Items from Sylvester Stallone‘s personal collection went on the auction block online and at Julien’s in Beverly Hills on Sunday, and his original, handwritten script for the 1976 Oscar-winner Rocky knocked them out with a winning $437,500 bid.
But that’s not all: The Italian Stallion’s American Flag boxing trunks as seen in Rocky III went for $200,000 — twenty times its original estimate.
Other items from Sly’s time on the big screen also had fans spending: The #1 knife from 1982’s First Blood — one of only 13 made for the film — sold for $128,000, while a Stallone-signed piece of original Rocky artwork flew out the door for $112,500, some 56 times its original estimate.
However, treasures from the iconic boxing series weren’t the only big winner at the event. A stunt lightsaber made for Liam Neeson‘s Qui-Gon Jinn for 1999’s Star Wars:Episode 1 — The Phantom Menace sold for $38,400; Arnold Schwarzengger‘s Terminator 2 biker outfit sold for $38,400; and John Travolta‘s Perry Ellis suit from Pulp Fiction fetched $25,600.
Gal Gadot‘s gold Wonder Woman lasso of truth, made of rubber for the big screen, sold for $12,800, and a copy of Grays Sports Almanac — Complete Sports Statistics: 1950-2000 produced for Back to the Future Part II went for $28,800 — seven times its original estimate of $4,000, according to Julien’s.
And just in time for Christmas, somebody shelled out $25,600 for the rubber replica Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun used by Bruce Willis as John McClane in the action film classic Die Hard.
(ATLANTA) — With the omicron variant now detected in at least 16 states in the U.S., Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the agency is “following them closely” and that the number is “likely to rise.”
Walensky told This Week co-anchor Martha Raddatz that the CDC is still uncertain how transmissible the new variant is and how effective approved COVID-19 vaccines will work against it.
“We know it has many mutations, more mutations than prior variants,” she said. “Many of those mutations have been associated with more transmissible variants, with evasion of some of our therapeutics, and potentially evasion of some of our immunity, and that’s what we’re watching really carefully.”
The main concern right now, according to Walensky, is the dominant delta variant in the U.S. and the thousands of cases being diagnosed each day.
“We have about 90 to 100,000 cases a day right now in the United States, and 99.9% of them are the delta variant,” she said.
But South African studies have so far shown that omicron is about twice as transmissible as delta, and when pressed by Raddatz on what that means for the next six months in the U.S., Walensky said it depends on how the public mobilizes together.
“We know from a vaccine standpoint that the more mutations a single variant has, the more immunity you really need to have in order to combat that variant, which is why right now we’re really pushing to get more people vaccinated and more people boosted to really boost that immunity in every single individual,” Walensky said.
She said the CDC is “hopeful” that current vaccines will work to at least prevent severe disease and keep people out of the hospital.
Moderna is currently working on an omicron-specific booster should it be needed and Stephen Hoge, president of Moderna, said it could be ready early next year.
In an exclusive interview with Raddatz last week, Hoge said that a new variant-specific vaccine would be needed if the level of efficacy dropped below 50%.
Efficacy is a “really interesting, important question, but efficacy is sort of in itself on a spectrum,” Walensky said.
“Is it efficacy of preventing disease entirely? Preventing infection entirely, even if it just leads to a runny nose? Or is it efficacy of making sure people stay out of the hospital and prevent death?” Walensky questioned. “Certainly, we want to do the latter, absolutely first. And we’d really like to do the former as well.”
Walensky also said that the Food and Drug Administration is already in “conversations” with vaccine makers to streamline the authorization process of an omicron-specific booster and that the CDC would be moving “swiftly” after that approval.
When Raddatz asked how the U.S. can help to get even more shots into arms around the world and whether the omicron variant would have even appeared if more people in South Africa were vaccinated, Walensky touted U.S. donation efforts.
The Biden administration has pledged to donate more than 1 billion vaccine doses. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, as of Dec. 5, over 237 million doses have been delivered, 45 million have been shipped, leaving nearly 817 million pledged doses yet to be distributed. The White House has pledged to deliver 200 million more doses in the next 100 days to countries in need.
“We’re not only donating the vaccines for free and providing more vaccines to the globe than any — than every other country combined, but we at CDC work in 60 other countries providing on the ground assistance in vaccine safety and vaccine delivery and vaccine confidence, in vaccine effectiveness studies.”
Pressed by Raddatz if she fears a worst case scenario is possible with the omicron variant, Walensky said health experts are better situated to tackle the virus now than when it first appeared.
