Entertainment

Saturday night on ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest, Ryan and his co-host, Liza Koshy, will be in New York’s Times Square counting down to midnight. In 2020, COVID-19 kept Times Square empty, and in 2021, the Omicron variant meant strict limits on attendance. But this year, Seacrest predicts Times Square will be “packed.”

“We’re hoping there will be a normal or larger-than-normal crowd because we haven’t had that … ability in the last couple of years,” he told ABC Audio on Thursday. “There is, potentially, a little rain, but I think we’ll see those pens full and the streets packed.”

Koshy predicted the same, saying, “Just on our way to this interview today, it was packed.”

Aside from the crowd and the performers, Seacrest and Koshy will be laser-focused on the task at hand.

“There’s a lot of trust, I think, instilled in us to make sure that we time 10 to zero on time,” Seacrest explained, adding, “People probably have us on in the background … but once it gets to be 11:45, it’s time for us to make sure we can deliver a new year.”

And once the ball drops? Seacrest said his late mentor Dick Clark told him the right thing to do is to let “the visuals narrate how big of a deal Times Square is.”

Seacrest noted, “Dick used to say, ‘Once you say “Happy New Year,” just be quiet. Just let the story be told by what you see.'”

At midnight, it’s time for the traditional New Year’s kiss. Koshy will smooch her mom, while Seacrest laughed, “I’ll kiss my girlfriend and probably her father. He’s a really, really good guy and I have to jump high to reach him … the guy’s tall!”

After that comes dinner. Seacrest used to have a huge meal before the grueling broadcast, but said he’s learned, “It’s better to eat at 1:30 in the morning.”

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Emma Heming Willis is getting nostalgic for her early days with Bruce Willis.

Heming Willis, 44, shared an Instagram video December 28 showing her and the Die Hard actor, now 67, partaking in outdoor winter activities, such as riding an inner tube down a snowy mountain, riding a snowmobile and taking photos in the winter wonderland.

“It was that winter, 15 years ago I fell head of over heels in love with him,” Willis said in the post, adding the hashtag “#loveofmylife.”

Two of Willis’ daughters with ex-wife Demi Moore took to the comments to react to the throwback clip.

“This is blowing my mind,” Scout Willis, 31, wrote. Tallulah Willis, 28, said, “This makes my heart glow.”

Willis and Heming Willis married in March 2009 and share two daughters together: Mabel, 10, and Evelyn, 8. In addition to Scout and Tallulah, Bruce Willis also shares daughter Rumer Willis, 34, with Moore.

Willis’ family announced this past March that the actor was diagnosed with aphasia and is “stepping away” from his career due to the disorder, which has affected his cognitive abilities. Since then, he has appeared in numerous family pictures and videos on social media.

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Vivienne Westwood, the fashion designer who made punk and new wave fashion mainstream, has died. She was 81.

Westwood died Thursday “peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London,” a post shared on her Instagram page by her brand said.

“Vivienne continued to do the things she loved, up until her last moment, designing, working on her art, writing her book, and changing the world for the better,” according to the Instagram caption alongside a photo of Westwood. “She led an amazing life. Her innovation and impact over the last 60 years has been immense and will continue into the future.”

“The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better,” the brand said.

Her husband and creative partner, Andreas Kronthaler, also released a statement and said, “I will continue with Vivienne in my heart.”

“We have been working until the end and she has given me plenty of things to get on with. Thank you darling,” he added.

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January
January 6 – Sidney Poitier, Oscar-winning trailblazer, 94
January 6 – Peter Bogdanovich, Paper Moon director, 82
January 9 – Bob Saget, comedian and Full House star, 65
January 12 – Ronnie Spector, frontwoman for The Ronettes, 78
January 18 – Andre Leon Talley, journalist, 73
January 19 – Gaspard Ulliel, French actor, 37
January 20 – Meat Loaf, musician and Fight Club actor, 74
January 21 – Louie Anderson, comedian and Baskets Emmy winner, 68

February
February 12 – Ivan Reitman, director of Ghostbusters, Stripes and others, 75

March
March 13 – William Hurt, Oscar-winning actor, 71
March 25 – Taylor Hawkins, Foo Fighters drummer, 50

April
April 2 – Estelle Harris, Estelle Costanza on Seinfeld, Toy Story voice, 93
April 12 – Gilbert Gottfried, stand-up and Aladdin voice-over star, 67
April 15 – Liz Sheridan, Seinfeld matriarch, 93
April 30 – Naomi Judd, country music legend, 76

