Entertainment

If you dreamed of wealth by chasing a crypto coin named after — but not licensed by — Netflix’s hit Squid Game, it looks like you’ll have to find someone giving away the show’s creepy cards IRL.

The SQUID coin rocketed up tens of thousands of percent in value last week, but by trading Monday, it was worth zilch. 

According to experts who spoke with Markets Insider, it looks like investors have been had — and scammers walked away with millions. 

The coins were at one point worth north of $2,861 apiece before falling to $0.003467 Monday morning. The coins’ value fell faster than one of the show’s contestants through a glass bridge.

“The scam has completed its cycle, and the price has just dropped significantly,” cofounder of CoinGecko Bobby Ong told Insider.

The coin seemingly came out of nowhere last week, and was being advertised as part of an upcoming online game called the Squid Game Project. The crypto was reportedly created to play it, and would have been at stake as prizes, its creators said online.

However, after the coin spiked in value, the website was disconnected, and you couldn’t trade the stuff once you bought it. 

Investors were already smelling something was off with the coin before the bottom fell out — mostly because all traces back to the game vanished.

LMAOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/L6FlF3XdUV

— Bagsy (@imBagsy) November 1, 2021

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Ken Jeong got some laughs — and apparently panicked co-anchors — on ESPN’s College GameDay show Saturday night — all for sweetly shouting out his wife. 

When asked for his picks in the Saturday evening match-up between UCLA and Utah in Salt Lake City, Jeong admitted football ignorance. Instead, he picked from the heart: “I’m going UCLA because my wife went to UCLA medical school, adding: “Shout out, Tran. You complete me, Ho!”

The game’s analysts, Rece Davis, Lee Corso, Desmond Howard, and Kirk Herbstreit cracked up, stunned, with Herbstreit asking, “Did he say what I think he said on the backend there?” 

“Relax, relax! Jeong said. “It’s her last name!”

“How dare you, ESPN,” he said in mock outrage.

Jeong, a doctor-turned stand up comic and star of movies like the Hangover films and his own ABC sitcom Dr. Ken, married Dr. Tran Ho in 2004. 

Incidentally, he was also shouting out his own 2019 Netflix special, You Complete Me, Ho. 

ESPN is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News. 

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It’s a Halloween miracle: Production on Hocus Pocus 2 is officially underway.

Disney announced Monday that the long-awaited sequel to the beloved 1993 movie has begun filming in Rhode Island, with stars Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy returning as Winifred, Sarah and Mary Sanderson, respectively.

The film, which will arrive on Disney+ next fall, is directed by Anne Fletcher, director of Step Up, 27 Dresses, and The Proposal.

“Fans around the world have embraced these characters and have made this film a Halloween tradition whose popularity continues to grow,” Fletcher said in a press release. “And how lucky am I to be back at Disney with these three extraordinarily talented ladies in the iconic roles they created, as well as our fabulous additions to the cast?”

Returning alongside Midler, Parker and Najimy from the original Hocus Pocus is Doug Jones, who played Billy Butcherson.

New additions to the cast include Whitney Peak, Lilia Buckingham, and Belissa Escobedo as, respectively, Becca, Cassie, and Izzy, three young women in present-day Salem who will come face-to-face with the Sanderson sisters.

Rounding out the list of new cast members are Ted Lasso Emmy winner Hannah Waddingham, Veep alums Tony Hale and Sam Richardson, plus Juju Brener, Froy Gutierrez, Taylor Paige Henderson and Nina Kitchen.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Actor Matthias Schweighöfer [mah-TEE-us SHWIGE-hoof-fer] reprises his role as nerdy safecracker extraordinaire Sebastian/Dieter in Netflix’s new Army of the Dead prequel, Army of Thieves. 

Produced by AOTD‘s Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder, and directed by Schweighöfer himself, Army of Thieves shows the time before he travels from Germany to a zombie-overrun Las Vegas with his eyes on a vault-sealed fortune.

The film also stars Fast and the Furious series veteran Nathalie Emmanuel, who plays Gwendoline, a mysterious woman who recruits Sebastian to crack a trio of masterpiece safes.

It’s a big movie, and Matthias had previously only directed a few projects in his native Germany.

