Entertainment

Monday night’s Dancing with the Stars put the cast “Under Pressure” for Queen Night because, for the first time this season, everyone was challenged to perform two routines: a regular dance and a relay.  As an added curveball, the competitors had the chance to score up to four extra bonus points in the relay and that allowed one competitor to achieve the highest score of the season.

Thanks to the judges unanimously awarding four bonus points during the relay, Olivia Jade broke JoJo Siwa‘s hot streak and finished the night with a final score of 42 out of 40.  The judges also raved over her quickstep to Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls,” with Derek Hough praising, “You are just so genuine when you perform, it’s just so infectious to watch… You didn’t miss a step!”

Siwa fell to second place with an overall score of 39 out of 40 after Judge Len Goodman docked a point because her “Body Language” tango lacked the “slow, deliberate walks” he wanted to see. 

Shockingly, the Nickelodeon star was also sent into the bottom two alongside WWE star Michael “The Miz” Gregory.  The four judges voted unanimously to save Siwa and caused Gregory’s DWTS journey to come to an end.

That wasn’t the only jaw-dropping moment on Monday night. 

Suni Lee raised concern when she unexpectedly sprinted off the ballroom following her paso doble to Queen’s “We Will Rock You” and host Tyra Banks announced the Olympian had been wrestling with stomach issues all day.  Luckily, Lee was able to power through the Viennese waltz relay and was rewarded with a bonus point for her hard work.

Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby also tugged on the heartstrings when he tearfully opened up about his best friend, Oscar, who lost his battle with addiction in February 2020 and admitted he blames himself for not having “done enough to save him.”  His pro dance partner, Cheryl Burke, shared her own struggle with addiction while coaching Rigsby through his guilt and sincerely told him, “There’s nothing you could have done.”

The two celebrated Oscar’s life with their foxtrot to Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend.”

While the night was full of emotional and jaw-dropping moments, next week is sure have even more in store.  Banks announced that there will be a double-elimination, which means everyone is in danger of going home. 

DWTS will salute the legacy of icon Janet Jackson when it returns next Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Here are the current standings:
Olivia Jade, influencer, with Val Chmerkovskiy — 42/40
JoJo Siwa, Nickelodeon star, with Jenna Johnson — 39/40
Jimmie Allen, country music singer, with Emma Slater — 38/40
Melora Hardin, The Office actress, with Artem Chivensky — 38/40
Cody Rigsby, Peloton instructor, with Cheryl Burke — 36/40
Suni Lee, Olympic Gold medalist, with Sasha Farber — 34/40
Iman Shumpert, NBA player, with Daniella Karagach — 34/40
Amanda Kloots, The Talk co-host, with Alan Bersten — 34/40

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On Monday, Lisa Torraco, the attorney for Rust assistant director Dave Halls, had a tense exchange with Martha MacCallum of Fox News, in which the lawyer shifted the blame for last week’s fatal set shooting away from her client.

It had been widely reported that it was Halls who handed the firearm to Alec Baldwin without checking it first, and after declaring the gun was “cold” — or empty. 

But when Baldwin pulled the trigger on the Western-style Colt revolver, a live round fired from it, fatally striking cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. 

When questioned if her client indeed handed the weapon to the actor, Torraco demurred. “The armorer [Hanna Gutierrez-Reed] brought the firearm in to the scene. The armorer is responsible, they make sure the firearm is safe. The armorer opens the revolver, opens the round [sic]. My client didn’t load the firearm. My client didn’t point it and he didn’t pull the trigger,” Torraco insisted.

The lawyer claimed facts in the case were being “twisted.”

MacCallum repeatedly asked Torraco if Halls handed the gun to Baldwin, but she was evasive.

“What I’m saying is I want to put the facts together. I want to deal with evidence,” she said.

She also added, “Whether or not he handed the firearm directly to Alec Baldwin at that moment or whether the armorer handed it to Alec Baldwin at that moment doesn’t really matter because he didn’t load it, he’s not responsible for checking it.”

Torraco repeatedly mentioned another unidentified crew member “touched” the gun, too.

Investigators say hundreds of rounds were recovered from the set including “a mix” of dummy — or harmless prop rounds — blanks, and live ammunition, which has no business being on a movie set, experts agree.

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If you’ve got the dough, you can soon walk away with some rare Hollywood memorabilia, from the collection of Emmy-winner Henry Winkler, “The Fonz” himself. 

And it’s all for a good cause. 

The New York Post reports the 76-year-old star is putting on the block one of his original Fonzie leather jackets from Happy Days, along with one of the killer’s masks from the 1996 hit Scream, in which he played a small town’s high-strung high school principal.

Proceeds from the December 8 auction at Bonhams in Los Angeles will benefit This Is About Humanity, co-founded by his daughter, Zoe Winkler, and which is dedicated to, “supporting separated and reunified families at the border.”