“We have so many more tools now than we did a year ago,” she said. “We know so many things that work against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, regardless of the variant that we’ve seen before.”
Walensky said getting immunity from the COVID-19 right now is “critically important” and continued to stress the importance of CDC regulations such as masking up in areas with high or substantial transmission.
The CDC director dismissed the idea of a nationwide mask mandate when Raddatz asked and said she’d “rather see people get vaccinated, boosted and follow our recommendations.”
“I’d rather not have requirements in order to do so,” she said. “People should do this for themselves.”
John Legend already has an EGOT — an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony — and now he’s about to add a Las Vegas residency to his impressive resume.
The singer has announced Love in Las Vegas, a new 24-show residency launching at the Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on April 22, 2022.
The show is described as “a vibrant, colorful celebration of love and coming together,” following the themes of John’s 2020 album, Bigger Love. John will perform his favorite songs from throughout his career with the backing of a full band.
Tickets go on sale to the public beginning Monday, December 13 at 10 a.m. PT.
Here are the performance dates going on sale:
April 2022: 22, 23, 27, 29, 30
May 2022: 4, 6, 7
August 2022: 5, 6, 10, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20
October 2022: 14, 15, 19, 21, 22, 26, 28, 29
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 788,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.6% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 06, 8:42 am
NYC mandating vaccines for all private sector employees
New York City Bill de Blasio on Monday announced a vaccine mandate for all private sector employees.
On the talk show Morning Joe, the mayor called the mandate, which goes into effective Dec. 27, a “preemptive strike.”
Dec 06, 8:01 am
Man who became one of the 1st omicron cases in US speaks out
Peter McGinn was one of the first known people in the United States to contract the omicron variant.
The 30-year-old Minnesota resident, who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and has received a booster shot, said he believes he became infected after attending a massive anime convention in New York City in late November. McGinn said he and several other attendees, who are also fully vaccinated, went out together after the event. Half of that group has since tested positive for COVID-19, according to McGinn.
McGinn said he tested positive after returning home to Minnesota and learning that a friend with whom he attended the convention had contracted the virus.
“I felt perfectly safe with the people that I was with, and so it never really crossed my mind to think that I had COVID,” McGinn told ABC News on Sunday. “I was just a little taken aback.”
Several dozen cases of omicron, a newly discovered variant of the novel coronavirus, have now been reported in at least 17 states across the country, according to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dec 06, 6:12 am
17 people test positive for COVID-19 on cruise ship in New Orleans
At least 17 people aboard a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship docked in New Orleans have tested positive for COVID-19, officials said Sunday.
The cases were found among both passengers and crew members on the Norwegian Breakaway cruise ship. A probable case of the omicron variant was also identified among a member of the crew, who is not a Louisiana resident and did not leave the ship, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
Earlier Sunday, Louisiana confirmed its first case of omicron, which the health department said did not include any of the passengers or crew members from the Norwegian Breakaway.
The Norwegian Breakaway had departed New Orleans on Nov. 28 and returned this weekend as scheduled. Over the past week, the cruise ship made stops in Belize, Honduras and Mexico.
The ship docked in New Orleans on Sunday and all individuals on board were tested prior to disembarkation, according to a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Lines.
“In addition to requiring that 100% of guests and crew are fully vaccinated, per the Company’s comprehensive health and safety protocols, we have implemented quarantine, isolation and contact tracing procedures for identified cases,” the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement Sunday. “Any guests who have tested positive for COVID-19 will travel by personal vehicle to their personal residence or self-isolate in accommodations provided by the Company according to CDC guidelines.”
All of the identified cases on board were asymptomatic, according to the spokesperson.
“We take this matter extremely seriously and will continue to work closely with the CDC, the office of Governor John Bel Edwards, the Louisiana Department of Health as well as the city and port of New Orleans,” the spokesperson added.
HBO Max dropped a first-look teaser trailer for Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts on Sunday night, featuring appearances from Robbie Coltrane, Matthew Lewis and Mark Williams.
The streaming service says the project “will tell an enchanting making-of story through all-new in-depth interviews and cast conversations, inviting fans on a magical first-person journey through one of the most beloved film franchises of all time.”
Besides Coltrane, Lewis and Williams, the special will feature interviews with cast principal cast members Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, as well as Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Gary Oldman, Imelda Staunton, Tom Felton and director Chris Columbus, among others. Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts premieres January 1 on HBO Max.
