Free Republic

From the Kardashians to famed biohacker Bryan Johnson, more and more famous faces are now turning to stem cell treatments to fight Father Time. Since many of these procedures have yet to be FDA-approved, celebrities are flying abroad for the pricey treatments, dubbed 'regenerative medicine', which can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Mario Lopez, 52, recently traveled to the Proactive Longevity clinic in Cabo San Lucas for stem cell therapy with board-certified surgeon Dr. John Layke. Lopez, who has been on television since he was a pre-teen, barely seems to have aged since his Saved By The Bell days....

Ronnie Schell, a prolific TV character actor perhaps best known for his portrayal of the amiable Pvt. Duke Slater, pal of Jim Nabors’ hayseed Gomer Pyle on the ’60s sitcom of that name, died of natural causes today at UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 94. His death was announced by family. Born Ronald Ralph Schell on December 23, 1931, in Richmond, California, Schell began his show business career while a senior at San Francisco State University when he auditioned at the city’s famed Purple Onion nightclub as a stand-up comedian. Signed for a five month stint, Schell, after...

“Disclosure Day” may be the most alien film in Steven Spielberg’s catalog. The really terrific story of UFO info finally being divulged to the world went over as a dud last night at the box office. The film made just $6.5 million in previews. Tonight, if the film makes $10 million, and then does the same Saturday and Sunday, it will be a historic flop. Timing is everything in the movie release world, and this is not a great weekend for a hit. The weather is stormy. (An ironic problem since Emily Blunt plays a metereologist.) The World Cup has...

3:06 Half a century after Steven Spielberg challenged audiences to think about what lies beyond the starry canopy that defines our universe in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the director is again challenging accepted precepts of faith and singular belief in a supreme being. His new film Disclosure Day sees him revisit the possibility of aliens: “I absolutely think that they have been here, and they are here,” he outlined in an interview with CBS News. First he outlined the themes behind the $115 million creation and the answers it (possibly) posed to questions of life, faith and mortality.

Anthony Stewart Head, best known for his roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Merlin, has died at the age of 72. He was surrounded by family at the time of his death, with his daughters, Emily Head and Daisy Head, sharing the heartbreaking news with the BBC. They shared he "passed away peacefully after complications from pneumonia." Initially known for his Nescafe commercials, Head gained international fame when he landed the role of Rupert Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He took on a fatherly role for Buffy Summers, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, as he helped guide her...

James Handy, an actor with appearances in “Jumanji,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Taps” was brutally murdered by his girlfriend’s son, police said. Authorities raced to the 19200 block of Erwin Street in Tarzana Wednesday morning after a caller stated “I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin.” When they arrived, cops discovered 81-year-old Handy unconscious in the front yard of a home, suffering from stab wounds, police said. Handy was stabbed multiple times in the chest. Handy was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. A short time later, the suspect, 44-year-old...

Celebrity children identify as trans and non-binary at unbelievable rates. Charlize Theron, Cynthia Nixon, Robert De Niro, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony — whose 18-year-old recently debuted a new name, changing from Emme to Oskar — are just a few of the stars with children who aren’t living as their birth sex. There’s nothing wrong with being trans. But such an unlikely concentration in a particular community should give one pause — especially when so many of these kids began playing with gender at shockingly young ages. In a geography where having a trans child has a tinge of chicness...

(Alleged) Gerbil butt-stuffer Richard Gere says we are living in the darkest moment on this planet in the whole history of time. He goes off to say there is a maniac running the United States. https://x.com/JebraFaushay/status/2062252724889035241

Quentin Tarantino is not a fan of the majority of movies coming out of Hollywood these days. Writing for Sight & Sound magazine, the Oscar winner revealed that “it’s almost impossible” for him these days to watch a new movie and not pick it “to death.” “Flaws, implausibilities, audience pandering, miscast performers or just plain stupid shit usually torpedoes every new movie coming out of the flavorless sausage factory that used to call itself Hollywood,” the director explained. “These days, the entire concept of what is a movie is more inclined to inspire contempt in me than generosity. Which is...

Doug Ellin joins Billy Bush, Kristin Cavallari and Paris Hilton, who have also voiced support for Pratt's campaignDoug Ellin, creator of the hit series "Entourage," is backing Spencer Pratt's campaign for mayor of Los Angeles while voicing his frustration over what he sees as the city's decline. Last week, the television producer took to social media to share his personal experience living in L.A., detailing a home break-in that forced him to increase his security. "[I have] fifteen cameras … two German Shepherds, three legal guns … five years ago, I didn't lock a door here, but you know what...

