Director Ridley Scott has unveiled the trailer for his much-anticipated new film, House of Gucci.
Adam Driver plays assassinated fashion mogul Maurizio Gucci, while an almost unrecognizable Jared Leto plays his cousin, Paulo, and Lady Gaga plays Maurizio’s ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani, who was convicted of arranging his murder. Maurizio was the grandson of the iconic label’s founder, Guccio Gucci.
As Blondie‘s “Heart of Glass” floats in the background, Gaga says in an Italian accent, “It was a name that sounded so sweet… Synonymous with wealth, style, power. But that name was a curse, too.”
The trailer shows Patricia and Maurizio’s wedding, the trappings of the fabulous wealth that the House of Gucci accumulated and, ultimately, the family drama.
“You need to take out the trash,” Gaga’s Patrizia tells her husband.
“But they’re my family,” Driver’s character protests.
“So am I,” the ambitious Patrizia replies.
“You picked a real firecracker,” Oscar-winner Leto’s balding, bloated Paulo replies, rolling his R’s in a way that would make any Italian language teacher proud.
As the trailer takes a dark turn, title cards flash on screen reading: “Money,” “Family,” “Power,” “Betrayal,” “Sex,” “Loyalty,” “Scandal,” “Ambition” and, ultimately, “Murder.”
After an assassin raises his pistol, the trailer cuts to Gaga’s Patrizia in a stylish ski outfit, sipping an espresso by the slopes. “I don’t consider myself an ethical person,” she confesses. “But I am fair.”
In the final scene, she makes the sign of the cross, saying “Father, Son, and House of Gucci.”
House of Gucci also stars Salma Hayek, and Oscar winners Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons. It hits theaters November 24.
(TOKYO) — Each day, ABC News will give you a roundup of key Olympic moments from the day’s events in Tokyo, happening 13 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time. After a 12-month delay, the unprecedented 2020 Summer Olympics is taking place without fans or spectators and under a state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic.
US swimming brings in pair of silvers, men’s team draws attention out of the pool
U.S. swimmers Lilly King and Annie Lazor finished second and third in the 200m breaststroke, an admirable finish for the swimmers who were bested by a world-record setting effort by South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker.
Team USA’s Ryan Murphy also secured a silver medal in the 200m backstroke.
Murphy’s teammate Michael Andrew was notably without a mask after his fifth place finish, and after the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said he violated protocol, they later reversed their decision, according to USA Today.
COVID-19 cases at Tokyo Olympics rise to 225, Japan extends state of emergency
There were 27 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 among people at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday, including two athletes staying at the Olympic Village. The total now stands at 225, according to data released by the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee.
The surrounding city of Tokyo reported 3,300 new cases on Friday, a seven-day average increase of 180.5%, according to data released by the Tokyo metropolitan government. Japan has extended its state of emergency to three of Tokyo’s surrounding prefectures.
Track and field events get underway
The 2020 Olympics’ track and field events began with a fast start today; six women finished the 100m qualifying round under 11 seconds. The first medal event, the men’s 10,000m, will be held later this morning.
US women’s basketball extends win streak to 51
Team USA’s women’s basketball team increased their win streak to 51 with an 86-69 win to the host country’s team. The effort was led by A’ja Wilson who scored 20 points and Breanna Stewart who ended with 15. The team has one game left in the group round.
Djokovic loses in semifinals, Golden Slam dream over
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic lost to Alexander Zverev 6-1, 3-6, 1-6 in the semifinals and with the loss also went his hopes of achieving the Golden Slam. A Golden Slam is accomplished by winning all four majors and winning the Olympics all in the same year. The feat has only been achieved by Steffi Graf in 1988.
Silk Sonic, the dynamic duo comprised of Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars, delighted fans by dropping “Skate,” their brand new single on Friday.
The groovy throwback tune, which infuses elements of the funk and soul music that flourished in the ’70s, serves as an invitation for .Paak and Mars’ object of affection that they hail as a “hundred dollars” in a “room full of dimes.”
