The blue-skinned people of Pandora have done what no Russian MiG ever could: They’ve shot down Maverick.
Specifically, Deadline reports the long-awaited Avatar: The Way of Water will become the highest-grossing movie of 2022 after Tuesday’s box office receipts are tallied, having earned $1.5 billion and counting worldwide.
It’s a feat for any movie, but one that’s especially dizzying considering the movie starring Kate Winslet, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington only premiered in theaters the week of December 16.
Top Gun: Maverick held the top spot of the box office for much of the year since debuting in May, ending 2022 at #1 with a global haul of $1.48 billion. However, the Paramount Pictures film saw its air superiority challenged ever since James Cameron‘s sequel, from Disney-owned 20th Century Studios, took off.
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(WASHINGTON) — The United States Postal Service can deliver prescribed abortion medication, even in states where abortion access is severely restricted, the Department of Justice announced.
The department’s Office of the Legal Counsel wrote in an opinion that pills being sent through the mail is not in violation of the Comstock Act — an 1873 law that made it illegal to send “obscene” material in the mail — if the sender does not know if the drugs will be used illegally.
It comes on the heels of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration giving pharmacies the green light to fill prescriptions for one of the pills, mifepristone, if a certified health care provider prescribes the drug and if that pharmacy meets certain requirements.
The Comstock Act, which was passed by Congress under the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, criminalized the act of using the U.S. Postal Service to send contraceptives, substances that induce abortion, pornographic content, sex toys and any written material about these items.
The Postal Service had requested the opinion from the office after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022 and states began enforcing their own bans.
“We conclude that [the act] does not prohibit the mailing, or the delivery or receipt by mail, of mifepristone or misoprostol where the sender lacks the intent that the recipient of the drugs will use them unlawfully,” Christopher Schroder, assistant attorney general for the OLC, wrote in the opinion.
“Because there are manifold ways in which recipients in every state may lawfully use such drugs, including to produce an abortion, the mere mailing of such drugs to a particular jurisdiction is an insufficient basis for concluding that the sender intends them to be used unlawfully,” the opinion continued.
In a statement to ABC News, USPS said the opinion “confirms that the Comstock Act does not require the Postal Service to change our current practice, which has been to consider packages containing mifepristone and misoprostol to be mailable under federal law in the same manner as other prescription drugs.”
Drugs for medication abortions were first developed in the late 1970s as an alternative, non-surgical, form of abortion in which someone takes two pills to end a pregnancy.
The first pill is mifepristone, which was authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000. It works by blocking the hormone progesterone, which the body needs to continue a pregnancy.
This causes the uterine lining to stop thickening and to break down, detaching the embryo. The second drug, misoprostol, taken 24 to 48 hours later, causes the uterus to contract and dilates the cervix, which will expel the embryo.
In the U.S., the drugs are approved up to 10 weeks’ gestation, although the World Health Organization says they can be taken up until the 12-week mark.
As of 2020, medical abortions account for 54% of abortions performed in the U.S., up from 24% a decade ago, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
In December 2021, the FDA permanently lifted its restrictions on abortion pills, allowing them to be sent by mail than requiring them to be given in person.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
Last September marked Kelly Clarkson‘s 20th anniversary of winning American Idol, and she recently strolled down memory lane with runner-up Justin Guarini.
Appearing on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Justin was asked about his fondest memories of the show and expressed, “It’s wild because we got shot out of a cannon. And the fact that we were at the beginning of things … nobody knew what was up.”
He recalled his time competing on the show, adding, “The stakes weren’t super high for us.” Because of that, the two were able to spend enough time together for Justin to figure out to never accept a card game challenge from Kelly. “She’s a killer,” he warned.
“I’ve always been competitive,” Kelly laughed and revealed her card game of choice is speed. As for why she defaults to the game, she said, “I feel like I have natural caffeine [going through me].”
Apparently, playing speed together was how the two would spend a good chunk of their American Idol journey.
“We would hang out and play speed because there were these huge swaths of time … And I think I may have won twice in the hundred times we played together,” Justin deadpanned. “It was ridiculous. I just kept coming back for more.”
