Entertainment

Alec Baldwin has posted to social media about the deadly firearms mishap Thursday that killed a cinematographer who was shooting Baldwin’s movie, Rust, in New Mexico. 

“There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours,” Baldwin tweeted. 

“I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna,” Baldwin concluded.

Officials are still investigating what went wrong on the New Mexico set in the incident, which also left the movie’s director, Joel Souza, injured.  The incident occurred when Baldwin discharged a pistol on the set under circumstances that haven’t been publicly specified.

 

 

 

 

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Chicago hip hop stars Chance the Rapper and Common are calling upon the state of Illinois to reinstate the parole system that was abolished in 1978, which allowed for more discretion in granting parole to inmates serving life sentences.

The pair joined parole advocates at a news conference Wednesday outside of Cook County jail in the Windy City. Chance recalled when he performed for a group of incarcerated men who were graduating with bachelor’s degrees at Stateville prison in Joliet, Illinois in 2019, and seeing them shackled during his show.

“We need to understand incarceration for what it is, it’s torture,” the three-time Grammy winner said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “We need to start pushing and transforming our criminal justice system and sentencing laws with this reality in mind. That means pushing for policies like parole.”

“We need a criminal justice system that reflects the values we want to see in this world — compassion, care, restorative justice and transformative justice,” he added.

House Bill 2399 and Senate Bill 2333 both would provide an opportunity for prisoners serving life sentences to go before a parole board after serving 20 years.

Common talked about how focusing on reducing prison populations could help reduce violence on the streets of Chicago.

“I met some of the most enlightened and inspiring people in prison,” said the Oscar and Grammy winner, who
fights for criminal justice reform through the non profit Imagine Justice organization he founded in 2018.

“One gentleman said to me, ‘Imagine being trapped in one act for the rest of your life, the worst for the rest of your life.’ I’ve thought about that. If that happened for me, I wouldn’t be up here with you all.”

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Squid Game has become a pop culture phenomenon, with huge — and unexpected — ratings for Netflix, and even a spoof last week on SNL. Its surprise success has also led to surprise stardom for its oldest cast member. 

Seventy-seven-year-old Oh Young Soo plays Player 001 in the series, and his affecting performance as the terminally ill, dementia-addled man has his phone ringing off the hook with new acting offers. 

According to the pop culture site Soompi, the actor told the Korean show How Do You Play, “So many people have been contacting me, and because I don’t have a manager to help me, it’s hard for me to handle the volume of calls and messages I’ve been receiving. So my daughter has been helping me.”

“I feel like I’m floating on air,” the actor admitted. “It makes me think, ‘I need to calm down, organize my thoughts, and hold myself back right now.'”

The actor, who was interviewed by the show’s host Yoo Jae Suk and Mijoo from the K-Pop group Lovelyz, explained, “Things have changed quite a bit. Even when I go out to a cafe or somewhere like that, I now have to be aware of [how I appear to others]. It’s made me think, ‘Being famous is tough, too.'”

Young Soo reflected, “I don’t have any grand ambitions,” adding, “Big or small, I’ve received a lot of things while living my life. Now, I want to leave behind those things that I’ve received.”

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Hollywood is shaken after the death Thursday of Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer who was working on the Western Rust when a firearm was discharged on the set by star Alec Baldwin, with an unknown projectile striking and killing Hutchins.

It had been reported the film’s writer and director, Joel Souza, was critically wounded in the incident, but actress and co-star Frances Fisher says that’s not the case. 

In a tweet early Friday morning ET, Fisher said Souza is “out of the hospital,” and that quotes regarding Baldwin that ran in the Daily Beast “are incorrect.” The publication claimed the actor fired a prop gun believing it was loaded with blanks, and “did not know the prop contained live rounds.” 

The Daily Beast also reported: “Although there were early reports that the gun contained live ammunition, the movie’s production company later said it contained blank rounds.”

