Jennifer Lawrence surprised listeners with a spirited performance of Shania Twain’s classic “Any Man of Mine” during a recent podcast appearance, and the country star herself couldn’t help but respond. Lawrence’s energetic singing caught Twain’s eye on social media, and the “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” singer shared her delight with fans.
Shania Twain reacts to Jennifer Lawrence singing ‘Any Man of Mine’
In an episode of The Good Hang podcast with Amy Poehler on Jan. 20, Jennifer Lawrence revealed her favorite karaoke go-to: Shania Twain’s 1995 hit “Any Man of Mine.” Poehler shared she didn’t know the song, prompting Lawrence to offer her own rendition on the spot. Lawrence delivered a passionate vocal take, singing lines like “And if I change my mind, a million times, I want to hear him say, Yeah, yeah, yeah!” into the microphone.
Poehler was impressed, exclaiming, “Oh my God, you’re good,” to which Lawrence playfully responded, “I know, really good.” The moment was clipped and shared online, catching the attention of Shania Twain herself.
Twain couldn’t get enough of the video and made sure everyone knew it. She made her way into the Instagram comments, cheering on Jennifer Lawrence’s high-energy moment. She wrote, “The passion! The energy! The microphone grab!! Obsessed. Love ya Jennifer… and you Amy!” The singer later took the love over to X (formerly Twitter), calling the clip “so perfect.”
For those not in the know, “Any Man of Mine” first came in 1995 as the second single from The Woman in Me, the album that turned Twain into a global star. She’s looked back on that era many times over the years, even celebrating the album’s 25th anniversary on social media in 2020, reminding fans just how massive that moment was in her career.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Expect to see and hear the words “One Battle After Another” a lot Thursday, when nominations are announced for the 98th Academy Awards.
What You Need To Know
Director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson’s dark-comic tale about a group of one-time revolutionaries, “One Battle” has emerged as the big-screen juggernaut of the 2026 Hollywood awards season
It’s scooped up nominations and awards in all the glamour categories — and there’s little reason to think that won’t continue Thursday morning when nods for the Oscars are revealed
“One Battle” has already scored 14 nominations (and three wins) at the Critics Choice Awards, a leading nine nods (and four wins) at the Golden Globes and a record seven nominations for the Actor Awards, not yet handed out
The Academy Awards will be presented March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood
Director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson’s dark-comic tale about a group of one-time revolutionaries, “One Battle” has emerged as the big-screen juggernaut of the 2026 Hollywood awards season, scooping up nominations and awards in all the glamour categories — and there’s little reason to think that won’t continue Thursday morning when nods for the Oscars are revealed.
“One Battle” has already scored 14 nominations (and three wins) at the Critics Choice Awards, a leading nine nods (and four wins) at the Golden Globes and a record seven nominations for the Actor Awards, not yet handed out.
On Thursday, it’s expected to be among the nomination leaders yet again — joining the likes of “Sinners,” “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” “Frankenstein,” “Sentimental Value” and “Bugonia” in a glittering 2026 field.
Those films will likely dominate the best picture, actor, actress, director and supporting actor/actress categories.
Some Hollywood handicappers, in fact, are predicting the all-time record of 14 Oscar nominations could topple on Thursday — with “One Battle” and “Sinners” (a leading 17 Critics Choice nods, four wins) likely contenders to do the toppling.
All those questions will be answered beginning at 5:30 a.m. Thursday, when actress Danielle Brooks and actor Lewis Pullman announce the nominations live from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The announcement will be livestreamed on Oscar.com, Oscars.org and the Academy’s digital platforms on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, along with Disney+ and Hulu.
“One Battle” — with its all-star cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn and Chase Infiniti — has already won best picture at the Critics Choice Awards and best picture/musical or comedy at the Golden Globes, with “Hamnet” snagging best picture/drama at the Globes.
“One Battle,” “Frankenstein,” “Hamnet” and “Sinners” were also among the films scoring nominations for the coveted Producers Guild of America Award for theatrical motion pictures — an honor that typically leads to a best-picture victory on Oscar night. Also nominated by the PGA were “Bugonia,” “F1,” “Marty Supreme,” “Sentimental Value,” “Train Dreams” and “Weapons.”
Anderson has already won the Critics Choice and Golden Globe best director awards, and is among those nominated for the coveted Directors Guild Award, along with Chloé Zhao for “Hamnet,” Ryan Coogler for “Sinners,” Guillermo Del Toro for “Frankenstein” and Josh Saftie for “Marty Supreme.” All those directors would figure to be adding Oscar nods to their resumes.
For best actor, Timothée Chalamet seems a shoo-in nominee for his role in “Marty Supreme,” the sports comedy about one man’s travails chasing greatness in table tennis.
Chalamet has already won best actor at the Critics Choice and Golden Globes and is among the nominees for the Actor Awards, formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards and always a strong barometer of acting awards. And it would seem he’s owed at least a nomination, if not the Oscar itself, following his upset loss as best actor last year playing a young Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.”
Also nominated for Actor Awards for best actor this year are DiCaprio, in “One Battle,” Michael B. Jordan in “Sinners,” Ethan Hawke in “Blue Moon” and Jesse Plemons in “Bugonia” — all of whom would figure to be contenders in the Oscar race too.
For best actress, expect Jessie Buckley, in “Hamnet,” to be among Thursday’s nominees, following her wins at the Critics Choice and Golden Globes, the latter in the drama category. In the film, Buckley plays the wife of William Shakespeare as the couple mourns the death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet — a real-life tragedy that inspired Shakespeare to pen “Hamlet.”
Chase Infiniti, in “One Battle,” will likely battle for the best actress Oscar as well, with other probable noms going to Rose Byrne for “If I Had Legs I’d Kill You,” Kate Hudson for “Song Sung Blue” and Emma Stone for “Bugonia.” Byrne took best actress/musical or comedy at the Globes — and all of those actress are nominated in the category for the Actors Awards.
For the record, “La La Land” (2016), “Titanic” (1997) and “All About Eve” (1950) each scored 14 nominations in previous years.
A total of 317 feature films are eligible for consideration for the 98th Academy Awards, including 201 that met the criteria for consideration for best picture, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced.
To be eligible for consideration in the general entry categories, feature films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in at least one of six U.S. metropolitan areas — Los Angeles County; the city of New York; the Bay Area; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; and Atlanta, Georgia, between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of 2025, and run for at least seven consecutive days in the same venue. The films must be more than 40 minutes long.
Qualifying for the best picture category, films must be eligible for the general categories and producers must submit an Academy Representation and Inclusion Standards form. They also must complete an expanded theatrical release standard, including a run of at least seven days in 10 of the top 50 U.S. markets, no later than 45 days after their initial release in 2025.
The Academy Awards will be presented March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Towering high above Taiwan’s capital city at 1,667 feet (508 meters), Taipei 101 dominates the skyline.
The earthquake-proof skyscraper of steel and glass has captured the imagination of professional rock climber Alex Honnold for more than a decade. On Saturday morning, he will climb it in his signature free solo style — without ropes or protective equipment. And Netflix will broadcast it — live.
The event’s announcement has drawn both excitement and trepidation, as well as some concerns over the ethical implications of attempting such a high-risk endeavor on live broadcast. Many have questioned Honnold’s desire to continues his free-solo climbs now that he’s a married father of two young girls.
Known for his legendary ropeless ascent up Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan, documented in “Free Solo,” Honnold is intent on pushing the limits of climbing around the world.
“When you look at climbing objectives, you look for things that are singular,” Honnold told The Associated Press late last year. “Something like El Capitan where it’s way bigger and way prouder than all the things around it.”
Something like Taipei 101.
Honnold won’t be the first climber to ascend the skyscraper, but he will be the first to do so without a rope. French rock climber Alain Robert scaled the building on Christmas Day in 2004, as part of the grand opening of what was then the world’s tallest building. He took nearly four hours to finish, almost twice as long as what he anticipated, all while nursing an injured elbow and battered by wind and rain.
Honnold, who has been training for months, doesn’t think his climb will be hard. He’s practiced the moves on the building and spoke with Robert on his climbing podcast.
“I don’t think it’ll be that extreme,” Honnold said. “We’ll see. I think it’s the perfect sweet spot where it’s hard enough to be engaging for me and obviously an interesting climb.”
The building has 101 floors, with the hardest part being the 64 floors comprising the middle section — the “bamboo boxes” that give the building its signature look. Divided into eight, each segment will have eight floors of steep, overhanging climbing followed by a balcony that Honnold would be able to rest on.
The “Skyscraper Live” broadcast will be on a 10-second delay and begin Friday evening for viewers in the U.S.
