oey Ramone’s brother Mitchel Hyman, better known by his stage name, Mickey Leigh, has responded to a lawsuit filed earlier this year by Linda Ramone, widow of guitarist Johnny Ramone.
The suit was over a variety of issues, including a planned Ramones movie based on Mickey’s memoir, I Slept With Joey Ramone. Although Linda’s suit didn’t mention Netflix, the streaming service has been developing a film based on the book, starring Pete Davidson as Joey.
In her suit, Linda accused Mickey of “unilaterally and covertly” developing the film without her sign-off. But in his response Mickey says that’s not the case. Lawyers for Mickey say Linda’s claims are “baseless,” since she agreed to the movie as far back as March 2006.
The docs also argue the film “is not a ‘Ramones biopic’ but rather one based on a family memoir” and that Mickey never intended for his film to stop the making of any future Ramones biopic.
Finally, Mickey’s lawyers argue that Linda’s suit is part of plan to “install herself as the Queen of the Ramones,” adding her “main purpose is to embarrass, harass, and destroy the integrity of Mr. Hyman, create an utterly false narrative about him, rewrite her role in the history of the Ramones, and win a popularity contest in which, in her mind, she takes over … the legacy of a band of which she never was a member and had nothing to do with creatively.”
ABC Audio has reached out to Linda Ramone’s attorney for comment.
While DC Films co-CEO James Gunn is so far mum, Deadline says Craig Gillespie, the filmmaker behind the blockbuster Cruella, the Oscar-nominated film I, Tonya, and the Emmy-winning series Pam & Tommy, could direct the forthcoming movie Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.
As reported, House of the Dragon star Milly Alcock will play the title role as the Man of Steel’s cousin Kara Zor-El.
Gunn and co-CEO Peter Safran are standing up their extensive plans for a rebooted DC Comics-based universe, which kicks off with Gunn’s own Superman, which is now filming and slated to fly into theaters July 11, 2025. The trade says the Supergirl feature will go into production after that film is released.
Also on the docket will be the Batman feature The Brave and the Bold, which will be directed by It and The Flash‘s Andy Muschietti. It is rumored for a 2026 release.
It’s not known when the Supergirl film will be released.
It hasn’t yet been two full weeks since Nas released his music video for “I Love This Feeling,” but he’s already on to the next one. His new visual is for another Magic 3 cut titled “Sitting With My Thoughts.”
The Leff-directed clip sees Nas rapping on his couch, from the seats of a venue and while getting a haircut, and features other behind-the-scenes footage from his NY State of Mind Tour with Wu-Tang Clan and De La Soul. Method Man and former NBA player Metta World Peace make cameos.
“Sitting With My Thoughts” is one of 15 tracks on Magic 3, Nas’ sixth album with Hit-Boy in the last three years and the final installment of the Magic series.
Nas is scheduled to perform at the Lovers & Friends festival in May and the Roots Picnic in June, among other events in 2024.
‘The Matrix Resurrections’ – 2021 — Warner Bros. Pictures
While the last installment, 2021’s The Matrix Resurrections, wasn’t a box office hit, Warner Bros. is apparently giving a fifth film a try.
That’s the word from the studio, which confirmed to ABC Audio Wednesday that writer Drew Goddard of Daredevil and The Martian fame will be going behind the camera as director. Lana Wachowski, the director of the fourth installment, will serve as an executive producer.
In a statement, Warner Bros. Motion Pictures’ president of production, Jesse Ehrman, reveals, “Drew came to Warner Bros. with a new idea that we all believe would be an incredible way to continue the Matrix world, by both honoring what [The Wachowskis] began over 25 years ago, and offering a unique perspective based on his own love of the series and characters.”
He continued, “The entire team at Warner Bros. Discovery is thrilled for Drew to be making this new Matrix film, adding his vision to the cinematic canon the Wachowskis spent a quarter of a century building here at the studio.”
Goddard added, “It is not hyperbole to say The Matrix films changed both cinema and my life. Lana and Lilly‘s exquisite artistry inspires me on a daily basis, and I am beyond grateful for the chance to tell stories in their world.”
The Matrix franchise — The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Resurrections — has earned $1.8 billion globally over the series’ lifetime.
There’s no word on whether franchise stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are part of the forthcoming project.
A new film about Buddy Holly is in the works, and it’s now snagged a director.
