NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 14: Kelly Preston and John Travolta attend the New York premiere of Gotti starring John Travolta, in theaters June 15, 2018 on June 14, 2018. (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for The “Gotti” Film)
Actress Kelly Preston died after losing her battle with breast cancer, her husband John Travolta said in a post on Instagram Sunday. She was 57 years old.
Preston had been battling breast cancer for two years, Travolta said, and “fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many. My family and I will forever be grateful to her doctors and nurses at MD Anderson Cancer Center, all the medical centers that have helped, as well as her many friends and loved ones who have been by her side. Kelly’s love and life will always be remembered.”
“Choosing to keep her fight private, she had been undergoing medical treatment for some time, supported by her closest family and friends,” the family rep says. “She was a bright, beautiful and loving soul who cared deeply about others and who brought life to everything she touched. Her family asks for your understanding of their need for privacy at this time.”
Preston, who is best known for her role as a hardhearted fiancée of the Tom Cruise character in the 1996 film “Jerry Maguire,” is survived by her husband John Travolta and their children: daughter Ella, 20, and 9-year-old son Benjamin.
After a ten-year sentence, Trey Mass (Jeremy Meeks) is finally home from prison. With nowhere else to go, he visits his brother Collin Mass (Wesley Jonathan). Collin’s wife Vanessa Mass (Jordyn Woods) is not too excited about the idea of Collin’s criminal brother showing up unannounced but agrees to allow Trey to stay with them for one more night. That one-night turns into complete mayhem, when Trey, in an act to protect his brother Collin, accidentally kills Harry, a friend of Collin’s who’s there for game night. When a fun night quickly escalates into a hostage situation, Collin and Trey’s older brother Mike Mass (Flex Alexander) is sent in to negotiate the situation.
Chris Stokes has definitely made a name for himself in the film industry as one of the premiere African American content creators. And he more specifically found his niche in the Thriller genre. This is proven by the titles that he has broadcasted over several different platforms. A few of those titles include Only For One Night, Til Death Do Us Part and We Belong Together. All the above of which have aired on the BET Network. Now we can add one more to that extensive and impressive list. BET has recently acquired from Stokes another thriller called “Always and Forever” for it’s cable channel and streaming on the UMC Network.
Officials are investigating the disappearance of “Glee” actress Naya Rivera at a lake in Southern California as a “tragic accident,” according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.”
We hope for the best, we prepare for the worst,” Deputy Chris Dyer said in a news conference Thursday morning.
Rivera, 33, vanished from Lake Piru in Ventura County on Wednesday evening. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said search efforts would resume Thursday “at first light” and called it a possible drowning.
Rivera went to the lake Wednesday afternoon and rented a boat with her young child. Both were seen going out on the lake together, Sheriff’s Capt. Eric Buschow said at an earlier news conference.
About three hours after they left the dock, another boater discovered a boat drifting with a child asleep onboard. Authorities were notified and they began searching from air and with a dive team.
While it was hard to get information, the child said they went swimming but the mother didn’t get back on the boat, Buschow said. He said the child had on a life vest and an adult life vest was found on the boat.
The child is healthy and with family, Dyer said Thursday morning.
The boat that Rivera rented — a pontoon boat with a deck cover — was found on the north end of the lake, Dyer said. Wind is often a factor in the area, he said. The lake is up to 40 feet deep, and the bottom has a lot of debris.
Rivera has a 4-year-old son and local media outlets are reporting he was the child found on the boat. CNN has reached out to her representatives for more details.
Rivera played Santana Lopez on the Fox show for six years from 2009, and appeared in nearly every episode of the musical-comedy-drama. She was also on the CBS sitcom “The Royal Family” and in the comedy film “The Master of Disguise.”
Fellow celebs, including her “Glee” co-star Harry Shum Jr., shared their concern on social media.
A body has been found at the Southern California lake where former “Glee” actress Naya Rivera disappeared, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office announced in a tweet Monday. The body, which has not been identified, was discovered Monday morning at Lake Piru. “Recovery is in progress,” tweeted the VCSO.A news conference is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s department has notified Rivera’s family and the medical examiner’s office of the body found in Lake Piru, Capt Eric Buschow said Monday morning.
