Simone Biles is back on the winner’s podium in Tokyo.
Following her withdrawals last week from individual competitions in vault, uneven bars and floor events, the Team USA gymnast took home the bronze medal in the balance beam finals at the 2020 Games.
The superstar Olympian posted a score of 14.000, which placed her behind Guan Chenchen and Tang Xijing, both of China, who took home gold and silver, respectively. Biles’ teammate, Sunisa Lee, who won gold in the individual all-around competition, came in fifth in the balance beam event.
“I’m pretty happy. I wasn’t expecting to medal. I just came out here and tried to do a good beam set,” Biles said in a press conference. “To have these two next to me. I think they did absolutely amazing. I watched them train so hard so they are definitely deserving of one and two.”
She continued, “Just to have one more opportunity to compete at the Olympics is amazing.”
This marks Biles’ second straight Olympic bronze medal on beam after the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. This seventh medal also makes Biles tied with Shannon Miller for the title of most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast. However, Simone still holds the record for most Olympic Gold medals of any U.S. gymnast.
Monday’s episode of The Bachelorette opened with Katie about to meet the families of the three remaining suitors, but her attempts at being honest and straightforward backfired when one of them is pushed to his breaking point.
Once again, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the men from showing Katie their real hometowns, but each did his best to recreate some of the local flavor within the confines of New Mexico’s Tanaya Resort & Spa.
First up, Blake, once a bartender in his hometown of Ontario, Canada, took Katie to a mock bar, where they drank maple syrup shots and tossed darts at a board covered in balloons — each one containing dares and questions they must answer in an effort to learn a little more about each other. They capped off the date with a game of street hockey.
Later, Katie met Blake’s mother, brother and sister — a crucial moment in their relationship for Blake, who hoped Katie’s ability to bond with his family would help him decide whether he’s ready to take the next step.
Katie, as she would do on all of her hometown dates, answered the question of whether or not she was in love with Blake by saying that she could see them “getting there.” That, she explained, was out of fairness to the other men. Aside from that, Katie was a hit with the family and the conversations went well.
When Blake and Katie parted company for the night, he knew he had to tell Katie how he felt about her, but when the opportunity arose, he seemed to lose his nerve.
Ahead of Justin‘s hometown date, we learned during a phone conversation between the Baltimore native and his parents that they would not be participating, explaining that while they would support him should his journey end up in an engagement with a woman he’d only known for a couple of weeks, they wouldn’t necessarily approve.
Standing in for Justin’s parents were two of his close friends, both of whom noticed his and Katie’s obvious chemistry. Still, they were concerned that Justin’s reluctance to be vulnerable, coupled with the fact that there are two other men vying for Katie’s heart, could leave their buddy with a broken heart.
Unlike Blake, Justin used his final moments with Katie before the next rose ceremony to tell her he was falling in love with her.
After a fun day that included a recreation of their romantic kiss in a fake rainstorm, Greg, a New Jersey native, introduced Katie to his mother, brother and friend. His two sisters weighed in via a video message.
One by one, they shared with Katie the grief Greg felt following the death of his father and their joy at finally seeing him fall in love. Their concern was whether or not Katie felt the same way. Katie, while not saying she was in love, gave the strongest indication of her feelings about Greg by replying that she “really can” see herself marrying him.
However, the date — and potentially the entire relationship — went south at the end of the night. Greg expressed that Katie was the only one for him, but all he got in return was a guarantee that he would definitely advance in the competition.
“I can’t be there at the end if I don’t think it’s us,” he insisted, adding “I just don’t understand how you don’t know…that it’s me and you at this point.”
“I just need you to trust in our relationship,” was her only response.
The following morning, Greg tried one more time to get Katie to say the words he wanted to hear, but again and again, he was met with the same response. Their long, emotional conversation hit a dead end with Greg insisting he was done with the competition.
The episode ended with Katie insisting she was done with The Bachelorette as well.
“So, what do you want to happen?” asked mentor Kaitlyn Bristowe, to which Katie answered, “I want someone to book my flight home.”
Is Katie’s journey over? We’ll find out when The Bachelorette season 17 finale airs Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
The fashion expert, 38, took to Instagram on Monday to announce he and his husband, Rob France, welcomed son Ismail France via surrogacy last month.
“Give our son a warm welcome,” France began. “Ismail France, born July 10th.”