Variety reports that Mario Van Peebles is set to direct That’ll Be the Day, which will focus on Holly and his fellow musicians of the 1950s, detailing how their music influenced society and culture.
“America’s tumultuous cultural melting pot has produced transcendent musical talent, including Buddy Holly, who was our first bad a** rock ’n’ roll nerd,” Van Peebles, who previously directed New Jack City and the recently released Outlaw Posse, shares about the project.
The film’s screenplay was written by Patrick Shanahan and Matthew Benjamin. Benjamin produced the 1987 biopic La Bamba, about singer Richie Valens, who died alongside Holly and J.P. Richardson, aka The Big Bopper, in the 1959 plane crash.
That’ll Be the Day appears to have backing by the Buddy Holly estate. BMG, the company that manages the estate and controls the rights to the singer’s music catalog, is providing early funding for the film.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden was joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders at the White House Wednesday to highlight the administration’s efforts to lower health care costs for Americans.
The remarks were at an official event, but came as Biden makes cracking down on corporate greed and relieving financial burdens for American families a key pillar of his 2024 reelection campaign.
“You and I have been fighting this for 25 years,” Biden said to Sanders. “Finally, we beat Big Pharma, finally.”
The support from Sanders, Biden’s rival for the Democratic nomination in 2020, comes as Biden faces mounting anger from the party’s progressive wing over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Reporters attempted to shout questions at Biden about Gaza and the Israeli strike that killed World Central Kitchen aid workers in the strip, but he did not take any questions.
Sanders opened his remarks Wednesday by saying Americans are united, regardless of political affiliation, in being “sick and tired of paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.”
“Here is some good news, despite all of the incredible wealth and political power of the pharmaceutical industry … despite all of that, the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress are beginning to make some progress,” the independent senator said.
Among the accomplishments highlighted by Biden and Sanders were the Inflation Reduction Act provisions capping insulin costs at $35 for Medicare patients and out-of-pocket spending on brand-name drugs for Medicare beneficiaries to $2,000 yearly.
They also touted the ability of Medicare, for the first time, to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on the price of certain prescription drugs.
“Not one Republican in the entire Congress — it surprised me, I have to admit to you — not one single Republican voted for it,” Biden said of the Inflation Reduction Act. “Not one single one to give us authority to take on and beat Big Pharma.”
He also took several swipes at congressional Republicans and his “predecessor” for their views on Social Security, the Affordable Care Act, the national deficit, abortion access and more. Without saying Donald Trump’s name, he criticized him for his “brags” on striking down Roe v. Wade.
“I promise you with a Democratic Congress, Kamala and I will make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again,” he said. “I promise you.”
Another point of celebration between Biden and Sanders was their work to lower the costs of inhalers. Sanders, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pension, led the charge in launching an investigation into the prices of the widely used products. Since then, three of the four major companies (GSK, AstraZeneca and Boehringer Ingelheim) have limited out-of-pocket costs for their inhalers to $35.
“My impression is that these companies as well as many others in the pharmaceutical industry are beginning to catch onto the fact that the American people are tired of being ripped off and paying astronomical prices for the prescription drugs they need to stay alive or ease their pain,” Sanders said.
Biden noted while Americans were paying as much as $600 for inhalers, the same product and medication were available in the United Kingdom for $49.
“It’s outrageous, but we’re doing something about it finally,” he said.
Still, both Biden and Sanders said more work needs to be done. They advocated for expanding Medicare’s price negotiations to 50 drugs (the first 10 drugs subject to negotiations were unveiled last year) and for capping out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs to $2,000 for all Americans.
“With Bernie’s help we are showing how health care should be a right, not a privilege, in America,” Biden said.
ABC News’ Molly Nagle and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A Washington state man who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 was sentenced Wednesday to seven years and three months in prison.
Taylor James Johnatakis was convicted in November on seven charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting police officers.
Johnatakis led rioters in attacking the police line outside the Capitol, according to federal prosecutors.
“Specifically, using his megaphone, Johnatakis directed rioters to move up to the police line and yelled at the rioters to ‘pack it in! pack it in!'” a press release states. “Johnatakis then instructed the crowd through the megaphone that they were going to push the bike racks ‘one foot’ at a time and counted, ‘one, two, three, GO!!'”
At least one officer was injured in the fray, prosecutors said.
During his trial, Johnatakis represented himself, frustrating Judge Royce Lamberth with his erratic behavior. He argued his case by claiming to be a “sovereign citizen,” The Associated Press reported, which the judge called “gobbledygook.”
