Mel Gibson‘s Oscar-nominated biblical movie is making its way out of Netflix’s library later next month. Released in 2004, the R-rated period drama became the highest-grossing independent movie of all time—a title it still boasts.
The Passion of the Christ is leaving Netflix in March
Mel Gibson directed the movie from a script he co-wrote with Benedict Fitzgerald. It portrays the final 12 hours leading to Jesus Christ’s death. The cast features Jim Caviezel as Jesus, Maia Morgenstern as Mary, Christo Jivkov as John, Francesco De Vito as Peter, Monica Bellucci as Mary, and Mattia Sbragia as Caiaphas, among others, in prominent roles.
The movie had become a controversial subject even before its theatrical release. Due to major anti-semitism allegations from the Jewish community, several Hollywood production companies had refused to produce it. Gibson later decided to fund it independently through his production company, Icon Productions, and distributed it with the help of Newmarket Films.
The controversies continued even after the movie’s release, which opened to mixed-to-negative reviews from critics. It currently has 49% critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences, however, gave it a warmer welcome, and it currently holds a strong 81% Popcornmeter score from over 250,000 user ratings.
Furthermore, the movie became a box office success, concluding its theatrical run with global earnings of over $609 million. As of 2026, The Passion of the Christ remains the highest-grossing independent film of all time. Later, it earned three Academy Award nominations for Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score, and Best Achievement in Makeup.
In early 2025, Gibson revealed that a second part, titled Resurrection of the Christ, is in development during his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. At the time, he also said his team aimed for a 2026 release.
However, in August 2025, it was announced that it will be released in two parts. Part One will debut on Good Friday, March 26, 2027, and Part Two on Ascension Day, Thursday, May 6, 2027.
TMZ founder Harvey Levin (right), at the company’s headquarters, talks to staff members, from left: Derek Kaufman, Arielle Port, Courtney Doucette, Roger Corral and Charlie Neff.Credit: Irvin Rivera
Just as thedark hallway outside the newsroom of TMZ gives way to the bustling chaos inside, the last thing you see is a self-portrait of Paris Hilton framed on the wall. The pencil drawing is cute and girly, like something scrawled in an eighth-grade yearbook, complete with hearts dotting the “i”s. It depicts the actress locked up at the L.A. County Jail with TMZ’s Harvey Levin on the jailhouse TV. The artwork is on a greeting card sent to the entertainment news show in 2007, thanking Levin for his fair coverage of her case.
The lanky blond heiress is the star who inadvertently jump-started the celebrity news empire two decades ago. On Nov. 8, 2005, the beta version of tmz.com launched, and a day later, the site posted a video showing Hilton’s Bentley, driven by her boyfriend, Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos III, crashing into a parked vehicle to escape paparazzi, then later being stopped by police, who let the couple go. TMZ’s caption notes the car “slams into a truck with a hit and run,” and then, “Paris makes things right by blowing a kiss to the cops.”
The TMZ formula of snark, sexy babes, exclusive footage and a wink back at the audience was born. Today, the TMZ brand reaches 70 million visitors each month and operates an integrated ecosystem with TV shows and websites dedicated to entertainment news, sports and hip-hop. A sister site, TooFab, focuses on fashion and red carpets. The brand also operates an array of podcasts (including one featuring Los Angeles magazine co-owner Mark Geragos), has a kiosk at LAX and boasts a documentary film division. Famous faces (think: JoJo Siwa, Ray J and Bill Maher) can sometimes be seen on TMZ’s battalion of branded Hollywood bus tours. An “After Dark” tour shuttles fans to bars to pound shots, ride a mechanical bull and hear candid tales of debauchery.
“It was just a different voice,” says Charles Latibeaudiere, an executive producer who has been with founder Harvey Levin since the beginning of the show. “It was a voice that made [reporting about celebrities] palatable, I would say, to a male audience. Yes, we’re covering entertainment news, but we’re gonna say it kind of in a mocking, snarky and, at times, funny way. It was done more for ‘let’s have a laugh.’ It’s how guys sit around stereotypically in a group and just take shots at each other. We stumbled into presenting the show that way.”
TMZ’s Charles
Latibeaudiere, Harvey Levin
and Liza Ovsianniko Credit: Irvin Rivera
Executive producer Ryan Regan thinks the show’s speed, agility and point of view put it in a unique position. “Harvey prioritizes movement,” he says. “We need to be making 100 calls. We’re good storytellers. We’re very cost-efficient and we can do things faster than anybody.”
