not fly on United to his destination,” it said.

Wayans said he booked a flight instead on American Airlines to Kansas City, saying he would rather fly coach on another airline than fly first-class on United. He apologized to his fans in Kansas City for missing a performance.

“Sorry KC I’m gonna miss tonight’s shows due to a United gate agent who probably hated white chicks,” Wayans said on Twitter, referring to his 2004 movie which also starred his brother Shawn Wayans.

A spokesperson for Wayans, Leslie Sloane, said Wayans had a backpack, a small carry-on and garment bag with a suit jacket in it and put his backpack inside the garment bag but was still told he had to check his bag on a flight that was not full.

She said it’s important to Wayans that everyone feels safe and respected when flying, no matter what class they are in.

“He felt none of that,” she said.

The citation issued to Wayans says he must appear in court in Denver on July 11.

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Tue, Jun 13 2023 03:47:51 PM
Treat Williams dead at 71: Emily VanCamp, Gregory Smith and other stars pay tribute https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/treat-williams-dead-at-71-emily-vancamp-gregory-smith-and-other-stars-pay-tribute/4419050/ 4419050 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/GettyImages-1181757417-e1686669368828.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,200 The Everwood cast is honoring the late Treat Williams.

After learning that the actor—who played Dr. Andy Brown on the drama series—passed away, several of his former co-stars paid tribute on social media.

“The many times we worked together- always wonderful and I was always excited for the next time,” Emily VanCamp wrote on Instagram June 13. “Sending all my love to your family Treat. Fly high my friend.”

Added Scott Wolf, “I love him and his beautiful family. Broken-hearted.”

Sarah Drew also expressed how she was “so utterly heartbroken” over the loss of Treat—sending love to his family—and Gregory Smith shared his memories of him as well.

“This news is devastating,” the actor, who played his TV son Ephram, told People, “Treat was a wonderful man and a brilliant actor. Above all, he loved his family so much.”

He added, “I’m very grateful for the time I got to spend as part of his extended TV family. He made an indelible impression on me during my most formative years. I will always cherish my time with Treat and think fondly of his stories, his laugh and his passion for adventure. I’m sending love to his family, Pam, Gil and Elinor. He will be deeply missed.”

Celebrity Deaths: 2023’s Fallen Stars

Vivien Cardone, who played Treat’s TV daughter Delia, also shared how she’ll remember him.

“My heart is shattered,” she wrote on Instagram. “You were my second father, both on and off screen. In a strange new place, surrounded by unfamiliar people, you were the first person who made Utah and Everwood feel like home.”

Reflecting on how his death came less than two weeks after the passing of fellow Everwood star John Beasley, the actress noted, “John was the soul of our little show” while Treat was “its beating heart, the one who brought us all together, who made us feel like a family.”

“Thank you for always being there for me, for keeping our relationship strong all of these years after our time on Everwood had passed,” she continued. “Thank you for treating me, my siblings, and my mother like we were your own flesh and blood. Thank you for being a shining example of dedication, commitment, and humility in the world of Hollywood. Thank you for making those years on Everwood the most magical and cherished memories of my childhood. You will always be my TV Papa. I love you so much.”

Treat’s family shared on June 12 that he passed away in Dorset, Vermont, following a motorcycle accident. He was 71 years old.

“As you can imagine, we are shocked and greatly bereaved at this time,” they said in a statement obtained by E! News. “Treat was full of love for his family, for his life and for his craft, and was truly at the top of his game in all of it. It is all so shocking right now, but please know that Treat was dearly and deeply loved and respected by his family and everyone who knew him.”

The star—who also appeared on shows like Chesapeake Shores and Chicago Fire as well as movies like Hair and Deep Rising—is survived by his wife Pam Van Sant and their children Gill and Ellie.

“We are beyond devastated and ask that you respect our privacy as we deal with our grief,” the family added. “To all his fans, please know that Treat appreciated all of you and please continue to keep him in your hearts and prayers.”

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Tue, Jun 13 2023 09:01:49 AM
Garth Brooks addresses ‘stir' over saying his bar will serve Bud Light https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/garth-brooks-addresses-stir-over-saying-his-bar-will-serve-bud-light/4417710/ 4417710 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/GettyImages-1473404373.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,220 Country Music star Garth Brooks on Monday addressed critics after he said his bar would serve Bud Light and other comments, and again said he wants customers to show tolerance.

The “Friends in Low Places” singer and Country Music Hall of Famer last week said that his new Nashville bar would serve “all kinds of beer,” including Bud Light.

Before April, a bar serving Bud Light would be so unremarkable it needed no announcement, but the brand in the blue can has been a target of a right-wing backlash since it partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a social media ad.

“We’re going to serve every brand of beer. We are. We just are. It’s not our decision to make,” Brooks said at Billboard Country Live on June 7.

People upset with Brooks’ remarks vented online and said they would burn their merchandise. Brooks on his livestream “Inside Studio G” addressed the controversy Monday, and acknowledged there had been a “quite a little bit of a stir” since the Billboard event.

Read the full story at NBCNews.com 

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Tue, Jun 13 2023 02:23:33 AM
‘Everwood' star Treat Williams dead at 71 in motorcycle accident https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/everwood-star-treat-williams-dead-at-71-in-motorcycle-accident/4417274/ 4417274 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/web-061223-treatwilliams.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 The “Everwood” family is weathering another devastating death.

Treat Williams, who played Dr. Andrew “Andy” Brown on the WB series, died on June 12 following a motorcycle accident in Dorset, Vermont, according to his family. He was 71.

“As you can imagine, we are shocked and greatly bereaved at this time,” they said in a statement to Deadline. “Treat was full of love for his family, for his life and for his craft, and was truly at the top of his game in all of it. It is all so shocking right now, but please know that Treat was dearly and deeply loved and respected by his family and everyone who knew him.”

The family added, “We are beyond devastated and ask that you respect our privacy as we deal with our grief. To all his fans, please know that Treat appreciated all of you and please continue to keep him in your hearts and prayers.”

Williams is survived by his wife, Pam Van Sant, and their kids Gille and Ellie.

Per Williams’ agent Barry McPherson, the star was making a turn when “a car cut him off.”

“I’m just devastated,” he told People in the wake of the fatal accident. “He was the nicest guy. He was so talented.”

Describing Williams as an “actor’s actor,” McPherson continued, “Filmmakers loved him. He’s been the heart of the Hollywood since the late 1970s.”

Indeed, Williams’ acting career spanned across decades. He made his silver screen debut in 1975’s “Deadly Hero” before starring in “Hair,” “The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper,” “Once Upon a Time in America and Flashpoint.” He also held credits on features such as “The Devil’s Own,” “Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous,” “What Happens in Vegas,” “127 Hours” and “Second Act.”

On TV, Williams was best known for his role on “Everwood,” starring as the lead for four seasons from 2002 to 2006. In recent years, the actor made recurring appearances on hits like “Chicago Fire,” “Chesapeake Shores” and “Blue Bloods.”

“He was really proud of his performance this year,” McPherson said. “He’s had a balanced career.”

Williams’ death comes two weeks after the passing of his “Everwood” co-star John Beasley. The actor died on May 30 at the age of 79.

Beasley, who starred as Irv Harper throughout the show’s run, was in the process of undergoing tests on his liver before his health abruptly declined, his son Tyrone told The Hollywood Reporter. He passed away at a hospital in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

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Mon, Jun 12 2023 10:55:32 PM
‘A wonderful ride': Pat Sajak announces upcoming season will be his last as host of ‘Wheel of Fortune' https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/a-wonderful-ride-pat-sajak-announces-upcoming-season-will-be-his-last-as-host-of-wheel-of-fortune/4416852/ 4416852 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/PAT-SAJAK.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Pat Sajak announced on Twitter on Monday that the upcoming season of “Wheel of Fortune” will be his last as host of the popular game show.

“Wheel of Fortune” originally began in 1975 as a daytime series on NBC. In 1981, Sajak stepped in to replace former host Chuck Woolery alongside Susan Stafford, TODAY.com reported. 

On March 22, 2019, Guinness World Records recognized Sajak for having the “longest career as a game show host for the same show.” 

Sajak has won three Daytime Emmy Awards in the outstanding game show host category (1993, 1997, 1998) as well as a lifetime achievement prize in 2011, according to the Internet Movie Database, or IMDb, NBC News reported.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

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Mon, Jun 12 2023 07:33:44 PM
‘Selling Sunset's' Amanza Smith hospitalized for blood infection https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/selling-sunsets-amanza-smith-hospitalized-for-blood-infection/4416101/ 4416101 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/Amanza-Smith.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Amanza Smith is finally getting answers after a painful health journey.

As the Selling Sunset star shared in a June 11 message to fans, she was admitted to Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles for an infection in her blood.

“Over a month ago and all of this started I thought that I had a bulging disk or a slipped disc or something wrong with my lower back that was regular,” Amanza wrote on Instagram alongside footage of herself getting treatment. “I laid in pain in my house for several days. I cried. I took Tylenol. I went to urgent care.”

After getting an MRI and CT scan, the 46-year-old was advised to go to the hospital.

“I came to Cedar Sinai last Friday thinking that I was going to get another scan on my back and then go home. Instead, I was admitted and they immediately started testing me for things in my blood,” she continued. “Come to find out I had an infection in my blood that had caused, a great deal of infection to be spread to the bones of my spine and it’s called osteomyelitis.”

The Love Lives of Selling Sunset Stars

Amanza started antibiotics in an attempt to treat her blood infection and diminish the infection in her spine, which, as she noted, was first believed to be a tumor. “Because on an MRI,” she wrote, “that’s what it looks like.”

“Everyone was very scared, including myself,” she added. “Here I am day 10 and I’m making this message a bit quickly because I’m about to go into surgery to have portions of the infection removed from my spine that weren’t getting any better…”

Later that same day, the mom of two returned to social media to give an update on her procedure.

“The surgery went well,” she said in an Instagram Story video. “I’m back in my room, I’ve already gotten changed back in my comfy pajamas and I’m on the mend guys. So thank you for all the well-wishes and prayers.”

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Mon, Jun 12 2023 07:24:12 AM
Tony Awards makes inclusive history and puts on quite a show despite Hollywood strike https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/tony-awards-makes-inclusive-history-and-puts-on-quite-a-show-despite-hollywood-strike/4414220/ 4414220 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/image-3-3.png?fit=300,169&quality=85&strip=all The intimate, funny-sad musical “Kimberly Akimbo” nudged aside splashier rivals on Sunday to win the musical crown at the Tony Awards on a night when Broadway flexed its creative muscle amid the Hollywood writers’ strike and made history with laurels for nonbinary actors J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell.

“Kimberly Akimbo,” with songs by Jeanine Tesori and a book by David Lindsay-Abaire, follows a teen with a rare genetic disorder that gives her a life expectancy of 16 navigating a dysfunctional family and a high school romance. Victoria Clark, as the lead in the show, added a second Tony to her trophy case, having previously won one in 2005 for “The Light in the Piazza.”

Producer David Stone credited the musical’s writers for penning a magic trick, calling “Kimberly Akimbo” a “musical comedy about the fragility of life, so healing and so profound and joyous that is almost impossible.” The musical took home a leading five awards, including best book and score.

Earlier, Tony Awards history was made when Newell and Ghee became the first nonbinary people to win Tonys for acting. Last year, composer and writer Toby Marlow of “Six” became the first nonbinary Tony winner.

“Thank you for the humanity. Thank you for my incredible company who raised me up every single day,” said leading actor in a musical winner Ghee, who stars in “Some Like It Hot,” the adaptation of the classic cross-dressing comedy film. The soulful Ghee stunned audiences with their voice and dance skills, playing a musician — on the run from gangsters — who tries on a dress and is transformed.

Newell, who plays Lulu — an independent, don’t-need-no-man whiskey distiller in “Shucked” — has been blowing audiences away with their signature number, “Independently Owned.” They won for best featured actor in a musical.

“Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat, Black little baby from Massachusetts. And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face that you can do anything you put your mind to,” Newell said to an ovation.

Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” which explores Jewish identity with an intergenerational story, won best play, also earning wins for director Patrick Marber, featured actor Brandon Uranowitz and Brigitte Reiffenstuel’s costumes.

The British-Czech playwright, who now has five best play Tony Awards, joked he won his first in 1968 and noted that playwrights were “getting progressively devalued in the food chain” despite being “the sharp ends of the inverted pyramid.”

Second-time Tony Awards host Ariana DeBose opened a blank script backstage before dancing and leaping her way to open the main show with a hectic opening number that gave a jolt of electricity to what is usually an upbeat, safe and chummy night. The writers’ strike left the storied awards show honoring the best of musical theater and plays without a script.

Before the pre-show began, DeBose revealed to the audience the only words that would be seen on the teleprompter: “Please wrap up.” Later in the evening, virtually out of breath after her wordless opening performance, she thanked the labor organizers for allowing a compromise.

“I’m live and unscripted. You’re welcome,” she said. “So to anyone who may have thought that last year was a bit unhinged, to them, I say, ‘Darlings, buckle up.’”

Winners demonstrated their support for the striking writers either at the podium or on the red carpet with pins. Miriam Silverman, who won the Tony for best featured actress in a play for “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” ended her speech with: “My parents raised me to believe in the power of labor and workers being compensated and treated fairly. We stand with the WGA in solidarity!”

Jodie Comer, the three-time Emmy nominated star of “Killing Eve” won leading actress in a play for her Broadway debut, the one-woman play “Prima Facie,” which illustrates how current laws fail terribly when it comes to sexual assault cases.

Sean Hayes won lead actor in a play for “Good Night, Oscar,” which dramatizes a long night’s journey into the scarred psyche of pianist Oscar Levant, now obscure but once a TV star.

“This has got to be the first time an Oscar won a Tony,” Hayes cracked.

Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning play about sibling rivalry, inequality and society’s false promises, won the Tony for best play revival. She thanked director Kenny Leon and stars Corey Hawkins and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: “They showed up to be large in a world that often does not much want the likes of us living at all.”

Bonnie Milligan, who won for best featured actress in a musical for “Kimberly Akimbo,” also had a message to the audience: “I want to tell everybody that doesn’t maybe look like what the world is telling you what you should look like — whether you’re not pretty enough, you’re not fit enough, your identity is not right, who you love isn’t right — that doesn’t matter.”

“’Cause just guess what?” she continued, brandishing her award. “It’s right, and you belong.”

Many of the technical awards — for things like costumes, sound, lighting and scenic design — were handed out at a breakneck pace during a pre-show hosted by Skylar Astin and Julianne Hough, allowing winners plenty of airtime for acceptance speeches but little humor.

The pre-show telecast on Pluto featured some awkwardly composed shots and some presenters slipped up on certain words. The tempo was so rapid, it ended more than 10 minutes before the main CBS broadcast was slated to start.

John Kander, the 96-year-old composer behind such landmark shows as “Chicago,” “Cabaret” and “The Scottsboro Boys,” was honored with a special lifetime award. He thanked his parents; his husband, Albert Stephenson; and music, which “has stayed my friend through my entire life and has promised to stick with me until the end.”

Jennifer Grey handed her father, “Cabaret” star Joel Grey, the other lifetime achievement Tony. “Being recognized by the theater community is such a gift because it’s always been, next to my children, my greatest, most enduring love,” the actor said.

Echoing the there of antisemitism, “Parade” — a doomed musical love story set against the real backdrop of a murder and lynching in pre-World War I Georgia that won Tonys as a new musical in 1999 — won for best musical revival, with Michael Arden winning for best musical director.

“’Parade’ tells the story of a life that was cut short at the hands of the belief that one group of people is more valuable than another and that they might be more deserving of justice,” Arden said. “This is a belief that is the core of antisemitism, white supremacy, homophobia and transphobia and intolerance of any kind. We must come together. We must battle this.”

The telecast featured performances from all the nominated musicals and Will Swenson — starring on Broadway in a Neil Diamond musical — led the audience in a vigorous rendition of “Sweet Caroline.” Lea Michele of “Glee” and now “Funny Girl” fame also performed a soaring version of “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”

It all took place at the United Palace Theatre, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan — a new venue for the ceremony, many miles from Times Square and the theater district.

“Thank you all for coming uptown. Never in my wildest dreams, truly,” Lin-Manuel Miranda joked onstage. He, of course, wrote the musical “In the Heights,” set in Washington Heights.

___

AP National Writer Jocelyn Noveck contributed to this report.

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Mon, Jun 12 2023 01:54:22 AM
Naomi Watts marries Billy Crudup: See the couple's adorable wedding photo https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/naomi-watts-marries-billy-crudup-see-the-couples-adorable-wedding-photo/4413434/ 4413434 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/web-061123-naomiwatts.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Naomi Watts is officially off the market.

The Mulholland Drive actress announced in a sweet Instagram message that she married Billy Crudup.

Naomi captioned her June 10 post, “Hitched,” alongside a photo of her looking lovingly at Billy as they posed in front of what appeared to be a Manhattan courthouse. In the same snapshot, the Watchmen actor was smiling from ear to ear and wrapped his arms around Naomi.

As for their wedding attire, the newlyweds dressed to impress.

