Jeremy Renner was run over by his own snowplow, officials reveal; Renner posts Instagram update

Jeremy Renner was run over by his own snowplow, officials reveal; Renner posts Instagram update
Jeremy Renner was run over by his own snowplow, officials reveal; Renner posts Instagram update
Marvel Studios

Jeremy Renner was injured when he was run over by his own snowplow, officials revealed Tuesday night.

Washoe County, Nevada Sheriff Darin Balaam said in a press conference that the New Year’s Day morning accident that left the Avengers star in critical condition was caused when the actor jumped into his PistenBully snowcat and “successfully towed” Renner’s own personal vehicle, which was being driven by a family member and became stranded on a private road in heavy snows.

Renner then jumped out of the snowcat to talk with a family member when the tracked vehicle, which weighs 14,330 pounds, began to move forward, Balaam explained. The actor then jumped into the vehicle in an attempt to stop it.

“Based on our investigation, it’s at this point Mr. Renner was run over by the PistenBully,” Balaam noted.

Balaam said Renner wasn’t impaired at the time of the accident and no foul play was suspected, declaring, “We believe this is a tragic accident.” He also noted that Renner was conscious and speaking to first responders after the incident.

As for why he owned the snowcat, Balaam explained, “As Mr. Renner always does, he was being a great neighbor, and was plowing roads for his neighbors.” Some of those neighbors helped first responders render aid, said Balaam. He added that the accident remains under investigation.

Renner underwent surgery Monday after sustaining what were decribed then as “blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries,” and remains in critical but stable condition.

Renner himself posted an update on his condition Tuesday evening, sharing a selfie on Instagram from his hospital bed, looking worse for wear but offering a tired smile.

“Thank you all for your kind words,” Renner wrote in the caption. “I’m too messed up now to type. But I send love to you all.”

The post received likes and comments from celebs including fellow MCU stars Chris Pratt and Chris Hemsworth, as well as Ryan Reynolds, Orlando Bloom, Heidi Klum and others.

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Stars of 1968’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ sue for child abuse over nude scene

Stars of 1968’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ sue for child abuse over nude scene
Stars of 1968’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ sue for child abuse over nude scene
Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

(NOTE CONTENT) Director Franco Zeffirelli‘s 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet is remembered as an Oscar-winning classic, but now it’s at the center of a multimillion lawsuit against Paramount Pictures from its two leads.

Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, who played the famously star-crossed lovers, were respectively 15 and 16 when they filmed the movie. Variety reports the two actors are now suing the production for child abuse, claiming they were deceived into filming a nude scene.

The actors, now in their 70s, claimed the director, who died in 2019, assured them that Whiting’s bare buttocks and Hussey’s breasts wouldn’t be visible on film. The pair claim the filmmaker assured them their modesty would be protected by flesh-colored garments and, when those were scrapped, certain camera angles.

“What they were told and what went on were two different things,” their manager, Tony Marinozzi, alleged, according to the trade. “They trusted Franco. At 16, as actors, they took his lead that he would not violate that trust they had. Franco was their friend, and frankly, at 16, what do they do? There are no options. There was no #MeToo.”

The pair also claimed they experienced “mental anguish” and “emotional distress” in the decades since the movie debuted.

According to the trade, the actors’ attorney, Solomon Gresen, said in a statement, “Nude images of minors are unlawful and shouldn’t be exhibited. These were very young naive children” who were “violated in a way they didn’t know how to deal with.”

The pair are reportedly seeking damages “believed to be in excess of $500 million.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Nevada cops to hold press conference about Jeremy Renner’s accident; Mark Ruffalo calls for prayers

Nevada cops to hold press conference about Jeremy Renner’s accident; Mark Ruffalo calls for prayers
Nevada cops to hold press conference about Jeremy Renner’s accident; Mark Ruffalo calls for prayers
Marvel Studios

Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam will hold a press conference at 6:30 p.m. ET to discuss the circumstances surrounding the New Year’s Day accident that left Jeremy Renner in critical condition.

The two-time Oscar nominee and Marvel movie star was seriously injured in a snowplowing incident outside of his Reno home. The 51-year-old actor “suffered blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries” in the accident and was airlifted from the scene.

Renner underwent surgery on Monday, according to a rep. “He has returned from surgery and remains in the intensive care unit in critical but stable condition,” the statement continued.

Meanwhile, as fans are eager for an update on his condition, his Marvel movies co-star Mark Ruffalo is calling for prayers.

“Prayers up for our brother @jeremyrenner on a full and speedy recovery,” the actor, who plays Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk, posted on his Instagram Stories Monday, next to a news article about Renner’s accident.

Ruffalo appeared as Bruce Banner/The Hulk alongside Renner’s Clint “Hawkeye” Barton in three films, beginning with 2012’s The Avengers. He added to his followers, “Please send healing goodness his way.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

‘Avatar’ has ‘Maverick’ in its sights as it crosses $1.44 billion at the box office

‘Avatar’ has ‘Maverick’ in its sights as it crosses .44 billion at the box office
‘Avatar’ has ‘Maverick’ in its sights as it crosses .44 billion at the box office
20th Century Studios — Paramount Pictures

It hasn’t even been in theaters for a month, but Avatar: The Way of Water already has 2022’s highest grossing film in its sights.