James Smith, an executive with event producer Plimsoll Productions, said he consulted safety advisers almost immediately after he first spoke with Honnold about attempting the climb. Smith works with a risk management group for film and TV called Secret Compass, which has supported productions in filming penguins in Antarctica and helping Chris Hemsworth walk across a crane projecting from an Australian skyscraper’s roof, alike.
Smith and Honnold will be able to communicate throughout the event. They’ll have cameramen positioned inside the building, various hatches and places to bail during the climb and four high-angle camera operators suspended on ropes.
“These people all know Alex. They trust Alex. They’re going to be close to him throughout the whole climb,” Smith said. “They’re going to get us kind of amazing shots, but they’re also there just to keep an eye on him, and if there’s any problems, they can kind of help.”
The production has also commissioned professional weather forecasters to provide updates leading up to climb day. There’s currently a small chance of light rain in the morning, Smith said. Ultimately, if conditions are bad, Honnold won’t climb.
At his local gym, Taiwanese rock climber Chin Tzu-hsiang said he’s grown up always looking up at the Taipei 101 and wondering if he could climb it. Honnold is a household name among rock climbers even in Taiwan, and Chin said he has students who have only been climbing for a year or two who are excited to watch. Based on watching Honnold in his other climbs, Chin said he trusts him to prepare for the challenge and not to recklessly take risks.
“For Alex Honnold to finish the climb, it’s like he’s helping us fulfill our dream,” Chin said.
The novelty and risk involved in the climb are almost built for television.
“This will be the highest, the biggest urban free solo ever,” Smith said. “So we’re kind of writing history and those events, I think, have to be broadcast and watched live.”
Those same factors are crucial when discussing the ethics of the climb, according to Subbu Vincent, director of media and journalism ethics at Santa Clara University.
It’s important that Honnold has a “back-off clause” and the production aspect of the event doesn’t increase the risk he’s already taking, Vincent said. One action that Vincent believes is crucial is using a delay in the live broadcast so it can be stopped immediately if something goes wrong.
“I don’t think it’s ethical to proceed to livestream anything after,” Vincent said.
Taipei 101 officials declined to comment and Secret Compass did not respond to interview requests.
Another consideration is the influence Honnold may have on impressionable youth who may feel more emboldened to take risks after watching him climb, a debate that has existed since Evel Knievel’s televised daredevil stunts.
Many climbers have died from free-soloing, including an 18-year-old rock climber from Texas who fell last June in Yosemite. A trend called “roof-topping” — where people gain access to the tops of skyscrapers, often illegally, to take photos of themselves dangling from the edge — has also led to several deaths.
Jeff Smoot, who authored the book “All and Nothing: Inside Free Soloing,” shares those concerns. But what the general public might not understand is that embracing risk has always been a significant part of climbing culture, he said.
Smoot began climbing in the 1970s watching legendary climbers like John Long and John Bachar free-solo regularly.
“From the public’s perspective, this is thrill-seeking. From the climber’s perspective, it’s a meditative art form,” Smoot said.
When he first heard Honnold would be ascending Taipei 101 without ropes, Smoot had questions — why do it at all, why do it without ropes, why film it live?
But, he concluded, “If it wasn’t dangerous, would people want to watch?”
___
Ding reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press journalist Simina Mistreanu contributed reporting.
Jennifer Lawrence revealed this week that she’s gotten stuck with at least four nicknames over the years.
“Floffin, Nitro,” the “No Hard Feelings” actress told Amy Poehler on her “Good Hang” podcast Tuesday before sharing a slightly racier one she’s been saddled with in womanhood.
“Boobs,” she laughed. “Boobs Lawrence. The full government name.”
She added that her friends also call her “Ken from the ‘Barbie’ movie, ’cause I’m ‘just Ken.’ I think it’s their way of calling me stupid. And whenever I ask something stupid, they’re like, ‘She’s just Ken.’”
Jennifer Lawrence revealed that one of her nicknames is “Boobs.” (Neil Mockford/Getty Images for BFI)
Earlier in the interview, Lawrence talked about how “embarrassing” she finds photo shoots.
“They’re just like, ‘We were thinking you wouldn’t wear a bra for this,’ and I’m like, ‘I’ve had two children,’” the 35-year-old said of photo shoot awkwardness.
“‘You want me to show you something? Come here, let me show you something,’” she joked.
She also talked about her body changes after the birth of her second son early last year.
“With my second, I had like bad postpartum, so, like, I wasn’t eating. So, I felt really skinny, but I wasn’t,” she explained. “I was like, ‘Strapless? Let’s do this.’ My baby was like 3 weeks old,” she laughed.
She added that she’s surprised people haven’t mentioned how “skinny” she looks in her new movie “Die My Love” because she was pregnant while shooting it.
The 35-year-old revealed that her friends also call her “Just Ken” when she says something “stupid.” (Juan Naharro Gimenez/WireImage)
“And I’ve been waiting, and nobody said it. Nobody was like, ‘Wow, you were pregnant? You looked so skinny.’ Like, I’ve never had an Ozempic rumor,” she joked.
And while she didn’t elaborate on where her Floffin nickname came from, the “Hunger Games” star explained that “nitro” was given to her by her older brothers in childhood.
Jennifer Lawrence says she has four nicknames: Floffin, Nitro, Boobs and Just Ken.(Arnaitz Rubio/Europa Press via Getty Images)
“I was really hyper, and they called me nitro,” she revealed.
After Poehler asked about the best part of growing up with two older brothers, she said, “I mean, they were great. They were really protective. … I think it made me tough.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Duckwrth manifested a 2026 Grammy nomination for his album while in the recording studio. He just didn’t know it.
The singer, songwriter and producer would pretend to press an imaginary Grammy button whenever he and his friends finished a new track.
“It would be certain moments when we’ll be done with the song, and we’ll come up with this thing called ‘Grammy button.’ It’s an invisible Grammy button — we’ll be like, ‘Grammy, Grammy.’ And we said that over and over again … it was an interesting, beautiful manifestation,” the artist told The Associated Press.
The 37-year-old musician first started turning heads with his genre-fluid debut mixtape “I’m Uugly” in 2016. Soon his eclectic sound could be heard across films and television shows like “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and HBO’s “Insecure.” Since then, Duckwrth’s music has gone against the grain, seamlessly blending elements of hip-hop, funk, rock and soul throughout his projects.
Immersive sound for a unique project
Duckwrth’s latest album, “All American F—Boy,” is nominated at the 68th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 1 for best immersive audio album, a category that honors the technical work of albums mixed using multichannel audio recordings.
If they win, the trophy will be awarded to immersive mix engineer Andrew Law, who formatted the album’s previously mixed stereo recording for Dolby Atmos surround sound, a three-dimensional experience that allows listeners to feel as if they are at the center of the songs’ layered instruments and melodies.
“The difficult part is you have to keep the essence of the actual song so that when people listen to it on headphones or on other mediums, and not like in the (Dolby Atmos) studio, that it still sounds like the song without making it too crazy,” said Law. “I try to take the approach of keeping the song how it was meant to be heard. And then turn it into a big soundscape and something really, really fun when you’re sitting in an Atmos studio.”
The project is immersive in more ways than one. While brainstorming his next project, Duckwrth knew he wanted to center it on a character who was a bit more “brash and more a Sid Vicious type.”
“So, I feel I had to find a way to blend what they already knew me for,” he said. “I told my friend I gotta trick people, I gotta secretly drop a rock album, but people not know it’s a rock album.”
At the time, he was listening to audiobooks, like George Orwell’s “1984,” and wanted the album to feel like the layered soundscapes in a film or audiobook. So, he sat down and, over the course of 2 ½ years, created his own audio drama within the album, starring himself and featuring narration from actor LaKeith Stanfield. The album was produced alongside BLK ODYSSY and 2Fresh, featuring artists like Tanerélle, Sherwyn, Tommy Newport and IDK.
The album follows the titular “All American F—Boy” as he navigates the ups and downs of dating while grappling with a fear of commitment. His character ultimately is forced to confront his toxic playboy tendencies and break the patterns that have kept him in a constant loop of failed relationships. The loosely autobiographical project weaves into its coming-of-age story the invitation to explore the ways generational trauma, patriarchy and toxic masculinity affect romantic relationships.
“I was highly uncomfortable dropping this album, but I think when the wind pushes you so hard, it’s like when you’re like a child throwing a tantrum, and you’re just like, ‘No, I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna go to school,’ but then your mom is like pushing you out the door, like ‘Boy, if you don’t get in that car,’” said Duckwrth. “So I think making this album, it was a strong wind against my back, pushing me forward to go as deep as possible and be as vulnerable as possible.”
When looking back at the album’s journey, both Law and Duckwrth knew they had something great on their hands. For Law, it was an instant win from the narration to the music.
“I was like, this is the one,” he said.