The King Kong actress wore an intricately floral embroidered bridal gown by Oscar de la Renta, which perfectly coordinated with her white bouquet that was plucked straight from “the deli,” she revealed in an Instagram Story. For the groom’s part, he looked dapper in a navy blue suit with a white button-down.

After Naomi shared the news, she and Billy received an outpouring of love from their famous friends in the comments section.

Andy Cohen replied, “I feel partially responsible for this,” while Jennifer Coolidge gushed, “Hooray!!! Just woke up to this!!!!! Congrats!!! You two couldn’t look happier!!!”

Julianna Moore cheekily quipped, “FINALLY!!!” with several red heart emojis, with Gwyneth Paltrow sharing, “Yipeeeeeee!!!! Sending so much love!!”

Naomi’s ex, Liev Schreiber, who she shares kids Sasha, 15, and Kai, 14, with, also commented on her marriage news.

“Congratulations!!!” he shared. “Gorgeous!!!”

Billy is also a dad to son William Atticus Parker, 19, whom he shares with ex-Mary Louise Parker.

Back in April, engagement rumors swirled around after the actress was spotted wearing a massive diamond ring on that finger. When asked about her relationship milestone during a Today appearance, she played coy.

“My eye is hurting,” Hoda Kotb said. “There’s a big glint coming from some ring over here. It just struck me. But it’s beautiful.”

The actress cheekily responded, “Oh, the brain fog!”

Naomi and Billy’s low-key wedding comes as no surprise, as they’ve been keen on keeping their relationship private. In fact, the two, who played spouses on Netflix’s Gypsy, first sparked romance rumors in July 2017 and have since kept their love life under wraps.

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Sun, Jun 11 2023 01:31:44 PM
Kelis and Bill Murray are sparking romance rumors and the internet is totally shaken up https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/kelis-and-bill-murray-are-sparking-romance-rumors-and-the-internet-is-totally-shaken-up/4411605/ 4411605 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/web-061023-billmurray.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Fans seem to think something might be up between Kelis and Bill Murray.

The “Milkshake” singer, 43, and the Ghostbusters star, 72, sent the internet into a frenzy after The Sun reported in a June 8 article that the pair have ignited a romance.

According to the British outlet, Bill has been spotted at Kelis’ recent concerts, including last weekend, where he allegedly watched her London performance from the side of the stage. Currently, Kelis is traveling throughout Europe for her 2023 European Summer tour, which includes stops in the United Kingdom, as well as Germany and Wales.

E! News has reached out to their reps for comment on the claims and hasn’t heard back.

Still, the unexpected romance rumors left social media users sharing their shock online.

“Kelis’s milkshake bringing Bill Murray to the yard was predicted by no one, absolutely nobody,” one user wrote, while another added, “hey guess who kelis is dating i’ll give you infinity tries.”

26 Times Bill Murray Was Just the Best

Kelis was previously married to photographer Mike Mora until his death in March 2022 following a battle with cancer. The pair shared children Shepherd, 7 and Galilee, 2, and she’s also mom to son Knight, 13, from her first marriage with rapper Nas. (They wed in 2005 and divorced in 2009).

Before her tour, Kelis was spending time with her family on a rural farm.

“It’s a never a dull moment, I’ll tell you that much,” Kelis told E! News in February. “Boredom is not an option here. It’s busy, definitely busy.”

As for Bill, the actor was married to Margaret Kelly from 1981 until 1996. They welcomed sons Homer, 41, and Luke, 38. Bill also shares sons Caleb, 30, Jackson, 27, Cooper, 26, and Lincoln, 19, with late second ex-wife, Jennifer Butler, who he separated from in 2008.

And the Saturday Night Live alum is still brimming with romantic ideas, telling Deadspin in 2014 how someone should know if their partner is the one.

“If you have someone that you think is The One, don’t do… don’t just sort of think in your ordinary mind, ‘Okay, let’s make a date. Let’s plan this and make a party and get married,'” he said, per BBC. “Take that person and travel around the world.”

Bill continued, “Buy a plane ticket for the two of you to travel all around the world, and go to places that are hard to go to and hard to get out of. And if when you come back to JFK, when you land in JFK, and you’re still in love with that person, get married at the airport.”

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Sat, Jun 10 2023 01:57:48 PM
Brian Austin Green slams claim that ex Megan Fox forces sons to wear “girls clothes” https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/brian-austin-green-slams-claim-that-ex-megan-fox-forces-sons-to-wear-girls-clothes/4411580/ 4411580 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/web-061023-brianaustingreen.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Don’t come for Brian Austin Green‘s kids.

After a former Congressional candidate claimed that the actor’s ex Megan Fox forces their sons Noah, 10, Bodhi, 9, and Journey, 6, “to wear girls clothes,” calling the act “child abuse,” Green was quick to step in—and clap back.

“It’s a totally bogus story,” Green—who is also dad to 21-year-old Kassius (with ex Vanessa Marcil) and 11-month-old Zane (with girlfriend Sharna Burgess)—told TMZ. “There are only a few people in their world that can actually verify wether [sic] or not a story like this is true and I can tell you with absolute certainty it is not.”

“This person trying to claim this is true is a perfect example of someone with selfish motives,” he continued, “that does not care about negatively affecting a parent child relationship.”

In fact, Green and Fox, who split in 2020 after nearly 10 years of marriage, encourage their kids to express themselves through their style.

“Noah started wearing dresses when he was about two, and I bought a bunch of books that sort of addressed these things and addressed a full spectrum of what this is,” Fox previously told Glamour. “Some of the books are written by transgender children. Some of the books are just about how you can be a boy and wear a dress; you can express yourself through your clothing however you want. And that doesn’t even have to have anything to do with your sexuality.”

“So, from the time they were very young, I’ve incorporated those things into their daily lives so that nobody feels like they are weird or strange or different,” the Jennifer’s Body actress, engaged to Machine Gun Kelly, continued. “I can’t control the way other people react to my children. I can’t control the things that other children—that they go to school with—have been taught and then repeat to them.”

Which is also why she tries to keep her brood off social media.

“I’m so proud of my kids,” the 37-year-old raved to the outlet. “Noah is an unbelievable pianist. He can learn Mozart’s concerto in an hour. I want people to see that, but I also don’t want the world to have access to this gentle soul and say all the things that we all know they’re going to say.”

“I knew when they were very young, I wanted to try to protect them however I could, especially limiting their exposure to the Internet,” Fox said. “So far, we’ve done a really good job and we maintain their innocence in a lot of ways, but I know I can’t protect them forever.”

And that, honestly, really worries her. “I just wish that humanity was not like this,” she added. “Although my kid is so brave and my child is so brave and I know that they’ve chosen this journey for a reason. It’s just hard as a mom.”

For his part, the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum just wants his family to be happy. “I’ve heard from some people that they don’t agree, they don’t agree with him wearing dresses,” he said in 2017 when Noah was 4 years old. “To them I say, ‘I don’t care.’…It’s his life.”

“He’s not harming anyone wearing a dress,” the 49-year-old continued. “So, if he wants to, awesome. Good on him.”

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Sat, Jun 10 2023 01:30:35 PM
Please don't offer this backhanded compliment to Jennifer Aniston https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/please-dont-offer-this-backhanded-compliment-to-jennifer-aniston/4411592/ 4411592 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/web-061023-jenniferaniston.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 How’s Jennifer Aniston doin’?

Well, pretty darn great, thank you. And the 54-year-old doesn’t need you to reinforce that.

While discussing the backhanded compliment “you look great for your age” with British Vogue, the Friends alum admitted, “it drives me bananas. I can’t stand it.”

And rightfully so. “That’s a habit of society that we have these markers like, ‘Well, you’re at that stage, so for your age,'” she continued. “I don’t even understand what it means. I’m in better shape than I was in my 20s. I feel better in my mind, body and spirit. It’s all 100 percent better.”

After all, when it comes to fitness, she’s never on a break. “It used to be pounding, pounding, pounding,” she said of her previous routine. “You had to get 45 minutes to an hour of cardio; otherwise, you weren’t getting a workout. Not only do you stress your body, you burn out—who wants to do that at all?”

Then came Pvolve, a low-impact workout that uses resistance-based equipment. “It’s just good on my body; it’s good to my body,” she told the outlet. “And I feel like I’ve done something really good for myself.”

Also really good for her? Meditating every morning.

“You can meditate anywhere but usually I do it the minute I wake up,” she previously told E! News. “I just get my feet on the floor and sit down in front of a little altar. If I’m away, I just find a space for it. And even if it’s five minutes, 10 minutes, just I have to do it.”

And while Joey doesn’t share food, Aniston isn’t one to hold back a life hack. So, she shared how she always keeps a protein bar on hand to keep herself satiated.

“If I’m driving around all day,” she shared, “it’s usually in my cooler in the car and I’ll have it on my way home so I’m not so starving that I just eat like, crap or to eat too much.”

And yes, you read that correctly. The actress never leaves home without her…cooler.

“I’ve learned my lesson living as we live in California,” she admitted. “You go to get your bar and you open the package and it’s just like a melted Easter gone bad disaster.”

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Sat, Jun 10 2023 11:53:38 AM
‘Breaking Bad' actor Mike Batayeh dead at 52 https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/breaking-bad-actor-mike-batayeh-dead-at-52/4409978/ 4409978 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/GettyImages-487801247.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,240 The “Breaking Bad” community cast has lost one of their own.

Actor Mike Batayeh died in his sleep from a heart attack at his Michigan home on June 1, a rep confirmed to E! News. He was 52. Batayeh’s sister Diane told TMZ that his death was very sudden and that he didn’t have a history of heart issues.

“He will be greatly missed by those who loved him,” the family told the outlet June 9, “and his great ability to bring laughter and joy to so many.”

Batayeh portrayed Dennis Markowski on “Breaking Bad.” His character was the manager of Lavanderia Brillante laundromat, which was a front for the meth lab where Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) did their dealings.

E! News has reached out to the family as well but has not heard back.

Along with appearing on the hit AMC show for three episodes from 2011 to 2012, Mike had roles on “The Bernie Mac Show,” “Boy Meets World” and “CSI: Miami.” He was also a comedian, posting clips from his standup appearances on his Instagram two weeks prior to his death.

Celebrity Deaths: 2023’s Fallen Stars

In addition, Batayeh appeared in several films, including “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and “Gas.” In 2016, he spoke about his love of working on smaller films versus big budget ones.

“I like independent films more,” he said in an interview with PBS while promoting his Indie movie Detroit Unleashed. “There is something about the shoestring budget and there is more comradery I think. The big budgets, people are separated more. You go in and out for a day player.”

He added, “The experience for me is I’ve been on longer shoots for independents.”

Still, Batayeh enjoyed working on larger movies as well, including Adam Sandler‘s 2008 hit, “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.”

“Big budgets are more fun,” he continued. “It was a couple days I did on that but for me I prefer the independent.”

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Fri, Jun 09 2023 03:40:29 PM
Johnny Depp's former lawyer set to defend Gloria Trevi in ​abuse and exploitation lawsuit https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/johnny-depps-former-lawyer-set-to-defend-gloria-trevi-in-abuse-and-exploitation-lawsuit/4407760/ 4407760 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/image-2-1.png?fit=300,169&quality=85&strip=all The former lawyers of actor Johnny Depp, including renowned attorney Camille Vasquez, will defend Mexican singer Gloria Trevi, who’s facing a new lawsuit, according to Telemundo.

Trevi and producer Sergio Andrade are facing a new lawsuit for the alleged abuse and exploitation of two girls in the 1990s in Los Angeles. The artist denied the accusations against her in a statement.

The two victims allege they were 13 and 15 years old when the “Pelo Suelto” singer approached them about joining an elite music training program.

In their description, the plaintiffs claim that Trevi manipulated them several times to become the producer’s “sex slaves” and that much of the abuse occurred in Los Angeles County.

Both describe that the events they experienced separately with Andrade were physical and sexual assaults, isolation from their family, and constant abuse.

The document was filed on Dec. 30 under California’s Child Victims Act, which allows survivors of child sexual abuse to file civil cases and temporarily suspends the statute of limitations for older allegations of child sexual abuse.

Gloria Trevi, for her part, rejected the accusations in a press release sent to Telemundo Digital.

In January 2000, Trevi, her former manager Sergio Andrade and María Raquenel Portillo, known as “Mary Boquitas,” were arrested in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on charges of kidnapping, rape and corruption of minors.

Trevi spent three years in jail and was extradited to Mexico, where she was acquitted and regained her freedom in September 2004, after a judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support the charges of rape, kidnapping and corruption of minors brought against her.

Trevi has always declared her innocence, and since her incarceration release, she has successfully resumed her career and has dedicated herself to trying to clear her name.

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Fri, Jun 09 2023 01:39:17 AM
Kevin Costner mortgaged his 10-acre California property to fund $100 million passion project: ‘I believe in the idea and the story' https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/kevin-costner-mortgaged-his-10-acre-california-property-to-fund-100-million-passion-project-i-believe-in-the-idea-and-the-story/4400009/ 4400009 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/107251799-1686063526521-gettyimages-1246808349-mv2_4075.jpeg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,200 Kevin Costner is putting his money where his mouth is.

The 68-year-old actor revealed in a recent Deadline interview that he took a mortgage out on one of his California properties to partially fund his latest project “Horizon: An American Saga”—the first of four films set in the pre-and-post Civil War expansion of the American West.

Costner’s mortgage on a property he already owns meant taking out a loan against the value of the land and giving the right to his lender to take it if he fails to repay the money with interest.

The property is a sprawling 10-acre plot of undeveloped coastline Costner purchased in 2006 for $28.5 million with plans to build his last family home.

“I did it without a thought. It has thrown my accountant into a f*cking conniption fit. But it’s my life, and I believe in the idea and the story,” he told Deadline.

Costner has been working on variations of “Horizon” on and off since 1988 but couldn’t find “anybody to make it” with him and agree to finance the $100-million plus production.

“At the end of the day, I’m a storyteller, and I went ahead and put my own money into it,” he said about why he decided to take out a mortgage. “I’m not a very good businessman, so, scratch your head, if you will. I don’t know why, but I have not let go of this one.”

The New York Post reports that Costner personally raised about $50 million for the film’s budget. The actor also told Deadline that to get the first two “Horizon” movies made, he deferred his writing, producer, and acting fees.

“I believe in the movies, the power of them, the longevity. By putting my own money in it, I will chase this movie with my partners the rest of our lives,” Costner said. “I can’t put my own money into something and have somebody else be in control, because, at the end of the day, the money isn’t as important to me as the movie.”

There is no official release date for the first of the “Horizon” films, but it will star Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Luke Wilson, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Kevin Costner himself.

This isn’t the first time Costner has helped fund his films

In the past, the actor put up his own money to fund the 1990 movie “Dances with Wolves,” the 1997 film “The Postman” and the 2014 movie “Black or White.”

Of the three projects, “Dances With Wolves” is the most critically acclaimed and earned Costner two Academy Awards for best director and best picture, as well as a nomination for best actor in a leading role.

It was the first film that Costner directed, which he didn’t intend on doing, but took the risk after being told by several directors what needed to be fixed in the script.

“I put all my money into this thing, and I actually asked three other directors to direct it before me. They each had kind of very pronounced ideas about what they wouldn’t leave in the movie. They’re very well-known directors,” Costner said. “I finally directed it by default. What I knew was, I wasn’t as good as any of those other directors. But I wasn’t gonna leave anything out.”

Though Costner has found success funding his own films in the past, the actor told Deadline that the “Horizon” movies will be the last time he does such a thing.

“I make these movies for people, not for myself. I author every moment in them as if I’m protecting their experience, protecting the time that they take to come to the theater. That’s how I look at it,” he said. “But I’ll tell you what. I’m never gonna do this again. I’m never putting my f—-ing money in another movie after these four.”

Representatives for Kevin Costner did not immediately respond to CNBC Make It’s request for comment.

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Tue, Jun 06 2023 07:00:01 PM
Jennifer Aniston shares her new fitness philosophy and surprisingly ‘hearty' salad recipe https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/jennifer-aniston-shares-her-new-fitness-philosophy-and-surprisingly-hearty-salad-recipe/4399534/ 4399534 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/ANISTON.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 For decades, Jennifer Aniston had a “no pain, no gain” approach to exercise.

“The workouts I used to do were exhausting and painful,” Aniston, 54, tells TODAY.com, noting that she would often injure herself from overexertion. She’s since stopped that cycle and shifted her approach to fitness.

Jennifer Aniston’s workout routine includes functional fitness

Aniston’s lightbulb moment came in 2021, after a friend introduced her to Pvolve, a fitness method that combines resistance training with low-impact exercise. The actor, who quickly became a devotee, is now an advisor for the online platform.

“It’s functional exercise. It’s mindful, it’s small movements,” Aniston explains.

Virtual classes range from five to more than 60 minutes.

Feeling content with shorter workouts is a big deal for Aniston, who used to feel panicky if she didn’t have time to do a long workout. “My mind used to (tell) myself that if I didn’t do 45 minutes to an hour workout, I wasn’t drenched, (it wasn’t enough),” she says.

“I put my body through it … and over time, breaking your body, pushing your body that hard is just diminishing returns,” she reveals. “And as long as I’m going to live, I want to be able to move.”

Though Aniston says she allows herself “that freedom” to take a day off, she offered advice on how to motivate yourself to exercise when you’re not in the mood.