Johnatakis also asked the judge questions during his sentencing, including “Does the record reflect that I repent in my sins?” — to which Lamberth replied he was not taking questions, the AP reported.
In a letter after Wednesday’s hearing, Lamberth said every decision on how to sentence Jan. 6 rioters “aims to discourage these defendants from future violence, dissuade others from taking inspiration from the Capitol riot, and express the community’s moral disapproval of this conduct.”
He hit back at the idea that Johnatakis was simply exercising his freedom of speech, saying his actions were “neither First Amendment-protected activity nor civil disobedience.”
“A society in which everyone does what is right by his own lights, where adherence to the law is optional, would be a society of vigilantism, lawlessness, and anarchy,” he wrote.
Lamberth said Johnatakis’ remarks throughout the course of the trial made clear he “does not accept responsibility for his actions and does not show true remorse.”
“In any angry mob, there are leaders and there are followers,” he wrote. “Mr. Johnatakis was a leader. He knew what he was doing that day.”
Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Two brothers who helped fund former President Donald Trump’s now-public social media company pleaded guilty Wednesday to insider trading.
Michael Shvartsman and Gerald Shvartsman made millions by trading in shares of Digital World Acquisition Corporation before it merged with Trump Media, according to federal prosecutors in New York.
Michael Shvartsman, 52, of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, and Gerald Shvartsman, 45, of Aventura, Florida, were arrested on securities fraud charges last July.
They each pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of securities fraud.
Each of them faces up to 20 years in prison when they’re sentenced in July, but prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of about three years.
“Michael and Gerald Shvartsman admitted in court that they received confidential, inside information about an upcoming merger between DWAC and Trump Media, and used that information to make profitable, but illegal, open-market trades,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. “Insider trading is cheating, plain and simple.”
Prosecutors said the brothers placed an associate on DWAC’s board of directors, who funneled them valuable information about the merger plan with Trump Media that the brothers then used to trade. Together, they made $22 million in illegal profits, prosecutors said.
There was no evidence that former President Trump was aware of the brothers’ conduct, and he was not part of the case.
Trump Media went public last month and is now trading on the Nasdaq exchange.
(WASHINGTON) — Republicans – including former President Donald Trump – who disagree with President Joe Biden’s immigration policies paint a dire picture of America as a country ruined by crime committed by migrants living illegally in the U.S.
It is true that some people who have committed the misdemeanor of crossing the border illegally have gone on to commit much more serious crimes. Trump has repeatedly attempted to put a national spotlight on these cases, including some gruesome murders.
However, like other claims the former president makes, his stories of what he calls “migrant crime” can be heavily skewed, exaggerated and fuel a baseless narrative.
Trump’s anecdotal accounts do not acknowledge the fact that U.S. citizens commit crimes at higher rates than undocumented immigrants.
“Relative to undocumented immigrants, U.S.-born citizens are over 2 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes,” according to a 2020 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Overall, nationwide crime declined in 2023, according to the FBI. Homicide declined by 13% compared to 2022, the data show. The declining crime rate followed an unprecedented spike in homicides from 2019 to 2020.
While it is unclear how crime rates in 2024 will ultimately pan out, early data shows murder is down 20% his year, according to Jeff Asher, a data analyst and co-founder of the firm AH Datalytics.
Further research shows Trump’s presidency did not result in more arrests of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
A December 2023 study in the journal Crime and Delinquency found Trump ultimately did not make his crime reduction pledge a reality.
John Oates has announced he’ll release his sixth solo album, Reunion, on May 17, and has just shared the title track from the release.
“The idea for writing a song about a ‘Reunion’ came to me when I began to think about the true definition of the word,” Oates, one half of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame duo Hall & Oates, shares. “It came together when my 100-year-old father told me that he was making ready to be together with my mother, who had passed away some time ago.”
“I wanted to write about the idea of reconnecting with the most essential part of our soul and our spirit,” he adds.
Oates wrote the song with A.J. Croce, son of the late singer Jim Croce, sharing, “I hope it means as much to you as it does to me, and if that is so, then this is my personal definition of a ‘hit.’”
You can listen to “Reunion” via digital outlets and watch a live performance of the song on YouTube.
Oates has several live dates booked throughout 2024, with his next show happening April 4 in Huntington, New York. A complete list of dates can be found at johnoates.com.