“We are to celebrity journalism,” says Michael Babcock, head of TMZ Sports, “what the New York Times is to hard news.” Staffers report occasionally pulling all-nighters, leaving the newsroom just as the morning shift checks in. The New Yorker once quipped that “TMZ resembles an intelligence agency as much as a news organization.”
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During the first two years of the site — before the launch of the TV show that would bring celebrity chaos into American living rooms — tmz.com broke news about Mel Gibson’s DUI arrest, ensuing antisemitic rant and possible police cover-up; a bald-headed Britney Spears attacking a paparazzo’s car with an umbrella; and Seinfeld’s Michael Richards screaming the N-word at Laugh Factory hecklers. Levin was fascinated by the way law enforcement sometimes treated celebrities differently, and grew his network of informants in courthouses, law offices and police stations. He connected with the legions of omnipresent paparazzi roaming the streets of L.A. and built a newsroom of reporters doggedly chasing down leads. In short, TMZ reinvented the entire concept of Hollywood news.
TMZ offices in Marina Del ReyCredit: Irvin Rivera
In the decades that followed the probing celebrity columnists Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper, entertainment coverage was filled with fawning fans like Johnny Grant, who emceed Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremonies, and softball-slinging oddballs like Skip E. Lowe, the inspiration for Martin Short’s Jiminy Glick. Levin’s plan was to subvert the sway of celebrity publicists by avoiding scheduled interviews in controlled environments and go looking for stories at the places they were unfolding.
The first version of TMZ’s TV show was similar to the competition, with glamorous anchors reading scripted news. Latibeaudiere thinks their early shows were terrible. “Our producer said these [episodes] should be in the library,” he remembers. “I said, ‘Please don’t ever play them.’”
Producers hit on the idea of inviting the entire newsroom to pitch their stories on the air. “They wanted everyone who is in the office to kind of be involved in the TV show,” says Brian Particelli, a supervising editor, who adds that anyone with a story that day is in the mix. Pitches go into a central email and get filtered through producers. “Harvey’s always been very ‘best idea wins’ no matter who it comes from,” says Particelli. “That’s kind of his motto.”
Actor David Arquette, who’s been a staple of TMZ stories from the beginning, sees the show’s interest as double-edged. “It’s typically pretty awful if they’re covering you. It’s usually for something embarrassing,” he says “The flip side is that when you have a big movie coming out, they’ll cover it. It’s the old Hollywood thing where it’s good they’re talking about you even if it’s negative. It means that you’re part of the culture and interesting enough that they’re paying attention.”
Shevonne Sullivan and
Courtney Doucette Credit: Irvin Rivera
Cast your mind back to the beginning of 2005 and a world before iPhones, YouTube and streaming Netflix. Dial-up internet was most often accessed on home computers connected to the same clunky cathode ray tubes that had powered televisions since they were invented. Most offices still had fax machines, and online video was rare. If you wanted to know who Orlando Bloom was dating back then, you might tune in to Extra or Entertainment Tonight or Access Hollywood around dinnertime and hope for red-carpet footage. You might have to wait until the next issue of People or the National Enquirer hit the stands.
TMZ gave the world scandal at the speed of light, pushing out story after story about celebrity shenanigans and beating the competition with the help of a huge newsroom that today sprawls over two-thirds of an acre inside a converted postal facility in Playa Vista, backed up by a New York office that filters the news overnight. At the helm is the indefatigable Levin, who his staff reports is approving stories at 3 a.m. before hitting the gym and commanding the office. The 75-year-old attorney and high-energy TV veteran has been a staple of L.A. news for almost five decades.
Levin started in media offering legal advice on the radio as “Dr. Law,” which led to regular columns in the Los Angeles Times and Herald Examiner in the 1970s before branching into long stints in TV news. Levin spent 26 years doling out legal analysis and interviewing bystanders on The People’s Court. “Harvey was always a legend for changing the game on breaking news,” says Christina McClarty Arquette, David Arquette’s wife and a former reporter for Entertainment Tonight. “Before TMZ existed, there was no source like it for breaking news. He also changed the game by making things a lot more salacious. People wanted to get the craziest stuff to compete with TMZ.”