“Just do 10 to 20 minutes, you can do anything for 10 to 20 minutes,” Aniston says. “You start to enjoy it, that’s the other thing. I really do push myself, just at least do that little bit. I’ll immediately feel incredible. You just instantly start to feel those endorphins and that energy. ”

Aniston says that’s one thing that appeals to her about the Pvolve platform, comparing it to a “good salad bar” because you can pick and choose what you’re in the mood for.

Jennifer Aniston’s go-to salad recipe

As for Aniston’s actual salad bar order? The Emmy winner starts with butter lettuce as a base.

“I’m not a romaine fan,” Aniston says. “I love to have some mushrooms. I love sprouts. I love a little tomato. Avocado, Kalamata olives, always some cheese — never gonna give up my cheese. I’ll do sliced parmesan, pecorino … feta … or all of them! Sliced almonds, sunflower seeds.”

Then she’ll add a chopped egg or poached egg on top to complete what she calls a “really hearty salad.”

Aniston’s go-to dressings include oil and vinegar or a vinaigrette, “and if it’s the weekend, some good ole ranch.”

Her lifestyle habits for healthy aging

From an early age, Aniston was conscious about self-care and her health. 

“Not so much my parents’ generation. So I would watch their bodies decline,” she says. “If I’m going to be 75, 85 years old, I don’t want to be in a wheelchair. I don’t want want someone to have to lift me up and take me to the bathroom.”

When asked to share her secret to aging well, Aniston says it comes down to clean eating, drinking water, getting enough sleep, meditation and doing the right workouts.

“Mindfulness, mindfulness,” Aniston says. “That’s all it is.”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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Tue, Jun 06 2023 04:09:40 PM
Jennifer Aniston enters her gray hair era https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/jennifer-aniston-enters-her-gray-hair-era/4399157/ 4399157 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/web-230606-jennifer-aniston.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Forget The Rachel — Jennifer Aniston’s latest look will spark a new trend.

The “Friends” alum officially entered her gray hair era, as she showcased her silver roots in a recent Instagram video. While debuting a new product from her haircare brand LolaVie on June 2, Aniston had her gray strands peeking through her signature blonde look, which she wore in a half-up, half-down style.

In the short clip, the “Murder Mystery” actress sported a black long-sleeve with matching leggings and kept her glam simple with barely-there makeup. After all, the purpose of the video was to promote her brand’s latest launch, so the focus was on her effortless tresses.

“You can use it once a week,” she said of the Intensive Repair Treatment. “Put this in, leave it in, brush it through, leave it in the towel, sleep in it an hour, whatever you want. I’m just excited!”

While the 54-year-old didn’t mention her silver strands, her followers praised her in the comments section for embracing the hue. One user responded, “Well done for allowing grey to come through – refreshing,” with another person adding, “Jen your hair is just a masterpiece and everybody agrees.”

Aniston has been open about her philosophy on aging.

“Universally, we’re all going to grow up and get old,” she exclusively told E! News in February 2022. “You can’t deny that, that is a guarantee. But we can be vital and we can be thriving in our older years.”

She continued, “Our society loves to say, ‘Oh, you’re this age, now you go downhill. And now you go off to pasture and that’s it, buh-bye. You’re no longer valuable or useful to society.’ And that’s just so wrong.”

Her advice? Take care of yourself from the inside out.

“No phones, no email, no texting and no social media,” she explained, detailing what her self-care ritual entails. “No looking at any of that for a good hour, hour and a half. I highly recommend doing a week of it, you won’t believe the difference.”

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Tue, Jun 06 2023 01:34:35 PM
Elliot Page reveals secret romance with Kate Mara in memoir https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/elliot-page-reveals-secret-romance-with-kate-mara-in-memoir/4398857/ 4398857 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/230606-elliot-page-kate-mara-getty.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Elliot Page is opening up about a secret romance he shared with fellow actor Kate Mara.

The “Umbrella Academy” star, 36, writes about the pair’s fling, which eventually morphed into a lasting friendship, in his new memoir “Pageboy,” out June 6.

Page reveals in the book that he met the former “House of Cards” star, 40, at a small dinner party prior to his coming out as trans and shortly after ending another relationship. At the time, Page was filming 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”

“The first person I fell for after my heart was broken was Kate Mara,” Page writes, adding that Mara at the time was dating actor Max Minghella.

The Oscar-nominated “Juno” star describes Mara as “charming and gorgeous” at the dinner. Not long afterward, he writes, the pair met again at a Hollywood party where Mara greeted Page “with a look in her eye I didn’t remember from the dinner,” he writes.

At the party, Mara began “flirting” with Page, he recalls. “I thought it was a joke,” the actor writes. “Regardless of the boyfriend, I could never imagine Kate Mara would want me.”

When Page glanced over at Minghella, concerned, Mara told him “Oh, he doesn’t care.” Page later learned that Minghella had encouraged Mara to explore her “connection” with Page.

On Feb. 14, 2014, Page came out as gay while giving a speech at a Las Vegas benefit for LGBTQ youth. The actor recalls Mara emailing him afterward, joking, “Wait. You’re gay?!”

“Yeah, so make your move,” Page responded.

Weeks later, Mara invited Page to a barbecue at the Los Angeles home she and Minghella shared. Page recalls Mara again flirting with him as Minghella stood nearby “not giving it a second look.”

The attraction between him and Mara, writes Page, was, “Magnetic and immediate, a feeling better left without words.”

Days later, Mara suggested the two go out on a dinner date.

On the night of the pair’s first date, Mara picked up Page at his home. Inside, the two shared their first kiss. After dinner, they returned to Page’s house.

“When we go back, we immediately went to my bedroom,” Page recalls of that night. “Kate lay on her back, removing her clothes, while I stood at the base of the bed removing mine. I moved to crawl on top of her. Our mouths fused, our bodies meeting for the first time.”

“It was a successful first date,” Page coyly writes. “So they continued.”

The two actors continued exploring their “unabashed attraction.” Page felt himself gradually “falling” for Mara. “I could not stop thinking about her,” he writes. Dancing with Mara at another party, the smitten Page knew, “I was a goner.”

Though the affair with Mara thrilled him, Page knew while it was happening that he was setting himself up for heartbreak. He recalls feeling hurt when a planned trip to New York City with Mara got derailed after Minghella’s schedule freed up and he traveled with Mara instead. Page found himself alone and depressed in the city, staying in the same hotel where he and Mara had once been intimate.

“Everything with Kate was becoming more complicated, more loaded. I was feeling let down. Perhaps the excitement no longer outweighed the challenges,” he writes.

Page later adds, “I was chasing something that could not be, letting lust overwhelm me.”

When Page spoke of his frustration to Mara, the former “Pose” star reminded Page that she also loved Minghella and they had built a life together. “I didn’t believe someone could love two people at the same time before. I do now,” Page recalls Mara telling him.

Page decided to end the affair and a short time later, Mara and Minghella also called it quits.

In twists that could only happen in Hollywood, Minghella, who Page describes as “wonderful” in the book, later played Page’s love interest in the 2015 movie “Into the Forest.” Meanwhile, Page and Mara went on to co-star in the 2017 romantic drama “My Days of Mercy.”

Page ends the section by telling readers that after he and Mara, who married husband Jamie Bell in 2017, gave each other “space” and “distance,” they eventually became close platonic friends.

“It has been nearly nine years since Kate and I met. Certain chemistry never faded, but room for realizations left us laughing at how little we had in common,” writes Page.

“But what has never changed, what will never change, is the love between us,” he adds. “Loyal, generous, emotionally present — Kate is not just a wonderful friend, she is an honest friend.”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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Tue, Jun 06 2023 12:34:59 PM
Foo Fighters, Fall Out Boy, Kelly Clarkson, Kane Brown, Lil Wayne to headline iHeartRadio Festival https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/foo-fighters-fall-out-boy-kelly-clarkson-kane-brown-lil-wayne-headline-iheartradio-festival/4398423/ 4398423 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/image-21-3.png?fit=300,169&quality=85&strip=all Foo Fighters, Fall Out Boy, Kelly Clarkson, Kane Brown and Lil Wayne are among the headliners this fall at the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas, which will be broadcast live throughout the country.

The lineup for the two-day event Sept. 22-23 at T-Mobile Arena also includes Miguel, Public Enemy, Sheryl Crow, Tim McGraw, TLC and Thirty Seconds to Mars. Ryan Seacrest will host and fans can hear it all via iHeartMedia radio stations or watch it streaming on Hulu. Highlights will be available on-demand on Hulu in the weeks following the event.

The general public will be able buy tickets starting on June 16 on AXS.com, with Capital One cardholders able to get access beginning June 14.

“This is the only festival in the world with this range of genres — spanning all the styles you hear on our 860 stations and the iHeartRadio app. Each performer can sell out on their own, so it’s incredibly rare that you can see them all together on the same stage,” Tom Poleman, chief programming officer for iHeartMedia, said in a statement.

Foo Fighters will be coming off the release of their album “But Here We Are,” the first since the death of the band’s drummer, Taylor Hawkins. And Clarkson will have released “Chemistry,” which she has said helped her process her emotions in the wake of her divorce.

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Tue, Jun 06 2023 10:27:51 AM
Jessica Chastain comments on the ‘flak' she got for wearing a mask at the Oscars https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/jessica-chastain-comments-on-the-flak-she-got-for-wearing-a-mask-at-the-oscars/4397900/ 4397900 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/GettyImages-1248104278.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,170 Jessica Chastain recalls being criticized for wearing a protective face mask to the 2023 Academy Awards.

The 46-year-old actor opened up about why she decided to mask up during this year’s movie awards season during a Tony nominees roundtable discussion with other stage and screen stars, including Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles, published in The Hollywood Reporter.

Chastain began starring as Nora in “A Doll’s House” on Broadway with preview performances in February, just weeks before the Oscars were held in Los Angeles. To miss performances due to contracting COVID-19 would have been “irresponsible,” she explained.

“We were testing every day on our show, and even if you had no symptoms, if you tested positive for COVID, you were out for a week — and I was meeting people at the stage door who flew in from Shanghai and flew in from all over the world. To be out of the show for a week? It just felt like it was so irresponsible,” said Chastain.

“So I was wearing the mask at the Oscars. I got quite a lot of flak for that,” she continued. “A lot of people thought I was making some political statement. I don’t know what they thought. I’m like literally — .”

Groban interjected to assure his fellow actor, “Theater people knew. We knew.”

“Well, OK, good,” responded Chastain. “I’ll tell you, the best thing is someone at the stage door gave me a mask that said, ‘I’m On Broadway.’

“But yeah, the SAG Awards, the Oscars, a lot of people were like, ‘What are you doing?!’ I just couldn’t get sick. And I didn’t. I haven’t missed a show,” added the star.

In May, she received her first Tony Award nomination for her performance in “A Doll’s House.”

The mom of two told TODAY’s Hoda Kotb last week that the Tony nomination was “a dream come true.”

“It was surprisingly emotional for me. I was very excited about it,” she said.

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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Tue, Jun 06 2023 08:01:04 AM
Drew Barrymore slams ‘sick' reports claiming she wishes her mom was dead https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/drew-barrymore-slams-sick-reports-claiming-she-wishes-her-mom-was-dead/4399247/ 4399247 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/GettyImages-1398016843.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Drew Barrymore is setting the record straight on a family matter.

The actress clarified what she meant during a recent Vulture interview, after media outlets took her quotes to mean that she wished her mother, Jaid Barrymore, was dead.

“All their moms are gone, and my mom’s not,” she told the outlet. “And I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t have that luxury.’ But I cannot wait. I don’t want to live in a state where I wish someone to be gone sooner than they’re meant to be so I can grow.”

Barrymore then posted a video message on Instagram June 5 to correct the narrative: “To all you tabloids out there, you have been f—— with my life since I was 13 years old. I have never said that I wish my mother was dead. How dare you put those words in my mouth.”

She continued, “I have been vulnerable and tried to figure out a very difficult, painful relationship, while admitting it is difficult to do while a parent is alive.”

Drew Barrymore Through the Years

The 48-year-old — who was emancipated at age 14 and has previously spoken about being estranged from her mother — went on to explain what she meant in her original interview.

“For those of us who have to figure that out in real time, [we] cannot wait. As in, they cannot wait for the time, not that the parent is dead,” she said in her video. “Don’t twist my words around or ever say that I wish my mother was dead. I have never said that. I never would.”

Barrymore added, “In fact, I go on to say that I wish that I never have to live in existence where I would wish that on someone. Because that is sick.”

In her original interview, she also said she wanted her mom “to be happy and thrive and be healthy,” adding, “But I have to f—— grow in spite of her being on this planet.”

An hour after opening up about the mother-daughter dynamic during the interview, Barrymore expressed regret. “I dared to say it, and I didn’t feel good,” she told Vulture. “I do care. I’ll never not care. I don’t know if I’ve ever known how to fully guard, close off, not feel, build the wall up.”

Vulture then reported that, a few weeks after the interview, Barrymore texted the reporter an update about their relationship.

“I texted my mom for her birthday
and she told me she loved me
and she was proud of me.
I don’t care how old you get
Or how big your mission is
When your mom tells you
she loves you
You revert back to small

And the fact that she loves
me with my truth
And my honesty
Is the best time I have ever
heard her say it.”

E! News has reached out to Jaid Barrymore for comment but hasn’t heard back.

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Tue, Jun 06 2023 06:50:47 AM
DC Young Fly speaks out after partner Jacky Oh's death at age 32 https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/dc-young-fly-speaks-out-after-partner-jacky-ohs-death-at-age-32/4399426/ 4399426 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/DC-YOUNG-FLY.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 DC Young Fly is sharing his first words since the passing of his partner Jacky Oh.

The “Wild N’ Out” star and his family said in a statement to People on June 2, “We thank everyone for their well wishes and ask for privacy during this difficult time.”

DC Young Fly, 31, shares three kids—Nova, 6, Nala, 2, and Prince’Nehemiah, 10 months—with Jacky Oh, whose death was confirmed by a BET Media Group spokesperson June 1. She was 32.

On May 31, Jacky was found unresponsive at the Homewood Suites by Hilton Miami Downtown/Brickell and transported to a hospital in Miami, Fla., where she died before midnight, according to a Miami Police Department report obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Jacklyn Smith, known to the world as Jacky Oh, a talented Wild N’ Out family member whose impact will be forever treasured and missed,” read a statement posted to the show’s social media pages June 1. “Jacky Oh was a loving friend and beloved colleague of the Wild N’ Out cast throughout five seasons.”

Celebrity Deaths: 2023’s Fallen Stars

Calling Jacky a “tremendous mother,” the statement continued, “The BET Media Group extends our sincere condolences to the Smith family, DC Young Fly, B Simone, Nick Cannon, and all friends who loved and cared for Jacky Oh during this difficult time.”

B Simone, Jacky’s close friend, penned a heartfelt tribute on June 2, writing, “Your besties are broken. Your family is crushed & I honestly am still in shock. I feel guilty going on with life. I’ve never lost anyone close to me and I can’t believe you are gone. I love you so much.”

Jacky Oh and DC Young Fly first met at a hotel lobby in 2015, the same year DC Young Fly had joined Wild ‘N Out as a cast member. At the time, Jacky Oh was entering her second season as a Wild ‘N Out girl, a model who assists with the comedy sketches.

Upon first impression, Jacky Oh recalled thinking DC Young Fly was “so cute,” though it wasn’t exactly love at first sight.

“I liked him,” she told DJ Smallz Eyes in a 2017 interview. “I was vibing with him.”

Since retiring from Wild ‘N Out in 2020, Jacky Oh launched a lip gloss business and received her real estate license in Georgia in February. For Mother’s Day 2023, Jacky Oh commemorated the occasion by sharing stunning images from a family photo shoot, where DC Young Fly commented two hearts emojis.

“i do a lot. but being a mommy is my favorite,” she wrote on Instagram May 13. “God chose me 3X. I promise i never take it for granted. Im so damn blessed man!”

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Mon, Jun 05 2023 07:05:05 PM
Kaley Cuoco reveals her daughter Matilda is already obsessed with the Jonas Brothers https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/kaley-cuoco-reveals-her-daughter-matilda-is-already-obsessed-with-the-jonas-brothers/4396698/ 4396698 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/GettyImages-1258366443.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,200 Kaley Cuoco‘s baby girl Matilda is a sucker for the Jonas Brothers.

The “Based on a True Story” actress recently explained that when it comes to calming her and partner Tom Pelphrey’s 2-month-old daughter down no one does it like the band of brothers.

“She loves the Jonas Brothers,” Cuoco exclusively told E! News in an interview alongside costar Chris Messina. “She’s obsessed.”

And when it comes to expanding her taste in music, the infant really isn’t burnin’ up for any other artist right now–although Cuoco noted that Matilda does love “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

The 37-year-old joked, “So if Jonas Brothers could record a ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ that would be really great for our household.”

As to how Matilda discovered the brothers?

“We turned it on, and I thought it was a fluke, and she was listening,” the “Flight Attendant” star explained, “and then the next night I put it on in the bathroom when she was crying, and again she looked up and was listening.”

