Amber Portwood is struggling to cope with the realization that her daughter Leah may want to be adopted.
“I thought I was already dark and deep in a hole from what happened to me from the incident in North Carolina and [Gary Wayt] leaving me in the mountains,” Amber, 34, shared on the Thursday, April 17, episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, when referencing her ex briefly going missing in 2024. “But when I found out about my daughter saying that she wanted to be adopted, it took over everything.”
In a March episode of the MTV reality show, Leah expressed to her dad, Gary Shirley, that she would like stepmom Kristina Shirley to formally adopt her.
Cameras rolled as Gary decided to meet with an attorney to discuss the next legal steps. At the time, Leah agreed that she had to think over the issue some more before agreeing to officially file paperwork.
‘Teen Mom’ Star Amber Portwood’s Ups and Downs With Daughter Leah
“I was really in bed for over four months,” Amber shared in a confessional interview, “but I just realized that I truly just needed my mommy.”
Although Amber had a complicated relationship with mom Tonya Portwood over the years, the pair reconnected after the reality star needed a “shoulder to cry on” during tough times.
“I’ve seen my mom three times in just these last few weeks when I hadn’t seen her in almost a year,” Amber shared. “When I wake up crying, all I do is call [her].”
During the episode, Amber met with her mom for dinner and expressed her hope that Tonya would meet her psychiatrist to better understand what she is going through mentally.
“I’m not just bipolar,” Amber explained of her diagnosis. “I have four major mental illnesses that I would like to have him explain to you.”
While Tonya offered her support, she also inadvertently upset her daughter when she confessed to still receiving texts from Leah. (During a recent episode, Leah expressed her wish that Amber didn’t attend her 16th birthday celebrations.)
During dinner, Amber shared her fears that her daughter is “never going to come around.”
Amber Portwood’s Daughter Leah Starts Therapy for ‘Abandonment Issues’
At the same time, she couldn’t help but acknowledge the growth she has experienced with her own mother.
“I see how my relationship with my mom was completely tumultuous, and today I’m with my mom,” Amber said in a confessional. “I love my mom so much. This is why I have hope with Leah.”
Teen Mom: The Next Chapter airs on MTV Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET.
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For Nick and Mike Fiorito, finding a bracelet in a haystack required intervention from The Amazing Race’s doctors.
“We had to actually stop [the challenge] and get medical attention for a few minutes because we were about to have a heat stroke,” Mike, 28, exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday, April 17, following their elimination. “We were so determined to not stop.”
During the episode, which took place in Bulgaria, Mike and Nick, 32, chose to complete the Woodstack option for The Detour challenge. The brothers hit a snag when they were one kilogram short and had to complete another round of delivering wood. Once they finished that task, they were in a footrace with Melinda and Erika Papadeas to get to the next portion of the race.
The teams came across a U-Turn, and the mother-daughter duo decided to choose Nick and Mike, fearing they were competing for last place. (No team realized that Carson McCalley and Jack Dodge, who were typically in the front of the race, had gotten lost and were three hours behind everyone.)
Amazing Race's Pops and Jeff on How Hurt Ankle Contributed to Elimination
Nick and Mike had to go back and perform the other option of the Detour: The Haystack challenge. The task required teams to search for a bracelet hidden in one of three bales of hay. As the pair searched for a tiny bracelet in a literal haystack, the weather had an effect on Nick and Mike.
“When you look at us on TV and you see us kicking the hay, it almost looks like we’re just giving up and just like kicking hay. But that was literally all the energy we had left in our body,” Mike explained. “The sun was so extremely hot and it was right on top of us.”
Nick noted that the grueling effort from the Woodstack task also zapped a lot out of them.
“We had just finished carrying 400 pounds of wood and running back and forth three times. So we were really exhausted,” Nick told Us. “And then — like Mike said — the sun did not help and the hay was extremely itchy as well. So it was just like a perfect storm of unfortunate events and our energy level really went very low.”
Mike and Nick spent a total of six hours in the field in search of a bracelet. At one point, the duo contemplated taking a time penalty. However, they ultimately decided against it since it would have been an extra “eight hours” on top of what they’d already done.
“It was something outrageous, like somewhere between six and eight hours. And at that point we’re like, ‘OK, that doesn’t not make any sense to take it’ because we were already hours into this challenge,” Mike told Us. “So to add that many hours on top of it just wouldn’t make any sense. So we just said, ‘We gotta just keep fighting through here.’”
Nick and Mike never found the bracelet, and never made it to the pit stop. Host Phil Keoghan appeared at the challenge to eliminate the brothers in a “bittersweet” moment.
“[Phil] had a line basically where he said he came to take us out of our misery. And to be honest with you, he did,” Mike quipped. “We were really beaten down by that sun, by that hay just exhausted beyond measure. That was a bright point that we could stop now.”
Being on The Amazing Race was a lifelong dream for Nick and Mike. The pair applied to be on the show over the course of seven years before they got selected for season 37.
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“Watching it from your couch is one thing, but experiencing it and living it in real life is a whole nother thing. We got to see countries that we never even heard of. We never heard of Bulgaria before,” Mike shared. “So we got to see cultures and the way different people live their lives. And that was something that you can do from your couch, but it’s a whole different feeling when you experience it firsthand.”
While they didn’t walk away with the million dollar prize, the pair are looking on the bright side as they lived out their dream of competing in the race.