Duckwrth says the album and Law’s immersive engineering work receiving a Grammy nomination is rewarding and a reminder to trust himself, his creative intuition and to be just as vulnerable with future projects.
“Yeah, to get a Grammy nomination for just being all out rebellious is pretty cool,” he said with a smile on his face. “And I’m excited for the kids who come after me to see that, whether we win or not, just having a nomination, especially for my album.”
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
It’s a bold filmmaking choice to have a countdown clock on the screen for most of your movie.
In the best-case scenario for a movie like “Mercy,” in which a Los Angeles detective has prove his innocence to an artificial intelligence judge within said time limit, it heightens the tension. Who hasn’t gotten sweaty palms in, say, a “Mission: Impossible” movie when the bomb is ticking down and Tom Cruise still hasn’t cleared the building? Why not just extend it for the duration?
Perhaps in a better movie it might have worked. Sadly in “Mercy,” in theaters Thursday, it’s an ever-present reminder of just how much longer you must endure until you too are free of Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson and that chair.
In “Mercy’s” near-future Los Angeles, AI has been adopted by law enforcement and the judicial system to more efficiently clean up the city’s crime and blight problem. It’s a potent and not too far-flung idea that might have been a fascinating and provocative premise for a movie attempting to grapple with the implications of so-called progress that had the potential to be a worthy companion to another Cruise movie, “Minority Report.” But that would have required a more serious script than screenwriter Marco van Belle’s and more vision than filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov managed to muster.
When Pratt’s character, Chris Raven, wakes up, barefoot and strapped into an electric chair sitting in the middle of an oddly large room that looks a bit like the holodeck, he’s informed by an IMAX-sized AI judge (Ferguson) that he has 90 minutes to prove he didn’t kill his wife (Annabelle Wallis). In this world, the incarcerated are guilty until proved innocent. They’ve cut lawyers and juries out of the equation as well. Instead, the accused have everyone’s digital footprint at their disposal to help build their own case. For Raven, that means everything from ring cam footage to his teenage daughter’s secret Instagram account.
Unfortunately for Raven, he woke up with some gaps in his memory between angrily busting into his home to confront his wife about something and being arrested and bludgeoned at a bar later that day. Raven was also one of the original champions of the AI judge system, which in a more curious script might have resulted in some real stakes. This story is more hung up on increasingly tortured plot contrivances, however, including Raven’s drinking problem following the death of a partner killed on the job. To its credit, the story does really keep it ambiguous as to whether Raven did it or not, but to say that it earns any sort of investment in the outcome is a stretch.
One of the most confounding choices is to have a real actor playing the AI judge. Wouldn’t it have been more interesting and provocative to use an AI creation as the impartial Judge Maddox instead of stripping Ferguson of all emotion and charisma in the role? At times, it feels as tedious as watching a stranger’s increasingly frustrating call with a robotic customer service representative play out in real time.
For how reliant this movie is on screens and keeping Pratt alone, one might assume that “Mercy” was a socially distanced, COVID-era leftover instead of something made in 2024. Kali Reis, playing another LAPD agent named Jaq who decides to help Raven investigate on the ground is the one that gets to be out in the real-world chasing leads and hunches. But for the most part, she’s seen only through FaceTime and bodycam footage. Like Raven, we’re largely stuck in the chair watching things play out on multiple screens, acutely aware of just how much time is left.
“Mercy,” an Amazon MGM release in theaters Thursday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “drug content, bloody images, some strong language, teen smoking and violence.” Running time: 101 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
New court documents are shining a light on what some Sony executives allegedly think of the ongoing It Ends With Us legal drama.
According to unsealed court documents obtained by Us Weekly on Wednesday, January 21, multiple Sony executives privately observed that the negative publicity around Blake Lively may have been the result of her own conduct.
Court documents allege that Sony President Sanford Panitch wrote in August 2024 that “the hair sell at the same time was epic level stupid,” referring to Lively’s Blake Brown line.
“She wouldn’t listen. She knows better,” Panitch allegedly continued. “She did it to herself. If she just let [Justin Baldoni] come to the premiere or didn’t make all the cast unfollow him or kick him off the movie and did what everyone ever has done in show business for time and memorial, which is protect ‘the show,’ then none of the sleuthing would have happened.”
The legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni continues with 181 pages of documents unsealed on Tuesday, January 20. In the docs, obtained by Us Weekly, several members from the It Ends With Us cast — including Jenny Slate and Isabela Ferrer — were deposed and slammed Baldoni during their testimonies. Communications between Lively […]
In a separate note, Sony CEO Tom Rothman allegedly observed that although Lively, 38, didn’t “deserve” the backlash she was receiving on social media, “she did bring it all on herself by refusing to listen to advice … and by selling her products.”
Lively launched Blake Brown on Instagram while on the It Ends With Us presstour. Entertainment Weekly previously reported that the launch was never meant to coincide with the It Ends With Us premiere. The film, however, was delayed several months, just a few days shy of Lively’s planned hair-care debut.
In another note, Tahra Grant — the Executive VP and Chief Communications Officer at Sony — allegedly wrote in August 2024 that Lively “orchestrated all this drama in a totally unsavvy and amateur way (and basically threatened…Sony) and now is mad it backfired on her.”
Others at Sony, however, appeared to be impressed with Lively and the success of It Ends With Us.
In a deposition unsealed on Tuesday, January 20, Sony Motion Picture Group President Josh Greenstein said he believed the It Ends With Us edit Lively worked on was “a stronger cut.”
“All she cared about was greatness,” Greenstein allegedly said. “I was incredibly impressed that — especially seeing everything she was doing in terms of the cut of the film and the marketing of the film, that she — her creativity, she took a — like an OK campaign and elevated it.”
Court documents also revealed alleged text messages between Lively and Sony executive Ange Giannetti on August 11, 2024, days after the film was released.
“Blake 50m dollars!! Your blood sweat tears brilliant smarts heart and soul in every single frame,” Giannetti wrote when celebrating the box office numbers. “My God. It’s incredible. Thank you 50m times and it’s only Sat night.”
Lively starred alongside Baldoni, 41, in the 2024 movie It Ends With Us, based on author Colleen Hoover’s book of the same name.
Months after the film’s release, Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni — who also served as the director on the film — with the California Civil Rights Department. The Gossip Girl alum subsequently sued Baldoni over sexual harassment claims, which he has continued to deny.
Baldoni countersued Lively in late 2024, but his lawsuit was dismissed in June 2025. A civil trial is slated to start in May of this year.
Before a trial gets underway, unsealed evidence continues to surface, providing a glimpse into what allegedly went down behind the scenes of It Ends With Us.
Blake Lively’s legal team is expanding as her lawsuit against Justin Baldoni moves closer to trial. Us Weekly can confirm Lively, 38, has hired attorney Sigrid McCawley, who is a longtime advocate for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, including Virginia Giuffre. “It is a privilege to get to work with Blake Lively’s world-class legal team on a […]
According to separate court documents obtained by Us on Tuesday, Hoover, 46, sent an email to Sony on July 14, 2024, expressing hesitation in attending the It Ends With Us premiere.
Hoover allegedly said she was “used to being neutral” and doesn’t like “upsetting people or choosing sides.”
In her email to Sony, however, Hoover couldn’t promise to attend the premiere if Baldoni’s team was going to be present.
“I go back and forth every day between continuing to show up for this movie or going into hiding because it’s all causing me anxiety and bringing attention that I’m not prepared for/used to,” she allegedly wrote. “Of course in a perfect world we’d set it all aside and everyone could smile for the cameras, but feelings have been hurt and boundaries have been crossed. I can see where Blake is coming from if she chooses not to attend, because if I were in her shoes, I’m not so sure I would be able to stomach seeing someone else accept credit and accolades for what was also a huge massive effort on her part, and having to share what should be a celebratory moment with people you absolutely can’t celebrate with.”
Blake Lively’s alleged feud with director and costar Justin Baldoni on the set of It Ends With Us exploded into multiple lawsuits in 2025. The former Gossip Girl star kicked off the legal battle by filing a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department and subsequently sued Baldoni over sexual harassment allegations. Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan […]
On August 6, 2024, Lively, Hoover and Baldoni all attended the New York City premiere of It Ends With Us.
In response to the unsealed court documents, Sigrid McCawley — a member of Lively’s legal team — told Us in a statement that the evidence shows “the Sony/Lively cut was the one chosen for release and was an unprecedented success, earning over $80 million dollars in its opening weekend and over $351 million dollars in box office worldwide.”
“The evidence shows Ms. Lively worked closely with author Colleen Hoover on the cut. Sony supported this cut, Ms. Hoover expressed her preference for this cut, Wayfarer approved it and the book’s most devoted fans reacted to the Sony/Lively cut with enormous enthusiasm at Ms. Hoover’s charity event, Book Bonanza,” the statement continued. “The Sony/Lively cut went on to make Sony and Wayfarer hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Karamo Brown abruptly backed out of multiple live morning shows, just an hour before air time on Tuesday.