May
May 26 – Ray Liotta, Goodfellas actor, 67

June

July
July 6 – James Caan, Sonny in The Godfather films, Elf, 82
July 8 – Tony Sirico, Sopranos star, 79
July 14 – Ivana Trump, former model wife of former President Donald Trump, 73
July 25 – Paul Sorvino, Goodfellas star, 83
July 30 – Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek trailblazer, 89; Pat Carroll, actress and comedienne, 95

August
August 8 – Olivia Newton-John, Grease star and recording artist, 73
August 12 – Anne Heche, Emmy winner, ex of Ellen DeGeneres, 53

September
September 8 – Queen Elizabeth II, 96
September 13 – Jean-Luc Godard, legendary filmmaker, 91
September 23 – Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoos’ Nest‘s Nurse Ratched, 88

October
October 4 – Loretta Lynn, country legend, 90
October 11 – Angela Lansbury, Murder She Wrote star, 96
October 14 – Robbie Coltrane, Harry Potter‘s Hagrid, 72
October 24 – Leslie Jordan, Will & Grace and Call Me Kat star, 67
October 28 – Jerry Lee Lewis, legendary rock ‘n’ roll singer and pianist, 87

November
November 1– Takeoff, Migos rapper, 28
November 5 – Aaron Carter, singer, 34
November 10 – Kevin Conroy, beloved voice of Batman and Bruce Wayne in cartoons and video games, 66
November 11 – Gallagher, melon-splatting comedian, 76
November 20 – Jason David Frank, Power Rangers star, 49
November 26 – Irene Cara, “What a Feeling” Oscar winner, 63
November 29 – Brad William Henke, Orange Is the New Black star, 56
November 30 – Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac alumna, 79

December
December 4 – Bob McGrath, Sesame Street star, 90
December 5 – Kirstie Alley, Cheers and Look Who’s Talking star, 71
December 13 – Stephen “tWitch” Boss, The Ellen DeGeneres Show DJ and co-executive producer, 40

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While jumping into the long-awaited sequel to the highest-grossing movie of all time might have been intimidating, Avatar: The Way of Water star Kate Winslet says she found the water just fine.

The two-time Oscar winner reunited with writer-director James Cameron — who steered her as the captain of Titanic, the one-time all-time box office champ — and credits him and the 2009 original’s stars, Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington, with making her feel at home on Pandora.

“You know, Zoe and Sam, what they did the first time around was to create that heartbeat,” Winslet explained at a press event.

She continues, “You know, it’s one thing for Jim to write it. It’s quite another to find it and to give it a life and a pulse and real blood in those veins. And … it’s really, really extraordinary to be around that. It’s not a performance. It’s not things they came up with on the day. It is a universe. It is a love. It is something that is palpable. And you feel it.”

Winslet adds that while Pandora — and even her character, the fearless matriarch Ronal — are brought to life onscreen thanks to computer wizardry, the world was already very much alive. “You step into that space, it’s an empty space, but it is absolutely loaded with truths and dynamics and pulses that these guys built … And it’s honestly very, very special to have been part of it.”

Avatar: The Way of Water has grossed over $1 billion and counting after its debut in the States December 16.

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When the Kardashian clan drops photos on Instagram — which is obviously often — some snarkers analyze them like the Zapruder film.

In the past, Kim, Khloé, Kendall Jenner and the rest of the clan have weathered claims they’ve Photoshopped themselves to an impossible standard — but you wouldn’t think that would be the case with a friendly Christmas photo.

Wrong.

“Every single jawline is photoshopped looks like there [sic] heads been cut an [sic] pasted on,” one follower commented of the pic of Khloé, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian and Kylie, Kris and Kendall Jenner, shoulder to shoulder, dressed to the nines.

“Why do their faces all looked photoshopped in the picture like none of them were actually there?” asked another.

One user posed the question, “Did they just take everyone’s favorite picture and paste it all together?”

Another user got more than skin deep, saying of the stars’ serious expressions, “With all they have they are apparently missing happiness.”

For all the sniping, however, the photo was liked more than 5.4 million times.

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Rick Singer, mastermind of the college admissions cheating scheme known as “Varsity Blues” that involved Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, deserves to spend six years in prison, federal prosecutors said Wednesday night in a sentencing memorandum, far exceeding the six-month sentence the defense sought.

The scandal saw wealthy people, including Huffman and Loughlin, use Singer’s expertise to fraudulently get their children into sought-after colleges.