“At first watching last night, I’m not gonna lie, I felt like a loser. It felt like we lost, we gave it our all and it just wasn’t good enough. And there was shame attached to it and just a lot of negativity. Then I realized, maybe some of that is true, if I choose to believe it,” Nick reflected. “At the same time, you know what else is true, we’re winners because we did give it our all until the very end. We didn’t give up. We made it on the show after seven years of trying and inspired so many people with that alone.”
The Amazing Race airs on CBS Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET and is available to stream on Paramount+ the next day.
© Sonja Flemming/CBS
‘I’ve heard many fans are upset by this loss and they have a right to be,’ departing star said
© ABC
Once deemed a national embarrassment for its racist and classist content, the series is now fuelling an online resurgence and rumours of a revival thanks to its growing fanbase of young fans discovering clips on TikTok. What’s the deal with that, asks Anya Ryan
© BBC
Lucas and Lauren’s skinny dipping scene on Ransom Canyon allowed Garrett Wareing to bare himself as an actor like never before.
“I’m all about body positivity,” Wareing, 23, exclusively told Us Weekly about his memorable scene before quipping, “All of my friends on set saw my naked body, but now I guess everybody who has Netflix can see my naked body.”
Wareing was thankful for the opportunity, adding, “But I’m really grateful for the chance to be able to lean into that body positivity and embrace myself in that way.”
Netflix’s newest romantic western, which premiered on Thursday, April 17, introduced Us to the fictional Texas town full of drama, love and hot cowboys. Wareing plays inevitable fan favorite cowboy Lucas Russell, who charmed Us and his love interest Lauren’s (Lizzy Greene) by stripping down to take a secret swim together, which didn’t turn out as expected but fans still caught a glimpse of the actor putting quite a lot on display.
Meet the Hot Cowboys From Netflix's New Romantic Western 'Ransom Canyon'
“Everyone likens me to a golden retriever. Part of me wants to be like a Rottweiler or a pit bull but it’s all golden retriever. So Lucas is very, very much that guy. It felt very close to me — not only being from Texas — but also being the golden retriever and being able to play that role,” Wareing noted. “Given some of the fun scenes I got to have — specifically the skinny dipping and the mud wrestling — I would say every character is a version of you and this is a version of myself that I’m very proud to play and very grateful to be able to share with the world.”
Wareing knew Lucas was the right role, because he would “have the most fun with” certain scenes.
“That was going to be playing the cowboy, going to cowboy camp, skinny dipping, mud wrestling and that line dance sequence,” he detailed. “And a little secret for you about the skinny dipping scene:that was the coldest water I have ever been in. I think we were freshly past winter in New Mexico. It was at elevation, we were in the mountains and I saw God that day.”
Despite the tough conditions, Wareing was “not a wimp,” adding, “I opted to do it as many times as production needed and we did it safely. I had my dear friend who was our safety diver who I had brought in and I was definitely in there for a while. I go under the water too — to add to injury. I had to go underwater and also I’m butt naked, so that was quite the day for sure on Ransom Canyon.”
That instantly iconic scene scored Wareing a place in Us‘ Guys We Googled Shirtless selection — but it wasn’t the only highlight of the show. Wareing specifically recalled going to cowboy camp for research.
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“We showed up to New Mexico and we were aware that we were going to go through the ringer for cowboy training. I — being from Texas — wanted to claim this ownership of being a cowboy. But if I showed up to that cowboy camp and told them that I knew how to ride a horse the way that they knew how to ride a horse, they’d all laugh at me,” he recalled about spending “three hours a day” for a month learning the basics. “We were learning how to rope. We also learned how to ride horses, hit marks on horses, ride in tandem with one another, get that walk into a trot, that trot into a leap and do that comfortably and safely, which was the most important part.”
He continued: “Then once we got proficient at that, they started incorporating the lasso. We started practicing on this roping dummy and then we would upgrade to a dummy that was a mechanical bull basically pulled by a horse. We would go behind this robot bull and rope it on horseback.”
The experience allowed Wareing to “become the cowboy” he always wanted to be.
“I felt like I finally earned my stripes as a cowboy through cowboy camp with all of my friends that definitely brought us together and we bonded through that,” he added. “I think being a cowboy is a state of mind. It’s a state of being that’s a steadfast, sure and confident version of yourself.”
Ransom Canyon is currently streaming on Netflix.
© Netflix
Bethenny Frankel is ready for a change of scenery — and is officially trading in New York’s cityscapes for Florida’s beaches.
“I am moving to Florida for personal and professional reasons,” Frankel, 54, announced via an Instagram video on Thursday, April 17. “Something has arisen that made this the best and healthiest for myself and my daughter.”
The former Real Housewives of New York City star explained, “We will maintain residences in the Hamptons and New York City because we love New York. This will be our primary and permanent residence.”
Frankel then panned the camera from her face to the ocean waves and sandy beaches of Florida’s coast. “This will be my backyard,” she gushed.
Bethenny Frankel Says She's Quietly Dating Again After Paul Bernon Split
“Excited to share this with you … It’s been a concept for a while, but personal & private circumstances have made this the healthiest life choice,” Frankel reiterated in the social media caption. “#florida #sunshinestate #xoxo #moving #lifechange.”