Brown was expected to join his “Queer Eye” castmates Jeremiah Brent, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan van Ness for a round of live interviews, including appearances on “Today with Jenna & Sheinelle” and “CBS Mornings.”
Instead, CBS anchor Gayle King read a letter from Brown apologizing for being absent but explaining his decision to sit out.
“I hope everyone remembers the main theme I have tried to teach them over the past decade, which is to focus on and to protect their mental health/peace from people or a world who seek to destroy it; which is why I can’t be there today,” the statement read.
King also said she received a message from Brown’s assistant claiming the reality star was “worried about being bullied.”
When asked about Brown’s remarks, his co-stars said they were surprised.
“Surprised is a fair understatement,” Porowski said. “I will say, our ‘Queer Eye’ family — we’ve been doing this for almost a decade, which is pretty wild to believe — and families are complicated and we’re definitely not excluded from that. But I think two things can exist at the same time, and while that is definitely true, we’re also here to showcase these incredible heroes we have and really honor the legacy of this past decade of our lives and all these wonderful heroes that we’ve had the blessing of getting to meet and have conversations with.”
“My experience in this group has been transformative,” he told King. “To see the way that they move through the world, the way that they have taught me so much about life and friendship and love. I have felt safe and supported by the people up here.”
Shortly after, the cast addressed Brown’s absence again on “Today with Jenna & Sheinelle,” where Brown sent a video message saying, “Just like the themes of this season, I’m modeling what I believe is most important, which I want to remind you all, love yourselves and protect yourselves. That’s why I’m here at home and not there.”
The reality star also sent the NBC show a statement saying that he “has felt mentally and emotionally abused for years,” and was advised by his therapist not to attend the interview.
Brown was one of the original members of the show, which has aired since 2003.
The tan-colored prints analyzed by Indonesian and Australian researchers on the island of Sulawesi were made by blowing pigment over hands placed against the cave walls, leaving an outline. Some of the fingertips were also tweaked to look more pointed.
This prehistoric art form suggests the Indonesian island was home to a flourishing artistic culture. To figure out how old the paintings were, researchers dated mineral crusts that had formed on top of the art.
Upon seeing the new study, independent paleoanthropologist Genevieve von Petzinger said she “let out a little squeal of joy.”
“It fits everything I’d been thinking,” she said.
Indonesia is known to host some of the world’s earliest cave drawings, and scientists have analyzed countless examples of ancient art across the globe — including simple marks on bones and stones that go back hundreds of thousands of years. Cross-hatched markings on a piece of rock in South Africa have been dated to about 73,000 years ago.
The new art from southeastern Sulawesi is the oldest to be found on cave walls. The stencils also represent a more complex tradition of rock art that could have been a shared cultural practice, said study author Maxime Aubert with Griffith University, who published the study Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Scientists are eager to understand when early humans learned to make art, moving from dots and lines to more meaningful representations of themselves and the world around them. These cave drawings help firm up a timeline for the dawn of human creativity.
It’s not yet clear whose hands made the prints. They could be from an ancient human group called Denisovans who lived in the area and may have interacted with our Homo sapiens ancestors before eventually going extinct. Or they may belong to modern humans venturing away from Africa, who could have wandered through the Middle East and Australia around this time. Fine details on the cave art, including the intentionally modified fingertips, point to a human hand.
Other drawings discovered in the same area of the island, including a human figure, a bird and horse-like animals were found to be created much more recently, some of them about 4,000 years ago.
There’s likely more art to be found on nearby islands that could be even older than the handprints. Future studies may help scientists understand how these artistic traditions spread across the globe and how they’re woven into the fabric of humanity’s early days.
“For us, this discovery is not the end of the story,” Aubert said in an email. “It is an invitation to keep looking.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
TV presenter and radio host Vernon Kay admitted he could have made a “sackable offence” on air today.
During his Wednesday morning show (January 21) on BBC Radio 2, the 51-year-old considered stripping down to just his boxers and explained why.
Vernon got soaking wet cycling into work today (Credit: Splashnews.com)
Vernon Kay ‘soaked to the skin’
Vernon said he had cycled to work that morning, only to be caught in the elements, leaving him keen to warm up and dry off once he reached the London studio.
He made the revelation after the weather forecast predicted a damp day across the UK and said: “It’s going to be awful, I’m freezing.”
“No, I’m freezing, fed up this morning. I cycled in and it’s chucking it down outside and I’ve got jeans on and it would be really awkward and probably a sackable offense if I took my pants off and sat in my undies because my jeans are wet through,” Vernon added.
“I can’t do that anymore, times have changed. If I had a blanket I’d be able to do that. I am, I’ll be honest, soaked to the skin, I’m going to get a cold, I am. I need to warm me cockles, that’s what it is. Honest, I know I’m going to get a sniffle because I’m sat here in damp jeans, put the fire on.”
Vernon admits ‘times have changed’ (Credit: Splashnews.com)
Vernon’s charitable work through fitness
Vernon is no stranger to keeping fit. In 2023, Kay completed a 116-mile run from Leicester to Bolton, raising more than £5 million for Children in Need.
He previously trained for and took part in the London Triathlon alongside Morning Live presenter Gordon Smart, highlighting his fitness for multi-disciplinary events.
Vernon also played an active role in pal Paddy McGuinness’s nearly 300-mile, multi-day cycle for Children in Need in 2024.
He provided encouragement and a final check-in before Paddy set off from Wales, ultimately helping to raise over £7.5 million.
Valerie Bertinelli opened up about being fired as the spokesperson for a diet company because she regained weight after initially losing 50 pounds.
On Jan. 14, the 65-year-old actress made an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show” and took part in the show’s “Memory Bank” segment in which Barrymore and her guests are presented with photos from pivotal moments in their lives, leading them to recount the stories and emotions behind the images.
During the segment, Barrymore, her co-anchor Ross Matthews and Bertinelli reacted to a photo of the “Hot in Cleveland” star, who was seen smiling while wearing a white floral sheath dress at her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2012.
“Look at you, Val! God, you’re so beautiful, Barrymore said. “You look stunning.”
“And I felt so horrified,” Bertinelli said.
Valerie Bertinelli recalled being fired as a spokesperson for a diet company after she regained weight. (Michael Tran/FilmMagic)
Bertinelli explained that in the years leading up her Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony, she had publicly chronicled her weight loss efforts while representing an unnamed diet company.
“I had started a diet program and then became their spokesperson in 2007 and I had lost 50 pounds,” she recalled. “And then life started to get the better of me, and I wasn’t taking care of my mental and emotional health, so the weight started to come back on.”
“And this was the last year, I believe, that I was with this diet company,” Bertinelli continued. “And they fired me, eventually said, ‘We can’t keep going with you because you’re gaining weight again.’”
The actress is pictured at her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2012. (Michael Tran/FilmMagic)
The “One Day at a Time” noted that the dress she was pictured in was a size 12.
“I remember thinking, ‘But size 12’s not that big!’” Bertinelli recalled. “But I had gotten down to a size 4 — which was way too small for me and impossible for me to maintain.”
“And I’ve been up and down, but pretty much, basically, this weight my whole life that I am right now, and I’m a size 10 now,” she continued. “And I would’ve been horrified then being on the diet program being a size 10.”
Bertinelli became emotional as she described how her priorities and view of her self-worth had changed since that time.
“Right now, it’s about my mental and emotional health,” she said. “My mental and emotional health — even though I’m getting teary-eyed — is so strong right now.”
“I’m so strong and firm in who I am and, no matter what people throw at me, I know who I am and I know what kind of person I am and it doesn’t matter how much I weigh,” Bertinelli continued.
“What matters is who I am, how I treat people. Period!” she emphasized as the audience clapped and cheered.
Bertinelli appeared on “The Drew Barrymore Show” on Jan. 14. (The Drew Barrymore Show)
Bertinelli went on to say that she still owns the dress from the photo.
“And it fits me just fine,” the former Food Network star said. “It’s a little less snug than it is there, but I just — if anything, it doesn’t matter what size we are. What is our heart? How do we treat people? Period!”
“Preach, Val,” Matthews said.
“I hope that we’ve also come some distance between just saying skinny and fat as opposed to like, what is healthy for you,” Barrymore said.
Bertinelli previously shared that she no longer weighs herself. (Unique Nicole)
Bertinelli has previously expressed that she does not “like diet culture“ and is more focused on making sure she eats enough protein, carbs, fat and fiber.
In a February 2024 Instagram post, Bertinelli revealed that she no longer weighs herself.
