Kellogg’s has officially released a tasty bit of promotion for the upcoming Disney+ release of Hocus Pocus 2: a themed breakfast cereal.
Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy and Bette Midlerreturn as the witchy Sanderson sisters from the beloved 1993 hit on September 30 on Disney+, but the cereal is available now via Instacart and other retailers.
Sporting a purple box emblazoned with cartoon versions of the sibling spell casters, every bite of this “limited-edition berry brew” features sparkly purple, yellow and orange stars — the colors of the characters’ garish getups.
Of course, if the sisters had their way, there’d be kiddie bits to munch on in every bowl, so thankfully Kellogg’s chefs went with their own recipe.
Indie rockers and nu metallers unite in an upcoming movie called I Saw the TV Glow.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, and confirmed by studio A24, the horror film’s cast will include Phoebe Bridgers and Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst.
Bridgers will be appearing in the movie alongside the band Sloppy Jane, in which the “Kyoto” singer played bass before launching her solo career.
By the way, this isn’t the first time Bridgers has crossed paths with the 2000s metal scene. During her U.S. tour this year, she used Disturbed‘s “Down with the Sickness” as her walk-on music.
Durst, meanwhile, certainly has experience in the film world, having directed three movies. His most recent directorial effort is the 2019 thriller The Fanatic, starring John Travolta.
After name-dropping Billy Joel in her song “Deju Vu,” teen pop star Olivia Rodrigo joined the Piano Man to perform the hit tune Wednesday night during the latest installment of his monthly residency at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The two duetted on “Deja Vu,” which includes the lyrics, ”I’ll bet that she knows Billy Joel/ ‘Cause you played her ‘Uptown Girl’/ You’re singing it together/ Now I bet you even tell her/ How you love her/ In between the chorus and the verse.”
Joel and Rodrigo They then sang “Uptown Girl” together.
Olivia gushed over the experience on her Instagram Story, writing, “I SANG WITH BILLY JOEL AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN TODAY ARE U KIDDING.” She later posted a selfie with Billy, writing, “Biggest honor ever still crying thank u Billy!!!!!!!”
Joel commemorated the show with photos on his Instagram, as well.
The performance marked Billy’s 82nd monthly show as part of his MSG residency. His record-breaking concert series at the venue began in January 2014 with him playing one show at The Garden every month. Last night’s concert was his 128th show overall at MSG.
Dancing With the Stars pros Emma Slater and Sasha Farber have reportedly separated after four years of marriage.
“They’ve been apart for many months now,” a source tells Us Weekly. “They both have not been wearing their wedding rings and are each leading a single life.”
It was a “tough decision,” notes the insider, adding that the former couple hasn’t filed for divorce yet, and are “figuring out” what life apart looks like.
“It’s been a difficult time since they really care about each other and have been together for so long,” says the source.
Slater, 33, and Farber, 38, are “leaning on friends for support” and will “continue to work together as professional dancers” as they did following their initial split in 2014,” shares the source. “They’re pros and won’t let their personal life get in the way of DWTS.”
The two were first linked in 2011 and initially called it quits after three years of dating in 2014. They subsequently got back together and and tied the knot in 2018.
Photography by Keith Getter (all rights reserved)/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Torrential rain has pounded Mississippi, sparking flooding and forcing evacuations from an assisted living home and a day care.
Dozens of seniors were evacuated Wednesday from the Peach Tree Village assisted living facility in Brandon, Mississippi, just outside of Jackson, after fast-moving waters rose halfway up the doors, officials said. Firefighters pulled residents to safety by using ropes to cross the waist-deep waters.
Several towns saw 5 to 10 inches of rainfall on Wednesday. Jackson set a new daily record with 5.05 inches.
Parts of Louisiana and Mississippi are expected to get hit with more rain on Thursday, but it won’t be as widespread as Wednesday’s deluge.
A flood watch remains in effect Thursday from eastern Texas to the western tip of the Florida panhandle.
Barbie Ferreira, who played Kat Hernandez on the first two seasons of HBO’s Emmy-winning teen drama Euphoria, won’t be returning for season 3.
The 25-year-old model/actress broke the news on Wednesday, writing on her Instagram Story, “After four years of getting to embody the most special and enigmatic character Kat, I’m having to say a very teary-eyed goodbye.”
