Minnesota Vikings safety Camryn Bynum shared a behind-the-scenes clip of him and some teammates learning the choreography to an iconic chant from Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam.
In a video shared via X on Sunday, December 22, Bynum, 26, taught Josh Metellus, Byron Murphy Jr., Harrison Phillips and Theo Jackson the hand motions and footwork that the Camp Rock 2 cast performed in the 2010 Disney Channel Original Movie.
“‘CAMP ROCK!!!!’ Behind the scenes 90’s babies this is for y’all! ,” he captioned the clip.
Bynum shared footage of the athletes rehearsing and then performing the choreo in uniform on the football field. The Vikings defense broke out into the dance after a takeaway late into the fourth quarter during their Sunday game against the Seattle Seahawks. Jackson’s interception of a pass from Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith with under a minute left in the game sealed the Vikings’ 27-24 victory.
Bynum also included a clip from Camp Rock 2 for a side-by-side comparison. In the footage, Demi Lovato led a group of campers in the chant. Kevin, Nick and Joe Jonas also recited the cheer. Kevin, 37, retweeted the video of the Vikings learning the nostalgic dance.
Camryn Bynum.
Nick, 32, reflected on the Camp Rock 2 scene — which went viral on TikTok a decade after the film premiered — during an August interview with People.
“I am super amused, I would say, by the clips from it that have since gone viral now on TikTok and other places,’” the Jonas Brothers musician said. “I’m going to say ‘amusing’ because I also think it’s hilarious. I remember thinking of that one in particular — the sort of Stomp moment — I remember thinking while we were shooting, ‘This is really strange.’”
Nick and his brothers played members of the boy band Connect Three in Camp Rock and its sequel, while Lovato, 32, played camper and aspiring musician Mitchie Torres. Lovato previously poked fun at her performance while rewatching the OG film in 2020.
“The amount of awkward f—ing things I did in this movie … I can’t,” the “Heart Attack” singer wrote via her Instagram Story alongside a scene of herself and Camp Rock costar Alyson Stoner.
The Camp Rock 2 chant is not the first time the Minnesota Vikings have celebrated a successful play with a pop culture reference. During an October game against the New York Jets, Bynum and Metellus, 26, recreated the handshake that Lindsay Lohan and Simon Kunz perform in The Parent Trap. The NFL stars broke out the handshake’s iconic hip bumps and hand slaps after Bynum intercepted a pass from Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
“As soon as I knew we were playing in London — and I watched The Parent Trap last week — I’m like, ‘This is it,’” Bynum said in a post-game press conference. He called the 1998 film, which takes place partially in London, “one of my favorite movies.”
Justin Baldoni spoke out about believing that men “want to be better” months before Blake Livelyaccused him of sexual harassment.
While speaking exclusively with Us Weekly in October, Baldoni, 40, said that while men are “the driving force of all crime,” their behavior is “a cry for help.”
“This is not because men are bad men. I believe that there is a cry for help. There’s a cry for community right now. We want to be good men. We want to be better men,” the actor told Us at the time. “What I’ve learned is that men are awesome. What I’ve learned is that every man I meet wants to be a good man and a better man. That men are not trash, that men are not to be labeled this thing, but we as men have to do a better job supporting other men and creating safe spaces for them.”
Baldoni made the comments while discussing his podcast “Man Enough,” which “explores what it means to be a man today and how rigid gender roles have affected all people,” per the podcast’s website. He told Us that he had intentionally “made an effort” not to use the phrase “toxic masculinity” when discussing men on his podcast.
“The reason why is because it’s one of those phrases that’s been politicized, and you lose a bunch of people. In my experience, a word isn’t worth it. If 50 percent of the people will not hear my message because of a phrase, then I won’t [use it],” he explained.
Lively, 37, filed a lawsuit on Friday, December 20, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment and launching a smear campaign to damage her reputation. In the legal filing, Lively claimed that a meeting was held to address her claims that there was a “hostile work environment” on the set of the film It Ends With Us, which Baldoni directed and starred in alongside Lively.
Some of Lively’s demands for the meeting included “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake’s weight, and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.”
Lively also alleged in the lawsuit that Baldoni improvised unwanted kissing for the film, which hit theaters in August.
“Mr. Baldoni improvised physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed, or discussed with Ms. Lively, with no intimacy coordinator involved,” the court documents state. “For instance, Mr. Baldoni discreetly bit and sucked on Ms. Lively’s lower lip during a scene in which he improvised numerous kisses on each take. Mr. Baldoni insisted on shooting the full scene over and over again, well beyond what would have been required on an ordinary set, and without advance notice or consent.”
The suit also includes text messages and emails which Lively obtained through a subpoena. The text messages allegedly show that Baldoni worked with a crisis PR team to prevent stories about his behavior and boost negative stories about Lively. In one message allegedly sent on August 2, a publicist working with Baldoni wrote to a crisis management expert, “He wants to feel like she can be buried.”
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman called the suit’s claims “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” in a statement shared with Us, claiming that Lively filed the lawsuit to “fix her negative reputation” and “rehash a narrative” about the film’s production.
Lively, meanwhile, said in a statement to The New York Times, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
Tennis pros Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter are engaged!
Boulter, 28, announced the news via Instagram on Monday, December 23.
“We’ve been keeping a small secret … ,” she captioned a photo of her and de Minaur, 25, standing cheek to cheek. Boulter posed with her arm around de Minaur in the snap, showing off an emerald cut diamond engagement ring.
In a post that Boulter shared one week prior, she was dressed in the same clothes and posing at the same waterside location seen in the engagement announcement.
“Today was a good day,” she captioned the picture of herself, seemingly hinting at the proposal.
The tennis power couple began dating in March 2020. Boulter previously shut down engagement speculation when celebrating the duo’s anniversary earlier this year.
“4 years with you (calm down not engaged just the only finger that ring fits. ),” she captioned a March Instagram photo of her and de Minaur smiling at each other. She wore a gold band on her ring finger in the picture.
Boulter, who is currently the British No. 1 in women’s singles, took a moment to gush about her now-fiancé in September.
“Couldn’t be prouder of this man. My forever inspiration,” she captioned several photos of the twosome’s trip to New York City for the U.S. Open. At the event, de Minaur reached his third consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal of the season before losing in straight sets to Jack Draper.
The Australian athlete, who reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 6 in July, told reporters on Sunday, December 22, that despite having his “best year to date” he is “not satisfied” yet.
“I want more. I want to keep pushing myself,” de Minaur said, per Nine’s Wide World of Sports. “I want to one day finish my career knowing that I gave the absolute max and everything I could do to be the best possible tennis player.”
Despite being united by their recent engagement, de Minaur and Boulter will soon be rivals when Great Britain takes on Australia at the United Cup in Perth on New Year’s Day.
“I don’t think he’s going to be out there cheering for me. Obviously, I’m always supporting him, I support what he does,” Boulter admitted while discussing the upcoming match with Sky Sports on Sunday. “In that match, it’s a very unique situation and something that I’m not that used to. We’ll just try to handle it the best we possibly can, and I’ll be supporting him every single time from the box for the rest of the year.”
While the pair will be rooting against each other on January 1, de Minaur previously celebrated when he and Boulter won titles on the same day. In June, de Minaur won his second grass-court tour-level title in Hertogenbosch, beating Sebastian Korda just hours before Boulter defeated Karolina Pliskova in the Nottingham trophy match.
“Double trouble X Another unreal week @katiecboulter,” de Minaur captioned side-by-side photos of him and Boulter on the court at the time.