Earlier this month, Frankel hinted at her move by sharing a photo of U-Haul boxes stacked up in what appeared to be her house.
“Life is good albeit with some unexpected stressful surprises … Moments with good friends, food, laughs, and as always a little chaos,” she captioned the Instagram post, teasing, “So many exciting changes coming soon… but you nosy B’s will just have to wait and see xoxo #lifelately #goodlife #suprises #happy.”
Bethenny Frankel Says She's 'Perfectly Happy Being Alone'
Frankel’s relocation comes nearly one year after Us Weekly broke the news that the reality star called off her engagement to Paul Bernon. The couple dated six years before pulling the plug on their romance in May 2024.
“They are so different — he’s an under the radar kind of guy,” a source exclusively told Us of the reason behind their split, noting “it just wasn’t going to work.” (Bernon and Frankel lived together in Boston in 2019, but sources told Us they were house hunting the New England area ahead of their nuptials.)
Prior to dating Bernon, Frankel was married to Jason Hoppy from 2010 to 2012, before parting ways. The exes, who share daughter Bryn, 14, finalized their divorce in March 2021 after a lengthy legal battle.
Frankel was linked to Tom Villante in 2024, before confirming last month that she was back in the dating game. “I am dating,” she said on the March 13 episode of the “Hot Mess” podcast. “I have always, sort of, wanted to know exactly what everything is, and I’m trying to let the wine breathe more vs. need to know what it is.”
Bethenny Frankel’s Complete Dating History
Frankel explained that she doesn’t care right now about “what the label is or that I’m getting married [or not].”
The business mogul, who owns Skinny Girl and other companies, confessed that dating hasn’t been easy at times because of her success. Frankel admitted she’s been guilty of “dumbing [herself] down” with some men.
“I don’t want to make them feel bad. I’m telling them how their thing is the same thing as my thing,” she continued. “So, it’s nice to be with someone who’s not in even the same business. So, it doesn’t feel adjacent or competitive.”
© Astrida Valigorsky/FilmMagic
Martin Scorsese and Lala Kent‘s ex-fiancé Randall Emmett seem like unlikely partners, but the pair have been working together since 2016’s Silence.
“As cliché as it sounds, it was the toughest experience, the most beautiful on every level, and working with Martin Scorsese, I definitely was a student again of film,” Emmett told L.A. Business First in January 2017, recalling their first collaboration. “Now I feel like a partner and a friend and an ally after going through the war together after coming out the other side. It feels great and I’m very proud.”
While the duo’s second project, The Irishman, was an Oscar-nominated film, their first movie caused friction from the start. In April 2025, Emmett made headlines when his and Scorsese’s Wall of White was blocked from casting due to his alleged misconduct with past films.
Randall Emmett's Ups and Downs: Lala Kent Split, Abuse Allegations and More
The Writers Guild of America West claimed that Emmett “failed to pay” more than $700,000 in compensation and more to WGA writers. The union called for its members to boycott the project, prohibiting them from signing on to star in it. Emmett claimed in a statement that he was working on resolving the issue with the WGA.
Scroll down to see Scorsese and Emmett’s relationship from the beginning:
Emmett first teamed up with Scorsese to produce 2016’s Silence starring Adam Driver, Andrew Garfield and Liam Neeson. The movie was the brainchild of Scorsese, who had been trying to make it for years before Emmett signed on. Scorsese was the director as well as a producer and writer on the project. Emmett was a producer.
“I flew to New York and sat with him. It was a very simple interview. He said, ‘Well, tell me about you,’” Emmett recalled to HuffPost Entertainment in 2017 of how he got the gig. “I said, ‘I went to film school about 20 blocks from here. It’s an honor to be in the room with you.’ What else am I going to say?”
After Scorsese asked Emmett’s opinion on the movie, he responded, “All I have to say is one thing: ‘Whatever you want, you can have. I just want to be side by side with you. It’ll be like my graduate film school.’” Emmette remembered Scorsese laughing and saying, “‘I like this kid.’ The rest is history.”
Following the release of Silence, Emmett had nothing but nice things to say about working with Scorsese, whom he now considered a friend.
“It’s the pinnacle for any actor or producer or financier. For me, going to film school, I don’t think I ever thought in my mind I would make a Martin Scorsese movie,” Emmett told HuffPost Entertainment in December 2017. “The moment came, and it was surreal.”
The High Rollers producer remembered being in awe of Scorsese once he was seated in front of him brainstorming their project.
“There were these moments in the south of France when we were sitting after doing the work all day. It’s 6 or 7 o’clock at night and we’re having a glass of wine, and he starts talking about film preservation and restoration. It’s just surreal,” Emmett gushed. “The greatest filmmaker talking about movies and making Raging Bull. It’s overload.”
When Emmett signed on for Silence, he was also bookmarked to reunite with Scorsese on The Irishman. The gangster film premiered on Netflix in November 2019 and starred Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. Scorsese was once again the director on the project and both he and Emmett were producers. The Irishman was nominated for 10 Oscars.
Working alongside the legendary director inspired Emmett when he made his directorial debut with Midnight in the Switchgrass. Emmett recalled learning how to lead from his time on Scorsese’s sets.
“He really made me feel like family, and he didn’t have to do that,” Emmett told Variety in July 2021 of Scorsese. “I want to be that kind of filmmaker, I want everybody to feel part of the journey. When you make a film, it takes a whole village of all of us together. And Marty taught me that you need everybody; everybody’s important. I’m really grateful that I got to learn that from him.”