James Cameron‘s sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time splashed past the $1.44 billion mark worldwide after strong performances over the New Year’s holiday weekend. By comparison, Maverick, which was released in May 2022, has inched toward the $1.89 billion mark by this point.

In short, like its Na’vi characters’ are, The Way of Water‘s legs are long: The film that came out the week of December 16 ended up jumping to #2 of 2022’s Top 10 ranking worldwide before the year’s end, and its strong performance over the holiday reveals there are no signs of it stopping, particularly overseas. As some prognosticators predicted, the film could overtake Maverick in short order, earning in weeks what took the highest-grossing Tom Cruise movie months to generate.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Daniel Craig thinks the Muppets meeting his ‘Knives Out’ character is “a really good idea”

Daniel Craig thinks the Muppets meeting his ‘Knives Out’ character is “a really good idea”
Daniel Craig thinks the Muppets meeting his ‘Knives Out’ character is “a really good idea”
Netflix/John Wilson

Social media users are famous for “fan casting” who they’d love to see in projects, and lately, they can’t get enough of the idea of having Daniel Craig‘s drawly detective Benoit Blanc face off with the Muppets in a Knives Out movie.

One offered, “If Benoit Blanc meets the muppets I desperately need him to treat it like it’s just a normal thing. I don’t wanna hear any ‘my word it appeauhs that I am conversin with some sort of living puppet creatures’ I just want him to be like, ‘Kermit I’ve heard so much about you.'”

That comment was retweeted by another who noted, “I love that we’ve already reached the stage where we are assuming there’s going to be a Muppets Knives Out movie, and are now just discussing the practicalities of it.”

As for the practicality, evidently Craig is game.

In a chat with his co-stars of the new movie Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Craig said with a laugh the notion is “a really good idea.”

Director Rian Johnson agreed during the video, but later commented on Netflix’s Tudum blog, “It’s a joke that I thought was pretty brilliant, and I ended up really giving [it] some serious thought.”

He adds, “As much as I take the murder mystery genre seriously, I take the genre of a Muppet movie seriously. I think those two things have very different rules. You can either have a Benoit Blanc mystery that has Muppets in it, but they’ll feel out of place. Or you can have a Muppet movie that Benoit Blanc is in, but it’ll feel like a Muppet movie.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Al Roker will return to ‘Today’ on January 6 following health scare

Al Roker will return to ‘Today’ on January 6 following health scare
Al Roker will return to ‘Today’ on January 6 following health scare
NBC/Helen Healey

On Tuesday’s installment of Today, the show’s hosts revealed Al Roker will be returning on Friday, January 6.

“We have some great news to share,” Savannah Guthrie said, commenting, “Our sunshine is coming back Friday morning.”

As reported, the beloved weatherman had been sidelined since the end of 2021, hospitalized twice for blood clots. The health scare forced him to miss coverage of both the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree for the first time in decades.

He has since made video appearances on the chat show; in a December 12 appearance from home, Roker called his situation “a tough slog,” adding, “It’s been the hardest one yet, and you know I’ve had my share of surgeries. It gives you a profound sense of gratitude for this outpouring of prayers and thanks. I’m a very fortunate person.”

Weeks later, Guthrie, co-host Hoda Kotb, and dozens of Today staff members donned Santa hats and went caroling outside Roker’s New York City home, surprising him and leaving him in tears.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In Brief: Paramount Network teases summer return for ‘Yellowstone’, and more

In Brief: Paramount Network teases summer return for ‘Yellowstone’, and more
In Brief: Paramount Network teases summer return for ‘Yellowstone’, and more

Yellowstone will return with new episodes in summer 2023, the Paramount Network announced during the show’s midseason finale on Sunday. Until then, the network shared a brief teaser trailer featuring Kevin Costner in his starring role as the Dutton family patriarch John Dutton. The modern-day Western follows Dutton, a fifth-generation rancher, defending his sprawling Montana property from land developers while dealing with dysfunctional relationships with his four adult children. Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley and Cole Hauser also star…

The View returns from its holiday hiatus on Tuesday with a tribute to the show’s creator, Barbara Walters, who died Friday, December 30 at the age of 93. “#TheView was her idea, her passion, her show. Join us Tuesday morning as we celebrate the one and only Barbara Walters,” the show wrote on its Instagram Monday evening. Walters created The View in 1997 and was one of the original co-hosts of the ABC daytime talk show along with Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, Debbie Matenopoulos and Joy Behar. The pioneering journalist retired from the show in 2014. The current panel of The View features Whoopi Goldberg, Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro. The View airs on ABC at 11 a.m. ET…

Could a DiNozzo-Ziva reunion be in the works on NCIS? Michael Weatherly, who played Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo on the CBS drama for 13 seasons, seemed to tease that he could return to the show alongside Cote de Pablo, who played Special Agent Ziva David. After Michael tweeted a video captioned “Happy New Year! It’s time to look at time and enjoy the moment!” a fan commented that they, and many other fans would “rather look at you and Ziva reuniting.” Weatherly replied, “Stay tuned… for this might be an interesting year for such ‘moments’!” Michael left the show after 13 seasons to star in his own CBS series, Bull, which wrapped a six-season run last May. De Pablo, who starred on the show from seasons 3-11, previously returned for a special storyline in 2020. NCIS airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS…

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Jeremy Renner undergoes surgery after snowplow accident left him with “blunt chest trauma”

Jeremy Renner undergoes surgery after snowplow accident left him with “blunt chest trauma”
Jeremy Renner undergoes surgery after snowplow accident left him with “blunt chest trauma”
Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Disney

Actor Jeremy Renner was out of surgery on Monday after being injured while plowing snow on Sunday, according to his publicist.