Lively, 37, filed a lawsuit against her former It Ends With Us costarJustin Baldoni on Friday, December 20, accusing him of sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign to damage her reputation. One of Baldoni’s publicists Melissa Nathan — who represented Johnny Depp during his and Heard’s 2022 defamation trial — is also named in the suit.
Heard, 38, reacted to the legal filing in a statement shared with NBC News on Monday, December 23.
“Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying, ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on,’” Heard said. “I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”
Depp, 61, took legal action against Heard after she identified herself as a victim of domestic violence in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed. Although Heard did not mention Depp by name in the article, he claimed that her allegations of violence damaged his reputation and career. The former couple were married from 2015 to 2017.
A jury sided with Depp in June 2022, awarding him $15 million in damages. Heard has previously spoken out about how social media coverage of the highly-publicized trial impacted public opinion of her.
Johnny Depp attends his defamation trial against Amber Heard
“Even somebody who is sure I’m deserving of all this hate and vitriol, even if you think that I’m lying, you still couldn’t tell me — look me in the eye and tell me — that you think on social media there’s been a fair representation,” she said during a June 2022 interview with Today’s Savannah Guthrie. “You cannot tell me that you think that this has been fair.”
Lively claimed in her legal filing that Baldoni, 40, hired a crisis communications team that included Nathan to orchestrate a “social manipulation” campaign to damage her reputation amid reports of drama between the pair on the set of It Ends With Us, which hit theaters in August.
Per The New York Times, the lawsuit included “thousands of pages of text messages and emails” which Lively obtained through a subpoena. In one message allegedly sent on August 2, a publicist working with Baldoni wrote to a crisis management expert, “He wants to feel like she can be buried.”
The text messages allegedly show that the crisis PR team worked to prevent stories about Baldoni’s behavior and boost negative stories about Lively. Per the NYT, Jed Wallace’s digital strategy amplified social media posts that supported their narrative.
“We are crushing it on Reddit,” Wallace allegedly texted.
Lively also alleged in the legal filing that a meeting was held to address her claims that there was a “hostile work environment” on the set of It Ends With Us. Some of her demands for the meeting included “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake’s weight, and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.”
Justin Baldoni attends the ‘It Ends With Us’ New York Premiere
In a statement to the NYT Lively said of the lawsuit, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman slammed Lively’s “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” accusations in a statement shared with Us Weekly, claiming that the actress filed the lawsuit to “fix her negative reputation” and “rehash a narrative” about the film’s production.
Freedman further claimed that Lively made “multiple demands and threats” while filming It Ends With Us, including “threatening to not show up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.”
In the wake of the bombshell lawsuit, several of Lively’s collaborators have voiced their support for her. A Simple Favor director Paul Feig shared a statement via X on Sunday, December 22.
“I’ve now made two movies with Blake and all I can say is she’s one of the most professional, creative, collaborative, talented and kind people I’ve ever worked with,” he wrote. “She truly did not deserve any of this smear campaign against her. I think it’s awful she was put through this.”
Colleen Hoover, who penned the novel of the same name that inspired It Ends With Us, has also stood by Lively.
“Blake Lively you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met,” Hoover, 45, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, December 21. “Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.”
Dancing With the Stars has been on the air since 2005, but the reality competition series’ relevancy has not waned. In fact, the show’s record-breaking 33rd season proved that its fanbase is growing — and more engaged than ever.
The season 33 contestants received a combined total of 14 million votes during the first elimination episode in September, the most votes cast for a single episode in the show’s history to that point. The record didn’t last long, though, as Variety reported that more than 19 million votes were cast during the Halloween-themed episode, and the November finale brought in a whopping 32 million votes for the five final pairs.
Not only were DWTS fans voting this year at a rate they never have before, more people were watching. 7.95 million people tuned in to the season 33 finale compared to 5.5 million who watched the season 32 conclusion in 2023. From a ratings standpoint, it was the largest DWTS finale with multiplatform audiences since 2019 and the largest with adults 18-49 since 2017.
The reality show’s growing popularity with the 18-49 age bracket is striking in a time when fewer young people are opting for cable packages, instead tuning in to streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu. In 2023, DWTS began airing live on both ABC and the streaming platform Disney+, making it accessible to a wider audience. (The reality series aired solely on Disney+ in 2022 before returning to its home on ABC in 2023.)
DWTS’ co-executive producer Deena Katz told Variety in November that people in their “young 20s” who don’t watch network television have gotten “invested” in the show from seeing clips on social media.
“I’m finding these 20-somethings are having watch parties. We’re appointment TV again,” Katz said.
DWTS does, in fact, have a large footprint online, particularly on TikTok. This season, Danny Amendola and his partner, Witney Carson’s contemporary routine to X Ambassadors’ “Unsteady” went viral on the app, with people uploading videos of themselves trying to recreate the dance’s impressive lift. (During the performance, Amendola, 39, lifted Carson, 31, off the floor by one leg as she arched her back.)
Other duos used TikTok to document their close bonds, a highlight of watching DWTS that can only be explored so much during the live show. Olympian Ilona Maher and her partner, Alan Bersten, routinely racked up hundreds of thousands of views on humorous videos of their antics, Brooks Nader and Gleb Savchenko got people talking with steamy videos of them behind the scenes, and first-time pro Ezra Sosa shared a clip debuting partner Anna Delvey’s bedazzled ankle monitor.
Delvey, 33, who was found guilty of grand larceny and theft of services in 2019, was technically under house arrest during her stint on DWTS for overstaying her visa. She had to receive permission from U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to appear on the show. Her casting was controversial from the moment it was announced, and her disinterested, deadpan demeanor was behind one of the most talked-about moments of the season. When cohost Julianne Hough asked Delvey what she planned to take away from her DWTS experience following her September elimination, she candidly replied, “Nothing.”
Rob Mills, executive Vice President of unscripted and alternative entertainment at Walt Disney Television, explained to Variety in November that the show needs “people like Anna Delvey” in the cast.
“In Season 2, it was must-see TV watching Master P, who refused to even wear ballroom shoes and was being yelled at by [late judge] Len Goodman for not taking the whole thing more seriously,” he recalled.
DWTS’ approach to casting is undoubtedly an integral part of keeping the show fresh after 33 seasons. With septuagenarian actor Reginald VelJohnson, 2024 Summer Olympics viral sensation Stephen Nedoroscik and Bachelor Nation stars Jenn Tran and Joe Graziadei, the season 33 cast truly had something for everyone. People of all ages and backgrounds could tune in and find someone to root for.
“What was magic about the show in its heyday is back. The lesson we learned this season is the same one we learned the first season, which is what the magic in the show is: the cast,” Mills explained. “Get people in, then give people a reason to stay … You have to look for either the people everyone’s going to know and want to see, or the person who, two weeks from now, you were going to understand why we picked them.”
In addition to diverse casts and a strong social media presence, showrunner Conrad Green thinks DWTS’ “positive” tone resonates with people now more than ever.
“At a time when the country feels so divided, it’s really nice to be able to have something where you can see what everyone has in common. You can see people aspiring to do something positive and work together,” Green told Variety. “I think it’s reassuring to be able to spend time in a week reminding yourself how America works, not how it doesn’t work. Culturally, it’s a reassuring show, and it reminds you of the positive things that we can all do.”
DWTS hit its 500th episode in November, and if this season was any indication, the show will go on.
1923 actress Danielle Vasinova was legally dead for three minutes while battling COVID-19 in December 2019, and she’s telling her story.