An investigation into the incident is underway, and neither Baldwin nor anyone else involved has been criminally charged with any wrongdoing.

A firearm loaded with blank ammunition is still potentially deadly. One of the most notorious mishaps involving a weapon loaded with blanks happened on March 31, 1993, on the set of the film The Crow, where a rushed production led to the death of star Brandon Lee.  A revolver was being used for a close-up, so prop bullets were needed to be seen in the pistol’s cylinder. One had broken off and stayed there, and when the pistol was chambered with a blank round, that force ejected the dummy slug, causing a mortal wound to Lee’s abdomen.

In 1984, actor Jon-Erik Hexum fatally shot himself on the set of the CBS series Cover Up when he playfully put a gun loaded with blanks to his own head and fired. The blank’s wadding — material that helps seal a charge inside of a round — ejected with enough force to penetrate Hexum’s skull.

In 2008, a Utah teen named Tucker Thayer fatally shot himself with a .38 loaded with blanks for a high school production.

For safety and budgetary reasons, many filmmakers have now switched to digital muzzle flashes, which are added in post-production.

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(NOTE NATURE) Taraji P. Henson is ready to talk about one of the hardest moments of her life — gathering the courage to leave an abusive relationship.

Ahead of her new installment of Peace of Mind with Taraji, which airs on Facebook Watch, the Hidden Figures star shared a clip of the difficult conversation with Growing Up Hip Hop star Angela Simmons.

The two opened up about their troubled exes, with Taraji admitting she was physically abused by her partner when she was younger.

“Sometimes, as women, what we do is we fall in love and we go, ‘You know what? I’ll fix it later,'” the 51-year-old actress explained and revealed when she knew what she had was broken beyond repair. “For me it was when blood was drawn.”

“It started with the bruises and grabbing, things like that. And then once the fist came, once the balled hand came and the fists — and I’m missing a piece of my lip to this day — that’s when I knew I had to go,” Henson  explained.

Taraji reveals that she “grew up around [abuse,]” and knew she had to break the cycle in order to protect her son, Marcell Johnson, who is now 27. “I was like, ‘I don’t want my son around this.'”

Peace of Mind with Taraji airs Mondays at 9 a.m. ET on Facebook Watch.

For anyone affected by abuse and needing support, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or if you’re unable to speak safely, you can log onto thehotline.org or text LOVEIS to 1-866-331-9474.

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Common and Tiffany Haddish made their relationship public in August 2020, and now, 14 months later, their special bond is growing stronger.

“She keeps me laughing. It’s that child-like spirit that you love,” the rapper/actor tells Essence about the Night School star. “She also possesses an authenticity that I love. I’m gonna know what’s on her mind. I’m gonna know what she’s feeling about me or somebody else or something. I like the way she communicates — that’s important to me. “

The 49-year-old entertainer adds, “Along with that, the way she treats her family and loved ones is real cool. I’m attracted to that. Tiffany is a good-hearted human being, and I love that about her.”

Common also feels that the pandemic has brought the two stars even closer as they have spent more time together.

“It makes you reflect on, ‘If things was ending now, who do I want to be around?'” he says. “Naturally, Tiffany and I just spent a lot of time together, just really enjoying life and being grateful for life and not putting too much pressure on our relationship, just really being present with each other and supportive and having fun.”

The Oscar and Grammy winner was previously in high profile relationships with Serena Williams and Erykah Badu, and he says Black women have always motivated him.

“Some of the Black women that I’ve dated, been in relationships with, are crazy talented people, so that’s inspiring in itself,” Common says. “You see the work that they put in, and then how they can still go out and be good family people. That’s been very influential on my personal life, but it also comes through in my art.”

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Got Marvel? The first fully authorized, all access history of Marvel Studios is in bookstores now!

The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a two-volume hardcover collection that details the rise of the studio into an cinematic force, chronicling all 23 films that make up the beloved “Infinity Saga,” featuring talks with the actors, producers and creatives — including Marvel Studio head Kevin Feige.

