Natalie Portman and Tessa Thompson had a little throwback fun during a Thor: Love and Thunder press day Wednesday by channeling, respectively, Clueless characters Cher Horowitz and Dionne Davenport.
Portman perfectly matched Alicia Silverstone‘s character with a yellow plaid Dior miniskirt and matching blazer, over a black crop top and black Doc Martens boots; Thompson wore a black pleated dress and matching black stockings, her long hair braided like Dionne’s in the 1995 film.
“Having a clueless…moment…” Portman captioned an Instagram post, earning a comment and a repost from Cher herself, Silverstone. “Stunning. You both look amazing,” she gushed.
In the Thor sequel, Portman reprises as Dr. Jane Foster, who in this film gets to become Mighty Thor. Not all of her transformation was via special effects, her co-stars joked. “Some weightlifting?!” Chris Hemsworth joked at a recent press event. “Natalie led the charge in the gym, and [we] tried to keep up with her.”
Portman called the compliment “very sweet,” noting, “I was especially grateful to everyone’s imagination to cast a 5-foot-3 actor in a 6-foot role. I think that takes a real leap of possibility in your mind, and probably not something I will, you know, get the opportunity to do to be imagined as by any other group.”
Thompson’s Valkyrie goes through some changes herself, from a warrior to the King of Asgard — and all the meetings that entails. “She … was a professional soldier for thousands of years and now finds herself kind of stuck in bureaucracy. So she’s really missing being on the battlefield and missing her sisters. And so it’s been great fun to get to have that again with Natalie in particular as Mighty Thor.”
Thor: Love and Thunder opens Friday from Marvel Studios, a division of ABC News.
Jenifer Lewis, Black cinema’s favorite auntie — or mom, depending on the role — will soon be getting her flowers from Hollywood as the 65-year-old actress is set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The dedication ceremony of the 2,726th star will take place Friday, July 15, at 11:30 a.m. PT, with special guest speakers Debbie Allen and Marc Shaiman. The ceremony will be streamed live on Walkoffame.com.
“Jenifer Lewis is considered a national treasure and a force to be reckoned with,” Ana Martinez, Hollywood Walk of Fame producer, said. “She is one of those performers who always keeps the audience on their toes! I placed Jenifer’s star next to one of her all-time favorite actresses, the legendary Katharine Hepburn. Those ladies are two peas in a pod, as both delved in human rights activities and are known to be as feisty as all get out!”
Over the course of her decades-long entertainment career, Lewis has appeared and starred in more than 400 episodic television shows, 68 movies, 40 animations and four Broadway shows. Some of her most notable credits includes The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, A Different World, Girlfriends, Think Like a Man, The Cookout, Baggage Claim and Five.
Lewis has been recognized for her philanthropic and charitable contributions, including most recently by The International Press Academy in April. She received the 2022 Honorary Satellite Award for her work withThe Human Rights Campaign, The Los Angeles LGBT Center, The Coalition for At-Risk Youth, The Urban League and others.
Following her bestselling 2017 memoir, The Mother of Black Hollywood, Lewis’ follow up book, Walking in My Joy: In These Streets, is set for release on August 30.
(NEW YORK) — A jury has convicted former Theranos president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani of defrauding investors and patients in connection with his multi-billion-dollar blood-testing startup.
Balwani, on Thursday, was found guilty on all 12 counts of fraud, for a scheme prosecutors alleged and have now proved he orchestrated alongside his former romantic partner and Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes.
Balwani faced 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Holmes, who faced the same charges as Balwani, was convicted on four counts of fraud in January and awaits sentencing in September.
While Holmes was only convicted on counts related to investors, a jury found Balwani also defrauded patients.
The feds originally charged Balwani and Holmes together. But their trials were later severed after Holmes revealed she may testify to abuse at the hands of Balwani.
Prosecutors said Balwani and Holmes, who touted her startup’s technology as capable of accurately and reliably running any blood test, fraudulently raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors.
Money poured in, but the miniature blood-testing device, dubbed the “Edison,” could never run more than 12 tests, government attorneys said.
Balwani joined the company in 2009, guaranteeing a $10 million loan and quickly rising to the post of president and COO of Theranos. While his attorneys sought to distinguish his position in the company from the CEO, Holmes, prosecutors say he played an equal role in the fraud.