“I didn’t see the light or a tunnel but they say it can come back to you in flashbacks,” Vasinova, 42, who is slated to appear in the upcoming Yellowstone spinoff The Madison, told People in an interview published on Thursday, December 19.
She continued, “I did, however, start to see a lot of angel numbers everywhere. I would see sequences like 5555, 7777. It was bizarre, but something was telling me, ‘There’s something more for you. You weren’t meant to go just yet. You’re meant to do something else.'”
Vasinova recalled thinking she had the flu when she visited an urgent care facility in downtown Los Angeles.
“They decided it was strep and sent me home with some antibiotics. But by the next day, I could barely walk. My legs wouldn’t move. It was bizarre,” she said.
By the time Vasinova’s uncle rushed her to the emergency room at 2 a.m., she felt like she was “going to die.” Her heart stopped beating for three full minutes. An ER nurse made repeated attempts to revive her, and eventually found a pulse. Vasinova was then put into an induced coma.
“I had complete organ failure,” she explained. “I went from young and healthy to this infection that completely took over my body all of a sudden. It just came on, and it just rocked my world.”
Surviving the near-death experience left Vasinova feeling “so much more connected” to life.
“It’s hard to even describe how I feel,” she said. “This felt like the turning point in my life. The death, and the rebirth. I know to take nothing for granted. Life is so precious and it is such a gift. We’re here to do some good in the world, to be of service, and to be forever grateful.”
Vasinova got the opportunity to directly thank the ER nurse who successfully resuscitated her.
“I found out her name was Ruby, so I went back to the hospital with a bracelet with a tiny ruby in it just to say, ‘Thank you for saving my life,’” she said. “I didn’t know if she was going to recognize me, but when she opened the door, I started crying, and she just lost it. She told me she never knows who lives or dies after they get transferred. She just gave me the biggest hug. Because I’d been gone for three full minutes. But I came back.”
With the health scare behind her, Vasinova is looking toward the future. She took to Instagram on Tuesday, December 17, to share her excitement about joining the cast of The Madison, which is currently in production and expected to premiere in 2025.
“So proud to be joining this tremendous cast and truly special project. big thanks to [Yellowstone cocreator] Taylor [Sheridan] for everything & for welcoming me into the @yellowstone family,” she wrote.
Vasinova will play Kestrel, “an indigenous woman married to a Montana rancher who lives with her family on a double-wide trailer on their ranch,” per Variety.
Spencer Prattwoke up and chose violence by starting a random feud with his former The Hills costar Lo Bosworth.
Pratt, 41, took to TikTok on Wednesday, December 18, to throw shade at Bosworth, 38, and her women’s personal care brand, Love Wellness. In the clip, he used a screenshot of a video where Bosworth talked about the causes of vaginal infections as a green screen.
“Oh, my gosh, I’m so excited that Lo found something to focus all her time and energy [on]. Good luck with this amazing business you have,” he began in a sarcastic tone. “But, TikTok, please don’t ever put this on my For [You] Page again. I’m just trying to enjoy scrolling on my hike here, and I did not need to know about Lo’s infections that she has dealt with.”
Bosworth was quick to respond, commenting on the video, “Hi Spencer, we’re in Walmart target and ulta if u ever need us @lovewellness.”
The brand’s official TikTok account also left a comment, promoting Love Wellness’ bloating relief pills while throwing shade at Pratt’s appearance.
“Bye Bye Bloat collab? DM us babe ,” the Love Wellness account wrote.
After one TikTok user commented on Pratt’s video that Love Wellness’ products are “actually great,” Pratt jokingly asked for a discount code. Bosworth came through with the code “PRATTDADDY15,” and Pratt then made a video promoting the brand.
“Use code PRATTDADDY15 and get those preventative measures so you never have to worry about the issues that Lo discusses in her marketing ads,” he said in the clip. “Thank you, Lo. I would’ve liked PRATTDADDY25 percent off for the holidays, but we’ll do PRATTDADDY15. So, everyone go shop Love Wellness [and] get your everything in order [and] smelling great.”
Pratt also replied to another TikToker user who said “Love Wellness slaps,” saying that he’s “happy that people love” the brand but doesn’t want to see “so many ads” for it.”
“I just didn’t appreciate hearing so much about you-know-who’s you-know-what, but I’m glad the products work well,” he said.
The reality TV personality also addressed a fan who encouraged him to “move on” from his past beef with Bosworth.
“Let’s be clear, I definitely hold grudges. I don’t need to go down the list of why I don’t care about said person,” he said in a response video. “I’m glad she’s actually helping women, that’s amazing. But I’m not a woman, so I shouldn’t be targeted by this ad.”
Pratt and Bosworth did not see eye to eye on Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County and its spinoff, The Hills, and they’ve butted heads since the latter ended in 2010. After Bosworth told E! News in 2018 that she had no interest in returning for the Hills reboot, Pratt shared a screenshot of the quote via X, writing, “Lol nobody was calling you for #thehills anything.”
In a subsequent tweet he wrote, “Like for real peeps would be like who dat?”
Ethan Slater’s ex-wife, Dr. Lilly Jay, is opening up about how the pair’s highly publicized split affected her.
“No one gets married thinking they’ll get divorced … but I really never thought I would get divorced. Especially not just after giving birth to my first child, and especially not in the shadow of my husband’s new relationship with a celebrity,” Jay wrote in an essay for The Cuttitled “How Does My Divorce Make You Feel?” The title of the piece, which was published on Thursday, December 19, nods to Jay’s work as a therapist.
Slater, 32, filed for divorce in July 2023, one month shy of his and Jay’s son’s first birthday. That same month, news broke of Slater’s romance with his Wicked costar Ariana Grande. Jay admitted to struggling with the ubiquity of the Wicked press tour in her essay.
“Days with my son are sunny. Days when I can’t escape the promotion of a movie associated with the saddest days of my life are darker,” she wrote.
Jay recalled the “distance” that grew between her and Slater as they navigated raising a newborn while he was filming part one of Wicked, which hit theaters in November. (Slater met Grande, 31, on the set of the film in December 2022.)
Lilly Jay, Ethan Slater.
“As a perinatal psychologist, I knew all the statistics — how vulnerable a marriage is in the postpartum period, how vital community connection is in preventing depression and anxiety, how new parenthood impacts a whole family — but I confidently moved to another country with my 2-month-old baby and my husband to support his career,” she wrote. “Consumed by the magic and mundanity of new motherhood, I didn’t understand the growing distance between us.”
When her and Slater’s divorce made headlines, Jay began to “deeply miss the life of invisibility” she intentionally created for the sake of her patients. Despite her wish to never be “fully known” by the people in her care, strangers suddenly knew intimate details about Jay’s life.
Ethan Slate and Lilly Jay.
After mourning that seismic shift, Jay tried to think of a way that her own experiences might help her patients, whom she notes have so far “remained silent” about her public divorce.
“Maybe we can think about my messy not-so-personal life in that way: a dose of my own loss, rage, powerlessness, sadness that helps me hold yours,” she wrote. “Knowing what you now know, I can say with both personal and professional authority, you are so much stronger than you assume. Some of what you loved most about your partner was actually your own goodness reflected back to you; it’s yours to keep and carry forward.”
On a similarly hopeful note, Jay shared that she has “come to believe that in the absence of the life I planned with my high school sweetheart, a lifetime of sweetness is waiting for me and my child.”
The psychologist also emphasized that while she and Slater’s “partnership has changed, our parenthood has not. Both of us fiercely love our son 100 percent of the time, regardless of how our parenting time is divided.”