Feige, who started as an associate producer on X-Men, shared the invaluable lessons he learned during his early days.

He tells ABC Audio one of those takeaways was decision-making, and recalled some of the “risks” X-Men took, “like casting a six-foot-three Hugh Jackman to play the five-foot-two Wolverine and ultimately saying…embodying the spirit of the character that is more important than getting your ruler out and matching it perfectly to the comics.”

Feige also learned the importance of having the right filmmaker for the job, despite experience level, because “they have a story to tell and a vision of how to tell it in a unique and different way.”

The Story Of Marvel Studios was a years-long effort by co-authors Tara Bennet and Paul Terry — but don’t think this is just a book chronicling the exploits of on-screen superheroes.

“There’s so many personal stories,” Terry said. “We see the spectacle of the movies but these are human beings with ideas! And those ideas evolve and become the MCU that we love.”

Speaking of Marvel, Bennet pointed out that what makes Marvel Studios different is their ability to retain and grow talent. 

“This is a place where people have stayed,” she said, noting how people who “started out from getting people coffee… [to] now being an EP on Endgame.” 

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Two crew members on the set of the Alec Baldwin-backed film Rust were hospitalized Thursday after a prop gun with blanks misfired, according to one of the film’s producers.

The Western, starring Baldwin and Jensen Ackles of Supernatural, began filming this month at Bonanza Creek Movie Ranch, a film location in Sante Fe, New Mexico.

Deputies with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday afternoon they were responding to an incident at a movie set. The producer confirmed the incident happened on the set of Rust, and said Baldwin was OK.

“There was an accident today on the New Mexico set of Rust involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks,” the producer said in a statement to ABC News. “Two crew members have been taken to the hospital and are receiving care. Production has been halted for the time being. The safety of our cast and crew remains our top priority.”

University of New Mexico Hospital, the state’s only Level 1 trauma center, said in a statement to ABC News that one patient was transported by helicopter “in critical condition.”

The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident.

The sprawling Bonanza Creek Movie Ranch is frequently used as a film location for Westerns, including 3:10 to Yuma and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

Baldwin shared a photo from the set of “Rust” earlier on Thursday in costume.

“Back to in person at the office,” he captioned the post. “Blimey…it’s exhausting.”

The actor is co-producing the film under his company, El Dorado Pictures, with Joel Souza writing and directing.

 

 

 

 

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A cinematographer working on the film Rust is dead and the director is hospitalized after an accident during filming involving star Alec Baldwin and a misfiring prop gun, authorities said Thursday.

The Western, starring Baldwin and Jensen Ackles of Supernatural, began filming this month at Bonanza Creek Movie Ranch, a film location in Sante Fe, New Mexico.

Deputies with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office responded to the film set after a 911 caller “reported a shooting on the set,” the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Two people were shot after a prop firearm was discharged during filming, authorities said. Baldwin fired the prop gun, striking the film’s director, Joel Souza, and director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, the sheriff’s office said in a follow-up statement Thursday night.

Detectives are still determining “how and what type of projectile was discharged,” the sheriff’s office said earlier.

No charges have been filed in the shooting, authorities said. The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident.

Hutchins, 42, was transported via helicopter to University of New Mexico Hospital, the state’s only Level 1 trauma center, “in critical condition,” according to sheriff’s deputies and the hospital. She later succumbed to her injuries, the sheriff’s office said.

Souza, 48, was brought in an ambulance to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and is receiving emergency care, authorities said.

The film halted production following the accident, a producer said.

Baldwin shared a photo from the set of Rust earlier on Thursday in costume.

“Back to in person at the office,” he captioned the post. “Blimey…it’s exhausting.”

The actor is co-producing the film under his company, El Dorado Pictures, with Souza writing and directing.

 

 

 

 

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