Lady Gaga, John Mayer, The Chainsmokers and many other musicians have taken to social media to demand stricter gun control laws in the United States in the wake of the deadly shooting in Las Vegas that left at least 58 dead and more than 500 injured, Billboard reported. Gaga tweeted, "Prayers are important but @SpeakerRyan @realDonaldTrump blood is on the hands of those who have power to legislate." And Ariana Grande—whose concert was marred by a suicide bombing in May that left 22 people dead in Manchester, England—posted, "My heart is breaking for Las Vegas. We need love, unity, peace, gun control & for people to look at this & call this what it is = terrorism."
Out pop star Ricky Martin is appalled at the lackluster response to the complete devastation of Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, according to LGBTQ Nation. Martin is joining a list of celebrities stepping up to help out. He has started a crowdfunder to raise money for the island—and got things started with a $100,000 donation of his own. Almost $400,000 has been raised so far. Interested persons can donate at YouCaring.com/rickymartin or https://www.youcaring.com/peopleofpuertorico-957793.
Former Teen Wolf co-stars Colton Haynes and Tyler Hoechlin are reuniting in Bigger, an upcoming biopic about the rise of fitness culture and bodybuilding, NewNowNext.com reported. Hoechlin will play Joe Weider, who founded the International Federation of Bodybuilding with his brother Ben, as well as the Mr. Olympia contest, where Arnold Schwarzenegger first found fame. Haynes will play Jack LaLanne, an early advocate for physical fitness and nutrition.
June Pictures has set Julie Taymor to direct the coming-of-age story of iconic feminist, journalist and activist Gloria Steinem, Deadline noted. Taymor—who directed Frida, Across the Universe and Titus for the screen and The Lion King and Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark for Broadway—will helm a movie about Steinem's growth into a galvanizing symbol for equality, with a focus on the surprising encounters along the road that helped shaped her.
Outfest announced that it will honor Rita Moreno, Laverne Cox and The Weinstein Company with Legacy Awards on Oct. 22, according to a press release. Previous awardees include Jill Soloway, Sean Hayes, Tom Hanks, Paris Barclay, Hilary Swank and Lee Daniels, among others. This year's awards dinner will once again take place at performing-arts venue Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles.
Music-industry insdiers toasted hitmaker Clive Davis and the West Coast premiere of his feature-length documentary, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Variety noted. The West Hollywood screening, which Apple Music hosted, also saw heavy hitters in attendance, including Jimmy Iovine, Larry Jackson, Robert Kondrk, and Scott Seviour from Apple; and artists like DJ Khaled, Carlos Santana, Earth Wind & Fire, Leona Lewis, Melissa Manchester and Johnny Mathis. The screening was followed by a formal sit-down dinner at Cecconi's restaurant.
Transgender activist Gavin Grimm, model/entrepreneur Karlie Kloss, rapper Kendrick Lamar, actor Ashton Kutcher, Black Lives Matter co-founder Deray McKesson, skier Lindsey Vonn and non-gender binary actor Asia Kate Dillon ( Billons ) were among those who spoke at the Forbes Under 30 Summit that took place Oct. 1-4 in Boston, according to Forbes' website. Similar to Chicago Ideas Week, this event aims to unite leaders in various fields to harness their collective knowledge, address today's critical issues and discover innovative solutions.
The 2018 Wizard World Comic Con calendar has been revealed, per a press release. Among the stops will be New Orleans ( Jan. 5-7 ), Philadelpia ( May 17-20 ), Chicago ( Aug. 23-26 ), Oklahoma City ( Oct. 26-28 ) and many others. See WizardWorld.com .
Game of Thrones star Aidan Gillen has joined the cast of Bryan Singer's Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, TheWrap noted. Gillen will portray John Reid, who was Queen's manager from 1975 to 1978. Also joining the cast is Tom Hollander, who will play Jim Beach, Queen's longtime manager who took over in 1978. Rami Malek stars as the legendary Queen frontman Mercury.