When news of Grande and Slater’s relationship first broke, some people speculated that Slater had cheated on Jay with the pop star. Grande and Slater have both suggested that the narrative is false.
“It’s really hard to see people who don’t know anything about what’s happening commenting on it and speculating, and then getting things wrong about the people you love,” Slater said of the situation during an October interview with GQ.
Grande, meanwhile, told Vanity Fair in September that it was “disappointing” to “see so many people believe the worst version” of events.
Angelina Jolie’s sons saw a whole new side of her while working as production assistants on her new film, Maria.
“They’ve seen me go through a lot of things, but they hadn’t experienced me expressing a lot of the pain that usually a parent hides from a child,” Jolie, 49, told BBC News of 23-year-old Maddox and 21-year-old Pax in an interview published on Wednesday, December 18. “So, they were there to witness some of that, but then we would hug or they would bring me cups of tea.”
Jolie portrays renowned opera singer Maria Callas in the biopic, which was released in select theaters on November 27 and is now streaming on Netflix. Callas, who died at age 53 in 1977, faced her share of struggles and scandals over the course of her career, including vision problems, vocal decline and a highly publicized affair with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
Jolie, whose contentious split from ex-husband Brad Pitt has played out in the public eye, explained how she related to Callas during an August press conference promoting the film.
“Well, there’s a lot I won’t say in this room, that you probably know or assume,” the actress said. “I think the way I related to her may be a surprise — [it was] probably the part of her that’s extremely soft and doesn’t have room in the world to be as soft as she truly was, and as emotionally open as she truly was. I share her vulnerability more than anything.”
Angelina Jolie with Maddox Jolie-Pitt and Pax Pitt.
Jolie told BBC News that letting her sons see that vulnerability allowed her to connect and be honest with her children “in an even greater way.”
In addition to Maddox and Pax, Jolie shares Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 16, with Pitt, 61. Jolie has collaborated with her children before; Maddox and Pax have worked on a number of her films, including Without Blood, and Vivienne worked as a producer’s assistant on the Broadway musical The Outsiders, which Jolie coproduced.
Maria director Pablo Larraín told BBC News that Pax and Maddox were “very busy” and “good professionals” on set. Jolie shared that Pax recorded some of her vocal training sessions for Maria, hearing her “early horrible days.” She trained for about seven months to sing for the film, which features Jolie’s voice blended with original recordings of Callas.
“[I’m] actually quite shy about singing,” Jolie admitted. “It was probably one of the areas in my life that I was hesitant.”
The Oscar winner noted that she’s glad her sons got to watch her struggle with something outside of her comfort zone.
“It’s always good for your children to watch your mum not do something easily, but swear and fight and fail and have to try again,” she said. “One of the greatest privileges of being an actor is you often are supported by a crew to try something and explore something you’ve never done, and this certainly was most challenging.”
After a satisfying season of strategy-forward gameplay, brutal blindsides and effectively used advantages, a winner has been crowned on Survivor 47.
Warning: Spoilers below for the finale of Survivor 47.
Rachel LaMont beat Sam Phalen and Sue Smey by a vote of 7-1-0 after the three finalists presented their cases to the jury during the Wednesday, December 18, episode. The trio made it to the final three after Rachel, 34, won the last immunity challenge of the season and chose Sam, 24, and Teeny Chirichillo to face off against each other in the fire-making challenge. Sam emerged victorious and progressed to the final three with Rachel and Sue, 59, making Teeny, 24, the final member of the jury.
While explaining her Survivor journey to the jury, Rachel highlighted her adaptability, competition prowess and journey from an “underdog to a big dog.” The jury awarded her gameplay with the title of “sole survivor” and the $1 million prize.
Rachel will go down in history as the winner of what many fans have called the best Survivor season of the CBS show’s new era, which began with season 41 in 2021. Very few Survivor 47 players navigated the game with blind loyalty to their initial tribe members or allies, instead opting to remain adaptable as the playing field dramatically shifted from week to week.
Rachel LaMont
“I think the fluid nature of Survivor is here to stay,” host and executive producer Jeff Probst told Parade on Tuesday, December 17, calling season 47’s excitement a “direct reflection” of casting decisions.
“Today’s player wants to win. And to win, you have to play to win,” Probst, 63, explained. “Playing to win means taking risks that could end your game. That’s the conundrum you face. But taking a cautious approach and just hoping you don’t get voted out will never get the respect of the jury. So it’s a no-win proposition. In order for you to win, every other player must lose, including your closest ally.”
The season’s highly competitive gameplay meant that several members of the jury — which was comprised of Sierra Wright, Sol Yi, Gabe Ortis, Kyle Ostwald, Caroline Vidmar, Andy Rueda, Genevieve Mushaluk and Teeny — would’ve had strong cases to win had they made it to the final three. While players were open about Genevieve, 33, being the player to beat prior to her elimination last week, several jurors were impressed by Andy, 31, and Caroline, 28, after learning more about their games at Ponderosa.
“When [Caroline] came back to Ponderosa, she explained her game to me, and I was blown away. Her level of detail, strategic acumen and self-awareness were all things I didn’t see [during the game], and that was intentional,” Sol, 43, told Entertainment Weeklyon Tuesday. “I call her the Silencer because she sneaked her way through the game being a part of a lot of moves, but no one knew it. She could have won for sure.”
Andy echoed the sentiment, telling EW that he and Caroline spent hours discussing their games after reuniting at Ponderosa.
“She’s so intelligent, and played a game perfectly designed for the new era, but in a way that is also innovative and true to her strengths. She had this idea of actively building up shields in front of her by subtly creating the conditions for them to get credit for moves, knowing that it would set them up to be knocked down,” Andy said of Caroline. “So when you see her earnestly brainstorming with someone, or cheerleading for them, that is both her genuine self but also her strategy, and I’m obsessed with that. Her final Tribal Council speech would’ve saved the planet.”
Gabe, meanwhile, praised Andy, who came up with Operation Italy – a scheme involving a fake immunity idol that saved Genevieve from elimination and led to Caroline’s blindside.
“The info dump we got from him was jaw-dropping. His personality, his game, everything about the guy changed when we got to Ponderosa,” Gabe, 26, said.
Andy even impressed Rachel when he laid out his game for her during the December 11 episode while trying to get her jury vote. However, the move backfired, as Andy didn’t know at the time that Rachel had a hidden immunity idol. Rather than selling himself to a player doomed to be voted out, Andy was highlighting his threat level to the person with all the power, inadvertently persuading her to target him instead of Sam.
Rachel then blindsided everyone but her ally Sue with her hidden immunity idol, advancing to the final five while Andy was eliminated. She proceeded to win immunity at the next challenge, allowing her to target her biggest competitor, Genevieve, while she sailed to the final four.
Mauricio Umanskywas recently spotted locking lips with model Klaudia K, but the duo are not an official item, a source exclusively confirms to Us Weekly.
The insider notes that although The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills‘ Umansky, 54, has been enjoying the 33-year-old’s company, the pair are “not serious.”
“He is dating around and is having fun,” the source says of Kyle Richards‘ estranged husband, adding that Umansky has been telling friends he is single. “He’s a happy go lucky kind of guy and can’t sit still when it comes to dating and traveling right now. He likes his freedom. Mauricio doesn’t want anything serious.”
Umansky cozied up to Klaudia during a night out in Aspen on Tuesday, December 17. In photos obtained by TMZ, the twosome kissed and walked arm in arm outside a sushi restaurant. Umansky was previously linked to actress Nikita Kahn after they were seen kissing at a Mykonos airport in July. The insider shares that he “is no longer seeing” Kahn, 33.