“I am responsible for everything at Theranos. All have been my decisions too,” read a text message from Balwani to Holmes in July 2015, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Schenk presented to the jury in his final argument.
“Of course [Balwani] had a hand in making the decisions at Theranos,” defense attorney Jeff Coopersmith said during his closing argument.
But, Coopersmith, said in meetings with investors and others, “everyone was listening to Elizabeth Holmes.” The company was her vision, he added, and Balwani had bought in.
“Mr. Balwani is not a victim. He’s a perpetrator of the fraud,” the prosecutor, Schenk, said to wrap up his remarks.
Wayne Kaatz, a juror on the Holmes case, told ABC News in an exclusive interview earlier this year that his group of 12 jurors convicted Holmes, in part, because “everything went through her,” he said. “She had final approval.”
He also revealed his team found Holmes’ testimony largely not credible. Balwani, in his trial, did not take the stand.
Wayne Kaatz, a juror on the Holmes case, told ABC News in an exclusive interview earlier this year that his group of 12 jurors convicted Holmes, in part, because “everything went through her,” he said. “She had final approval.”
He also revealed his team found Holmes’ testimony largely not credible. Balwani, in his trial, did not take the stand.
J-Hope of BTS is gearing up for the launch of his solo career. To further hype up fans for his upcoming debut album, he released the entire track list for Jack in the Box.
The album, which arrives July 15, will have 10 songs. J-Hope further revealed that the previously released song “More,” as well as the album’s final track, “Arson,” are the “main tracks that act as anchors in this album, conveying the core message that penetrates the whole album,” per a press release.
His label, HYBE, explained further of the first track, “‘MORE’ is an old-school hip-hop track that sings J-Hope’s flame-like aspirations and pure passion to get out there and show the world there is much more to him.”
As for “Arson,” the song embodies the singer “encountering the world outside the box and standing at the crossroads agonizing which path he should take.”
In order, the album’s track list goes: “Intro,” “Pandora’s Box,” “MORE,” “STOP,” “Equal Sign,” “Music Box: Reflection,” “What if…,” “Safety Zone,” “Future” and “Arson.”
Jack in the Box will be available to stream and purchase across all platforms starting July 15.
BTS is currently on break as the group explores solo careers. It is not known when they will reassemble as a septet, but all of them have promised that the hiatus is only temporary.
The xx‘s Oliver Sim has released a new solo song called “GMT.”
The track finds Sim “pining over a love back home, thousands of miles apart on different time zones.” It was recorded in collaboration with his xx bandmate Jaime xx and samples “Smile” by The Beach Boys‘ Brian Wilson.
“I’d chased [Jaime] to Australia to escape the British winter,” Sim shares. “We worked in Sydney and road tripped down to Byron Bay, stopping at secluded beaches and listening to a lot of The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson on the way.”
You can listen to “GMT” now via digital outlets and watch its accompanying video streaming now on YouTube.
“GMT” will appear on Sim’s upcoming debut solo album Hideous Bastard, due out September 9. It also includes the previously released songs “Romance with a Memory,” “Hideous” and “Fruit.”
Harry Styles, Adele, Goo Goo Dolls, Gavin Degraw and Sara Bareilles are now the proud owners of more RIAA-certified Gold and Platinum hits.
The agency noted that only three albums and 13 singles released this year have achieved Gold and Platinum status — and among the handful of acts is Harry’s “As It Was. In a press release, RIAA dubbed it the top digital single of 2022 after selling over two million copies, thus earning double Platinum status. It also should be noted that his 2019 hit “Lights Up” is also two times Platinum now.
Two Adele songs from her 30 album obtained multi-Platinum status with “Oh My God” selling a million copies, while “Easy On Me” went three-times Platinum.
Goo Goo Dolls are celebrating 10 of their songs earning Gold and Platinum status in this latest roundup. Four songs of theirs — “Here Is Gone,” “Come To Me,” “Sympathy” and “Let Love In” — are Gold, with sales of over half a million copies. “Iris” remains their best-selling single, now certified for sales of seven million copies, while their 1998 album, Dizzy Up The Girl,is now five-times Platinum.
The group’s single “Name” sold over two million copies, while “Better Days,” “Black Balloon” and “Slide” have all achieved Platinum status.