“I hope many of you could see yourself in her like I did and that she brought you joy to see her journey into the character she is today. I put all my care and love into her and I hope you guys could feel it,” she continued, before she ended her announcement with a sweet message to her character. “Love you Katherine Hernandez.”
Ferreira, who had significantly less screen time in season 2, shot down rumors that she and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson had a falling out on set, telling Insider, “I’ve seen so many different things and a lot of it is untrue and some of it’s kind of like mundane little things.”
Euphoria was renewed for a third season in February.
We’ll have to wait a little longer for DC’s Aquaman and Shazam! sequels, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom — which stars Jason Momoa returning as the titular superhero, along with Patrick Wilson’s Orm Marius and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Black Manta — has been pushed back from March 17, 2023, to December 25, 2023. Shazam! Fury of the Gods, originally slated to open in December, will take over The Lost Kingdom‘s March 17 spot. Asher Angel returns as foster kid Billy Batson, who transforms into the superhero Shazam — played by Zachary Levi. Lucy Liu, Helen Mirren and Rachel Zegler join the cast for the sequel…
In a summer movie season of superheroes and the air superiority of Tom Cruise‘s Top Gun: Maverick, one summer movie has slipped through to become a bonafide sleeper hit. Deadline reports the adaptation of Delia Owens‘ novel Where The Crawdads Sing, which stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Taylor John Smith has crossed the $100 million mark in theaters. It’s an impressive milestone for most movies, let alone one made for a reported $24 million…
After playing the titular superhero in Marvel’s 2021 hit Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Simu Liu will turn villain for the upcoming Netflix feature, Atlas, starring alongside Jennifer Lopez and Sterling K. Brown. The film follows Atlas, “a woman fighting for humanity in a future where an AI soldier has determined the only way to end war is to end humanity,” according to Deadline. “To outthink this rogue AI, Atlas must work with the one thing she fears most — another AI”…
Hulu dropped the official trailer for season 5 of The Handmaid’s Tale on Wednesday. The new season, per the streamer, will find Elisabeth Moss‘ June facing consequences for killing Joseph Fiennes‘ Commander Waterford while struggling to redefine her identity and purpose. The widowed Serena — played Yvonne Strahovski — attempts to raise her profile in Toronto as Gilead’s influence creeps into Canada. Bradley Whitford‘s Commander Lawrence will work with Nick and Aunt Lydia — played respectively by Max Minghella and Ann Dowd — as he tries to reform Gilead and rise in power; while June, Luke and Moira — played by Samira Wiley –fight Gilead from a distance as they continue their mission to save and reunite with Hannah — portrayed by Jordana Blake. The Handmaid’s Tale‘s fifth season returns with two episodes on September 14th, with new episodes streaming each Wednesday thereafter…
The domestic assault brought against Michelle Branch a couple of weeks ago has been dismissed, according to court documents obtained by Entertainment Tonight.
During a court appearance on Wednesday in Nashville, Tennessee, the 39-year-old singer’s misdemeanor domestic assault by offensive/provocative conduct charge was dismissed by Judge Gale Robinson at the request of the state, according to the court papers.
Following the news that Branch and her husband of three years, Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney were separating, officers were called the couple’s home about a possible domestic disturbance, and Michelle said she’d slapped Carney in the face one or two times, according to a police report viewed by ABC Audio. Carney confirmed that, though he had no visible injuries, and Michelle was taken into custody.
Michelle and Carney share two children, 6-month-old daughter Willie and 4-year-old Rhys. Michelle has a 17-year-old daughter, Owen, from her previous marriage. She and Carney wed in 2019.
(NEW YORK) — Just a week before repayments on federal student loans were scheduled to resume after a two-year pause, President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a sweeping new policy to cancel debt for millions of Americans and reform the payment process going forward.
Students who attended college on Pell grants — federal dollars awarded to low-income students who can only contribute a certain amount toward their tuition — will owe up to $20,000 less on their federal loans if they make under $125,000 per year. And non-Pell borrowers making less than $125,000 will owe up to $10,000 less on their federal loans.
The president is also adjusting how much borrowers will have to pay each month and is extending the federal pause on repayments until the end of the year.
And while borrowers should keep their eyes peeled for specific details from the Department of Education (DOE) over the next few days and weeks, here is everything to know so far:
Who will this help?