“He came 7 weeks early, so he’s been in the NICU for the past 3 weeks,” he continued. “But, today, we finally got to bring him home. We love him so, so much. Like, fully obsessed.”
France went on to say their surrogate is “doing so great” and that he and Rob “couldn’t be more grateful for the greatest gift in our lives.”
Ryan Reynolds has teased his new movie Free Guy with a major reveal: how he got massively buff to play DUDE, an enforcer in his image designed to take out his character Guy in the movie’s video game world.
Well, to be fair, computer graphics took care of his transformation, but Ryan doesn’t admit it. He explains in voiceover how he always hears “actors complain about how hard their movie workouts are,” adding, “I’ll tell you, I don’t have time for that.”
His transformation only took a week, he admits, sporting surfer blonde hair and huge fake caps on his teeth.
Starting the day with a smoothie made from eggs, “human muscle” and, naturally, a splash of Ryan’s Aviation Gin, buff Ryan expressed, “it’s organic, and completely illegal.”
Showing his new form stretching a familiar suit over his comically huge frame, Ryan says, “Sure, I don’t fit into the Deadpool suit anymore, but life is about growth…hormones.”
As his pecs bounce, showing off a tattoo of Guy’s blue shirt, “Next Level Reynolds” also says he fathered his last child while in that shape, and as a result, the baby came out full-grown — and wearing shoes. “That was weird for Blake,” he says of wife Blake Lively.
Starring Oscar winner Taika Waititi, Killing Eve Emmy winner Jodie Comer and Get Out scene stealer Lil’ Rel Howery, the pandemic-delayed Free Guy opens August 13, from 20th Century Studios, which is owned by Disney, parent company of ABC News.
Amazon Studios has announced that the first season of its anticipated The Lord of the Rings series will debut on Friday, September 2, 2022.
According to the studio, the series, which just wrapped production for its freshman season in New Zealand, takes place “thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books,” and “follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-Earth.”
Amazon also revealed a first image from the production. It’s not clear what character is depicted, however — it shows a caped person at a distance, from behind, standing in a field gazing a city in the far distance as the sun rises behind it.
In a statement, Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios enthused, “I can’t express enough just how excited we all are to take our global audience on a new and epic journey through Middle-Earth! Our talented producers, cast, creative, and production teams have worked tirelessly in New Zealand to bring this untold and awe-inspiring vision to life.”
The Lord of the Rings series stars an international cast, including Robert Aramayo, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, and Nazanin Boniadi.
Lena Waithe had some pretty big news to share during her after-show for the season four finale of The Chi. The series creator revealed to fans that Showtime had officially picked up her Chicago-set drama for a fifth season.
“#TheChi is coming back for Season 5!,” Waithe wrote, captioning a video of her chat with some of The Chi stars, including Luke James, Shamon Brown Jr. and Yolanda Ross. “Thank you to all the special guests for joining me on the Season 4 Finale After Show!” Deadline reports that the renewal “comes amid strong ratings for the series, which is averaging 4.2 million weekly viewers and is on pace to become the most-streamed Showtime series ever.” Season five of The Chi is set to premiere in 2022.
In other news, The Chi star Jacob Latimore has found his next major role. Deadline has learned that Latimore will replace Jorge Lendeborg Jr. in New Line’s reimagining of the 1990 cult comedy House Party. Sources tell Deadline that Lendeborg Jr. recently left the project to focus on his mental well-being, which was supported by the studio and filmmakers. As previously reported, the original 1990 movie, written and directed by Reginald Hudlin, starred Kid ‘n Play‘s Christopher “Kid” Reid and Christopher “Play” Martin as two high school students who decide to throw an epic house party. A release date for the new House Party has not been disclosed.
Finally, Insecure showrunner Prentice Penny has inked a multi-year overall deal with Disney General Entertainment’s Onyx Collective. Under the new pact, Penny’s A Penny for Your Thoughts Entertainment company will develop and produce projects for all Disney platforms, including Hulu, which serves as the hub to Onyx projects.
In the past year-plus, William Shatner has recorded a couple of albums, released a movie, served as host on a couple of new shows — including History’s The UneXplained and RT America’s I Don’t Understand — and has taken up a new hobby: slaying trolls.
The iconic Star Trek star admits to ABC Audio that, of course, he doesn’t have to spend time answering back snarkers online, but he genuinely gets a kick out of it.
