When you’re the subject of so many crazy rumors, all you can do is laugh. That’s the attitude Harry Styles seems to be taking about the latest one: that he spit on Chris Pine while taking his seat at the Venice Film Festival premiere of his new film Don’t Worry Darling.
Performing at New York’s Madison Square Garden Wednesday, Harry addressed the incident, which had already been dismissed as “ridiculous” by Pine’s rep.
“This is our tenth show at Madison Square Garden. It’s wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to be back in New York. I just popped very quickly to Venice to spit on Chris Pine,” Harry jokes in fan-shot video. “But fret not — we’re back!”
After a video of the alleged incident went viral earlier this week, Pine’s rep told Variety, “This is a ridiculous story — a complete fabrication and the result of an odd online illusion that is clearly deceiving and allows for foolish speculation.”
Don’t Worry Darling arrives in theaters September 23. Harry’s final night at Madison Square Garden is September 21; he then moves on to his residency in Austin, TX.
(WASHINGTON) — A state judge in New Mexico has removed a county commissioner from office after ruling that — because he participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — the U.S. Constitution barred him for engaging in an “insurrection.”
It is the first time an elected official directly associated with the attack has been disqualified from serving in public office on those grounds.
New Mexico District Court Judge Francis Mathew barred Otero County commissioner and “Cowboys for Trump” founder Couy Griffin, citing a clause in the 14th Amendment that prohibits those who have engaged in insurrection from serving — the only time in 150 years that the provision has been used to disqualify an official and the first time that a court has ruled the events of Jan. 6 were an “insurrection.”
Griffin “incited, encouraged and helped normalize the violence,” Mathew wrote, calling his actions “overt acts in support of the insurrection.”
Some constitutional experts have suggested the section of the law — despite unsuccessful attempts to invoke the same provision against GOP members of Congress and other Trump-backed candidates earlier this year — may have wide-ranging implications, especially for former President Donald Trump if he runs again for the White House.
“Just the fact that this has happened one time, if it stands up on appeal, makes the future challenges more credible than if no one had ever been disqualified for their participation in January 6 … Up until now it seemed like more of a hypothetical,” said Gerard Magliocca, a constitutional scholar at Indiana University who has studied Section 3 of the The Reconstruction-era amendment.
“If Griffin is disqualified, then it’s a little hard to see why Trump wouldn’t be disqualified,” he added.
Known as the “Disqualification Clause,” the provision bars any person from holding federal office who has previously taken an oath to protect the Constitution — including a member of Congress — who has “engaged in insurrection” against the United States or “given aid or comfort” to its “enemies.”
“Griffin, as an Otero County Commissioner since January 2019, took an oath to “support and uphold the Constitution and laws of the State of New Mexico, and the Constitution of the United States,” Matthew wrote in his opinion.
Convicted earlier this year for trespassing on U.S. Capitol grounds, Griffin refused to certify the state’s primary election results in Otero County in June. He’s now banned from holding any future state or federal elected positions, Mathew ruled.
“You know, they’re, they’re trying to get all of this legal framework in place, because they’re gonna use it against President Trump,” said Griffin in early July during an Otero County Commission special session, where he presented a motion for the county to pay his legal expenses in the lawsuit.
“We can make a stand right here, we can make a stand on a county level. We could fight back,” he said.
During the meeting, Griffin said that he hadn’t gotten any help from Trump-related groups or the former president himself.
“I’m disappointed in President Trump as well. I’m disappointed that I don’t have any more support from their side … it really feels like I’ve been fed to the wolves and along in a lot of ways,” he said.
The decision came in a lawsuit brought by a group of New Mexico residents represented by the government accountability group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and other lawyers.
“This is a historic win for accountability for the January 6th insurrection and the efforts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power in the United States. Protecting American democracy means ensuring those who violate their oaths to the Constitution are held responsible,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. “This decision makes clear that any current or former public officials who took an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution and then participated in the January 6th insurrection can and will be removed and barred from government service for their actions.”
The last time elected officials were disqualified from office using the constitutional clause appears to be after the Civil War in 1869, according to CREW, after the ratification of the 14th Amendment.