During Emmett’s relationship with Vanderpump Rules alum Kent, the couple spent time with Scorsese. Following their 2018 engagement, Kent exclusively told Us Weekly that Emmett was in “such a different world than I am. It’s like, while I’m filming a reality TV show, he’s producing movies with Martin Scorsese.”
In addition to the name drop, the duo were photographed with the Goodfellas director at an Oscars after party in 2020 before Kent and Emmett called it quits in November 2021.
Despite parting ways, Kent and Emmett appear to both have a connection to Scorsese. “He actually said to me, ‘You do great work,’” Kent told Rolling Stone in May 2023, while reflecting on Scorsese’s love of her Bravo reality show. “His producing partner at the time was a Vanderpump fanatic, so it could have been shown to him that way as well.”
She teased, “I don’t know if he’s tuning in every Wednesday to catch the new episode of Vanderpump Rules, but Martin Scorsese knows that Vanderpump Rules exists. And that is good enough for me.”
Emmett and Scorsese’s third project, Wall of White, hit a roadblock in April 2025 when the Writers Guild of America West slammed Emmett via social media. The Writers Guild of America west coast affiliate revealed via X that Emmett, who founded Convergence Entertainment Group, “has been on the WGA/Unfair List since 2020.”
The union claimed that two companies Emmett founded “failed to pay over $700,000 in compensation, P&H contributions and interest due to WGA writers.” As a result of the alleged misconduct, the union told its members they are forbidden to work on Wall of White.
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“Emmett has a long history of refusing to honor obligations to writers and the Guild has filed numerous arbitration claims against companies owned by Emmett over the last decade,” the email sent by the union claimed, according to the Los Angeles Times, adding that the guild prohibits “members from working for or selling literary material to companies or individuals who are on the Strike/Unfair List.”
Emmett responded to the accusations in April 2025, issuing a statement to The Times. “We are fully financing this movie, and we have every intention to settle this dispute in the coming weeks,” the statement read. “Our representatives will be reaching out to the Writers Guild so we can put this matter from six years ago behind us.”
Us Weekly reached out to Scorsese for comment at the time.
© Dave M. Benett/Getty Images for Johnnie Walker Blue Label
Ashley Greene is proud of her new horror film, It Feeds — but shooting her first movie after giving birth wasn’t always easy.
“This [movie] was tough for me because it was my first movie post having my little girl, and I think we were six months in, and so I’d been on set for the longest that I’d ever been on set,” Greene, 38, exclusively told Us Weekly. “I was breast-feeding, and so I was pumping on set and your hormones are going everywhere. And then I was, like, having to go home to this little angel and try to separate these two things. It really was challenging for me.”
In the supernatural thriller, Greene portrays Cynthia, a clairvoyant mother who is on a mission with her daughter, Jordan (Ellie O’Brien), to save a girl named Riley (Shayelin Martin) from a demonic entity. While having to balance new motherhood — Greene gave birth to daughter Kingsley, whom she shares with husband Paul Khoury, in September 2022 — with such a heavy role was admittedly “hard” for Greene, she used the character’s strengths to help her along.
“Thankfully, I think, with Cynthia, you can always find stuff that you can use to your advantage also vs. letting it work against you,” Greene explained. “And so I said, ‘This is really hard for me, but I’m gonna find a way through it and I’m gonna use this, these moments when I’m on set.’ It’s one of the things I’m most proud of coming out of this project.”
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“Thankfully, I think, with Cynthia, you can always find stuff that you can use to your advantage also vs. letting it work against you,” Greene explained. “And so I said, ‘This is really hard for me, but I’m gonna find a way through it and I’m gonna use this, these moments when I’m on set.’ It’s one of the things I’m most proud of coming out of this project.”
One of the film’s overall themes centers around the battle against one’s deepest traumas, as director and writer Chad Archibald created the story after both his parents were diagnosed with cancer. Greene, who has been open about her battle with anxiety and panic attacks over the years, said she immediately understood the layered representation and believed she could do something “powerful” with her performance.
“When you’re ready, I think you have to look inside of yourself and you have to face your demons and you have to be able to allow yourself to have the strength to overcome things that have happened to you, not because of you,” she explained. “I loved that throughout the course of the film.”
In juxtaposition to the empathetic Cynthia was Greene’s costar Shawn Ashmore as Randall, the father of the possessed Riley who has a more extreme (and violent) approach to saving his daughter. Like Greene, Ashmore used his own experience as a parent to place a human and empathetic spin on his character’s motives. (Ashmore and wife Dana Renee welcomed their son, Oliver, in 2017.)
“I’d never looked at Randall as a villain. If we were watching this movie through Randall’s perspective, he would be the hero,” Ashmore, 45, explained to Us. “He’s making horrible choices, but I understood the bad choices he was making, because he is in an impossible situation. He’s just watched his wife wither away from a circumstance that he cannot understand as he starts to grasp that he’s now at risk of losing his daughter. I just looked at him as a loving father who is doing anything that he can.”
Ashmore said he had to figure out how to “reconcile” how his character could make the decisions he does without being an “evil” person at heart, which is where being a father himself became crucial to his process.