Kelly and Justin competed on the first season of American Idol in 2002.
Steven Tyler has pulled out of yet another event. The Aerosmith frontman was set to appear and be honored at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Power of Love Gala in Las Vegas next month, but his manager tells theLas Vegas Review-Journal he will no longer take part due to ongoing health issues.
“Steven’s doctors have instructed him to take care of himself, but he will be back this year,” manager Larry Rudolph tells the paper, which says he won’t be making any public appearances until at least the spring.
Last month, Tyler’s undisclosed health issues forced Aerosmith to cancel the final five shows of their Las Vegas residency. The announcement of his Power of Love Gala departure comes just a week after a woman named Julia Holcomb came forward with a decades-old sexual assault claim. Holcomb, who Tyler allegedly had a relationship with in the ’70s when she was 16, sued him for sexual assault, assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The Power of Love Gala, taking place February 18 at the MGM Grand, raises money for Alzheimer’s research. So far there’s no word on who’ll replace Tyler.
Rick Singer, mastermind of the college admissions cheating scheme known as Varsity Blues that involved Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, was sentenced Wednesday afternoon to 42 months in prison. Singer will then be on supervised release for three more years.
Singer’s sentence comes nearly four years after the former college admissions consultant pleaded guilty in March 2019 to helping parents of dozens of well-to-do high school students cheat their way into elite universities. As part of his plea, Singer helped prosecutors convict his former clients.
Singer, 62, pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of six years in prison — much more than the six-month maximum Singer’s lawyers requested.
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 in their sentencing memorandum, calling his scheme “Staggering in scope” and”breathtaking in its audacity.”
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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(WASHINGTON) — Republicans are “playing with fire” amid ongoing party infighting over who should be the speaker of the House, according to Florida Rep. Maria Salazar.
For the first time in 100 years, the vote for speaker was not decided in the first round. Over five separate rounds, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy of California has so far failed to secure the 218 votes needed to become speaker of the House, as now 21 Republicans have decided not to vote for him.
The voting, in its second day, is ongoing. The House cannot conduct other business until a speaker is chosen.
“Any of them could have raised their hand and say ‘Hey, I want to be speaker.’ So if you do, then you go out and you raise money and you help other candidates to make it into the majority,” Rep. Salazar, a Republican, told ABC News’ Linsey Davis.
With a razor-thin Republican majority, McCarthy can only afford to lose four votes. What started as a small movement of five members ahead of the new Congress, led by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, grew to 21 Republicans not voting for McCarthy as speaker, a move that Salazar said is going to cost Republicans their “political capital.”
“My concern is that we, the Republicans who are playing games, who are wasting time and we’re not sending the right message to those people who elected us that we are here to do their business … And this merry-go-round that we’re going right now that I think is not good for us or for the country … We’re squandering our political capital, the capital that the American people gave us back in November,” Salazar told ABC News.
On the first speaker vote, Republicans who voted against McCarthy instead chose a range of candidates including Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. By the third round, all of the 19 detractors rallied around Jordan, a McCarthy supporter, who also gained a vote from Byron Donalds, R-Fla., when Donalds switched his vote from McCarthy to Jordan, bringing the total to 20.
In the fourth and fifth rounds of voting, on Wednesday, McCarthy lost another member when Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., voted present.
Despite the detractors, Salazar continued to reiterate that it was only “fair” to vote McCarthy in as speaker. Salazar also acknowledged that she is not one of McCarthy’s staunch supporters, often reiterating “he is not my friend.”
“He put us in the majority. It’s not that I am his best friend, but I think we got to be fair. And if 90% of the conference of the GOP members of the House of Representatives want that guy, then we should go with him,” Salazar told ABC News.
Salazar went on to criticize the outliers, saying they are holding up most of the conference and compared it to a marriage where you may not always agree but you don’t file for divorce over it.
“He wanted to be speaker. He went around, he raised the money. He put us in the majority. He created working groups. He then created this big document called ‘Commitment with America.’ He went to the party, he went to the other members of the party to ask for advice,” Salazar said.
