In an extensive cover story about her life and career, Florence Pugh weighed in to Vogue on the public’s apparent fascination with her now-ended romantic relationship with Zach Braff.
The pair first met when the former Scrubs star and Garden State director cast her in a short film he made; they later became romantically involved. In the three years they were together, many online sniped about the 21-year age difference between the Black Widow star, now 27, and Braff, who will be 48 in April.
“We weren’t in anyone’s faces,” Pugh expressed of their relationship. “It was just that people didn’t like it.”
Florence noted, “They imagined me with someone younger and someone in blockbusters. I think young relationships in Hollywood are so easily twisted because they add to the gossip sites. It’s exciting to watch. And I think I was in a relationship that didn’t do any of that.”
In August of last year, Pugh confirmed to Harper’s BAZAAR that they had split. “We’ve been trying to do this separation without the world knowing, because it’s been a relationship that everybody has an opinion on,” she said at the time. “We just felt something like this would really do us the benefit of not having millions of people telling us how happy they are that we’re not together. So we’ve done that.”
There are apparently no hard feelings between the pair, with Braff saying of the star of his upcoming film A Good Person, “I quite simply think she’s one of the greatest actors of her generation. She’s just magnetic.”
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(NEW YORK) — Stuck in house arrest and awaiting trial, disgraced crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried spoke out on Thursday with the most extensive remarks since his arrest a month ago.
The fallen former CEO of FTX issued a 2,300-word rebuke of fraud and conspiracy charges, replete with charts and graphs. He said that he didn’t steal customer funds, instead blaming the company’s woes on a sharp downturn in the cryptocurrency market.
“I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away,” said Bankman-Fried, who pleaded not guilty last week. He’s tentatively scheduled to stand trial in October.
The account marked Bankman-Fried’s first post on the newsletter platform Substack, which prompts readers to subscribe to receive future messages from Bankman-Fried directly in their inbox.
Federal prosecutors charged Bankman-Fried last month in an eight-count indictment for fraud, conspiracy and campaign finance violations linked to tens of millions of dollars in political donations.
He was released on a $250 million bond in late December, when he traveled to live at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California.
Here are five takeaways from the account posted by Bankman-Fried on Thursday:
Bankman-Fried says he ‘did not steal’
In his post, Bankman-Fried contends that he did not steal customer funds, saying instead that he would have offered some of his own assets to help make investors whole before the company declared bankruptcy.
Federal prosecutors and government agencies accused Bankman-Fried of defrauding customers and investors in FTX as well as lenders to his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
Customers sent billions of dollars to FTX believing their assets were secure but, from the start, Bankman-Fried “improperly diverted customer assets to his privately-held crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research LLC, and then used those customer funds to make undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations,” according to a civil complaint from the Securities and Exchange commission.
In response to such allegations, Bankman-Fried on Thursday denied taking customer funds for personal use.
Further, he said investments made by Alameda Research did not amount to an inappropriate use of customer funds. Instead, the conduct comprised an unsuccessful but legal form of margin trading, in which an individual or institution makes an investment using borrowed funds.
“All of which is to say: no funds were stolen,” Bankman-Fried said.
Customers can still recover their money, Bankman-Fried said
After denying wrongdoing, Bankman-Fried said that he could help undo the damage that resulted from the alleged fraud: Billions in customer losses.
If the company had tried to raise money from new investors before declaring bankruptcy, it could have restored funds to its customers, he said.
Gretchen Lowe, acting director of the division of enforcement at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, estimated last month that FTX customers lost more than $8 billion.
According to Bankman-Fried, the company received billions in offers of additional liquidity when it declared bankruptcy in November, and more than $4 billion came in afterward.
Before FTX declared bankruptcy, Bankman Fried was willing to offer up some of his own wealth, he said. “Nearly all of my assets were and still are utilizable to backstop FTX customers,” he said.
“I think it’s likely that FTX could have made all customers whole if a concerted effort had been made to raise liquidity,” he said.
Bankman-Fried does not provide details of the supposed billions in potential investments.
Moreover, the reliability of Bankman-Fried’s account defies characterizations of shoddy record-keeping at FTX from current CEO John Ray.
Ray, who oversaw the dissolution of Enron, testified before House members on Tuesday that FTX lacked corporate controls to an extent he had never witnessed.
“I’ve never seen an utter lack of record keeping,” Ray said. “Absolutely no internal controls.”
A market crash brought down Alameda Research and FTX, Bankman-Fried said
Financial impropriety is not to blame for the downfall of Alameda Research and FTX, Bankman-Fried said on Thursday. Rather, a crash in the crypto market sent the firms reeling, exposing their leverage and forcing a series of losses that they could not reverse, he said.
