Busy Philipps gave Us behind the scenes details of the recent Dawson’s Creek reunion — including how the cast pivoted when James Van Der Beek announced he wouldn’t be able to attend.
“I think we were all really hoping that James was going to be able to make it even kind of up until the last second,” Philipps, 46, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting her partnership with Supernus Pharmaceuticals. “We just had a contingency plan in place.”
Philipps added, “Thankfully, Lin-Manuel Miranda knows the Richard Rogers Theatre very well.”
The New York City venue is the same theatre where Hamilton is performed. Philipps added that it was an “easy call” to ask the Broadway star and creator of the hit musical, 45, to step in since he is close friends with Michelle Williams’ husband, Thomas Kail. The actress added that Miranda’s addition to the Dawson Creek family was a big win for Van Der Beek, 48, and his family.
Busy Phillips is opening up about the “unbelievably special” experience of reuniting with her fellow Dawson’s Creek stars in honor of James Van Der Beek. “It’s taken me far too long to post about our Dawson’s Creek Reunion show at the Richard Rogers Theater last week but the truth is, it was so unbelievably special […]
“James was also very thrilled that Lin was able to step in. His kids and family were able to see Hamilton the day before,” she explained. “We just had to figure out how it was going to … be the best version of a thing.”
Last month, Philipps, Williams, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson and more of the Dawson’s Creek cast gathered at the Richards Rogers Theatre for the highly anticipated reunion. The group reprised their roles from the beloved teen drama for a special reading of the pilot script. Miranda stepped in for Van Der Beek to portray lead character Dawson Leery. The event was raising funds for the charity F Cancer.
Van Der Beek was initially scheduled to attend but had to cancel because he was sick. (The actor is also currently battling stage III colon cancer.) Although he was unable to attend himself, Van Der Beek’s wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, still made an appearance. (The pair, who tied the knot in 2010, share daughters Olivia, 14, Annabel, 11, Emilia, 9, and Gwendolyn, 6, and sons Joshua, 13, and Jeremiah, 2.)
Cindy Ord/Getty Images for F Cancer
In addition to acting out the show’s first episode, the cast performed a sing-a-long to the Dawson Creek theme song, Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want to Wait.” James and Kimberly’s little ones also joined in to sing the tune. While speaking to Us, Philipps revealed that the surprise moment was arranged by Jason Moore, an “incredible theater director” who worked with the Dawson’s Creek cast on an episode back in the ‘90s.
“We’d all worked with him before … We had been trying to figure out what the best way to do the song was,” Philipps told Us, adding that because James’ children are “really amazing singers,” it would be fun for them to be involved as well.
“There was a lot of texting back and forth the week before between me, Tommy and Jason Moore about … what do we do with the song, and how do we make it special? I think it was Jason’s idea … and possibly Tommy too,” she shared.
Philipps added that they thought it was a “great moment” to include.
If you weren’t one of the lucky fans to experience Capeside on Broadway, Us Weekly is taking you inside the 2025 Dawson’s Creek reunion. Michelle Williams, who played Jen Lindley on the beloved WB show, organized a one-night-only reading of the Dawson’s Creek pilot to raise money for F Cancer as former costar James Van […]
“Everybody just came together, and everyone had great ideas and input, and [it was] all hands on deck,” she explained. “We just really wanted it to be special and something that, even though James wasn’t able to be there, he would feel the love from the Richard Rogers theater on Broadway all the way to Texas.”
Philipps was actually one of the only actors who didn’t reprise her original role for the reunion, as her character, Audrey, doesn’t appear until the show’s fifth season. Instead, she took on the part of Tamara Jacobs (played by Leann Hunley in the series), the problematic teacher who takes 15-year-old Pacey Witter’s (Joshua Jackson) virginity..
In a scene from the pilot, Jackson’s character kisses Tamara, which Philipps and Jackson recreated on stage to an eruption of claps and screams. Philipps admitted the pair — who played love interests later in the show — “didn’t have any conversations” about the smooch beforehand.
“It’s a reading on stage. We just have to do it!” she said with a laugh, adding that the moment got exactly the reaction she expected. “I think anytime you kiss Josh Jackson, people are going to scream.”
Joshua Jackson and Katie Holmes leaned on each other for support as they took their final bows following the Dawson’s Creek reunion. Jackson and Holmes, who portrayed Pacey Witter and Joey Potter, respectively, on the WB series, could be seen holding hands and placing their heads on each other’s shoulders as they wrapped up their […]
While the Dawson’s Creek reunion was initially put together to raise money for F Cancer amid James’ cancer battle, Philipps is also focusing her philanthropic efforts toward ADHD awareness. The actress realized she had the condition later in life after her daughter Birdie was diagnosed first. Philipps has since teamed up with Supernus Pharmaceuticals to talk about her experience.
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“When I started to try to figure out what was the right path for me in terms of treatment. And I tried Qelbree, which is non-stimulant. It really worked for me, so it felt like a very natural fit,” she said of the partnership. “I’m able to talk about a thing that I really believe [in]. More people should be educated about, especially women and girls, ADHD, and getting a diagnosis that makes sense for them.”
Philipps shared that both her and her daughter being diagnosed with ADHD together has helped them navigate the condition. (Philipps shares Birdie and daughter Cricket with ex-husband Marc Silverstein.)
“I think it’s been a lot of figuring out ways to help her [and] me manage it, and then also having the understanding that her brain does work differently, and this is just part of it,” she told Us. “There’s nothing wrong with her. It’s just different. And I think it takes a lot of the shame and stigma away.”
Mary Elizabeth Winstead loves a good scream. “It’s always been something that has come easily for me. I love letting it out. It feels so good. It’s not something I’ve had to work on, but it is something I enjoy,” she tells StyleCaster.
Her affinity for screaming makes sense. With more than a dozen horror and thriller movies under her belt, which has affectionately earned her the reputation as one of Hollywood’s most recognizable scream queens, Winstead knows a thing or two about what it’s like to fight for her life. Her newest venture into the genre is Hulu’s The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, a remake of the 1992 thriller of the same name, in which Winstead stars opposite fellow scream queen, Maika Monroe.
While the film is considered a remake of the 1992 version, the similarities are slim, other than the fact that they both center around two women with a shared past who reunite years later. In The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Winstead plays Caitlyn Morales, a wife and a mother of two young children who hires Polly Murphy (Monroe), a woman she helped years earlier at her social worker job, as a nanny. All seems well until Caitlyn starts to slowly lose her mind as strange, unexplainable things start to happen within her family. As plot unravels, so does the backstory between Caitlyn and Polly as Caitlyn learns Polly’s true identity and how they really know each other.
It’s incredibly cathartic to let it all out and scream and cry and claw and try to survive.
“I hadn’t seen the original, but I was very aware of what it meant and what that story was about, so I was very curious to see how they were going to update it,” Winstead says. “The idea of playing this mother being terrorized by a nanny. I thought could be so interesting. I was intrigued from the start, and then I read the script, and I was blown away by the look at the female characters. It came from such an empathetic and complex point of view, which I wasn’t really expecting.”
Ahead, Winstead breaks down the ending of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, what she really thinks about being called a scream queen, and the horror movie she would love to do a sequel to.
Photo: Matthew Priestley.
You’re a mother in real life. How did that affect how you approach this role?
It just made it so easy to connect to Caitlyn. Thankfully, I don’t struggle in all the same ways that Caitlyn does. Motherhood doesn’t really come easily to her. She tries to present herself as though it does, but inside, she’s really struggling to figure out how to be a good mother and how to connect with her children. She sort of keeps coming up against these roadblocks, which ultimately has a lot to do with what’s inside of her and what she’s pushing down and repressing and not looking at until she can really be her true self and embrace that she’s not going to really be able to be the best mother she can be. Any mother can relate to that feeling of always wanting to be a better mother and sometimes feeling like you’re falling short. Even if we don’t all go through the same things to the extent that Caitlyn goes through, especially throughout the film, it’s something every parent can relate to at some level.
The last scene of Polly and Caitlyn together shows Caitlyn crying over Polly’s body after she just killed her. What was going through Caitlyn’s mind in that scene?
It’s a very tragic moment, and it’s another thing I love about the film is that we’re not clapping and cheering for the villain being killed at the end. It’s actually incredibly sad. These two women have such a tragic past and this tragic connection with one another. And Caitlyn would never have wanted that to be the outcome for Polly or Rebecca with all that transpired when they were kids. If anything, she would have wanted to go back and save Polly from what she went through, and so she would have never wanted this to be the outcome. It’s everything coming out and letting out the truth about who she really is and what she really went through when she was young and facing that.
Do you feel like there is a victim or a villain in this story?
I think they’re mirrors of one another. They’re two sides of the same coin. This is some backstory we created. It’s not in the film, but Caitlyn was able to move on and forward because she came from a background of wealth, and Polly did not. These are two sides of trauma, and somebody who has some support and is able to pick themselves up in some way, even if they’re still repressing what they’ve been through. And then someone who had no support at all and what that ultimately manifested into.
Photo: Matthew Priestley.
The movie ends with Emma telling Jody the same story Polly told her earlier in the movie about the can of tuna fish. What was the significance of that scene ending the movie?
It’s a real comment on generational trauma, and the idea that now this young girl has just witnessed all of this pain and violence, and how is that going to affect her going on? It’s more of a question to think about what is that going to be like for her? I think there’s still hope that she’ll be able to heal from it, and that it won’t go down the same route that it’s been down before, with turning into a life of pain and violence and things for herself. But it is like it’s putting that question in the air of that could be a possibility and that this story could be passed on to the next generation.
We don’t see you as a blonde often. So what was the significance of the blonde hair?
I dyed my hair blonde, and then I had extensions, because the idea was to sort of make Micah and I look alike as much as possible, just for this great effect that [director] Michelle [Garza Cervera] came up with, which is that Polly and Caitlyn sort of switch roles by the end of the film. You see Caitlyn starting to look a lot more like Polly, and Polly’s starting to look a lot more like Caitlyn. You see at the very last scene, Polly is wearing a cashmere sweater, and she’s got her hair up in a French twist bun. And Caitlyn is raggedy and her hair is stringy, and she’s in a sweatshirt, so she looks more down on her luck, like Polly looked in the beginning. And Polly looks a lot more like she’s living her best life Caitlyn was at the beginning. That effect was beautiful, and that was something that Michelle wanted to have throughout the film.
I love characters who are survivors.
Did you like yourself as a blonde?
I did. I was so into it. I kept it for a long time. I’ve only recently gone back to brown because I was sort of like, “OK, I’m ready to feel like myself again.” But I kept the blonde for a good six months after we finished shooting, just because I thought, “I’m not blonde all the time. I might as well enjoy it while I can.”
You’ve been in many horror and thriller movies. What do you like about the genre?
