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The FBI sent a SWAT team of 20 agents to the home of Hollywood actor Siaka Massaquoi in North Hollywood just before 6 AM on Friday. The Wray FBI felt it necessary once again to use the full force of the law to arrest a Hollywood actor in a predawn raid for walking into the US Capitol on Jan. 6.

Four days after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel, WME invited Steve Leder, the rabbi from Wilshire Boulevard Temple, to visit the agency’s Beverly Hills headquarters. He came to provide comfort for employees reeling after the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Although the event was not mandatory and Leder’s speech was considered secular, several staffers voiced complaints, which made their way to WME co-chairmen Richard Weitz and Christian Muirhead. Instead of caving, WME invited Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt to speak to the agency on Nov. 1. Greenblatt didn’t mince words, according to those...

Top 5 Barbie Oppenheimer Haunted house Talk to me Color of freedom

There’s an old joke used in show business when events and gatherings lack major celebrity attendance: “Somebody punch me in the face so I can see some stars.” But it’s no joke when it comes to the picket lines of the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes, according to some of the protesters on the ground and select industry players who spoke to Variety. There’s been a “palpable” lack of headliners, said one prominent SAG-AFTRA member, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “If our stars were all out there in force advocating for us, we’d know it,” they added....

While hundreds of thousands of actors and screenwriters are currently out of work amid the Hollywood shutdown, those outside of the industry may be wondering if there’s anything they can do to help. Unions representing actors (Screen Actors Guild of America) and writers (Writers Guild of America) are on strike after negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) broke down. Their demands include an increase in base pay and streaming residuals, plus assurances that their work will not be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI). Although there isn’t a magic wand to immediately fix the key issues...

The group representing Hollywood’s studios has responded to SAG-AFTRA’s strike call today. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ statement highlights what it calls “some of the components of the Producers’ offer that SAG-AFTRA has chosen to forgo in favor of a strike.” “A strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life,” AMPTP said. “The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.” The statement was issued as...

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Washington — A California man who prosecutors described as "one of the most violent defendants on January 6, 2021" was sentenced to 151 months — about 12 ½ years — in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to violent and obstructive conduct during the Capitol riot. Daniel "DJ" Rodriguez admitted as part of a plea agreement in February that he attacked former Washington, D.C. police officer Michael Fanone with a taser, causing him to lose consciousness, and that he worked to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Rodriguez will also have to pay $96,000 to cover...

Hollywood's actors union voted in favor of a strike if talks over higher pay break down before the end of June, increasing pressure on major film and television studios already dealing with an ongoing work stoppage by writers. After voting closed on Monday, SAG-AFTRA said 97.91 percent of ballots cast supported a strike. Nearly 65,000 members, about 48 percent of the total membership, voted. Membership of the union is compulsory for all professional actors that work on major US productions, since almost all studios and producers are engaged in union contracts that only allow them to hire union members. Though...

Vladimir Putin may be upset to discover that his hotly anticipated state-of-the-nation address delivered this morning in central Moscow was not quite as impactful as he would have hoped. Almost one year to the day of his invasion of Ukraine, the despot took to the stage in Moscow before both of Russia's houses of Parliament and a sea of military commanders, where he launched a marathon tirade against the West. He spoke with passion and venom, but even the cream of the Kremlin crop couldn't help but show signs of fatigue as top officials were seen yawning amid their president's...

A court filing made public this week reveals that Fox News hosts including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham were privately critical of Donald Trump's claims that the 2020 election was stolen, with Carlson going so far as to call the former president "demonic." -snip- Carlson called Trump "a demonic force" and worried the president would "destroy" Fox News Carlson, in other conversations in the wake of the election, privately took aim at Trump himself, calling the then-president "the undisputed world champion" of "destroying things," and worrying that he would "destroy us if we play it wrong." By Jan....

Hosts at Fox News had serious concerns about allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election being made by guests who were allies of former President Donald Trump, according to court filings in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network. “Sidney Powell is lying,” about having evidence for election fraud, Tucker Carlson told a producer about the attorney on Nov. 16, 2020, according to an excerpt from an exhibit that remains under seal. The internal communication was included in a redacted summary judgment brief filed Thursday by attorneys for Dominion Voting Systems. Carlson also referred to Powell in...