Kaley Cuoco’s Pregnancy Photos

“I was like ‘oh, it’s not a fluke.’ She loves them,” Kaley continued, jokingly adding, “So this is her first crush, on the Jonas Brothers.”

And while Cuoco and Pelphrey welcomed their daughter in March, Matilda was along for the ride with “The Big Bang Theory” star’s new series, in which she and Messina play a true crime-obsessed couple who get in over their heads when they try to catch a killer.

Cuoco was working on the new series up until three weeks before she gave birth, but as it turns out, the biggest side effect was actually felt by Cuoco’s costars, including Tom Bateman, Liana Liberato, Priscilla Quintana and Natalia Dyer, in addition to Messina. They had to eat whatever food Cuoco was currently craving.

“Taco Bell, Del Taco, donuts—it was disturbing,” she told E! News. “Everyone had to get trainers when we got off the show. They were all mad at me, I had to pay for all their trainers and gym memberships.”

“The weirdest craving I had the whole time was ice,” she admitted. “Everyone would bring me ice, and I would chomp it.”

Messina had his own thoughts about this particular habit. “Yeah there was a lot of chomping,” he added, while Cuoco laughed. “A lot of annoying chomping.”

“Based on a True Story” premieres June 8th on Peacock.

E!, Peacock and this station are part of the NBCUniversal Family.

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Mon, Jun 05 2023 06:24:54 PM
Arnold Schwarzenegger recalls moment he told Maria Shriver he fathered a child with housekeeper https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/arnold-schwarzenegger-recalls-moment-he-told-maria-shriver-he-fathered-a-child-with-housekeeper/4395533/ 4395533 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/GettyImages-1492516428.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,200 Arnold Schwarzenegger is opening up about the moment he came clean to ex Maria Shriver.

In his upcoming Netflix docuseries “Arnold,” the star of “The Terminator” shares the moment he admitted to his then-wife that he had an affair and fathered a son, Joseph, now 25, with the family’s housekeeper, Mildred Baena.

“Maria and I went to counseling once a week,” Schwarzenegger, 75, recounts in the three-part series, per People, “and in one of the sessions the counselor said, ‘I think today Maria wants to be very specific about something. She wants to know if you are the father of Joseph.’ And I was like — I thought my heart stopped, and then I told the truth.”

In fact, the “Total Recall” star, who wed Shriver in 1986, remembers his direct response: “‘Yes, Maria, Joseph is my son.'”

However, he notes that he didn’t initially realize he had another son.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Big Movies

“She was crushed because of that,” Schwarzenegger continues. “I had an affair in ’96. In the beginning I really didn’t know. I just started feeling the older he got the more it became clear to me and then it was really just a matter of how do you keep this quiet? How do you keep this a secret?”

Though the former politician is detailing his story now, Schwarzenegger — who also shares kids Katherine, 33, Christina, 31, Patrick, 29, and Christopher, 25, with Shriver, 67 — is hesitant about doing so “because every time I do, it opens up the wounds again.”

“I think that I have caused enough pain for my family because of my f— up,” he adds. “Everyone had to suffer. Maria had to suffer. The kids had to suffer. Joseph. His mother. Everyone.”

As he puts it, “I am going to have to live with it the rest of my life. People will remember my successes and they will also remember my failures. This is a major failure. I had failures in the past in my career, but this is a whole different ball game, dimension of failure.”

But Schwarzenegger also makes it clear he has the most praise for Joseph, sharing that he has grown into a “fantastic man.”

“It was wrong what I did,” the “The Running Man” star explains. “But I don’t want to make Joseph feel that he is not welcomed in this world — because he is very much welcomed in this world. I love him and he has turned out to be an extraordinary young man.”

The former bodybuilder — who split from Shriver in 2011 and finalized their divorce ten years later — also says in the series he is “very happy” about the way the former couple “were able to raise the kids really well” in the midst of turmoil.

“There is nothing more important than to have a good partner by your side, and every step of the way Maria was that,” he adds in the docuseries. “We have a really great relationship.”

As for Joseph — who has decided to follow in his dad’s footsteps and pursue acting — he recently weighed in on whether the father-son duo would ever unite onscreen.

“Not yet,” the “Dancing with the Stars” alum told E! News exclusively in May, “That’s gonna be the next big step.”

“Arnold,” the three-part docuseries, will hit Netflix on June 7.

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Mon, Jun 05 2023 01:10:47 PM
Kim Cattrall opens up about lasting grief after her brother's death: ‘A weight that is always with you' https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/kim-cattrall-opens-up-about-lasting-grief-after-her-brothers-death-a-weight-that-is-always-with-you/4393954/ 4393954 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/GettyImages-1198117306.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,200 Kim Cattrall is opening up about her experience with grief following the death of her younger brother, Chris Cattrall, in 2018.

The 66-year-old actor opened up about the “sudden and unexpected” loss of her brother in an interview with The Sunday Times published on June 4. 

During her talk with the British publication, Cattrall spoke about being close with her two sisters, who currently live in Canada, before reflecting on the losses her family has experienced over the last decade.

Cattrall announced on Instagram in December 2022 that her mother, Shane Cattrall, had died. In February 2018, she posted on Twitter about her brother’s death and in February 2012 she tweeted that her father, Dennis Cattrall, died. 

She explained to The Sunday Times how she handled the untimely death of Chris Cattrall differently.

“With my mum, she was 93 and it was a slow decline,” she said. “But my brother, this was out of the natural order. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Cattrall continued, “You remember where you were, what happened, what was said. It is all so accessible, all the time, a weight that is always with you and never leaves.”

Before his death was confirmed, Chris Cattrall was missing for five days after leaving his home in Alberta, Canada. At the time, the “How I Met Your Father” star uploaded his photo to her social media accounts and asked her fans to help track him down.  

She described the amount of time police spent searching for her brother as an “extraordinary few days.” 

“Everything in you is on high alert because he can be saved,” she recalled to the British outlet. 

Cattrall shared that it was her “role” in her family to be the one who rescued everyone else. 

Since his passing, she has tried to leave that mentality behind. 

“I am slowly retiring from that. I’ve done a lot of work where I don’t want to assume that I can fix people,” she said. 

She added, “They have to want to fix themselves, and me caring, living and fretting about them doesn’t solve it. They have to want to change.”

But, she initially took responsibility for her brother’s personal struggles, she said. Chris Cattrall had been an alcoholic, according to the publication, and the “Mannequin” star said she used to have “magical thinking” that she could’ve taken his pain away. 

She gained “clarity” after a friend described alcoholism in a way that helped her process the tragic situation. 

“‘Alcohol is a mistress that gets you alone and then kills you,’” her friend explained. “And that’s exactly what happened.”

She also expressed relief that her father did not have to see his son suffer. 

“I’m just glad my father wasn’t alive to experience it. As tough as he was, I don’t think he could have taken it,” she said. 

Last year, the “Sex and the City” star paid tribute to her brother on what would’ve been his 59th birthday. 

In January 2022, she uploaded a throwback photo to Instagram of the two siblings leaning on each other. 

“Happy Birthday, sweet ‘Topher,’” she captioned the picture. “We miss you today and everyday. RIPx.” 

At the end of her post, she added the hashtag “suicideprevention.” 

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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Mon, Jun 05 2023 03:27:24 AM
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar Break Silence on ‘Duggar Family Secrets' Docuseries https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/jim-bob-and-michelle-duggar-break-silence-on-duggar-family-secrets-docuseries/4388199/ 4388199 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/GettyImages-144896031.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,210 Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are speaking out to defend their beliefs. 

The “19 Kids and Counting” stars criticized the docuseries “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” one day before its release on Prime Video. 

“The recent ‘documentary’ that talks about our family is sad because in it we see the media and those with ill intentions hurting people we love,” Jim Bob and Michelle wrote on the Duggar family website June 1. “Like other families, ours too has experienced the joys and heartbreaks of life, just in a very public format. This ‘documentary’ paints so much and so many in a derogatory and sensationalized way because sadly that’s the direction of entertainment these days.” 

The show includes interviews with their daughter Jill Duggar and her husband Derick Dillard about the family’s strict and religious upbringing as part of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP).

However, Jim Bob, 57, and Michelle, 56, said they would rather settle any family issues out of the spotlight.

“We have always believed that the best chance to repair damaged relationships, or to reconcile differences, is through love in a private setting,” they continued in the statement. “We love every member of our family and will continue to do all we can to have a good relationship with each one.” 

The couple ended with a message on their faith, saying, “Through both the triumphs and the trials we have clung to our faith all the more and discovered that through the love and grace of Jesus, we find strength, comfort, and purpose.”

Jill, 32, shared in a May 18 trailer for “Duggar Family Secrets” that she came forward in order to set the record straight on events in her life. 

“There’s a story that’s going to be told,” the “Counting On” star shared. “And I would rather be the one telling it.”

She previously said that her relationship with Jim Bob “got pretty toxic” after she and Derick—who wed in 2014—began acting independently from her parents’ wishes.

“I saw a whole new side to my dad once my husband and I started making decision that were best for our family, but not in his best interest,” Jill was quoted as telling a psychologist as part of a prior lawsuit, according to November 2021 court filing obtained by E! News in May 2022. “Sadly, I realized he had become pretty controlling, fearful and reactionary.”

E! News has reached out to the IBLP for comment on the claims in the series and to Prime Video for comment on the Duggars’ statement, but hasn’t heard back.

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Fri, Jun 02 2023 07:45:00 AM
Armie Hammer Avoids Charges After Sex Assault Investigation, Says ‘Name Has Been Cleared' https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/armie-hammer-avoids-charges-after-sex-assault-investigation-says-name-has-been-cleared/4386319/ 4386319 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/06/ARMIE-HAMMER.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Actor Armie Hammer will not be charged after a long investigation of a woman’s allegation that he sexually assaulted her in 2017, Los Angeles prosecutors said.

Hammer said on Instagram after a long public silence that “I look forward to beginning what will be a long, difficult process of putting my life back together now that my name has been cleared.”

Police began investigating Hammer in 2021, and turned the results over to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office earlier this year.

“In this case, those prosecutors conducted an extremely thorough review, but determined that at this time, there is insufficient evidence to charge Mr. Hammer with a crime,” Tiffiny Blacknell, director of communications for the district attorney, said in a statement Thursday. “Due to the complexity of the relationship and inability to prove a non-consensual, forcible sexual encounter we are unable to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The 36-year-old Hammer said in his post that “I am very grateful to the District Attorney for conducting a thorough investigation and coming to the conclusion that I have stood by this entire time, that no crime was committed.”

Allegations of sexual violence from women early in 2021 derailed Hammer’s career, and he has not worked in Hollywood since. He departed the comedy “Shotgun Wedding” that he was shooting with Jennifer Lopez, left the Paramount+ series “The Offer,” about the making of “The Godfather,” and was dropped by his agency, WME.

Los Angeles police revealed they were investigating Hammer after a woman using only her first name Effie appeared at a news conference and said he had raped her for hours, slammed her head against a wall, and subjected her to other violence.

“I tried to get away but he wouldn’t let me,” she said. “I thought that he was going to kill me.”

The woman’s attorney at the time, Gloria Allred, said she had filed a report with police.

Effie said she was 20 when she and Hammer met on Facebook and began a relationship in 2016, and they had their last contact in 2020.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly.

Allred said in an email Thursday that she no longer represents the woman. It’s not clear whether Effie has retained a new attorney, and she could not be reached for comment.

Hammer’s attorney Andrew Brettler said at the time that the actor’s interactions with Effie and every other sexual partner “have been completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory.”

Brettler released a screenshot that showed a text message from Effie to Hammer expressing a desire for rough, forceful sex with him. He responds by saying he no longer wants a relationship with her.

Hammer was married at the time to television personality Elizabeth Chambers. They divorced in 2020.

Hammer first gained fame through playing twins in 2010’s “The Social Network,” and is best known for his starring roles in 2017’s “Call Me By Your Name” and 2013’s “The Lone Ranger.”

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Thu, Jun 01 2023 04:57:06 PM
Jury Finds ‘That '70s Show' Star Danny Masterson Guilty of 2 Counts of Rape in Retrial https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/jury-finds-that-70s-show-star-danny-masterson-guilty-of-2-counts-of-rape-in-retrial/4382771/ 4382771 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/DANNY-MASTERSON-RETRIAL.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson was led out in handcuffs from a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday and could get 30 years to life in prison after a jury found him guilty on two of three counts of rape at his second trial, in which the Church of Scientology played a central role.

Masterson’s wife, actor and model Bijou Phillips, gasped when the verdict was read and wept as he was taken into custody, while a group of family and friends who sat stone-faced behind him throughout both trials.

The jury of seven women and five men reached the verdict after deliberating for seven days spread over two weeks. They could not reach a verdict on the third count, that alleged Masterson raped a longtime girlfriend. They had voted 8-4 in favor of conviction.

Masterson, 47, will be held without bail until he is sentenced. No sentencing date has yet been set, but the judge told Masterson and his lawyers to return to court Aug. 4 for a hearing.

“I am experiencing a complex array of emotions — relief, exhaustion, strength, sadness — knowing that my abuser, Danny Masterson, will face accountability for his criminal behavior,” one of the women, whom Masterson knew as a fellow member of the church and was convicted of raping at his home in 2003, said in a statement.

A second woman, a former girlfriend, whose count left the jury deadlocked, said in the statement: “While I’m encouraged that Danny Masterson will face some criminal punishment, I am devastated that he has dodged criminal accountability for his heinous conduct against me.”

A spokesperson for Masterson declined comment, but his attorneys will almost certainly appeal.

After a deadlocked jury led to a mistrial in December, prosecutors retried Masterson, saying he forcibly raped three women in his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003. They told jurors he drugged the women’s drinks so he could rape them. They said he used his prominence in the church — where all three women were also members at the time — to avoid consequences for decades.

“We want to express our gratitude to the three women who came forward and bravely shared their experiences,” Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement after the verdict Wednesday. “Their courage and strength have been an inspiration to us all.”

Masterson did not testify, and his lawyers called no witnesses. The defense argued that the acts were consensual, and attempted to discredit the women’s stories by highlighting changes and inconsistencies over time, which they said showed signs of coordination between them.

“If you decide that a witness deliberately lied about something in this case,” defense attorney Philip Cohen told jurors, going through their instructions in his closing argument, “You should consider not believing anything that witness says.”

The Church of Scientology played a significant role in the first trial but arguably an even larger one in the second. Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo allowed expert testimony on church policy from a former official in Scientology leadership who has become a prominent opponent.

Tensions ran high in the courtroom between current and former Scientologists, and even leaked into testimony, with the accusers saying on the stand that they felt intimidated by some members in the room.

Actor Leah Remini, a former member who has become the church’s highest-profile critic, sat in on the trial at times, putting her arm around one of the accusers to comfort her during closing arguments.

Remini said on Twitter that the two guilty verdicts in the retrial are “a relief. The women who survived Danny Masterson’s predation are heroes. For years, they and their families have faced vicious attacks and harassment from Scientology and Danny’s well-funded legal team,” she posted. “Nevertheless, they soldiered on, determined to seek justice.”

The alleged harassment, which the church denies engaging in, is the subject of a civil lawsuit filed by two of the accusers.

Founded in 1953 by L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology has many members who work in Hollywood. The judge kept limits on how much prosecutors could talk about the church, and primarily allowed it to explain why the women took so long to go to authorities.

The women testified that when they reported Masterson to church officials, they were told they were not raped, were put through ethics programs themselves, and were warned against going to law enforcement to report a member of such high standing.

“They were raped, they were punished for it, and they were retaliated against,” Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller told jurors in his closing argument. “Scientology told them there’s no justice for them. You have the opportunity to show them there is justice.”

The church vehemently denied having any policy that forbids members from going to secular authorities.

Next week the judge who oversaw the criminal case will hold a hearing to determine how a lawyer who represents the Church of Scientology had evidence that the prosecution had shared with the defense. The evidence involved links that the lawyer accidentally included in an email to Mueller.

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they’ve been sexually abused.

Testimony in this case was graphic and emotional.

The two women whose testimony led to Masterson’s conviction said that in 2003, he gave them drinks and that they then became woozy or passed out before he violently raped them. He knew both from social circles in the church.

The third, Masterson’s then-girlfriend of five years whose count left the jury deadlocked, said she awoke to find him raping her, and had to pull his hair to stop him.

The issue of drugging also played a major role in the retrial. At the first, Olmedo only allowed prosecutors and accusers to describe their disorientation, and to imply that they were drugged. The second time, they were allowed to argue it directly, and the prosecution attempted to make it a major factor, to no avail.

“The defendant drugs his victims to gain control,” Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson said in her closing argument. “He does this to take away his victims’ ability to consent.”

Masterson was not charged with any counts of drugging, and there is no toxicology evidence to back up the assertion. His attorney asked for a mistrial over the issue’s inclusion. The motion was denied, but the issue is likely to be a major factor in any potential appeal.

These charges date to a period when Masterson was at the height of his fame, starring from 1998 until 2006 as Steven Hyde on Fox’s “That ’70s Show” — the show that made stars of Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace.

Masterson had reunited with Kutcher on the 2016 Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” but was written off the show when an LAPD investigation was revealed in December 2017.