There’s a masochism element of loving being put through the ringer in some capacity. Because they’re always emotionally draining. I always want to go to the most real place, so that usually means, if my character is running for their life, that’s going to feel really real for me in the moment. I don’t know what it is about that that is so fun for me to play, but it’s incredibly cathartic to let it all out and scream and cry and claw and try to survive. I love characters who are survivors and in horror films, you really get to tap into that. And somebody like Caitlyn is someone who’s a real survivor, even if she’s often surviving in ways that are unhealthy by not really being her true self and creating this facade around herself. It’s still a survival mechanism.
What do you think about the scream queen title fans have bestowed on you?
I’m so honored to be called a queen of any kind. I love horror films. I couldn’t possibly not love being called that. It’s an absolute honor. I may be doing less horror films these days, so I don’t know if I’m still a scream queen, but I still dabble in it. I still enjoy it, so anyone who wants to call me that, I’ll happily take it.
Is there a horror movie that you would want to revisit for a sequel?
10 Cloverfield Lane was so much fun to shoot. I’ve always thought that would be so fun to do a sequel to see where she is now, and what happened after that. At the time, we were always talking about it. And it felt like you could do a sequel that’s directly after. Is she off fighting aliens? What’s happening? I’m not sure if you were to do a sequel 10 years on what that would be, but it would be interesting.
It’s not a horror movie, but I’m sure Scott Pilgrim vs. the World comes up a lot as a movie fans will often ask you about. Did you expect that film to have the legacy it does now?
I always expected it to do well because it’s an incredible film. So it was a real surprise when it came out, and it wasn’t considered to have done well. In that moment, you go, “Wow, people didn’t see it.” You’re disappointed, and you move on to the next thing. So I don’t think in that moment, I was expecting it to be what it is now, but at the same time, I’m not surprised, because good art always finds a way and finds an audience, and it’s undeniably a great film. So it’s a really good testament that when you make great work, don’t worry about what happens. You don’t know right away if you’re in it for the long game. I love that it continues finding audiences.
Photo: Matthew Priestley.
Has your son seen anything you’ve been in yet?
He’s seen little snippets of Ahsoka, so he’s familiar with me green, but I feel like he might think that’s all I do. Just be green when I go to work. I would like to show him some other things. I’d like to show him Sky High, because that’s kind of the only family-friendly film I’ve really done. . Maybe soon he’ll be into that, but I don’t know. He might just find it odd that I’m in the movie, and he also might not really believe that it’s me because I’m so much younger.
Speaking of Ahsoka, is there anything you can say about the new season?
We just finished filming. We were working on it for six months in London and just wrapped a week and a half ago. I can say that I’m tired. So that’s a little hint that we were working hard on that. But it’s just incredibly fun, and it was so epic. I can’t wait for people to see it. It’s an incredibly ambitious season. So there’s a lot to see.
How does it compare to the first season?
It’s just much bigger in scope. I can’t give any details away, really, but I was blown away by the scale of it. So I’m really looking forward to surprising people with that. It’s going to be really cool.
Of all the inflammatory isms out there, the most shocking one for a Golden Bachelor to be accused of is ageism. That’s what happened to Mel Owens, 66, in a preseason controversy, so you might expect him to be a little defensive on the subject. But when the former NFL player sat down with Us, he was remarkably relaxed, maintaining the off-the-cuff energy that may have gotten him in hot water in the first place.
For context: Over the summer, the divorced Owens guested on a University of Michigan (his alma mater) football podcast called “In the Trenches” and mentioned some of the specifics he’d requested from producers of The Golden Bachelor: He wanted the women of his senior season to be between 45 and 60 and “fit,” with no “artificial hips” or “wigs.” And he added that anyone 60 and up would be cut.
The comments — a far cry from the “it’s never too late for a second chance at love” vibe of OG Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner’s season — spread quickly, with some members of Bachelor Nation calling for Owens to be fired immediately over his disrespectful remarks. Longtime Bachelor spoiler guru Reality Steve even falsely reported that Owens had been replaced.
“I’m not really on social media, so I didn’t even know. People were sending me screenshots and saying, ‘Oh, my God, are you still there?’ And I go, ‘I am,’ because I didn’t hear anything to the contrary,” Owens tells Us of the replacement chatter. “But I really didn’t give it too much thought, because that’s noise in the background. ABC and Warner Bros. believed in me, and I’m glad they did.”
In some ways, it’s not hard to see why the show stuck with Owens: In person, he’s charming, good-looking and has a Midwest background that fits the mold of the audience. In his late 30s, he traded in his football cleats to start law school, and in his 40s, a family. (He has two sons: Lucas, 20, and Andre, 18.) But even without the controversy, he’s making it plain that he didn’t sign on to follow the typical Bachelor trajectory.
DISNEY/BRIAN BOWEN SMITH
Will he end up in love with more than one person? He almost scoffs at the idea despite its frequent occurrence on the long-running franchise. “No, I’m not gonna fall in love twice,” he tells Us. “Conflict is good for the show but not good for the heart.” Will he get engaged? Certainly not just because the format seems to dictate it! “I told the producers, ‘I’m here with an open heart and open mind,’” he says. “But it’s a two-way street. Just because I want to get engaged doesn’t mean they want to get engaged. They might want to date, like, ‘You’re cool. Let’s just hang out.’”
Will he say “I love you” at all? Hard to tell. “It’s gotta be a true feeling,” he says. “You just can’t say the words because then they’d be hollow. I can say, ‘I really like you,’ and that’s meaningful. To fall in love, it takes some time.”
All those breaking-the-mold intentions just make Us even more intrigued. As season 2 of The Golden Bachelor nears the finish (ABC, Wednesdays, 9 p.m.), Owens opens up about what viewers haven’t seen — and previews the final weeks of his journey.
Mel’s Backstory
Brian Bowen Smith/Disney
Owens was a unique pick to lead the season from the get-go. Unusually for the franchise, he came from outside Bachelor Nation. And he was divorced. (Turner and Golden Bachelorette Joan Vassos had both been widowed.) In fact, Owens didn’t tie the knot until he was 43. “I wasn’t going to get married when I was playing [football],” he explains, and after he retired from the NFL, all his energy shifted to law school. “I met a lot of great women and girlfriends along the way that ended up being great wives [to someone else].”
Prior to settling down, Owens got to live the perks of being a pro football player for nine seasons as a linebacker on the Los Angeles Rams, crossing paths with the likes of Nicolas Cage, Brad Pitt, Tori Spelling, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robin Thicke, the Brat Pack and more at parties at the Playboy Mansion. “You got invitations, and then you’d go and all the celebrity guys would be there, with everybody ooh and aahing,” he recalls.
In 2002, he married Fabiana Owens. She filed for divorce in 2020 and, as he put it on the show, fell in love with somebody else. “I’m never going to get in the way of someone’s happiness. If you want to find somebody else in a different phase in your life, it hurts, but I can’t get in the way of your happiness,” he says of his ex moving on. How did he cope? “You live in the moment,” he continues. “Plus, I had kids, so I had to think about them before me. I let things work themselves out. I have patience and understanding.”
Was Owens always this rational? Ever since he set foot on the gridiron, apparently. “In football, they’re always trying to trick you. There’s a lot of commotion going on, a lot of noise,” he says. “When things are crazy, I get really calm, and you can make decisions better.” Owens might just be the most reasonable man to hand out roses, which makes his heart-off-his-sleeve journey harder to predict.
Disney/Michael Kirchoff
Moving Past the Controversy
The Bachelor franchise has shied away from addressing offscreen scandals on the show — and taken heat for it. That was not the case on Golden’s October premiere: Several women ribbed Owens about those podcast remarks in their limo entrances, and Owens straight-up acknowledged the situation in his opening night toast.
“It was my doing to get out of it or explain myself and ask the women, ‘Hey, give me another chance, I’m sorry,’ and let me earn it,” he says. “People are forgiving, and everybody makes mistakes. Everybody wants a second chance. That was my thought and my hope, and it happened.”
When asked what he would say now when it comes to his dating preferences, he responds, “I’d be open to anything.” It seems the casting department may have taught Owens a thing or two. “These women are all accomplished, witty and smart, and we have shared experiences because we’re the same age, which I found very refreshing,” he says. (Go figure!)
Bachelor Nation hasn’t seen Mel Owens on TV just yet (unless you were a big fan of the Los Angeles Rams in the 80s), but Jesse Palmer assures Us that he was the right pick for the new senior lead. “Mel is obviously super handsome. He’s very charming, he’s very intelligent, he’s very successful,” the […]
Jokes aside, the women were also quick to forgive. Us was on set for the season’s second group date, and while several contestants said they’d been worried about meeting this Golden Bachelor after his viral remarks, they felt at ease after spending time with him. “He immediately addressed it. He said, ‘I apologize, I misspoke. I’m remorseful. It’s not how I felt. I was in the moment,’” Robin Rocha, a 63-year-old wealth advisor, said. “And we all realized, ‘Well, that’s what you have to do if you misspeak,’ which we all do. We all make mistakes.” Diane Firmani, a 71-year-old librarian, added: “He was just sincere and [apologized], and I was kind of like, ‘Whoa.’”
The Emotional Tests
While it’s been established that Owens prefers to keep things calm, cool and collected, he can only control himself — and part of being the Bachelor is listening to the love-seekers tell their stories. “I wasn’t really expecting that,” he confesses. “But there’s that empathy you can share, and you understand how [their trauma or loss] shaped them. It matters. You get an understanding of who they are. They’re tough women. I mean, to go through some of the things they went through and come out on the other side is truly amazing.”
For his part, Owens “tried to open up as much as I could,” but he notes, “I’ve been very blessed and lucky in my life.” One turning point, though, was the loss of his father around the same time as his divorce. “I got a lot of his qualities; he was a really calm guy, too. Fiery, but calm,” he says. “And I told my boys, and this is the truth, ‘Whatever my dad said, I did.’” But would he have approved of The Golden Bachelor? “He would love it,” Owens declares.
Another unexpected development occurred in the October 15 episode, when Carol Freeman-Branstine, the 63-year-old aunt and manager of MLB player Freddie Freeman, took herself out of the running. “I didn’t see it coming,” Owens says. “Everybody is there for their own reasons, and when they feel they have to leave, they can do that. Maybe there wasn’t a deep connection, maybe she could see into her future and say, ‘I don’t want the guy.’”
Owens believes the early exit changed the journey. “She was really nice and a lovely person, funny, just wonderful. So it may have affected the dynamics of the women. And also, maybe, she would have got a rose and somebody else would have left. … We’ll never know!” he teases.
That leaves Owens with his final three: Debbie Siebers, the 65-year-old Denver fitness professional who has never been married; Cindy Cullers, the 60-year-old retired biomedical engineer from Austin and divorced mother of three; and Peg Munson, the 62-year-old retired firefighter and bomb tech from Las Vegas and divorced mom of one.