There are countless examples, but his most recent comeback was reserved for Love It or List It co-host David Visentin, who posted to him, “Red rover red rover this tweet about life as theater calls @WilliamShatner over.”
To this, Shatner responded, “David, dear boy — a couple rules of Twitter: One doesn’t post a tweet of questions, then answer their own tweet and tag me in it so I can point out how pitifully sad they are,” complete with a shrugging emoji.
Visentin’s tweet was rather benign, but Shatner often gets sharper ones — and answers in kind. He recently took a Twitter user to task for calling Shatner’s singing Elton John‘s “Rocket Man” the “worst footage I had on my hard drive.”
To him, Shatner retorted, “I looked on my timeline for the dumbest person and found him! A blue checked troll who tagged me in silly tweet and then liked his own tweet! So I blocked him!”
Shatner tells ABC Audio with a giggle, “I find it amusing.”
He adds, “And of course, you know, the stupid people…who try to do stupid things behind an anonymous shield, you have to ignore. But if you take responsibility for your thought, and argue your thought, it could be great fun!”
Game of Thronesalums Kit Harington and Rose Leslie are notoriously private about their lives, but in a recent interview, the actors provided a rare glimpse of how their lives have changed since becoming first-time parents.
When revealing what was the most surprising thing he’s learned about being a dad, Harington, 34, told Access Hollywood, “Everyone goes, ‘Look, it’s big what you’re about to go through.’ You have no way of knowing that until it happens.”
“What surprises you is: You go, ‘Oh, this goes on forever.’ Like, you don’t get a break from it,” he continued.
Harington said he was surprised by how his marriage improved in the months since. “Every day, I wake up and I look after this little human and now we’re part of a unit together,” he said. “I think the thing that surprises me most about fatherhood is… you are now a unit, the three of you. And that’s a whole new dynamic you need to find.”
While not revealing too much about his newborn, the upcoming Eternals star gushed, “I pretty much find every day as he grows and changes, how does that change you. It’s a beautiful thing, it really is!”
Meanwhile, Harrington appears to be in a sharing mood; he also told XM’s The Jess Cagle Show about going to rehab for stress and alcohol after his HBO hit ended.
I went through some mental health difficulties after Thrones‘ — and during the end of Thrones, to be honest — and I think it was directly to do with the nature of the show and what I’ve been doing for years,” the 34-year-old actor told the chat show host.
“I think I took a sort of break after Thrones where I said, ‘I don’t want to work for a year. I want to really kind of concentrate on myself. I’m really happy I did that.”
Courteney Cox just posted to her 11.6 million Instagram followers a tease of a new line of Friends merchandise, and proceeds are going to a good cause.
“[G]uys some pieces from the first ever @friends merch collection,” the actress posted, noting, “Half of my proceeds from this limited drop will benefit @ebmrf [The Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation], an LA based non-profit that’s near and dear to my heart.”
The charity is dedicated to raising awareness and funds for Epidermolysis Bullosa, a rare and debilitating genetic skin disorder.
Among the shirts, sweatshirts and other items include stylized designs of scenes from the show, including the cast at the fountain from the sitcom’s open, Phoebe playing “Smelly Cat,” Rachel, holding her first paycheck and asking “Who’s FICA?” and other Friends moments from the show’s first three seasons.
Incidentally, among those who were first to post their support were Two Broke Girls star Beth Behrs, 90210‘s Sara Foster, and Trudie Styler, the producer wife of Sting — and a one-time Friends guest star — who noted she “will support for sure.”
The limited run of merchandise will be available for four weeks only.
After much speculation as to whom the buyer would be, Reese Witherspoon has reportedly sold her production company, Hello Sunshine, for $900 million.
The Wall Street Journalreports a new media company led by former Walt Disney Company executives Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer have scooped up Hello Sunshine, with plans to purchase other high-profile content providers.
The Legally Blonde star’s company produces Reese’s Emmy-nominated hits The Morning Show for Apple TV+ and Little Fires Everywhere for Hulu, as well as HBO’s Emmy-winning Big Little Lies.
Reese’s company also produces a podcast, and is home to Reese’s Book Club.
Dedicated to “shining a light on female authorship and agency,” Hello Sunshine — which Witherspoon runs with her husband, former Hollywood agent Jim Toth, and venture capitalist Seth Rodsky — has developed into a lifestyle brand to boot.