Similar constitutional arguments have been made, but have failed to persuade judges in Georgia and North Carolina, against GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Madison Cawthorn. The latter’s case was ultimately halted after he lost in the primary contest for his reelection bid.
Magliocca, a constitutional scholar at Indiana University and who testified at Greene’s hearing, noted that the challenge to Griffin — compared to those against Greene and Cawthorn — may have succeeded because he was a local official.
“Another difference is Mr. Griffin was an official, not a candidate … so that’s simpler. Because, you know, you’re not dealing with an election, you’re not dealing with a, you know, some very short deadline that you need to make a decision by,” said Magliocca.
“But also, the other thing is, in some instances, you can say that the participation that can be proved for one individual versus another is greater or less. And I think, in Mr. Griffin’s case, the court found a lot of facts,” he said.
Tuesday’s ruling is a test case for inevitable challenges to Trump’s ballot eligibility if he plans to make another White House bid, retired Harvard Law professor and constitutional law scholar Laurence Tribe told ABC News, which he said may be more effective in keeping him out of office than by means of legal prosecution.
“It’s in response to an extraordinary event, which we hope won’t be repeated. I think it shows that there is an alternative path to holding people accountable besides a criminal prosecution,” said Tribe.
Still, one of the most significant aspects of Tuesday’s decision is that it declares formally that what happened Jan. 6 was an insurrection within the meaning of the Constitution, according to Tribe and Magliocca.
“It’s a wake-up call. I mean, it’s not that the courts needed this opinion in order to read the Constitution, we can all read it. But now, there’s an example. It’s really the difference between something that may be a dead letter and something that has actually been resurrected and used successfully,” Tribe said.
“And I think that’s going to encourage people in other contexts to invoke the Fourteenth. It would be premature for anybody to predict that this is the beginning of the end for everyone who was involved in trying to overturn the 2020 election, but it’s certainly a start,” he added.
(LONDON) — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is under “medical supervision” on Thursday, according to Buckingham Palace.
The queen is being monitored by doctors at Balmoral Castle, the royal family’s estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
At age 96, Elizabeth is Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. She ascended to the throne in 1952 and, in June, celebrated her Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne.
The queen’s royal family members, including her four children, are now gathering by her side in Balmoral, according to the palace.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 08, 9:41 AM EDT
Senior royals head to Balmoral Castle
Senior members of the British royal family are either at or on their way to Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where Queen Elizabeth II remains “under medical supervision.”
The queen’s oldest child and the heir to her throne, Charles, prince of Wales; and his wife, Camilla, duchess of Cornwall; as well as the queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, are already at Balmoral, according to their respective spokespersons.
Meanwhile, the queen’s other sons, Prince Andrew, duke of York; and Prince Edward, earl of Wessex; as well as Edward’s wife, Sophie, countess of Wessex; Charles’ two sons, Prince William, duke of Cambridge; Prince Harry, duke of Sussex; and Harry’s wife, Meghan, duchess of Sussex, are all on their way to Balmoral, their respective spokespersons confirmed.
ARMY, it’s your lucky day. Today is Disney+ Day on the streaming platform, and as a special surprise, a BTS concert is now available.
BTS: Permission to Dance On Stage — LA, the concerts the group did at L.A.’s SoFi Stadium last November and December, has been turned into a concert film. It includes performances of the group’s smash hits “Butter,” “Permission to Dance” and “Dynamite,” as well as “Boy with Luv,” “ON” and “IDOL.”
The Permission to Dance On Stage shows — marking the first post-COVID in-person concerts from the K-pop superstars — were also performed in Las Vegas and Seoul last year.
Growing up isn’t easy these days, given the state of the world and the pressures of social media. But there’s still hope: just watch Disney+’s new docuseries Growing Up.
It follows the stories of 11 “heroes,” aged 18 to 22, focusing on how they’ve been able to thrive despite obstacles like disability, struggles with sexual and gender identity, racism, homelessness and body-shaming. Executive producer and Captain Marvel star Brie Larson tells ABC Audio about the challenges of making Growing Up.
