Simone Biles is commonly hailed the G.O.A.T. — greatest of all time — for good reason. She proved why once again Sunday, August 27, with her historic all-around win at the 2023 U.S. Gymnastics Championships.
Biles, who claimed three titles on the night, made history in San Jose, California, as the first gymnast to win eight U.S. all-around titles and the oldest woman ever to win the all-around.
The 26-year-old seven-time Olympic medalist and 2016 Olympic individual all-around champion also took gold in the balance beam and floor exercises, posting a two-day score of 118.45 for all-around.
Biles previously shared the record for all-around national championships with Alfred Jochim, who won seven men’s all-around titles from 1925-30 and 1933.
Her two-day winning total included a 29.300 on beam and 30.200 on floor, plus she scored 28.400 on uneven bars for the bronze in that apparatus and put up a 30.550 on vault.
Biles now holds 27 U.S. titles and 35 national championship medals overall since her senior debut in 2013.
Following the competition, Biles was also named to the USA Gymnastics 2023-24 Senior Women’s National Team.
Dancing with the Stars pro Witney Carson has announced she will not be returning for the upcoming 32nd season.
“This was not a decision that we took lightly. We definitely thought and prayed about it for a while, but we will not be doing Dancing With the Stars this season,” she revealed in a TikTok posted Sunday, August 27. “As much as that pains me to say, I just felt very at peace with it.”
Carson, who shares 2-year-old Leo and 3-month old Jet with husband Carson McAllister, expressed that her family situation also led to her departure from the series.
“Leo’s at an age where he needs consistency and dependability, and he hasn’t had that ever since he’s been born. We’re just really trying to give him that right now,” she said.
The 29-year-old also shared that she doesn’t “feel quite mentally and physically ready for what the show calls for.”
Carson ended her message with hopes of returning one day, but in the meantime, she plans to continue to cheer on everyone else.
“I will be rooting for everybody on the show, I cannot wait to watch. I’m so excited,” she expressed. “I definitely think this is just a break. I hope it’s not goodbye. But for now, we will be there No. 1 cheerleader watching. Love you guys.”
Disney+ has canceled Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. after two seasons, according to TVLine. The updated take on the popular 1990s ABC series Doogie Howser, M.D., which starred Neil Patrick Harris, followed Lahela “Doogie” Kamealoha -played by Peyton Elizabeth Lee — “a half-Asian, half-white 16-year-old girl with a genius-level intellect who has breezed through college and medical school and is now working as a doctor in Hawaii,” per the streamer…
Disney+ has decided not to move forward with its live-action series adaptation of the popular children’s fantasy books, The Spiderwick Chronicles, according to Deadline. The eight-episode series from Paramount Television Studios and 20th Television, has already completed production, is currently being shopped to other potential buyers. The move reportedly comes as part of the content cost-cutting and strategy shift announced by Disney in May…
Arleen Sorkin, the actress best known for voicing Harley Quinn on Batman: The Animated Series, has died following a long battle with multiple sclerosis, representative for Sorkin’s husband, television producer and screenwriter Christopher Lloyd, said in a statement obtained by Entertainment Weekly. Mark Hamill, who played the Joker opposite Sorkin’s Harley Quinn, wrote on social media that Sorkin was “Not just a wonderful talent, but a truly wonderful person.” Sorkin also earned praise for her role as Calliope Jones Bradford on the NBC soap Days of Our Lives from 1984-1990, and later reprising the role in 1992, 2006, and 2010. Her other TV credits include Frasier and a brief stint hosting America’s Funniest Home Videos…
Clive Rose – Gran Turismo/Gran Turismo via Getty Images
Gran Turismo squeezed past Barbie to claim top honors at the domestic box office with an estimated $17.3 million. The film, starring David Harbour, Orlando Bloom and Djimon Hounsou, and based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough, a guy who was so good at the car racing video game that he was able to translate his skills to the real racing world, earned $36.5 million overseas.
Right behind Grand Turismo, in second places was Barbie grabbing an estimated $17.1 million. The film earned an estimated $18.2 million internationally, bringing its six-week global tally to $1.34 billion.
After topping the box office in its debut last week DC’s Blue Beetle, dropped to third place with an estimated $12.7 million. Thus far, the superhero origin story has earned $46.3 million at the domestic box office and $81.8 million worldwide.
Taking fourth place was Oppenheimer with an estimated $9 million at the North American box office for a six-week total of $300 million domestically and $777.1 million globally.