“When you have a situation like this and it ends up being a recovery, it’s hard for everybody involved. I can’t even imagine what it’s like for the family,” Buschow said in a live interview with KTLA Monday morning. “Hopefully this provides some level of closure, whatever that means, for the family.”
He did not give confirmation that it is indeed Rivera’s body.
The body was found floating in the northeast area of the lake Monday morning.
Authorities have been searching for Rivera, 33, since Wednesday. She had gone to the lake that afternoon and rented a pontoon boat with her 4-year-old son, according to authorities.
Rivera’s son was later seen on the boat, but his mother was nowhere to be found. One life jacket was found on the boat and the boy was wearing another. Investigators found Rivera’s purse and her identification, but no other clues on the boat.
Video from the dock shows Rivera and her son as the only two people getting on the boat, Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Kevin Donoghue said at a news conference last week.
Detectives have spoken to Rivera’s son and as a result of that conversation do not believe Rivera made it to shore, he said.
Rivera played Santana Lopez on the Fox show “Glee” for six years between 2009 and 2015, and appeared in nearly every episode of the musical-comedy-drama. She was also on the CBS sitcom “The Royal Family” and in the comedy film “The Master of Disguise.”
Update 3pm:
The body found at a Southern California lake has been identified as former “Glee” actress Naya Rivera, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said during a press conference Monday.
The body was discovered Monday morning at Lake Piru, where it was found floating in the northeast area of the lake where the water is between 35 and 60 feet deep, Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub said.
“We are confident the body we found is that of Naya Rivera,” Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub said, adding “there is no indication of foul play or that this was a suicide.”
The body is being taken to Ventura County Coroner’s Office, where it will be identified through dental records.
Prayers go out to Rivera’s family that she leaves behind.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday said bars must close and indoor operations will need to stop in certain business sectors including restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, zoos, museums and card rooms, in order to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus ahead of Fourth of July weekend.
The order is effective immediately and Newsom expects it to be in place for at least three weeks.
“This doesn’t mean restaurants shut down,” Newsom said. “It means we’re trying to take activities, as many activities as we can, these mixed activities, and move them outdoors, which is a way of mitigating the spread of this virus.”
The order applies to the 19 counties that have been on the state’s monitoring list for at least three consecutive days. Those counties include:
Contra Costa
Fresno
Glenn
Imperial
Kern
Kings
Los Angeles
Merced
Orange
Riverside
Sacramento
San Bernardino
San Joaquin
Santa Barbara
Santa Clara
Solano
Stanislaus
Tulare
Ventura
Newsom said the closures are designed to focus on indoor operations, which have been open for several weeks. Some of the affected sectors, like movie theaters, bowling alleys and arcades, were allowed to reopen less than three weeks ago. Restaurants were able to open to indoor dining on Memorial Day weekend.
Additionally, state beach parking facilities will close in Southern California and the Bay Area, though Newsom is not mandating their closure. The state ordered beaches to close in counties where local officials have already done so.
The state on Tuesday reported 5,898 new COVID-19 cases and 110 virus-related deaths, with a positivity rate of 6% over the last 14 days, Newsom said. Two weeks ago, the state’s positivity rate was 4.6%.
Newsom in recent days has warned residents about becoming lax with public health protocols like wearing masks and physical distancing, especially at family gatherings, in advance of the Fourth of July holiday. It’s “a weekend that has raised a lot of concern from our health officials,” he said Wednesday. As such, he’s urging counties to shut down fireworks displays and telling residents to avoid gatherings with people from outside of their household.
“Patriotism, at least in a COVID-19 environment, can be expressed a little bit differently with consideration of our independence again from COVID-19,” Newsom said. “That needs (to) come with conditions and considerations on wearing masks and making sure we’re physically distanced.”
Newsom urged people to avoid family gatherings or meeting up with friends and neighbors who aren’t in their immediate household. While people may have the best of intentions and come wearing masks, they may get lax as the party goes on, he said.