Disney/Ricky Middlesworth (3)
Owens was touched that the “down-to-earth” Siebers made an effort to open up about her family. “She’s gentle, smart, beautiful,” he says, calling her single status “a plus” because “she wasn’t tainted by the whole breakup, heartache, kids. That stuff is tough on the psyche, man.”
Cullers, meanwhile, was “always outgoing and forward,” per Owens, and got the last one-on-one before hometowns. “She’s passionate, compassionate and brilliant,” he says. Upon her limo exit, he joked the show could “call it a wrap,” telling Us, “I’m thinking, ‘Wow. She’s obviously beautiful.’”
Complimenting her “high energy,” Owens was intrigued by the challenge to “crack” Munson. She opened up to him about experiencing infidelity, but he quipped, “I had to figure out if she really liked me or not!” He also wanted her to be more affectionate and noted: “I [had] to bring it out.”
Still to come, of course, are the fantasy suites. When asked for three words to describe the infamous overnight dates, Owens offered up some unusually tame descriptors. “Contemplative, conversation, information,” he says. “I went in there really wanting to know more, because the cameras are off, no mic, and now I can ask questions you might not want to say while you’re miked and on camera.”
It took 63 iterations of The Bachelor — including The Bachelorette, Bachelor Pad, Bachelor in Paradise and a few less fruitful spinoffs (just for The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart) — to get the franchise to its Golden era. Skepticism greeted the idea of a senior edition, but in fall 2023, The Golden Bachelor […]
Did any giant red flags appear? “For me, there aren’t any deal-breakers. I’m looking for deal-makers,” he says of his flip-the-script dating philosophy. “My best fit would be someone who is fun and high-energy. Someone who is witty, a lifelong learner I can be curious with and learn from.”
At the time, he says, he was still “contemplating” whether he was ready for an engagement. “I like being married. I like the companionship, having a partner and shared experiences, but it has to be someone special,” he explains. (Another justification for his unofficial title of Most Reasonable Bachelor.)
The Unconventional Happily Ever After
As the season winded down, Owens tried an unusual strategy — a pros and cons list. “I usually don’t make those types of lists. I can do it in my head, but when you write stuff down, it’s meaningful. I wanted to write down my first impressions, the goods, the bads, the neutrals. It really didn’t sway me, but I could still look at it,” he says.
“It was tough,” he continues, “and I’m just trying to figure out who is going to be the best fit for me, who I would enjoy. The hometowns are all great. But there’s that magnetism that pulls you in that direction no matter what, and it’s a little bit more toward one person than the other, so I went with my gut.”
We should tell you that Owens lights up when asked about his ending. (Up until this point, we weren’t convinced he had found a partner — but his glow made us question whether his nonchalant nature might be throwing off our normal spoiler game.)
“ABC can put on a production. We go to Antigua. I’ve never been there. I’ve been to islands, but I’ve never been there. But whoever scouted it out and set it up and got things prepared, just the little details, it’s just so good,” Owens begins, once again throwing Us off that he’s breaking the fourth wall with behind-the-scenes details before launching into the usually inevitable “it’s the most dramatic” ending tease.
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“I’m leading up to it!” he says when we express a need for more. “You have the setting, and I know who it is. It’s really emotional. And you’re a little nervous, but it’s so brilliant. … It’s so good, you won’t believe it.”
What does that mean? Our second Golden Bachelor continues to perplex Us. “You won’t believe how we get there, not mechanically, but how we get there emotionally,” he clarifies. “There’s some movement and twists and turns.”
Hmmm, we’ve seen the lead change his mind, call off his engagement to pursue his runner-up (twice!) and even choose no one (we haven’t forgotten, Brad Womack!). With Owens at the helm, this truly could be something we’ve never seen before.
When Manuele Aufiero was a child, his parents would take him hiking along a reservoir in northern Italy. It wasn’t a typical reservoir, though. This one drained and refilled constantly, with pumps raising the water level when electricity was cheap. When nearby cities needed electricity, the pumps would reverse, turning into generators as the water drained out of the reservoir.
The technology, known as pumped-storage hydropower, or pumped hydro for short, has been around for over a century. Such facilities are some of the biggest “batteries” humans have ever built. Globally, pumped hydro reservoirs store 8,500 gigawatt-hours of electricity, according to the International Energy Agency.
Pumped hydro can generate electricity for hours on end, and the power plants have grown in importance as intermittent energy sources like wind and solar have become more widespread. But there are only so many places on Earth with suitable topography to host a pumped hydro reservoir.
“I’m in love with pumped hydro,” Aufiero told TechCrunch. “It’s just not enough to keep up with renewables.”
So Aufiero decided to solve that problem by moving the technology to the sea. He co-founded a startup, Sizable Energy, to turn his idea into reality.
Sizable recently raised $8 million in a funding round led by Playground Global with participation from EDEN/IAG, Exa Ventures, Satgana, Unruly Capital, and Verve Ventures, the company exclusively told TechCrunch.
The startup’s power plant looks something like an hourglass. Sizable’s concept specifies two sealed, flexible reservoirs, one that floats at the top and another that sits at the bottom on the seabed. They’re connected by a plastic tube and some turbines.
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When power is cheap, the turbines will pump super salty water from the bottom reservoir to the top. When the grid needs energy, Sizable will open a valve, and because the water in the reservoir contains more salt than the surrounding seawater, it’s heavier and will fall down to the lower reservoir. As it flows through the pipe, it spins the turbines, which act as generators.
“From the energy balance point of view, what we are doing is lifting block of salt. But instead of using cranes, we dissolve it and pump it just because it’s easier, simpler,” Aufiero said. “Other than that, we are just lifting a heavy amount of salt.”
By moving pumped hydro to the ocean, Sizable is hoping to mass produce the technology, something that isn’t really possible on land.
“Every time you build pumped hydro on shore, you have to design a concrete dam for that specific site, and you have to adapt the technology there,” Aufiero said. “Building offshore allows us to streamline the production, and everything we do is identical, regardless of the final deployment site.”
Sizable has tested a small model of the reservoirs in wave tanks and off the coast of Reggio Calabria, Italy. It’s now deploying a pilot of the floating components in advance of a full demonstration plant. By 2026, it’s hoping to deploy several commercial projects at sites around the world.
At full size, the turbines would generate around 6 to 7 megawatts of electricity each, and there will be one for every 100 meters of pipe. Deeper sites would have more storage potential, and each commercial site would host multiple reservoirs. Sizable hopes to deliver energy storage for €20 per kilowatt-hour (about $23), about one-tenth what a grid-scale battery costs.
The technology would pair well with offshore wind projects since sharing an electrical connection to the shore would reduce costs. But Aufiero said that Sizable’s reservoirs could connect to any grid that’s near waters that are at least 500 meters (1,640 feet) deep.
“We believe that long duration energy storage is required not only for renewable integration, but also for just making the grid resilient,” he said. “There is no way we can keep up with that with traditional pumped hydro or batteries. We need something new.”
Fal.ai, a startup that hosts image, video, and audio AI models for developers, has closed a new round valuing the company at over $4 billion, four people familiar with the deal said. The company raised approximately $250 million, two of the people said.
Major investors in the round are Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia, according to our sources. Fal didn’t respond to a request for comment. Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins declined to comment.
The new round is coming less than three months after Fal announced a $125 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation led by Meritech. At that time, the company’s revenue crossed $95 million and it’s platform was used by over two million developers, Todd Jackson, a partner at First Round Capital wrote on LinkedIn. That was massive growth from a year ago, when TechCrunch reported Fal had $10 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR) and 500,000 developers.
Since Fal provides the infrastructure layer for multimodal AI models (as well as media-specific ones), the company’s explosive growth is directly tied to the user adoption of applications built on top of it. And multimodal AI is in heavy demand right now, especially video, as evidenced by the soaring popularity of OpenAI’s Sora, which surged to the top of the U.S. App Store even faster than ChatGPT did. This massive consumer demand for applications like Sora underscores the market potential of Fal’s offering.
Fal provides developers with over 600 image, video, audio and 3D models, it says, boasts that its cloud has thousands of Nvidia H100 and H200 GPUs and is fine-tuned for speedy inference. It offers tools for customizing models as well. Its offerings include access via API, hosted via a flexible serverless offering, or via enterprise-ready compute clusters. While there are certainly other competitors offering model and app hosting services (Microsoft, Google, CoreWeave, to name a few), Fal’s singular focus on media and multimodal is its competitive selling point, VCs like Jackson say.
The startup’s customers range from individual developers to large companies including Adobe, Canva, Perplexity, and Shopify. Some of the popular use cases include media creation for advertising, e-commerce, and gaming content.
The startup was co-founded in 2021 by Burkay Gur, a former Coinbase machine learning leader and Oracle engineer, and Gorkem Yurtseven, who was previously a developer at Amazon. Gur and Yurtseven saw an opportunity for personalized multimedia generation. While other technologists pursued LLMs, they zeroed in on optimizing Stable Diffusion for speed and scale, and have since expanded to hosting many other such models.
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Fal previously raised nearly $200 million, according to PitchBook data. The company’s existing investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, Kindred Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Notable Capital, First Round Capital, Unusual Ventures and Village Global.
BOYNEXTDOOR is taking a giant leap forward. It’s no wonder that their latest mini-album is named The Action because nothing is truly stopping them now.
The six-member boy group, formed under HYBE and Zico’s label KOZ Entertainment, had quite a busy year with their first tour, Knock On Vol.1 Tour, and performing at Lollapalooza. Despite their tight schedules, the members—SUNGHO, RIWOO, JAEHYUN, TAESAN, LEEHAN, and WOONHAK— all managed to channel their songwriting skills in their free time and conceptualized their new release in a short amount of time. “All six of us really collaborated to make this music and album richer and fuller,” leader JAEHYUN says.
All five songs on The Action are enticing, bold, and vivacious. Just the first couple of seconds of “Live in Paris” are equipped with the familiar nostalgic tone that rings true to the BOYNEXTDOOR sound. “Hollywood Action” sonically transports you to an old-time film while also embracing a modern flair and kick. The same can be said about the music video for the song, where the members put their acting skills to the test and move and groove through a red carpet.
Below, we talked to the members about making the mini-album, collaborating with each other, and what to expect from them in the future.
Congratulations on your Lollapalooza performance a couple of months ago! I wanted to ask how that performance has impacted this release and your mindset in your music?
JAEHYUN: Lollapalooza was a stage that we were all dreaming of. We received so much energy performing there, and because it’s such a big stage, it motivated us in many ways and propelled us forward. So we thought of different ways to show ourselves in the future, and we really want to do our best in our future endeavors.
You just came out with No Genre not long ago, in May. What was it like conceptualizing, recording, and launching The Action in a short amount of time since then?