Levin had been producing the slick syndicated TV entertainment news show Celebrity Justice when Jim Paratore, head of Warner Bros.’ Telepictures, canceled the show and offered to move Levin to a website. The company had merged with AOL and was in the market for new online content. Paratore imagined a celebrity news site with familiar coverage of TV, movies and red carpet fashion. But Levin wasn’t interested and left town. “I went to Mexico and was in this kind of margarita haze and it just hit me,” Levin says. “By the time they aired Celebrity Justice, it was old news. If you can break stories where you have producers and research and lawyers to vet everything and you don’t have a time period like a TV show, then you get it up and you beat everybody.”
Harvey Levin plans the show.
Credit: Irvin Rivera
Harvey Levin grew up in the San Fernando Valley. Meadowlark Park in Reseda was an instant neighborhood that popped up in the early 1950s, filled with quintessentially suburban midcentury tract houses that originally sold for about $10,000. A few feet from the family’s butterfly-roof home was his dad’s liquor store. Harvey remembers being fascinated by the blue and red lights outside his bedroom window as a kid— they weren’t from the store’s neon sign across the alley but from the LAPD squad cars that would show up when the store was being robbed.
“[He] would open the store at 7 in the morning and run it until 2 the next morning,” Levin remembers. “[The family was] in that store all the time. I ended up working there. My dad taught me how to be a salesman. I would learn all these terms like calling it a heady bottle of wine so I could sell a more expensive bottle. That whole experience taught me a lot.”
Levin became interested in politics at Grover Cleveland High School, where he served on multiple debate teams and became president of the Boys’ League. That’s the group that planned special events for the class of 1968, which included a performance by psychedelic band Strawberry Alarm Clock, an Arab-Israeli debate and a special assembly conducted by a skeptic of the official story of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. That one had Levin’s fingerprints all over it.
The teenager had long been fascinated by the case, and even camped out at the Reseda library to read the 888-page Warren Commission report. He repeatedly called New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner in Oliver Stone’s JFK) from an anonymous pay phone after reviewing stills from the Zapruder film, to offer a new angle on the case.
As a high school senior, Levin won a mock debate where he acted as Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in a battle against Richard Nixon. He dressed up the auditorium with fans, polls and friends costumed as a donkey and an elephant. “I started calling all the stations in town and they all came,” Levin remembers. “I was thinking, well, this is interesting how the media gets attracted to something because it was just different.”
Levin volunteered for RFK’s presidential campaign and was at the Ambassador Hotel the night he was shot. He soon left L.A. to study political science at UC-Santa Barbara and received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.
The TMZ team in the bullpen.Credit: Irvin Rivera
Levin’s interest in the Kennedys is at the root of one of TMZ’s greatest flubs. In 2009, the website published a crumpled snapshot of a man who resembled JFK partying on a yacht with naked women. It turned out to have been a Playboy magazine photo, taken years after the president’s death. “We screwed that up,” Levin says. “That one was on me. I spent the last two weeks of the year bringing in Kennedy experts, machines to analyze this thing, going to the Marina del Rey boatyards. We spent so much time on it, and we got it wrong.”
“We do what everybody is supposed to do,” Levin says. “You get a tip, you chase it down, you accept the fact that you’re going to hit 100 dead ends and, you know, you find ways around the dead ends.” Levin says that plenty of stories consume resources yet never make it on air. “If we find out that something’s unfair or untrue,” he says, “it’s dead.”
The show has been accused of paying informants, but producers deny the claim. “People do sometimes look for money,” Particelli says. “But we only pay for photos.” Sometimes an unrelated news story has such shocking video that it rises to the top. “It doesn’t have to be celebrity-driven,” says director of audience development Cameron Lazerine. “It can be a crazy viral moment of a huge tidal wave crushing a ship.”
With some 200 contributors, the show boasts veterans of CNN, Extra and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Many of the crew come from less conventional backgrounds but all share a dogged determination to tell the show’s stories. Producer Charlie Neff started out as a fashion model; TMZ Sports producer Michael Babcock was a restaurant manager in New Jersey before he sent in a winning audition tape. “One of our most successful guys Harvey met while pumping gas,” says Latibeaudiere. “This guy was at another pump and selling speakers out of his trunk, just hustling. He worked with us for at least 10 years.”
