Sam Asghari, who married Britney Spears earlier this month, says their wedding was a “fairytale.”
On Wednesday morning, the Iranian-American actor appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America to talk about his new film, Hot Seat, but he also opened up about life as a married man. “I have to wear this thing now,” Sam joked, pointing to his ring. “It’s heavy, man. I’m getting a workout with it!”
“It’s just been surreal, man.” he added. “It’s been a minute. It was way overdue for us, and we imagined this thing being a fairytale and it was.”
Sam and Britney first met while on the set of her “Slumber Party” music video in 2016. After five years together, Sam popped the question in September 2021.
His comments about the wedding were echoed by wedding guest Paris Hilton, who told E!, “It was a magical fairytale. I’m so happy for her. She’s like an angel. And it was just an iconic night with so many incredible powerful women.” In addition to Paris, the guest list included Drew Barrymore, Donatella Versace and Madonna.
“Just seeing her walk down the aisle in the dress, I was crying,” Paris added. “It was just so beautiful and romantic and just seeing sparkles and happiness in her eyes. And just seeing my Brit back and just in love and just the whole thing.”
Paris, who sang her hit “Stars Are Blind” at the wedding with Selena Gomez, said of her longtime friend, “She’s one of the kindest people in the world and is such an angel. She is not like any of the people in this town. She means a lot to me.”
Sam’s movie Hot Seat is out July 1 and also stars Mel Gibson, Shannen Doherty and Kevin Dillon.
Miranda Lambert has great news about the breast cancer diagnosis her mother, Beverly, received last September.
“She’s been through a whole lot, but she’s doing really well, and she’s ready to roll,” the star says, revealing in a new Peoplecover story that her mother is now cancer free.
“I was able to be there with her through the hardest parts. She’s unstoppable,” Miranda explains. “She’s just been so strong and positive through the whole thing. It’s a good lesson for people to take away from a journey like that: Even though it’s a really scary place to be, the more positive, the better.”
The singer adds that she, her dad Rick and brother Luke, all gathered around Beverly in the family’s home state of Texas to help her through the ordeal.
Miranda and her mom have always been close — they even co-founded the MuttNation Foundation, an organization that supports shelter pets — and Beverly tells People that her country superstar daughter was there every step of the way.
“When she wasn’t here in Texas, we talked by phone or FaceTime so she could see how I was,” Beverly recounts. “On my head-shaving day, she FaceTimed with me and my hairdresser so she could be with me.”
She adds, “We had some unexpected bonding moments over her rubbing my bald head with essential oils. Those were the rawest and most tearful moments.”
Mandy Moore is putting her family first and cancelling her tour.
Taking to Instagram Tuesday, the This Is Us star, who is expecting her second child with husband Taylor Goldsmith, shared, “It is with a heavy heart and much consideration that I have to let you all know that I am cancelling my remaining show dates in 2022.
“It has been an honor and an absolute dream to return to the stage again this past month, performing for all of you,” she continued.
The actress, 38 — who is also mom to 16-month-old son August Harrison — explained that she wasn’t pregnant when the shows were booked and while she thought she “could power though,” it was “long hours” and “not getting proper rest” that ultimately made it “too challenging to proceed.”
“I know that I have to put my family and my health (and the health of my baby) first and the best place for me to be right now is at home,” she wrote.
Moore thanked her fans for their support and for respecting her decision, before notifying them that all tickets will be refunded.
(NEW YORK) — Three tropical systems are churning in the Atlantic basin that could develop into a tropical storm or tropical depression over the next two days.
The closest system to the U.S. is near the Texas coast. It has a 40% chance of strengthening into a tropical depression as it moves on shore just south of Houston in the next 24 hours.
Up to six inches of rain is possible south of Houston and three to four inches is expected for Houston itself Wednesday night through Friday morning. Street flooding is possible.
The second system is in the southern Caribbean and has a 90% chance of developing into Tropical Storm Bonnie.
Gusty winds and heavy rain are expected in Aruba and life-threatening flash flooding is forecast for Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
The third tropical system is now moving through the central Atlantic and will be hovering over the eastern Caribbean by this weekend. This storm may bring heavy rain and gusty winds to Puerto Rico for the 4th of July.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 29, 9:15 am
Finland, Sweden invited to join NATO
The leaders of NATO countries have invited Sweden and Finland to join NATO, they announced at the Madrid summit.
NATO leaders in their declaration called Russia “the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area.”