WOONHAK: We worked on our new album, The Action, and recorded it while we were promoting for No Genre. It definitely was a tight schedule, but we wanted to make sure that the quality was high up there, so we put all of our available time into this album. I believe that you can trust us with the quality of this album, and I hope you enjoy!
For the album trailer, many fans praised your acting! How has intersecting those two disciplines (acting and music) been like when creating the album’s concept?
TAESAN: On the outside, it seems like music and acting are two different disciplines, but I think they share the common thread that it’s all about expressing your emotions and your stories. So in that sense, they were similar.
For me, the lead single “Hollywood Action” has a big nostalgic feeling, and it feels like you’re in one of those old-timey movies since it had those silent film swing motifs in the music. You’ve visited the city lots of times for KCON and promotions. What were some memories or general inspirations you took away from the city or films that you wanted to convey in the song?
LEEHAN: LA is a very vibrant city. It’s very cinematic, too. So, I think those aspects of LA are incorporated into our song and album. And it’s not just LA, but all the different places and experiences that we have accumulated so far have been put into this album.
BOYNEXTDOOR has a pretty distinct sound in K-pop, and The Action still explores a variety of sounds and lyrics that ring true to your uniqueness. What has helped you become confident in your sound for this album?
TAESAN: When we were on concerts and tours, we felt the need for a track that would really hype up the audience and make them go crazy and jump. That’s what led to the lead single “Hollywood Action” for this album. Sometimes we want to go a little bit 90s, R&B-ish, and that’s why we came up with the song “As Time Goes By.” Depending on the feelings we have in that moment, we work on that sound and convey that message to the audience. That’s how we create the very unique BOYNEXTDOOR sound.
Are there any lyrics or production features in The Action you want ONEDOOR to pay attention to closely? What do you want them to take away from the album as a whole?
RIWOO: When I heard the hook for the lead single, I really loved it. So, I hope people take a good listen to that. I think the big message of our new album, The Action is all about challenging yourself and putting yourself out there for new experiences. And just by the word “action,” you can feel that that was exactly the message that we wanted to put across as BOYNEXTDOOR. Every step of our journey is a challenge. Creating this album was a challenge, too, but we were fearless and we wanted to go into it. For everyone who hears the song, I hope they will feel fearless and want to try new things.
What were some fun memories you had when making this mini-album?
LEEHAN: For the song “JAM!,” there was actually a moment when we were working on the same beat, but with a different message. We were working on a different song, basically with the same beat. I remember it was very late at night. JAEHYUN and I were laughing, joking around, and having a lot of fun. We were exchanging ideas and sharing feedback. So, I remember that moment. I think our team got even closer together.
Was there anything that creatively challenged you when making this mini-album?
JAEHYUN: I think releasing an album in and of itself is a challenge for us, because we never know if people are going to like it or if people are going to resonate with the message that we want to put across. We’re always a bit nervous to release a new album, but we also have high anticipation and expectations because we work really hard on the album.
SUNGHO: I guess the biggest challenge is communication because it’s always important to align ourselves into one message and something that we want to do together. Performance-wise and stage-wise, we had a lot of talks about what we wanted to do. As we have more singles and more albums, we want to do something that’s even more grand. It’s something that we would really love to etch into the memories of the fans. It’s also a very positive challenge that we were trying to talk amongst ourselves and share feedback with each other.
With it being your 5th mini-album, how has each member personally evolved with each release, and what aspect of your creativity do you want to continuously work on?
LEEHAN: It was my first time being on the album credits, and I had a lot of fun exchanging ideas with the members. I think it was a steep learning curve for me. Going forward, I want to put my name on the credits for the B-side tracks.
SUNGHO: Compared to when I was a trainee or when I just debuted, I now have a better grasp of the entire creative process and how we should perform and create our songs. I think it’s not just me, but it goes for all of the members; we matured as artists, and we’ve really gotten the hang of it. I think going forward, our ambition is to do better. Whether it be playing another musical instrument, composing, or writing songs, we want to push ourselves forward and grow as artists.
TAESAN: I’ve grown as an artist creating this album and working on this album. In the future, I want to really be better at all sorts of facets of our music, including composing, performance, and everything there.
RIWOO: As we were working on our album, we also had a lot of different shows, including being on Lollapalooza, the final show in Seoul, and the encore concert in Japan. I think all of those shows really served as a foundation for growth for us as performers I think performance is of utmost importance when it comes to me, so I want to make sure that all of our performances are really cool and can steal the hearts of our fans.
JAEHYUN: We’ve definitely matured as artists. I want to stack up all our experiences and put them in my music so we can have an even bigger scope.
WOONHAK: With every release, I feel that we have better teamwork. Each one of us really knows our roles to play. That leads to a lot of growth personally and artistically. We want to really maximize that, so we can be a team that could win the hearts of many.
Since it’s almost the end of 2025, what can fans look forward to for BOYNEXTDOOR in 2026?
TAESAN: We’ll be back with a new album.
WOONHAK: 2025 was filled with so many promotions, albums, and shows for us, which means it will all feed back into our loop of growth. I believe that in 2026, you’ll be able to see a more mature BOYNEXTDOOR.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
For most enterprise companies, AI is either a promise that has yet to deliver or a security risk. The effort of Lithuania’s most famous entrepreneur duo to solve that conundrum has garnered attention — and funding.
Just months after Nexos.ai came out of stealth with an $8 million funding round led by Index Ventures, Nord Security co-founders Tomas Okmanas and Eimantas Sabaliauskas have closed a €30 million Series A (approximately $35 million) for this new startup — a a platform that helps companies adopt AI tools securely by acting as a middleman between employees and AI systems.
In Okmanas’ view, “the biggest corporate data leak” is currently in the making, as employees upload sensitive information to LLMs. Rather than banning AI use, he wants Nexos.ai to act as a “Switzerland for LLMs,” serving as a neutral intermediary. By sitting between teams and AI tools, the platform aims to keep data under control without sacrificing the productivity gains companies want but fear pursuing.
That combination of seasoned founders tackling a critical enterprise problem explains why this new round was raised so soon — with Index and Evantic Capital co-leading at a €300 million valuation (approximately $350 million), according to a company spokesperson. Previous backers Creandum and Dig Ventures also participated, along with angel backers, including the CEOs of Datadog, Klarna, Supercell, and Wix.
In addition to Index’s support, Nexos.ai is now benefiting from Miller’s guidance and his ‘Legends’ network —140 operators who advise Evantic’s portfolio startups in exchange for a share of the fund’s profits. Okmanas said he is both a Legend himself and drawing on others’ expertise to shape the product — which is where the new capital will go.
Currently, Nexos’ AI product consists of an AI Workspace interface for employees and an AI Gateway for developers. The gateway acts as a control layer for security, cost management, and compliance oversight while reducing fragmentation, which Okmanas sees as a key barrier to AI adoption. The gateway provides a single access point to some 200 AI models, and the company plans to use its funding to accelerate its support of private models for sensitive data.
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Okmanas said his team is currently doing 50 to 60 demo calls a week, but anticipates that traditional businesses will have “a lot of homework” to do to convince their boards about how they want to adopt AI. Nexos.ai could help them by making deployment easier. But first, the startup is focusing on tech-savvy companies that already use AI daily, as well as companies operating in regulated industries, which have concerns about governance and sending sensitive data to AI models hosted in foreign countries.
Okmanas and Sabaliauskas identified the AI governance gap while overseeing the portfolio of Tesonet, their company that builds and invests in startups. Tesonet portfolio companies are also among the customers that Nexos.ai is disclosing, alongside Bulgarian fintech unicorn Payhawk, which also has an office in Vilnius. According to a press release, the funding will now support expansion across Europe and North America.
For Okmanas, the mission is removing barriers to broader AI adoption. While boards debate whether AI can deliver real value, he points to results within Tesonet’s own portfolio: at Hostinger, a web hosting provider, an AI assistant reduced the need for human support. Says Okmanas, “That’s why we didn’t need to hire 500 people and saved €10 million this year alone.”
Despite talking numbers at Hostinger, Okmanas declined to disclose how much revenue Nexos.ai itself is generating. Instead, he said that by the time the company celebrates its first anniversary, the team will have grown to 100 people — mostly in Europe, where data sovereignty concerns have also started to open doors for Nexos.ai at public institutions, potentially opening up a new market beyond its enterprise focus.
ComingSoon is debuting the exclusive Christmas in Mistletoe trailer, previewing the upcoming holiday romance movie. Christmas in Mistletoe is set to release on digital platforms, Blu-ray and DVD, and AVOD on November 18, 2025.
“A disillusioned Christmas movie location scout rediscovers her Christmas spirit while falling in love with the perfect leading man in the cozy mountain town of Mistletoe,” reads the film’s official synopsis.
Check out the exclusive Christmas in Mistletoe trailer below (watch other trailers):
What happens in the Christmas in Mistletoe trailer?
The Christmas in Mistletoe trailer follows the story of Willow, a movie location scout who visits the picturesque town of Mistletoe looking to find a place to film a new movie. Once there, she begins to fall for the mayor, though, and rediscovers her Christmas spirit while fighting to get the movie made in the town that is against their town being used.
Christmas in Mistletoe stars Kabby Borders, Tom Gipson, and Stephanie Hong. The film is directed by Collins Abbot White, from a script written by Brian S. Tedeschi and Vicki Vass.
The movie is set to release on November 18, 2025, and will be available digitally, on Blu-ray/DVD, and on AVOD services, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, and more.
Peacock’s Devil in Disguise was an eerie glimpse into John Wayne Gacy‘s crimes — and execution — but how did the true crime series wrap up?
The scripted series, which premiered on Thursday, October 16, started with the 10-day investigation into the disappearance of teenager Robert Piest, which led to Gacy’s arrest in 1978. From there, Devil in Disguise followed the events that led to his conviction and subsequent execution.
In the final scenes, the families of Gacy’s victims found out that he had died but they weren’t allowed to be in an adjoining room to watch it happen. Other key players from the investigation and trial listened to the radio announce Gacy’s death before Gabriel Luna‘s Detective Rafael Tovar visited the serial killer’s home where dozens of bodies were dug up.
“In the years that followed the horrors of 1978, the Chicago Police Department computerized data associated with missing persons so that patterns among cases could be found between districts,” read a message at the end of the series. “The Intergovernmental Missing Child Recovery Act of 1984 eliminated the 72-hour waiting period before law enforcement searched for a missing child and established the Illinois State Enforcement Agencies to Recover Children or I-SEARCH.”
Getty Images (3); MEGA From the murder of JonBenét Ramsey to convicted killer Ed Gein, there’s several scripted true crime shows coming our way soon. Paramount+ recently announced a limited series that will cover the Ramsey family before and after JonBenet’s murder in 1996. The unnamed JonBenét Ramsey series specifically centers around parents John and […]
The statement highlighted how I-SEARCH “was dedicated to locating missing youth in their respective geographical areas,” adding, “The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has reported that due to technological advances and awareness that fast action saves lives “more than 99 percent of children reported missing in America in recent years have come home alive.”