“I think the guy did the most he could do. He’s not God, but he did the most. And I repeat, he is not my friend, but I think fair is fair … It’s like in a marriage. Do you really believe that you are going to be in accordance with your husband 100% of the time? No. Right. But that doesn’t mean that you’re going to divorce the guy. So why are we going around this?” Salazar told ABCNL Prime.
Without a speaker, the House cannot continue any of its regular business, including swearing-in members, forming committees or voting on legislation.
McCarthy has remained defiant and pledged that he will not give up until he is speaker, even going so far as to move into the speaker’s office.
Wednesday continued working its ratings magic for Netflix over the New Year’s weekend. The streaming service says the show starring Jenna Ortega managed to break another Netflix record by spending six consecutive weeks on the English TV List with over 100 million hours viewed.
Last week, nearly 104 million hours’ worth of Tim Burton‘s buzzy supernatural show were viewed.
On the movies side of things, Rian Johnson’s sequel Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was the most viewed title of the past week, with 127.2 million hours viewed, and 209.40 million hours viewed after 10 days. After Netflix’s Red Notice and Don’t Look Up, Glass Onion became the third-most-watched original movie for the streamer, seen by some 90 million households, according to the company’s numbers.
Incidentally, interest in the sequel also boosted viewership for the Oscar-nominated 2019 original, also starring Daniel Craig‘s drawly detective Benoit Blanc. That film was #3 on the Netflix’s English Films List last week.
After teasing a possible solo project, Of Monsters and Men vocalist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir has confirmed the release of new music.
The material will arrive next Friday, January 13, and is available to presave now.
In December, Nanna shared a mysterious video alongside the caption, “New things are coming in the new year…stay tuned!” Of Monsters and Men retweeted the clip, adding that Nanna “has something verrrrry exciting coming soon.”
Prior to Of Monsters and Men’s formation, Nanna performed solo under the moniker Songbird.
Of Monsters and Men’s most recent album is 2019’s Fever Dream. They released a new single called “This Happiness” last April.
Lzzy Hale is embarking on a Journey with Daughtry.
The Halestorm frontwoman has teamed up with the American Idol rocker for an upcoming cover of “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart),” which the “Don’t Stop Believin'” outfit originally released in 1983.
The joint recording is set to drop on Thursday, and you can listen to a brief preview now via Daughtry’s Instagram.
Hale and Daughtry’s version of “Separate Ways” follows a remix of the song included on the Stranger Things season 4 soundtrack alongside Metallica‘s “Master of Puppets” and Kate Bush‘s “Running Up That Hill.”
Halestorm, meanwhile, released a new album called Back from the Dead last May.
Lil Nas X isn’t shy about his appreciation for The Wiggles,even going so far as wanting them to co-headline his tour. But a rumored collab between the two is sending angry parents off the edge.
The Australian children’s music group recently shared a photo of them and Lil Nas X on Instagram and captioned it, “New collab in the wind?” The photo, which was taken at Australia’s Falls Festival, shows the group surrounding the rapper, who is holding up his own purple Wiggles shirt.
Apparently, some parents really didn’t like the idea of the two forces working together.
“Oh dear you can’t be serious? The Wiggles should remain a source of light not dark,” one concerned parent opined in the comment section. Another criticized, “Such a shame, my daughter loved the Wiggles. I don’t see how someone who lap dances the devil in their music videos is a good candidate for working in the children’s music industry.”
Other angry commentators claimed they will swear off The Wiggles for good if they collaborate with Lil Nas X, while other fans are coming to the artists’ defense. Said one supporter, “So many snowflakes in these comments.”
Lil Nas X has been regularly criticized by right-wing and religious individuals in recent years. He came under fire in 2021 for his controversial “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” music video, which featured him pole dancing into hell and giving the devil a lap dance before snapping his neck to steal his throne.
The rapper embraced the hate and even tried capitalizing off of it with various merchandise.
Neither X nor The Wiggles have responded to any of the angry comments.