“There was a lot of pressure,” he admits, “but on the other hand, you know, it was like a fairy tale…I love Dieter so much…and I was so honored when [the Snyders said] ‘Hey, let’s do a spin-off for that character.'”

While heist films are nothing new, Schweighöfer said they worked hard on how to make this one different, to make the normally dry practice of opening safes exciting to the viewer.

“[In movies] It’s always like, ‘OK, how do we get in the vault?’ [then] some explosion or whatever and bring the money out.”

He continues, “But here, you’re right. We had this adventurous work of creating three crazy safes in Europe, and I love the idea, OK, I never saw the interior of a safe, how that works to turn the tumbler and then what? What would happen? And what if the safe can detect by the presence of someone who is like the f***ing the safe up?”

He adds, “I’m really proud of the work we did.”  

Army of Thieves is currently #1 on Netflix’s movie rankings.

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Temeura Morrison is back and in charge as Boba Fett in the brand-new trailer for The Mandalorian spin-off, The Book of Boba Fett. 

“Every galaxy has an underworld,” the sneak peek teases. 

As shown after the credits of The Mandalorian‘s second-season finale, the former bounty hunter takes the throne that once belonged to his sometime boss, intergalactic crime lord Jabba the Hutt, and at Fett’s side is his enforcer, Ming-Na Wen‘s assassin Fennec Shand.

The teaser shows Fett and Shand gathering all of Jabba’s criminal capos together, and suggesting the band together, instead of gunning for each other.

“Jabba ruled with fear,” Fett explains. “I intend to rule with respect. I’m here to make a proposal that is mutually beneficial. Why talk of conflict when corporation can make us all rich?”

A seated gangster threatens, “What’s to stop us from killing you and taking what we want?”

“If you had spoken such insolence to Jabba, he would have fed you to his menagerie,” Shand says. 

Fett relaxes in his throne confidently, and says from behind his helmet, “Please, speak freely.” 

The trailer also shows some action, with Fett and Shand kicking butt across the galaxy, including being surrounded and outnumbered by a number of shield-toting guards. 

The Book of Boba Fett debuts on Disney plus December 29. 

Disney is the parent company of ABC News. 

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Musicians and celebrities took their creativity to a whole ‘nother level with their character-inspired Halloween costumes. Here’s a mashup of some of the best dressed:

Cardi B. came to slay as Addams Family matriarch, Morticia Addams, in a perfected Morticia costume. She later switched up her attire to channel a witch and took photos with her daughter, Kulture, who also wore a similar costume. “We put a spell on you and now you’re ours,” she captioned the photo.

Megan The Stallion, meanwhile, decided to channel one of her favorite Disney villains, Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians. “Say what you want but a b*** be WORKIN,” she captioned her photo.

black-ish and grown-ish star Yara Shahidi decided to pay homage to late R&B singer Aaliyah with her costume. “Happy Halloweekend!” she captioned the video.

Ciara also did a tribute-inspired costume. She took on the Queen of Tejano music, Selena, in a photo shoot and video. “The Legendary Selena! I’ve been practicing learning Spanish and having the time of my life,” she wrote. “So I wanted one of my costumes to reflect the LatinX culture. This was so much fun!”

Finally, Saweetie brought out the claws for her Halloween costume. The rapper channeled Halle Berry in her 2004 film Catwoman. “Had to put on for the best Catwoman to ever do it @halleberry,” Saweetie wrote, captioning a video of herself walking on a rooftop and running into Berry herself.

The Oscar winner later reposted the fun video, adding the caption, “there’s enough room for more than one Catwoman @saweetie.”

 

 

 

 

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Kal Penn, reveals in his new book, You Can’t Be Serious, that he has been in a relationship with his partner Josh for 11 years, and the the couple is engaged.

“I’ve always been very public with everybody I’ve personally interacted with. Whether it’s somebody that I meet at a bar, if Josh and I are out or we’re talking to friends,” the Designated Survivor actor tells People.

When it came to the book, however, Penn 44, wanted to be transparent, while also being respectful to his family.

“I’m really excited to share our relationship with readers, he notes, but Josh, my partner, my parents and my brother, four people who I’m closest to in the family, are fairly quiet. They don’t love attention and shy away from the limelight.”