If your Spidey senses were tingling on Saturday, it was for a good reason: We got us our first peek at Sony Pictures Animation’s follow-up to the Oscar-winning animated hit Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Along with more eye-popping visuals came an official title: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse — and a surprise subtitle: “Part One,” hinting at more Spider-Verse sequels on the way.
The clip shows Miles Morales — again voiced by Shameik Moore — listening to Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower,” before Hailee Steinfeld‘s Gwen Stacy, a.k.a. Spider-Gwen, drops in on him from an alternate dimension and the two swing through cities and dimensional portals. At one point, Miles is helped through the air by Spider-Man 2099, a future version of the web-slinger whose alter-ego is the Irish-Mexican hero Miguel O’Hara.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse swoops into theaters October 7, 2022.
(NEW YORK) — Charging an electric vehicle is simple and painless — if you have a charger installed at home.
Automakers are producing EVs at a feverish pace with government backing. Yet the number of public charging stations, critical for mass EV adoption, is lacking.
There are fewer than 46,000 EV public charging sites currently in the U.S., according to Department of Energy data. In comparison, the number of gasoline fueling stations in the country totals more than 150,000.
There are several EV-charging network providers currently in the market: EVgo, Blink, ChargePoint, Volta, Wallbox and Electrify America, which is owned by Volkswagen. These companies maintain, build, operate or lease their equipment to businesses, individuals and governments and offer subscription services to members.
The Biden administration has targeted half of all new car sales in the U.S. to be electric in less than 10 years. To reach this goal, at least 1 million fast-charging stations will be required, according to Cathy Zoi, the CEO of EVgo. There are currently 5,627 fast-charging sites in the nation.
At-home EV charging allows drivers to plug in their vehicles at night and wake up in the morning to a full battery charge. Many apartment and condo dwellers though are dependent on public charging stations to juice their emissions-free vehicles, a scenario that can mean long wait and charging times.
“Thirty percent of Americans do not have access to home chargers,” Zoi told ABC News. “We need the infrastructure to get the consumer confidence.”
EVgo has been partnering with major retailers like Safeway, Albertsons, Whole Foods and Kroger to install charging stations in their shopping parking lots. The company also teamed up with General Motors in 2020 to build 2,700 new fast stations over the next five years.
“We’ve identified 40 metro areas in America’s heartland that are part of this program,” Zoi explained. “The Biden infrastructure money can get us into places even farther afield in rural America.”
President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure package, which was recently passed by Congress, includes $7.5 billion toward a nationwide network of 500,000 EV charging stations by 2030.
Michael Farkas, CEO of EV charging operator and provider Blink, said the $7.5 billion — half of Biden’s $15 billion proposal as presidential candidate — will not be enough to accomplish the electrification goals cited by automakers and government officials.
“It will push things along but it will take substantially more [money] than that,” he told ABC News. “Every state is lacking in infrastructure — even California. We have a massive need for chargers both in the U.S. and globally.”
Construction of an EV station can take four to eight weeks, according to Zoi, and the cost depends on the type of charger. A Level 2 charger, commonly found in residential and commercial/workplace settings, costs between $3,000 and $5,000 to install. DC fast chargers, which allow drivers to recharge 80% of a vehicle’s battery in 30 minutes, start at $125,000 but can top out at $300,000.
The bigger challenge to installing charging networks may not be the cost. Getting approvals from local officials and municipalities can often be a complicated process that lasts weeks or even months, said Zoi. Plus, connecting to the grid presents its own hiccups.
“We’re working with the electric utilities to make sure the local power infrastructure can support fast charging,” Zoi said.
Even in California, which has the highest share of EVs of any U.S. state, public charging stations are far from ubiquitous, said Karl Brauer, executive analyst of iSeeCars.com and a longtime California resident.
“EVs still take a whole lot of planning. You have to know how long your trip is and carefully plan your charging schedule and locations,” he told ABC News. “The infrastructure is terrible. The good news is that there are not many EVs on the roads.”
The ability to charge on the go and travel long distances will move the needle on EV adoption and sales, Brauer said. Yet installing and deploying chargers is a risky business right now.
“There doesn’t seem to be any money being made in EV charging stations,” he said. “What’s the incentive to buy an EV station when there isn’t a profit motive?”
Not enough public EV chargers could dissuade some Americans from swapping their gas-powered conveyances for green vehicles, according to Mark Wakefield, managing director of consulting firm AlixPartners.
“The charging infrastructure is tricky. There are a lot of stakeholders involved and an awful lot of players to coordinate, government included,” he told ABC News. “Range is the No. 1 reason [among Americans] not to buy an EV. The No. 2 reason? Not enough places to charge.”