“When I really started to think about his circumstance, and if I was in that circumstance, what would I do? I would do anything to protect my son,” he explained. “And he’s not doing the right thing, but he’s doing the only thing that he knows how to do in this impossible situation that he’s being put in.”
Ashmore hopes when people see the film that they lean into the “great thrill ride” It Feeds provides while also recognizing the complexity — and intelligence — of the characters on screen.
“In genre films, it’s so frustrating when you [can] tell the characters are making the decision to further the story or to put a character in a bad or a perilous position. And I never, ever felt that way when I read [this script],” he explained. “And then when I watched It Feeds [and then] characters make bad decisions …. I completely understood why.”
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He added, “I think that’s a distinction specifically in horror movies, where, if a character’s making the decision just to further the plot or to put themselves in peril, that’s a bad writing choice as opposed to, ‘We understand who this character is and that the choice of they’re making is true to who they are.’ And I think that this film is full of decisions and actions like that. And I think that is great storytelling.”
Greene, for her part, wants It Feeds to provide plenty of supernatural fun while also holding up a mirror to viewers.
“What I loved about Cynthia and Jordan is that once we see Cynthia grappling with past traumas and things that had happened to her — [but] when she realizes that she has to overcome those things to help her daughter, she does it no questions asked and is able to do that for someone else,” she told Us. “And I think that’s what we are as a society, right? When you heal yourself, you have the ability to heal others too.”
It Feeds premieres in theaters and on demand Friday, April 18.
© Samuel Goldwyn
You don’t have to own a yacht — or even a boat — to channel the yacht wife aesthetic. Yacht wives exude a unique, polished style and carry themselves with confidence.
If you’re looking for a yacht-style outfit that is flattering, versatile and doesn’t break the bank, you’re in the right place. We did the heavy lifting and found 17 comfy, ultra-classy dresses that fit the bill. You’ll wear these dresses on the bow and errand runs, to brunch and even to the office. Read on for your new outfit obsession!
1. European Gal: Everything about this tiered maxi dress is swoon-worthy, from the flattering high waist to the print and short puff sleeves.
2. Striped Stunner: This knee-length dress was practically made for yacht wives. Pair it with an oversized tote for an ultra-luxe look!
3. Breezy Find: If you’re looking for a go-to dress to wear from the beach to the party, this spaghetti-strap wonder has your name on it.
4. Boho Twist: Fake an hourglass figure with this loose maxi dress. It has dainty short sleeves and a boutique-style hem design.
5. Expensive-Looking: Whether you wear tie-sleeve dress to a wedding or dinner is up to you, but either way, you’re guaranteed to look rich.
6. Bye-bye, Belly: Designed to conceal your midsection, this wrap dress is the flattering outfit you’ve been searching for.
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7. Showstopper Alert: You don’t have to grab this casual maxi in a vibrant hue, but you’ll be the center of attention if you do.
8. Knit Material: Stretchy and soft, this designer-looking midi dress is equal parts comfortable and flattering.
9. Petite, Please! If you fall on the shorter side, this lightweight floral mini lengthens your body and conceal your insecurities.
10. T-Shirt Dress: Trade your staple lounge set for this ribbed T-shirt dress with short sleeves, hidden pockets and a mid-thigh length.
11. New Drop: This newly released, exquisite floral number is guaranteed to garner compliments.
12. High-Low Hem: Be careful wearing this ruffle V-neck maxi to weddings . . . you just might steal the show.
13. Greek Goddess: If you want to look like you belong in Santorini, reach for this Zimmermann-style vacation dress.
14. Lengthening Style: Want to look taller? This striped bodycon outfit makes you feel like the supermodel you are.
15. Total Steal: At just $17, we may grab two of these button-front tank dresses that are buttery-soft and relaxed.
16. Amazon’s Choice: We’re obsessing over the crisscross neckline and linen-looking material of this floor-length piece.
17. Last But Not Least: Swiss dots, ruffle sleeves, a modest front slit and a wrap design are just a few highlights that make this dress a must-have.
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Brazilian influencer Kat Torres rose to fame on social media because of her wellness content — but things took a sinister turn.
Torres, who is currently incarcerated, had millions of social media followers and built a brand off of self-help videos and a wellness subscription service. The disgraced internet star also alleged that she had spiritual powers and connected with her followers on a deeper level.
However, she became the focus of an FBI investigation which led to a 2024 arrest.
Keep reading for everything to know about Torres — and the fallout:
Prior to her internet career, Torres was a model and pageant girl in her native Brazil.
Multiple followers claimed to the BBC in interviews published in July 2024 that as they got in deeper with Torres and her content, they felt “isolated” from friends and family. One even uprooted their life to become Torres’ live-in assistant.
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In September 2022, two Brazilian women were reported missing after moving into Torres’ Texas house. (Torres called them her “witch clan” on social media.)
Eventually, their “profiles on escort and prostitution websites were discovered.” At this point, Torres had moved from Texas to Maine with the women — who asked for the search to stop — in tow. In November 2022, a wellness check tipped off law enforcement and the missing women were back home in Brazil the following month.
By April 2024, Torres had already stood trial in Brazil and denied all wrongdoing in an interview with the BBC.
“When I was seeing the people testifying, they were saying so many lies,” she alleged. “So many lies that at one point, I couldn’t stop laughing.”