TMZ staffers enjoy the niceties that once enticed tech workers into the office. There’s a volleyball court filled with sand, and replicas of vintage military bombs stenciled with the TMZ logo hang near a ping-pong table across from the complimentary Starbucks station. Clear tubes of Frosted Flakes and Cinnamon Toast Crunch beckon hungry employees, as does a free convenience store stocked with Kraft Mac & Cheese and Pop-Tarts. Pizza Hut delivers on Mondays. Fox purchased TMZ for roughly $50 million in 2021.
Derek Kaufman speaks at a
morning meeting. Credit: Irvin Rivera
One of the newest staffers met his future at a scoop shop in Brentwood. Twenty-one-year-old London native Jakson Buhaj started filming skits and live streams for YouTube as a tween. He learned Python and JavaScript as he was finishing high school and faced a “what am I going to do with my life” moment before a TMZ field producer wearing a camera over his shoulder walked into his Salt & Straw location. “I made this pitch to him,” Buhaj says. “‘Please take my information,’ and to sweeten the deal I gave [him] free ice cream and sent [him] out the door.”
After graduating Santa Monica College, Buhaj had offers from several schools but instead took a spot at the TMZ intern desk. “I made this software— this bot,” he says, “that surfaces a thousand different media outlets and celebrities the moment they posted something, so we would be the first to get to it. That put me on Harvey’s radar.” Buhaj’s efforts have made TMZ on YouTube a major destination that may one day eclipse the brand’s TV efforts. “Jakson is being very humble,” Latibeaudiere says of the channel’s explosive growth since the eager Gen Zer showed up. “Once he was here … Thank the ice cream gods.”
Levin isn’t afraid to predict the future. “The reality is, YouTube is totally dominating,” he says. “I don’t think there’s going to be television in five or six years. You’ve got to pivot to where the audience is going.” In today’s age of infinite customization of personal livestreams, everyone can be a celebrity to somebody.
“People want authenticity,” Neff explains. “The new generation wants to see relatable people. Alix Earle, who is a very famous TikTok’er, is just a regular college girl who would post makeup videos. But she wasn’t fixing up the background of her bedroom. She had her tampons out, she had, you know, bloody panties in the corner, she had a Plan B package in the background. People are watching and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh! She’s so relatable!’”
Charlie Neff on the jobCredit: Irvin Rivera
But is being an internet streamer as significant in the culture today as singers, actors and comedians used to be? Kai Cenat posted skits on YouTube before turning the camera on himself all day and all night. By the time he reached 19 million followers on Twitch, more-established stars like Kim Kardashian and Mariah Carey were showing up on his livestream. “Streaming your life can be performance art. That’s what an actor is doing, right?” says Buhaj. “Nothing like that has been done in the history of entertainment.”
History buff Levin, whose life has long been colored by the promise and tragedy of the Kennedys, can relate. He has a favorite quote of RFK’s — words engraved on the late politician’s tomb: “Some men see things as they are and ask ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were and ask, ‘Why not?’”
Mel Gibson has long been held up as proof that cancel culture—the elastic term applied to situations in which people experience repercussions for their actionsand statements at work or on the public square—is a myth. The actor and director, who has made headlines for a bigoted and sexist rant during a traffic stop, sexually violent and racist threats against an ex-girlfriend, and allegations of domestic violence, appeared to return to grace in recent years, when stars including Jodie Foster and Andrew Garfield rallied around him, as did the members of various awards bodies eager to honor him for well-reviewed filmHacksaw Ridge. And now he seems poised to topple the claim that Hollywood denizens who support Republican candidate Donald Trump will lose their careers. This week, the star made some surprising on-camera statements about the Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris, strongly suggesting that he’d be voting for the man in the red hat.
It’s unfair even to Trump to assume that everyone who has made misogynistic statements, attacked Jewish people, or openly used racial slurs is a supporter of the former president. But setting aside Gibson’s conduct history—which we’ll get to in a moment—it seems he’s signaled his support for Trump in the past, when he appeared to react with dismay when Meryl Streep criticized the then-president from the 2017 Golden Globes. That signal grew stronger when Mel Gibson was approached by a photographer at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) this week.
In a video published by TMZ, a photographer who caught Gibson as he walked through the airport asked, “The president is being voted on in days, what’s your thoughts?”
“Oh man, that’s a big question,” Gibson responded with a grin. “I don’t think it’s going to surprise anyone who I vote for.”