The actress shared two throwback photos of herself in a bikini, writing, “This is a 150lb body on a 5’4 frame. I don’t weigh myself anymore because this is considered overweight by whose standards I don’t know.”
She added that the standards are “stupid and I believed them for far too long. I now, finally, know that I am a kind, considerate, funny, thoughtful woman. So please remember, who you are and what your character is, should never be overshadowed by what size you are or how much you weigh. You are enough. Just the way you are. F— ‘em.”
Ashley Hume is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to ashley.hume@fox.com and on Twitter: @ashleyhume
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Actor Timothy Busfield was released from jail Tuesday night in New Mexico, where he is facing counts of child sexual abuse.
Hours earlier, Busfield’s attorneys successfully argued that the actor best known for appearances in “The West Wing,” “Field of Dreams” and “Thirtysomething” wasn’t a danger to the community and shouldn’t be behind bars while he awaits trial. Prosecutors sought to keep him in jail, outlining what they said was grooming behavior and abuse of power by Busfield over three decades.
State District Court Judge David Murphy said while the crimes Busfield is accused of inherently are dangerous and involve children, prosecutors didn’t prove the public wouldn’t be safe if he’s released.
“There’s no evidence of a pattern of criminal conduct, there are no similar allegations involving children in his past,” Murphy said. “Rather this defendant self-surrendered and submitted himself to this court’s jurisdiction, demonstrating compliance with the court order for his arrest.”
Outside the courthouse, Busfield’s wife, actor Melissa Gilbert, thanked Murphy for the ruling. She also thanked friends, relatives, co-workers and strangers who she said have showered their family with love. Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls in the 1970s to ’80s TV series “Little House on the Prairie,” sat behind Busfield during the hearing. He was handcuffed and dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit.
Prosecutors declined to comment on the ruling.
Busfield is facing two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse while working as a director on the set of the TV series “The Cleaning Lady,” allegations that he denies. He was booked into jail after a warrant was issued for his arrest and he turned himself in.
According to the criminal complaint, an investigator with the Albuquerque Police Department said a boy reported that Busfield touched him on his private areas over his clothing on one occasion when he was 7 years old and another time when he was 8. The boy’s twin brother told authorities he was also touched by Busfield, but he did not specify where and didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to get in trouble, the complaint said.
During the hearing Tuesday, Busfield’s attorneys pointed out that the children initially said during interviews with police that Busfield didn’t touch them inappropriately. Busfield’s attorneys then accused the boys’ parents of coaching their children toward incriminating statements after the boys lost lucrative roles on the show.
Busfield’s defense team called just one witness — Alan Caudillo, director of photography on “The Cleaning Lady” — to testify that children on set were never left alone with individuals, and that the parents were the ones who encouraged hugs with adults on the set.
According to the criminal complaint, one of the boys later disclosed during a therapy session that he was inappropriately touched by Busfield. Those records were obtained by police during the investigation.
Assistant District Attorney Savannah Brandenburg-Koch called evidence of abuse against Busfield strong and specific. She also said witnesses expressed fear about potential retaliation and professional harm.
“The boys’ allegation are supported by medical findings and by their therapist,” Brandenburg-Koch said. “Their accounts were specific and not exaggerated.”
Arguing for Busfield’s release, defense attorney Amber Fayerberg said her client will be under intense scrutiny because of publicity surrounding the charges.
“That bell can’t be un-rung,” Fayerberg said. “The idea that he (Busfield) could then go out and be dangerous with a child — in the world where everybody knows who he is — is absurd.”
Busfield submitted letters vouching for his character, and his attorneys say he passed an independent polygraph test.
Legal experts say New Mexico is among a few states that allow polygraph evidence in criminal cases, but a judge has final say over whether one can be used. There are strict requirements for admission in court.
Christina Haack traded winter layers for a bikini and a tropical getaway.
The HGTV star shared a series of vacation photos on Instagram from Kapalua, Hawaii, where she spent time soaking in ocean views and warm weather alongside boyfriend Chris Larocca.
Haack posed poolside with Larocca, wearing a white bikini top paired with a matching wrap skirt. She accessorized with oversized sunglasses and a purple lei as rows of pool loungers and palm trees framed the scene behind her.
Larocca stood beside her in a black T-shirt, white shorts and flip-flops as the couple smiled for the camera.
Christina Haack poses poolside with boyfriend Chris Larocca during a Hawaii vacation in Kapalua.(Christina Haack/Instagram)
The 42-year-old mother of three shared a close-up selfie while lounging with a drink in hand, smiling broadly as she wore the same white bikini and lei.
Haack captioned the post, “Aloha 2026. Hands down my fav January yet. 🤍🌸” The couple enjoyed a romantic getaway, and Haack shared a glimpse of the stunning views with her followers.
Christina Haack smiles in a close-up selfie while relaxing during her Hawaiian getaway.(Christina Haack/Instagram)
Before heading to Hawaii, the couple bundled up for a blended-family winter trip to Park City, Utah.
In one photo from the New Year’s trip, Haack posed alongside ex-husband Tarek El Moussa, his wife Heather Rae El Moussa and boyfriend Chris Larocca as the group participated in après-ski activities. The foursome smiled for the camera while bundled in winter layers, marking the holiday together despite lighter-than-expected snowfall.
Haack acknowledged the conditions in the caption, joking that it was “the saddest amount of snow” she had seen in Park City, while noting that the blended family still made the most of the trip.
Christina Haack, Chris Larocca, Tarek El Moussa and Heather Rae El Moussa during a trip to Park City, Utah.(Christina Haack/Instagram)
Another image from the post focused on the children, showing Haack’s 6-year-old son Hudson, whom she shares with ex-husband Ant Anstead, posing with her and El Moussa’s son Brayden, 10, along with Tarek and Heather Rae El Moussa’s 2-year-old son, Tristan. The kids appeared bundled against the cold as the snowy mountain landscape stretched out behind them.
The group’s vacation comes as Haack and Heather Rae El Moussa continue to collaborate professionally. The two star together on HGTV’s house-flipping competition series “The Flip Off,” which follows the women — alongside Tarek El Moussa — as they compete to see which couple can achieve the biggest profit renovating homes. The series was renewed for a second season set to air in 2026.
Despite their complicated history, Haack and El Moussa have embraced a collaborative blended-family dynamic, frequently sharing moments from group trips and holidays while continuing to work together on television.
Christina Haack and Tarek El Moussa’s children during a trip to Park City, Utah.(Christina Haack/Instagram)
Haack’s Hawaii and Park City trips come as the HGTV star continues to navigate a highly public personal life that has unfolded alongside her television career.
Haack first rose to prominence alongside former husband Tarek El Moussa, whom she married in 2009 after the two met while working as real estate agents in California. The pair later starred together on HGTV’s hit series “Flip or Flop,” building both a business and a family before their relationship ended.
Despite their split, Haack has spoken candidly about how her relationship with El Moussa has evolved over time. During an appearance on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy in January 2025, she reflected on how he has changed since their marriage.
“He’s way different,” Haack said. “He’s much more calm. Thank God for everybody. And I think he wants to make his relationship work.”
Christina Haack, Tarek El Moussa and Heather Rae El Moussa star together on HGTV’s house-flipping competition series “The Flip Off.”(Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for HGTV)
Haack also addressed her dynamic with El Moussa’s wife, Heather Rae El Moussa, noting that the two developed a strong working relationship while filming together.
“I actually really like her,” Haack said. “She’s a hard worker, she puts up with Tarek and she’s a great stepmom.”
After her divorce from El Moussa was finalized in 2018, Haack married British TV personality Ant Anstead. The former couple welcomed a son together before announcing their separation in 2020 and finalizing their divorce the following year.
Haack later married real estate agent Josh Hall in October 2021, a relationship that ended in a contentious split, with the divorce not finalized until May 2025. Speaking openly on Radio Andy, Haack detailed the status of the divorce proceedings back January 2025.
Christina Haack has three children from her previous marriages.(Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
“Not even close,” she said when asked if the couple had reached a settlement. “We’re going to be going to trial I hear.”
She also confirmed hiring prominent divorce attorney Laura Wasser during the process.
“Yeah, it’s not cheap,” Haack said.
Amid the ongoing legal battle, Haack confirmed in February 2025 that she had moved on with current boyfriend Chris Larocca. Since then, she has shared glimpses of their relationship through social media and blended-family gatherings.
Alexander Skarsgård is addressing comments he made about his sexuality while promoting his new BDSM film, Pillion.
Skarsgård, 49, was asked at the 2025 Zurich Film Festival what he brought from his own life to the upcoming film, which follows timid Colin (Henry Melling) as he meets confident biker Ray (Skarsgård), who initiates him into a submissive relationship.