He added, “Consumers want automakers to curate their charging experience. They want it to be seamless.”
Only 93 U.S. airport locations have charging infrastructure in place, with as few as two stations, according to AlixPartners. EV public infrastructure coverage continues to grow steadily though “most of the growth has been driven by Level 2 chargers,” the firm said in a recent report. DC fast chargers, however, are largely seen as the solution to revolutionizing EV ownership.
Federal tax incentives and subsides from states and and local ordinances can help offset the costs of these networks, said Wakefield. But the U.S. needs to invest $50 billion to accommodate EV growth, he noted.
John Voelcker, contributing editor to Car and Driver magazine who has covered EVs extensively, said part of Tesla’s sweeping success was its ability to create a supercharging network exclusive to its vehicles from the very beginning.
“I don’t think Tesla would have sold so many expensive EVs as it did without the ability to drive cross country. The company publicized the existence of this Tesla-branded network,” he told ABC News. “I am not seeing carmakers except for Tesla putting in big efforts to build these stations.”
He went on, “It says a lot about carmakers’ reliance on the free market to solve everything and their lack of understanding in EVs beyond the vehicle itself.”
EV stations in city streets and parking garages will also multiply to placate urban drivers, said Voelcker, noting that public charging stations in London have become part of the city landscape, with EV owners hooking up their vehicles to stations built curbside.
EVgo has big plans to expand its charging network from 1,600 DC fast chargers to 10,000 by 2025. Zoi’s team of site developers are actively scouring the country, looking for opportunities to service new EV owners.
“Chargers will become commonplace,” Zoi said reassuringly. “The arrival of EVs can create more car enthusiasts.”
(DETROIT) — The parents of Ethan Crumbley, the 15-year-old who authorities said killed four classmates at his Michigan high school, are still in jail after a judge assigned them each a $500,000 bond on manslaughter charges related to the shooting.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were taken into custody early Saturday after they failed to turn themselves in Friday afternoon for a scheduled arraignment, prompting an hourslong search for the couple. They remained in the Oakland County jail on Sunday and have not posted bail, online jail records show.
The couple was captured in Detroit after a business owner called 911 after spotting the suspects’ car in their parking lot and Jennifer Crumbley standing next to it, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. She fled the area on foot, but the couple was located in a commercial building in an art studio after an extensive search of the area.
They were “aided in getting into the building,” Detroit Police Chief James White told reporters at a 3 a.m. press conference Saturday, adding that it was “very likely” they were trying to flee to Canada. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said his office would be presenting potential charges to the prosecutor’s office against the person who allegedly helped them gain access to the building.
The 65-year-old Detroit artist whose studio Jennifer and James Crumbley used to hide as they allegedly fled authorities on Friday is maintaining his innocence in their movements that day, his attorney, Clarence Dass, told ABC News.
The lawyer for Andzrej Sikora told ABC News on Sunday that the Crumbleys came to Sikora on Friday morning, the day the county leveled charges of involuntary manslaughter against the couple in the Oxford school shooting. The Crumbleys knew Sikora through a ski club, Dass said.
Dass declined to describe the interaction Friday morning and would not say whether Sikora gave the couple keys to the Detroit building that houses his studio. Sikora was not aware the couple was facing charges in the shooting, saying that he “knew what was going on” but wasn’t following the news closely, Dass said.
When Sikora woke up on Saturday and saw the news of the Crumbleys’ overnight arrest, he went to the Detroit Police Department and told them he was the owner of the studio, Dass said. Authorities then directed him to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, where he provided information about what he knew, before hiring Dass as counsel.
Sikora has not been arrested and no charges have been filed against his client, Dass said, but he did not rule out the possibility that authorities could charge the artist this week.
Each parent is facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter for what authorities are saying was a failure to properly secure the firearm that was used in the shooting. They have both pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On Tuesday, the morning of the shooting, a teacher at Oxford High School saw a note on Ethan Crumbley’s desk with a drawing of a semi-automatic handgun pointing at the words, “The thoughts won’t stop, help me,” prosecutors said. Another drawing depicted a bullet with the words “Blood everywhere” above it and a drawing of a bleeding person who appeared to have been shot twice, according to prosecutors.
Ethan Crumbley was then removed from class, and his parents, who school officials said were “difficult to reach,” were called to the school.
Ethan Crumbley told school guidance counselors that the drawings were for a video game he was designing, Oxford Community Schools Superintendent Tim Throne said in a statement Saturday. His parents did not indicate that they had recently purchased a firearm for him and led the counselors to believe there was no threat of violence, to himself or to others, Throne said.