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Wed, May 31 2023 05:16:31 PM
Meet Noor Alfallah: Everything We Know About Al Pacino's Pregnant Girlfriend https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/meet-noor-alfallah-everything-we-know-about-al-pacinos-pregnant-girlfriend/4382365/ 4382365 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/Noor.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Say hello to Al Pacino‘s girlfriend.

The 83-year-old acting legend (see: “Scarface,” “Dog Day Afternoon” and the entire “Godfather” oeuvre) and his 29-year-old girlfriend Noor Alfallah recently made headlines after a rep for the actor confirmed to E! News that she is eight months pregnant with Pacino’s fourth child. (Pacino is also dad to Julie Pacino, 33, with ex Jan Tarrant, an acting coach, as well as 22-year-old twins Anton Pacino and Olivia Pacino with Beverly D’Angelo.)

Before the news of their impending bundle of joy was made public, Pacino and Alfallah kept their romance largely private since they were first photographed together in April 2022. Alfallah only recently shared the first photo of the Oscar winner on her Instagram account after months of cheekily referencing reports tying her to Pacino. But he’s not the first famous star she has been linked to.

So who is Alfallah? Here’s everything we knew about Pacino’s girlfriend:

2023 Celebrity Babies

She works in the entertainment industry: While her partner is famous for his work in front of the camera, Alfallah has opted for a behind-the-scenes approach in Hollywood. She’s credited as a producer on the 2019 short film “La Petite Mort” and as an executive producer on the 2018 TV short “Brosa Nostra,” according to her IMDb page.

Alfallah also has two upcoming projects in the works as a producer: The film “Billy Knight” (starring Pacino, Charlie Heaton and Diana Silvers, it was first announced in September of last year), and “Little Death,” featuring Chase Sui Wonders, David Schwimmer and Jena Malone.

Previously, Alfallah was the vice president of Lynda Obst Productions at Sony, and in 2021, she and her sister Remi Alfallah landed a pod producing deal with Imagine Entertainment. Per Deadline, she received her undergraduate degree from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and has a master’s degree from UCLA in Film/TV Producing.

She’s got a fairly stacked dating history: Before her romance with Pacino, Alfallah dated Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, now 79, for one year, with the two ending their romance in 2018.

“Our ages didn’t matter to me,” she told Hello! magazine after their split. “The heart doesn’t know what it sees, it only knows what it feels. It was my first serious relationship, but it was a happy time for me.”

Al Pacino Expecting Baby No. 4, His First With Girlfriend Noor Alfallah

After that, she was in a relationship with Nicolas Berggruen, a billionaire investor and philanthropist, though there were reports tying Alfallah to the now-93-year-old film legend Clint Eastwood after they were photographed together in 2019.

“There is no relationship, we’re not dating,” Alfallah told Daily Mail at the time. “We’re family friends, and my family was there and that’s it.”

Her family is on the larger side: According to his Linkedin profile, Alfallah’s father Falah N. Al-Falah is the founder of ThirtyOneCapital, a high-end investment boutique. Falah and his wife Alana have four children: Daughters Noor, Remi and Sophia, and son Nasser.

She hangs with famous people: A quick scroll through Alfallah’s Instagram shows she has been rubbing elbows with celebrities for years, including Timothee Chalamet, who she snapped a photo with in 2019, Courtney Love, and “Pirates of the Caribbean” producer Brian Grazer.

And, in April of last year, a photo of Alfallah and Pacino attending a group dinner with Jason Momoa went viral when fans noticed that “The Godfather” star had a Shrek phone case.

She’s self-aware: Shortly after Alfallah was first publicly linked to Pacino in April 2022, she posted a tongue-in-cheek photo on Instagram, standing next to a statue.

“My new date,” she captioned the snap. “Confirmed by ‘a source.'”

Alfallah didn’t share a photo of Pacino on social media until last month, when the couple attended her friend Bennett Miller’s art exhibition.

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Wed, May 31 2023 12:46:42 PM
Sia Shares She's on the Autism Spectrum 2 Years After Her Controversial Movie https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/sia-shares-shes-on-the-autism-spectrum-2-years-after-her-controversial-movie/4379680/ 4379680 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/GettyImages-1131298235.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,200 Sia is embracing being on the spectrum.

The “Chandelier” singer shared that she is on the autism spectrum during the May 25 episode of “Rob Has a Podcast,” noting that her autism diagnosis came later in life.

“For 45 years, I was like, ‘I’ve got to go put my human suit on,'” the 47-year-old told host Rob Cesternino and “Survivor” alum Carolyn Wiger. “And only in the last two years have I become fully, fully myself.”

Her diagnosis has allowed her to celebrate more parts of herself.

“Being in recovery and also knowing about which kind of neurologicality you might have, or might not have,” said the singer, who wed Dan Bernard earlier this month, “well, I think one of the greatest things is that nobody can ever know you and love you when you’re filled with secrets and living in shame.”

She continued, “And when we finally sit in a room full of strangers and tell them our deepest, darkest, most shameful secrets, and everybody laughs along with us, and we don’t feel like pieces of trash for the first time in our lives, and we feel seen for the first time in our lives for who we actually are, and then we can start going out into the world and just operating as humans and human beings with hearts and not pretending to be anything.”

Parents Celebrate Their Children With Autism

The news comes two years after she was criticized for her portrayal of autism in her 2021 movie “Music,” which she co-wrote, directed and produced. The film sparked backlash after Maddie Ziegler was cast as a teenager on the autism spectrum, rather than the role going to an actor with autism.

Sia addressed the criticisms on Twitter, writing that she “actually tried working with…a beautiful young girl non verbal on the spectrum” but that the actress “found it unpleasant and stressful.”

She also encouraged people to watch the film before forming opinions of the project. “I believe this movie is beautiful, will create more good than harm,” Sia tweeted at the time, “and if I’m wrong I’ll pay for it for the rest of my life.”

The film received two Golden Globe Awards nominations—for Best Motion Picture in the Musical or Comedy category and Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for Kate Hudson—amid more controversy. The movie was under fire again after a scene in the film showed a teenager with autism being restrained, which members of the autism community said could be dangerous for the person being restrained and the one doing the restraining.

In response, Sia wrote that the film would feature a content warning before deleting her Twitter.

“I promise, have been listening,” she said. “The motion picture MUSIC will, moving forward, have this warning at the head of the movie: MUSIC in no way condones or recommends the use of restraint on autistic people. There are autistic occupational therapists that specialize in sensory processing who can be consulted to explain safe ways to provide proprioceptive, deep-pressure feedback to help w meltdown safety.”

She further celebrated the nominations on Instagram. “This movie is a love letter to everyone who has ever felt they didn’t have a voice. What an incredible, exciting and unbelievable experience,” she said. “Congratulations to all the cast and crew, and thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press. What an honor!”

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Tue, May 30 2023 06:13:43 PM
Lisa Rinna Reveals ‘Horrible' Death Threats Led to Her ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' Exit https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/lisa-rinna-reveals-horrible-death-threats-led-to-her-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills-exit/4379083/ 4379083 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/LISA-RINNA.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Lisa Rinna has no regrets about giving up her diamond.

In fact, “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum shared new details about the backlash that led to her decision to exit the Bravo series earlier this year.

“The way the fanbase reacts to the show now is not how it was when I first started,” the 59-year-old told The Evening Standard’s ES Magazine. “I mean, we were getting death threats. Some of the most horrible things I’ve ever seen in print in my life, and it’s a reality show! It’s a stupid show! I thought, ‘It’s time to go.’ I’m not sure how much longer that can exist in the zeitgeist, to be honest with you.”

Much of RHOBH’s season 12 drama centered around Rinna’s bitter feud with Kathy Hilton following Hilton’s meltdown in Aspen in which she bad-mouthed all of her co-stars, including sister Kyle Richards.

“I think the world itself has gotten so volatile that the response doesn’t match what we’re doing,” Rinna added of the fallout. “I didn’t want to live like that. I don’t think that’s healthy.”

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” Through The Years

After a shockingly contentious reunion, Rinna announced in January she was walking away after eight seasons. The “Days of our Lives” actress even revealed the decision was an easy one after she received a vision from her late mother Lois, who died in 2021 at the age of 93.

“She came to me,” Rinna shared. “It’s so wild, because half the world will believe this, half the world will say, ‘That’s so weird.’ I was sleeping and I heard her say to me, ‘It’s time for you to go.’ I told a psychic and she said, ‘Oh yeah, she’s come to me and told me that. She wants you to be happy and follow your dream, but she says it’s time for you to go.'”

With reality TV in her rearview mirror, Rinna is now focusing on returning to her acting roots.

“I have two acting gigs coming, which is really exciting,” she shared, noting they are in both television and film. “Acting is where I began, so my love is always there. When you take time off, people start to only see you one way, so this is a dream come true.”

In a full-circle moment, Rinna revealed her first day of filming is June 7 — her mom’s birthday.

“She’s been such a guardian angel throughout this whole process,” she said. “So to start the job on her birthday is lovely.”

(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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Tue, May 30 2023 01:50:44 PM
Paul Walker's Brother Cody Names His Baby Boy After Late Actor https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/paul-walkers-brother-cody-names-his-baby-boy-after-late-actor/4376109/ 4376109 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/GettyImages-117352877.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,202 Paul Walker‘s brother has honored him in the most heartwarming way.

Almost a decade after the “Fast & Furious” actor’s shocking death at age 40, his younger brother Cody Walker and wife Felicia named their newborn son after him.

A day after their baby was born on April 30, they landed on his name: Paul Barrett “Bear” Walker, Cody told People. A week later, Felicia shared the first pic of her son on Instagram, which showed his older brother Colt Knox Walker, 2, holding him.

“This November will mark 10 years since we lost my brother, Paul,” Cody told People, “and I just felt now was the appropriate time.”

Cody — who also shares daughter Remi Rogue Walker, 5, with his wife — is not the first member of the Walker family to carry on the name of the late actor, who himself was named after the brothers’ dad.

Their older brother Caleb Walker, 45, also honored the late star when he and wife Stephanie named their eldest son Maverick Paul Walker, who is now 5. The couple are also parents to daughter Everly Grace Walker, 16 months.

Paul Walker: A Life in Pictures

“My brother, Caleb, and I are both done having children,” Cody told People. “My brother, Paul, was Paul William Walker IV and that name goes back four generations. Within the family, he went by ‘little Paul’ or ‘Paul 4,’ even though he quickly outgrew our father in height. It was important to me to have that name carry on.”

The Walker brothers are not the only ones who paid tribute to Paul with their kids’ names. In 2015, Vin Diesel, Paul’s “Fast & Furious” co-star, named his third child, a daughter, Pauline.

Paul’s family and friends have worked hard over the years to honor his legacy in other ways as well. After his death from injuries sustained in a car crash, Cody and Caleb stepped in to work as his stand-ins and body doubles for “Furious 7.”

They have since supported the cast at “Fast & Furious” events, while Cody has also reunited with the franchise’s stars at the annual FuelFest music and automotive festival, which he co-founded. This year’s event — held June 3 at the Irwindale Speedway in California — will give a portion of the proceeds to Reach Out Worldwide, the charity Paul founded, of which Cody serves as CEO.

Cody told People he sees Reach Out WorldWide “as a part of Paul that he left behind,” adding, “It’s important to so many to see that part of his legacy live on.”

Paul is survived by a daughter, Meadow Rain Walker, who also helps honor his legacy with her own philanthropic work. The 24-year-old heads the Paul Walker Foundation, which is “is dedicated to spontaneous acts of goodwill that empower young people and support the environment they live in.”

Meadow has certainly remained close with the “Fast & Furious” cast since her dad’s death. Earlier this month, she joined Diesel at the premiere of “Fast X” in Italy and also has a cameo in the movie, released May 19. She told E! News at the event that she receives signs from her dad when she needs them the most.

“For me, it’s numbers, four and seven are my dad’s favorite numbers,” she said. “And I swear whenever I’m doubting anything or whenever I’m in an argument with someone or anything, I start seeing four and seven everywhere. So I always know that it’s him.”

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Mon, May 29 2023 03:16:28 PM
Hilary Swank Shares Motherhood Update After Welcoming Twins at 48 https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/hilary-swank-shares-motherhood-update-one-month-after-welcoming-twins-at-48/4376055/ 4376055 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/GettyImages-1455617265.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,200 Hilary Swank‘s most important role yet? Mom.

One month after the Oscar winner and husband Philip Schneider welcomed twins — a boy and a girl — Swank is sharing a glimpse inside her new chapter with her million dollar babies.

Alongside a photo of herself reading Owen Hart’s picture book “I’ll Love You Forever” to her twins, Swank wrote on Instagram Story May 26 that she’s been “busy pouring my energy into caring for my 2 little loves.”

However, as the 48-year-old continued, she wanted to take the time to spotlight certain items that she’s turned to recently, including adorable baby clothes. Though, referencing her own wardrobe in the photo, Swank noted that, yes, she’s wearing the “same outfit.. different day.”

Swank announced the arrival of her and Schneider’s twins on Instagram April 9. “It wasn’t easy. But boy (and girl!) was it worth it,” she captioned a photo with her son and daughter. “Posting from pure Heaven.”

2023 Celebrity Babies

The “Alaska Daily” alum — who tied the knot with Schneider in 2018first shared her pregnancy news in late 2022.

“This is something I’ve been wanting for a long time — and my next thing is I’m gonna be a mom,” she said during the Oct. 5 episode of “Good Morning America.” “And not just of one, but of two… I can’t believe it.”

Swank later shared the significance of her twins’ April due date, telling Drew Barrymore on her talk show that her babies were set to arrive on her late father Stephen Michael Swank’s birthday.

The “P.S. I Love You” actress previously paid tribute to her dad after his 2021 passing. “I have been off my phone and social media for a couple months due to a tremendous personal loss. In October, my Dear Dad, made his transition to the other side,” she wrote on Instagram in Dec. 2021. “I had a rather unique relationship with him as I was his sole caretaker after a lung transplant seven years ago. I grew incredibly close to him during this time, deepening our relationship and savoring every moment we had together.”

“He will always remain one of my most favorite persons,” she concluded, “and not a day goes by that I don’t miss him.”

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Sat, May 27 2023 02:47:35 PM
Inside Jeff Bezos' Mysterious Private World: A Dating Flow Chart, That Booming Laugh and Many Billions https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/inside-jeff-bezos-mysterious-private-world-a-dating-flow-chart-that-booming-laugh-and-many-billions/4375751/ 4375751 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/GettyImages-1473285049.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,200 If there’s one thing everybody knows about Jeff Bezos, it’s that he’s obscenely rich.

The 59-year-old has the kind of money that’s too mind-boggling to exist in physical dollars and cents, but rather just takes up a line on a piece of paper at his money manager’s office. His estimated $142.9 billion fortune is currently enough to make him the third-richest man in the world, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List, second only to Elon Musk and luxury brand magnate Bernard Arnault.

And even if the name Bezos doesn’t mean anything to you, it’s extremely likely you have contributed to his eye-popping wealth as the founder of Amazon, the online retail behemoth that’s as close to an instant answer to your prayers you’re likely to get (especially if you’re praying for shoes, dish soap and pet food to appear all at once, and you asked a woman named Alexa, who lives in a little box in your home, to make it happen), and multimedia mogul.

Surprise Celebrity Billionaires

But while Bezos, who stepped down as CEO of Amazon on July 5, 2021, is a legend in the online commerce and disrupter worlds — as well as a political donor and philanthropist, Hollywood mover and shaker, and, since 2013, the owner of the Washington Post — he never became your friendly neighborhood billionaire like Warren Buffett, the face of eradicating malaria like Bill Gates or an enigmatic man in black holding the future in the palm of his hand, like the late Steve Jobs.

He’s even far from the most outsize personality in the race to commercialize space travel, with Musk and Richard Branson and vying for that title.

In fact, not a lot of regular folks were paying all that much attention to Bezos until his love life exploded all over the tabloids in the most relatable (for celebrities, that is) of ways.

In January 2019, Bezos and his wife of 25 years, author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, announced that they were divorcing. At the time they shared four children, an estimated 400,000 acres of property, the aforementioned billions, and, according to TMZ, no prenuptial agreement.

Bit of a rookie mistake, but they married the year before he founded Amazon in the garage of their rented Seattle home, in 1994. Who knew?

But the split, according to the exes, was amicable.

“As our family and close friends know, after a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends,” read a joint statement that Bezos tweeted out in the rarest of comments about his personal life.

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“We feel incredibly lucky to have found each other and deeply grateful for every one of the years we have been married to each other. If we had known we would separate after 25 years, we would do it all again. We’ve had such a great life together as a married couple, and we also see wonderful futures ahead, as parents, friends, partners in ventures and projects, and as individuals pursuing ventures and adventures. Though the labels might be different, we remain a family, and we remain friends.”

That seemed to remain the case, with Scott also becoming one of the richest people in the world once her piece of the fortune was finalized.

What made the whole thing spicier at the time was that Bezos already had a girlfriend, veteran TV personality and former “Good Day LA” co-host Lauren Sánchez — who was still technically married to but separated from Patrick Whitesell, the co-CEO of mega-agency WME and father of two of her three children.

Bezos and Sánchez have been together ever since, and are now engaged, but their coupling was painted with the scandal brush at first, prompting Bezos to take action.