She added: “You choose to believe whatever you choose to believe. I can tell you I’m Jesus. And you can see Jesus, or you can see the devil, that’s it. It’s your choice. It’s your mind.”
Torres was convicted for human trafficking and slavery and sentenced to eight years in prison in July 2024. (She has appealed the conviction.)
In 2017, Torres book A Voz, was released. She claimed to be able to make predictions because of her spirituality in the memoir.
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Torres was photographed with DiCaprio starting in 2013. However, DiCaprio never spoke publicly about his connection to Torres.
The BBC released a documentary breaking down Torres and her crimes in July 2024, tilted Like, Follow, Trafficked: Insta’s Fake Guru.
Brazilian journalist Chico Felitti also launched the “Don’t Cross Kat” podcast in March 2025, offering a detailed look at one alleged victim.
© Mark Davis/Getty Images
A (second) Clueless TV series without Alicia Silverstone as queen bee Cher Horowitz? As if!
A revival TV series of the iconic 1995 film with Silverstone attached to star and executive produce is currently in development at Peacock. The show will be written by Gossip Girl creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage‘s Fake Media and Dollface’s Jordan Weiss, with the 1995 movie’s writer-director Amy Heckerling and producer Robert Lawrence also serving as executive producers.
The original Clueless, loosely adapted from Jane Austen’s 1815 novel Emma, centered on Silverstone’s Cher, the most popular girl at Bronson Alcott High School, who sets out to become a successful matchmaker to her friends — and even her teachers.
The film’s box-office success sparked a follow-up TV series in 1996, created by Heckerling and starring Stacey Dash, Donald Faison and Elisa Donovan in their film roles as Cher’s inner circle. Silverstone and Paul Rudd — who portrayed Cher’s love interest and former stepbrother Josh in the film — did not return. The part of Cher was recast and played by Rachel Blanchard. The show aired on ABC for three seasons before its cancellation.
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While Peacock picked up a different Clueless reboot centered around Dash’s Dionne in 2019, the project ultimately never moved forward.
Keep scrolling for everything to know about the Clueless TV series starring Silverstone:
Silverstone will return as Cher after reprising the role for a Super Bowl commercial in 2023. It’s unknown whether anyone else from the 1995 cast will return.
The show will air on NBC’s streaming platform, Peacock.
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Schwartz and Savage (who are behind shows like Gossip Girl and The O.C.) and Weiss (creator of Dollface) will serve as showrunners and executive producers. Heckerling, who wrote the original film and the follow-up series in the ’90s, and Silverstone will also executive produce.
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Keith McNally revealed that his waitstaff had a negative experience with Patti Smith at one of his New York City restaurants.
In an excerpt of McNally’s upcoming memoir, Regret Almost Everything, obtained by New York magazine’s Grub Street and published on Thursday, April 17, McNally, now 73, recalled how Smith, now 78, frequently visited his establishment One Fifth in the ‘70s. The singer would be joined by her then-boyfriend Robert Mapplethorpe.
“Smith and Mapplethorpe could be very difficult to wait on,” McNally wrote per the outlet. “Smith, unfortunately, was incredibly rude to the servers.”
McNally shared that he has a hard time listening to Smith’s music when recalling an alleged incident.
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“It’s impossible for me to listen to a Patti Smith song today without remembering her reducing a waitress to tears because she forgot to put bread on the table,” he claimed.
McNally alleged that Smith would “belittle” his staff while Mapplethorpe “could be terse with the servers.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Smith for comment.
This is not the first time McNally has publicly called out a celebrity who has patronized one of his restaurants. In October 2022, he sparked a feud with James Corden after accusing the former late night host, 46, of mistreating the staff at his establishment Balthazar.
“James Corden is a Hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny Cretin of a man,” McNally wrote via his Instagram Story at the time. “And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago.”
According to McNally, one of his managers told him that Corden sent back an egg yolk omelette because it included “a little bit of egg white.” After the kitchen remade the dish and a waiter delivered it with the wrong side, Corden allegedly began “yelling like crazy” at the staffer.
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McNally shared that he banned Corden from his restaurant following the incident.
Hours after McNally’s post made headlines, he announced that he’d decided to “rescind” Corden’s ban after the actor reached out to apologize.
“James Corden just called me and apologized profusely. Having f***ed up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances. So if James Corden lets me host his Late Late Show for 9 months, I’ll immediately rescind his ban from Balthazar,” he wrote via Instagram . “No, of course not. But … anyone magnanimous enough to apologize to a deadbeat layabout like me (and my staff) doesn’t deserve to be banned from anywhere. Especially Balthazar. So Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Corden, Jimmy Corden. All is Forgiven. xx.”
© Courtesy of Keith McNally/Instagram
Molly Ringwald has never shied away from bluntly reassessing the 1980s teen rom-coms that made her a Hollywood legend.
Ringwald’s work with filmmaker John Hughes defined an entire era of moviemaking in the ’80s, even if their collaborations on Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink each contain problematic elements. The actress has publicly grappled in recent years with how those movies dismissed concerns about consent and racial insensitivity as well her own misgivings about being Hughes’ romantic muse as a teenager.
Keep scrolling for a look back at Ringwald’s reflections on the movies that made her a 1980s teen idol:
Ringwald was only 15 years old when Hughes personally selected her, based on her publicity photo, to star in 1984’s Sixteen Candles as Samantha Baker, a high schooler with a crush on older heartthrob Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling).
