Entertainment

Lisa Lloyd, the mother of Star Wars: Episode I star Jake Lloyd, has shared with Scripps News Service an account of her son’s decades-long battle with mental illness.

The former actor, 35, portrayed a 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace, which will turn 25 this May. However, after the film faded from theaters, the former child star of Jingle All the Way faded from the spotlight.

His mother wanted to dispel the rumor that it stemmed from some fans snarking on him and the film. “It didn’t have anything to do with Star Wars,” she insists. Her getting divorced was “unsettling and rough” and “Jake didn’t seem to be having a lot of fun auditioning anymore.”

Lisa says as he got into his teens, and later his college years, Jake’s mental health started deteriorating. He began to experience hallucinations and was eventually diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

However, Lisa says he refused to take his medication, and after the untimely 2018 death at 26 of his younger sister, that got worse.

He had a series of “psychotic breaks,” one in 2015 that saw him getting into a car chase with police and eventually behind bars for 10 months.

A “full blown” break while she drove with him on the highway in March 2023 led to an 18-month stay in an in-patient psychiatric facility. Ten of those months have passed.

“He’s doing much better than I expected,” Lisa now says. “He is relating to people better … It’s kind of like having more of the old Jake back, because he has always been incredibly social until he became schizophrenic.”

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When comedian and actor John Mulaney presented the Achievement in Sound award at Sunday night’s Oscars, he went into one of his trademark movie tangents and ended up talking extensively about the 1989 Kevin Costner classic Field of Dreams.

After effectively recapping the entire film in about a minute, Mulaney commented, “that should win Best Picture, but they’ll probably go with one of this year’s.”

As it turns out, the star of the film, Kevin Costner saw the bit and gave it a thumbs up.

On the social media account of his band, Kevin Costner and Modern West, the Yellowstone star retweeted video of Mulaney at the podium, commenting, “Not a bad summary” along with a crying, laughing emoji.

Incidentally, another of Mulaney’s classic bits from his special The Comeback Kid starts as an anecdote of the time he met his mother’s former college classmate and Bill Clinton, and ends up being an increasingly detailed recap of the climax of the 1993 Harrison Ford classic The Fugitive.

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In the Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, some former child stars allege they were subjected to inappropriate work environments, with former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell claiming he was sexually abused.

Bell, who appeared on Nickelodeon shows such as All That and The Amanda Show before starring in his own series, Drake & Josh, from 2004 to 2007, said in a preview of the documentary that he was the “John Doe” minor in the 2003 child sexual abuse case against his former dialogue coach Brian Peck.

Bell claimed Peck intentionally isolated him from his father — who was also his manager — when the two were on set.

“I think Brian got a sense that my dad was on the watch and so he started to really drive a wedge between my dad and me,” Bell said in the docuseries. “He started talking about how my dad’s stealing my money, nobody likes that my dad’s on set, he’s a real problem. I was believing it because he’s been in this business for so long and he must know more than us.”

Bell said the abuse he experienced put him on a path of self-destruction, including two convictions for driving under the influence and a child endangerment conviction in 2021.

Peck was arrested in 2003 and charged with 11 counts, including “lewd acts with a child” and sexual abuse of a minor. He pleaded guilty to two of the counts and was sentenced to 16 months in prison. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender.

In a statement, Nickelodeon said it was “dismayed and saddened to learn of the trauma [Bell] has endured, and we commend and support the strength required to come forward.”

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While she and her partner John Mulaney were all smiles at the Oscars on Sunday, Olivia Munn was hiding a secret she just revealed on Tuesday to her Instagram followers.

To a photo of her smiling in a hospital bed and wearing a hospital gown, she announced on Instagram, “I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I hope by sharing this it will help others find comfort, inspiration and support on their own journey.”

In a statement she explained, “I wouldn’t have found my cancer for another year – at my next scheduled mammogram – except that my OBGYN, Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, decided to calculate my Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score. The fact that she did saved my life.”

Munn continued in part, “Dr. Aliabadi … discovered my lifetime risk was at 37%. Because of that score I was sent to get an MRI, which led to an ultrasound, which then led to a biopsy. The biopsy showed I had Luminal B cancer in both breasts … an aggressive, fast moving cancer.”