“Got your hair in the wind and your skin glistening/ I can smell your sweet perfume/ Mmm, you smell better than a barbecue/ Oh, superstar is what you are,” the duo croons over a swell of strings, electric guitars and a rich chorus of drums.
The two then plead over a smooth refrain for the one they have their eye on to “skate to me” and “slide your way on over” because they “want to get to know ya.”
The sensual and charismatic tune, paired with a playful music video featuring the duo serenading a crowd of female skaters, is sure to skate its way up the Billboard charts.
The two previously hailed “Skate” as a “summertime jam” when teasing it on social media and fans are already predicting it could be a late entry to become the biggest song of the summer.
“Skate” follows in the footsteps of the duo’s predecessor, “Leave the Door Open,” which will be featured on their hotly anticipated debut album, An Evening with Silk Sonic.
Taylor Swift shared empowering messages for gymnasts Jade Carey and Suni Lee, who stepped up to represent the United States at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics following Simone Biles‘ decision to withdraw from the women’s all-around competition.
Taylor, speaking over the gentle intro of her song “evermore,” expressed confidence in the USA Women’s Gymnastics Team and commended the athletes for giving their all.
“Life can surprise you. It can humble you. It can test you. It can inspire you,” the Grammy winner stated in a new promo, which aired during NBC’s broadcast of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The promo shared never-before-seen video of Biles, Carey and Lee training hard for the Games. Taylor shifted the message to center on how the team is handling Biles’ absence.
“They didn’t expect this to be the story, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t ready for the spotlight,” she said as the footage shifted to Carey and Lee. “They’ve worked for this. They’ve dreamed about this. They belong here.”
Expressing confidence that Team USA will make America proud, Swift exclaimed, “So don’t be surprised as the story takes flight from here in the women’s all around in Tokyo!”
Taylor’s message rang true on Thursday night, with Lee making history by claiming the gold medal for the gymnastics all-around event. She is now the fifth consecutive gymnastics all-around gold medalist, following in the footsteps of Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin, Gabby Douglas and teammate Biles, who was last to take home the gold in 2016.
Lee, who is 18, is also the first Hmong American Olympian. As for Carey, she finished in eighth place, losing points for taking a fall on the balance beam.
(TAMPA, Fla.) — A jarring reality check is taking place in intensive care units across the country as thousands of COVID-19 positive patients, nearly all of them unvaccinated, are streaming into hospitals in need of care.
This is particularly true in Florida, where virus-related hospitalizations have skyrocketed in recent weeks. The situation has escalated rapidly, now nearing peak levels, with nearly 7,900 patients hospitalized with the virus across the state, up by more than 320% in the last month, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It feels like it’s an impending storm … there’s no off ramp to this getting worse,” Dr. David Wein, an emergency room physician at Tampa General Hospital in Florida, told ABC News on Wednesday.
On Tuesday this week, more than 1,450 patients with COVID-19 were admitted to hospitals across the state, marking the highest number of patients seeking care within a 24-hour period in Florida since the onset of the pandemic.
“Right now, at Tampa General Hospital, we are really feeling the crush of this increase incidence of COVID-19, and so the delta area has really brought many patients to our emergency room, requiring treatment and admission,” Peggy Dugan, the executive vice president and chief medical officer at the hospital, told ABC News in an exclusive interview.
It was just six weeks ago that some of the team thought they may be out of the woods, with metrics steadily trending down across the country.
“It felt like we were ready to move in the right direction and start seeing it plateau. And it was a surprise to see it trend up like it did,” said Erika Mergl, nurse manager for the Tampa General Hospital’s Global Emerging Diseases Institute.
However, virus-related hospitalization levels are now nearing peak levels.
“We’re getting to numbers that were as high as last summer. In early July, we were down to 12 COVID-19 patients in the hospital, and today we have 80. So we’re really just seeing an escalation over a short span of time,” Duggan said.
The situation in Tampa is not an anomaly. Nearly every state in the country is now experiencing case, and COVID-19 hospitalization increases. Virus-related hospitalizations levels are now at their highest point since April, with nearly 33,700 patients receiving care — about 10,000 more patients than a week ago.
Many of the patients at Tampa General are younger, Dugan said, some as young as 22 or 23 years old, and “almost” all of them have been unvaccinated, the hospital said.