The message continued: “While this series is fictionalized, these stories reflect the hopes and vulnerabilities of generations of young people. Today’s youth face both similar and unprecedented challenges including economic instability, educational inequality, gun violence and social media pressures. We all have a role to play in fostering safe and supportive environments for everyone.”
“Six extinguished lives remain unidentified and buried in various Chicago area cemeteries. Each gravestone is inscribed with the words: We Remembered,” read a statement alongside actual clips from the burial of the unclaimed bodies. “If you believe a loved one may have been a victim of John Wayne Gacy, visit the Cook County Sheriff’s Police website at www.cookcountysheriffil.gov.”
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Marin Ireland, who played Robert’s mother, Elizabeth Piest, broke down the shot of her character looking at James Badge Dale‘s Joe Kozenczak after he saw Gacy’s execution and she didn’t.
“I think something very telling is that Yana Grebenyuk Patrick [Macmanus] did not write that as a scene with dialogue. In many ways, they’ve said all they could say to each other over all of the years. In some ways, what’s being communicated is too big for words,” Ireland explained. “It’s very telling that Elizabeth doesn’t want to waste any more words on a person that she feels like doesn’t have the capacity.”
She continued: “It’s a long relationship and it’s like any other deep disappointment with somebody that you shared a long relationship with. It’s not entirely his fault but also what else can you do but associate that person forever with these feelings?”
Gacy was a serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured and murdered dozens of young men and boys. After he was convicted of 32 murders, he was sentenced to death and died by lethal injection in 1994.
Bureau of Prisons/Getty Images Peacock’s Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy is the latest scripted series centered around a prolific serial killer. According to the show’s synopsis, the limited TV series “peels back the twisted layers of John Wayne Gacy‘s life while weaving in the heartrending stories of his mostly gay victims.” Devil in Disguise […]
The limited series made an effort to focus on Gacy’s victims — something other shows centered around notorious murderers have been chastised for allegedly ignoring. Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacyaddressed the trauma inflicted on the victims’ families, named each episode after a victim of Gacy’s and questioned investigative missteps and systemic failures that led to Gacy evading the law for so long.
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“We knew that we wanted to focus it on the victims but we didn’t exactly know what that meant until we figured out the short stories and the idea that we were talking about these victims’ lives, their hopes and their dreams and their struggles. All of the tragedies that were in their lives that had no connection to their murder at the hands of John Wayne Gacy,” Macmanus told Us. “We were showing stories that showed people struggling with their identity, people struggling with their socioeconomic conditions, people struggling with parent issues. There are millions and millions and millions of people who have all of that in their lives and they don’t kill 33 people. This allows us to talk about John Wayne Gacy without actually making it feel like we are focusing on him or that we’re excusing him. Because the last thing that we do in that show is excuse him.”
Macmanus continued: “The decision on when to show [violence] or when not to show was very simple. We were not showing it and so we knew that there were going to be moments that we would tiptoe up to the line. We weren’t going to disgrace the memory of the victims by doing a reimagining of their violent final moments in this world. So I hope that at the end of the day — as disturbing as it may be — that people also recognize that we’re ultimately honoring the victims by not showing their final moments.”
Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy is now streaming on Peacock.
Erin Lichy and husband Abe Lichy are adjusting to life as parents of four — but there likely won’t be another little one on the way anytime soon.
While promoting her new book, She’s a Host: An Unbuttoned Cookbook for Elegant Entertaining, earlier this month, the Real Housewives of New York City star exclusively told Us Weekly that her family feels complete after baby Jack’s arrival in March. (Erin, 38, and Abe, 42, also share kids Levi, Layla, and Elijah.)
“I’m begging him to get a vasectomy,” Erin told Us, adding that she’s “done” having kids for the time being.
Life at home with a newborn has been “a trip,” but Erin is enjoying it nonetheless. “We’re great. … It’s fun,” she said.
News broke of the Bravo star’s pregnancy in November 2024. “The Lichy family is thrilled to share that they are expecting Baby #4,” Erin’s rep told Us in a statement at the time. “This new life brings comfort and joy, especially following the recent passing of Erin’s father. It’s a beautiful reminder of the circle of life, and they are grateful for the love and support surrounding them during this time.”
Erin and Abe LichyCourtesy Erin Lichy/Instagram
One month later, Erin confessed that she was “not prepared at all” for baby No. 4 but was still looking forward to welcoming the little one home. “It’s exciting,” she told Us at iHeart Radio’s Jingle Ball in December 2024. “The kids are really excited. So, for me, that’s kind of the best part.”
Since giving birth earlier this year, Erin has kept fans up to date with her growing family. While sending her older kids off to summer camp in June, Erin got candid about the realities of parenting that aren’t often showcased on social media.
“It’s not always what Instagram shows on the outside, smiling faces and easy things, but the truth is that’s what makes these moments so much sweeter,” she captioned a slideshow at the time. “It’s getting through the pressure cooker! I can’t wait to hear that my kids are happy and settled in camp and for me and Abe to have a little time together to reconnect.”
Erin has also put up a strong front in the face of mom-seamers. In April, she exclusively opened up to Us about facing backlash for the way she was holding her baby boy in a social media video.
The Real Housewives of New York City star Erin Lichy’s kids are “so excited” for her and husband Abe Lichy to welcome baby No. 4 into their family. “I know my daughter’s going to be a little helper,” Erin, 37, exclusively told Us Weekly while discussing Mezcalum’s partnership with Bartesian. “She talks about it every […]
“This is such a delicate topic that should be handled with immense care. I’m really disappointed in the pop culture clickbait community. It has just taken it too far,” she said in a statement. (Her rep added in a more strongly worded statement, “Erin has become used to online criticism since being on RHONY, and certainly has thick skin about it, but this has crossed a line that is unacceptable, and quite frankly dangerous.”)
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While the future of RHONY remains up in the air following a dramatic end to season 15 — Erin’s second on the rebooted franchise — work hasn’t slowed down for the reality star. Her book includes “all the tips of how to actually host and put together a party,” as well as recipes to enjoy while entertaining. The project was “a labor of love,” and Erin found inspiration in her family.
“I don’t think I knew what I was getting into … [but] I loved diving into these, like, amazing memories that I didn’t even know I really had,” Erin told Us.
She’s a Host: An Unbuttoned Cookbook for Elegant Entertaining is available October 28.
Legends of Tomorrow’s Courtney Ford is grateful to be in a good place with her estranged husband, Brandon Routh.
“It is an amicable divorce. Brandon and I have been coworkers, and now we’re coparents and friends really truly,” Ford, 47, exclusively shared with Us Weekly while attending the 2025 Gurus Awards, presented by Gurus Magazine, on Sunday, October 12. “We’re very lucky.”
In January, the Legends of Tomorrow costars announced that they were separating after 17 years of marriage. The pair share a 13-year-old son.
“We are now and forever rooting for each other as we move through this wild adventure called life,” Ford and Routh, 46, shared in a joint statement via Instagram. “Our son is, and will always be, our highest priority and we appreciate your understanding of this transition.”
The pair found themselves confirming the news as Los Angeles wildfires threatened their home. Fortunately, their property did not burn down.
Courtney FordPaul Archuleta/Getty Images
“We were focused on grabbing our go-bags and evacuating yesterday,” Ford wrote via Instagram on January 9. “It feels ridiculous to post this statement with fires still raging, but an online publication announced our news before we could.”
When asked if she has any advice for couples going through a divorce, Ford joked to Us, “Don’t go through your divorce when the entire city is on fire.”
All jokes aside, Ford was grateful to have the opportunity to step out for Derek Warburton’s annual event in Los Angeles to present Dr. Iris Kerin Orbuch with the Hope & Healing Award.
“I’m here as a patient of Dr Iris,” Ford shared with Us at the Cicada Restaurant & Lounge in Los Angeles. “She is my endometriosis surgeon, and she has changed my life. I’m here to honor her. When I was working on The CW on Legends of Tomorrow, the superhero show, I had actually developed a limp because of how severe my endometriosis was. When I talk about life-changing and life-saving, I mean, [Dr. Iris] saved my life and my career because I couldn’t walk.”
Courtney Ford and Dr. Iris Kerin OrbuchCourtesy of Courtney Ford
According to the Mayo Clinic, endometriosis is an often-painful condition in which tissue that is similar to the inner lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus.
Treatments can help lessen pain and complications from the condition, although there is still no cure.
Many celebrity splits have rocked Hollywood over the years, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin as well as Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan. Tatum and Dewan’s love story began on the set of 2006’s Step Up, where they costarred as onscreen love interests. The duo tied the knot in 2009 and welcomed daughter Everly in 2013. […]
“There aren’t even words to describe how much it means to me that she’s pain-free, and it’s why I do what I do,” Dr. Iris — who also wrote the bookBeating Endo: How to Reclaim Your Life from Endometriosis — told Us about Ford’s progress. “When you see patients walk through the door who are not living their lives to their fullest, it’s heartbreaking to me. … To see her full of beauty and energy, it gives me energy.”
As Ford continues to raise her growing son, the actress hopes to continue sharing her story in hopes of inspiring other women that they too can live a full life with endometriosis.
“There is absolutely hope,” she said. “You really need to have someone who understands the gold standard of care and I hope everyone can find a specialist like Dr Iris. I wish we could clone her.”
A decade ago, two college students built a fire extinguisher that snuffed out a fire using nothing more than a booming 10-inch subwoofer. The internet lapped it up, and Jimmy Fallon even booked a demonstration for The Tonight Show.
But since that brief viral moment, there hasn’t been much more than a whisper about the technology.
It’s not for lack of trying. The college kids weren’t the first to prove the concept. DARPA was on the case in 2012; and a search of the scientific literature reveals dozens of researchers investigating the idea.
One startup now claims to have cracked the problem. Sonic Fire Tech has built an acoustic fire suppression system that doesn’t just extinguish flames; it that might also protect homes and other buildings from wildfires. The startup has raised a $3.5 million seed round from investors, including Khosla Ventures and Third Sphere, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.
Wildfires cost the U.S. as much as $424 billion annually. The problem has become so acute in places like California that insurers are refusing to renew policies after repeated blazes have reduced large swathes of the state to ashes.
Sonic Fire Tech has been developing its technology over the last several years. Michael Thomas, who is chairman of the startup’s board, had been tinkering with the idea of using sound to fight fires, and when he hit a wall, he reached out to Geoff Bruder over LinkedIn. Bruder had worked for NASA, where he focused on heat and acoustics.
“This is kind of a new age founding story,” Bruder, the startup’s CEO and CTO, told TechCrunch.