Newsom also announced the launch of “strike teams” that will be responsible for targeting non-compliant workplaces, comprised of state representatives working in partnership with local health departments. He said they’re going to target workplaces that have had multiple abuses complaints.
Newsom said the enforcement measures will start with education, as well as enforcing state codes and licenses. The state also will look at regulatory and fiscal pieces, he said. It’s not just about wearing masks, Newsom added, but health and safety in workplaces.
“One should not have to put their life at risk to go to work as an essential worker,” Newsom said.
As many tribal casinos remain open, Newsom said the state is “in deep conversations and will be making public the fruits of those efforts to at least get a rationale of understanding between partners in our sovereign nations and the state of California.”
Newsom initially put the state under a shelter-in-place order in mid-March that closed all but essential services. As the curve of coronavirus cases flattened, more sectors of businesses and services were allowed to reopen in May and into June in counties that attested they had the virus under control and a plan in place to handle surges.
While public health officials expected cases to rise in connection with the reopenings, the spikes in some places have come with a higher positivity rate, or the percent of tests coming back positive, as well as concerns about overloading hospital systems.
Newsom on Tuesday addressed residents who aren’t wearing face coverings when going out in public. Though the state requires masks under an order issued in June, not all are following suit He called mask-wearing a sign of character and resolve.
“It’s a sign of someone who gives a damn,” Newsom said. “It’s a sign of someone who wants to solve a problem.”
The greatest place on Earth has decided to pump the brakes. Disneyland has made it official that they will not be opening on July 17 as planned. Disney which has resorts in both California and Florida recently made the announcement.
The company said that the State of California had indicated it would not issue theme park reopening guidelines “until sometime after July 4,” according to a statement. “Given the time required for us to bring thousands of cast members back to work and restart our business, we have no choice but to delay the reopening of our theme parks and resort hotels until we receive approval from government officials.”
The news of Disneyland’s delayed reopening comes as coronavirus cases are spiking across the country, especially in California, which just experienced it largest single day record of positive cases.
Disney still must negotiate with its unions before the parks can be reopened. The company said it has had “positive discussions” and has signed agreements with 20 union affiliates.
The company has gotten pushback from unions that represent Disneyland workers about the reopening. An online petition on Change.org, which called for Disney to schedule the reopening of Disneyland to a later date. That petition has over 50,000 signatures. A similar petition is being circulated for Disneyworld in Florida, another state experiencing huge surges for the coronavirus.
Disney is implementing several measures to reopen safely and prevent the spread of coronavirus at its parks, including requiring employees and guests to wear face coverings. Disney also will reduce capacity at the parks and the resort will temporarily suspend parades, fireworks and other events that create crowds.
At this time Disneyland has not released a date for a new proposed opening.
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Matt Sayles/AP/Shutterstock (6331384e)
Joel Schumacher Joel Schumacher, director of the upcoming film “Twelve”, poses for a portrait in Las Vegas on
Film Twelve Portraits, Las Vegas, USA
As reported on Variety.com –
Joel Schumacher, costume designer-turned-director of films including “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “The Lost Boys” and “Falling Down,” as well as two “Batman” films, died in New York City on Monday morning after a year-long battle with cancer. He was 80.
Schumacher brought his fashion background to directing a run of stylish films throughout the 1980s and 1990s that were not always critically acclaimed, but continue to be well-loved by audiences for capturing the feel of the era.
Schumacher was handed the reins of the “Batman” franchise when Tim Burton exited Warner Bros.’ Caped Crusader series after two enormously successful films. The first movie by Schumacher, “Batman Forever,” starring Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman, grossed more than $300 million worldwide.
Schumacher’s second and last film in the franchise was 1997’s “Batman and Robin,” with George Clooney as Batman and Arnold Schwarzenegger as villain Mr. Freeze. For “Batman Forever,” the openly gay Schumacher introduced nipples to the costumes worn by Batman and Robin, leaning into the longstanding latent homoeroticism between the two characters. (In 2006, Clooney told Barbara Walters that he had played Batman as gay.)