Meanwhile, Gavin DeGraw’s 2011 hit “Not Over You” is now certified four-times Platinum.
And just in time for the 15th anniversary of her debut album Little Voice, which is officially twice Platinum, Sara found out her breakout hit “Love Song” has been certified six-times Platinum, while her single “Gravity” is double Platinum.
RIAA awards are determined based on a song or album’s sales as well as the amount of on-demand streams in the U.S.
Journey was forced to postpone the last four concerts of their spring North American tour because an unspecified member of the group tested positive for COVID-19, and now those dates have been rescheduled for March 2023.
The concerts, which were to have taken place on May 10 in Washington, D.C.; May 11 in Hartford, Connecticut; May 13 in Toronto; and May 16, in Quebec City, Canada, are now scheduled for next year on March 1, March 4, March 12 and March 9, respectively.
Toto, who served as Journey’s support act for the band’s entire spring 2022 tour leg, will also open those four 2023 shows. Heart‘s Ann Wilson had been announced as the opening act for the Toronto and Quebec City concerts before they were postponed.
As previously reported, Journey will release a new studio album titled Freedom on Friday, July 8.
The band also has a dozen upcoming 2022 concerts scheduled, including four special symphonic shows in Las Vegas — on July 15, 16, 22 and 23. Visit JourneyMusic.com for more info on the group’s tour schedule.
(NOTE LANGUAGE) While his career is going strong now, with the Stranger Things phenomenon, actor David Harbour wasn’t so sure after his 2019 reboot of Hellboy flopped.
Back then, he tells GQ, he reached out to another star whose career had suffered its own superheroic bomb: Ryan Reynolds.
Harbour explained, “I called him and I was like, ‘Hey man, I just need to know something. You know Green Lantern? Huge flop for you. What the f*** is that like, because I think I’m going to hit that right now.”
“Am I gonna be okay? Am I gonna survive this?” he recalls asking.
For his part, he said Reynolds was “sweet” about the situation.
Both actors have since rebounded: Harbour with his turn in the MCU with Black Widow and of course, Reynolds has been on a hot streak since 2016’s Deadpool, which the Free Guy and Adam Project star described as a make-or-break moment for his career.
In fact, he’s used Deadpool to make fun of himself for choosing Green Lantern, repeatedly — even going so far as to have the red-suited hero go back in time to shoot “Ryan Reynolds” before he could make the movie, as seen in Deadpool 2.
For Harbour, however, the fate of the project reinventing comic artist Mike Mignola‘s demonic creation is still bitter. “It was a very difficult experience because I wanted a lot out of it. I really like Mike Mignola. I like that character,” he says.
The character was previously portrayed by fan favorite Ron Perlman, in projects brought to the screen by Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro.
“[E]ven when [the reboot] was announced, I realized that people did not want that character reinvented,” Harbour expressed, calling himself “naive and optimistic” at the time.
(HIGHLAND PARK, Ill.) — The father of the alleged Highland Park parade shooter has told ABC News that he is not culpable in the Independence Day attack, in spite of having signed a consent form for his son to apply for gun ownership.
“I had no — not an inkling, warning — that this was going to happen,” Bobby Crimo Jr. told ABC News about the Fourth of July attack his son, Robert “Bobby” Crimo III, allegedly carried out in Highland Park, Illinois. “I am just shocked.”
Crimo claims both he and his wife asked their son just days before if he had any plans for the holiday. “He said ‘no.’ That was it,” Crimo recalled.
Crimo says he spent nearly an hour with his son in his yard the night before the attack talking about the planet. “Great mood,” he remembered. “I’m just shocked.”
Crimo says he never saw his son as a danger to anyone, but authorities recently disclosed at least one past instance in which his son allegedly threatened violence. In 2019, police in Highland Park confiscated 16 knives, a dagger and a sword from the suspect’s home after a family member called claiming he “was going to kill everyone.”
Crimo III is charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and more charges are expected, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said. Prosecutors said that Crimo III confessed to Monday morning’s parade massacre. He did not enter a plea during a bond hearing on Wednesday.
“Making threats to the family … I think [that was] taken out of context,” Crimo said about authorities’ description of the 2019 incident. “It’s like just a child’s outburst, whatever he was upset about, and I think his sister called the police — I wasn’t living there.” Crimo said police removed his son’s knife collection from the home, after he was asked if there were any weapons in the house.