The Agency CEO’s casual flings come after he and Richards, 55, separated in 2023 after 27 years of marriage. The former couple have not moved ahead with divorce proceedings. Richards said during a Tuesday, December 17, appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen that the topic of divorce “just hasn’t come up.”
“We’re good friends. We get along really well. We live separate lives,” she explained. “When the time comes, obviously, we will address it.”
Despite their amicable dynamic, Richards admitted that she has “tried to avoid” meeting the women Umansky has dated since their split. She also agreed with Camille Grammer’s assessment that he seems like he’s having a midlife crisis.
“Probably there is some truth to that,” Richards told costar Erika Jayne during Tuesday’s episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ After Show. “I mean, I would say this to his face, which I actually have … Kind of watching how he’s been navigating through this situation there’s been times I’ve thought, ‘This is giving major midlife crisis vibes.’”
The reality TV star cited Umansky’s recent purchase of a “midlife crisis mobile” as proof.
“It’s just a big monster truck. … The outside is rough [and] sandpapery, and it’s got these big wheels,” she said. “It’s like a monster coming through town. Everyone stares and you’re like, ‘Oh, God.’”
Despite her thoughts on some of Umansky’s life choices, Richards is “on good terms,” with Umansky, the source tells Us.
[They] don’t talk about him dating around,” the insider shares. “There is still no official plan to file for divorce.”
Umansky and Richards share daughters Alexia, 28, Sophia, 24, and Portia, 16. Richards also shares daughter Farrah, 36, with ex-husband Guraish Aldjufrie. Farrah exclusively told Us in March that the family unit has remained “strong” despite Umansky and Richards’ split.
“We have two amazing parents, the best sisters in the world. Given the circumstances, I don’t think it could be any better or we could be handling it any better,” she said. “We know that the future is bright for sure.”
Bobbi Althoff soft-launched a new romance, but two NFL players have come forward to deny being the mystery man in her life.
Althoff, 27, shared a grainy TikTok video of a man kissing her on Tuesday, December 17. Although the man’s face couldn’t be clearly seen in the clip, fans were quick to speculate about his identity, with many people guessing New York Jets offensive tackle Cedric Ogbuehi or Arizona Cardinals cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting.
Murphy-Bunting, 27, took to X on Tuesday to shut down the rumors.
“That’s not me,” he wrote, quote-tweeting another user who claimed it was Murphy-Bunting kissing Althoff in the clip.
Ogbuehi, 32, meanwhile, commented on a TikTok video that theorized about Althoff’s love life update.
“This is not me or Sean lol,” he wrote. Althoff seemingly cosigned the denial, replying, “!!!!!!” to Ogbuehi’s comment.
While Althoff has not yet shared any other details about the man in the video, she previously thanked Murphy-Bunting for having her back during a rough night out. In July, TMZ obtained footage of Murphy-Bunting carrying Althoff out of Nashville’s Barstool Sports Bar in the early hours of the morning. The NFL player lifted Althoff over his shoulders before placing her in the back of an SUV. Althoff addressed the incident via her Instagram Story the next day.
“Last night was scary,” the podcaster wrote, without specifying what happened. “But thankful for having good friends in my life like @SeanMurphyBunting for looking out for me.”
Sean Murphy-Bunting.
Murphy-Bunting also shared the post to his feed, writing, “Always .”
Whoever Bobbi is dating, the relationship comes after she and her ex-husband, Cory Althoff, finalized their divorce in August. The former couple, who tied the knot in 2020, agreed to joint custody of their daughters, Luca, 4, and Isla, 2. Cory filed for divorce in February, listing July 4, 2023, as the pair’s date of separation.
“As sad as I am right now, I am so thankful for the time I got to be his wife,” Bobbi wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post after Cory filed for divorce. “Our girls are so lucky to have him as a father & I am so lucky to be able to coparent with such an incredible father and person. While our relationship did not work out as husband and wife, we will always be friends and I will always love him.”
Amid the couple’s split, some fans speculated that Bobbi had cheated on Cory with her “Really Good Podcast” guests. Known for her deadpan and disinterested interview style, Bobbi has had conversations with stars including Drake, Jimmy Kimmel, Offset, Lil Yachty and Tyga. In July, she shut down the rumors that she’s hooked up with her interview subjects.
“I am really sick of seeing [this comment]. Anyone who says stuff like this is so f—ing ignorant,” she wrote via her Instagram Story, referring to a follower’s comment about divorcing Cory to be “passed around” by different men. “You don’t know why my marriage ended, that we are both so much happier apart than we ever were together. That now our kids get to see two happy parents instead of zero.”
She continued, “I have never slept with someone I interview. I don’t sleep around and I rarely ever go out. But you guys can’t f—ing believe that a woman can be around men without sleeping with them. It’s so frustrating that I can’t post a single thing out comments that I’m being passed around. Go live the lives you deserve and shut the f— up.”
The 67th annual Grammy Awards nominations list is dominated by women in the major categories — including Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Charli XCX, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter — but Dua Lipa was missing from the group.
Lipa, 29, who released her third studio album, Radical Optimism, in May, reacted to the snub during an interview with Billboard published on Monday, December 16.
“I’m so proud of Radical Optimism and where it’s brought me. I love that album, and I’m having the time of my life performing it live, and I’ve been able to do things that I thought I could only dream of this year, so I’m really grateful,” the singer said. “Although it would have been nice to be recognized by your industry — especially as a woman — I’m so proud seeing so many incredible female artists nominated at the Grammys this year.”
Lipa has previously done very well with the Recording Academy, with 10 Grammy nominations and three wins to date. At the 63rd annual Grammy awards in 2021, she received a whopping six nominations and won Best Pop Vocal Album for 2020’s Future Nostalgia. This year, she’s happy to see other women shine, including her longtime pal Charli, 32, who received six nods, including Album of the Year for the massively successful Brat.
Charli XCX and Dua Lipa
“I love her so much and she’s always been a really good friend of mine and been so supportive from day one. She deserves all the flowers,” Lipa said of Charli. “She’s worked her arse off, and it’s so beautiful to see her get the recognition she deserves. She’s really stuck to her guns and allowed herself to be creative in her own way, and it’s paid off. That’s the best thing that can ever happen to an artist. She’s so deserving of every moment.”
While Radical Optimism won’t be taking home any Grammys, Lipa still feels like a winner.
“It’s honestly been the best year of my life,” she said. “Overall I’m really happy with where I am. I don’t think it really matters in the grand scheme of things where I am, where I want to be and where I’m going. It doesn’t change the way I feel about the record at all.”
Lipa knew she wanted to pivot sonically for Radical Optimism, which she described as a psychedelic-pop tribute to U.K. rave culture during a January interview with Rolling Stone. She told Billboard that the success of the disco-influenced Future Nostalgia gave her the “confidence” to experiment.
“It gave me the freedom … to be like, ‘You know who I really want to make an album with? [Tame Impala’s] Kevin Parker. And I want to do something a bit different,’” she recalled.
In addition to forging new creative frontiers, Lipa also debuted a new romance this year. Us Weekly confirmed her relationship with Callum Turner in January. The pair have been going strong ever since, keeping a low profile but sharing sweet photos of each other via social media.
“Dua and Callum spend almost all their time together and are nearly inseparable,” a source exclusively told Us in March. “They travel together, they’ve met each other’s families and they’re very serious about one another.”