The white nationalist group is notoriously secretive and optics-obsessed. But now, the mask is off. For years, many members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front have mostly managed to keep their identities under wraps. But now, the mask is off. Thirty-one members of the notoriously secretive, optics-obsessed group, including their leader, were arrested in Idaho over the weekend. And mugshots and names of all 31 arrestees were released by the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office. The group was traveling in the back of a U-Haul on Saturday, apparently headed to downtown Coeur d’Alene where an annual LGBTQ Pride event (and...

RICHARD DREYFUSS, the Close Encounters of the Third Kind actor, first recognised he was a manic depressive as a teenager. Over his life, he has spoken candidly about the condition - including how he questioned whether marijuana was the cause. The Jaws actor, who was in plenty of popular films in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, first figured out he had bipolar at the age of 11, although he thought the condition name was “too neutral and stodgy”. Dreyfuss, born and raised in Beverly Hills, California, said: “I have surfed my manic depression since I was 11-years-old. I enjoyed it...

According to Howard, he was studying chemical engineering at New York's Pratt Institute when he had a disagreement with a professor over a complex mathematical problem: 1 x 1. We are not joking. Howard strongly believes that one times one equals two, and the media is lying to you about it equaling one. As he put it on a Rolling Stone profile on him: "How can it equal one?" he said. "If one times one equals one that means that two is of no value because one times itself has no effect. One times one equals two because the square...

Sidney Poitier, First Black Man to Win the Best Actor Academy Award, Dies at 94 An elder stateman has left this plane. His dignity, drive, and determination changed the face of Hollywood and America, and ignited an entire generation of young Black men to be their authentic selves, to pursue the arts, and to be a force of change through creative power on and off the screen. Sidney Poitier has died at 94 years old.

"I feel quite strongly that Guantánamo doesn’t have a place in our world"Benedict Cumberbatch says he wants Guantánamo Bay closed after working on ‘The Mauritanian’ "I feel quite strongly that Guantánamo doesn’t have a place in our world" Benedict Cumberbatch has said he wants Guantánamo Bay closed following his work on recent film The Mauritanian. The film, which is being produced by SunnyMarch – an independent film and television company that Cumberbatch jointly owns – explores the experiences of Mohamedou Ould Slahi who was incarcerated at Guantánamo Bay for 14 years without charge. After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the...

The Grammy Awards "TV Viewers" nose dived in 2021 down to the lowest ever, 8.8 million TV viewers. 2020 saw 18.7 million viewers...and, 2019 registered 19.9 TV viewers. The 2021 National political news Media (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, C-Span all lost massive numbers of TV viewers in 2021. The Academy Awards of 2021 is approaching with expected TV Viewer Ratings of vast decline. The music and film industry has killed themselves. Americans of all ages across the board could care less about these "elitist blabbering,ego insane, folks!!! The only three Media TV stations to gain large number of...

The remarkable durability of the 007 saga would not have been possible if Sean Connery had not launched the franchise. Some actors dominate the screen so thoroughly that they become archetypes. They become larger than the films they appear in. Their very presence onscreen captivates audiences. Your eyes are compelled to follow them.John Wayne was one. Cary Grant another. And of course, so is Sean Connery. In all three cases these actorsÂ’ apparently effortless ability to fill the roles they were assigned leads many to conclude they didnÂ’t have to work very hard.Some charge they were just one-trick ponies who...

Some members of the cast of Parks and Recreation will reunite for a fundraiser for Wisconsin Democrats. If this sounds familiar, it should. The cast of Princess Bride is also reuniting for the same purpose – helping guarantee that Wisconsin turns out the vote for Joe Biden. Several of the show’s stars, including Amy Poehler, Adam Scott and Nick Offerman, will hold a virtual event raising money for the Wisconsin Democratic Party.Aubrey Plaza, Retta, Jim O’Heir and series co-creator Michael Schur will also join in on the fundraiser, in addition to some surprise guests. The event is titled “A...