Rounding out the top five was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, delivering an estimated $6.1 million. The animated feature has grossed $98.1 in North America million to date.
Legendary TV star Bob Barker, who hosted the famed game show The Price Is Right for 35 years, has died. He was 99.
Barker died at his home the morning of Saturday, August 26, his longtime publicist Roger Neal told ABC News. He was a few months shy of his 100th birthday.
“He had a wonderful life,” Neal said.
Born in 1923, Barker was raised in South Dakota and Missouri, among other places, before eventually enlisting in the United States Navy during World War II. He never saw action, and after returning home to attend college at Drury University, he got his start in radio and smaller shows.
His big break came when game show creator Ralph Edwards heard him on the air and reached out about Truth or Consequences in the mid-1950s. Barker said Edwards had hosted the show himself on radio and this was one of the TV iterations.
Almost 20 years later, in September 1972, Barker began a job that would end up being the work he is most known for: The Price Is Right. On this program, Barker would give the audience a chance to guess prices on everyday household items, from couches to cars. Getting close to the actual price was the name of the game.
“I was 48 and didn’t have any thoughts about the rest of my life. It was just another show I thought I would have fun with and be well paid for,” he told Entertainment Weekly in 2007.
With Price, Barker got to put his experience talking with and interviewing the everyday person to good use, which he said he got from his early days in radio.
One of Barker’s most memorable additions to Price was his concern for animals and animal rights. This began in the early 1980s and lasted well into his retirement in 2007. Eventually, he ended every episode by saying, “Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.” In fact, the show got rid of fur coats as prizes because of Barker.
“I myself was not aware of the cruelty to animals in the production of fur until about 1981. I said to [my producer] that I was very much involved in the anti-fur campaign and it’s embarrassing to be on the stage giving away fur coats. And he said, ‘I understand your position. They’re gone,'” Barker told EW.
Barker also started a foundation, which has contributed millions to various causes over the years.
After leaving the show in the late 2000s, Barker returned in 2013 for a special tribute on his 90th birthday. New host Drew Carey invited the legend back to the show he had made famous.
“The audience gave me a standing ovation. I had a lump in my throat the first moment I was on the show practically. It was just a thrill, a pleasure,” he told TV Guide about being honored.
The one constant for Barker from his early days in radio to The Price Is Right was his wife, Dorothy Jo Gideon, whom the host met in high school and married in 1945. Barker told ABC News in 2007 that Dorothy Jo was the driving force behind his love for audience participation, his trademark. She was also a force behind his fight to help animals.
“She was ahead of her time. She really was. She stopped wearing fur coats before anyone was stopping. She became a vegetarian before people were becoming vegetarian. And I gradually did the same thing with her,” he said.
His wife died in 1981 of lung cancer. He never remarried.
“I never had any inclination to remarry. She was my wife,” he said.
As reported, Sunday, August 27, is National Cinema Day, when movie tickets are up for grab for $4 apiece.
And according to data from the analysts at EntTelligence published by Deadline, ticket sales for that discount day are outpacing Saturday’s full-priced sales by some 700%.
As reported earlier this week, more than 8 million people beat the heat with a movie on last year’s National Cinema Day, when tickets cost $3. However, at just $4 a ticket, this summer’s crop of blockbusters — including Barbie, Oppenheimer and The Super Mario Bros. Movie — might just beat that attendance record.
And at the discounted price, moviegoers might check out films they’d otherwise wait for streaming for, like the new Gran Turismo and even the struggling Blue Beetle.
Randall and Bullock in 2018 – Jackson Lee/GC Images
Sandra Bullock‘s recent loss of her longtime romantic partner, Bryan Randall, to ALS has led to a boost in donations to the ALS Association, the organization tells ABC Audio.
After Randall’s death at 57 on August 5, his family released a statement that said in part, “Bryan chose early to keep his journey with ALS private, and those of us who cared for him did our best to honor his request.”
The statement also encouraged people to donate to the organization dedicated to fighting the degenerative disease, for which there’s no cure.
They did, ALS Association spokesman Bryan Frederick tells ABC Audio.
“In the last couple weeks we have seen a significant uptick in interest and donations in honor of Bryan and Sandra,” he says. He notes its website has had more than 100,000 new followers and the nonprofit has “raised an additional $50,000, most from first-time donors.”