Jun 29, 8:28 am
NATO to identify Russia as its ‘main threat,’ Spanish PM says
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who is hosting a NATO summit in Madrid, said Russia will be identified as the alliance’s “main threat” in its new strategic concept unveiled during the summit.
“The strategic concept of Madrid will be naming Russia as the main threat of the allies,” Sánchez told Spanish media on Wednesday. NATO previously considered Russia a strategic partner.
Sánchez stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was the only person “responsible for this substantive change.”
During a speech at the NATO summit on Wednesday, the Spanish Prime Minister said the summit carried a clear signal for Putin.
“We are sending a strong message to Putin: ‘You will not win,’” Sánchez said.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Facebook on Tuesday that thousands of Ukrainian soldiers had mastered the use of weapons supplied by Western countries, while other troops are in ongoing training.
Reznikov said Ukrainian specialists were training on aviation and other types of high-tech weaponry, including artillery systems and means of reconnaissance.
“We are learning at a fast pace,” the defense minister added. “Any weapon in the hands of the [Ukrainian] Armed Forces becomes even more effective.”
In his speech at the NATO summit on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeated his plea for more weapons supplies, highlighting Ukraine’s need for more modern artillery systems.
To break Russia’s artillery advantage, Ukraine needs “much more modern systems, modern artillery,” Zelenskyy said.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jun 29, 7:39 am
Missile strike on mall may have been mistake
Russia’s recent missile strike on a shopping mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, which killed at least 20 people, may have been “intended to hit a nearby infrastructure target,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Wednesday in an intelligence update.
The ministry called it “a realistic possibility” and noted that “Russia’s inaccuracy in conducting long range strikes has previously resulted in mass civilian casualty incidents, including at Kramatorsk railway station” on April 9.
“Russian planners highly likely remain willing to accept a high level of collateral damage when they perceive military necessity in striking a target,” the ministry said. “It is almost certain that Russia will continue to conduct strikes in an effort to interdict the resupplying of Ukrainian frontline forces.”
“Russia’s shortage of more modern precision strike weapons and the professional shortcomings of their targeting planners will highly likely result in further civilian casualties,” the ministry warned.
Jun 28, 4:51 pm
20 dead, 40 still missing from mall strike
Twenty people are dead and 59 are wounded from Russia’s missile strike on Monday at a mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, according to Kyrilo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Forty people remain missing, Tymoshenko said.
“Several fragments of bodies have been found ripped off limbs and feet of the people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the United Nations Security Council.
He said if Russia denies the devastation was wrought by one of its missiles, he asked the U.N. send an independent representative to the site of the attack to verify for itself.
First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the U.N., Dmitry Polyanskiy, flatly denied carrying out strikes against any civilian target.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford, Oleksii Pshemysko and Fidel Pavlenko
Jun 28, 12:58 pm
Sean Penn meets with Zelenskyy
Sean Penn met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Tuesday after the actor arrived in Ukraine to shoot a documentary, according to Zelenskyy’s office.
Penn, who first came to Ukraine on the day Russia invaded in February, wants to “visit settlements in Ukraine affected by Russian aggression,” according to Zelenskyy’s office.
Jun 28, 4:13 pm
Biden: Ukraine ‘standing up’ to Putin ‘in ways that I don’t think anyone anticipated’
President Joe Biden and Spanish President Pedro Sanchez delivered remarks Tuesday on new areas of cooperation between the two countries and efforts to keep supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.
Biden did not mention Monday’s strike on the Ukraine mall that killed 18, but said the invasion has “shattered peace in Europe and every norm since WWII.”
Biden said he and Sanchez discussed the need to continue to provide weapons to Ukraine.
The Ukrainians “are standing up in ways that I don’t think anyone anticipated, showing enormous bravery, enormous resolve,” Biden said.
He said he believes Putin’s objective is to “wipe out the culture of Ukraine.”
Biden said NATO allies will be “standing as one” to support Ukraine and teased more military posture commitments in Europe. Biden said the U.S. and Spain are working on an agreement to increase the number of Navy destroyers stationed at Rota Naval Base in Spain.
(SEOUL, South Korea) — A North Korean defector group in Seoul claimed on Tuesday to have launched air balloons carrying medical supplies near the inter-Korean border.
The Fighters for Free North Korea, an activist group of North Korean defectors who send anti-propaganda leaflets across the border, said they flew 20 air balloons carrying 50,000 pain relief pills, 30,000 vitamin C and 20,000 N-95 masks. Dispatching unauthorized materials at the border is against the law in South Korea.