During the Tuesday, December 17, episode of his “Viall Files” podcast, Viall, 44, pointed to Vanderpump’s close relationship with Kennedy, 32, and called for the restaurateur to condemn his alleged actions.
“They’re very close. Lisa looks after James,” Viall said, recalling an instance where he crossed paths with Kennedy the one time he visited Vanderpump’s house for a podcast recording. “So, the fact that she hasn’t said anything matters and is a reflection on Lisa. It’s embarrassing, Lisa. Do better.”
Viall didn’t reserve all his vitriol for Vanderpump, 64. He claimed that everyone in Kennedy’s inner circle likely had knowledge of his alleged abusive behavior.
“The people around this f—ing guy who are actually hanging out with him and know this guy and call him a friend, why [are you not speaking up] if this has been going on?” Viall questioned. “There’s just people [that are] part of this Vanderpump [Rules] world who clearly have been looking the other way, who know James. I don’t know how you get to any other conclusion.”
Us Weekly reached out to Vanderpump’s team for comment.
Kennedy was arrested on December 10 after what Burbank Police deemed to be a “domestic incident” between a man and a woman. A witness reportedly saw Kennedy arguing with a woman and allegedly grabbing her, TMZ reported. The Vanderpump Rules alum was taken into custody and booked for domestic violence. He was later released on bail. Charges are still pending.
Kennedy and his girlfriend, Ally Lewber, attended Kathy Kilton’s DIRECTV’s Christmas party the night of his arrest. A source exclusively told Us that the couple were “cuddling together and taking photos” at the event, but a second insider witnessed a change in Kennedy’s demeanor later in the evening.
“His guy friend was chasing him from Kathy’s basement all the way throughout Kathy’s backyard, and James looked mad while running away,” the insider claimed. “The guy who was chasing him almost fell into the pool and dropped a lantern in the pool causing a huge scene. Everyone was wondering what was going on.”
“I’m the only one who saw this. … James turns around and he says to his friend — I forgot his friend’s name, but let’s say his friend’s name is Sam — He goes, ‘Sam, hold this now!’” Viall recalled during the Thursday, December 12, episode of his podcast. “I was, like, [shocked] and his friend just grabbed the drink, and James kept walking. I was like, ‘That was insane.’”
Days after the party, Lewber, 28, who began dating Kennedy in 2022, addressed Kennedy’s arrest via her Instagram Story.
James Kennedy and Ally Lewber.
“Thank you to everyone who has reached out with love and support and for checking in on me,” she wrote on Saturday, December 14. “I’m OK and taking the time I need right now. I deeply appreciate all the kindness and respect for my privacy during this time.”
After TMZ obtained photos of Kennedy helping Lewber carry personal items out to her car over the weekend, a source exclusively told Us that Lewber’s “parents have come into town and they have gotten an Airbnb” where Lewber is staying. The insider added that the couple are “having some distance but it’s not over” between them.
On Tuesday, Kennedy spoke out for the first time since his arrest.
“I am committed to making meaningful changes in my life,” the DJ wrote via his Instagram Story. “I am taking time to focus on my sobriety, personal growth and being present for my loved ones.”
“We are in the process of conducting our own investigation into the allegations levied by the Burbank Police Department against James,” the statement read. “We understand that there were no injuries and we are hoping that, after careful review, the city’s attorneys will decide not to file formal charges.”
Two of Kenendy’s exes, Kristen Doute and Rachel “Raquel” Leviss, have reacted to his arrest.
Leviss, 30, who dated Kennedy from 2016 to 2021, took to Instagram on Friday to share a screenshot of a TMZ headline that called Kennedy’s arrest a “misunderstanding.”
“The amount of times I convinced myself that the abuse I endured by James Kennedy Georgiou was a ‘misunderstanding’ is sickening,” Leviss wrote in the caption.
Doute, 41, who dated Kennedy from 2013 to 2015, shared an article about Kennedy’s arrest on Thursday, writing, “Finally.”
Kennedy has never publicly addressed Doute or Leviss’ claims.
If you or someone you know are experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
Coparenting with an ex can be difficult no matter the time of year, but the holiday season often presents a unique set of challenges.
During a December episode of her “Whine Down” podcast, Jana Kramer admitted she was “struggling” to make Christmas Eve plans because her two oldest children — daughter Jolie, 8, and son Jace, 6 — are spending the holiday with her ex-husband Mike Caussin.
“I’m already starting to be, like, depressed about it. Because, you know, baking the cookies before Santa comes — I don’t get to do any of that,” Kramer said. “I don’t get to make cookies with them, I don’t get to leave out the note [for Santa] the night before. I don’t get to leave out the carrots for the reindeer or put the reindeer food out. … This would probably be the last year that Jolie’s gonna be all in writing to Santa.”
Keep scrolling to see how Kramer and more stars plan to get through the holidays while splitting family time with their exes:
Kristin Cavallari and Jay Cutler
Cavallari and Cutler, who finalized their divorce in 2022, share sons Camden, 12, and Jaxon, 10, and daughter Saylor, 9. During a December episode of her “Let’s Be Honest” podcast, Cavallari revealed the exes’ holiday coparenting schedule.
“Any divorced parent can relate to this and understand this: I didn’t have [my kids] for Thanksgiving this year, so I do have them leading up to Christmas, Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, which I prefer quite honestly,” she explained. “That’ll be nice, but then I don’t have them for a week. [On] Christmas Day at noon they go to Jay’s, and then I don’t get them until the 2nd [of January].”
Cavallari noted that normally she would pass the time away from her kids by going on a trip, but this year she plans to relax at home and prepare for her upcoming podcast tour.
“I’m doing microneedling one day and I’m gonna do a facial one day. I’m gonna get coffee with a girlfriend I haven’t seen in a while. I’m in this mode of rest and taking care of myself,” she said. “I’m just trying to relax.”
Tarek El Moussa and Christina Hall
The HGTV stars are beating the coparenting holiday blues by spending Christmas Eve together this year. Tarek’s wife, Heather Rae El Moussa, exclusively told Us Weekly about the blended family’s plans.
“We usually have [Tarek and Christina’s kids on] Christmas day. She has them [on] Christmas Eve, but [this year] I think we’re gonna spend Christmas Eve together,” Heather said. “[For] one of the first times.”
Tarek and Christina share daughter, Taylor, 14, and son Brayden, 9, while Tarek and Heather, who tied the knot in 2021, share son Tristan, 22 months. Hall is also mom to son Hudson, 5, whom she shares with ex-husband Ant Anstead.
Jesse Lally and Michelle Lally
The Valley costars are still getting the hang of holiday coparenting after splitting in October 2023.
“We’re working on our schedule,” Jesse, who shares daughter Isabella, 4, with Michelle, exclusively told Us in December. “This particular year, unfortunately, Michelle’s mom passed away right before Thanksgiving. So, I spent Thanksgiving eve with Isabella and then drove her down so she could spend Thanksgiving and the weekend with Michelle’s family. And she’s gonna do Christmas with them as well this year so they can kind of talk about her grandmother and keep that memory alive for her.”
While Jesse understands that Michelle’s circumstances are unique this year, he acknowledged that it’s “gonna be a hard Christmas” for him because he’s never “done a Christmas without” Isabella.
Lindsie Chrisley and Will Campbell
Chrisley’s 11-year-old son, Jackson, will be spending Christmas with her ex-husband, Campbell, which has put a damper on her holiday spirit.
“I don’t have a tree up, not putting one up,” she said during a December episode of her and Kailyn Lowry’s “Coffee Convos” podcast. “I don’t have Jackson for Christmas, so it’s just something that I’m not doing.”