According to Winkler, six jackets were made for the ’50s throwback show after the first one he wore was stolen from the set; Winkler and show creator Garry Marshall got two apiece; another was sold to the Smithsonian; Winkler will have one left in his collection after this one finds a new home.

Barry and The French Dispatch star explained he felt the need to downsize after getting a look at his collection during the pandemic. He told the paper he, “finally realized I am a hoarder.”

“I have this space away from everything and in it was 27 to 30 boxes, all of my memorabilia, my swag. I didn’t even realize what I had,” Winkler said. “I didn’t open these boxes for years. Bonhams came and went through it all…”

The Ghostface mask from Scream is expected to sell for $20,000-$30,000. The Fonzie jacket — along with a pair of jeans and motorcycle boots, all vintage and screen-worn by TV’s Arthur Fonzarelli, is being auctioned off as a set expected to fetch $50,000-$70,000.

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If you dreamed of wealth by chasing a crypto coin named after — but not licensed by — Netflix’s hit Squid Game, it looks like you’ll have to find someone giving away the show’s creepy cards IRL.

The SQUID coin rocketed up tens of thousands of percent in value last week, but by trading Monday, it was worth zilch. 

According to experts who spoke with Markets Insider, it looks like investors have been had — and scammers walked away with millions. 

The coins were at one point worth north of $2,861 apiece before falling to $0.003467 Monday morning. The coins’ value fell faster than one of the show’s contestants through a glass bridge.

“The scam has completed its cycle, and the price has just dropped significantly,” cofounder of CoinGecko Bobby Ong told Insider.

The coin seemingly came out of nowhere last week, and was being advertised as part of an upcoming online game called the Squid Game Project. The crypto was reportedly created to play it, and would have been at stake as prizes, its creators said online.

However, after the coin spiked in value, the website was disconnected, and you couldn’t trade the stuff once you bought it. 

Investors were already smelling something was off with the coin before the bottom fell out — mostly because all traces back to the game vanished.

LMAOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/L6FlF3XdUV

— Bagsy (@imBagsy) November 1, 2021

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Ken Jeong got some laughs — and apparently panicked co-anchors — on ESPN’s College GameDay show Saturday night — all for sweetly shouting out his wife. 

When asked for his picks in the Saturday evening match-up between UCLA and Utah in Salt Lake City, Jeong admitted football ignorance. Instead, he picked from the heart: “I’m going UCLA because my wife went to UCLA medical school, adding: “Shout out, Tran. You complete me, Ho!”

The game’s analysts, Rece Davis, Lee Corso, Desmond Howard, and Kirk Herbstreit cracked up, stunned, with Herbstreit asking, “Did he say what I think he said on the backend there?” 

“Relax, relax! Jeong said. “It’s her last name!”

“How dare you, ESPN,” he said in mock outrage.

Jeong, a doctor-turned stand up comic and star of movies like the Hangover films and his own ABC sitcom Dr. Ken, married Dr. Tran Ho in 2004. 

Incidentally, he was also shouting out his own 2019 Netflix special, You Complete Me, Ho. 

ESPN is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News. 

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It’s a Halloween miracle: Production on Hocus Pocus 2 is officially underway.

Disney announced Monday that the long-awaited sequel to the beloved 1993 movie has begun filming in Rhode Island, with stars Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy returning as Winifred, Sarah and Mary Sanderson, respectively.

The film, which will arrive on Disney+ next fall, is directed by Anne Fletcher, director of Step Up, 27 Dresses, and The Proposal.

“Fans around the world have embraced these characters and have made this film a Halloween tradition whose popularity continues to grow,” Fletcher said in a press release. “And how lucky am I to be back at Disney with these three extraordinarily talented ladies in the iconic roles they created, as well as our fabulous additions to the cast?”

Returning alongside Midler, Parker and Najimy from the original Hocus Pocus is Doug Jones, who played Billy Butcherson.

New additions to the cast include Whitney Peak, Lilia Buckingham, and Belissa Escobedo as, respectively, Becca, Cassie, and Izzy, three young women in present-day Salem who will come face-to-face with the Sanderson sisters.

Rounding out the list of new cast members are Ted Lasso Emmy winner Hannah Waddingham, Veep alums Tony Hale and Sam Richardson, plus Juju Brener, Froy Gutierrez, Taylor Paige Henderson and Nina Kitchen.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Actor Matthias Schweighöfer [mah-TEE-us SHWIGE-hoof-fer] reprises his role as nerdy safecracker extraordinaire Sebastian/Dieter in Netflix’s new Army of the Dead prequel, Army of Thieves. 

Produced by AOTD‘s Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder, and directed by Schweighöfer himself, Army of Thieves shows the time before he travels from Germany to a zombie-overrun Las Vegas with his eyes on a vault-sealed fortune.

