Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images for National Geographic
Hollywood is shaken after the death Thursday of Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer who was working on the Western Rust when a firearm was discharged on the set by star Alec Baldwin, with an unknown projectile striking and killing Hutchins.
It had been reported the film’s writer and director, Joel Souza, was critically wounded in the incident, but actress and co-star Frances Fisher says that’s not the case.
In a tweet early Friday morning ET, Fisher said Souza is “out of the hospital,” and that quotes regarding Baldwin that ran in the Daily Beast “are incorrect.” The publication claimed the actor fired a prop gun believing it was loaded with blanks, and “did not know the prop contained live rounds.”
The Daily Beast also reported: “Although there were early reports that the gun contained live ammunition, the movie’s production company later said it contained blank rounds.”
An investigation into the incident is underway, and neither Baldwin nor anyone else involved has been criminally charged with any wrongdoing.
A firearm loaded with blank ammunition is still potentially deadly. One of the most notorious mishaps involving a weapon loaded with blanks happened on March 31, 1993, on the set of the film The Crow, where a rushed production led to the death of star Brandon Lee. A revolver was being used for a close-up, so prop bullets were needed to be seen in the pistol’s cylinder. One had broken off and stayed there, and when the pistol was chambered with a blank round, that force ejected the dummy slug, causing a mortal wound to Lee’s abdomen.
In 1984, actor Jon-Erik Hexum fatally shot himself on the set of the CBS series Cover Up when he playfully put a gun loaded with blanks to his own head and fired. The blank’s wadding — material that helps seal a charge inside of a round — ejected with enough force to penetrate Hexum’s skull.
In 2008, a Utah teen named Tucker Thayer fatally shot himself with a .38 loaded with blanks for a high school production.
For safety and budgetary reasons, many filmmakers have now switched to digital muzzle flashes, which are added in post-production.
Melanie C, aka Sporty Spice, admits she’s still “licking [her] wounds” following her Dancing with the Stars departure.
The Spice Girls member admitted to Entertainment Tonight that she finds it “so, so strange” her journey on the competition has come to an end.
“I was so committed… everybody on the show is, and all of a sudden it’s over,” Melanie remarked, adding that she finds it “surreal” that it ended so suddenly: “I did really hope and think I’d be there a little longer.”
Melanie and influencer Olivia Jade were in the bottom two on Monday’s show, but head judge Len Goodman saved Jade, the daughter of actress Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli. Last year, the couple pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal.
As for what Melanie plans on doing now, the “Wannabe” singer hinted that a trip to the recording studio is in order.
“I think there’s a whole album out there waiting to be written after this experience,” she teased. “I’ve done so much in my life. I’ve been so fortunate. I’ve had a great career. I was a Spice Girl, I was a solo artist, I’ve done theater, I’ve done so many different things, but nothing prepared me for this.”
Speaking of albums, Melanie shared more about Spice 25 —, the repackaged and remastered 25th anniversary edition of the Spice Girls’ debut album, Spice, out October 29 — which she says “brought back so many memories.”
“We dug into the archives, and we just found lots of demos, unreleased tracks. There’s so many little quirky moments. There’s a little edit of us just messing about in the studio,” she explained. “I think for those real fans out there who love to collect all the memorabilia, they’re gonna love it.”
(NOTE NATURE) Taraji P. Henson is ready to talk about one of the hardest moments of her life — gathering the courage to leave an abusive relationship.
Ahead of her new installment of Peace of Mind with Taraji, which airs on Facebook Watch, the Hidden Figures star shared a clip of the difficult conversation with Growing Up Hip Hop star Angela Simmons.
The two opened up about their troubled exes, with Taraji admitting she was physically abused by her partner when she was younger.
“Sometimes, as women, what we do is we fall in love and we go, ‘You know what? I’ll fix it later,'” the 51-year-old actress explained and revealed when she knew what she had was broken beyond repair. “For me it was when blood was drawn.”
“It started with the bruises and grabbing, things like that. And then once the fist came, once the balled hand came and the fists — and I’m missing a piece of my lip to this day — that’s when I knew I had to go,” Henson explained.
Taraji reveals that she “grew up around [abuse,]” and knew she had to break the cycle in order to protect her son, Marcell Johnson, who is now 27. “I was like, ‘I don’t want my son around this.'”
Peace of Mind with Taraji airs Mondays at 9 a.m. ET on Facebook Watch.
For anyone affected by abuse and needing support, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or if you’re unable to speak safely, you can log onto thehotline.org or text LOVEIS to 1-866-331-9474.