Will & Grace star Debra Messing was not happy with her press stop at Megyn Kelly Today, according to Page Six. Messing and co-stars Sean Hayes, Megan Mullally and Eric McCormack stopped by Kelly's new morning show to promote the upcoming Will & Grace reboot—but things went bad when Kelly made a controversial comment about the show's impact on gay rights. During the segment, Kelly asked a fan, "Is it true that you became a lawyer, and you became gay, because of Will? … I don't know about the lawyer thing, but I think that Will & Grace thing and the gay thing is going to work out great." Messing later posted on Instagram, "The itinerary just said Today Show appearance. Regret going on. Dismayed by her comments."
Megyn Kelly also didn't have an entirely good time interviewing Jane Fonda, either, TheWrap noted. When Kelly asked Fonda ( appearing with Robert Redford to promote the movie Our Souls at Night ) about her plastic surgery, Fonda responded, "We really wanna talk about this right now?" Kelly tried to right the ship, saying, "Well, one of the things people think about when they look at you, is how amazing you look." However, the Oscar-winning star offered only a curt reply. "Thanks," Fonda said. "Good attitude. Good posture. Take care of myself."
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the six-time Emmy-winning star of HBO's comedy series Veep, announced on Instagram that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, Deadline reported. Sources say she got the news the day after she won her most recent consecutive lead actress Emmy for the show and third consecutive best comedy series trophy. In her post, she also pledged support for universal healthcare.
The plug has apparently been pulled on a third Sex and the City movie, Page Six noted. Production was stopped because of over-the-top demands that co-star Kim Cattrall allegedly made; however, she denied she put the kibosh on the new film with reportedly "outrageous demands." Cattrall later tweeted, "The only 'DEMAND' I ever made was that I didn't want to do a 3rd film .�.�. & that was back in 2016."
Rhino Films' Stephen Nemeth, writer-director Adam Rifkin and producer Chris Kobin are developing a TV series based on indie filmmaker Russ Meyer called Faster Pussycat!, Deadline noted. The series is anchored on meetings Nemeth, Rifkin and Kobin took with Meyer in 1999, when the trio intended to do a biopic about him. Meyer, who died in 2004, was behind such films as Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
HGTV's highest-rated series, Fixer Upper, will wrap after its fifth season, Deadline reported. The show's stars, Joanna and Chip Gaines, confirmed on their home-design business website Magnolia that the hit remodeling series will end. The couple wrote, "While we are confident that this is the right choice for us, it has for sure not been an easy one to come to terms with. Our family has grown up alongside yours, and we have felt you rooting us on from the other side of the screen. How bittersweet to say goodbye to the very thing that introduced us all in the first place."
The View now has swapped Jedidiah Bila for Meghan McCain as its conservative voice, Deadline reported. Bila abruptly announced she was leaving the show—and this latest development has given credence to the rumor that Bila found out McCain was being courted and was going to replace her. Bila's abrupt exit came days after The View's Hillary Clinton interview, which had led to some conspiracy theorizing she got the hook for asking Clinton tough questions.
Khloe Kardashian is now also pregnant, according to Page Six. She is in her second trimester with her first child, and the father is Cleveland Cavaliers star Tristan Thompson. This now adds up to three expecting Kardashians. Kim and Kanye West are expecting their third child via surrogate, plus it was revealed just days ago that Kylie Jenner is also around four months pregnant with rapper Travis Scott.
Channing Tatum's Free Association has teamed with Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf's Big Beach to option Zack McDermott's book Gorilla and the Bird: A Memoir of Madness and a Mother's Love, for TV series development, Deadline noted. The memoir, released Sept. 26 by Little Brown Publishing Company, chronicles McDermott's personal battle with bipolar disorder—which affects nearly 6 million Americans and usually presents itself in patients during their mid-20s, the same age that it affected McDermott.