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Bruder was intrigued with Thomas’s idea and set about building a prototype. “I got a subwoofer and some parts from Home Depot and AutoZone and said, ‘Hey, let’s see if we can do any better than other people had,’” Bruder recalled. “We knocked a fire out from seven feet in my driveway.”
The startup soon ditched the subwoofer and moved to lower frequencies. The problem with audible frequencies is that any system powerful enough to suppress a fire would be damaging to people’s hearing, Bruder said. “You’ve basically got to throw a speaker design in the trash and start from scratch,” he said.
There are competing theories as to how exactly acoustic energy can disrupt combustion, but the soundless demonstrations certainly suggest that Sonic Fire Tech is onto something.
The new system uses a reciprocating piston much like those inside a car’s engine, but it is significantly larger. An electric motor turns a crankshaft, which pulses the two-foot piston to produce infrasound, the technical term for sound that’s below people’s hearing range, or about 20 Hz.
“Since we designed everything ourselves, we dropped the frequency to where we’re below audible range, which helps us transmit further, and it makes it safe,” Bruder said.
Sonic Fire Tech’s current record is 25 feet. A bigger system could work as far away as 330 feet, Bruder said. The company plans to sell and install its system for about 2% of a home’s value, and it’s talking with insurance companies to qualify the technology.
To protect a house, Sonic Fire Tech routes infrasound from a single generator through rigid ducts that sit on the roof’s ridge and under the eaves. On the ridge, they fire down the pitch to catch any fires that might start in debris in the gutters. Under the eaves, they are aimed toward the ground to suppress any flames that pop up near the walls. The system turns on when sensors detect a flame.
A home-based system draws around 500 watts of electricity, and in case of a power outage, Sonic Fire Tech is drawing up plans to use lead-acid batteries for backup. Unlike sprinkler systems, it doesn’t require a source of water, which can be in short supply in wildfire country.
The startup is working with PG&E and Southern California Edison to demonstrate the technology on homes, and it has signed a letter of intent with a chemical storage facility.
“The natural progression is, if we get certified as a sprinkler replacement, then you can just run a run a pipe into your house and protect your kitchen and everywhere you would need to protect,” Bruder said.
“I was very fortunate in my final five questions that my knowledge base is wide enough to be able to get a bunch of those right,” he recalled. “I didn’t so much feel the pressure of that moment as much as a clarity of ‘Not only did I come here to raise awareness for Huntington’s but I think I might be able to take some of this home for the cause.”
The actor felt “a little bit of a clarity” kick in.
“I played football in high school and was recruited to play football in college. So I have a very competitive nature about me. When the big moments happen, sometimes everything just goes quiet,” he recalled. “It was just the clarity and quiet of the moment. The knowledge base came into play later but the overall game strategy was way more important in this episode.”
Porter’s episode of Celebrity Weakest Link allowed him to compete alongside other actors from various teen shows, including former Friday Night Lights costar Aimee Teegarden, Shenae Grimes and Matt Lanter from 90210, Beverly Mitchell and Barry Watson from 7th Heaven and more.
“With a game like Weakest Link, people want to try and study but it’s really difficult to study for a catch-all trivia show like this. What I would recommend for people who are going on a show like this is to study game theory and to really understand the way the game works: the ins and outs,” Porter explained to Us. “So if you’re wrong — or if you’re going to be wrong — know it very quickly and just say the wrong answer or pass because the most important thing is keeping that time on the clock so the answers you do know can be answered and the money you can make can be banked.”
Greg Gayne/FOX.
Porter did extensive research before participating in the show, adding, “For me, it was more about making sure to figure out a way to maximize my ability to not only bank money but keep time on the clock. That research did me some good because I ended up being the strongest link in a few rounds. The other part of Weakest Link is there’s a little bit of Survivor. There are little mini alliances that are going to form that were magnified on my particular episode because we had pairs from different TV shows. You had automatic alliances already set up that I knew I had to be aware of and I had to try to eliminate pieces to keep myself on the show — to give me a shot at being there in the end.”
He continued: “When you watch the show, you see some people sandbag a little bit. They’ll act like they’re not as smart as they are so that if they get to the final three, they’ll have a good shot of being in the final pair. I didn’t so much do that as to try and whittle down the alliance chances. I think it played out in my favor.”
While Porter ultimately made it into the final three — and then won — he didn’t get every question right. Some of the ones that stuck out include a question about Ariana Grande‘s music and a Hooters-related inquiry.
“I could have gotten there [with the Ariana question]. But if you’re gonna be wrong, be fast. You’re looking at the clock and you’re trying to make sure that the money’s been banked. I’m not hurting the team by just getting this wrong and getting it to somebody who can get a question correctly quickly,” he noted. “The other one that I think people are going to really come at me for is the Hooters question. That’s the one that actually stuck with me. The Ariana Grande one didn’t stick with me as much, but the scantily clad waitresses at this restaurant that filed for bankruptcy last year. It was Hooters. But I said French Laundry.”
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Porter continued: “I actually knew Hooters. I went to high school in college in Florida, which is where it’s from. There are stadiums named for that restaurant chain and we used to do our fantasy football drafts there. But when the word scantily clad came to mind, I started thinking about lingerie. Then the word association took me to laundry, which took me to French Laundry. That is a Michelin star restaurant — and definitely not a trashy wing place. That one just made me giggle and is the one that most people are going to be laughing the most at.”
Despite the occasional wrong answer, Porter was proud to see his approach work out when the $50,000 prize went to his charity.
“This was a win-win situation. I’m a competitor, I love games and I’ve watched the Weakest Link. When they tell you that you can play for a charity of your choosing, it makes it even more meaningful. The cause I chose to play for is the Huntington’s Disease Society of America, which helps support families who are battling Huntington’s and helps to try and find a cure for this awful disease,” he told Us. “I’ve been a part of raising millions of dollars for research and for supporting families who are battling it. The reason it’s so personal to me is my mother-in-law and my wife [Kelsey Mayfield] are both positive for Huntington’s.”
“My mother-in-law is symptomatic and my wife is what they call gene positive, which means the disease will be a part of our future unless we find a cure for it. So now — more than ever — after some announcements a couple of weeks ago, we’ve had some very, very promising and hopeful success within some trials in a way to limit the Huntington gene,” he added. “It’s just more important than ever to raise awareness, and raise money. When you go on a show like this, you’re not guaranteed to win but you are guaranteed to hopefully raise awareness of what Huntington’s actually is. It was something that was very meaningful to me and to go and compete made it even sweeter.”
For more information on Huntington’s disease — including ways to support and donate — head to hdsa.org.
Celebrity Weakest Link airs Mondays on Fox at 9 p.m. ET.
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal team is requesting that their client be sent to FCI Fort Dix’s Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) to serve his sentence.
Former “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Joe Giudice, who served his own prison sentence at the New Jersey facility, and his lawyer, James J. Leonard Jr., told Fox News Digital what Combs can expect.
Combs was sentenced to 50 months in prison on federal prostitution charges earlier this month.
Sean “Diddy” Combs is requesting a transfer to the same facility where reality star Joe Giudice served his prison sentence.(Getty Images)
Giudice served his sentence for conspiracy, bankruptcy fraud and tax offenses at Fort Dix from 2016 to 2019. FCI Fort Dix is a federal correctional facility in Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Combs’ lawyer, Teny Geragos, filed a letter on Oct. 6, asking that Judge Arun Subramanian ask the Bureau of Prisons to suggest Fort Dix for her client. In the letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, Geragos said that Combs would be able to “address drug abuse issues” and “maximize family visitation and rehabilitative efforts” in the prison’s RDAP program.
A sketch of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ reaction as the jury foreperson and courtroom deputy read verdicts before Judge Arun Subramanian of the five counts against him in July.(Jane Rosenberg)
Leonard spoke to Fox News Digital about the benefits of Combs serving his sentence at the low-security prison and all Combs could gain from the RDAP, noting that if Fort Dix is approved, “some people would say [it] is a pretty easy place to do time.”
He also explained it’s a highly sought-after program by eligible prisoners and one of the few facilities in the Bureau of Prisons that offers a Residential Drug Abuse Program.
WATCH: DIDDY’S REQUEST TO SERVE HIS TIME AT FCI FORT DIX EXPLAINED
“Number one, they live within a certain area inside of the prison with other people that are in the program, right? So you’re not in the general population, you’re in a different housing area with other participants in the program, all of whom have been carefully screened, all of whom have to be both legally and clinically eligible,” Leonard told Fox News Digital.
Sean “Diddy” Combs was convicted on federal prostitution charges.(Jason Merritt)
He explained that it’s a 6 to 12 month program, designated by the prison, and is a “very, very intensive therapeutic program.”
Leonard noted that there are a lot of variables within the program, but if Combs were to complete all 12 months, that would be taken off of his sentence.
“So those 12 months would have him ultimately released in February 2027, give or take, in the event that he successfully completed the program and he received the maximum 12 months off,” Leonard said.
Joe Giudice and Teresa Giudice starred together on “Real Housewives of New Jersey.”(Getty Images)
Leonard emphasized that Combs would not automatically be placed in the program.
“You don’t just walk into a program, OK? There’s a waitlist, there’s other people. This is very desired, not only for the help that it provides, not only for the benefits of the living conditions, which are different than the others, but at the end of this, you get time off. So you have to behave,” Leonard said.
Family visitation would be a huge plus for Combs. During his sentencing on Oct. 3, several of Combs’ kids, including daughters Chance, Jessie and D’Lila, were moved to tears and pleaded with the judge for leniency.
WATCH: ATTORNEY SHARES WHAT STRUCK HIM ABOUT FCI FORT DIX, THE PRISON WHERE DIDDY IS REQUESTING TO SERVE HIS SENTENCE
Giudice told Fox News Digital that he had family visiting as much as possible. He served his sentence in the general population, not in RDAP.
“Family visits – basically, you come out to meet up in one big room and everybody’s there and your family comes. I had family coming every weekend, you know what I mean, friends, family every weekend,” he said.
Giudice also claimed to have witnessed violence and gang activity while serving his sentence at Fort Dix. He recalled one instance in which he was walking and all of a sudden saw a group of men before a knife incident occurred.
Teresa Giudice and her then-husband, Giuseppe “Joe” Giudice, exit the Federal Court in Newark, New Jersey, in March 2014.(Reuters)
“They just like stabbed each other as they’re walking across the track. It’s like you’ve barely even seen anything, but you know, they just like stabbed each other for whatever reason, you know, whatever it was,” Giudice alleged.
Fox News Digital reached out to FCI Fort Dix for comment.
Leonard told Fox News Digital he had visited Fort Dix’s satellite camp, which is a separate location from where his client served his term. He stated that he was shocked to see the inmates roaming around and not in a large fenced area. Prior to this visit, he had never seen inmates at a federal prison with that much freedom.
