Entertainment

Jerry Springer, the former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, whose eponymous daytime show transformed talk television, has died, ABC News has confirmed. He was 79.

According to his rep, Springer “died peacefully Thursday at his home in suburban Chicago.”

Jene Galvin, a lifelong friend and spokesman for the family, added: “Jerry’s ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success in everything he tried whether that was politics, broadcasting or just joking with people on the street who wanted a photo or a word.”

He continued, “He’s irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on.”

The statement concluded, as his shows did, with a final thought: “To remember Jerry, the family asks that in lieu of flowers you consider following his spirit and make a donation or commit to an act of kindness to someone in need or a worthy advocacy organization. As he always said, ‘Take care of yourself, and each other.'”

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On Thursday, Paramount Pictures dropped an action-packed trailer for its June 9 release, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.

Set in 1994, the movie has In The Heights‘ Anthony Ramos as a human caught in the middle of an intergalactic conflict: Fan favorites like Bumblebee and Optimus Prime (veteran Peter Cullen) must team up with once-hidden robots in disguise that take the form of fearsome jungle creatures known as The Maximals, to face Unicron, a massive, planet-eating robot.

“How big is this guy?” Ramos’ military vet character asks Prime, only to have one of the Autobots, Mirage (Pete Davidson), quip, “Well, he eats planets, so, like, way bigger than a planet.”

Later, Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh‘s voice can be heard coming from a robotic eagle, Airazor, who urges Prime, “Optimus, we must trust each other to protect the home we all share.”

The gorilla-like leader of The Maximals, Optimus Primal, is voiced by Ron Perlman. He tells Prime, “This is about the fate of all living things.”

Prime answers, “Let them come.”

What follows are clips from a bonkers action set piece, which has the Autobots riding on the backs of the bot beasts, fighting an army of robotic scorpions.

The movie also features Dominique Fishback, and the voices of Pose Emmy nominee Michaela Jaé (MJ) Rodriguez as the Transformer ninja Nightbird, Game of Thrones Emmy winner Peter Dinklage as Unicron’s enforcer Scourge and Ted Lasso‘s Cristo Fernández as the Autobot Wheeljack.

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Ghosted, starring Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, has become the most-watched movie debut to date for Apple TV+, according to Deadline.

The movie, which debuted April 21, saw viewership climb through Tuesday, pulling in 328,500 viewers, according to numbers crunched by streaming tracker Samba TV.

That tops the first two days of Apple TV+’s previous hits, the 2021 sci-fi film Finch with Tom Hanks, 2022’s Ryan Reynolds/Will Ferrell holiday musical Spirited, and last month’s video game-centered thriller Tetris, according to data quoted by the trade.

Ghosted has Evans playing a man whose “grand romantic gesture” — following the “perfect” woman who ghosted him to Europe — exposes her job as an international spy.

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After his surprise ousting at Fox News, Tucker Carlson addressed his fans in a video posted to Twitter Wednesday night that has gone viral.

Sitting at his home studio, wearing a suit and tie, Carlson opened by noting, “One of the first things you realize when you step outside the noise for a few days is how many genuinely nice people there are in this country…people who really care about what’s true…So that’s heartening.

He continues, “The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are. They’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing…Trust me, as someone who has participated in them.”

Seemingly hinting at grist for a future platform, Carlson added, “And yet at the same time…the topics that will define our future, get virtually no discussion at all: War, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, natural resources…Debates like that are not permitted in American media.”

He expressed, “Both political parties and their donors have reached consensus on what benefits them. And they actively collude to shut down any conversation about it. Suddenly, the United States look very much like a one-party state.”

Calmly taking “the liars” to task, Tucker added, “Where can you still find Americans saying true things? There aren’t many places left, but there are some, and that’s enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope.”

The tweet from who was, until his exit Monday, the host of the highest-rated cable news program on television, drew equally impressive numbers on Twitter: It’s been viewed more than 44.6 million times and counting, and liked nearly 650,000 times.

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Deadline reports Cara Delevingne has joined the 12th season of FX’s American Horror Story, as a series regular, joining season 9 vet Emma Roberts and franchise newcomer Kim Kardashian. Details of Delevingne’s character haven’t been revealed. The latest season — based on Danielle Valentine’s thriller novel Delicate Condition, due out in August — is described as a feminist update of Rosemary’s Baby. It reportedly follows “a woman who becomes convinced that a sinister figure is going to great lengths to make sure her pregnancy never happens,” per the outlet…

ABC’s General Hospital leads all other nominees for the 50th Daytime Emmys with 19 nods, followed by CBS’ The Bold and the Beautiful with 14, The Young and the Restless with 13 and NBC/Peacock’s Days of Our Lives with 11. The Kelly Clarkson Show leads the talk field with 11 noms, followed by The Drew Barrymore Show and The Jennifer Hudson Show with seven and six, respectively. The full list of nominees can be found at The 50th Annual Daytime Emmys’ website…

Better Call Carmy: Bob Odenkirk is joining the cast of FX’s heralded drama The Bear, according to Variety. The trade says the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul veteran will fill an as-yet-unrevealed guest role. The series, which follows Golden Globe winner Jeremy Allen White‘s hotshot chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, who in the second season will be trying to transform his family’s troubled Chicago eatery into a fine dining establishment. The series returns in June…

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Another Bachelor baby is on the way!

Former Bachelorette Becca Kufrin is expecting her first child with fiancé Thomas Jacobs, the couple announced Wednesday. 

Sharing a video montage of the happy couple — complete with ultrasounds, sonograms, and their two pups — the parents-to-be captioned the post. “Party of 5 coming September 2023.”