The Chrisley KnowsBest alum admitted that it’s “bittersweet” not having her son for the holidays.
“You don’t have to worry about doing all this stuff, but also it’s sad. And, like, no matter how many years it’s like that, it’s still sad. It’s lonely,” she said. “And then you just hope that it’s over soon.”
Lindsie added that when she had Jackson for Christmas in 2023, she allowed him to go see Campbell and his paternal grandparents on Christmas night. Her ex apparently won’t be returning the favor this year.
“This year, it’s Will’s full Christmas day, and he’s not gonna offer the same thing to me that I offered him last year. Why? I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve had to learn through therapy that I have to respect the choices that he makes on the time that he is allotted. And just because I choose to do something for the betterment of my child doesn’t mean he has to choose that same thing.”
Jana Kramer and Mike Caussin
Kramer and Caussin’s two kids will be with Caussin this Christmas Eve, since Kramer had them for the holiday last year. The last time Kramer was away from her children on Christmas Eve, the family simply celebrated Christmas on December 26, which caused some friction with Caussin.
“Me and my ex fought about it because he [was] like, ‘You can’t change Christmas.’ And I’m like, ‘You can’t tell me what to do,’” she recalled during a December episode of her “Whine Down” podcast.
Kramer, who also shares son Roman, 13 months, with husband Allan Russell, said that even if going over to Caussin’s house on Christmas Eve was an option, she wouldn’t want to.
“That feels not good to me,” she said. “Anytime I still go pick up the kids from his house, I don’t like it. … I don’t like being [there]. … He makes himself welcome and cozy here, I don’t step inside his place.”
In addition to her own discomfort, Kramer said she wouldn’t want to encroach on Caussin’s time with Jolie and Jace.
“Those are his memories. I wouldn’t invite him to do that here with us,” she admitted. “As much as I have tried to make a great situation for everyone and invite him to parties … I don’t want him here on our family nights decorating cookies.”
Kramer did, however, text Caussin about going to Christmas Eve church services with him and their kids, but said he “hasn’t responded” to her yet.
Hoda Kotb and Joel Schiffman
Joel Schiffman and Hoda Kotb.
On the December 24 episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna, Kotb revealed that her ex-fiancé would be included in her family’s 2024 Christmas plans. “For us, our Christmas isn’t huge ‘cause it’s me, my kids, my mom, my sister, Joel. We get together,” she shared. (The exes split in January 2022 and coparent daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 5.)
She continued: “That’s the group, and it’s kind of just a cozy Christmas. So, we’ll put out cookies tonight for Santa and the carrots. He always seems to like the cookies more.”
Kotb teased Schiffman’s inclusion in her holiday celebrations via Instagram earlier that month. In a pic of her family’s Christmas stockings, one with the name “Dad” could be spotted hanging over Kotb’s living room fireplace.
Garth Brooks is still facing a sexual assault lawsuit despite his efforts to have the case dismissed.
Brooks, 62, filed a motion in November requesting a dismissal of the sexual assault and battery lawsuit filed against him by a woman identified as Jane Roe. The country singer’s request was “denied with prejudice” on Monday, December 16, Fox News reported. The denial is temporary, pending the outcome of Brooks’ lawsuit filed against Roe in September.
Brooks filed his lawsuit against Roe preemptively, one month before the sexual assault allegations leveled against him came to light. He identified himself as “John Doe” in the filing, claiming that his accuser was attempting to extort and defame him with “false allegations” that would “irreparably harm” his reputation.
In the suit, Brooks claimed that Roe, who previously worked as his hairstylist and makeup artist, “responded with false and outrageous allegations of sexual misconduct” after he refused to comply with her demands for money, including a salary and medical benefits.
Roe filed her lawsuit in October, accusing Brooks of raping her during a 2019 work trip, sending her sexually explicit text messages, repeatedly exposing his genitals and buttocks to her and discussing his sexual fantasies in front of her. She further claimed that Brooks made “repeated remarks” about “having a threesome” with her and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, whom he married in 2005.
“For the last two months, I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars. It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face,” he said. “Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of — ugly acts no human should ever do to another. We filed suit against this person nearly a month ago to speak out against extortion and defamation of character. We filed it anonymously for the sake of families on both sides.”
After Brooks filed to dismiss Roe’s lawsuit, Rose’s attorney Jeanne M. Christensen condemned the legal action in a statement to Deadline.
“This is just more of the same bullying and intimidation Garth Brooks has used from the moment he learned our client intended to hold him accountable,” Christensen said. “We look forward to getting before a jury and reaching the merits of this case.”
As Brooks’ legal drama continues, Yearwood, 60, has stood by him.
“Trisha completely believes Garth and has complete faith that the allegations are false,” a source told Us in October. “She is supporting him 100 percent.”
Despite her certainty, the lawsuit has been difficult for Yearwood.
“It’s all really upsetting to Trisha,” a second source told Us. “They are a very tight-knit family, so this has been devastating to them. … [Trisha] and the girls hope the truth will prevail in court.”
Yearwood is a devoted stepmother to Brooks’ three daughters with ex-wife Sandy Mahl: Taylor, 32, August, 30, and Allie, 28.
Gracie Lawrence joined the season 3 cast of The Sex Lives of College Girls in the wake of Reneé Rapp’s exit from the Max series, but she hopes her character, Kacey, won’t be seen as a replacement for the Mean Girls actress.
“I think Kacey’s very different [from Rapp’s character, Leighton],” Lawrence, 27, exclusively told Us Weekly at iHeartRadio z100’s Jingle Ball in New York City on Friday, December 13. “There was no intention of ever feeling like it was replacing [her] or anything like that because that’s an iconic character. Leighton is a beloved iconic character. I don’t think anyone — from the creators of the show to any of the actors — would want to step on the toes of that.”
Rapp, 24, announced her exit from the series in July 2023. She appeared in two episodes of season 3, which premiered last month, before Leighton left the fictional Essex College for MIT. Lawrence then made her first appearance as Kacey, Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet), Bela (Amrit Kaur) and Whitney’s (Alyah Chanelle Scott) new roommate.
Lawrence told Us that the SLOCG team was “trying to do something totally new” by adding both herself and Mia Rodgers — who plays openly queer freshman Taylor — to the season 3 cast.
Gracie Lawrence, Renee Rapp
“They’re building out the cast with so much respect and homage to what [Rapp] brought to the show,” she explained.
Like Rapp, Lawrence has a musical background in addition to her acting repertoire. She and her brother, Clyde Lawrence, founded the pop-soul group Lawrence and have released four studio albums to date. Gracie sings on the show — Kacey auditions for a school musical while navigating a breakup — and she told Us that she doesn’t know whether the character was written to be musically inclined before she was cast.
“My sense is that they knew that they wanted to do a character that would be in the theater world and that would inherently maybe have some singing in it. I don’t know whether it was [initially] going to be this much singing or not,” she said. “The fact that Justin [Noble], the cocreator of the show, was so passionate about [the] singing being live … maybe that’s because he liked Lawrence.”
Gracie Lawrence (R) with brother Clyde Lawrence.
Prior to lending her talents to the show, Gracie was a fan of SLOCG “for years,” she told Us.
“I’ve recommended it to friends and always thought it was so funny and great. And then to get the opportunity to be on it was kind of trippy in a weird way,” she said. “I’d call Clyde and I’d be like, ‘I’m in the cafeteria on the show. I am in it.’ I was like, ‘I used to watch that.’ So, it’s a unique experience.”