The film also stars Fast and the Furious series veteran Nathalie Emmanuel, who plays Gwendoline, a mysterious woman who recruits Sebastian to crack a trio of masterpiece safes.

It’s a big movie, and Matthias had previously only directed a few projects in his native Germany.

“There was a lot of pressure,” he admits, “but on the other hand, you know, it was like a fairy tale…I love Dieter so much…and I was so honored when [the Snyders said] ‘Hey, let’s do a spin-off for that character.'”

While heist films are nothing new, Schweighöfer said they worked hard on how to make this one different, to make the normally dry practice of opening safes exciting to the viewer.

“[In movies] It’s always like, ‘OK, how do we get in the vault?’ [then] some explosion or whatever and bring the money out.”

He continues, “But here, you’re right. We had this adventurous work of creating three crazy safes in Europe, and I love the idea, OK, I never saw the interior of a safe, how that works to turn the tumbler and then what? What would happen? And what if the safe can detect by the presence of someone who is like the f***ing the safe up?”

He adds, “I’m really proud of the work we did.”  

Army of Thieves is currently #1 on Netflix’s movie rankings.

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Temeura Morrison is back and in charge as Boba Fett in the brand-new trailer for The Mandalorian spin-off, The Book of Boba Fett. 

“Every galaxy has an underworld,” the sneak peek teases. 

As shown after the credits of The Mandalorian‘s second-season finale, the former bounty hunter takes the throne that once belonged to his sometime boss, intergalactic crime lord Jabba the Hutt, and at Fett’s side is his enforcer, Ming-Na Wen‘s assassin Fennec Shand.

The teaser shows Fett and Shand gathering all of Jabba’s criminal capos together, and suggesting the band together, instead of gunning for each other.

“Jabba ruled with fear,” Fett explains. “I intend to rule with respect. I’m here to make a proposal that is mutually beneficial. Why talk of conflict when corporation can make us all rich?”

A seated gangster threatens, “What’s to stop us from killing you and taking what we want?”

“If you had spoken such insolence to Jabba, he would have fed you to his menagerie,” Shand says. 

Fett relaxes in his throne confidently, and says from behind his helmet, “Please, speak freely.” 

The trailer also shows some action, with Fett and Shand kicking butt across the galaxy, including being surrounded and outnumbered by a number of shield-toting guards. 

The Book of Boba Fett debuts on Disney plus December 29. 

Disney is the parent company of ABC News. 

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Musicians and celebrities took their creativity to a whole ‘nother level with their character-inspired Halloween costumes. Here’s a mashup of some of the best dressed:

Cardi B. came to slay as Addams Family matriarch, Morticia Addams, in a perfected Morticia costume. She later switched up her attire to channel a witch and took photos with her daughter, Kulture, who also wore a similar costume. “We put a spell on you and now you’re ours,” she captioned the photo.

Megan The Stallion, meanwhile, decided to channel one of her favorite Disney villains, Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians. “Say what you want but a b*** be WORKIN,” she captioned her photo.

black-ish and grown-ish star Yara Shahidi decided to pay homage to late R&B singer Aaliyah with her costume. “Happy Halloweekend!” she captioned the video.

Ciara also did a tribute-inspired costume. She took on the Queen of Tejano music, Selena, in a photo shoot and video. “The Legendary Selena! I’ve been practicing learning Spanish and having the time of my life,” she wrote. “So I wanted one of my costumes to reflect the LatinX culture. This was so much fun!”

Finally, Saweetie brought out the claws for her Halloween costume. The rapper channeled Halle Berry in her 2004 film Catwoman. “Had to put on for the best Catwoman to ever do it @halleberry,” Saweetie wrote, captioning a video of herself walking on a rooftop and running into Berry herself.

The Oscar winner later reposted the fun video, adding the caption, “there’s enough room for more than one Catwoman @saweetie.”

 

 

 

 

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Kal Penn, reveals in his new book, You Can’t Be Serious, that he has been in a relationship with his partner Josh for 11 years, and the the couple is engaged.

“I’ve always been very public with everybody I’ve personally interacted with. Whether it’s somebody that I meet at a bar, if Josh and I are out or we’re talking to friends,” the Designated Survivor actor tells People.

When it came to the book, however, Penn 44, wanted to be transparent, while also being respectful to his family.

“I’m really excited to share our relationship with readers, he notes, but Josh, my partner, my parents and my brother, four people who I’m closest to in the family, are fairly quiet. They don’t love attention and shy away from the limelight.”

Adds Penn, semi-jokingly, “When you’ve already told your Indian parents and the South Asian community that you intend to be an actor for a living, really any conversations that come after that are super easy.”

Kal says discovering his own sexuality “came relatively late in life compared to many other people,” explaining, “There’s no timeline on this stuff. People figure their s*** out at different times in their lives, so I’m glad I did when I did.”

Penn’s book, You Can’t Be Serious, comes out on Tuesday.

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