It is not clear whether the gun was in Ethan Crumbley’s backpack at the time, Throne added. Due to his lack of disciplinary record, they sent him back to class instead of home, Throne said. His parents were then told that they were required to get their son into counseling within 48 hours.
Hours later, Ethan Crumbley was armed with a 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol his father bought on Nov. 26 as he walked down the hallway, aiming into classrooms, Oakland County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Marc Keast said during Wednesday’s arraignment. There were 18 live rounds left in the firearm when he was apprehended in the hallway, Bouchard told reporters Wednesday.
Ethan Crumbley has been charged as an adult with four counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of assault with intent to murder — actions that prosecutors allege were premeditated.
Throne has requested a third-party probe to investigate how the school handled the events leading up to the shooting.
“I have personally asked for a third-party review of all the events of the past week because our community and our families deserve a full, transparent accounting of what occurred,” Throne said.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has also reached out to the Oxford Community Schools to offer help in investiating the shooting and events leading up to it.
“Our attorneys and special agents are uniquely qualified to perform an investigation of this magnitude,” Nessel tweeted.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso, Ahmad Hemingway, Will McDuffie and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
Disney’s Encanto topped the box office for a second weekend, earning an estimated $12.7 million at the typically slow weekend-after-Thanksgiving box office. It was enough, however, to lift Encanto‘s stateside tallies to just under $58 million, and upward of $116 million overseas.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife held onto second place with an estimated $10.4 million to push its total box office take past the 100-million-dollar mark domestically in three weeks of release. It tacked on an estimated $42.9 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $145.1 million.
House of Gucci landed in third place, delivering an estimated $6.8 million in its second week of release. The Ridley Scott-directed film about the downfall of the renowned Italian fashion dynasty pulled in $33.6 million in the U.S. and another $33.6 million abroad, putting its global box-office take at $67.2 million.
Christmas with the Chosen: The Messengers, the musical based on the life of Jesus, earned an estimated $4.1 million in its debut weekend. The film, which opened on Wednesday, has racked up a total of $8.8 million stateside.
Rounding out the top five was Marvel’s Eternals, with an estimated $3.9 million in its fifth week of release. Eternals has earned a total of $156.5 million domestically and another $227.8 million overseas, bringing its current worldwide haul to $384.3 million.
Elsewhere, Paul Thomas Anderson‘s critically acclaimed film, Licorice Pizza, grabbed an estimated $223,000 from just four theaters, for a cumulative total of $761,000.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — A man was arrested for allegedly harassing the judge overseeing the trial of Kim Potter, the former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, officer who shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in April.
A group protested Judge Regina Chu last month for her decision to ban cameras inside the courtroom during the trial and rallied outside an apartment building in Minneapolis, where they believed the judge lived, according to court documents.
Cortez Rice, 32, was among the protesters and went inside the building while others remained outside, investigators said. Rice allegedly made his way to the 12th floor, live streaming his actions on YouTube, according to the complaint.
“I think this is her crib right here,” Rice was allegedly filmed saying outside a door, according to the complaint.
The defendant walked down to the lobby where other protesters asked him if the building was the right location, the complaint said.
“That’s her window on the 12th floor,” Rice said, according to the complaint.
Rice was also heard yelling to Chu, “We demand transparency. We’d hate you to get kicked out of your apartment,” the complaint said.
Judge Chu spoke with investigators and said she “believed she was the target of Rice and the other protestors,” and “it was her belief the intention was to intimidate her and to interfere with the judicial process.”
Rice was arrested last week and charged with felony harassment with aggravated violations — tampering with a juror or retaliating against a judicial officer, the complaint said. The defendant is currently being held at the Waukesha County Jail in Wisconsin and is awaiting extradition, court papers show.
Rice’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to messages from ABC News for comment.
Opening arguments in Potter’s criminal trial are slated to begin on Wednesday.
Potter has been charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Wright, a 20-year-old Black man. In April, Potter stopped Wright’s car over for an expired registration tag.
She then determined he had an outstanding warrant for a gross misdemeanor weapons charge and tried to detain him, according to former Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon, who resigned after the incident.
As officers tried to arrest him, Wright freed himself and tried to get back in his vehicle. That’s when, according to Potter’s attorneys, she accidentally grabbed her firearm instead of her stun gun and shot him.
The incident, which was captured on body worn cameras, set off more protests against police violence and racial profiling in Minnesota.