One of the hospital’s unvaccinated patients is 64-year-old patient Gerard Considine, who spent nine days intubated after he tested positive for the virus.
“I’m not used to being scared of anything, but this scared the hell out of me,” Considine told ABC News.
Considine said he didn’t get the COVID-19 vaccine because he had experienced adverse reactions to other vaccines, but despite his ordeal, he does not think he will choose to be vaccinated, believing that he has developed some antibodies, at this point.
However, said Duggan, “we’re seeing people who are recovering now very regretful that they didn’t get the vaccination in the first place.”
Many of the patients coming to the hospital are already quite ill when they arrive, said Wein.
“Unfortunately, we’re seeing people who are coming in days, or several days, into their disease and sicker, with difficulty breathing, needing to be admitted to the hospital. So it feels more like that winter surge that we had,” Wein said, adding that a number of these patients end up on ventilators.
“This is heartbreaking because all this could have been avoided, this is unnecessary human suffering that we are witnessing right now,” Dr. Seetha Lakshmi, the medical director of the Global Emerging Diseases Institute at Tampa General Hospital, told ABC News.
Several front-line workers at Tampa General Hospital expressed to ABC News their deep concern and fear about the next several weeks for their teams, given the state’s and the hospital’s exponential increase in infections and virus-related hospitalizations, stressing that their message to Americans is that vaccinations are key to controlling the pandemic and ending the suffering.
The difference in getting vaccinated, or not getting vaccinated is ultimately akin to “the difference between having a cold and dying,” said Wein. “If a vaccinated patient gets this, they’re most likely going to be just fine, and not going to end up in the hospital. Unfortunately, the unvaccinated person has a really high likelihood that he will end up hospitalized on a ventilator.”
L-R – Director David Lowery, Ralph Ineson, Dev Patel/A24
Today, the picturesque, trippy drama The Green Knight hits theaters. In the adaptation of the famed medieval tale Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, writer-director David Lowery has Slumdog Millionaire‘s Dev Patel playing Gawain, the nephew of King Arthur, who wants to prove himself to the king.
To that end, when a mysterious, monstrous, truthfully Groot-like knight strides into the king’s court and offers any worthy man a mysterious challenge, Gawain seizes his chance.
His choice sends him on an epic quest of self-discovery, in which he encounters ghosts, bandits and a mysterious castle full of temptation, and ultimately finds out if he’s worthy.
Patel and co-star Joel Edgerton, who plays a lord Gawain encounters on his quest, praised the Ghost Story director for bringing the haunting tale to life. “Everything is so considered in the film you know, down to every thread in that costume,” Patel tells ABC Audio.
“You’re part of this great visionary’s composition, and every frame really was a painting. It’s a process of submission in a way,” he continues, adding with a laugh, “I trusted him so much that you kind of just submit yourself up to the experience and let a great director and the wilderness in Ireland do the rest of the dictating in a way.”
Patel says of seeing the film for the first time, “My breath was taken away.”
Edgerton agrees. “I kind of blew my mind, actually,” he notes. “I was expecting no less, but I got a lot more than I was expecting…It just feels like a constantly evolving painting.”
The Green Knight also stars Oscar winner Alicia Vikander, Erin Kellyman from The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and Mission: Impossible series baddie Sean Harris.
Following Amber Heard and Johnny Depp‘s contentious divorce battle, which unearthed unflattering accusations concerning them both, fans of the Aquaman franchise demanded the actress’ removal from the upcoming sequel. But don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen.
A petition that was signed by over one million people said the actress needed to be removed because of previous allegations that she abused Depp during their marriage.
However, a producer of the upcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom confirms Heard, 35, will not be cut from the movie and will reprise her role of Mera, the love interest of Jason Mamoa‘s Aquaman.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to react to, honestly, pure fan pressure,” producer Peter Safran told Deadline about the backlash. “You gotta do what’s best for the movie. We felt that if it’s [director] James Wan, and Jason Momoa, it should be Amber Heard. That’s really what it was.”