Frederick added, “We are grateful for the outpouring of support in honor of Bryan and Sandra. The donations and increased awareness will help our work to turn ALS from a fatal disease into a livable one until we can cure it. People living with ALS and their families urgently need new treatments and cures.”
As reported, in an installment of Red Table Talk last year Bullock called Randall “the love of my life.” She told co-hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris that the blending of her two children with his daughter into a family was “the best thing ever.”
Gesine Bullock-Prado, Bullock’s sister, revealed Randall was being cared for by Bullock in their home before his death.
With 41 million Instagram followers, Blake Lively isn’t hurting for “likes,” but got more than 2 million of them within an hour for her birthday, thanks to a sweet message from her hubby, Ryan Reynolds.
Blake, who tied the knot with Ryan in 2012, turned 36 on Friday, August 25.
To a glamorous nighttime beach shot of his better half, Ryan wrote, “The only thing irrevocably mine in the world is the love and appreciation and awe I feel for this person.”
The Deadpool star, producer and entrepreneur continued, “Witnessing her life is something I couldn’t take for granted if I tried. And believe me, I try. Happy Birthday, @blakelively. You hung the damn moon.”
Of course, the celebrity couple is infamous for their love language of busting each other’s chops on social media, but Ryan played nice this time and was rewarded with lots of hearts — the Instagram kind.
The new movie Golda is a portrait of a tough Prime Minister facing the pressure of war.
Helen Mirren plays former Israeli leader Golda Meir, and director Guy Nattiv tells ABC Audio Mirren was handpicked by Meir’s grandson
Gideon Meir, was the one who thought about her as his grandmother. Helen and her, he saw the DNA there.
Even with the co-sign from Meir’s grandson, the choice wasn’t without controversy due to Mirren not being. Jewish. Some in the Jewish community are upset because all too often Jewish actors aren’t allowed to portray Jewish characters on screen, whether it’s Bradley Cooper playing legendary composer Leonard Bernstein in the upcoming film Maestro, or Rachel Brosnahan playing the title role in the fictional The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
However, the blowback wasn’t something Nattiv considered “because I am Israeli and I am a second generation to a Holocaust survivor.”
“I am authentic enough to tell this story in a way that if I feel that Helen is the right person to tell the story, I guess that it works for me, you know? And it worked for Golda’s family,” he explains.
Nattiv also shared that while Mirren isn’t Jewish, she does has a deep connection with Israel, having spent time there in her 20s, volunteering on a Kibbutz.
“Picked tomatoes and fell in love with Israeli and toured the country and slept on the beach in Eilat and, you know, and did the entire Zionist tour. She was basically living in Israel for a while,” he recalls of the actress’ experience. “I had the notion that she understand Golda to the core.”
Get ready for another go ’round, Bachelor Nation, as the cast for the ninth season of Bachelor In Paradise has been revealed.
The forthcoming season gets underway on Thursday, Sept. 28, at 9:01 p.m. ET with Jesse Palmer as host and Wells Adams returning to the bar. The show streams the next day on Hulu.
Here are the contestants looking for love this season so far. Additional names are forthcoming:
Greer Blitzer – (The Bachelor, season 27)
Brayden Bowers – (The Bachelorette, season 20)
Aaron Bryant – (The Bachelorette, season 20)
Peter Cappio – (The Bachelorette, season 20)
Jessica “Jess” Girod – (The Bachelor, season 27)
Eliza Isichei – (The Bachelor season 26 and Bachelor in Paradise, season 8)
Katherine “Kat” Izzo – (The Bachelor, season 27)
Samantha “Sam” Jeffries – (The Bachelor, season 26)
Olivia Lewis – (The Bachelor, season 27)
Sean McLaughlin – (The Bachelorette, season 20)
Blake Moynes – (The Bachelorette seasons 16 and 17)
Mercedes Northup – (The Bachelor, season 27)
Rachel Recchia – (The Bachelor, season 26 and The Bachelorette, season 19)
Kylee Russell – (The Bachelor, season 27)
Aaron Schwartzman – (The Bachelorette – season 20)
Will Urena – (The Bachelorette, season 18)
Brooklyn Willie – (The Bachelor, season 27)
Catherine “Cat” Wong – (The Bachelor, season 27)
The producers also note that three more former Bachelorettes — Katie Thurston (season 17), Charity Lawson (season 20) and Hannah Brown (season 15) — are also set to appear this season.