Several years after the Batman debacle, Schumacher directed the feature adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “The Phantom of the Opera.” Despite tepid reviews, it received three Oscar noms.
In 1985 Schumacher struck gold with his third feature film, “St. Elmo’s Fire,” which he directed and co-wrote. Brat Packers including Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and Ally Sheedy as well as a young Demi Moore starred in the story of a bunch of Georgetown grads making their way through life and love. Even the theme song was a hit and is still played to evoke the era. The film offered a pretty smart take on the complexities of post-college life.
His next film was a big hit as well: horror comedy “The Lost Boys,” about a group of young vampires who dominate a small California town, starred Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. It became a cult favorite, and a TV series adaptation has long been in the works.
Schumacher had a high-concept screenplay by Peter Filardi and an A-list cast — Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin — for the 1990 horror thriller “Flatliners,” about arrogant medical students experimenting with life and death, and the director hit it fairly big again, with a domestic cume of $61 million.
While those hits captured the era well, others during that period were misfires, such as the 1989 remake of the French hit “Cousin/Cousine” called “Cousins” and starring Ted Danson and Isabella Rossellini and the sentimental “Dying Young,” starring Roberts and Campbell Scott.
But in 1993 he showed what he was capable of with the critically hailed “Falling Down,” starring Michael Douglas as a defense worker who’s lost it all and decides to take it out on whomever he comes across. The film played in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
The New York Times said the film “exemplifies a quintessentially American kind of pop movie making that, with skill and wit, sends up stereotypical attitudes while also exploiting them with insidious effect. ‘Falling Down’ is glitzy, casually cruel, hip and grim. It’s sometimes very funny, and often nasty in the way it manipulates one’s darkest feelings.”
Schumacher’s next film was also a solid hit. “The Client,” based on a John Grisham novel, was a highly effective legal thriller that also boasted terrific rapport between Susan Sarandon’s lawyer and her 11-year-old client, a boy played by Brad Renfro who has witnessed a murder.
Between the two “Batman” films, Schumacher directed another Grisham adaptation, “A Time to Kill,” which sported a terrific cast (including Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd and a career jump-starting turn by a young Matthew McConaughey) and, while not without its own weaknesses, asked important questions about race.
After the second “Batman” he made the much darker, smaller-scale thriller “8MM,” which followed a miscast Nicolas Cage as a family-man private detective in pursuit of those who made what appears to be a snuff film.
His next film, 1999’s “Flawless,” about a homophobic cop who’s suffered a stroke, played by Robert De Niro, and a drag-wearing Philip Seymour Hoffman, was formulaic — the odd couple who couldn’t be more different find out they have a lot in common — but it sported excellent performances by the leads and certainly had heart.
Switching gears dramatically, Schumacher made “Tigerland,” starring a young Colin Farrell in the story of young recruits preparing to go off to Vietnam. It had a gritty look, but while some critics saw an earnest quality, others saw cynicism.
Schumacher’s 2002 thriller “Phone Booth,” which reunited the director with Colin Farrell and Kiefer Sutherland — and intriguingly trapped Farrell’s antihero in the title New York City phone booth for almost all of the film’s running time — had critics and audiences alike talking, even if the ending was a cop-out.
His other films included actioner “Bad Company,” starring Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock; “Veronica Guerin,” starring Cate Blanchett as a journalist crusading rather recklessly against the Irish drug trade; and Jim Carrey thriller “The Number 23” and “Trespass,” starring Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman.
Schumacher started out in showbiz as a costume designer, earning credits on 1972’s “Play It as It Lays,” Herbert Ross’ “The Last of Sheila” (1973), Paul Mazursky’s “Blume in Love (1973), Woody Allen’s “Sleeper” (1973) and “Interiors” (1978) and 1975 Neil Simon adaptation “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.” He was also credited as the production designer on the 1974 TV horror film “Killer Bees.”
He also started to write screenplays, including 1976’s “Sparkle,” 1978 hit “Car Wash” and the adaptation for 1978 musical “The Wiz.”