Adele continues to shatter records with her new song “Easy On Me,” which she released last week.
Varietyreports that a record number of radio stations started playing “Easy On Me” in its first week of release and gave the single the most plays across a seven-day period in radio history: A total of 451 radio stations reported that they immediately put the single into rotation.
Furthermore, “Easy On Me” enjoyed the most single-week plays across five different musical formats, with over 6,000 total plays, making Adele the only artist to achieve this feat.
Adele’s doing pretty well on YouTube, too, where the video for “Easy On Me” has racked up over 99.2 million total views since it was posted on October 14.
System of a Down was forced to postpone a pair of upcoming shows in Los Angeles after frontman Serj Tankian tested positive for COVID-19.
Tankian shared the news with fans on his Instagram Thursday, explaining, “After having 3 really fun shows, I got back to LA with flu-like symptoms. I am shocked that it could even be Covid as I am not just vaccinated but also incredibly careful.”
SOAD was set to play at Los Angeles’ Banc of California Stadium on Friday, October 22, and Saturday, October 23, alongside Korn, Helmet and Russian Circles. The band has since pushed the shows into next year, setting the new dates on February 4 and February 5.
Tickets purchased for the October shows will be honored for the new dates. Those unable to make the rescheduled performances will be given a refund.
“I am so sorry to have to push these dates yet again especially to those who made sacrifices to be here from out of town,” Tankian continued. “Touring is not something I intend to continue doing down the line so these handful of shows have meant the world to me.”
The “Empty Walls” singer closed by thanking his followers for “your love and understanding.”
SOAD is not the only band grappling with breakthrough COVID-19 cases. Last week, Korn drummer Ray Luzier became the third member of the band to test positive for COVID-19. Previously, frontman Jonathan Davis tested positive back in August, while guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer contracted the virus in September.
(NEW YORK) — More than 731,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.9 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 66.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Oct 22, 8:56 am
Pfizer vaccine highly effective in children 5-11
The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is nearly 91% effective against symptomatic illness in children ages 5-11, according to new data posted Friday ahead of a major FDA advisory committee meeting on Tuesday.
The vaccine also appeared safe, with none of the children experiencing a rare heart inflammation side effect known as myocarditis. If authorized in children 5-11, the Pfizer vaccine will be given at a smaller, one-third dose.
This efficacy estimate is from the company’s clinical trial of 2,268 children in which some children got a placebo, and some children got the Pfizer vaccine. During the trial, 16 children who got the placebo shots developed COVID-19. Only three children who got the real vaccine developed COVID-19.
A small number of the children who were vaccinated and later developed COVID-19 experienced symptoms far fewer and milder than the children who were unvaccinated. For example, none of the vaccinated children developed a fever, while a majority of the unvaccinated children developed a fever along with other symptoms.
None of the children experienced serious adverse events. Many experienced typical symptoms like pain at the injection site, fatigue and headache.
The FDA’s advisers will meet Tuesday to vote on whether to authorize the vaccine. From there, the FDA itself and the CDC will need to sign off — a process that can take several days — before shots could become available to children nationally.
Oct 21, 8:39 pm
CDC signs off on Moderna, J&J boosters
Hours after the unanimous vote from its independent advisory committee, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has signed off on recommending booster shots for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines for certain populations.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky recommended boosters for Pfizer and Moderna recipients with no preference on the brand, leaving that decision up to the individual.
People who are 65 and older, or individuals as young as 18 who have underlying medical conditions or live in high-risk or long-term care settings, are eligible to receive either a Pfizer or Moderna booster at least six months after their second shot, the CDC said.
The one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine is eligible to anyone aged 18 and up, at least two months after their initial dose, the CDC said.
Oct 21, 5:44 pm
CDC recommends Moderna and J&J boosters
An independent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee voted unanimously Thursday evening to recommend booster shots for both the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines for certain populations.
The panel recommended a third dose of the Moderna vaccine at least six months after a person’s initial course for those 65 and older, as well as those as young as 18 who are at higher risk due to underlying health conditions or where they work or live.
A second dose of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine was recommended for anyone aged 18 and older, at least two months after the first dose.
The panel also cleared the way for allowing mixing and matching of booster doses.
The recommendations fall in line with the Food and Drug Administration’s authorization of the boosters Wednesday.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky must now sign off on the panel’s recommendations. A decision is expected within a day.
Oct 21, 3:14 pm
Hospital admissions on the decline
COVID-19 hospital admissions in the U.S. have dropped by about 9.7% in the last week, according to federal data.