“FTX International and Alameda were both legitimately and independently profitable businesses in 2021, each making billions,” Bankman-Fried said. “And then Alameda lost about 80 percent of its assets’ value over the course of 2022, due to a series of market crashes.”
Alameda Research failed to adequately hedge against such losses, leaving the hedge fund with no way to offset the crunch, he said.
While the market downturn likely hastened the demise of FTX, the issue stands apart from the alleged misuse of customer funds.
A tweet from a rival CEO delivered the final blow to FTX, Bankman-Fried said
Bankman-Fried attributed the ultimate failure of FTX to a post on social media from Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of rival crypto exchange Binance.
On Nov. 6, Zhao, often referred to as “CZ,” said in a tweet that he would sell all of the company’s holdings in FTT, a token created by FTX.
The major exit from a crypto heavyweight triggered a wider sell-off, akin to a bank run, placing immense pressure on FTX to meet the sudden demand for customer withdrawals. Due to a lack of funds, FTX halted customer withdrawals altogether.
In his remarks on Thursday, Bankman-Fried described the social media post from Zhao as “CZ’s fateful tweet.”
The message of caution from an industry titan brought about “an extreme, quick, targeted crash,” Bankman-Fried said.
Bankman-Fried did not run Alameda Research, he said
Bankman-Fried asserts that in recent years he did not run Alameda Research, which he founded in 2017.
The contention rebukes allegations that Bankman-Fried abused his role as the de facto head of Alameda Research, the hedge fund that traded with FTX customer money.
The statement from Bankman-Fried conflicts with testimony last month from Ray, the current FTX CEO.
Ray, who is overseeing the company’s bankruptcy proceedings, told House members that no separation existed between the operations of FTX and Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund also founded by Bankman-Fried.
“There were virtually no internal controls and no separateness whatsoever,” Ray said.
“The owners of the company could run free reign,” he added, noting that Bankman-Fried owned 90% of Alameda Research.
In 2007 ASIA set out on a world tour to celebrate their 25th anniversary, and now one of those shows is being released on vinyl for the first time.
The band announcedFantasia Live In Tokyo 2007, which was originally released on CD and DVD, is set to drop February 24 as a three-LP set, featuring a booklet that includes band photos and sleeve notes. The 18-track LP includes performances of songs from the band’s 1982 self-titled debut album, including hits “Only Time Will Tell” and “Heat of the Moment,” as well as select songs from the 1983 follow-up Alpha, and songs from the band members’ previous bands.
The 25th anniversary tour featured a reformation of the band’s original lineup: lead vocalist/bassist John Wetton from King Crimson, guitarist Steve Howe of Yes, keyboardist Geoff Downes also of Yes and drummer Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
(SELMA, Ala.) — A tornado delivered “significant damage” to the city of Selma, Alabama, as strong storms moved through the region on Thursday, according to the mayor’s office.
The “large and extremely dangerous” tornado struck Selma at 12:20 p.m. local time, according to the National Weather Service.
Most of Selma’s streets are closed due to downed power lines and trees, according to the mayor’s office.
All Selma students are reported to be safe and at their schools, the office added.
The tornado in Selma is one of at least 18 twisters reported across Alabama on Thursday. Storms are pummeling Alabama, including rough rain 150 miles north of Selma in Hartselle.
The tornado watch remains in effect from Atlanta to Mobile, Alabama, through Thursday evening.
Selma, a famous focal point of the civil rights movement, is located in central Alabama and has a population of about 17,000.
ABC News’ Melissa Griffin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The House on Thursday passed a bill to ban sales from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China.
The legislation passed with bipartisan support in a 331-97 vote, with 113 Democrats joining Republicans in backing the measure.
Entitled the “Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act,” the bill would prohibit the sale and export of crude oil from the reserve to any entity under control of the China Communist Party.
Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is “meant for true energy supply disruptions, like those caused by hurricanes and natural disasters, not to help China.”
“Draining our strategic reserves for political purposes and selling portions of it to China is a significant threat to our national security,” she said.
But Rep. Frank Pallone, the energy panel’s top Democrat, said while he does oppose exporting U.S. oil to China, the Republican measure does not properly address the issue.
“If Republicans were serious about addressing this issue, they would have brought forward a bill that banned all oil exports to China,” he said on the House floor.
“If we truly want to address China using American oil to build its reserves, let’s actually take a serious look at that, rather than skirt around the issue because Republicans are scared of Big Oil’s wrath,” Pallone said.
The bill is not expected to be taken up by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
President Joe Biden last year announced the release of 180 million barrels from the reserve in an effort to bring down energy prices and stabilize the global market. The release sent the reserve to its lowest level since the 1980s.
The move drew criticism by some Republicans, who argued it was a “stopgap measure” that did little to combat high gas and energy prices.
The Biden administration said in December it was beginning to replenish the reserves by buying 3 million barrels of oil.
The Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act is not the only energy bill House Republicans are expected to bring to the floor now that they are in the majority.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said earlier this month that the Strategic Product Response Act was also among the GOP’s priorities in the first few weeks of the new Congress.
The bill would prohibit the non-emergency drawdowns of strategic reserves without a plan to increase energy production on federal lands.
-ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
Fans of The Kid LAROI have been waiting for new music from the Australian rapper for ages, and now he’s finally delivering.
The first song from his upcoming project, The First Time, will arrive January 19. On Instagram, he wrote, “Let me know what song you want.” The project itself is available to presave and preorder now. As for when that’ll be released, so far all we know is “soon.”
In a 36-second trailer for the project, we see a series of images, including LAROI kissing a girl, jumping into a pool and smoking. “You never forget the first time,” he says in a voice-over. “The first time you fall in love. The first time you get caught. The first time you feel shame. The first real kiss.”
On Twitter, he wrote, “So stoked we’re finally about to f***king do this holy s**t.”
In February 2022, LAROI announcedThe First Time, which was going to be released in June. In March, he changed the name to Kids Are Growing Up. Either way, the album never materialized. Now it appears as though it’s back to its original title.
The new project is the follow-up to F*ck Love 3: Over You, which came out in 2021 and included LAROI’s megahit Justin Bieber collab “Stay.”
Joni Mitchell is set to receive yet another prestigious honor. The singer will be honored with the 2023 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, handed out by the Library of Congress.
“This is a very prestigious award,” Mitchell said in statement. “Thank you for honoring me.”
Mitchell will be feted with a tribute concert taking place March 1 in Washington, D.C., which will air on PBS March 31 at 9 p.m. So far no artists have been announced for the tribute.
The new honor comes about a year after Mitchell was celebrated as the Recording Academy’s MusiCares Person of the Year.
The Gershwin Prize has been handed out since 2007, with Paul Simon the first honoree. Last year Lionel Richie received the award, with Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Carole King and Stevie Wonder among the previous honorees.
Jack White has shared a tribute to late guitar icon Jeff Beck, who died Tuesday at age 78.
In an Instagram post, the White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather rocker writes, “Jeff Beck, guitar innovator extraordinaire has moved to the next realm.”
“He was amazingly kind and instructional to me over the years,” White continues. “Many shows that I’ve played began moments after listening to his song ‘Led Boots’ backstage.”
White’s post also includes a video of him and Meg White performing with Beck during a 2002 White Stripes show in London, during which they performed a set of songs by Beck’s legendary group The Yardbirds.
“In our rehearsals he plugged straight into an amp, no effects pedals,” White recalls. “He was changing the sound of the guitar and doing things people didn’t know were possible from his earliest days on stage.”
Beck’s passing has been mourned by many of the biggest names in rock. Those who’ve also paid tribute include Led Zeppelin‘s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Ozzy Osbourne, Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney.
Russell Dickerson can’t contain his excitement about California’s popular In-N-Out burger chain finally making its way to Nashville.
“Y’all, huge announcement! As you probably already have seen, In-N-Out’s coming to Nashville. I will be playing the opening of the In-N-Out in Nashville,” he posted on his socials.
There might be one little hiccup with Russell’s plan, however.
“I’ve not been invited to do so,” he added, “but I will be there, guitar in hand, at the opening of these In-N-Outs. Yo!”
Earlier this week, the iconic burgers, fries and shakes joint announced it will be opening a corporate hub south of Nashville, with plans to open its first couple Music City locations by 2026. So far, In-N-Out only extends as far east as Texas.
Stay tuned to see if Russell can make his dream gig official.
FX shows about J Dilla, and mother and son duo Afeni and TupacShakur are coming in the second quarter of the year. On Thursday the network announced premiere dates for The New York Times Presents: “The Legacy of J Dilla” and Dear Mama; the former will air on April 7, with the latter premiering weeks later.
Produced and directed by Christopher Frierson and Esther Dere, The Legacy of J Dilla is a documentary feature about the musician, producer and visionary who worked with the likes Erykah Badu, Busta Rhymes, D’Angelo and A Tribe Called Quest before he passed away due to cardiac arrest in 2006. “It explores the complications that have arisen as so many people try to control his legacy,” according to a press release.
Dear Mama, named after the 1995 hit Tupac dedicated to his mom, Afeni, is a five-part docuseries that explores the lives and legacies of both individuals. It’s an audio and visual experience that paints their individual stories as “one definitive portrait of a global superstar and the woman who shaped him.”
The J Dilla documentary premieres April 7 at 10 p.m. ET on FX and Hulu. Dear Mama will premiere with two episodes April 21 at 10 p.m. ET, with new episodes airing every week. It airs on FX and streams the following day on Hulu.