Diddy was arrested and charged with multiple counts in September 2024.(Shareif Ziyadat)
“Here they were out and about in the parking lot, not bothering anybody. Then you realize that’s because you’re in a camp setting, right? The camp in particular, they have access to kind of move around the grounds of the prison complex.”
He continued, “And they were going from building to building, but they weren’t doing it within this big fenced-in area. They’re kind of moving around. And it’s not a bad place to be, in all candor. It’s not a bad place to be if you have to be locked up in the federal prison system.”
According to FCI Fort Dix’s website, the prison contains just over 4,100 male inmates. The prison holds about 3,900 and the minimum-security satellite camp houses around 200.
Diddy’s legal team is requesting he be sent to FCI Fort Dix’s Residential Drug Abuse Program.(Getty Images)
The prison is on the military Air Force base in southern New Jersey. It’s 90 minutes from New York and an hour from Philadelphia, which is one reason Leonard believes the facility appeals to Combs.
The Bureau of Prisons will ultimately decide where Combs serves his sentence.
Game of Thrones is not without funny characters and meme-able moments, but you might be surprised with just how dang funny and delightful A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Without giving too much away, the show, a spin-off set 100 years before the OG series based on a series of George R. R. Martin novellas, delivers punchlines and editing choices that might remind you more of Family Guy than Game of Thrones. At round table interviews as part of New York Comic-Con 2025, A Knight Of the Seven Kingdoms‘ showrunner Ira Parker and star Peter Claffey, who plays Ser Duncan the Tall a.k.a. “Dunk,” talked about how funny the show is and how they maintained that tone in a Westerosi environment.
For Claffey, a former professional Rugby player and alum of both Bad Sisters and Vikings: Valhalla, a love of/desire to make comedy is part of what brought him to performing. “When I finished playing rugby and kind of went into this and tried to go full hog into this,” he said, “I started by writing a lot of sketch comedy stuff, and I really enjoyed it.” This show leans into comedic moments and opt for comedic takes on moments that Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon wouldn’t necessarily choose. There aren’t just comic relief characters, like Tyrion Lannister or The Hound. Everyone on this show is funny, from Claffey himself to Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg and Daniel Ings as Ser Lyonel Baratheon.
“I think because of writing the sketch comedy, filming different skits and stuff like that I was honing the craft slightly in order to play those comedic beats, and I was quite glad that I had that in the artillery to then take a scene and have a discussion with Ira or have a discussion with [directors Owen Harris and Sarah Adina Smith] and say how can we make this that sort of theme that we wanted.”
That does not mean that the show isn’t dark at times.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is as violent, action-packed, and grotesque as you’d expect regardless. It’s still Westeros, after all. There are still ambitious characters, cruel characters, and a morbid aversion to telling morally black and white stories. However, Claffey continued, “you can find so much comedy from terrible situations.” It’s one of his favorite kinds of comedy. “I’m an enormous fan of Ari Aster and Robert Eggers,” he said, “and Ari Aster especially has developed this genre of nightmare comedy where you find yourself horrified but also laughing your head off. Movies like [Kristoffer Borgli’s] Dream Scenario, and I really loved [Aster’s] Beau is Afraid. I do think when the stakes are so high in this series that we’ve shot, there are moments to take a breath away. When we watched it back it was nice to see those things. Hopefully everybody feels like we pulled it off.”
Parker, who is also a writer on House of the Dragon, reiterated that it’s important the show still look and feel like Game of Thrones. “People like sitting in Westeros” and pretending the fantasy world is be real, he said, so any comedy has to have a subtle touch so as not to disrupt the “gritty, grimy, Earth-” world Martin created. “Certainly in our shooting of the show we wanted to be as faithful as as classic and we didn’t want to be too stylized in the camera movements and the way that it was shot,” said Parker. “We wanted people to feel like this was a world that they recognized but then also start giving subtle nods to, you know, we’re gonna try and do a little something different with our storytelling.”
The biggest difference between this show and the shows in this universe we’ve seen before is that it has a singular perspective. This is entirely Dunk’s story. If he’s not in the scene, we don’t see the scene. So, as Parker explained, the comedy was a way to sneak in backstory and not bore the audience. (Remember how Game of Thrones used to do that with sex scenes so much that people started calling it sexposition? Different times…)
“So obviously, very early on, letting people know with the slaps and the cutaways,” Parker continued, referencing a gag in the show’s pilot as Dunk thinks back to the abuse he endured as a squire. “Dunk is standing at that graveside thinking about the good and the bad. He has such a conflicted relationship with Ser Arlan, obviously in the books and in this show, and it’s important to show both sides of this so it wasn’t just somebody eulogizing and thinking about how great they were. We see the knight and squire relationship can be quite brutal and quite complicated at times.”
Taking a moment like that and playing it for laughs is “just a very handy tool to get a bit of background on Dunk […] very quickly so that you can launch into the story with us,” Claffey explained. “Obviously we don’t have the benefit of Dunk’s inner monologue as we do in the books and we can’t ever cut away from [his point-of-view] either. Everyone has to be in with this one human being from the get go. So packing information into there was the fun, was the challenge of this series.”
Leah Marilla Thomas (she/her) is a contributor at The Mary Sue. She has been working in digital entertainment journalism since 2013, covering primarily television as well as film and live theatre. She’s been on the Marvel beat professionally since Daredevil was a Netflix series. (You might recognize her voice from the Newcomers: Marvel podcast). Outside of journalism, she is 50% Southerner, 50% New Englander, and 100% fangirl over everything from Lord of the Rings to stage lighting and comics about teenagers. She lives in New York City and can often be found in a park. She used to test toys for Hasbro. True story!
“I need to control my emotions,” a choked-up Begley, 76, told Us at the Environmental Media Association (EMA) Awards on Saturday, October 11. “I was extremely close to Diane. I loved her a lot.”
The pair first starred together in the 1992 TV movie Running Mates, and more recently appeared in the hit 2018 romantic comedy Book Club, which made more than $100 million at the box office.
Begley held his composure as he remembered Keaton for being “like a sister to me” and “a dear, dear friend” while speaking to Us at the Studio City, California, awards show.
Celebrities are mourning the loss of Diane Keaton, who died at age 79. People broke the news of her death on Saturday, October 11, confirming that The Godfather star died in California. Further details have yet to be released as her family asks for privacy during this difficult time. Bette Midler was one of the […]
“It hit me hard when I heard of her passing,” he acknowledged. “She’s with us still [in spirit]. She’s not going anywhere.”
Book Club’s three other leading ladies — Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen — all paid tribute to their late friend following the news of her death on Saturday.
“It’s hard to believe…or accept…that Diane has passed,” Fonda, 87, wrote via Instagram. “She was always a spark of life and light, constantly giggling at her own foibles, being limitlessly creative…in her acting, her wardrobe, her books, her friends, her homes, her library, her world view. Unique is what she was. And, though she didn’t know it or wouldn’t admit it, man she was a fine actress!”
Bergen, 79, added in her own statement to People, “This is a huge loss, both personally and for all of us. Diane was a true artist — tremendously gifted and uniquely talented in so many disciplines, yet also modest and wonderfully eccentric. I will miss her terribly.”
Mary Steenburgen, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Diane Keaton in May 2018.Leon Bennett/Getty Images
“There was no one, nor will there ever be, anyone like her,” Steenburgen said on Saturday. “I loved her and felt blessed to be her friend. My love to her family. What a wonder she was!!!”
The four leading ladies starred in Book Club as close friends trying to spice up their sex lives after reading erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey together. The 2018 comedy also featured Craig T. Nelson, Andy García and Don Johnson in supporting roles.
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Little is known about Keaton’s death at this stage, as her spokesperson disclosed no additional details. Her family — which includes two children: daughter Dexter and son Duke — “asked for privacy” as they mourn the late actress.
Diane Keaton lived life to the fullest up until her death. On October 11, news broke that the actress had died in California at the age of 79. A spokesperson for her family confirmed her death to People and added that Keaton’s relatives have “asked for privacy.” While the Oscar-winning actress had a remarkable career […]
A friend of Keaton’s told People on Saturday that the Father of the Bride star’s health “declined very suddenly” in the final few months of her life. While she had once been a fixture of her Brentwood, California, neighborhood on walks with her dog Reggie, Keaton reportedly disappeared from public life in recent months to spend time with only her “her closest family.”
Keaton made her final screen appearance in 2024 comedy Summer Camp, in which she starred opposite Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard and Eugene Levy. The role capped off a near-60 year Hollywood career that saw Keaton win a Best Actress Oscar for 1977’s Annie Hall and receive the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award, among many other honors.
Don Cheadle can’t help but gush about his wife, Bridgid Coulter, when it matters most.
Before accepting an award at the HollyRod Foundation’s 2025 DesignCare Gala on Saturday, October 4, the private couple shared a rare glimpse into what they admire most about each other.
“She’s a great mom, a great wife, an amazing entrepreneur and designer,” Cheadle, 60, exclusively shared with Us Weekly at NYA EAST in Los Angeles. “She’s just a solid citizen, and it’s been 30-plus years.”
The Crash and Hotel Rwanda actor began dating Coulter, 57, in 1992. They secretly got married during the coronavirus pandemic in 2021.
While Coulter appreciated her husband’s kind remarks on the red carpet, she had a bit more fun with her answer.
When asked to share what she admires most about Cheadle, Coulter joked, “He’s cute. It’s all about the looks, and he’s very talented, of course!”
Bridgid Coulter and Don CheadleChelsea Lauren / Shutterstock for HollyRod
Holly Robinson Peete and Rodney Peete awarded Cheadle and Coulter with the Clarence & Jacqueline Avant Humanitarian Award at their foundation’s annual gala. The honor is reserved for individuals whose compassion, advocacy and selflessness create lasting impact.
While Cheadle serves as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme, Coulter has created transformative spaces of belonging, leadership and creativity for women of color and allies through the Blackboard Collective and Blackbird Alliance.
Back in June 2021, Cheadle first confirmed that he was a married man when he appeared on an episode ofThe Ellen DeGeneres Show. At the time, guest host Wanda Sykes apologized for not knowing the actor was already married until he texted her with the personal news.
Cheadle quickly told the comedian there were no hard feelings.
Bridgid Coulter, Don Cheadle, Holly Robinson Peete and Rodney PeeteJohn Salangsang / Shutterstock for HollyRod
“Yeah, I mean, that’s understandable, given that we’ve been together 28 years before we got married,” the Oscar nominee joked. “I hold you blameless.”
While the pair — who share adult children Tai and Imani — try to keep their romance off of social media and away from the public eye, Coulter acknowledged that being honored by the Peete family’s charity was a big deal.
“We don’t really do a lot together in public,” she said alongside her husband. “This is only because of the cause.”