Insisting that Heard is an integral part of the Aquaman franchise, Safran said, “One is not unaware of what is going on in the Twitter-verse, but that doesn’t mean you have to react to it or take it as gospel or accede to their wishes.”
“You have to do what’s right for the film, and that’s really where we landed on it,” he concluded.
(NEW YORK) — A flurry of new scientific findings is prompting renewed concern among doctors about the long-term cognitive impacts of COVID-19 in some patients.
Several new studies presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, being held this week in Denver, have found that many COVID-19 patients experience “brain fog” and other cognitive impairments months after recovery. This adds to a growing body of research on COVID-19’s apparent long-haul symptoms, which can include confusion, forgetfulness and other worrying signs of memory loss.
“This research features the first data from an international consortium, which includes the Alzheimer’s Association, investigating the long-term consequences of COVID-19 on the brain,” Heather Snyder, the vice president of medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer’s Association said in prepared remarks.
Not enough time has passed for researchers to know if these worrying symptoms eventually clear up. However, they’re pointing to these studies as renewed evidence that everyone — especially older people who are already vulnerable to cognitive decline — should get vaccinated.
“While we work together to further understand the lasting impacts of COVID-19 on the brain, the take home message is simple: don’t get COVID-19. And the best way to do that is by getting vaccinated,” Maria Carrillo, chief science officer for the Alzheimer’s Association, said in prepared remarks.
Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center studied the cognition and olfactory senses of 300 older adult Amerindians from Argentina who contracted COVID and found that 50% had persistent problems with forgetfulness and 25% had additional problems with language and executive dysfunction.
“A large portion of our patients in the COVID Recovery Program exhibit cognitive signs and symptoms long after the inflammatory phase of COVID has passed. We typically see many patients with naso-pharyngeal predominant illness come back to us with more neurocognitive deficits,” Dr. Thomas Gut, director of the Post-COVID Recovery Center at Staten Island University Hospital, told ABC News. Gut was not involved in any of the studies presented at the conference.
Researchers at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine studied blood samples of 310 patients admitted to NYU Langone Health with COVID for the presence of biomarkers that would indicate brain inflammation and damage. High levels of certain biomarkers were strongly associated with inflammation in the brain. Damage to the blood-brain barrier caused by inflammation can result in the brain’s inability to send messages from the brain to other parts of the body.
“So far, our efforts offering supportive therapies have shown improvement, but the recovery time is still measured in months. Finding a cause and mechanism for these inflammatory changes in the brain would be the first place to start in addressing how to reverse or prevent these inflammatory changes,” said Gut.
Researchers from the University of Thessaly reviewed the cognitive function and overall health of 32 patients with mild to moderate COVID infection two months post-hospitalization and found that more than 50% experienced cognitive decline, particularly with short-term memory. They also found that poorer memory and thinking scores were associated with lower level of oxygen saturation during a short walk test.
“Many of the cognitive changes that we see mirror in many ways Alzheimer’s disease or PTSD,” said Gut. “What is becoming clearer, is that the severity of acute infection does not directly predict neurocognitive changes after the acute phase has passed. We have many patients that had mild infection or illness struggle severely with memory or behavior changes.”
(NEW YORK) — As COVID-19 cases surge across much of the United States and many vaccinated people return to indoor masking, a pattern appears to be emerging — the same states that are seeing the biggest increases in COVID-19 infections also have high rates of residents who don’t have health insurance.
“It lines up with everything we’ve seen during the pandemic,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., the chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor. “Uninsured communities have less access to testing, less access to vaccines and less access to care. So of course, you’re going to have increased overall risk among those populations,” he added.
“It’s playing out as we would have anticipated in a pandemic.”
Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has mocked the use of masks and issued an executive order to block government entities from requiring COVID-19 vaccines, has emerged as a cautionary tale. Along with Louisiana, Florida now has the country’s highest COVID-19 case rate, with more than 400 new cases per 100,000 residents as of Wednesday, according to CDC data.
“Florida is in the worst spot right now,” said David Radley, a senior scientist for The Commonwealth Fund, a New York City-based foundation that promotes better access to quality health care. “It has the highest emerging case rate and it has a high level of uninsured.”