“We can confirm that Jeremy has suffered blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries and has undergone surgery today,” his publicist said in a statement Monday evening. “He has returned from surgery and remains in the intensive care unit in critical but stable condition.”

Renner was airlifted to a local hospital from the site of the incident in Reno, Nevada, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office said.

“As of now, we can confirm Jeremy is in critical but stable condition with injuries suffered after experiencing a weather-related accident while plowing snow earlier today,” the publicist, Samantha Mast, told Los Angeles ABC station KABC shortly after the incident. “His family is with him and he is receiving excellent care.”

“At approximately 9:00am on January 1, 2023, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office responded to a traumatic injury in the area of Mt. Rose Highway in Reno, Nevada,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement, also noting “Mr. Renner was the only involved party in the incident.”

Officials said they were investigating the accident.

The Reno area received heavy snowfall over the weekend with Reno-Tahoe International Airport setting a daily record on Dec. 31, with nine inches. In Tahoe, more than a foot of snow fell in the foothills and multiple feet fell in higher elevations.

Renner, 51, has played a starring role as Hawkeye in Marvel’s Avengers movies and the series Hawkeye on Disney+. He also earned Academy Award nominations for The Town and The Hurt Locker. He currently starts in the Paramount+ series Mayor of Kingstown.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ three-peats at #1 with $86 million New Year’s weekend haul

‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ three-peats at #1 with  million New Year’s weekend haul
‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ three-peats at #1 with  million New Year’s weekend haul
Disney

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water continued its domination at the North American box office, grabbing an estimated $86 million over the four-day weekend and $66.8 million between Friday and Sunday. That brings the Avatar sequel’s domestic gross to $444.4 million and around $1.4 billion worldwide.

The Way of Water now stands as the 14th-highest global release in history, just ahead of Marvel’s Black Panther, and it’s poised to become the highest-grossing movie released in 2022, which is currently Top Gun: Maverick with $1.488 billion.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish grabbed second place with an estimated $22.5 million over the long weekend and $16.3 million for the traditional weekend. The CGI-animated adventure set in the Shrek universe has collected $66.9 million at the North American box office and $135 million globally.

Third place belonged to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which reentered the top five with an estimated $6.5 million over the four-day weekend and $4.8 million from Friday through Saturday. Worldwide, Disney-Marvel’s Black Panther sequel has earned $820 million.

The Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody took fourth place with an estimated $4.8 million between Friday and Monday, raising its North American total to a disappointing $15.4 million.

Damien Chazelle‘s showbiz epic Babylon rounded out the top five, delivering and estimated $3.3 million over the New Year’s holiday weekend for a dismal $10.7 million total. The Brad Pitt-led film earned $2.7 million for the three-day.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

‘Avengers’ star Jeremy Renner in “critical but stable condition” following snow-plowing accident

‘Avengers’ star Jeremy Renner in “critical but stable condition” following snow-plowing accident
‘Avengers’ star Jeremy Renner in “critical but stable condition” following snow-plowing accident
Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Disney

The Avengers star Jeremy Renner is said to be in critical but stable conditon following a snow-plowing accident Sunday.

“As of now, we can confirm Jeremy is in critical but stable condition with injuries suffered after experiencing a weather related accident while plowing snow earlier today,” reads a statement from the actor’s publicist, provided to ABC News Sunday. “His family is with him and he is receiving excellent care.”

As of early Monday morning there was no public word on the nature or extent of Renner’s injuries, nor any specifics about the accident itself.

According to the Washoe County, Nevada, Sheriff’s Office, they “responded to a traumatic injury in the area of Mt. Rose Highway in Reno, Nevada” at around 9:00 a.m. on January 1. “Upon arrival, Deputies coordinated with Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District and REMSA Health to arrange for medical transport of Mr. Jeremy Renner via care flight to a local area hospital.” 

“Mr. Renner was the only involved party in the incident,” the statement continues, noting that officials are “currently looking into the circumstances of the incident.”

Renner owns property near Lake Tahoe, just south of Reno. On December 12, he tweeted an image of a vehicle buried in snow, with the comment, “Lake Tahoe snowfall is no joke #WinterWonderland.”

Renner, a two-time Oscar nominee, is best known for playing the role of Clint ‘Hawkeye’ Barton in the Avengers film franchise and the Disney+ series Hawkeye. He currently stars in the Paramount+ series Mayor of Kingstown, which debuts its second season January 15.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.