Death rates are also falling, though they remain persistently high, with an average of just under 1,250 Americans dying from the virus each day, according to the data.
Alaska currently has the country’s highest infection rate, followed by Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and North Dakota.
The U.S. is currently averaging around 76,000 new cases per day, down from 160,000 in early September. Despite boasting high vaccination rates, several Northern states continue to see cases tick up as the weather gets colder.
(WASHINGTON) — Two top prosecutors in the Justice Department were added several months ago to the ongoing federal probe examining sex trafficking allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
The Washington-based prosecutors, one with expertise in child exploitation crimes and the other a top official in the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, have been on the Florida-based case since at least July. In recent months, they joined a team in Florida that’s been looking into whether Gaetz violated federal law by providing goods or payments to a 17-year-old girl in exchange for sex, sources confirmed to ABC News. The news of the new prosecutors was first reported by The New York Times.
Gaetz has not been charged with a crime and has denied any wrongdoing. In a statement to ABC News on Thursday, a spokesperson for Gaetz said, “Congressman Gaetz is innocent. The former DOJ official who tried to extort him is guilty. No number of political operative prosecutors at a politically weaponized DOJ will change this.”
The news comes just days after a federal judge in Central Florida granted a request from attorneys representing former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, Gaetz’s one-time self-described “wingman,” to delay Greenberg’s sentencing while he continues to provide prosecutors with information about his activities in connection with the ongoing federal probe.
Greenberg in May pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who also had sex with her when she was underage, and agreed to provide “substantial assistance” to prosecutors as part of their ongoing investigation.
“This is obviously not a normal situation,” U.S. attorney Roger Handberg told the judge earlier this week in requesting a delay in Greenberg’s scenting. “Mr. Greenberg is a prolific criminal.”
“Mr. Greenberg was not alone,” Handberg added. “This is an unusual situation with a number of lines of investigation we are pursuing.”
ABC News previously reported that Gaetz’s former associate had been steadily providing information and handing over troves of potential evidence in the sprawling probe, including years of Venmo and Cash App transactions and thousands of photos and videos, as well as access to personal social media accounts, sources said.
Private messages first reported by ABC News potentially shed light on how Greenberg allegedly met women online who were paid for sex, and allegedly introduced them to the Florida congressman and other associates. The messages, first reported by ABC News in August, appear to show Greenberg texting with a woman he met online in September 2018 and discussing payment options. Greenberg also appears to ask the woman, who was of legal age, if she would take drugs; he then sets up a get-together with himself, Gaetz, the woman, and one of her friends, the messages appear to show.
Amid the ongoing investigation, Gaetz has remained active in Congress and has forcibly pushed back against the DOJ and the media. During Thursday’s House Judiciary hearing, Gaetz questioned Attorney General Merrick Garland on whether there are prohibitions against DOJ officials who have been “partisan committee staff” members working on criminal investigations. Todd Gee, one of the two new prosecutors added to the Gaetz investigation, previously worked as a House Homeland Committee staffer for Democrats during the Bush Administration.
Greenberg’s sentencing is now scheduled for March 2022, a date the judge said would be a “deadline we have to meet.”
(NEW YORK) — There is a growing sense of optimism across the country, with national coronavirus infection rates steadily falling, booster shots available for many Americans and pending vaccine approval on the horizon for young children.
In southern states like Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia, which were hit early on by the delta surge, hospitalizations are on the decline.
But despite the good news, experts are pleading with Americans to remain alert, as the highly infectious delta variant continues to circulate.
Despite vaccination rollouts, several states, particularly those in colder climates, are beginning to see a rise in infections.
“You’re starting to see an uptick in cases in the colder parts of the country and as people are driven indoors without masks on,” former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNN earlier this month. “The delta wave has not run through the United States… I think we have a couple of months to go.”
Experts have been warning for weeks that colder areas may see an uptick in cases this winter.
“We may be starting to see the delta surge in the northern parts of the country that were relatively spared over the summer,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
In recently released forecasts, the PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia reported that infection rates in parts of the Midwest and Mountain states remained “stubbornly high,” and that despite declining transmission in the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and in California, a period of resurgence may be on the horizon for northern regions of the country.
“We can take some comfort this week in the fact that national daily case counts have dropped below 100,000 and national adult and pediatric hospital censuses have declined by 50% since late summer,” the group wrote, adding that the country must still be prepared to see a resurgence.