“I mean, I do have a kid, but what I’ve done in the past, who I’ve been with, men, women…,” Skarsgård explained at the time. “To me, what was important was that this felt like an opportunity to tell a story about a subculture I hadn’t seen portrayed this way — with so much authenticity.”
Some fans took the actor’s explanation as a confirmation of his assumed bisexuality. However, when asked in an interview with Variety published on Tuesday, January 20, Skarsgård clarified that he was merely trying to de-center his own personal experience when explaining the premise of the film.
Alexander Skarsgård brought an added edge to his latest red carpet outing. Skarsgård, 49, stepped out at the BFI London Film Festival premiere of his movie Pillion on Saturday, October 18, showing off his rather impressive physique. Skarsgård donned a sleeveless, halter-style button-down that flaunted his toned biceps, which he wore with a pair of […]
“Oh. That it resonated with my past? It was definitely not an intended statement,” the Big Little Lies star told the outlet when asked about his previous comments. “I don’t know what I was talking about. Maybe it has to do with — there’s a lot of focus sometimes on me as an actor. Maybe it was trying to shift the focus more to the story and these characters. And the importance of telling the story like this.”
This isn’t the first time Skarsgård has made headlines for his remarks about the film. The True Blood alum previously opened up about why he was “excited” to shoot Pillion’s graphic sex scenes with his costar Melling, noting that the movie strays from the typical construct of what intimate on screen moments often look like.
“I was excited because [the sex scenes] are interesting [in Pillion],” he told The Hollywood Reporter in September 2025. “And that’s quite rare. Most sex scenes on screen are quite boring and sanitized.”
Skarsgård added that the sex scenes don’t shy away from the “awkwardness” of many intimate situations, which he appreciated.
“We really leaned into the authenticity, the awkwardness of sex, which I thought was really funny and sweet,” he explained. “It’s quite rare to have a sex scene that actually has an emotional journey. There’s stuff happening, and it’s like erotic and sexy, but then it’s awkward, and then it’s funny. I think [director Harry Lighton] instilled a lot of trust in us. We just felt very comfortable. There was no trepidation going in. Quite the opposite. We were excited to jump in.”
When asked whether any sex scenes were deemed too explicit for Pillion’s final cut, Skarsgård said with a laugh, “Oh yeah, we’ve got some extra scenes we’ve saved for the Christmas Special edition, a triple X version for the kids.”
Pillion is based on author Adam Mars-Jones’ 2020 Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize-winning novel Box Hill. The book was also shortlisted by the Royal Society of Literature as one of the best British novels of 2021.
Alexander Skarsgård revealed that he gets “quite excited” to shoot “graphic” sex scenes. The Big Little Lies alum, 49, and costar Harry Melling have multiple intimate scenes in their critically-acclaimed romantic drama Pillion, which chronicles a BDSM relationship between a biker gang leader (Skarsgård) and a shy young man (Melling) who lives with his terminally […]
In his months promoting the film, Skarsgård has been praised for his method-like fashion choices, often showing up on red carpets wearing bondage-themed attire. While speaking to Variety on Monday, he admitted clothes are not his usual forte, but something he’s been playing with more recently.
“I never buy clothes. If you saw my closet, my wardrobe is very limited,” he confessed. “I’m not a big consumer of fashion. I don’t spend money on expensive brands. I really enjoy the creativity of it, but it’s not like I’m out shopping for these outfits. I guess it’s something I’ve leaned into a bit more of late.”
The critics association announced nominees in eight competitive categories and three honorary winners, including the celebrated author-journalist Frances Fitzgerald, who will receive a lifetime achievement award.
“Out of the many hundreds of titles that our organization carefully considered this year, these singular and striking finalists rose to the top,” NBCC President Adam Dalva said in a statement Tuesday. “They interrogate the lives we lead, broaden our creative and social horizons, move us, and continually surprise us. Especially in this difficult time, every one of these writers and translators deserves to be celebrated -– and to be widely read.”
Han’s “We Do Not Part” (translated from the Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris) is a fiction finalist, along with Karen Russell’s “The Antidote”; Katie Kitamura’s “Audition”; Solvej Balle’s “On the Calculation of Volume (Book III),” translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell; and Flournoy’s “The Wilderness.”
Roy is a nominee in autobiography for “Mother Mary Comes to Me,” with other books cited including Geraldine Brooks’ “Memorial Days”; Beth Macy’s “Paper Girl”; Hanif Kureishi’s “Shattered”; and Miriam Toews’ “A Truce That Is Not Peace.”
Finalists in other categories range from Viet Thanh Nguyen’s “To Save and to Destroy” for criticism to Nicholas Boggs’ “Baldwin: A Love Story” for best first book to Kevin Young’s “Night Watch” for poetry.
Winners will be announced March 26.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
PARIS — PARIS (AP) — Valentino Garavani’s death cast a long shadow over the opening day of Paris Fashion Week menswear Tuesday, with front-row guests and industry figures mourning the passing of one of the last towering names of 20th-century couture — an Italian designer whose working life was closely entwined with the Paris runways.
Valentino, 93, died at his Rome residence, the Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti Foundation said in a statement announcing his death. While he built his house in Rome, he spent decades presenting collections in France.
He “was one of the last big couturiers who really embodied what was fashion in the 20th century,” said Pierre Groppo, fashion editor-in-chief at Vanity Fair France.
On a day meant to sell the future, many guests said they were thinking about what fashion has lost: the couturier as a living institution.
Groppo pointed to the codes that made Valentino instantly legible — “the dots, the ruffles, the knots” — and to a generation of designers who, he said, “in a way, invented what is celebrity culture.”
Valentino’s vision was built on a simple idea: make women look luminous, then make the moment unforgettable.
He dressed Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor, among others, fixed his signature “Valentino red” in the public imagination, and — through his decades-long partnership with Giancarlo Giammetti — helped turn the designer himself into part of the spectacle, as recognizable as the clients in his front row.
Prominent fashion writer Luke Leitch framed the loss in similarly outsized terms, calling Valentino “the last of the fashion ‘leviathans of that generation’,” and saying it was “absolutely” the end of a certain class of designer: figures whose names could carry a global house, and whose authority came not from viral speed but from permanence.
Trained in Paris before founding his maison in Rome, Valentino became a rare bridge figure: Italian by origin, but fluent in the rituals that made Paris couture an institution. His career moved between those two capitals of elegance, bringing Roman grandeur into a system that still treats fashion not only as commerce, but as ceremony.
Even as he aged, the house’s founder kept turning up at its couture and ready-to-wear shows, as observed by one Associated Press journalist — until he eventually retreated from public life, all the while radiating quiet grandeur from his front-row seat.
For some in Paris on Tuesday, the loss felt personal precisely because Valentino’s world was never only Italian.
Groppo recalled the designer as “very much more than a fashion brand,” adding: “It was a lifestyle.”
That lifestyle — couture polish, social glamour, and the conviction that elegance could be a form of power — remains a reference point even as fashion accelerates toward louder branding and faster cycles.
“It’s quite sad as he’s so important to the fashion industry, and he contributed a lot and I cannot forget the stunning red he created,” said Lolo Zhang, a Chinese fashion influencer attending Louis Vuitton ’s show in Paris.
“He always celebrated pure beauty, and architecture for the silhouette, and how he used color. The old era just passed by.”
Other guests described a delayed realization — the kind that arrives only when a figure who seemed permanent is suddenly gone.
“There are some people who want to be Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel. … There are also people who are spontaneously Valentino,” said Guy-Claude Agboton, deputy editor of Ideat magazine. “It’s a question of identity.”
For Paris fashion observer Benedict Epinay, the grief was bound up with memory. And with the emotional charge of Valentino’s final bow.
“It was such a great moment. I was lucky enough to attend the last show he gave,” Epinay said. “It was so moving because we knew at that time it was the last show.”
Fashion observer Arfan Ghani pointed to what Valentino represented to younger designers: a “classy” standard of restraint in an era that often rewards noise.
“Because it was very classical materials,” Ghani said. “It wasn’t as loud as a lot of other of these brands are with branding.”
Paris-based sculptor Ranti Bam described Valentino in the language of form: less trend than structure, less look than line.
“As a sculptor I saw Valentino as an artist,” Bam said. “He transcended fashion into sculpture.”
“He didn’t follow trends, he pursued form,” she added. “That’s why his work doesn’t date, it endures.”
The fashion house Valentino has for years continued under a new generation of leadership and design — still showcased in Paris.
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Corrects previous misspellings of Paris fashion observer Benedict Epinay and Guy-Claude Agboton, deputy editor of Ideat magazine.
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Associated Press writer Amy Seraphin in Paris contributed to this report.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A judge ordered that actor Timothy Busfield be released from jail pending trial on child sex abuse charges, at a detention hearing Tuesday.