During a March 2025 appearance on Monica Lewinsky’s podcast “Reclaiming,” the actress touched on the complexities of Hughes writing an entire romantic comedy based on a 15-year-old’s headshot.
“Sixteen Candles was his directorial debut,” she mentioned. “I had done a few movies … I had actually had more experience but I was still only 15 years old so I didn’t have a lot of life experience. It didn’t seem that strange to me [that I was Hughes’s muse]. Now, it does.”
One of Sixteen Candles’ most problematic scenes involved a trade between Jake and The Geek (Anthony Michael Hall), in which Jake offered up his drunk girlfriend, Haviland (Caroline Mulford), for the night in exchange for Samantha’s underwear. The Geek and Haviland wake up the next morning in bed together, drawing contemporary and modern criticism that the sequence made light of date rape.
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Ringwald wrote about this scene in a 2018 New Yorker essay in light of the #MeToo movement, in which she broached Sixteen Candles’ blassé treatment of consent with her costar Mulford 30 years after the film’s release.
“Thinking about that scene, I became curious how the actress who played Caroline, Haviland Morris, felt about the character she portrayed,” Ringwald wrote. “So I sent her an email. We hadn’t seen or spoken to each other since she was 23 and I was 15. We met for coffee, and after we had filled each other in on all the intervening years, I asked her about it. Haviland, I was surprised to learn, does not have the same issues with the scene as I do.”
She continued, “In her mind, Caroline bears some responsibility for what happens, because of how drunk she gets at the party. ‘I’m not saying that it’s OK to then be raped or to have nonconsensual sex,’ Haviland clarified. ‘But . . . that’s not a one-way street. Here’s a girl who gets herself so bombed that she doesn’t even know what’s going on.’”
Ringwald took an opposing view, explaining, “Haviland, like me, has children, and so I decided to frame the question hypothetically, mother to mother, to see if it changed her point of view. If one of our kids had too much to drink, and something like that happened to one of them, would she say, ‘It’s on you, because you drank too much?’ She shook her head: ‘No. Absolutely, positively, it stays in your pants until invited by someone who is willing and consensually able to invite you to remove it.’ Still, she added, ‘I’m not going to black-and-white it. It isn’t a one-way street.’”
Another one of Sixteen Candles’ frequently criticized elements is its depiction of the character Long Duk Dong, a Chinese exchange student played by Gedde Watanabe. The racially-insensitive portrayal of an Asian character was controversial even at the time of Sixteen Candles’ release, with a contemporary review in The New York Times calling Long Duk Dong “unfunny” and “potentially offensive” to Asian people. Ringwald pulled no punches in her 2017 New Yorker retrospective when she referred to Long Duk Dong as “a grotesque stereotype.”
Decades after the 1984 movie’s release, Ringwald showed Sixteen Candles to her now-21-year-old daughter, Mathilda — she also shares fraternal twin daughters Adele and Roman with husband Panio Gianopolous — and came away with a complex view of the project.
“I do see it differently,” she told NPR in 2018. “I mean, there were parts of that film that bothered me then. Although everybody likes to say that I had, you know, John Hughes’ ear and he did listen to me in a lot of ways, I wasn’t the filmmaker.”
She continued, “Sometimes I would tell [John], ‘Well, I think that this is kind of tacky’ or ‘I think that this is irrelevant’ or ‘this doesn’t ring true,’ and sometimes he would listen to me but in other cases he didn’t. And, you know, you don’t want to speak up too much. You don’t want to cross the line. Or at least that’s the way that I felt at the time.”
While Ringwald publicly shared her problems with Sixteen Candles and several of her 1980s movies, she told Andy Cohen in 2021 that they shouldn’t be erased from history simply because of their problematic elements.
“I feel like that’s what makes the movies really wonderful, and it’s also something I wanted to go on record talking about — the elements that I find troubling and that I want to change for the future,” she insisted. “But that doesn’t mean at all that I want them to be erased. I’m proud of those movies, and I have a lot of affection for them. They’re so much a part of me.”
Ringwald continued working with Hughes, and Sixteen Candles costar Hall, on 1985’s The Breakfast Club. The coming-of-age comedy takes place entirely at Shermer High’s Saturday detention, where popular girl Claire Standish (Ringwald) slowly opens up to a group of misfit students about the facade of her high school status.
One objectionable scene involves loner John Bender (Judd Nelson) ducking under Claire’s desk to avoid detection. The film alludes to Bender touching Claire inappropriately while he’s hiding but doesn’t dwell on the moment.
In an essay for The New Yorker in 2018, Ringwald wrote, “I kept thinking about that scene. I thought about it again this past fall, after a number of women came forward with sexual-assault accusations against the producer Harvey Weinstein, and the #MeToo movement gathered steam. If attitudes toward female subjugation are systemic, and I believe that they are, it stands to reason that the art we consume and sanction plays some part in reinforcing those same attitudes.”
Ringwald noted that Hughes, who died from a heart attack at 59 in 2009, was “hailed as a genius” for his 1980s movies, though his legacy may, in fact, be much more complicated.
“That two of Hughes’s films had female protagonists in the lead roles and examined these young women’s feelings about the fairly ordinary things that were happening to them, while also managing to have instant cred that translated into success at the box office, was an anomaly that has never really been replicated,” she acknowledged.