In the Midwest, many counties throughout Minnesota and Michigan have had a significant rise in cases, while other states (Delaware, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Wyoming) are reporting high transmission in nearly every county, according to federal data.
“Coronaviruses tend to thrive in winter months and colder weather,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said. “Right now is not the time, as cases are coming down to become complacent because we do know colder weather is ahead of us.”
These local increases in cases are being accompanied by an uptick in hospitalizations. Ten states (Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Wyoming) are already seeing a higher number of hospital admissions.
In Montana, forecasters noted that cities are experiencing the highest rates of case incidence and hospitalizations they have seen throughout the pandemic, mirroring what happened in Idaho last month. Similarly, in Utah, the outlook continues to worsen, specifically in the Salt Lake City region, as resurgence spreads to a wider geographic area.
According to the PolicyLab, the regional variation across the country makes predicting the trajectory of this period of the pandemic challenging. While the team wrote that the likelihood of a fall and winter resurgence in northern areas “seems more probable,” there is “uncertainty about the magnitude, duration and breadth of geographic regions that will be impacted.”
“We need to expect that, as we enter a season of shorter, colder days that will push more people to gather indoors, we will soon see a widening geographic distribution of resurgent transmission in many locations,” forecasters wrote.
The group noted that the Northeast did not experience a significant surge last year, until the holiday season in November and December, and added that nationally, case incidence increased rapidly just after Halloween last year, surging through the New Year.
“As winter approaches, indoor mixing, especially among the remaining unvaccinated populations, means that we will likely continue to see increases in cases. The biggest remaining question is whether we have vaccinated enough of the population to see a decoupling with hospitalizations and deaths,” added Brownstein.
People who have not been fully vaccinated are 6.1 times more likely to test positive with the virus and 11.3 times more likely to die from it, compared with people who are vaccinated, according to federal data.
Although nearly two-thirds of Americans have now received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, more than 112 million Americans remain completely unvaccinated. Approximately 64 million of those unvaccinated Americans are people over the age of 12, and thus, are currently eligible to get the shot.
PolicyLab experts say it is therefore critical for communities to act now in order to “maximize vaccinations among children and adults so that we can prevent local surges in all regions this winter and finally move toward the waning days of the pandemic.”
(NEW YORK) — A spate of strikes has rocked the private sector, revealing the new power workers wield as the pandemic wanes in the U.S. and sending a message to employers who may have been working from home for the past year that a return to the status quo isn’t going to cut it.
A confluence of unique labor market conditions — including record-high levels of people quitting their jobs and an apparent shortage of workers accepting low-wage jobs — has contributed to the recent rash of work stoppages, experts say, but they also come after decades of stagnating wages and soaring income inequality in the U.S.
The post-traumatic shock of a deadly pandemic that took an inordinate toll on workers who didn’t have the privilege of earning a living remotely, and their families, has also been linked to the recent employee activism.
“I think workers have reached a tipping point,” Tim Schlittner, the communications director of the AFL-CIO, told ABC News. “For too long they’ve been called essential, but treated as expendable, and workers have decided that enough is enough.”
“They want a fair return on their work and they’re willing to take the courageous act of a strike to win a better deal and a better life,” he added. The AFL-CIO is a coalition of labor unions that collectively represents some 12.5 million workers.
Here is what to know about what some lawmakers are dubbing “Striketober,” the recent labor movement uprising that has spanned across industries and states.
Who is striking?
There have been 255 strikes this year, with 43 occurring in October, according to the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations’ tracker. The researchers behind the tracker define a strike as a “temporary stoppage of work by a group of workers in order to express a grievance or to enforce a demand,” that “may or may not be workplace-related.”
Among the most prominent is the ongoing strike of 10,000 John Deere workers across more than a dozen plants who are represented by the United Auto Workers. Some 1,400 workers represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union are also on strike at Kellogg’s plants across four states.
The Cornell researchers also collect data on “Labor Protests,” defined as a collective action by a group of people as workers but without withdrawing their labor in order to express a grievance or enforce a demand. The group has tracked an additional 19 labor protests this month, and a whopping 554 in 2021.
The group collects information on strikes from Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services data, Bloomberg Law’s work stoppage database, major media outlets, organizational press releases and social media. The researchers then follow a set of verification protocols to determine which instances constitute a strike or labor protest.
In 2020, as the pandemic raged, the Cornell ILR School recorded 54 strikes and eight labor protests.
Why now?
“I think it’s a combination of things, but certainly influenced by the pandemic and the kind of economic situation coming out of that,” Alex Colvin, the dean of the Cornell IRL School and a professor of conflict resolution, labor relations and law, told ABC News.