“It was a pretty long process in terms of narrowing it down to these 10 stories and 11 heroes, and part of that was because these are young people and we need to protect them at all costs,” Larson explains.
The Oscar winner notes, “You’re going through and making sure that they were ready to do this, ready to tell their story, ready to be on the public stage. And so that was a really important process, so that everybody felt safe and ready all the way through.”
Larson directed the only episode to feature two “heroes”: Clare and Isabel, best friends who successfully lobbied the Pennsylvania state government to provide free menstrual products to schools statewide. Larson was drawn to that episode because, she reveals, “The inception of the series began with my own shames. One of them was around menstruation and my fears around menstruation.”
Grown-ish star Yara Shahidi directs the episode about Sofia, a young Black woman who struggles with imposter syndrome as a self-proclaimed “math and science nerd.”
Shahidi tells ABC Audio that she identified with Sofia’s story, so the topic “came out of that so naturally — imposter syndrome and discussing the importance of underrepresented voices in these spaces that are led by dominant culture and how much we have to offer the world.”
(NEW YORK) — Steve Bannon, a onetime political adviser to former President Donald Trump, surrendered Thursday to authorities in New York to face felony charges linked to his role in “We Build the Wall,” an online fundraising campaign for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The indictment charges Bannon and “We Build the Wall” itself with two counts of money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison. There are additional felony counts of conspiracy and scheme to defraud along with one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to defraud.
The state charges, brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, resemble federal charges for which Bannon received a pardon by Trump and allege Bannon and “We Build the Wall” defrauded 430 Manhattan-based donors out of $33,600. Across New York state, there were more than 11,000 donors defrauded out of more than $730,000, according to the indictment.
The Television Academy has announced its first group of presenters for Monday’s 74th annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
They include Will Arnett, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Bayer, Kelly Clarkson, Ariana DeBose, Taye Diggs, Hannah Einbinder, Selena Gomez, Mariska Hargitay, Squid Game’s Jung Ho-yeon & Lee Jung-jae, Jimmy Kimmel, Diego Luna, Christopher Meloni, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, Molly Shannon, Jean Smart, Kerry Washington and Natalie Zea.
The ceremony, hosted by Saturday Night Live‘s Kenan Thompson, will air live from the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles September 12 on NBC…
(WASHINGTON) — A federal grand jury investigating the activities leading up the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the push by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the result of the 2020 election has expanded its probe to include seeking information about Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America, sources with direct knowledge tell ABC News.
The interest in the fundraising arm came to light as part of grand jury subpoenas seeking documents, records and testimony from potential witnesses, the sources said.
The subpoenas, sent to several individuals in recent weeks, are specifically seeking to understand the timeline of Save America’s formation, the organization’s fundraising activities, and how money is both received and spent by the Trump-aligned PAC.
Neither a spokesperson for Trump nor an official with the Justice Department immediately responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
Trump and his allies have consistently pushed supporters to donate to the PAC, often using false claims about the 2020 election and soliciting donations to rebuke the multiple investigations into the former president, his business dealings, and his actions on Jan. 6.
After the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last month, Save America PAC sent out a fundraising email in which Trump urged supporters to “rush in a donation IMMEDIATELY to publicly stand with me against this NEVERENDING WITCH HUNT.”
According to Save America’s statement of organization filed to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the committee was established just days after the 2020 election. At the time, the filing said the new committee is affiliated with the Trump campaign and the Trump Make America Great Committee, a small-dollar focused, joint-fundraising committee between the president’s campaign and the Republican National Committee, which has been sending out donor solicitation emails for Save America.
Similar to regular political action committees, leadership PACs can only accept up to $5,000 per donor, far less than the upwards of $800,000 donations that the Trump campaign and the Republican Party’s high-dollar joint fundraising committee, Trump Victory, had previously raised.
Since its inception, Save America PAC has brought in more than $135 million, including transfers from affiliated committees, according to disclosure records. As of the end of July, the PAC reported having just under $100 million in cash on hand.