“I’m going to guess Trump,” the photographer told Gibson. “Is that a bad guess?” “I think that’s a pretty good guess,” Gibson replied, without endorsing the Republican by name.
“What do you think the world would be like in a second [Trump] term,” the photographer asked Gibson, as he continued to walk through the terminal. “I know what it’ll be like if we let her in,” Gibson responded, with a peculiar emphasis on “her.” “And that ain’t good.”
At that point, Gibson slowed down to, it appears, make his point to the camera. “Appalling track record,” Gibson said of Harris. “No policies to speak of. And she’s got the IQ of a fence post.”
At that point, the video concludes, so it’s unclear if Gibson had words of praise for Harris’s opponent, or if he’s more driven by his distaste for the vice president.
Gibson, who during a 2006 DUI arrest announced that “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world!” was recorded seemingly admitting to an incident of domestic violence with the mother of one of his children in tapes released in 2010, saying then that “you fucking deserved it.”
“If you get raped by a pack of n—ers, it will be your fault,” he told her in a separate conversation from that time period, employing a racial slur against people of Black ethnic heritage.
Despite those scandals, Gibson has continued to work in Hollywood, but if Shazam! star Zachary Levi’s dark musings are correct, his implicit support of Trump might be his final undoing.
Levi, who announced his endorsement of Trump earlier this month, recently posted a wide-ranging video on Instagram in which he said—among other claims—that there are a number of actors who support the former president, but are afraid to say so publicly.
“There are plenty, and by the way, they’ve sent me lots of messages, plenty of people in my industry, in Hollywood, who are terrified to publicly say they would vote for Donald Trump or be conservative in any way,” Levi said. “That’s why you don’t see them. That’s why they’re not very prevalent or prominent. They know there’s ramifications for this kind of shit.”
“My cry to all of you out there, you closeted Trump voters, it’s now or never. Do whatever you feel like you need to do. If you need to come out publicly and say it, if you feel like you still can’t, then don’t. I would never pressure you to do that. But know that if what you’re afraid of is somehow the backlash of an industry that’s not going to exist very soon, then don’t let that hold you back.”
But while Levi and fellow actor Dennis Quaid have, indeed, spoken openly about their affection and support for Donald Trump, it’s not like Gibson managed to even say his name. Instead, he seemed to direct his passion toward tearing Harris down, a behavior that, given his past actions, seems part of a pattern that Hollywood seems comfortable with ignoring.
“Listen—no time to explain, but in 2027, someone known as ‘Mr. Beast’ is nominated for Best Director for a film called Coincidentally Spearman. He must not win! If this happens, a timeline is created wherein billions will perish. I have to go—I’ve used all of my time credits on this final jump, and if I stay around any longer, the multiverse will implode.”
Jan. 1: Actor Frank Langella is 85. Singer-guitarist Country Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish is 81. Comedian Don Novello (Father Guido Sarducci) is 80. Actor Rick Hurst (“The Dukes of Hazzard”) is 77. Rapper Grandmaster Flash is 65. Actor Renn Woods is 65. Actor Dedee Pfeiffer (“Cybill”) is 59. Actor Morris Chestnut (“The Brothers,” ″The Best Man”) is 54. Singer Tank is 47. Actor Eden Riegel (“The Young and the Restless”) is 42. Bassist Noah Sierota of Echosmith is 27.
Jan 2: TV host Jack Hanna (“Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild”) is 76. Actor Wendy Phillips (“I Am Sam”) is 71. Actor Cynthia Sikes (“St. Elsewhere”) is 69. Actor Gabrielle Carteris (“Beverly Hills, 90210″) is 62. Actor Tia Carrere is 56. Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. is 55. Model Christy Turlington is 54. Actor Renee Elise Goldsberry (Broadway’s “Hamilton”) is 52. Actor Taye Diggs (“The Best Man,” ″How Stella Got Her Groove Back”) is 52. Singer Doug Robb of Hoobastank is 48. Actor Dax Shepard (“Parenthood”) is 48. Sax player-guitarist Jerry DePizzo Jr. of O.A.R. is 44. Singer Kelton Kessee of Immature and of IMX is 42. Musician Ryan Merchant of Capital Cities is 42. Actor Kate Bosworth is 40. Actor Anthony Carrigan (“Barry,” “Gotham”) is 40. Musician Trombone Shorty is 37. Singer Bryson Tiller is 30.