“In order to help the miserable mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters in North Korea who are dying without any medicine, the Fighters for Free North Korea is temporarily halting the anti-Pyongyang leaflet sending, and will send medical supplies to help with COVID situation in the North,” Park Sang Hak, a North Korean defector who leads the activist group, told ABC News.
The South Korean government since 2020 has banned sending leaflets across the border. Sending them carries a maximum prison term of three years or fines up to $27,400.
The non-government organization has been gathering help from human rights support groups based in Seoul and the U.S. to send medical supplies to the North since the Kim Jong Un regime acknowledged the outbreak on May 13.
North Korea remains one of the only two nations without COVID vaccines. Ever since admitting that it had its first COVID patient, the isolated regime has been announcing the number of ‘fever patients’ and COVID-related deaths through its state media daily. Lacking medical supplies to treat the pandemic, Pyongyang’s main newspaper, Roding Sinmun, advised people to use traditional remedies such as drinking willow or honeysuckle leaf tea.
“In South Korea, even animals are given medicine to treat diseases, the North Korean regime is uncivilized at the worst level,” Park told ABC News. “All we want for the families and friends in North Korea is for them to be treated with real medicine to fight COVID-19.”
An official from the Unification Ministry told ABC News that police and other authorities were working to confirm Tuesday’s balloon launch.
“The ministry understands the intent of the distribution, but believe in the need [for the group] to restrain its activities considering the sensitive inter-Korean relationship and the government’s effort for cooperation in the inter-Korean disinfection, and whether [the activities] could actually help the North Korean people,” the official said.
The group claims that it’s the second time this month they have sent air balloons with medical supplies to the North, and will continue to do so.
A man previously arrested for stalking Ariana Grande was busted again on Tuesday after allegedly breaking into the singer’s Montecito, California home, violating a previous court order.
Aharon Zebulun Israel Brown, 23, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of stalking, burglary and damaging power lines — all felonies — and misdemeanor allegations of obstruction of a peace officer, violating a court order, and tampering with a fire-alarm equipment, Raquel Zick, sheriff’s public information officer tells Noozhawk.
It is not known whether Grande was at the residence at the time of the incident.
Brown was arrested last September at Grande’s LA home after Brown allegedly threatened her security personnel with a large knife.
He entered not-guilty pleas Tuesday in Superior Court in Santa Barbara and is due back in court on Wednesday of next week, Jennifer Karapetian, senior deputy district attorney, tells Noozhawk. Brown remained in custody without bail on Tuesday at the Santa Barbara County Jail.
A preliminary hearing is tentatively set for next Friday.
Wendy, who has been battling health issues including lymphedema — a condition that causes swelling due to a blockage in the lymphatic system, according to the Mayo Clinic — also revealed that she only has about five percent of feeling left in her feet.
While lifting her swollen foot up for the camera, the longtime host said, “Do you see this? [My foot] is up and down. I can only feel maybe five percent of my feet, do you understand?” She then clarified that she can “stand up” on her own and doesn’t need the help of a wheelchair.
The Wendy Williams Show ran for 13 seasons, with Wendy on hiatus from the show’s final season as she dealt with her various health conditions. The final season continued with a rotation of guests hosts before ending on June 17.
(NEW YORK) — Updated COVID-19 vaccines that could better match the more recent variants are on the way.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s committee of independent advisors met and recommended that the vaccines should target the latest omicron variant, kicking off the process for distribution of the new vaccines this fall.
That could be good news for the fight against the virus. But the next few months hold a lot of uncertainty.
Many vaccine scientists agree that as the virus evolves, vaccines should be updated along with it. But scientists caution that planning ahead in this pandemic is challenging. A new variant could emerge by the fall, rendering even new vaccines old by then.
There’s also a question of how many people will get the shot — both because the government doesn’t have enough funding to secure vaccines for everyone, and because less than half of eligible Americans have received their first booster shots.
That said, the vaccine companies have been testing different strategies for a new-and-improved booster shot.
On Tuesday, the FDA’s advisers reviewed the data and favored a bivalent vaccine — a type of vaccine that targets two strains of virus in the same shot. They recommended that it include the latest omicron subvariant and the original strain, generally supporting it because it could protect more broadly against future variants.
FDA leadership will announce the final decision sometime in early July, incorporating the advisers’ discussion from Tuesday.
Health officials are aiming to roll out the newly designed vaccines in early October, said Dr. Peter Marks, who oversees the FDA’s vaccine department.
The goal is to get ahead of a potential surge next winter.