Florida might hold the dubious distinction of having among the highest new COVID-19 case rates coupled with a 19% uninsurance rate, but a number of other states are struggling with increasing COVID burdens and a health system that’s not set up to easily handle — or pay for them.
Importantly, a correlation between high uninsurance rates and an increasing COVID-19 burden does not mean below-average insurance coverage is driving infections. Instead, a complex constellation of overlapping factors, including politics, might be at play.
“When we think about the policy choices states have made, which would leave a state in a place to have high uninsured rate — things like not expanding Medicare and Medicaid programs and having more restrictive Medicaid programs in the first place — are political choices that tend to align on the right side of the political spectrum,” Radley said.
“I think there are a lot of undercurrents that are driving high uninsured rates and the high case rate,” Radley added.
The reality of being uninsured during a pandemic
Having a high rate of uninsured residents is bad enough during normal times, experts say, but it’s especially harrowing during a pandemic.
Hospitals providing intense levels of COVID-19 care to uninsured patients won’t be reimbursed at the same rate that they would be for patients with insurance. Assuming they survive, those uninsured patients will likely face medical bills for their hospital stays, whether they can afford them or not, Radley explained.
There’s also a circular phenomenon in which people without insurance, or who are underinsured, may be less likely to seek timely care or get tested in the first place.
“I can see a scenario where it would create a spiral,” Radley said.
Compounding that delayed care is the fact that people who don’t have health insurance are more likely to be in high-risk groups, Brownstein explained. He pointed to a preprint study he worked on, which has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, which found that “vaccine deserts have more residents with self-reported COVID-19 exposures and pre-existing conditions as well as more individuals who lack health insurance.”
“If you have increased risk in those populations, it’s not just about increased cases, it’s increased hospitalizations and deaths,” Brownstein said.
The most current data available on insurance rates from the American Community Survey data is from 2019, meaning it doesn’t include the pandemic. But while experts feared that job loss during the pandemic would lead to higher uninsurance rates, Radley said that based on informal surveys, it doesn’t appear that those fears have come to pass. He expects 2020 rates to reinforce similar patterns to the 2019 rates.
“I would bet you that these are vast underestimates, because those that are uninsured are unlikely to get testing — either have access or be able to get testing covered,” Brownstein said. “The patterns that you’re witnessing might be even stronger if testing was equitable.”
“If we’re not taking care of fundamental issues of access to care at the most basic levels, and then you have worse outcomes among those patients because they didn’t have that care or access to testing, and they end up in hospitals,” Brownstein said. The end result: overflowing hospitals, which impact patients of all socioeconomic groups.
“Everyone suffers when you don’t do the right thing in terms of equitable access to care.”
The big-screen adaptation of Disney’s iconic Jungle Cruise ride opens in theaters today. The film stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as wise-cracking riverboat captain Frank Wolff, who is tasked with taking Emily Blunt‘s Dr. Lily Houghton into the heart of the Amazon so she can find a legendary tree with “unparalleled healing powers.”
For Johnson, who was also a producer on the film, getting Quiet Place star Blunt in the film was key — so important that he sent a personal video to her imploring her to join. “I said ‘Emily, you are the only one who can do this movie,'” Johnson recalled at a recent press gathering of the cast.
The pair’s onscreen chemistry was evident during the sit-down, which was also attended by Jack Whitehall, who plays Blunt’s onscreen brother, and Edgar Ramirez, who plays one of the heavies, Aguirre. Each took turns poking fun at Johnson and his video. “Jack can attest to this as a British person,” Blunt laughed, “if someone comes on too strong…It’s just better to go. ‘OK, just tone it down.'”
Aside from busting Johnson’s chops, Blunt admitted of the star, “We were pals for life immediately. It was like I knew when we met, we had this rapport that like ping pong back and forth so quickly and I just thought we could have a good time.”
“It’s very true,” Johnson agreed. “And then, you know, you look you hope to get lucky, you know, with your cast and you like to try to have some chemistry and this and a lot of times you at times you fake it…”
Blunt quickly added, “He’s been faking it for years,” which cracked Johnson up, adding, “I have and I will continue to fake it. Big faker!”