Disney's newest Star Wars movie, 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' just opened in theaters. It cost millions upon millions to make the film and it is absolutely getting its butt kicked by a small, independent horror movie called 'Obsession' which was made for a paltry $750,000. Of course, $750K is a lot of money, but not by the standards of a Hollywood movie. That's chump change. Even so, people are flocking to theaters to see 'Obsession' instead of Disney's newest expensive flick. Star Wars fans have just been burned too many times. Disney basically broke the franchise by using it to...

When you look at Warren Beatty’s resume, you can’t help but notice that there are some long gaps between films. Some of that has to do with the star’s famously deliberate approach to his work...Another reason for those long fallow stretches, though, is due to Beatty’s political activism... Beatty’s never been shy about his liberal-leaning positions on the issues... But that never stopped him from reaching across the aisle when it came to friendships. Take his personal connection with Ronald Reagan... After Reagan began his first term in the Oval Office in 1981, he and First Lady Nancy Reagan invited...

From YouTube: Universal Pictures is proud to release a new original event film created and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars SAG winner and Oscar® nominee Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer, A Quiet Place), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor (Challengers, The Crown), Oscar® winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, Kingsman franchise), Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters, The Perfect Couple) and two-time Oscar® nominee Colman Domingo (Sing Sing, Rustin). Based on a story by Spielberg, the screenplay is by David Koepp, whose previous work with Spielberg includes the scripts for Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds...

Hardly anybody is still alive today who has personal memories of the Hollywood Blacklist of the immediate post-World War II period, let alone of the rabid Communist agitation that took place in the film colony before and during the war. But all of us have lived through an era, now decades long, during which the Blacklist has been repeatedly condemned and its so-called victims celebrated. As Lloyd Billingsley writes in his richly informative new book, Hollywood Party: Stalinist Adventures in the American Movie Industry, it took scarcely any time at all after the Blacklist collapsed in 1960 for a new...

Lupita Nyong'o is not the only actress discovering how brutal modern franchise fandom can become after a major casting announcement. From fantasy epics to superhero reboots, Hollywood’s newest leading women are increasingly being forced to survive online backlash before their films even reach production. Now Milly Alcock has found herself at the center of that same cycle following her casting in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Alcock has spent the last several months absorbing waves of online hostility despite reportedly being one of James Gunn’s top choices for Kara Zor El. Industry insiders following the DC reboot process noted early that...

A thong-wearing, 79-year-old Florida man was arrested for allegedly “consistently” exposing himself and making lewd gestures around his apartment complex — and argued to police that it was his “right to walk around naked.” Tyrone James Causey was charged with five counts of indecent exposure at his Hollywood, Fla., apartment on May 22 after neighbors called police, saying they were “increasingly concerned and frustrated with his continued behavior,” Local 10 News reported. Causey wasted no time showing police what neighbors were talking about — answering the door wearing nothing but a “G-string thong” and claiming he had “a right to...

He put illustrator Drew Struzan on the road to greatness and was behind the marketing for films including ‘Jaws,’ ‘Poltergeist,’ ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ and ‘Field of Dreams.’Tony Seiniger, the poster designer who also oversaw marketing campaigns for such classic movies as Jaws, Poltergeist, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Total Recall, died Monday in Atlanta, his family announced. He was 87. Known as the “Godfather of Movie Advertising,” Seiniger took unknown illustrator Drew Struzan under his wing and gave him his start as a poster designer in Hollywood. Struzan would become a show business legend. The New Yorker was...

Alright, who had Betty Boop for Hollywood's next skin-color swap? This is reportedly a live-action film, by the way, and Brunson will play Betty Boop as herself. From Variety: The film will trace the origin and evolution of Betty Boop through the perspective of her creator, Max Fleischer, examining the relationship between the artist and his creation as he navigates the creative and commercial pressures of building one of the world's first animated icons, particularly as that icon begins to take on a life of its own. You just know this is gonna be super woke 😂 (I can't wait...

Actor Harrison Ford told graduates at Arizona State University (ASU) to “extend social justice” to clean up the environmental “mess” his generation left behind for them. The legendary “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” actor gave the commencement speech during a graduation ceremony on May 11, where he received an honorary Doctor of Arts and Humane Letters degree for his work in conservation. Ford’s background in fighting climate change was a significant theme throughout the speech as he warned students about the need for “cultural change” to prevent “mass extinction” caused by corruption and global warming. “Humanity is a part of...

There are a number of questions regarding the whole Odyssey saga. One is how somebody as smart as Christopher Nolan got entangled with woke nonsense in the first place. (And yes, Nolan is smart – anybody who could take a storyline as convoluted as that of Memento and make it not only comprehensible but enthralling to the average audience is no slouch when it comes to intellect.) Another is why he felt compelled to pick up wokism just as it’s collapsing in the culture at large. It’s May 1945 in the Wachenbunker and everybody else is fleeing – but here...