Jan 3: Actor Dabney Coleman is 91. Singer-songwriter Van Dyke Parks is 80. Singer Stephen Stills is 78. Bassist John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin is 77. Actor Victoria Principal is 73. Actor Mel Gibson is 67. Actor Shannon Sturges (“Port Charles”) is 55. Jazz saxophonist James Carter is 54. Contemporary Christian singer Nichole Nordeman is 51. Musician Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk is 48. Actor Jason Marsden (“Ally McBeal”) is 48. Actor Danica McKellar (“The Wonder Years”) is 48. Actor Nicholas Gonzalez (“The O.C.”) is 47. Singer and former “American Idol” contestant Kimberley Locke is 45. Actor Kate Levering (“Drop Dead Diva”) is 44. Actor Nicole Beharie (“Sleepy Hollow”) is 38. Drummer Mark Pontius (Foster the People) is 38. Singer Lloyd is 37. Guitarist Nash Overstreet of Hot Chelle Rae is 37. Actor Florence Pugh (“Don’t Worry Darling,” “Little Women”) is 27.
Jan 4: Actor Barbara Rush (“Peyton Place”) is 96. Actor Dyan Cannon is 84. Country singer Kathy Forester of the Forester Sisters is 68. Guitarist Bernard Sumner of New Order (and Joy Division) is 67. Actor Ann Magnuson (“Anything But Love”) is 67. Country singer Patty Loveless is 66. Actor Julian Sands (“24”) is 65. Singer Michael Stipe of R.E.M. is 63. Actor Dave Foley (“NewsRadio,” ″Kids in the Hall”) is 60. Actor Dot Jones (“Glee”) is 59. Actor Rick Hearst (“The Bold and the Beautiful”) is 58. Former Pogues singer Cait O’Riordan is 58. Actor Julia Ormond is 58. Country singer Deana Carter is 57. Harmonica player Benjamin Darvill of Crash Test Dummies is 56. Actor Josh Stamerg (“The Affair,” “Drop Dead Diva”) is 53. Actor Jeremy Licht (“Valerie”) is 52. Actor Damon Gupton (“Empire”) is 50. Actor Jill Marie Jones (“Girlfriends”) is 48. Actor D’Arcy Carden (“The Good Place”) is 43. Singer Spencer Chamberlain of Underoath is 40. Comedian-actor Charlyne Yi (“House,” “Steven Universe”) is 37.
Jan 5: Actor Robert Duvall is 92. Singer-bassist Athol Guy of The Seekers is 83. Former talk show host Charlie Rose is 81. Actor Diane Keaton is 77. Actor Ted Lange (“The Love Boat”) is 75. Drummer George “Funky” Brown of Kool and the Gang is 74. Guitarist Chris Stein of Blondie is 73. Actor Pamela Sue Martin (“The Poseidon Adventure,” ″Dynasty”) is 70. Actor Clancy Brown (“Highlander,” ″SpongeBob SquarePants”) is 64. Actor Suzy Amis (“Titanic”) is 61. Actor Ricky Paull Goldin (“All My Children,” “Guiding Light”) is 58. Actor Vinnie Jones (TV’s “Deception,” film’s “X-Men: The Last Stand”) is 58. Drummer Kate Schellenbach (Luscious Jackson) is 57. Actor Joe Flanigan (“Stargate Atlantis,” ″Sisters”) is 56. Dancer and talk show host Carrie Ann Inaba (“The Talk,” “Dancing with the Stars”) is 55. Guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age is 55. Singer Marilyn Manson is 54. Actor Shea Whigham (“Fast and Furious 6,” ″Boardwalk Empire”) is 54. Actor Derek Cecil (“House of Cards,” ″Treme”) is 50. Actor-comedian Jessica Chaffin (“Man with a Plan”) is 49. Actor Bradley Cooper is 48. Actor January Jones (“Mad Men”) is 45. Actor Brooklyn Sudano (“My Wife and Kids”) is 42. Actor Franz Drameh (“DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”) is 30.