Adds Penn, semi-jokingly, “When you’ve already told your Indian parents and the South Asian community that you intend to be an actor for a living, really any conversations that come after that are super easy.”

Kal says discovering his own sexuality “came relatively late in life compared to many other people,” explaining, “There’s no timeline on this stuff. People figure their s*** out at different times in their lives, so I’m glad I did when I did.”

Penn’s book, You Can’t Be Serious, comes out on Tuesday.

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Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was laid to rest at a private funeral in Santa Fe, New Mexico on Friday. The service was attended by crew members of the film Rust, on which she was accidentally and fatally shot by star Alec Baldwin.

Investigators say a live round had been chambered in the weapon, and went unnoticed by the crew.

The U.K. Mirror reports Baldwin himself was in attendance at the service, as was Halyna’s family, including husband Matthew, and their nine-year-old son Andros.

There was also a candlelight vigil for Hutchins in Albuquerque over the weekend, attended by friends and fellow members of her showbiz union.

On Sunday, paparazzi caught up with Baldwin in Vermont, where he, along with his wife Hilaria, stopped to address them. To their surprise, Baldwin made his first on-air comments about the incident, which left Hutchins dead and wounded director Joel Souza. 

“She was my friend!” Baldwin pleaded with the reporters, recording their interaction with a cellphone, as was his wife.

About the incident, Baldwin insisted, “I’ve been ordered by the sheriff’s department in Santa Fe. I can’t answer any questions about the investigation. I can’t.”

Calling the incident “a one in a trillion episode,” Baldwin insisted that contrary to reports, the Rust crew was “a very well-oiled machine.” 

The incident prompted a push for non-lethal weapons to be used as props on film sets.

“I’m not an expert in this field,” the actor admitted, “So whatever other people decide is the best way to go, in terms of protecting people’s safety on film sets, I’m all in favor of and I will cooperate with that in any way that I can.”

When asked if he thought Rust would move forward, Baldwin said, “I doubt it.”

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Dune hung on to the top spot at the box office for the second straight week, delivering an estimated $15.5 million over the Halloween weekend.

The futuristic adventure, also available to stream on HBO Max, has so far collected $69.4 million in the U.S. after two weeks, along with $227 million overseas. That brings Dune‘s current worldwide tally to $296.4 million.

Coming in second was Halloween Kills, earning an estimated $7.8 million in its third week of release. The latest installment in the horror franchise, also available on the Peacock streaming platform, has pulled in $85 million here in the states and just $29 million internationally, for a global total of $115.1 million.

No Time to Die landed in third place with an estimated $7.8 million. The four-week totals for the latest Bond film — and last with Daniel Craig as the British secret agent — now stand at $133.3 million stateside and $472.4 overseas, for a worldwide total just shy of $605.8 million.

Fourth place, surprisingly, went to My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission, the latest chapter in the My Hero Academia franchise. The animated sequel opened with an estimated $6.4 million.

Rounding out the top five was Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage, grabbing an estimated $5.8 million. Its five-week domestic tally now stands at $190.4 million, to go along with $205.4 million overseas. Its global total now stands at $395.8 million.

Meanwhile, two scary Halloween weekend releases, Edgar Wright‘s Last Night in Soho and Antlers — starring Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons — failed to scare up any big box office numbers, tying for sixth place with an estimated $4.16 million debut.

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Three weeks after hosting Saturday Night Live, Kim Kardashian and the show’s Pete Davidson spent Friday together at Los Angeles’ Knott’s Scary Farm, the seasonal Halloween-themed Knott’s Berry Farm.

At one point, Kim and Pete, who were joined on the outing by her sister Kourtney Kardashian, Kourtney’s boyfriend Travis Barker, and other friends, were photographed “holding hands and closing their eyes while riding one of the roller coasters.”

However, a source tells E! Online that Davidson, 27, and Kardashian, 41, are just friends.

Additionally, an insider tells People, which published the photos of Pete and Kim, the pair, “hang in the same circles so they will be together from time to time. It’s just friends hanging out.”

In 2019, Kim shared photos of her then-husband Kanye West, Pete and Timothée Chalamet having fun together at Kid Cudi‘s birthday celebration, on her Twitter page.

 

 

 

 

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