“Little Bebe, we can’t wait to meet you, hold you, and watch you grow,” they added. “We already love you to the moon and back – mom & dad. #pregnanyannouncement #bebe #momanddad #pregnantnotpasta.”

Becca, 33, and Thomas, 30, who met on season 7 of Bachelor in Paradise, were flooded with congratulatory messages from other members of Bachelor Nation. 

“Speechless! Beyond happy! Sending so much love,” wrote season 10 Bachelorette Andi Dorfman. 

“WHAT!!!! Omg I’m crying,” chimed Becca Tilley. “I’m so thrilled for y’all!”

Ashley Iaconetti, Kaitlyn Bristowe, Wells Adams, former Bachelor host Chris Harrison and more also left well wishes for the couple.

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While Kim Kardashian has conquered reality TV and become a billionaire thanks to her business ventures, she claims she’d leave fame behind for the law.

Kim took part in a 2023 TIME100 Summit Q&A with journalist Poppy Harlow on Tuesday. The mogul, who in 2021 passed California’s First-Year Law Students Examination, commonly called the “baby bar,” sees seeking justice as her future.

“I always joke with my mom — who’s my manager — I say, ‘Kim K. is retiring, and I’m just going to be an attorney,” says Kim, the daughter of the late, famed attorney Robert Kardashian.

Kim, who did not go to law school, revealed she’ll take the full bar exam in February 2025. “There are so many things wrong in our [justice] system,” Kardashian said, adding her pursuit of Alice Marie Johnson‘s release from prison five years ago changed the trajectory of her own life. “But once I saw that I could make a difference, I couldn’t stop.”

Kim said she would “absolutely” consider a professional life off-camera. “I would be just as happy being an attorney full time,” she expressed. “There’s so much to be done.”

She added, “I would totally spend more time doing that, cameras or no cameras.”

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The Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That… is coming back for its second season and the cast is excited for its return.

On Wednesday, the official teaser for season 2 dropped on HBO Max featuring Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), as well as new characters who were introduced in the first season, Che (Sara Ramirez), Seema (Sarita Choudhury), Lisa (Nicole Ari Parker) and Dr. Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman).

The upcoming season will also see the return of a familiar character from the original Sex and the City series: Aidan Shaw, played by John Corbett, who was last seen in the 2010 movie Sex and the City 2.

At the end of the teaser, fans see Aidan appear at the bottom of Carrie’s iconic New York City apartment stairs.

Parker took to Instagram to share the teaser, and said she is thankful for the And Just Like That… team and audience who “keep these stories alive.”

“Thank you to the enormously talented team, both on and off camera, who spent hours and hours working on this next chapter,” Parker said. “Making the coldest winter days feel and look like spring and always giving more and better than we could have ever hoped or dreamt.”

“This one’s for you, Part 2. X, SJ,” Parker added.

In February, Parker shared a photo on Instagram of her and Corbett kissing in character on a busy New York City street and wrote in the caption, “This. Is. Not. A. Drill.”

The photo garnered over 1 million Instagram likes and tens of thousands of comments from fans of the show.

And Just Like That… season 2 will be available to stream on HBO Max in June.

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When you’re a kid and you’re not allowed to listen to “forbidden” music, you get creative — which is how Pete Davidson says he inadvertently became a Rod Stewart fan.

The comedian and Edie Falco, the co-star of his new Peacock series Bupkis, appear on the cover of a limited-edition Mother’s Day issue of Good Housekeeping. Inside, Pete interviews Falco and his wisecracking mother, Amy, who jokes that what she does on Mother’s Day is “usually, Pete’s laundry.” Pete also shares a story about how he tried to hide his favorite album from his mom.

“When I was younger, I bought the uncensored Eminem Show CD, which of course I wasn’t allowed to have,” Pete recalls. “So I kept it in a Rod Stewart jewel case.”

“My mom noticed, and for years she’d play Rod Stewart to have something we could bond over,” he continues. “I’d be sitting in the car and suddenly she’d say ‘It’s Rod!’ and start singing along to ‘Maggie May.’ I had to learn the songs just to keep the lie going.”

As a result, Pete admits, “I kinda learned to like Rod Stewart.”

Bupkis, described as a “fictionalized account of Pete Davidson’s real life,” starts streaming May 4.

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ABC News’ parent company, Disney, took the stage at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace Wednesday for its turn at CinemaCon.

On the Marvel Studios side of things, the presentation included an exclusive clip of May’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, as well as the new trailer to November’s The Marvels.

On the animated front, it was announced that Star Trek and Dungeons & Dragons star Chris Pine has joined the voice cast of another November release, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Wish. Pine will play King Magnifico opposite West Side Story Oscar winner Ariana DeBose in a film that blends “beautiful watercolor style with groundbreaking CG animation.”

Melissa McCarthy was on hand to introduce an exclusive first look at her performance of “Poor Unfortunate Souls” as Ursula from the live-action The Little Mermaid, due out May 26.

Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride is getting a live-action reboot, and attendees were treated to a special look at the July 28 release that stars LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Emmy winner Dan Levy, and Oscar winners Jamie Lee Curtis and Jared Leto.

Disney/Pixar unveiled 20 minutes of 3D footage from its animated film Elemental.

Other sneak peeks included: Oscar winner Taika Waititi‘s fact-based soccer comedy Next Goal Wins, due in theaters November 17; 20th Century Studios’ latest Agatha Christie adaptation from Kenneth Branagh and starring Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, called A Haunting in Venice (September 15); and the sci-fi film The Creator starring Tenet‘s John David Washington (September 29).

Harrison Ford sent a greeting to attendees that introduced a clip of the June 30 release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

The presentation closed with a screening of the Stephen King-based horror thriller The Boogeyman (opening June 2).

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