Schumacher’s first directing assignments came in television: the 1974 telepic “Virginia Hill,” which he also co-wrote and starred Dyan Cannon, and the 1979 telepic “Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill,” which he also penned. He stepped into the feature arena with the 1981 sci-fi comedy “The Incredible Shrinking Woman,” starring Lily Tomlin, followed in 1983 by “D.C. Cab,” an action-comedy vehicle for Mr. T that Schumacher also wrote.
Born in New York City, he studied at Parsons the New School for Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. He worked in the fashion industry, but decided to instead pursue a career in filmmaking. After moving to Los Angeles, he applied his fashion background to working first as a costume designer and worked in TV while earning an MFA from UCLA.
Schumacher directed a couple of episodes of “House of Cards” in 2013, and in 2015 he exec produced the series “Do Not Disturb: Hotel Horrors.”
Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, awarded Schumacher a special award in 2010. He also received the Distinguished Collaborator Award at the Costume Designers Guild Awards in 2011.
As major Hollywood productions, movie theaters and other businesses shutter their doors in light of restrictions on large, indoor public gatherings, many awards shows have had to rethink their massive Los Angeles events in 2020.
On Monday, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which produces the Golden Globes, announced that it will be celebrating the accomplishments of people in film and TV a little later than expected. The 78th annual Golden Globes will now debut on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021.
“We are excited to announce the 78th annual Golden Globe® Awards will take place on Sunday, February 28, 2021,” the organization tweeted Monday. “The ceremony will air live coast to coast 5-8 p.m. PT/8-11 p.m. ET on NBC from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California.”
As Variety notes, this postpones the show roughly two months from its usual air date. Typically, the Golden Globes air on the first Sunday of the calendar year as a sort of unofficial kickoff to the Hollywood Awards season. Fortunately, the Globes’ new date doesn’t prevent it from acting as the usual influencer for the Oscars.
Last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and ABC announced that the 93rd Academy Awards will now be held on April 25, 2021, eight weeks later than originally planned but still well after the Golden Globes. The Academy’s Board of Governors also decided to extend the eligibility window beyond the calendar year to Feb. 28, 2021, for feature films, and delay the opening of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures from December until April 30, 2021.
Meanwhile, the Emmy Awards announced late-night host Jimmy Kimmel as the host for the 72nd ceremony, which is still poised to take place in September of this year.
“I don’t’ know where or how or even why we are doing this, but we are and I am hosting it!” Kimmel tweeted at the time of his announcement.
Earlier this year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced that comedians Amy Poehler and Tina Fey will host the 2021 show after a controversial performance by Ricky Gervais last year.
The brand behind the popular Eskimo Pie ice cream announced Friday that it will change the product’s brand and marketing after nearly 100 years. It’s just the latest in a slew of companies to announce they are changing or reviewing brand imagery as they attempt to grapple with racist histories amid global protests against racial injustice.
Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, which owns Eskimo Pie, said it acknowledges the name is “derogatory.”
“We have been reviewing our Eskimo Pie business for some time and will be changing the brand name and marketing,” Elizabell Marquez, head of marketing, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, told CBS News. “We are committed to being a part of the solution on racial equality, and recognize the term is derogatory.”
Marquez said the rebrand is part of a larger company review to ensure products reflect its values.
The chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bar got its name from the indigenous people of the Arctic regions, including northern Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Siberia. The ice cream’s packaging features a young boy dressed for snowy weather.
Many indigenous people consider Eskimo a derogatory term because non-native colonizers used it to mean “eater of raw meat,” connoting barbarism.
Dreyer’s Grand, a U.S. subsidiary of Froneri, follows in the footsteps of several major brands announcing product changes or reviews this week. Following an announcement from Quaker Oats that it will rebrand Aunt Jemima, the companies that make Uncle Ben’s, Mrs. Butterworth’s and Cream of Wheat announced reviews of their products’ branding.
What up everybody. Checking in with you guys before the weekend starts. I just wanted to tell you guys that I hope you all stay safe as it starts to get warmer out. Keep social distancing and keep your masks on.