The order from state district court Judge David Murphy is linked to accusations that Busfield inappropriately touched a minor while working as a director on the set of the series “The Cleaning Lady.”
Busfield will be supervised upon release by a pretrial services office in Albuquerque, and can leave the state to return home, the judge said.
Busfield, an Emmy Award-winning actor who is known for appearances in “The West Wing,” “Field of Dreams” and “Thirtysomething,” was ordered to be held without bond last week at his first court appearance. Busfield called the allegations lies in a video shared before he turned himself in.
The judge acknowledged evidence that Busfield is accused of crimes that are inherently dangerous and involve children, but said prosecutors didn’t prove that there are no conditions of release that would protect the public’s safety.
“There’s no evidence of a pattern of criminal conduct, there are no similar allegations involving children in his past,” Murphy said. “Rather this defendant self-surrendered and submitted himself to this court’s jurisdiction, demonstrating compliance with the court order for his arrest.”
At the hearing, Busfield was handcuffed and dressed in an orange jail uniform in a New Mexico state district court, while wife and actor Melissa Gilbert watched from the court gallery.
Gilbert was tearful while exiting the courtroom after the judge ordered Busfield’s release.
Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls in the 1970s to ’80s TV series “Little House on the Prairie,” was on the list of potential witness submitted ahead of the hearing.
Albuquerque police issued a warrant for Busfield’s arrest earlier this month on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse. A criminal complaint alleges the acts occurred on the set of the series “The Cleaning Lady.”
According to the criminal complaint, an investigator with the police department says the child reported Busfield touched him on private areas over his clothing on one occasion when he was 7 years old and another time when he was 8. The boy’s twin brother told authorities he was also touched by Busfield, but did not specify where. He said he didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to get in trouble.
On Monday, Busfield’s attorneys submitted two brief audio recordings of initial police interviews in which the children say Busfield did not touch them in private areas. The attorneys in a court filing argue that the complaint characterizes the interviews as a failure to disclose abuse, but an “unequivocal denial is materially different from a mere absence of disclosure.”
According to the criminal complaint, one of the boys disclosed during a therapy session that he was inappropriately touched by the show’s director. Those records were obtained by police during the investigation.
Arguing Tuesday for Busfield’s continued detention, Assistant District Attorney Savannah Brandenburg-Koch called evidence of abuse against Busfield strong and specific.
“The boys’ allegation are supported by medical findings and by their therapist,” Brandenburg-Koch said. “Their accounts were specific and not exaggerated.”
She also described a documented pattern of sexual misconduct, abuse of authority and grooming behavior by Busfield over the past three decades. Prosecutors also say witnesses have expressed fear regarding retaliation and professional harm.
“GPS is not going to tell this court if he is around children or talking to witnesses,” Brandenburg-Koch said.
Busfield’s attorneys have argued that the allegations emerged only after the boys lost their role in the TV show, creating a financial and retaliatory motive. The filings detailed what the attorneys said was a history of fraud by both the boys’ father and mother. They cited an investigation by Warner Bros. into the allegations that found the allegations unfounded.
Busfield also submitted letters vouching for his character, and his attorneys say he passed an independent polygraph test.
Legal experts say New Mexico is among a few states that allow polygraph evidence in criminal cases, but a judge has final say over whether one can be used. There are strict requirements for admission.
Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, the eldest son of Victoria and soccer star David Beckham, broke his silence on a long-rumoured family feud and revealed he does “not want to reconcile” with his celebrity parents.
In a series of six Instagram Stories posted Monday, Peltz Beckham shared a lengthy statement in which he accused his parents of attempting to “ruin” his marriage to actor Nicola Peltz Beckham.
Rumours of a dispute between the couple and their estranged son, Peltz Beckham — who adopted a hyphenated surname following his wedding — have been making headlines for several years.
David Beckham extends olive branch to son Brooklyn amid family feud rumours
Here’s everything you need to know about the rumoured Beckham family feud.
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Brooklyn Beckham’s statement
In his statement, Peltz Beckham said he has remained “silent for years” and has made “every effort to keep these matters private” before sharing instances that seemingly contributed to the alleged clash between him and his parents.
“Unfortunately, my parents and their team have continued to go to the press, leaving me with no choice but to speak for myself and tell the truth about only some of the lies that have been printed,” Peltz Beckham began.
Peltz Beckham, 26, told his 16.3 million Instagram followers he does “not want to reconcile with my family.”
“I’m not being controlled, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life,” he wrote. “For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family. The performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships have been a fixture of the life I was born into.”
A screengrab from Brooklyn Peltz Beckham’s Instagram Stories.
@BrooklynPeltzBeckham / Instagram
He said that he has recently “seen with my own eyes the lengths that they’ll go through to place countless lies in the media, mostly at the expense of innocent people, to preserve their own facade.”
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“But I believe the truth always comes out. My parents have been trying endlessly to ruin my relationship since before my wedding, and it hasn’t stopped,” he further claimed. “My mum cancelled making Nicola’s dress in the eleventh hour despite how excited she was to wear her design, forcing her to urgently find a new dress.”
Peltz Beckham alleged that, weeks before his wedding day, his parents “repeatedly pressured and attempted to bribe me into signing away the rights to my name, which would have affected me, my life, and our future children.”
“They were adamant on me signing before my wedding date because then the terms of the deal would be initiated. My holdout affected the payday, and they have never treated me the same since,” he wrote.
“During the wedding planning, my mum went so far as to call me ‘evil’ because Nicola and I chose to include my Nanny Sandra, and Nicola’s Naunni at our table, because they both didn’t have their husbands. Both of our parents had their own tables equally adjacent to ours.”
Peltz Beckham said the night before his wedding, members of his family told him that “Nicola was ‘not blood’ and ‘not family.’”
“Since the moment I started standing up for myself with my family, I’ve received endless attacks from my parents, both privately and publicly, that were sent to the press on their orders. Even my brothers were sent to attack me on social media, before they ultimately blocked me out of nowhere this last Summer,” he added.
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(L-R:) Mia Regan, Romeo Beckham, Cruz Beckham, Harper Beckham, David Beckham, Victoria Beckham, Brooklyn Peltz Beckham and Nicola Peltz arrive for the premiere of Netflix’s documentary series ‘Beckham’ at the Curzon Mayfair in London on Oct. 3, 2023.
AP Photo / Press Association
Peltz Beckham claimed his mother, Victoria, 51, who first gained fame in the ’90s pop group Spice Girls, “hijacked” his first dance with his wife at his wedding and danced “very inappropriately” on him.
“My mum hijacked my first dance with my wife, which had been planned weeks in advance to a romantic love song,” he wrote. “In front of our 500 wedding guests, Marc Anthony called me to the stage, where in the schedule was planned to be my romantic dance with my wife but instead my mum was waiting to dance with me instead.”
“She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone,” he continued. “I’ve never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life.”
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“We wanted to renew our vows so we could create new memories of our wedding day that bring us joy and happiness, not anxiety and embarrassment,” he added, referencing the couple’s vow renewal in August 2025.
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He also alleged that his wife has been “consistently disrespected by my family, no matter how hard we’ve tried to come together as one.”
“My mum has repeatedly invited women from my past into our lives in ways that were clearly intended to make us both uncomfortable,” Peltz Beckham wrote.
A screengrab from Brooklyn Peltz Beckham’s Instagram Stories.
@BrooklynPeltzBeckham / Instagram
He went on to discuss his father’s 50th birthday celebration in May 2025 at the family’s Cotswolds home and London’s Core restaurant. Pictures published by U.K. tabloid Daily Mail show Beckham with his wife and children, Harper, 14, Cruz, 20, and Romeo, 23, but Peltz Beckham and Nicola are noticeably absent.
Peltz Beckham said they had travelled to London to celebrate his dad’s birthday but claims they were “rejected for a week as we waited in our hotel room trying to plan quality time with him.”
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“He refused all of our attempts, unless it was at his big birthday party with a hundred guests and cameras at every corner,” he wrote. “When he finally agreed to see me, it was under the condition that Nicola wasn’t invited. It was a slap in the face. Later, when my family travelled to LA, they refused to see me at all.”
Peltz Beckham claimed that his family only cares about their “brand.”
“My family values public promotion and endorsements above all else. Brand Beckham comes first. Family ‘love’ is decided by how much you post on social media, or how quickly you drop everything to show up and pose for a family photo opp, even if it’s at the expense of our professional obligations,” he wrote.
He continued, “We’ve gone out of our way for years to show up and support at every fashion show, every party, and every press activity to show ‘our perfect family!’ But the one time my wife asked for my mum’s support to save displaced dogs during the LA fires, my mum refused.”
Brooklyn Peltz Beckham and Nicola Peltz attend the Miu Miu Fall-Winter 2023-2024 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on March 6, 2023.