“That combination of waning immunity, combined with the potential emergence of novel variants during a time this winter when we will move inside as a population, increases our risk of a major COVID-19 outbreak,” Marks said.
“And for that reason, we have to give serious consideration to a booster campaign this fall to help protect us during this period from another COVID-19 surge,” he said.
How much better will the new vaccines be?
Scientists cautioned that existing vaccines are still working well to prevent severe illness.
And while newer shots will help, they might not be significantly better at preventing more mild breakthrough illness.
“It will be better than what we have now, but I don’t think we are going to see 94% again,” said Dr. Paul Goepfert, professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The current vaccines, designed to match the original Wuhan virus, initially showed efficacy of 94% — but that’s now thought to be an untenable goal because of rapidly-evolving new variants, Goepfert said.
“It’s essentially an arms race,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, author on the recent study and director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “As the population becomes more immune, the virus becomes more and more immune evasive.”
Updated vaccines “will be helpful,” Barouch said, but are unlikely to be a “game changer” that end the need for future boosters.
The political snag getting in the way
The other major caveat to the rollout of new vaccines this fall is funding — the battle over which has been stuck in a stalemate on Capitol Hill since the winter.
The White House has since pulled funds out of COVID test manufacturing and put it toward contract negotiations for the newest vaccines, but the decision leaves the US vulnerable to a testing shortage, and still doesn’t fully do the job.
“It’s very clear we’re not going to have enough vaccines for every adult who wants one,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s COVID coordinator, said last week.
Jha called the decision to move money away from testing “incredibly painful,” but necessary to avoid missing out on orders entirely as other countries placed theirs.
“Contract negotiators on behalf of the US government are going to enter into contract negotiations with Moderna and Pfizer with the resources that we’ve been able to … cobble together for vaccines for the fall,” Jha said.
The government will purchase enough for high-risk Americans to get the latest vaccines, Jha said.
But it’s unclear how the rest of the population will get access to the vaccines. On one hand, demand for vaccines has continued to drop since the initial doses. If that trend continues and fewer people want a vaccine, it’s possible that the government’s smaller order could still cover people who want one.
And some experts don’t think everyone will need a booster in the fall, like Dr. Paul Offitt, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who said he thinks re-upping antibody levels ahead of a likely winter surge would be beneficial for high-risk groups, but not necessary for everybody.
Another option is for insurance companies to step in and cover vaccines, rather than the government distributing them for free. Jha dismissed this option, though, calling it too soon to switch to the private market because there’s still too much competition for ordering doses among countries and insurance companies wouldn’t have enough leverage.
“There is not a commercialization plan that somehow would be ready in time for this fall and winter,” Jha said.
Yet vaccine companies have indicated that they’re ready to distribute their vaccines through insurance companies and won’t leave the American market behind.
Though it’s still months away, both the White House and the vaccine companies have committed to devising a plan as fall draws closer.
Elvis director Baz Luhrmann announced on Tuesday that he’s turning Australia, his epic 2008 romance film starring Nicole Kidman, into a six-episode director’s cut version for Hulu titled Faraway Downs. “I originally set out to take the notion of the sweeping Gone with the Wind-style epic and turn it on its head…A way of using romance and epic drama to shine a light on the roles of First Nations people and the painful scar in Australian history of the ‘Stolen Generations,’” Luhrmann explained in a statement obtained by Variety. He added, “While Australia the film has its own life, there was another telling of this story.” It’s one that includes “alternative plot twists that an episodic format has allowed us to explore.” Faraway Downs is set to launch this winter…
The first trailer for Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives, based on the 2018 mission to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a flooding Thai cave, dropped on Tuesday. Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen play John Volanthen and Richard Stanton, two of the divers involved in the mission. After considering various options, the rescue team decided to remove the boys one by one by rendering them unconscious and swimming through the tunnels with them. Thirteen Lives — also starring Paul Gleeson, Tom Bateman and Joel Edgerton — is set for a limited theatrical release on July 29, before streaming on Amazon Prime Video August 5…
Deadline reports Amazon Freevee, formerly IMDB TV, is developing a reboot of the 1980s sitcom Who’s the Boss?, executive-produced by Norman Lear and featuring Alyssa Milano and Tony Danza reprising their roles as father and daughter Tony and Samantha Micelli. The reboot will reportedly follow Samantha’s life as a single mother, now living in the same house where the original was set, and her relationship with her now-retired dad. Judith Light and Danny Pintauro, who also starred in the original, are not attached to the new series as of yet. Katherine Helmond, who also starred in the original series, which aired on ABC from 1984-1992, died in 2019…