The HollyRod Foundation is dedicated to providing compassionate care to those living with autism and Parkinson’s disease.
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Holly and Rodney’s son, RJ, was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3. He is now 27 years old and thriving as an employee of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Meanwhile, Holly’s father, Matt Robinson, died of Parkinson’s in 2002. Holly’s brother is currently living with early-onset Parkinson’s.
“We’ve been friends of their family for a while, and just really supporters of what they do,” Cheadle said of Holly and Rodney’s work. “What they’re doing for their foundation is so unique and years of great work. I’m glad to be here to support them.”
Coulter added, “Their work for autism and Parkinson’s is really important, and we’ve known Matt [Robinson] forever. Honoring the work they do is something we feel privileged to do here.”
“Tarek was [approached] back in the day,” Heather, 38, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, October 8, while promoting her beauty brand, Heather Rae Essentials.
She noted that despite being offered a spot on DWTS years prior, Tarek, 44, isn’t the most confident dancer.
“The man can dance a little. I don’t think he thinks he can,” Heather shared, adding that she would “totally be open to it.”
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images
Heather told Us she’d rather do the ABC competition series as a couple — especially since she and Tarek work so well together.
“I think it would be fun to do Dancing With the Stars together and, like, [the] competition [of it all],” she said, teasing, “May the best couple win!”
When asked whether she would like to compete against Tarek’s ex-wife, Christina Haack — who is also their The Flip Off costar — Heather confessed, “I don’t think Christina would do it.”
Heather Rae El Moussa didn’t get the feedback she was expecting after sharing her attempt to learn a new dance. “Day 1 learning how to twerk,” Heather, 36, captioned an Instagram Reel on Monday, June 17, which also featured her husband, Tarek El Moussa. “How’d I do? 🤷🏼♀️ Be nice guys 😂.” Tarek, 42, quickly […]
Though Christina, 42, “doesn’t like dancing,” Heather would say, “Let’s go!”
After their divorce, Haack and Tarek continued to cohost Flip or Flop until the series came to an end in 2022.
ZZHollywood To You/Star Max/GC Images
Heather, meanwhile, began dating Tarek in summer 2019, two years before tying the knot in 2021. The pair welcomed their first child, son Tristan, in 2023.
The married couple starred on HGTV’s The Flipping El Moussas for two seasons before teaming up with Haack for The Flip Off earlier this year. During season 1 of the show, Haack briefly worked with her now-ex Joshua Hall, competing against Tarek and Heather to see who could do the better house flip.
The thought of joining The Real Housewives of Orange County has crossed Heather Rae El Moussa’s mind — and, possibly, the mind of Bravo producers. “Well, you know, they may have reached out to me and I’m just too busy right now,” Heather, 37, exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, September 23, when partnering with […]
Amid filming in 2024, Haack and Hall, 45, split after nearly three years of marriage. Haack remained on the show solo, and her ex-husband Ant Anstead eventually joined her for a cameo. (Haack and Anstead, 46, divorced in 2020 after nearly two years of marriage. They share son Hudson, 6.)
Despite her divorce drama with Hall, Haack continued to mesh well with Tarek and Heather on their show, which was renewed for a second season.
Andrea Domjan Photography
“It’s all about winning,” Heather told Us on Wednesday of her and Tarek’s approach to the new season. “We do not want her to win. I feel like, you know, she’s motivated right now because she wants to beat us. We won the first round, and so we got to really, really be on our game.”
As Haack prepares for redemption, Heather is focused on growing her beauty brand, Heather Rae Essentials, which features clean, everyday products for every woman.
“I launched Heather Rae Essentials back in February. On Valentine’s Day,” Heather recalled to Us.. “I like to make a big splash. … We sold out in 48 hours.”
Heather began working on the line in 2021 after getting her aesthetician license when she was just 19. Her latest launch was released on her birthday this summer and once again sold out.
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Andrea Domjan Photography
“This is just the beginning. This is just the start. There’s so much more to come, but I wanted to create products that I actually use,” Heather told Us of her current lineup, which includes a “staple lip gloss,” a body scrub and more items. “These are my daily staples I use every day, and I wanted to give it to the world, because I know makeup.”
She gushed, “I’m obsessed with my products. I use them every single day … and what’s great about these lip glosses is you can layer them.”
Many businesses that provide goods and services to the EU’s 450 million consumers must comply with new accessibility standards that took effect in June. Like the GDPR before it, this new act had companies scrambling to adjust their websites, e-commerce platforms, and banking apps. But despite similar standards existing in the U.S., many still have a long way to go.
“One thing that surprised us was companies, even massive companies, coming to us two weeks before [the deadline] saying, ‘Oh we didn’t know anything about this,’” said Irish entrepreneur Cormac Chisholm.
His startup, DevAlly, is among the first to leverage technology to make it easier for businesses to detect accessibility problems. It also helps them comply with regulations like the European Accessibility Act (EAA), which promises hefty fines for new products and services that aren’t in compliance. (Existing ones get a grace period to comply until 2030.)
Launched in 2024, DevAlly audits for accessibility barriers such as, for instance, videos lacking captions on corporate websites. It also tracks customer-reported issues, helps companies create roadmaps for fixes and generate accessibility reports.
While human consultants can also conduct audits, DevAlly’s CEO Chisholm, believes a such an approach can’t scale to meet demand or adapt to the realities of shipping digital products and features. DevAlly has accessibility experts, too, but it leverages AI and accessibility LLMs to automate testing and issue tracking. This, Chisholm believes, helps integrate accessibility with the product development lifecycle.
This tech-first approach mirrors the path taken by cybersecurity compliance company Vanta, now valued at $2.45 billion.
The regulatory tailwinds and growing awareness around accessibility helped DevAlly secure €2 million in pre-seed funding (approximately $2.3 million), TechCrunch learned exclusively.
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With this new capital, the team plans to grow its team from 5 to 15 people by the end of the year — mostly in Dublin, where it participated in the NDRC accelerator program operated by Dogpatch Labs on behalf of state body Enterprise Ireland.
NDRC and Enterprise Ireland participated in the round, but it was led by Belgian fund Miles Ahead Capital, with participation from European angels. According to DevAlly’s founders, that’s in part thanks to tech conference Slush, where they made the top 3 of the startup competition and connected with their future lead investor.
“Traditionally in Ireland, the approach is to go with an Irish VC, but we went with Europe, and one of the things that we’re super excited about is to explore what that unlocks from this investor,” Chisholm said.
DevAlly will use Miles Ahead’s support to launch U.S. operations, starting with sales in San Francisco. The city proved valuable for connecting with heads of accessibility at large B2B software companies after DevAlly participated in TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield 2024. “A lot of our customers right now are on the West Coast,” co-founder and chief revenue officer Patrick Guiney told TechCrunch.
The startup has seen traction in Europe thanks to the EAA coming into force. So have other players, such as Barcelona-based QualiBooth, which recently reviewed the state of European e-commerce accessibility — retail is one focus of the EAA. But both startups also see opportunities in the U.S., where DevAlly is betting on procurement as a major driver of demand.
With estimates that disabled consumers and their households represent $8 trillion a year in disposable income, Chisholm is adamant that “good design is accessible design.” One in five people live with disability, and disability can also be situational — because heavy glare makes it impossible to read your screen in sunlight, or you are holding a baby and can’t access control buttons, he said. “So you want to try and create as much universal design as possible.”
The actions a company may take to address this range from screen reader support to higher contrast and gradients that work for the color-blind. But recent analysis conducted by UX/UI design agency Tenscope found that 94% of the top 1,000 US websites fail basic accessibility standards.
The travel industry was the worst performer, preventing many users from completing basic functions like contact forms, account creation, and online purchases. Even before the EAA, Spanish airline Vueling was fined for failing to make its website accessible.
With the EU-wide EAA now involving multiple jurisdictions, each with its own fines, big tech companies that operate in multiple countries could find themselves in search of help. “That’s why we’re positioning ourselves as a bridge to Europe for these U.S companies,” Chisholm said.
If they do, this will be good news for DevAlly and their investors; but possibly for all of us, Chisholm said. “The improvements that come with accessibility, like subtitles at Netflix, become massive advancements in terms of how we all use technology. It’s a much better form of design.”
The Department of Energy is looking to cut billions more in federal funding, and many promising startups as well as automakers Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis could be affected by the Trump administration’s decision.
The proposed cuts would cancel more than $500 million of contracts awarded to more than a dozen startups, according to a TechCrunch analysis of an internal document that has not become public yet. All of the proposed cuts are grants that had been awarded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The proposed cancellations, many of which have not been reported before, come on top of more than $7.5 billion in contracts the Trump administration said it would cut last week.
Startups might not be the only losers. Other companies slated to lose grants worth hundreds of millions of dollars include Daimler Trucks North America, Ford, General Motors, Harley-Davidson, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Stellantis, and Volvo Technology of America, according to the document viewed by TechCrunch. Sources confirmed with TechCrunch these are proposed cuts.
General Motors could lose at least $500 million in grant money issued from a federal Domestic Manufacturing Conversion Grant program. The money was going to be used to retool the Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant in Michigan. The automaker announced in July 2024 it planned to produce electrified vehicles, including hybrids, at the plant.
Some of the awards are significant and, if cut, will undoubtedly affect the startups’ operations. Several were included in a list of proposed cuts that leaked last week, but many are new and have yet to be announced. TechCrunch has reached out to several of the companies and will update this article if they reply.
Two awards on the chopping block topped $100 million, including a $189 million award granted to materials startup Brimstone. Those funds would have helped the company build a plant to produce Portland cement, alumina, and other materials using less carbon dioxide.
The other went to Anovion, a Chicago-based startup that is working to build a factory to produce a domestic supply of synthetic graphite for lithium-ion batteries. Currently, Chinese companies dominate the graphite market.
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Battery materials startup Li Industries received $55.2 million under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to recycle LFP batteries in an attempt to wrest part of that supply chain from China.
Other cement startups are on the list, too. Somerville, Massachusetts-based Sublime Systems was given an award for $86.9 million to build an ultra-low-carbon cement plant. Mountain View-based Furno, which is making a novel, modular cement kiln, would lose its $20 million grant to build a demonstration plant in Chicago.
Several building materials companies were also on the list. CleanFiber and Hempitecture, which make insulation for homes and commercial buildings, are at risk of losing $10 million and $8.4 million, respectively. Skyven Technologies, which makes industrial heat pumps, and Luxwall, which makes super-insulated windows, would lose $15 million and $31 million, respectively.
At least one of the proposed cancelations seemingly cuts against the administration’s goals of energy and AI dominance. TS Conductor, which could lose $28.2 million in grant money, makes advanced conductors for electric lines that promise to double or triple capacity on existing transmission lines. The technology could reduce bottlenecks on the grid and improve data centers’ likelihood of receiving power sooner.