Authorities did not open a criminal investigation.
Later that same year, Crimo signed an affidavit allowing Crimo III to apply to obtain a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) Card — needed in the state of Illinois to purchase firearms or ammunition.
“I filled out the consent form to allow my son to go through the process that the Illinois State Police have in place for an individual to obtain a FOID card,” Crimo said. “They do background checks. Whatever that entails, I’m not exactly sure. And either you’re approved or denied, and he was approved.”
On Wednesday, Illinois State Police announced there will be a criminal investigation into Crimo’s culpability because he sponsored his son’s application for a firearm owner identification card in 2019.
“Do I regret that? No, not three years ago — signing a consent form to go through the process … that’s all it was,” said Crimo, adding that he is not worried about potential legal consequences. “Had I purchased guns throughout the years and given them to him in my name, that’s a different story. But he went through that whole process himself.” Crimo said his son purchased the weapons with his own money and registered them in his own name.
Crimo claims he had no involvement with him purchasing weapons and learned of his son’s firearm collection when he displayed a “Glock handgun” he purchased on his 21st birthday. “Oh, looks nice,” he says he told Crimo III.
Crimo III’s FOID card was renewed in 2021 without the involvement of his father, according to authorities.
Crimo says he does not know the motive behind his son’s actions. “That’s what I’d like to ask him when I see him,” said Crimo. “Whatever was going on in his head at the time … to go kill and hurt innocent people is just senseless.” Crimo says his “heart goes out to all of the families that were affected.”
Crimo III allegedly killed seven people and injured dozens of others in the attack.
“I think about them all the time,” his father told ABC News. “I even had some people that were injured that I personally know.”
Prior to the shooting, Crimo’s son left a trail of disturbing images online — including depictions of shootings. He was also an amateur rapper with a little over 16,000 monthly listeners on Spotify; his last music release featured an album cover of a cartoon character aiming a gun.
“The online content I’m not aware of till recently,” said Crimo, adding that he saw his son as an “artist,” but did not always understand his work. “Maybe I’ve seen a couple of them in the past, and I’d look at them and go ‘that’s not you,’ because I know it’s like an act.”
Crimo denied rumors of his son suffering abuse at home. “Never, never,” he said, and he added that he and his wife are “very much against it.”
“I kept hearing all this stuff about … horrible parenting,” Crimo said. “He wasn’t raised that way. He has good morals,” he added.
“This isn’t Bobby,” Crimo said of his son’s actions. “I guess that’s why it’s so hard to wrap yourself around it. It doesn’t add up.”
Crimo III is being held without bond and is set to return to court for a preliminary hearing on July 28.
Crimo said the whole system needs to be overhauled, to prevent tragedies like this from happening again. “We need to come together as a community here in the country to come up with something, whether it’s new laws, guidelines … this country is our problem right here.”
A super-rich financial status isn’t the only thing Drake and Jeff Bezos have in common. On Instagram Wednesday, the Canadian rapper and Amazon founder bonded over their humble beginnings.
Drake shared a series of throwback images — one of a younger version of himself, presumably during his days as an actor on the show Degrassi and another of Bezos many years ago, sitting at a desk in front of an old computer in what’s been referred to as the very first Amazon office.
“Gotta start somewhere,” the rapper captioned the post, to which Bezos responded with the lyrics of a popular Drake song, “Started from the bottom now we’re here.”
In the first image, Drake is photographed in front of a door marked 1503. According to Complex, 1503 is the address of the apartment on 15 Fort York in Toronto, where the “God’s Plan” rapper and producer Noah “40“ Shebib recorded most of the work for So Far Gone, Drake’s third mixtape.
Drake, 35, previously mentioned 1503 in the 2015 track, “Know Yourself.”
“Yeah, this that Oliver 40, Niko s**t man, 15 Fort York shit ya know,” he raps.
The Grammy-winning star was shocked to learn of Bezos’ comment. “holyyy Jeff knows about the man dem nobody can chat to me today!!! Big Bezos in the comments,” he replied.
According to Forbes, who has Bezos as the second richest man in the world with a net worth of $141.9 billion, the e-commerce giant started Amazon in 1994, out of the garage of his Seattle home.