However, Ringwald returned again to Bender’s treatment of Claire in The Breakfast Club to argue that some of Hughes’ work was now out of step with modern sensibilities.
“I can see now, Bender sexually harasses Claire throughout the film,” she wrote in 2018. “When he’s not sexualizing her, he takes out his rage on her with vicious contempt, calling her ‘pathetic,’ mocking her as ‘Queenie.’ It’s rejection that inspires his vitriol. Claire acts dismissively toward him, and, in a pivotal scene near the end, she predicts that at school on Monday morning, even though the group has bonded, things will return, socially, to the status quo. ‘Just bury your head in the sand and wait for your f**kin’ prom!’ Bender yells. He never apologizes for any of it, but, nevertheless, he gets the girl in the end.”
The actress admitted her reassessment of The Breakfast Club may seem “overly critical” to some, but her views were based on significant reflection.
Ringwald took some other light-hearted jabs at The Breakfast Club over the years. At a 40th anniversary cast reunion in April 2025, Ringwald took issue with a climactic scene where Claire made over moody goth student Allison (Ally Sheedy) so she was more conventionally attractive to their jock classmate Andrew (Emilio Estevez).
“I just want to say that I am not responsible for the makeover,” Ringwald told the crowd at C2E2. “And I was really not happy.”
According to Entertainment Weekly, Ringwald stressed that she was particularly opposed to Claire stipping away all of Allison’s personal style.
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“I thought that it would’ve been better just to strip off all of the makeup and just have Ally’s face fresh-scrubbed because it’s so beautiful,” she argued. “I didn’t like the way that they did her hair at the end … I was not responsible.”
During The Breakfast Club’s 40th anniversary reunion, Ringwald suggested that a remake or reboot of the ’80s classic wouldn’t work today, People reported.
“I personally don’t believe in remaking that movie, because I think this movie is very much of its time,” Ringwald insisted. “It resonates with people today. I believe in making movies that are inspired by other movies but build on it and represent what’s going on today. This is very, you know, it’s very white, this movie. You don’t see a lot of different ethnicities. We don’t talk about gender. None of that. And I feel like that really doesn’t represent our world today.”
The star’s third collaboration with Hughes was for 1986’s Pretty in Pink, which revolved around high school senior Andie Walsh’s (Ringwald) love triangle with the suave Blane McDonnagh (Andrew McCarthy) and geeky best friend Duckie Dale (Jon Cryer).
One of the more infamous behind-the-scenes stories about the making of Pretty in Pink is that director Howard Deutch shot a scrapped ending where Andie chose Duckie over Blane. Test audiences hated the Andie-Duckie ending so much that a new climax was hastily written and shot.
Much of the modern debate around Pretty in Pink deals with Duckie’s sexuality. Speaking to Out Magazine in 2012, Ringwald lent credence to a fan theory that Duckie may have been coming to terms with his sexuality throughout the movie.
“Duckie doesn’t know he’s gay. I think he loves Andie in the way that [my gay best friend] always loved me,” she said. “That ending fell so flat — it bombed at all the screenings. I didn’t realize it then — I just knew that my character shouldn’t end up with him, because we didn’t have that sort of chemistry. If Jon was here now, and I could talk to him, I think that he would completely acknowledge that.”
Cryer disagreed with Ringwald’s interpretation of Duckie, telling Zap2It in 2012 his costar was basing her assessment on a real person who partially inspired the character.
“[Molly] said that the guy whom Duckie was based on was gay. It’s a different thing. Let’s be clear here,” Cryer said. “No, she actually said that if one projected beyond the movie, that Duckie would be out by now. And I respectfully disagree.”
Duckie’s casting is another hot-button topic. Ringwald admitted to Vanity Fair in 2021 that she had unsuccessfully lobbied Hughes to cast her friend Robert Downey Jr. as Duckie, instead of Cryer.
“I had wanted Robert for the role. I think John wanted either Anthony or Michael J. Fox, who was gonna do it at one point but had to drop out because he got Back to the Future,” she revealed. “It would’ve made for a completely different movie had any of them played Duckie. But once Jon [Cryer] stepped into that role, there was no question that he was the guy. He put so much of himself into that role that it’s impossible to imagine anybody else.”
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There have also been rumors of on-set tension surrounding Pretty in Pink. Director Deutch alleged in 2020 that Ringwald and McCarthy grew to hate each other on set because she harbored an unrequited crush on her costar. Ringwald offered a more nuanced explanation in 2021 about her off-screen dynamic with McCarthy.
“I was only 17, and Andrew was already in his 20s, so we were definitely living very different lives,” Ringwald clarified to Vanity Fair. “But we got along fine and ended up doing another movie together a few years later. I feel like we had an interesting dynamic because we definitely were not a couple, and we weren’t really friends either, but we had a lot of chemistry.”
Another element of Pretty in Pink that Ringwald has routinely criticized is the triangular pink prom dress designed by Marilyn Vance. While Andie’s grown became the definitive prom attire for the 1980s, Ringwald was never a fan of Vance’s design choices.
“[I’d want] pretty much anything but what I wore,” she told Good Morning America in 2024. “Anything would have been better. Marilyn Vance did the dress, the very ’80s sort of inverted triangle. It was not what I had imagined. I was not very happy with it and I really did want to change it, but now that I look back on it, it was very much of its time.”
© Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
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