Lex Ishimoto was named So You Think You Can Dance's Season 14 champion during the live two-hour finale broadcast of the Fox reality-dance competition, Reality World noted. Ishimoto—a 19-year-old contemporary dancer from Irvine, California—was declared the winner of So You Think You Can Dance and "America's favorite dancer" based on the combination of home-viewer votes cast following the last two weeks of performance shows. He had been paired with So You Think You Can Dance all-star ( and season 12 champion ) Gaby Diaz during season 14's competition.
ABC has landed Get Christie Love, an hourlong drama from Power creator/showrunner Courtney Kemp and producers Vin Diesel, Debra Martin Chase and Shana C. Waterman, with a pilot production commitment, Deadline noted. The project, a co-production between Lionsgate Television and Universal Television, is inspired by the cult 1974 blaxploitation-themed TV movie Get Christie Love! ( which starred Teresa Graves ) and subsequent short-lived series, which also aired on ABC. The new Get Christie Love ( no "!" in the title ) is an action-packed, music-driven drama that centers on Christie Love, an African-American female CIA agent who leads an elite ops unit.
Tom Wopat—a former star of the 1980s television show The Dukes of Hazzard who's accused of groping a female cast member of a musical he was supposed to appear in—now faces charges he indecently assaulted a 16-year-old girl in Massachusetts, Page Six noted. Wopat is charged with assaulting the girl and a woman in July while rehearsing for the musical 42nd Street at the Waltham-based Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston. Wopat has pled not guilty to groping the woman.
Emmy-nominated actor Mark LaMura, known for his role as Mark Dalton on All My Children, died Sept. 11 from lung cancer at age 68, Deadline noted. LaMura appeared on All My Children from 1977 to 1989 and made occasional guest appearances through the '90s. His character, Mark Dalton, was the brother of Susan Lucci's Erica Kane. Lucci remembered LaMura in an Instagram post.
Len Wiseman and his production company, Sketch Films, are moving forward with the Underworld TV series based on the popular action horror-movie franchise, which is targeting the premium cable/digital space, Deadline reported. "The series will be a pretty big departure from the films," Wiseman said. "I don't want to say it's m ore adult, but it's definitely less comic book in its tone and character." In features, Wiseman, who helmed Live Free or Die Hard, is set to direct the next installment in the Die Hard franchise; Bruce Willis will be returning to play John McCain.
Actor Sebastian Stan has apologized for a joke meant to promote his upcoming movie I, Tonya, according to Page Six. The actor shared a meme of Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan with the caption, "Back when 'taking a knee' meant taking a knee," referring to Harding's 1994 attack on ice-skating competitor Kerrigan. However, in light of the ongoing national-anthem protests, Stan's post did not go over too well. "And finally, for anyone confused for whatever reason right now, please know this was not meant to be offensive or make fun of a serious matter, but a light-hearted way to promote my movie, which is ALSO about a very serious matter," he wrote.
Eva Marcille, winner of cycle three of America's Next Top Model, will be joining the Bravo cast of Real Housewives of Atlanta in the upcoming season, Page Six noted. Since her time in the judging room with Tyra Banks, Marcille has starred in The Young and Restless from 2008 to 2009, and had a daughter who is now 3. NeNe Leakes will be returning to the franchise as well as frenemy Kim Zolciack, who will be a part-time cast member.
A mention of child molestation in Jeepers Creepers 3 is drawing criticism because the film's writer and director, Victor Salva, was convicted of child molestation in 1988, TheWrap reported. Salva, 59, was convicted in the molestation of Nathan Forrest Winters, an actor in his film Clownhouse, who was 12 at the time. According to IndieWire, the third installment of the "Jeepers Creepers" franchise does not depict any child molestation, but does include a scene in which two characters discuss why a teenager named Addison ( Gabrielle Haugh ) no longer lives with her stepfather; the line was removed for the theatrical cut of the film.