Aurore Marechal/ABACAPRESS.COM
Peltz Beckham told his followers that the narrative that his wife controls him “is completely backwards.”
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“I have been controlled by my parents for most of my life. I grew up with overwhelming anxiety. For the first time in my life, since stepping away from my family, that anxiety has disappeared,” he claimed. “I wake up every morning grateful for the life I chose, and have found peace and relief.”
He concluded by saying that he does not want “a life shaped by image, press or manipulation.”
“All we want is peace, privacy and happiness for us and for our future family,” he wrote.
A screengrab from Brooklyn Peltz Beckham’s Instagram Stories.
@BrooklynPeltzBeckham / Instagram
Victoria Beckham and Nicola Peltz wedding dress drama
In 2022, there were reports from various celebrity sites that Nicola had refused to wear one of Victoria’s designs for her wedding.
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Nicola, 31, instead wore a Valentino haute couture gown for her wedding ceremony in April 2022. Her stylist, Leslie Fremar, told British Vogue that creating the dress was the “ultimate couture experience” and said that it had been many months in the making.
Fremar also said there were visits to the Valentino headquarters in Rome, where they worked with the brand’s creative director, Pierpaolo Picciloi.
Nicola previously told The Sunday Times that Victoria had realized her atelier could not finish her wedding dress in time and denied there was any fallout between the two.
“She didn’t say you can’t wear it; I didn’t say I didn’t want to wear it. That’s where it started, and then they ran with that,” she told Variety in an interview about the alleged quarrel in August 2022.
“I’ve said this so many times: There’s no feud,” Nicola said. “It’s really weird, actually, whether it’s my life or someone else’s life or whatever, when you know the truth and then you read something totally wrong.”
Beckham brothers unfollow each other on social media
In April 2025, TMZ first reported that Peltz Beckham was not on speaking terms with his brother, Romeo.
The outlet said that Peltz Beckham was upset with Romeo after he began dating Kim Turnbull, with whom Peltz Beckham reportedly had a “romantic connection” with years prior.
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Turnbull addressed the rumours in June, posting a statement on her Instagram Stories.
“I have never been romantically involved in any capacity at any point with the person in question. Nothing between us has occurred further than a school friendship at age 16,” she wrote. “I would like to remove myself from the ongoing conversation and set the record straight for the sake of everyone involved.”
In his Instagram statement, Peltz Beckham claimed that it was his brothers who “blocked” him.
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Cruz Beckham, 20, previously shut down claims that his parents unfollowed his brother on Instagram.
In December, he said they would “never unfollow their son,” in response to a Daily Mail story claiming that they did.
“Not true. My mum and dad would never unfollow their son. Let’s get the facts right,” Cruz wrote, adding, “They woke up blocked as I did.”
Brooklyn and Nicola renew vows without Beckham family
Peltz Beckham and Nicola renewed their wedding vows in August 2025 in a ceremony at New York’s Westchester County.
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Nicola also shared a post showing some family members at the intimate ceremony, including her brother Bradley Pelts and her parents, Claudia and Nelson Peltz, who officiated the ceremony.
On Monday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, David Beckham dodged a question from Sky News about Peltz Beckham’s Instagram posts.
The soccer star joined CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday and said that he has tried to “educate” his children on the positives and negatives of social media.
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“I’ve been able to use my platform and following for UNICEF and it’s been the biggest tool to make people aware of what’s going on around the world for children,” said Beckham, a goodwill ambassador for the organization.
“I’ve tried to do the same with my children, to educate them, they make mistakes. Children are allowed to make mistakes, that’s how they learn … but you know you have to sometimes let them make those mistakes as well,” he added.
Beckham did not speak directly about his estranged son’s bombshell statement, but People reports that his former assistant Rebecca Loos reacted to the news in a series of comments on her latest post.
One of Loos’ followers wrote, “Rebecca, you gotta see the awesome ditch Brooklyn just posted in his story about David and Victoria and their lies. I feel like Brooklyn is supporting everyone who knows the facade.”
Loos replied: “So happy he is standing up for himself and speaking publicly finally!!!! I have felt so bad for his poor wife, knowing too well what they can be like!”
Victoria Beckham has not publicly responded to her son’s statements as of this writing.
David Beckham has broken his silence just hours after his son, Brooklyn, unleashed a series of scathing claims against his parents on social media.
During an appearance on CNBC’s financial program “Squawk Box”on Tuesday, David got candid about the pros and cons of social media, before referencing his kids’ “mistakes.”
“I have always spoken about social media and the power of social media. For the good and for the bad,” David said.
“The bad we’ve talked about with what kids can access these days, it can be dangerous,” he continued. “But what I have found personally, especially with my kids as well, use it for the right reasons. I’ve been able to use my platform and my following for UNICEF. And it has been the biggest tool to make people aware of what’s going on around the world for children.”
David Beckham addressed his children’s social media “mistakes” just hours after son Brooklyn made wild claims about his parents online.(Getty Images)
“And I have tried to do the same, I’ve tried to do the same with my children, to educate them,” he said. “They make mistakes, but children are allowed to make mistakes. That is how they learn. That is what I try to teach my kids. You sometimes have to let them make those mistakes as well,” he added.
Just hours prior, David dodged a question about his eldest son during an appearance at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 56th Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
While smiling for photographs, a reporter for Sky News asked the retired soccer player if he had any thoughts on Brooklyn’s scathing social media post, to which the father-of-four just smiled and walked away.
On Monday, Victoria and David Beckham’s oldest son took to Instagram and shared a lengthy statement about his fractured relationship with his parents.
David and Victoria were noticeably absent from Brooklyn and daughter-in-law Nicola Peltz’s wedding vow renewal ceremony.(Justin Goff Photos/Getty Images; Steve Granitz/Getty Images)
“I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private,” Brooklyn wrote. “Unfortunately, my parents and their team have continued to go to the press, leaving me with no choice but to speak for myself and tell the truth about only some of the lies that have been printed. I do not want to reconcile with my family. I’m not being controlled, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life.”
“For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family [with] performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships. … Recently, I have seen with my own eyes the lengths that they’ll go through to place countless lies in the media, mostly at the expense of innocent people, to preserve their own facade.”
The 26-year-old alleged that his parents have been trying to sabotage his relationship with wife Nicola Peltz long before they tied the knot in 2022.
“My parents have been trying endlessly to ruin my relationship since before my wedding, and it hasn’t stopped,” he wrote. “My mum canceled making Nicola’s dress in the eleventh hour despite how excited she was to wear her design, forcing her to urgently find a new dress. Weeks before our big day, my parents repeatedly pressured and attempted to bribe me into signing away the rights to my name, which would have affected me, my wife, and our future children.”
Brooklyn claimed his parents have been trying to sabotage his relationship with Peltz.(Getty Images)
Brooklyn said he has received “endless attacks” from his parents, both publicly and privately, before detailing the embarrassing moment his mom “hijacked” his first dance with Peltz at their wedding.
“My mum hijacked my first dance with my wife, which had been planned weeks in advance to a romantic love song,” he claimed. “In front of our 500 wedding guests, Marc Anthony called me to the stage, where in the schedule was planned to be my romantic dance with my wife but instead my mum was waiting to dance with me instead. She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone. I’ve never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life. We wanted to renew our vows so we could create new memories of our wedding day that bring us joy and happiness, not anxiety and embarrassment.”
A representative for Anthony did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment at the time.
Brooklyn claimed that his family values “public promotion and endorsements above all else.”
A source told Page Six that the wild claims are “true.”
The family put on a united front in 2023, despite ongoing tension.(Getty Images)
“As much as this sounds crazy and unhinged, everything Brooklyn said in his statement is true,” one source familiar with the situation told the outlet.
As far as reconciliation is concerned, another insider said, “It’s too late … for now. [Brooklyn’s] had enough.”
David’s former assistant, Rebecca Loos — who has claimed to have had an affair with the former soccer player while he was married to Victoria over 20 years ago — gave her two cents on the situation.
“Rebecca, you gotta see the awesome ditch Brooklyn just posted in his story about David and Victoria and their lies. I feel like Brooklyn is supporting everyone who knows the facade,” one follower wrote on Instagram. “I know you are wonderful and happy and don’t need validation but I think you will feel a source of extra validation.”
Loos replied, “So happy he is standing up for himself and speaking publicly finally!!!! I have felt so bad for his poor wife, knowing too well what they can be like!”
After another follower wrote, “Fascinating admission from Brooklyn,” Loos replied, “The truth always comes out.”
Representatives for David and Victoria did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Actor and comedian Bert Kreischer stars in the new comedy series “Free Bert,” where he plays a fictional version of himself. He speaks to “CBS Mornings” about the series, which was inspired by his own family, and why the show almost didn’t happen.