“People feel like they contributed a lot during the depths of the pandemic and now they’re looking for some of the returns when the economy’s doing better and companies are doing better — profits are up, stock prices are up,” he added. “We’re seeing similar effects going on with quit rates going up, people more willing to leave their jobs now and look for something better.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said in a release earlier this month that the number of people who quit their jobs in August jumped to the highest since its record-keeping began, representing nearly 3% of the entire workforce. The record-high quit rate bested the previous high of 2.7% that was set in April of this year, and then repeated in June and July.
As the number of people quitting their jobs has reached record highs in recent months, so have the number of job openings, the BLS data indicates.
Meanwhile, a dismal 194,000 jobs were added to the economy last month, according to BLS data, as employers struggled to fill positions. This was lower than the already-disappointing figure of 366,000 in August, and the million-plus jobs added in July.
Due to working through a COVID-19 pandemic that has left more than 730,000 Americans dead, and because of the recent labor market trends, workers may be “less willing to take what they’ve been willing to take in the past,” Colvin said, but added that these factors also increase the leverage unions have when executing a strike.
“It makes sense for workers to push to kind of share in the gains of the improving economy,” he said. “But also, they have more leverage because it’s harder to replace them in a tighter labor market.”
The AFL-CIO’s Schlittner said the pandemic also exposed some deep “imbalances of power in the economy.”
“The pandemic has made clear what’s important and what’s not, and workers are looking at work in a new way, and demanding more of a return on their labor, and demanding things like basic respect, dignity and safety on the job,” Schlittner told ABC News. “The pandemic has put on display for everyone to see how important workers are to this country, and you can’t call workers essential for 18 months and then treat them like crap when they all come back on the job.”
What’s causing the so-called ‘labor shortage’?
Recent labor market data has sowed confusion for some over where workers have gone. The unemployment rate as of last month remains at an elevated 4.8%, still above the pre-pandemic 3.5% seen in February 2020. The number of job openings, however, has hit record high after record high in recent months — with the most recent BLS data indicating that there were some 10.4 million job openings in August after a record-high 10.9 million in July.
A report from Moody’s Analytics released earlier this week attributed the workforce reduction in large part to child care issues, which have plagued working parents and taken a disproportionate toll on mothers during the pandemic, and was the most-cited reason for why people aren’t returning to work. The Wall Street analytics firm also found that millions not working said they were out of work because they were laid off or their employer had gone out of business during the pandemic, and some economists have attributed pandemic-era protections and government support to their slower return to the workforce. Finally, their data indicates fear of getting or spreading the virus was heavily cited among those not working.
Schlittner said he doesn’t see it as a labor shortage, but rather “a shortage of good-paying jobs.”
“There’s a shortage of good-paying, quality jobs; that’s the scarcity story in America today,” he said. “If employers raise pay, improve working conditions and give every worker the right to form a union, the workers will be there, ready to report to the job.”
Some data indicates the power that lack of laborers willing to accept low pay can have on pushing up wages, and the power of collective activism.
The federal minimum wage has remained unchanged for over a decade at $7.25 an hour, despite widespread activism — especially in the hospitality industry — to raise that to $15 an hour through organizations such as the Fight for 15. Post-pandemic demand for staffers as restaurants reopen has pushed the average hourly wages of workers at food and drinking establishment to a record-high $17.40 an hour in August, according to preliminary data from the labor department.
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe started in support of the John Deere workers on strike has garnered over $80,000 in just four days from more than 2,000 donors.
“More workers are recognizing the power in each other, that standing together with their co-workers is a powerful act, and can bring about great change,” Schlittner said. “And that’s what ‘Striketober’ is all about. It’s about changing an economy and a system that isn’t working for regular working people. One picket line at a time, we can start to do that.”
(LONDON) — Queen Elizabeth was hospitalized Wednesday night for “preliminary investigations,” a Buckingham Palace spokesman confirmed to ABC News.
The queen was back at her desk at Windsor Castle by Thursday afternoon and undertaking light duties.
No other details about the queen’s condition are currently available.
“Following medical advice to rest for a few days, The Queen attended hospital on Wednesday afternoon for some preliminary investigations,” the palace said in a statement. “[She] remains in good spirits.”
Queen Elizabeth, 95, hosted a reception for leaders, including Bill Gates and John Kerry, at Windsor Castle on Tuesday.
The next day she was forced to cancel a trip to Northern Island as her medical team advised her to get some rest.