Whitesell was reportedly blindsided to find out his wife was having a relationship with Bezos, and the Amazon founder’s purported sexy text exchanges with Sánchez were leaked for public consumption.

An attorney for Bezos told the National Enquirer, which first published the texts, that it was “widely known” that his client and Scott were “long separated.” A source also told Page Six, “MacKenzie knew they were dating, the news [Wednesday] was not a surprise to her. Lauren was with Jeff at the Golden Globes [in 2019] because they are dating.”

Bezos, Sánchez and Whitesell were all spotted chatting at Amazon’s Golden Globes after-party that night, according to People.

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Bezos, however, went a step further and took to Medium to accuse the Enquirer of attempted extortion, alleging the publication threatened to publish intimate photos if he didn’t make a favorable public statement about the tabloid.

“Any personal embarrassment AMI could cause me takes a back seat because there’s a much more important matter involved here,” he wrote. “If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?”

The Enquirer maintained its reporting on Bezos was lawful.

Massive global footprint aside, the Medium post really was an uncharacteristic bit of public pushback on one of the countless narratives that has circulated about him over the past 30 years.

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Bezos a man who had “proved quite indifferent to the opinion of others… an avid problem solver, a man who has a chess grandmaster’s view of the competitive landscape,” author Brad Stone wrote in his 2013 book “The Everything Store.”

He was a congenial and outgoing guy with a famously big laugh (“like a cross between a mating elephant seal and a power tool,” Stone wrote), but prone to the same mercurial behavior associated with Jobs, friendly one minute and liable to cut a person down to size the next.

The name Amazon, as in the world’s largest river, reflected Bezos’ mighty ambition — and, starting with “A,” would be near the top of any alphabetical company listing.

“People say that your life races before your eyes,” he told Fast Company in 2004, a year after he emerged from a helicopter crash with only a few cuts on his head. “This particular accident happened slowly enough that we had a few seconds to contemplate it.” Bezos continued, laughing heartily, “I have to say, nothing extremely profound flashed through my head in those few seconds. My main thought was, ‘This is such a silly way to die.'”

“It wasn’t life-changing in any major way. I’ve learned a fairly tactical lesson from it, I’m afraid. The biggest takeaway is: Avoid helicopters whenever possible! They’re not as reliable as fixed-wing aircraft.”

Sanchez, incidentally, is a helicopter pilot who owned her own aerial filming company, Black Ops Aviation. Not only does Bezos’ $500 million superyacht have a helipad, but his fiancée told WSJ. Magazine earlier this year that he’s getting his pilot’s license.

“Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?” Bezos inquired in the commencement speech he gave for Princeton’s Class of 2010. “Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?”

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But it all started with a bunch of books.

Bezos and Scott first met in New York while working at a Wall Street hedge fund. Bezos, tuned in to the fact that Internet commerce was the wave of the future, studied his options and decided he wanted to start an online bookstore. He took the idea to his own boss, who, according to Tom Robinson’s “Jeff Bezos: Amazon.com Architect,” said it was a good idea, but a better idea for someone who didn’t already have a good job.

When he got the idea for what would become Amazon (and was almost called Relentless.com, but friends deemed that scary), Bezos came up with what he called a “regret-minimization framework” to help him work out the pros and cons of leaving his successful career in finance. “When you are in the thick of things, you can get confused by small stuff,” he later said, per Stone.

“I have no business sense whatsoever,” Scott told Vogue in 2013, “but I saw how excited he was.”

“I had just turned 30 years old, and I’d been married for a year,” Bezos recounted in the 2010 Princeton commencement address. “I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn’t work since most startups don’t, and I wasn’t sure what would happen after that.”

So in the summer of 1994, Bezos and his wife flew to Texas, where his parents lived. They told the movers to just start driving west, that they would follow up with an exact destination — which, at the moment, they weren’t sure of yet.

Jackie and Miguel Bezos (who also goes by Mike) loaned the couple the SUV in which MacKenzie drove them to Seattle, while Bezos worked on his laptop. They didn’t have any particular personal ties to the city, but a friend had recommended it—and at the time online retailers didn’t have to collect sales tax in states where they didn’t have a physical presence. Washington was small and he wanted the rest of his customers around the country to avoid paying sales tax.

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Jackie was 17 when Jeff was born in Albuquerque; she divorced his biological father, Ted Jorgenson, when their child was 1. Mike, who left Cuba for the U.S. when he was 15, met Jackie while working the night shift at Bank of New Mexico while attending the University of Albuquerque. They married when Jeff was 4 and Mike adopted him. Bezos has said that Mike is the only father he’s ever known. The family moved around for Mike’s work, from Albuquerque, to Houston and then to Miami, where Bezos enrolled in a science program at University of Florida while still in high school.

He was a supremely talented student in math and science, a Star Trek fan who loved to tinker with stuff in the garage, senior class president and valedictorian. He went on to major in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton.

In 1995, Jackie and Mike invested $245,573 in their son’s start-up, Amazon.com.

“I want you to know how risky this is,” Jeff told them, according to remarks Mike Bezos gave in 2015 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, “because I want to come home at dinner for Thanksgiving and I don’t want you to be mad at me.”

According to Bloomberg, their stake in the company may now be worth about $30 billion — a 12 million percent return. Bezos’ younger siblings, Mark and Christina, also purchased 30,000 shares apiece for $10,000 in 1996; each holding could be worth $640 million.

“We were fortunate enough that we have lived overseas [they had just spent three years in Bogotá, Colombia] and we have saved a few pennies so we were able to be an angel investor,” Mike, a former engineer at Exxon, said. “The rest is history.”

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Back in 1990, Bezos joined investment firm D.E. Shaw & Company and was a senior vice president within two years. According to The Everything Store, as a single guy he took ballroom dancing lessons, hoping to increase the probability of meeting “n+ women.” He made a flow chart.

“The number one criterion was that I wanted a woman who could get me out of a third-world prison,” Bezos later said, according to Richard Brandt’s 2011 book “One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com.” “What I really wanted was someone resourceful. But nobody knows what you mean when you say, ‘I’m looking for a resourceful woman’… Life’s too short to hang out with people who aren’t resourceful.”

Eventually he met MacKenzie Scott (née Tuttle), a research associate and fellow Princeton grad from San Francisco who worked in the office right next to his. Sensing a connection as they got to know each other, and Bezos feeling reluctant to make a move as the supervisor of the team she worked on, she approached him.

“My office was next door to his, and all day I listened to that fabulous laugh,” Scott, an English major who had done research for Toni Morrison while the Nobel Prize winner was writing “Jazz,” told Vogue. “How could you not fall in love with that laugh?”

They got engaged three months after their first lunch date, then married in 1993 at the Breakers in West Palm Beach, Fla., where the reception included an adult-size play area with water balloons.

“I think my wife is resourceful, smart, brainy, and hot,” Bezos also told Vogue, “but I had the good fortune of having seen her résumé before I met her, so I knew exactly what her SATs were.” (He wouldn’t reveal her score.)

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Once in Seattle, they rented a house for $890 a month in the suburb of Bellevue; set up some tables, chairs and computers in their garage, starting with $25,000 of their own money; and Amazon.com was registered on Feb. 9, 1995, with Bezos’ parents being his primary investors at the time.

Scott was the company’s first bookkeeper, secretary and office manager. The couple’s golden retriever, Kamala (named after a creature from “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) would hang out in the garage. Amazon’s small staff would sometimes go to a nearby Barnes & Noble for coffee and meetings.

The site went live on July 16, 1995.

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By that September, Amazon.com was selling $20,000 in books a week. That first year, the company had a net loss of $303,000. They went public in 1997 and raised $54 million in capital; moved into new headquarters in a former hospital in 1998; and Bezos was named TIME magazine’s Person of the Year in 1999. “[P]athologically happy and infectiously enthusiastic,” the article called him.

Amazon’s death knell was sounded many a time in the 1990s, and the company would not report a quarterly profit, of $5 million, until the fourth quarter of 2001 — which saw $2 billion in sales for the year. 2003 was its first profitable year. In 2004, Fast Company reported that they were on track for $7 billion in sales and a $400 million in earnings. In the fourth quarter of 2017 alone, Amazon reported $1.86 billion in net income.

But profit can be incidental at first when it comes to getting filthy rich in the tech world.

“The thing about inventing is you have to be both stubborn and flexible, more or less simultaneously,” he told Fast Company. “Of course, the hard part is figuring out when to be which.”

Amazon’s infamously intense, overtime-expected, high-turnover workplace culture has been well-documented, often not flatteringly. Bezos, whose inspiration included the visionaries Thomas Edison and Walt Disney, expects his employees to abide by 14 core leadership principles: customer obsession; ownership; invent and simplify; “are right, a lot” (if you know what you’re doing, you’re probably right); learn and be curious; hire and develop the best; insist on the highest standards; think big; bias for action (go for it, don’t overthink); frugality; earn trust; dive deep; have backbone, disagree and commit; and deliver results.

Per Stone, employees don’t give Power Point presentations, but rather have to write six-page treatises laying out their ideas — it fosters critical thinking, according to the boss.

“It’s not easy to work here…but were are working to build something important, something that matters to our customers, something that we can all tell our grandchildren about,” Bezos wrote in a 1997 letter to shareholders.

As he told the Princeton class of 2010, “When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless? Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder? Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?”

His unapologetic way of doing business has, to put it very mildly, worked for him.

“To me Amazon is a story of a brilliant founder who personally drove the vision,” Eric Schmidt, then executive chairman of Google (and an Amazon Prime member), told Brad Stone for “The Everything Store.” “There are almost no better examples… It lost hundreds of millions of dollars. But Jeff was very garrulous, very smart. He’s a classic technical founder of a business, who understands every detail and cares about it more than anyone.”

Incidentally, MacKenzie left a one-star review of “The Everything Store” on Amazon.com under the subject line, “I wanted to like this book,” and called it a “lopsided and misleading portrait of the people and culture at Amazon.” Stone, in response, told the New York Times, that Bezos had “approved many interviews with current Amazon executives and former Amazon executives” and had declined interview requests for himself. “Most of the readers and reviewers have been inspired by Amazon’s story,” Stone said. “To me, it’s not an unflattering account.”

Over the years, they acquired a real estate portfolio that included a gated 5.3-acre compound in the Seattle suburb of Medina reachable via the longest floating bridge in the world; the South Texas ranch where Bezos used to spend summers with his grandparents, near where his aeronautics and space-exploration company Blue Origin is also based; a $24 million home in Beverly Hills; four condos in a building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side; and a residence in Washington D.C. that broke a record for Beltway home prices when Bezos bought the former Textile Museum in 2016 for $23 million.

They also share three sons and a daughter. They are understandably incredibly private when it comes to their kids, but Bezos shared some parenting insight at the Summit LA 17 event while being interviewed by his brother, Mark.

“How do you help your children, what’s the right thing?” he mused. “My wife has a great saying — we let our kids use, even now they’re 17 through 12, but even when they were 4, we would let them use sharp knives. By the time they were, I don’t know, maybe 7 or 8, we would let them use certain power tools and my wife, much to her credit, she has this great saying, ‘I would much rather have a kid with 9 fingers than a resourceless kid.’ Which, I just think, is a fantastic attitude about life.”

Scott also wrote two novels, 2005’s “The Testing of Luther Albright” and 2013’s “Traps.” “Jeff is my best reader,” she said, noting that Bezos would block out a big chunk of time and read a manuscript in one sitting, writing her detailed notes.

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She recalled to Vogue in 2013 how it took her 10 years to finish her first book, considering she was rather busy helping run Amazon.com and having a family for much of that time.

Acknowledging how unusual her lot in life had become, MacKenzie said, “I am definitely a lottery winner of a certain kind and it makes my life wonderful in many ways, but that’s not the lottery I feel defined by. The fact that I got wonderful parents who believed in education and never doubted I could be a writer, the fact that I have a spouse I love, those are the things that define me.”

“Jeff is the opposite of me,” she also said. “He likes to meet people. He’s a very social guy. Cocktail parties for me can be nerve-racking. The brevity of conversations, the number of them—it’s not my sweet spot.”

Bezos said of his wife, “Writing makes her really happy.” On days when she would get up early to write, “by the time I come down, she will be literally dancing in the kitchen, which the kids and I love.”

With the deepest pockets in the world come great responsibility, and admirers and critics alike wondered for years what Bezos was planning to do with all that dough.

In 2012, the Seattle Times reported that Amazon was a relative lightweight on the local philanthropy circuit, and that the United Way in King County reported $0 in donations from the company in 2011, while other prominent corporate residents, including Microsoft, Nordstrom and Boeing had given 6- and 7-figure sums.

“Our core business activities are probably the most important thing we do to contribute, as well as our employment in the area,” Bezos told the paper in 2011 (he didn’t comment on the 2012 report).

Of course he and MacKenzie have a family foundation (run by his parents) that benefits children’s education and they’ve been personally active in charitable causes, donating to political candidates and otherwise doling out money for decades. In 2007, Bezos paid $3.98 million for one of only seven handwritten and illustrated copies of J.K. Rowling’s “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” with all proceeds going to Children’s Voice (Rowling gave the other six to people closely connected to the Potterverse). They have given to both Democratic and Republican candidates, but their social politics lean progressive: in 2012 they gave $2.5 million to support an ultimately successful referendum legalizing same-sex marriage in Washington state, which made them the biggest financial backers of the cause in the country.

The New York Times, citing various data, reported in the summer of 2017 that Bezos had personally given away about $100 million.

Do-Gooder Gallery

The Bezoses gave $15 million to Princeton to establish the Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. The Bezos Family Foundation has donated a total of about $65 million to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. They gave $10 million to Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry in 2011. And the $250 million Bezos paid to buy the Washington Post could be considered benevolent, considering the state of the newspaper business, though that’s technically a for-profit venture. (It at least seemed a bargain compared to the $13.7 billion Amazon spent to acquire Whole Foods in 2017.)

But in June 2017, Bezos — then the only one of the U.S.’ top five billionaires not to sign Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s “Giving Pledge” promising to give away at least half of their wealth — tweeted that he was open to suggestions, writing, “I’m thinking about a philanthropy strategy that is the opposite of how I mostly spend my time—working on the long term. For philanthropy, I find I’m drawn to the other end of the spectrum: the right now.”

As of November 2022, per CNBC, he remained among the seven richest people in the world who haven’t signed. Among those who have: His ex-wife and Elon Musk.

Scott, meanwhile, recently issued a $250 million open call for philanthropic opportunities for her foundation. She’s been busy on the personal front, too, marrying science teacher Dan Jewett in 2021 and filing for divorce in September 2022.

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But Bezos has stated that he plans to give most of his fortune away, and just as he and Scott teamed up to make numerous massive pledges during their time together, he and Sánchez are also doing the work.

“It’s the greatest experience I’ve ever had,” Sánchez said of partnering with her now-fiancé on business and philanthropic matters. “I’ve always had a career very separate from my partner. We love to be together and we love to work together. He’s helping me with the book. He’s getting his pilot’s license. We fly together. We work out together. We’re together all the time.”

“Lauren is the most generous, most big-hearted person that you would ever meet,” told CNN in November. “So, she is an inspiration in that way. She never misses a birthday. The network of people that she gives birthday presents to is gigantic. And that’s just a small example.”

Bezos concluded his address to the Princeton grads in 2010 by reiterating his tendency to think about how he’s going to feel about his life when looking back on it from an older perch one day.

“I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.”

(Originally published Jan. 11, 2019, at 3 a.m. PT)

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Sat, May 27 2023 08:02:42 AM
Ed Ames, '50s Pop Singer and '60s TV Star in ‘Daniel Boone,' Dies at 95 https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/ed-ames-50s-pop-singer-and-60s-tv-star-in-daniel-boone-dies-at-95/4372951/ 4372951 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/GettyImages-131742420.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,210 Ed Ames, the youngest member of the popular 1950s singing group the Ames Brothers, who later became a successful actor in television and musical theater, has died. He was 95.

The last survivor of the four singing brothers, Ames died May 21 from Alzheimer’s disease, his wife, Jeanne Ames, said Saturday.

“He had a wonderful life,” she said.

On television, Ames was likely best known for his role as Mingo, the Oxford-educated Native American in the 1960s adventure series “Daniel Boone” that starred Fess Parker as the famous frontiersman. He also was the center of a bit on “The Tonight Show” that — thanks to his painfully uncanny aim with a hatchet — became one of the show’s most memorable surprise moments.

Ames had guest roles in TV series such as “Murder, She Wrote” and “In the Heat of the Night,” and toured frequently in musicals, performing such popular songs as “Try to Remember” and the song that became his biggest hit single, “My Cup Runneth Over.”

As part of the 1950s music scene, he and his brothers were one of numerous pop quartets that included the Four Aces, Four Lads, Gaylords, Hilltoppers, Lancers, Four Knights, Ink Spots and, still around from a previous era, the Mills Brothers. But the Ames Brothers — Ed, Joe, Gene and Vic — had a unique tone: they were basses and baritones, not tenors.

Their recordings of “Rag Mop,” “Sentimental Me” and “Undecided” became big hits, and they launched a busy career appearing on TV variety shows, recording 40 albums and playing in night clubs and auditoriums across the country.