Biden’s plan will erase at least $10,000 in federal student loan debt for Americans who made less than $125,000 per year in the 2020 or 2021 tax year, or less than $250,000 as a household.
For Americans under that same income bracket who took out Pell grants to pay for college, it would erase an additional $10,000 in debt, bringing the total forgiveness up to $20,000.
The income cap refers to adjusted gross income, a DOE spokesperson told ABC News, referring to income that already excludes retirement plan contributions, alimony and certain other expenses.
Current students are also eligible for federal loan forgiveness, so long as their parents meet the income criteria of $125,000 for a single provider or $250,000 for a married couple who file their taxes jointly.
The forgiveness applies to anyone who took out their loans before July 2022.
In a speech on Wednesday, Biden said 95% of borrowers will get some relief from his plan, or a total of 43 million out of the 45 million total student borrowers.
Nearly 45%, or 20 million people, will have their debt fully canceled, he said.
DOE data shows that erasing even $10,000 of debt could settle the balances of about one-third of federal loan borrowers. An analysis from Princeton University and the University of California at Merced that incorporated incomes found the same.
And for the other half of borrowers who will still have loans to continue paying down, Biden said the DOE would be modifying the terms.
The minimum required monthly payments for undergraduate loans will be cut from 10% down to 5% of peoples’ discretionary income, while the amount of income that is considered non-discretionary — or protected from repayment — was raised to guarantee that no borrower who is making around the annual equivalent of a $15-an-hour minimum wage will have to make monthly payments.
The plan will also ensure that people who took out an original loan of $12,000 or less will have their balance forgiven after 10 years of payments, which was brought down from the initial timeline of 20 years.
The DOE estimates that this change will allow community college graduates to be debt-free within 10 years.
“I think the administration is structurally attempting to fix many of the problems that have plagued the inconvenient payment system. Whether or not it gets the job done is going to depend on the details,” said Persis Yu, policy director and managing counsel for the Student Borrower Protection Center, a leading advocacy organization focused on alleviating student debt.
When will debt cancellation kick in?
Some borrowers will immediately qualify for debt cancellation. But more than likely, it will take months for the vast majority of borrowers, experts told ABC News.
In a briefing with reporters on Wednesday morning, the White House said the DOE would release details on the process in the coming days.
Some people will need to submit a “simple application” on studentaid.gov showing that they meet the income caps, a White House official said, while about eight million people will see their debt canceled automatically because the DOE already has their info on hand.
But because the DOE does not have income data for the other two-thirds of borrowers, they will need to receive authorization from those borrowers to obtain such data from the Internal Revenue Service — or borrowers will have to certify their income under penalty of perjury, financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz told ABC News in an interview.
“So you might have some borrowers getting forgiveness within a month or two, immediately, and then some borrowers taking a few additional months and they would have to complete that form,” Kantrowitz said.
“One thing I recommend all borrowers do is make sure your contact information, your mailing address, your email address or telephone numbers are up to date with your loan servicer and on the studentaid.gov website,” Kantrowitz said.
At a briefing later Wednesday, Susan Rice, Biden’s domestic policy adviser, told reporters that “anybody can go today to studentaid.gov and provide their email address and they will be notified when the website is available for people to fill out a very simple short form attesting to their income and become eligible.”
But just how “simple” the application is for people, and how many people know about it, is a subject of concern for debt-relief advocates who think a complicated process could keep people from taking advantage of the new policy.
“There’s a lot of low-income folks who will never learn about this application. They will not be able to figure it out, they won’t have the resources available to navigate the bureaucratic process,” Yu said. “And so in imposing this hurdle, we’re actually putting in a barrier for the folks who need it the most.”
The solution, Yu argued, would be a broad cancellation that does not try to target people based on their income, which would make the process easier to execute by the DOE.
How much will this cost the government?
A recent study by the University of Pennsylvania’s business school found that erasing $10,000 in student loan debt will cost about $300 billion. If the program continues for 10 years, the cost becomes $330 billion, or $344 billion if there is no income limit, per the report.
The changes to the monthly loan payments will also affect the cost, but the White House declined to give specifics on Wednesday, saying only that the cost would be spread over time and would be difficult to estimate.
“It’s fairly complicated, as a process, for determining the cost implications,” a White House official said.