Netflix is bringing back Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po — a.k.a. the Teletubbies — in November, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The reboot of the popular kids TV show from the 1990s and early 2000s will feature the four Teletubbies interacting and discovering their world, and will be narrated by Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star Tituss Burgess. Teletubbies originated on the BBC in 1997 and first aired in the United States on PBS a year later. A 2014 reboot aired on Nick Jr. Episodes of the original currently stream on Pluto TV…
Pitch Perfect star Anna Kendrick will make her directorial debut with the true-life thriller The Dating Game, based on the true story of Cheryl Bradshaw, a contestant on the titular 1970s dating series, according to Entertainment Weekly. Kendrick will also produce and star as Bradshaw, who appeared on the show and chose bachelor number one, Rodney Alcala — dubbed “the Dating Game Killer” after it was discovered he was a serial killer. Bradshaw, it turns out, backed out of her date with Alcala, whom she later described as “creepy”…
Kate Walsh is set to reprise her Grey’s Anatomy character, Dr. Addison Montgomery, in a recurring role for the show’s upcoming 19th season, according to Variety. She appeared on Grey’s last season in a multi-episode arc, in which Addison returned to Grey Sloan Memorial in order to perform a uterine transplant on a patient, who later miscarried. Addison’s first appearance will be in the third episode of the new season…
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — A young man who went on an hourslong shooting rampage around Memphis, Tennessee, gunning down at least four people, was arrested on Wednesday night, police said.
Ezekiel Dejuan Kelly, 19, was taken into custody without incident in the Memphis neighborhood of Whitehaven at around 9 p.m. local time after a high-speed chase, according to Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis.
The deadly rampage began early Wednesday at 12:56 a.m. and continued to about 8:30 p.m. In total, at least four people were killed and three others were wounded in seven shootings across the city, Davis said.
After the shootings, the suspect carjacked a driver at gunpoint Southaven, Mississippi, just south of Memphis, speeding off in the victim’s Dodge Challenger and leaving behind an SUV stolen from a woman he had shot to death earlier that night, according to the police chief. The carjacking victim was uninjured, Davis said.
“The homicide division and other investigative units are actively working these crime scenes now, and numerous felony charges are pending,” Davis told reporters at a press conference early Thursday.
“It’s at least eight [crime scenes],” he added. ” We are still in the throes of the investigation. There could potentially be other locations. There could potentially be other damage in other places.”
Court records obtained by Memphis ABC affiliate WATN-TV indicate that an arrest warrant on the charge of first-degree murder was issued for Kelly on Wednesday, before the shooting spree happened.
The police chief said Kelly recorded at least some of his actions on Facebook Live, including when he opened fire inside a store on Jackson Avenue just before 6 p.m. A spokesperson for Facebook’s parent company, Meta, told ABC News that the content was identified and removed prior to the Memphis Police Department’s initial public alert about the incident. Meta was also “in direct touch with the Memphis Police Department shortly after they issued their initial public alert,” the spokesperson said.
Police had launched a citywide search for the suspect and advised members of the public to shelter in place, according to Davis.
“We extend our sincere condolences to all the victims who have been affected in this sequence of violent acts today,” the police chief said. “We want to express our sincere appreciation to our citizens who provided numerous tips throughout this ordeal.”
As the gunman terrorized the city, the Memphis Area Transit Authority temporarily suspended trolley and bus services out of “an abundance of caution and care for the safety of its drivers and riders.”
Police did not discuss a possible motive or release the identities of the victims. It was also unclear how the suspect obtained the guns.
The rampage was the latest in a string of violence to hit Memphis in recent days and weeks, including the killing of a woman who was abducted last Friday while she was on a pre-dawn jog.
“This has been a horrific week for the city of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department,” Davis told reporters.
Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner added: “I want to assure the public that we’re all going to be working together to try to curb this senseless violence here in Memphis and Shelby County.”
In February 2020, Kelly, who was 17 at the time, was charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault, using a firearm to commit a dangerous felony and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, according to court records. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced in April 2021 to three years behind bars. He was released from prison 11 months later, in March, according to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland.
“I want to I want to first express my deepest sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families who are suffering from this senseless murder rampage,” Strickland told reporters. “I am angry for them. And I’m angry for our citizens who had to shelter in place for their own safety until this suspect was caught. This is no way for us to live and it is not acceptable.”