Munn revealed she had a double mastectomy 30 days after her biopsy but explained she feels “lucky,” noting, “We caught it with enough time that I had options.”

“I want the same for any woman who might have to face this one day,” she added, recommending they, too, ask their doctor to assess their risk scores.

Munn closed by saying she’s “so thankful to my friends and family for loving me through this,” and to Mulaney, the father of their son Malcolm, “for the nights he spent researching what every operation and medication meant and what side effects and recovery I could expect [and] for being there before I went into each surgery and being there when I woke up.”

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“Barbenheimer” Oscar nominees Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt appeared along with director Chad Stahelski at Tuesday night’s SXSW premiere of their action comedy The Fall Guy, and Gosling disappointed. Sort of.

Two days after his showstopping performance of “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie at the 96th Academy Awards, Gosling and company were at a packed Paramount Theatre in Austin, where according to Deadline, Ryan opened by saying, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to sing — I promise.”

The comment drew boos and deflated “awws” from fans, according to the trade.

Incidentally, before the screening, Blunt gave her review of Gosling’s Oscars performance to Extra, calling it “epic, legendary.”

She also revealed, “I said to him … ‘People are going to talk to you about it when you are 90 years old.’ It just brought the house down.”

And while some may have booed Gosling’s lack of singing, critics didn’t boo The Fall Guy: It now has a 91% from the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

The movie from Universal opens in theaters May 3.

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Keith Morrison is well known as a Dateline correspondent, but he’s arguably less well known as the stepfather of the late Matthew Perry.

The journalist married Perry’s mother, Suzanne Langford Perry, in 1981 when Matthew was 12 years old.

On Hoda Kotb‘s Making Space podcast, Morrison shared that he and the rest of Perry’s family are still reeling from his death at 54. The former Friends star struggled with addiction his entire adult life, and his death was attributed to the acute effects of ketamine.

“It’s as other people have told me hundreds of times; it doesn’t go away yet,” Morrison said of his grief and that of Matthew’s mom.

Morrison added, “Toward the end of his life, they were closer than I had seen them for decades … texting each other constantly and him sharing things with her that most middle-aged men don’t share with their mothers.”

“He was happy, and he said so. And he hadn’t said that for a long time,” he expressed of the star, noting that is “a source of comfort.” He also acknowledged it’s “not fair” that Perry “didn’t get to have his third act.”

“[A]s he said himself, ‘If if I suddenly died, people would be shocked, but not too many people would be surprised,'” Morrison added. “And he was right.”

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Actresses Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler are opening up for the first time together about the health issue they both share: multiple sclerosis.

Applegate, 52, and Sigler, 42, sat side-by-side as they spoke with Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts about the bond they’ve developed over their shared frustrations with the incurable disease, with which Applegate was diagnosed in 2021 and Sigler was diagnosed in 2001.

“She’s doing this [holding my hand] because I have the tremor,” Applegate said of Sigler, citing one of the many physical side effects of MS.

“Well, it’s because I love you, but that too,” Sigler said.

Sigler was just 20 years old and starring in The Sopranos when she was diagnosed with MS, an autoimmune condition in which the body attacks myelin, the tissue that surrounds nerves, including those in the brain and spinal cord, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

It wasn’t until 15 years later in 2016, just after she got married, that Sigler revealed her diagnosis publicly.

Applegate publicly revealed her MS diagnosis in 2021, which was discovered after she was unable to walk on her own while filming the final season of her hit Netflix show, Dead to Me.

“[I]t was, like, literally just tingling on my toes,” Applegate told Roberts. “And by the time we started shooting in the summer of that same year, I was being brought to set in a wheelchair.”

Applegate credits her former co-star Selma Blair, who was diagnosed with MS in 2018, with urging her to get tested for the disease: “She knew. If not for her, it could have been way worse.”

Applegate and Sigler are sharing their journey with MS in a new podcast, titled MeSsy.