Because the federal government backs many student loans, U.S. taxpayers will likely foot the bill — something Biden addressed directly on Wednesday by comparing student debt cancellation to the Paycheck Protection Program, a loan forgiveness program for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“No one complained that those loans caused inflation. A lot of these folks in small businesses are working in middle-class families. They needed help. It was the right thing to do,” Biden said.
“So the outrage over helping working people with student loans, I think is just simply wrong, dead wrong,” he said.
He also pushed back against Republicans who he pointed out, under former President Donald Trump, passed a massive tax cut that benefited many wealthy Americans and corporations, with the GOP arguing the move aided the economy.
In contrast, Biden said Wednesday, his plan would benefit the “middle class and working families. It helps both current and future borrowers. And it’ll fix a badly broken system.”
Does this policy fulfill Biden’s campaign promise?
While the president did pledge to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt on the trail — a commitment he has now made good on — that was just one of his vows around reforming the higher-education system.
Many critics who want to see Biden do more have pointed out that as a candidate he also proposed forgiving all tuition loan debt from undergraduate students that earn less than $125,000 per year and who attended two- or four-year public colleges, as he wrote in a 2020 Medium article.
“The federal government would pay the monthly payment in lieu of the borrower until the forgivable portion of the loan was paid off. This benefit would also apply to individuals holding federal student loans for tuition from private HBCUs and MSIs,” Biden wrote then.
That pledge led some progressives to commend the progress so far but still call for more.
“While not as high as we called for, this crucial step from the President keeps his campaign promise and responds to calls from the CPC, the Black Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus, and millions across the country to address the crippling issue of student debt,” the Congressional Progressive Caucus said in a statement on Wednesday.
Yu, with the Student Borrower Protection Center, also applauded the move — but said it would be important to watch the rollout with a critical eye.
“We’re very excited to see him take this bold action, which is one of the things he’s promised,” Yu said.
But because Biden pledged debt cancellation for all, while the current policy is tailored to people under a certain income, Yu said the positive impact remains to be seen.
“I think really the test will be like: Are we able to get this relief to all of the borrowers who are eligible for it? That will be the real test of whether or not he’s kept his campaign promise,” Yu said.
With midterm elections roughly two months away, it also remains to be seen if erasing federal loan debt for some borrowers could bolster Biden’s underwater approval rating.
The plan is also likely to face pushback from those who opted not to attend college altogether because of the cost of doing so.
To that end, the new policy also stipulates that borrowers who meet the income requirements and recently paid off their loans can request a $10,000 refund or the total of payments made since March 13, 2020.
(NEW YORK) — Pfizer announced Thursday that its vaccine candidate for respiratory syncytial virus was more than 85% effective in preventing lower respiratory tract illness in older adults.
The New York-based pharmaceutical company released findings from the Phase 3 clinical trial investigating its RSV vaccine candidate when administered to participants ages 60 and up. The investigational vaccine targets both A and B strains of the virus, making it bivalent.
“We are delighted that this first bivalent RSV vaccine candidate, RSVpreF, was demonstrated to be efficacious in our clinical trial against this disease, which is associated with high levels of morbidity and mortality in older adults,” Dr. Annaliesa Anderson, senior vice president and chief scientific officer for vaccine research and development at Pfizer, said in a statement Thursday.
RSV is a common virus that affects the lungs and breathing passages, usually causing mild, cold-like symptoms but sometimes leading to serious conditions. Although most people recover within a week or two, the virus can be dangerous, especially for infants and older adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Each year, an estimated 177,000 older adults are hospitalized with RSV across the United States and 14,000 of them die. The virus is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children under the age of 1 in the U.S. There is currently no approved vaccine for RSV, according to the CDC.
Four companies — Pfizer, GSK, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna — are in late-stage trials for their respective RSV vaccine candidates.
Pfizer said in a press release Thursday that a vaccine efficacy of 85.7% was observed in participants with more severe primary disease endpoint of lower respiratory tract illness, or LRTI-RSV, defined by analysis of three or more RSV-associated symptoms. The investigational vaccine was also well-tolerated, with no safety concerns, according to the press release.
Based on the findings, Pfizer said it plans to seek regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this fall.
“Scientists and researchers have worked to develop RSV vaccines with little success for over half a century,” Anderson added. “These findings are an important step in our effort to help protect against RSV disease and we look forward to working with the FDA and other regulatory agencies to make this vaccine candidate available to help address the substantial burden of RSV disease in older adults.”