By the end of the 1950s, rock ‘n’ roll had overtaken the pop charts and singing quartets were on the decline. The Ameses, meanwhile, had tired of the constant travel and absence from their growing families. The finale for Ed came when he arrived home unexpectedly and his wife called to their 3-year-old daughter: “Who is it?” The girl replied, “One of the Ames Brothers.”

“That did it,” he told a reporter. “My brothers and I agreed that we had all had it and should go our separate ways.” The group, which was earning $20,000 a week, played its last engagement at the Sahara in Las Vegas on New Year’s 1961.

Ed’s efforts to establish himself as a solo singer were not immediately successful and he turned to acting. He almost lost his house before he found a role in a production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.”

In the long-running musical “The Fantasticks,” he sang “Try to Remember,” which became one of his theme songs. He joined the traveling company of Gower Champion’s “Carnival” and transferred to the New York company until the show’s final performance.

In a role that presaged his future role on “Daniel Boone,” he then won attention as the stoic Native American in the 1963 Broadway play “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” with Kirk Douglas and Gene Wilder in the adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel.

Ames earned top money at Las Vegas casinos and in hotel supper clubs and toured extensively in the musicals “Man of La Mancha,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “South Pacific” and “I Do, I Do.”

“I Do, I Do” provided his biggest hit single, “My Cup Runneth Over,” a gold record winner in 1967. He had another hit in 1968 with “Who Will Answer?”

It was during his run on “Daniel Boone” that he contributed to what was called the longest sustained burst of laughter in the history of “The Tonight Show.”

For a 1965 episode he was persuaded to demonstrate the hatchet-throwing skills he learned as Mingo. The silhouette of a cowboy was painted on a piece of wood, and Ames threw a hatchet at the target. It landed on squarely on the cowboy’s crotch.

Ames was born Edmund Dantes Urick in Malden, Massachusetts, the youngest of 11 children, four who died in childhood. Their parents were Ukrainian immigrants and their mother taught the children to read Shakespeare and to appreciate music they heard every Saturday on the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts.

The four youngest boys began singing at local events as the Urick Brothers. Ed was still in high school when they moved to night clubs, but as a husky six-footer with a deep voice, he was able to pass for 21.

In New York, comedy writer Abe Burrows advised a name change because Urick was hard to remember. Ames was the brothers’ choice.

After the four brothers split up, the other brothers also continued performing and recording, but gained less notice than Ed. Vic died in 1978, Gene in 1997 and Joe in December 2007.

Ames and his first wife, Sara Cacheiro, had three children: Sonja, Ronald and Linda. The couple divorced in 1978, and in 1998 he married Jeanne Arnold.

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Sun, May 28 2023 12:13:10 AM
After a Year of Long Overdue Hollywood Love, Actor James Hong Is Still Having His Moment https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/after-a-year-of-long-overdue-hollywood-love-actor-james-hong-is-still-having-his-moment/4370805/ 4370805 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/AP23144477200936.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,217 Greeted with a standing ovation at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, James Hong could easily have just basked in the applause and moved on. But for the 94-year-old, the mostly Asian cast of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” winning best cast seemed like an opportunity for a stark reminder that Hollywood wasn’t always so open.

“It just came out of me that after all these years of working with producers and directors, and they were always saying, ‘Oh the Asian, the Chinese, are not good enough to play the leading role,’” Hong told The Associated Press recently. “But look at Michelle (Yeoh) and all these colleagues now coming forward to be recognized … You can’t help but say ‘Look at us now.’”

Looking at Hong now, you will see perhaps the busiest nonagenarian in show biz. The last year for him has been a wild ride. A year ago he finally received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Shortly after, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and the overwhelming response propelled the actor into every major awards event. He got to see the movie collect seven Oscars, including a historic best actress win for Yeoh. Host Jimmy Kimmel even took a moment to pay tribute to him.

Viewers will soon be able to hear Hong in “Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai,” an animated prequel series of the movie franchise. Episodes began streaming Tuesday on Max (formerly HBO Max). He also appears in an episode of the new Disney+ show, “American Born Chinese,” which also premiered this week and is producer on the upcoming movie “Patsy Lee and the Keepers of the 5 Kingdoms.”

It’s as if the universe is trying to make up for all the racial discrimination the Asian American icon endured over the years.

Born in Minneapolis, Hong originally studied civil engineering in college. After serving in the Korean War, he decided in 1953 to move to Hollywood. He got his break break on Groucho Marx’s quiz show, “You Bet Your Life.” Small film roles opposite actors like Clark Gable followed. But so did roles that were racist tropes.

In the series “The New Adventures of Charlie Chan,” Hong played the son of the titular Chinese detective. He had to stomach watching a white lead actor “put on fake eye pieces” so that his eyes would look more “Asian.”

“Then he would just talk in a very stoic pattern that’s supposedly Chinese,” Hong recalled. “That irritated me for many, many years.”

A lot of his early roles reflected the limited options for Asian actors at the time: workers in laundries, restaurants on railroad lines.

Those “Asian cliches” are far behind him now. He is also helping to revisit some and flesh them out.

Sam Register, president of Warner Bros. Animation, had the idea to do a prequel to “Gremlins” and gave showrunner Tze Chun the reins to come up with ideas. Chun wanted to expand on the family history of Mr. Wing, the store owner played by Keye Luke who houses original Gremlin Gizmo in the 1984 flick. In this animated take, viewers will see Mr. Wing as a little boy in 1920s Shanghai encountering the furry creatures who shouldn’t eat after midnight. Hong, who was actually friends with Luke, voices Sam’s sly and spunky grandfather.

Hong’s “iconic voice” was at the top of the show’s wish list. There’s something about his delivery that is “equal parts gravitas and incredible humor,” Chun said.

“It’s never what you think it’s going to be, which is what’s so exciting about it,” Chun said. “It’s like you can try to hear it when you’re writing it on the page. But then when he does it, he brings that like unique spin to it that is just out of left field. And, frankly, just makes it better.”

“Secrets of the Mogwai,” which retains some of the dark and funny elements of the movie, also serves as a “Mulan” voice cast reunion. Ming-Na Wen, BD Wong, George Takei and Hong were all part of the 1998 Disney animated feature. The “Mulan” connection was a complete coincidence.

“We just kind of went out to our first choices,” Chun said. “These are people that I’ve looked up to like for my entire life.”

Chun is one of several Asian American film directors and showrunners who have gotten emotional seeing Hong celebrated. Melvin Mar, one of the producers of “American Born Chinese,” teared up when he spoke to him right before his Walk of Fame ceremony.

“That guy is a legend beyond legend,” Mar said. “He was just so funny and quick and just a pleasure to have on set. Just the sweetest guy.”

Gene Luen Yang, author of the “American Born Chinese” graphic novel and also a producer on the show, says Hong’s life epitomizes Asian American history.

“His journey in Hollywood really is symbolic of us as Asian Americans. The kind of roles that he was offered in the beginning to now having his own Hollywood star, it shows the kind of progress that we’ve made,” Yang said.

Hong is grateful that he has been around to witness how anti-Asian discrimination and whitewashing are no longer as tolerated. With new attitudes and new technology like streaming services, there are also more acting gigs than he thought possible.

“I’m going to be thinking of another project to do. Why? Because online and all these streaming things have created a whole new different field,” he said. “You don’t have to make a whole feature. You can make a something 10 minutes or half an hour or hour long and still get it so-called displayed.”

With over 650 acting credits including 200-something voiceovers, is there anything Hong wants to conquer? Yes, but not in acting. He fantasizes about a James Hong comic book series with his brand of sarcastic humor.

“We’ll see,” Hong said. “I’m not going to stop working. My wife wants me to go to a retirement home soon, but I don’t think I’m fit for that. I wouldn’t know what to do.”

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Fri, May 26 2023 09:31:36 PM
Inside Harry Styles' Special Bond With Stevie Nicks https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/inside-harry-styles-special-bond-with-stevie-nicks/4370374/ 4370374 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/GettyImages-1139187833-1.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,200 It was only right that Harry Styles and Stevie Nicks found each other.

He was the de facto frontman of one of the most successful lad bands of all time, a group that came together serendipitously and had a great run before the gents went their separate ways. She’s the frontwoman of one of the most successful and legendarily dramatic bands of all time, a group that had a good run for the better part of 50 years. Both incredible singers and natural spotlight-commanders. Both known for their inimitable fashion choices.

The 29-year-old from the English town of Redditch and the 75-year-old from Phoenix, Ariz., mutually admired each other’s talent from afar (perhaps one was more familiar with the other at first) and now they call each other friend at any distance.

Friendship Goals: Hollywood’s Most Beloved BFFs

“He’s Mick [Fleetwood]’s and my love child,” Nicks quipped to Rolling Stone in early 2019. “When Harry came into our lives, I said, ‘Oh my God, this is the son I never had.’ So I adopted him.”

Figuratively speaking, of course, as Nicks also gets along famously with Styles’ actual mum, Anne Twist.

Styles brought Anne, sister Gemma, some friends and a couple of his band mates to a Fleetwood Mac (sans Lindsey Buckingham) show in London in 2019 and their considerable presence did not go unnoticed.

Before she launched into “Landslide,” Nicks told the sold-out crowd at Wembley Stadium, “I’d like to dedicate this to my little muse, Harry Styles, who brought his mother tonight. Her name is Anne. And I think you did a really good job raising Harry, Anne. Because he’s really a gentleman, sweet and talented, and, boy, that appeals to me. So all of you, this is for you.”

But talking to Rolling Stone, Nicks said that loved Styles and was “so happy” he “made a rock & roll record—he could have made a pop record and that would have been the easy way for him. But I guess he decided he wanted to be born in 1948, too—he made a record that was more like 1975.”

She’d had her eye on Styles’ burgeoning solo talents for awhile by then, however.

Musicians Performing Live on Stage

“When we did the last Fleetwood Mac show, on my birthday, it was the nicest birthday I’d had in 10 years,” she told the Daily Mail in 2017. “Harry Styles brought back a cake. Mick has kind of adopted him. There are just women in Mick’s family and Harry is that tall, lanky musical son he always wanted, so they keep in touch.”

A few weeks after that interview, she joined Styles onstage for the first time at the Troubador on L.A.’s Sunset Strip, site of countless history-making musical moments over the years. Styles happily announced to the crowd that he was “losing my s–t in a cool way.”

They started with his “Two Ghosts,” then sang “Landslide,” and concluded with “Leather and Lace,” Styles seamlessly covering Don Henley’s half of the lyrics. As she sang, he bowed down accordingly, calling her “the queen of everything.”

“I’m pretty sure that this was going to be up there with one of the best nights of my life,” Styles said. And in all honesty, singing “Landslide” during soundcheck together “was even cooler for me than the show—just me and her, in an empty Troubadour,” he told Rolling Stone.

Unsurprisingly, Styles was also among the artists who performed at the 2018 MusiCares Person of the Year concert honoring Fleetwood Mac, joining the band on a rendition of “The Chain.” And by 2019, Nicks wasn’t just at the parties, she was being consulted on the product, too.

“I met Stevie Nicks last night at the Fleetwood Mac concert in Philly and she reasserted that she had heard the entirety of Fine Line and said it was incredible and that we aren’t ready!!!” Trey Taylor, an editor at The Face, tweeted in November 2019 ahead of the release of Styles’ second solo album.

26 Things to Know About Harry Styles

“It was pretty crazy,” Styles recalled to Howard Stern of playing his yet-to-be-released music for Nicks. “So I’d just kind of finished the record and she said, ‘Oh I want to come hear the album.’ And she was with all her ladies…a little witches coven.”

“And they’re so used to living nocturnally—you know, they wake up really late and then they kind of live through the night ’cause they’re, you know, witches,” he explained, delving further into the perfectly apropos metaphor, Nicks’ almost supernatural presence being part of her charm.

“So it’s getting to like 3 a.m. playing the album, I’m like, ‘I’m kinda tired’ and they’re right in their prime,” Styles continued. “They’re really like, ‘Oh, this is like daytime for us.'”

And to think this all started with a fan, standing in front of a girl, offering her baked goods.

“Piped her name onto it. She loved it. Glad she liked carrot cake,” he recalled to Rolling Stone in 2017 about surprising her with post-show sweets in 2015. (A little digging shows that carrot appears to be Nicks’ birthday cake flavor of choice since at least the 1970s.)

Incidentally, a vinyl copy of Nicks’ 1989 solo album “The Other Side of the Mirror” was one of the items that was visibly in use in Styles’ London flat when a Rolling Stone interviewer came calling in 2019.

The Best Dressed Stars at the 2023 Grammys

That March, Styles answered the call to induct Nicks into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist (Fleetwood Mac has been in since 1998), making her the first female artist to be inducted twice, and stood in for the late Tom Petty to perform “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”

In his tribute to “the magical gypsy godmother who occupies the in-between,” he said, “If you’re lucky enough to know her, she’s always there for you. She knows what you need: advice, a little wisdom, a blouse, a shawl—she’s got you covered. Her songs make you ache, feel on top of the world, make you want to dance, and usually all three at the same time. She’s responsible for more running mascara—including my own—than all the bad dates in history combined. That is true Stevie.”

Styles also said, “She is both an adjective, and a verb—to quote my father, ‘That was very Stevie Nicks!’ or to quote my mother, ‘I Stevie Nicks’ed that s–t so hard.’ Mick Fleetwood calls her the ‘fearless leader.’ She is ‘Mama Lion’ to her friends. She is the family member that you can always count on. I hope she knows what she means to us, what she means to yet another generation of artists who look to her for inspiration and trailblazing courage. That is true Stevie.”

Grammys 2023: Behind-the-Scenes Moments

Nicks may have accidentally referred to One Direction as ‘NSYNC backstage while talking to reporters, but if she thinks Styles got his start with ‘NSYNC, that’s her prerogative.

Styles said during the ceremony that being a fan of Nicks was like being a friend because of how her music spoke so personally to countless people, making you feel both singled out and less alone.

“I was lucky enough to play with her at the Troubadour a few years ago, and all I could do was watch,” he continued. “The show is no longer yours, it’s hers, and you take a knee as she takes it from you, and that is true Stevie.”

“She is more than a role model—she’s a beacon to all of us,” he concluded. “Whenever you hear her voice, life gets a little bit better. When she sings, the world is hers, and it is yours. She is everything you’ve ever wanted in a lady, in a lover, in a friend.”

Nine months later, she glided onto the stage for her surprise appearance at Styles’ one-night-only December 2019 engagement at L.A.’s Great Western Forum to celebrate Fine Line. “It wouldn’t be an album release without this young lady,” he said. “I have a feeling that you’re going to enjoy this as much as me.”

Naturally they brought the house down with “Landslide.” Though, even if May 26 is Nicks’ birthday, we’re not so sure that Nicks is getting older, too.

(Originally published May 26, 2020, at 12:02 p.m. PT)

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Fri, May 26 2023 07:26:28 AM
Ryan Reynolds Keeping Wrexham in the Family With Sponsorship From Blake Lively's Company https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/ryan-reynolds-keeping-wrexham-in-the-family-with-sponsorship-from-blake-livelys-company/4366447/ 4366447 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/web-230525-mcelhenney-reynolds-lively.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Wrexham’s shirts will have a taste of Hollywood next season.

The Welsh soccer team has secured its latest celebrity linkup and co-owner Ryan Reynolds is keeping it in the family.

Actor Blake Lively, who is married to the “Deadpool” star, will sponsor the team’s training kit from next season through her non-alcoholic beverage company Betty Buzz.

“Our team had, of course, heard of Wrexham AFC but once we officially learned about their refreshing vision, we knew it was the right official fit for our refreshing sparkling beverage,” Lively said in a statement.

Wrexham has gained a global following since it was bought by Reynolds and fellow actor Rob McElhenney for $2.5 million in 2021.

A documentary series about the team has streamed around the world and has made household names of its players, management and fans.

Reynolds and McElhenny have used their own celebrity to raise the profile of the club, which spent 15 years out of the English Football League before earning promotion last month.

The growing exposure of Wrexham led to a shirt sponsorship deal with social media platform TikTok, while there has also been a link with Expedia.

Lively has attended games alongside her husband as Wrexham won the National League with a record total of 111 points. After reaching the fourth division of English soccer, Reynolds and McElhenney rewarded the team with a trip to Las Vegas.

A new 5,000-seat stand is being built to raise the capacity at the club’s Racecourse Ground to 15,000 — and a sponsorship deal with a coffee company will change the name of the stadium to Stok Racecourse. The team will also tour the United States in the offseason, playing LA Galaxy II and Premier League teams Manchester United and Chelsea.

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Thu, May 25 2023 12:07:25 PM
Kim Kardashian Reveals What Really Led to ‘Sad' Breakup With Pete Davidson https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/kim-kardashian-reveals-what-really-led-to-sad-breakup-with-pete-davidson/4367095/ 4367095 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/KIM-K-PETE-D.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Kim Kardashian is sharing what really went down between her and Pete Davidson. Bible.

The SKIMS founder addressed her breakup with the “Saturday Night Live” alum during the May 25 season three premiere of “The Kardashians.” “OK, I’m single,” Kardashian said in a confessional interview. “I’m single and I’m not ready to mingle and that’s OK.”