“Singer was the architect of a massive, decade-long scheme to use fraud and bribery to secure the admission of high school students to elite colleges and universities across the country,” prosecutors wrote, calling his scheme “Staggering in scope” and “breathtaking in its audacity.”

The government acknowledged Singer’s cooperation helped lead to the convictions of more than 50 defendants, including the aforementioned stars. However, they also noted, “His corruption and manipulation of others were practically limitless,” calling him, “far and away the most culpable of the Varsity Blues defendants…and…therefore deserving of the longest sentence…”

Prosecutors said Singer should also pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service in the amount of $10,668,841 and forfeit more than $3 million in cash and assets worth more than $5 million.

Huffman was ultimately sentenced to 14 days in prison and served 11 after pleading guilty in the scandal. Loughlin and her designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded guilty in May of 2020 after paying $500,000 to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as crew recruits, when neither child participated in the sport.

Loughlin pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and served two months behind bars. Giannulli was sentenced to five months in prison with an additional two years of supervised release, in addition to a $250,000 fine and community service.

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Top Gun: Maverick continues soaring to new heights. 2022’s box office champ has now become the most-watched film to ever debut on Paramount + domestically.

The sequel to 1986’s Top Gun, once again starring Tom Cruise, hit the streaming service on December 22 and quickly shattered Sonic the Hedgehog’s previous premiere weekend viewership record by 60%. Paramount has not released specific viewership numbers for either film.

“We are thrilled to see a continuation of the film’s massive record-breaking success by becoming the #1 most-watched movie premiere on Paramount+,” Tanya Giles, Chief Programming Officer, Paramount Streaming, said in a statement on Wednesday. “We continue to benefit from the highly anticipated theatrical hits from Paramount Pictures that come to the service delivering fans a new way to continue to watch and re-watch their favorite movies.”

Top Gun: Maverick, also starring Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm and Glen Powell, has crossed the $1.4 billion mark worldwide, making it the highest-grossing movie of the year, both domestically and worldwide, and the biggest movie in Cruise’s long career.

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Comics fans both famous and not are tipping their hats to Stan Lee, who would have turned 100 years old Wednesday. 

The man who created, or co-created, enduring characters including Spider-Man, Black Panther, Iron Man, The X-Men and Doctor Strange died at 95 in 2018. 

And while the last of Lee’s beloved Marvel movie cameos was in the 2019 blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, his legacy lives on: Marvel Studios is gearing up to finally launch into the Marvel Cinematic Universe one of Lee’s most famous super-teams, The Fantastic Four, which he created with fellow comics visionary Jack Kirby back in 1961. 

In 2012, Lee told ABC Audio that his “crowning moment” was creating Spider-Man. Having awkward teen Peter Parker become a superhero — and not relegated to a sidekick — was groundbreaking. He explained why: “Because, my publisher … when I told him the idea, he hated it. Hated it. So we had a book we were going to kill. And when you’re gonna kill a book, nobody cares what you put in the last issue … So I put Spider-Man in it and put him on the cover. And the book sold like crazy!”  

Among those hailing Lee online Wednesday with #StanLee100 were Guardians of the Galaxy franchise writer-director James Gunn. The filmmaker turned guardian of Warner Bros. DC Comics characters posted several pictures of himself with Lee, saying, “You are missed, my friend.” 

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While its domestic debut wasn’t as high as some prognosticators had guessed, Avatar: The Way of Water has proven it has got some serious sea legs in theaters: It just crossed the billion-dollar mark.

While that would be impressive for any movie, it is even more so considering the movie only came out in the States December 16.

Overseas moviegoers in particular can’t get enough of James Cameron‘s long-brewing sequel to the 2009 original, which is the highest-grossing film of all time. The movie had a short head start in some overseas markets, and while The Way of Water made more than $293 million here as of Monday, it took in nearly $662 million overseas, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.

The sequel starring Zoe Saldaña, Kate Winslet, Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver has also become one of the fastest films ever to cross the billion-dollar finish line: It took 2019’s Avengers: Endgame — which briefly topped Avatar as the highest-grossing film of all time — just five days to make a billion bucks. Its predecessor, 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, took 11 days. 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home and 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens took 12.

The Way of Water settles in just behind 2021’s Jurassic World, which took 13 days of global release to reach a billion bucks.

What’s more, as of Wednesday, the Avatar sequel is now officially the third-highest-grossing movie of the pandemic era, and stands poised to slide into Jurassic World: Dominion‘s second-place spot.

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