Jan 6: Accordionist Joey, the CowPolka King, of Riders in the Sky is 74. Singer Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds is 72. Country singer Jett Williams is 70. Actor-comedian Rowan Atkinson (“Mr. Bean”) is 68. Singer Kathy Sledge of Sister Sledge is 64. Chef Nigella Lawson is 63. Singer Eric Williams of BLACKstreet is 63. Actor Norman Reedus (“The Walking Dead”) is 54. TV personality Julie Chen is 53. Actor Danny Pintauro (“Who’s The Boss”) is 47. Actor Rinko Kikuchi (“Babel”) is 42. Actor Eddie Redmayne (“Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them,” ″The Theory of Everything”) is 41. Comedian Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”) is 39. Actor Diona Reasonover (“NCIS”) is 39. Singer Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys is 37.
Jan 7: “Rolling Stone” magazine founder Jann Wenner is 77. Singer Kenny Loggins is 75. Singer-songwriter Marshall Chapman is 74. Actor Erin Gray (“Silver Spoons,” ″Buck Rogers in the 25th Century”) is 73. Actor Sammo Hung (“Martial Law”) is 71. Actor David Caruso is 67. TV anchor Katie Couric is 66. Country singer David Lee Murphy is 64. Bassist Kathy Valentine (The Go-Go’s) is 64. Actor David Marciano (“Homeland,” ″The Shield”) is 63. Actor Hallie Todd (“Lizzie McGuire”) is 61. Actor Nicolas Cage is 59. Singer John Ondrasik of Five For Fighting is 58. Actor Rex Lee (“Entourage”) is 54. Actor-rapper Doug E. Doug (“Cool Runnings,” ″Cosby”) is 53. Actor Kevin Rahm (“Desperate Housewives,” ″Judging Amy”) is 52. Jeremy Renner (“The Avengers,” ″The Bourne Legacy”) is 52. Country singer John Rich of Big and Rich is 49. Actor Reggie Austin (“Agent Carter,” ″Pretty Little Liars”) is 44. Singer-rapper Aloe Blacc is 44. Actor Lauren Cohan (“The Walking Dead”) is 41. Actor Brett Dalton (“Marvel’s Agents of Shield”) is 40. Actor Robert Ri’chard (“One on One”) is 40. Actor Lyndsy Fonseca (“Marvel’s Agent Carter,” “Nikita”) is 36. Actor Liam Aiken (“Lemony Snicket”) is 33. Actor Camryn Grimes (“The Young and the Restless”) is 33. Actor Marcus Scribner (“black-ish”) is 23.
LOS ANGELES — Chris Evans may have put down Captain America’s shield but he’s got a new badge of honor: he’s been named People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive.
People’s selection was announced Monday night on Stephen Colbert’s late night show and on the magazine’s website. Evans, who for nearly a decade played Captain America in Marvel’s sprawling superhero films, takes the baton from another Avenger, Paul Rudd.
“My mom will be so happy,” he told the magazine for its cover story, which hits newsstands on Friday. “She’s proud of everything I do but this is something she can really brag about.”
He also knows that he’s likely to be teased by close friends. “Really this will just be a point of bullying,” he joked in an interview. “It’s ripe for harassment.”
Among those likely to heckle him are co-stars and previous Sexiest Man Alive winners like Rudd, Ryan Reynolds and Chris Hemsworth. (Hemsworth, who plays Thor in the Marvel films, was the first Avenger to win People’s annual honor, which was first handed out to Mel Gibson in 1985.)
Other past honorees include John Legend, Dwayne Johnson, Idris Elba, Adam Levine, Richard Gere, Channing Tatum and David Beckham.
People interviewed Evans, 41, at a Georgia farmhouse, where the actor talked about finding a better work-life balance. “The most enjoyable aspect of my career right now is feeling secure enough to take my foot off the gas,” he said.
Evans’ first film role came in 2000’s “The New Comers” and he played superhero Johnny Storm in two “Fantastic Four” films released in 2005 and 2007. But he gained widespread fame in 2011 with the release of “Captain America: The First Avenger.”
Since then, he’s played the wholesome superhero in 10 Marvel films, laying down his shield after saving the universe in “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019.
Evans has become a highly bankable star, voicing the Buzz Lightyear character in Pixar’s “Lightyear” film and playing a sadistic assassin trying to kill Reynolds in Nextflix’s “The Gray Man” — both released this year.
The actor told People he’s thinking about marriage and having a family, saying, “That’s absolutely something I want.”
He said he didn’t expect to talk publicly much about his private life though. “Some things you want just for you, or just for my family and my friends.”
The Boston native also continues his involvement with the civic engagement site A Starting Point, which he co-founded in 2020.