During the episode, Scott Disick also asked Kardashian how she feels about the split, given it’s her first major breakup since her divorce from Kanye West. Without naming Davidson, Kardashian said, “Breakups are just not my thing…I’m proud of myself.”

“We just had talks and talks, we had been talking about it,” she explained. “So it was both of us just communicating really well about it. It’s obviously sad.”

The 42-year-old went on to note that she’s not into “random hookups” and prefers to be in long-term relationships, like her nine-month romance with Davidson.

Kardashian also seemingly referenced headline-making comments made by her ex about her and Davidson. “There was a lot of guilt,” she said. “He went through a lot because of my relationship.”

Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson: Romance Rewind

In a confessional interview, Kardashian admitted she, at times, has concerns about finding a future partner.

“I go back and forth in my feelings sometimes like, ‘Uh, who’s ever gonna wanna date me? I have four kids, I’m in my 40s, you know? Like, oh my god, who’s gonna wanna deal with the drams?'” she said. “But my person will be like, ‘F–k all of that, it’s gonna be hard but we’re together and we’re gonna do this.’ So I’m just waiting for that person.”

At the time of their breakup in August, sources close to the couple exclusively told E! News that the two have “a lot of love and respect for each other,” but their long distance relationship, with Davidson filming for the movie Wizards! in Australia at the time and Kardashian in Calabasas, “made it really difficult to maintain a relationship.”

Sources first confirmed the two were dating in November 2021, with one saying that they were “really happy and seeing where it goes.”

The insider continued, “Pete has told her he doesn’t want to see anyone else.” They also noted, “Kim is telling some people they aren’t super serious, but she isn’t seeing anyone else… She’s trying to not make a big deal about it but is super into him.”

During an April appearance on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, the reality star shared that sparks flew when she first kissed the “King of Staten Island” actor while hosting SNL in October 2021. “It was a stage kiss, but it was still a little zing,” Kardashian said. “It wasn’t anything like a super, crazy feeling.”

And in season one of “The Kardashians,” Kardashian — who shares kids North, Psalm, Chicago and Saint with West — gushed over how amazing of a person the “Good Mourning” actor is.

“Pete has got to be literally the best human being I have ever met. Like, the best heart,” Kardashian revealed in the confessional. “He always wants the best for people, he can handle anything and he always does it with grace.”

From PDA on the ‘gram to the red carpet at the Met Gala, the couple kept followers captivated by their every move during the nine-month romance.

However, since the split, Kardashian has been putting romance on the back burner. “I’m not looking, I just want to chill for a minute,” she shared during a Sept. 14 appearance on the “Late Late Show.” “I think I need some time to myself and to focus, finish school, all that.”

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Thu, May 25 2023 08:51:06 AM
‘Carrie' Actress Samantha Weinstein Dead at 28 After Cancer Battle https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/carrie-actress-samantha-weinstein-dead-at-28-after-cancer-battle/4370212/ 4370212 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/SAMANTHA-WEINSTEIN-DEATH.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Canadian actress Samantha Weinstein — known for her many roles including appearing in the 2013 remake of “Carrie” — has died at the age of 28 after a two-and-a-half-year battle with ovarian cancer.

A tribute posted to her social media page shared she passed away on May 14 in Toronto surrounded by loved ones.

“After two and a half years of cancer treatment, and a lifetime of jet setting around the world,” the May 15 Instagram statement read. “Voicing a plethora of cartoon animals, making music, and knowing more about life than most people ever will, she is off on her next adventure.”

Weinstein began acting at six years old, going on to appear in a number of films including “Big Girl,” “The Stone Age” and “Toronto Stories.” She also played the role of Heather in 2013’s “Carrie,” co-starring alongside Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore.

In July 2022, the “Siblings” actress opened up about being diagnosed with cancer at 25 after noticing she was “strangely bloated,” noting the health battle “happened almost overnight.”

Celebrity Deaths: 2023’s Fallen Stars

“My roommate assured me her girlfriends got like this all the time and it was just ovulation… or something,” she wrote in a personal essay for “Love What Matters.” “It was not ovulation or something.”

Weinstein went on to explain that after spending four days in the hospital recovering from surgery, she returned home, during which she dealt with intense chronic pain.

“Every day was a struggle to keep my spirits up and not collapse into the blackhole that was my mind,” she noted. “What would happen to my health? My career? My life?”

During that time, Weinstein would reconnect with an old friend, Michael Knutson—who would later become her husband in October of that year.

“First dates were nerve wracking enough, but I had just received some devastating news the week before—it was cancer,” she wrote. “Talk about scaring a guy off! There was something about him, though, that put me at ease.”

After telling him about her health battle, as Weinstein shared, the “inevitable rejection…never came.”

“Michael smiled and squeezed my hand,” she added. “His mother had fought cancer for eight years and had passed away two years ago. He was ready for this.”

She also credited her husband for his endless support, noting, “He taught me love is selfless and reminded me to let others take care of me too.”

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Thu, May 25 2023 08:10:45 AM
Rock ‘n' Roll Icon Tina Turner, Known for Dynamic Stage Performances, Dies at 83 https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/rock-n-roll-icon-tina-turner-known-for-dynamic-stage-performances-dies-at-83/4363259/ 4363259 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/AP081001030774.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,212 Tina Turner, the unstoppable singer and stage performer who teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows in the 1960s and ‘70s and survived her horrifying marriage to triumph in middle age with the chart-topping “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” has died at 83.

Turner died Tuesday, after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, according to her manager. She became a Swiss citizen a decade ago.

Few stars traveled so far — she was born Anna Mae Bullock in a segregated Tennessee hospital and spent her latter years on a 260,000 square foot estate on Lake Zurich — and overcame so much. Physically battered, emotionally devastated and financially ruined by her 20-year relationship with Ike Turner, she became a superstar on her own in her 40s, at a time when most of her peers were on their way down, and remained a top concert draw for years after.

“How do we say farewell to a woman who owned her pain and trauma and used it as a means to help change the world?” Angela Bassett, who played Turner in the 1993 biopic “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” said in a statement.

“Through her courage in telling her story, her commitment to stay the course in her life, no matter the sacrifice, and her determination to carve out a space in rock and roll for herself and for others who look like her, Tina Turner showed others who lived in fear what a beautiful future filled with love, compassion, and freedom should look like.

With admirers ranging from Mick Jagger to Beyoncé to Mariah Carey, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” was one of the world’s most popular entertainers, known for a core of pop, rock and rhythm and blues favorites: “Proud Mary,” “Nutbush City Limits,” “River Deep, Mountain High,” and the hits she had in the ’80s, among them “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “We Don’t Need Another Hero” and a cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.”

Her trademarks included a growling contralto that might smolder or explode, her bold smile and strong cheekbones, her palette of wigs and the muscular, quick-stepping legs she did not shy from showing off. She sold more than 150 million records worldwide, won 12 Grammys, was voted along with Ike into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 (and on her own in 2021 ) and was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2005, with Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey among those praising her. Her life became the basis for a film, a Broadway musical and an HBO documentary in 2021 that she called her public farewell.

Until she left her husband and revealed their back story, she was known as the voracious on-stage foil of the steady-going Ike, the leading lady of the “Ike and Tina Turner Revue.” Ike was billed first and ran the show, choosing the material, the arrangements, the backing singers. They toured constantly for years, in part because Ike was often short on money and unwilling to miss a concert. Tina Turner was forced to go on with bronchitis, with pneumonia, with a collapsed right lung.

Other times, the cause of her misfortunes was Ike himself.

As she recounted in her memoir, “I, Tina,” Ike began hitting her not long after they met, in the mid-1950s, and only grew more vicious. Provoked by anything and anyone, he would throw hot coffee in her face, choke her, or beat her until her eyes were swollen shut, then rape her. Before one show, he broke her jaw and she went on stage with her mouth full of blood.

Terrified both of being with Ike and of lasting without him, she credited her emerging Buddhist faith in the mid-1970s with giving her a sense of strength and self-worth and she finally left in early July 1976. The Ike and Tina Turner Revue was scheduled to open a tour marking the country’s bicentennial when Tina snuck out of their Dallas hotel room, with just a Mobil credit card and 36 cents, while Ike slept. She hurried across a nearby highway, narrowly avoiding a speeding truck, and found another hotel.

“I looked at him (Ike) and thought, ‘You just beat me for the last time, you sucker,’” she recalled in her memoir.

Turner was among the first celebrities to speak candidly about domestic abuse, becoming a heroine to battered women and a symbol of resilience to all. Ike Turner did not deny mistreating her, although he tried to blame Tina for their troubles. When he died, in 2007, a representative for his ex-wife said simply: “Tina is aware that Ike passed away.”

Ike and Tina fans knew little of this during the couple’s prime. The Turners were a hot act for much of the 1960s and into the ’70s, evolving from bluesy ballads such as “A Fool in Love” and “It’s Going to Work Out Fine” to flashy covers of “Proud Mary” and “Come Together” and other rock songs that brought them crossover success.

They opened for the Rolling Stones in 1966 and 1969, and were seen performing a lustful version of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” in the 1970 Stones documentary “Gimme Shelter.” Bassett and Laurence Fishburne gave Oscar-nominated performances in “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” based on “I, Tina,” but she would say that reliving her years with Ike was so painful she couldn’t bring herself to watch the movie.

Ike and Tina’s reworking of “Proud Mary,” originally a tight, mid-tempo hit for Creedence Clearwater Revival, helped define their sexual aura. Against a background of funky guitar and Ike’s crooning baritone, Tina began with a few spoken words about how some people wanted to hear songs that were “nice and easy.”

“But there’s this one thing,” she warned, “you see, we never ever do nothing nice and easy.

“We always do it nice — and rough.”

But by the end of the 1970s, Turner’s career seemed finished. She was 40 years old, her first solo album had flopped and her live shows were mostly confined to the cabaret circuit. Desperate for work, and money, she even agreed to tour in South Africa when the country was widely boycotted because of its racist apartheid regime.

Rock stars helped bring her back. Rod Stewart convinced her to sing “Hot Legs” with him on “Saturday Night Live” and Jagger, who had openly borrowed some of Turner’s on-stage moves, sang “Honky Tonk Women” with her during the Stones’ 1981-82 tour. At a listening party for his 1983 album “Let’s Dance,” David Bowie told guests that Turner was his favorite singer.

“She was inspiring, warm, funny and generous,” Jagger tweeted Wednesday. “She helped me so much when I was young and I will never forget her.”

More popular in England at the time than in the U.S., she recorded a raspy version of “Let’s Stay Together” at EMI’s Abbey Road studios in London. By the end of 1983, “Let’s Stay Together” was a hit throughout Europe and on the verge of breaking in the states. An A&R man at Capitol Records, John Carter, urged the label to sign her up and make an album. Among the material presented was a reflective pop-reggae ballad co-written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle and initially dismissed by Tina as “wimpy.”

“I just thought it was some old pop song, and I didn’t like it,” she later said of “What’s Love Got To Do With It.”

Turner’s “Private Dancer” album came out in May 1984, sold more than eight million copies and featured several hit singles, including the title song and “Better Be Good To Me.” It won four Grammys, among them record of the year for “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” the song that came to define the clear-eyed image of her post-Ike years.

“People look at me now and think what a hot life I must have lived — ha!” she wrote in her memoir.

Even with Ike, it was hard to mistake her for a romantic. Her voice was never “pretty,” and love songs were never her specialty, in part because she had little experience to draw from. She was born in Nutbush, Tennessee in 1939 and would say she received “no love” from either her mother or father. After her parents separated, she moved often around Tennessee and Missouri, living with various relatives. She was outgoing, loved to sing and as a teenager would check out the blues clubs in St. Louis, where one of the top draws was Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm. Tina didn’t care much for his looks the first time she saw him, at the Club Manhattan.

“Then he got up onstage and picked up his guitar,” she wrote in her memoir. “He hit one note, and I thought, ‘Jesus, listen to this guy play.’”

Tina soon made her move. During intermission at an Ike Turner show at the nearby Club D’Lisa, Ike was alone on stage, playing a blues melody on the keyboards. Tina recognized the song, B.B. King’s “You Know I Love You,” grabbed a microphone and sang along. As Tina remembered, a stunned Ike called out “Giirrlll!!” and demanded to know what else she could perform. Over her mother’s objections, she agreed to join his group. He changed her first name to Tina, inspired by the comic book heroine Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, and changed her last name by marrying her, in 1962.

In rare moments of leniency from Ike, Tina did enjoy success on her own. She added a roaring lead vocal to Phil Spector’s titanic production of “River Deep, Mountain High,” a flop in the U.S. when released in 1966, but a hit overseas and eventually a standard. She was also featured as the Acid Queen in the 1975 film version of the Who’s rock opera “Tommy.” More recent film work included “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” and a cameo in “What’s Love Got to Do with It.”

Turner had two sons: Craig, with saxophonist Raymond Hill; and Ronald, with Ike Turner. (Craig Turner was found dead in 2018 of an apparent suicide). In a memoir published later in 2018, “Tina Turner: My Love Story,” she revealed that she had received a kidney transplant from her second husband, former EMI record executive Erwin Bach.

Turner’s life seemed an argument against marriage, but her life with Bach was a love story the younger Tina would not have believed possible. They met in the mid-1980s, when she flew to Germany for record promotion and he picked her up at the airport. He was more than a decade younger than her — “the prettiest face,” she said of him in the HBO documentary — and the attraction was mutual. She wed Bach in 2013, exchanging vows at a civil ceremony in Switzerland.

“It’s that happiness that people talk about,” Turner told the press at the time, “when you wish for nothing, when you can finally take a deep breath and say, ‘Everything is good.’”

___

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Wed, May 24 2023 02:52:43 PM
Stephen ‘tWitch' Boss' Autopsy Confirms He Had No Drugs Or Alcohol in His System at Time of Death https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/stephen-twitch-boss-autopsy-confirms-he-had-no-drugs-or-alcohol-in-his-system-at-time-of-death/4364319/ 4364319 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/GettyImages-1447048911.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,200 New details surrounding the death of Stephen “tWitch” Boss have been made public.

An autopsy report obtained by E! News May 24 confirms the late “Ellen DeGeneres Show” DJ and executive producer had no drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of his passing.

Following the 40-year-old’s death in December, the Los Angeles county coroner’s office soon determined that he died by suicide.

Boss is survived by his wife Allison Holker and three children—Weslie, 14, Maddox, 7, and Zaia, 3.

Earlier this month, Holker opened up about the conversations she’s had with the kids about Stephen’s death. “To us, Daddy’s in the stars,” she told “Today’s” Hoda Kotb. “So, we can go outside and talk to him whenever we want…They just ask, ‘When is Daddy coming back?’ and that’s a really hard one.”

The”So You Think You Can Dance” alum continued, “And then it’ll be a couple weeks later, ‘But does he come back when he’s older? Like, when Daddy’s older he’ll come back?'”

Celebrity Deaths: 2023’s Fallen Stars

Holker also reflected on her relationship with Boss, who she married in 2013 after three years of dating.

“I got 13 years with one of the most magical humans,” she said, “and I learned so much about love and gratitude.”

Since Boss’ death, Holker has also shared heartwarming family photos and messages for her kids on her Instagram. “My loves we are stronger than you could ever imagine,” she wrote in March. “And we will stand strong together as a unit, and find the courage to hold each other up.”

She continued, “I will be here for you every step of the way through the highs and lows, the ups and the downs. I will protect and I will guide, I will be a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, I will have mom jokes ready for when you need a good laugh. The love and light inside our hearts will still shine. I love you forever and always. Mommy.”

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Wed, May 24 2023 02:49:50 PM
Bill Lee, Jazz Musician and Father of Spike Lee, Dies at 94 https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/bill-lee-jazz-musician-and-father-of-spike-lee-dies-at-94/4363089/ 4363089 post https://media.nbcnewyork.com/2023/05/230524-bill-spike-lee-getty.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=300,169 Bill Lee, a well-regarded jazz musician who accompanied such artists as Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel and Harry Belafonte as well as scoring four of his son Spike’s early films, including the hit “Do the Right Thing” and two songs for “Jungle Fever,” has died. He was 94.

Lee died Wednesday at his home in Brooklyn, said Theo Dumont, a publicist for Spike Lee. The younger Lee posted several photos of his father on his Instagram page announcing the death.

Lee was a session bassist who has played on albums by Odetta, Woody Guthrie, Cat Stevens, Gordon Lightfoot, John Lee Hooker and Peter, Paul and Mary, among many others. He can be heard on Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and Lightfoot’s “Oh, Linda.” He played on Aretha Franklin’s Columbia album debut in 1960, “Aretha.”

Lee wrote the soundtracks to Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It,” “School Daze,” “Do the Right Thing” and “Mo’ Better Blues.” Bill Lee also appeared in “Do the Right Thing.” Terence Blanchard took over the role starting with “Jungle Fever.”

Bill Lee and Spike Lee were estranged after a falling out in the 1990s that the father attributed to his remarriage to Susan Kaplan.

In addition to Kaplan and Spike Lee, the elder Lee is survived by his sons, David, Cinque and Arnold; a daughter Joie; a brother, A. Clifton Lee; and two grandchildren.

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Wed, May 24 2023 01:50:40 PM