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Sony on Thursday announced its third Venom movie has an official title and a new release date. Venom: The Last Dance will now hit theaters on October 25, instead of November 8. The Spider-Man adjacent Venom movies, starring Tom Hardy, have been a smash for Sony Pictures. The 2018 original made more than $856 million worldwide, and while its 2021 sequel made considerably less, Venom: Let There Be Carnage still earned over $506 million against a reported production budget of $110 million …

Variety reports Midsommar director Ari Aster has tapped Oscar winners Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone, as well as Austin Butler and Pedro Pascal to lead the cast of his next film, Eddington. Specific plot details are being kept under wraps, but the film, per the outlet, “follows a small-town New Mexico sheriff with higher aspirations.” Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward and Clifton Collins Jr. also star …

Warner Bros. has postponed the release of The Batman Part II a year, from October 3, 2025 to October 2, 2026, according to Variety. The first film, starring Robert Pattinson as the titular caped crusader, along with Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Andy Serkis as Batman’s butler Alfred Pennyworth, Colin Farrell as Penguin and American Fiction Oscar nominee Jeffrey Wright as Gotham City police chief James Gordon, earned $772 million globally. So far only Pattinson is confirmed for the sequel, though Farrell is starring in a spinoff, The Penguin, bound for Max later in 2024…

CBS has renewed the comedy Ghosts and the drama Fire Country for a fourth and third season, respectively. “Ghosts and Fire Country are proven viewer favorites on both broadcast and streaming thanks to exceptional storytelling, talented actors and an ever-growing fan base,” Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment said in a statement on Tuesday, March 12. “We are elated to keep the momentum going and bring them back to CBS next season.” Ghosts stars Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar as a couple that inherits a rundown mansion in upstate New York, only to find it is teeming with ghosts. Fire Country stars Max Thieriot as young convict Bode Donovan, who, along with other inmates, works alongside firefighters in return for redemption and shortened prison sentences …

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The Terminator meets Reacher in a forthcoming holiday movie from Amazon MGM Studios, Alan Ritchson has confirmed.

According to Deadline, Arnold Schwarzenegger will join fellow swole star Ritchson in The Man with the Bag, in which the latter will play a jewel thief named Vance who is recruited by Santa to retrieve his stolen magic bag — the one that somehow fits gifts for the entire world’s children, yet slips down the chimney with the big man.

“Along with his daughter, Santa, and a group of misfit elves, Vance will have to pull off the greatest heist of his life to save Christmas,” teases the logline from Amazon MGM Studios.

Reacher star Ritchson is co-producing the film. For his part, he said on Instagram, “This one’s gonna sleigh…”

It’s not confirmed if Schwarzenegger is playing Santa, but for what it’s worth, the Jingle All The Way star was already sporting a white beard at the Oscars on Sunday.

Directing the project will be Adam Shankman, veteran of movie musicals like Hairspray and Disney’s Disenchanted, as well as the Jennifer Lopez romcom The Wedding Planner.

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After sitting out the hit sixth Scream film over a well-publicized contract dispute, Neve Campbell is back as Sidney Prescott.

In an Instagram post showing the cover page to the script for the as-yet-untitled Scream 7, the actress also revealed that Kevin Williamson, who wrote the scripts to the original blockbuster in 1996, as well as its 1997 sequel and 2011’s Scream 4, is directing.

Guy Busick, screenwriter of 2022’s hit Scream revival and the well-performing Scream VI, will be back behind the keyboard for the seventh go-round.

In a lengthy caption, Campbell told her followers, “My appreciation for these films and for what they have meant to me, has never waned. I’m very happy and proud to say I’ve been asked, in the most respectful way, to bring Sidney back to the screen and I couldn’t be more thrilled!!!”

Neve added, “I’ve dreamt for many years of how amazing it would be to make one of these movies with Kevin Williamson at the helm. And now it’s happening.” She added, “[It was] his brilliant mind that dreamt up this world.”

The news follows the seventh Scream film being stalled with a one-two punch: the loss of its heroines Tara and Sam Carpenter, played respectively by Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrerra.

Ortega left the project in November 2023 for “scheduling” reasons, according to Variety. The news came a short time after Barrerra was fired for her controversial social posts about Israel during the country’s counter-offensive against Hamas.

At the time, Spyglass Media claimed to the trade, “We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.”
 

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