As Evans charts the next part of his life and career, he fully expects People’s honor will be a milestone.
“It’s something that as I become old and saggy I can look back on and say ‘I remember then…’” Evans said. “I’m lucky to be in the discussion in any capacity.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mel Gibson can testify about what he learned from one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, a judge ruled Friday in the rape and sexual assault trial of the former movie mogul.
The 66-year-old actor and director was one of many witnesses, and by far the best known, whose identities were revealed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The judge and attorneys had taken a break from jury selection for motions on what evidence will be allowed at the trial, and who can testify. The witness list for the trial is sealed.
Judge Lisa B. Lench ruled that Gibson can testify in support of his masseuse and friend, who will be known as Jane Doe #3 at the trial. Weinstein is accused of committing sexual battery by restraint against the woman, one of 11 rape and sexual assault counts in the trial against the 70-year-old.
Prosecutors said that after getting a massage from the woman at a California hotel in Beverly Hills in May of 2010, a naked Weinstein followed her into the bathroom and masturbated. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty, and denied any non-consensual sexual activity.
Weinstein’s attorneys argued against allowing Gibson to testify, saying that what he learned from the woman while getting a massage from her does not constitute a “fresh complaint” by the woman under the law by which Gibson would take the stand. A “fresh complaint” under California law allows the introduction of evidence of sexual assault or another crime if the victim reported it to someone else voluntarily and relatively promptly after it happened.
Prosecutors said that when Gibson brought up Weinstein’s name by chance, the woman had a traumatic response and Gibson understood from her that she had been sexually assaulted. Gibson did not remember the timing of the exchange, but the prosecution will use another witness, Allison Weiner, who remembers speaking to both Gibson and the woman in 2015.
Judge Lench said Gibson’s testimony will depend on how the accuser describes the exchange with him when she takes the stand, and she may choose to rule against it at that time.
Weinstein attorney Mark Werksman then argued that if Gibson does take the stand, the defense should be allowed to cross-examine him about widely publicized antisemitic remarks Gibson made during an arrest in 2006, and about racist statements to a girlfriend that were recorded and publicized in 2010.
Lench said a wider discussion of Gibson’s racism was not relevant to the trial, but she would allow questioning of whether he had a personal bias and animus toward Weinstein.
Werksman argued that Gibson had such a bias both because Weinstein is Jewish, and because Weinstein published a book that criticized the depiction of Jews in the Gibson-directed 2004 film, “The Passion of the Christ.”
“Any evidence of Mr. Gibson’s racism or antisemitism would give rise to a bias against my client, who challenged him,” Werksman said.
The lawyer briefly, and mistakenly, said he thought the movie won a best picture Academy Award, but Weinstein, whose films once dominated the Oscars, shook his head as he sat at the defense table.
“Sorry, my client would know better than I would,” Werksman said. “But it was an award-winning movie.”
The defense also argued that Gibson was trying to whitewash his image by focusing on Weinstein’s wrongdoing and asserting himself as a champion of the #MeToo movement.
The prosecution argued that Gibson had made no such suggestions about himself, and that at the time of the conversation with his masseuse he said he was discussing getting into a business deal with Weinstein, showing there was no such bias.
Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez called Gibson’s past comments “despicable,” but said they had no relevance for the narrow purposes he would be called to the stand for.
Gibson’s testimony raises the prospect of two of Hollywood’s once most powerful men, who have undergone public downfalls, facing each other in court.
An email seeking comment from a representative for Gibson was not immediately returned.
In one of several similar rulings Friday, Lench also found that “Melrose Place” actor Daphne Zuniga could testify in a similar capacity for a woman known at the trial as Jane Doe #4, whom Weinstein is accused of raping in 2004 or 2005.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused.
Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for a 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault in New York. The state’s highest court has agreed to hear his appeal in that case.
He was subsequently brought to Los Angeles for a trial that began Monday, five years after women’s stories about him gave massive momentum to the #MeToo movement.
Friday’s arguments came a day after the premiere of the film “She Said,” which tells the story of the work of the two New York Times reporters whose stories brought Weinstein down.
Weinstein’s attorneys previously sought to have the Los Angeles trial delayed because publicity from the film might taint the jury pool, but the judge denied their motion.
The trial is expected to last eight weeks. The judge and attorneys will return to the jury selection process on Monday morning, and opening statements are expected to begin on Oct. 24.
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