Sara Bareilleshad no trouble drawing inspiration from Meg Wolitzer’s 2013 coming-of-age novel, The Interestings.
After earning a Best Original Score Tony nod for Waitress in 2016, Bareilles, 44, signed on to compose the musical adaptation of The Interestings, which is currently in the workshop phase. Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright Sarah Ruhl is writing the book.
“I read it so fast,” Bareilles exclusively told Us Weekly in November of Wolitzer’s novel. “It was just a couple of days, and I could not believe how vibrant and alive the world felt to me.”
Both Waitress and The Interestings feature characters who feel distant from younger, more ambitious versions of themselves, but Bareilles noted that the latter has a “sophistication” not present in Waitress.
“[These characters] are hyper-intellectual, whereas Waitress is about a small community, [a] down-home southern town,” she explained. “These are, like, New York intellectuals. So, I think the music [for The Interestings] reflects that a little bit.”
For Bareilles, the “biggest challenge” of the project was “trying to distill and condense” a 560-page novel into one musical.
“We’re not making a six-hour show. Those get made, but we’re not trying to make that kind of show for this book,” she said. “We’re trying to make sure that what is getting distilled are the juiciest bits of this novel, knowing that nothing [we do] is gonna really hold everything this novel holds. And I will always recommend that people — whatever you love or don’t love about the musical — go read this book. I think the book is so special.”
The Interestings follows a group of friends who meet as teenagers at an arts camp in 1974. The novel’s central character, Jules, sees herself as less sophisticated than her peers, and those insecurities follow her into adulthood as she romanticizes her longtime friends’ Ash and Ethan’s lives and marriage.
Bareilles said she “felt so close” to the characters when reading the book, specifically Jules.
“[She] has a little bit of Peter Pan syndrome. I think we often see that trope played out on men, and I don’t know that we see it as often on women, where they just have a hard time letting go of their ambition and their hopes for their younger self,” she explained. “That is a theme that lives very prominently in Waitress, and it’s something that I wrestle with in my life quite a bit, too.”
Jules’ tendency to dream of greener grasses impacts her husband, Dennis, who can’t help but wonder if their life will ever be enough for her. Bareilles explored this conflict in a song called “Enough,” written from Dennis’ perspective.
“I wrote ‘Enough’ before I had even finished the book,” Bareilles said. “I was so moved by the character of Dennis and the themes that were coming up around childhood and growing up and what is enough and when can we be content with what we have?”
The jury is still out on whether Bareilles will join the cast of The Interestings. (While Jessie Mueller originated the lead role of Jenna in Waitress, Bareilles played the part in stints on both Broadway and London’s West End.)
“Right now, I think the only hat I can wear is just composer and [try] to help put the puzzle pieces together,” the singer-songwriter said. “But I mean, I love the idea of being back on stage.”
Bareilles did, however, perform “Enough” during three career-spanning shows at The Kennedy Center in September, accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra. The performances were filmed for PBS’ Next at the Kennedy Center series, and the special — titled Sara Bareilles: New Year’s Eve With the National Symphony Orchestra & Friends — will premiere on December 31.
“It’s a brand new experience for my audience to hear my work interpreted with the extraordinary touch of a giant orchestra,” Bareilles said of the show. “It was daunting in the sense that we wanted to get the set right and choose songs that were going to speak really beautifully [with] an orchestra.”
The program features special guests Rufus Wainwright, Emily King and David Ryan Harris and touches on various periods of Bareilles’ career. Beloved songs including “Love Song,” “Gravity,” “King of Anything” and “Brave” made the setlist along with some deeper cuts and a couple of Waitress tunes.
“It’s really a luxury to get to swim around in all of the music of my lifetime so far,” Bareilles said. “It was just an unforgettable experience.”
The prolific songwriter is also adding more music to her songbook. She’s currently working on her seventh studio album.
“I’m writing a lot about grief,” said Bareilles, whose friend Gavin Creel died at age 48 in September, two months after being diagnosed with metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. The pair shared the stage in both Waitress and the 2022 revival of Into the Woods.
“I lost a dear friend semi-recently [and] lost another friend in 2020. I haven’t written for a record since before the pandemic,” said Bareilles. “I think in terms of my spiritual metabolism, I’m quite slow. I know a lot of people who were making a lot of music in and around the pandemic, and I just wasn’t making anything. So, I think I’m now kind of just sort of processing that chapter of my life — the isolation and the grief and loss.”
While Bareilles assured fans that the record “won’t all be desperately sad,” she believes it’s important to hold space for “uncomfortable” topics.
“It’s not something our culture supports very well. I think we do a lot of escapism — which I think we need, too; I don’t think it’s valueless at all — but I do think there is also merit in kind of going into the dark places and resting there and really processing what’s happening there,” she said. “It’s unlike any other record I’ve written. It kind of goes all over the place and it’s not formulaic. It feels like I’m just telling stories that need to get told.”
Sara Bareilles: New Year’s Eve With the National Symphony Orchestra & Friends will air on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app Tuesday, December 31, at 8 p.m. ET.
Paris Hilton may be an heiress, but she’s endured her share of hardships throughout her years in the public eye.
The daughter of hospitality mogul Richard Hilton and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kathy Hilton, the businesswoman is known in the public eye for her reality TV past. However, she offered a deeper look into her life when releasing the This Is Parisdocumentary in September 2020.
Paris has also explained that she’s more than just her public persona — “a dumb blonde with a sweet but easy edge.” She referred to this mask as her “steel-plated armor,” during a February 2023 interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
“I made sure I never had a quiet moment to figure out who I was without her,” Paris shared. “I was afraid of that moment because I didn’t know what I’d find.”
Paris has also found love in the public eye. She married Carter Reum in November 2021. The duo got engaged the previous February after more than a year of dating. The couple welcomed their son, Phoenix, via surrogate in January 2023 and a daughter, London, via surrogate in April 2024.
Keep scrolling for a look at Paris’ ups and downs over the years:
The Confessions of an Heiress author began modeling as a teenager. She appeared in the September 2000 issue of Vanity Fair alongside sister Nicky Hilton in photos shot by David LaChappelle.
“Paris had a charisma back then that you couldn’t take your eyes off,” LaChappelle told The Guardian in November 2017. “She would giggle and laugh and be effervescent and take up a room."
The “Stars Are Blind” singer’s reality series with friend Nicole Richie, The Simple Life, premiered on Fox in December. The series — which ran for five seasons until August 2007 — followed the twosome as they struggled to do low-paying jobs.
During a January 2020 interview with Deadline, Paris said that the reality series hadn’t depicted her true self.
“Everything I’ve done before [This Is Paris] was me playing a character,” she said. “I was in on the joke. Sometimes it is annoying people assuming I am the blonde airhead that I played on the show, but I like proving people wrong.”
A sex tape that Paris had filmed with then-boyfriend Rick Salomon in 2001 was released in June.
Speaking about the leaked tape in This Is Paris, the DJ said she felt the video had taken away the future she’d planned for herself.
"I was just so lost and desperate for love that I found the worst possible person," she said of Salomon.
The former Hollywood Love Story host got engaged to shipping heir Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis in May after five months of dating. The pair called the wedding off that November.
In June, the media personality spent 23 days in a California prison after violating her probation from a previous traffic violation.
“It was a very traumatic experience, but I feel like God does make everything happen for a reason," Paris said of the experience during a June 2007 appearance on Larry King Live. "It gave me a time out in life. … I took that time to get to know myself. I have a new outlook on life.”
Paris’ home was robbed several times by members of the Bling Ring, a group of teenagers whose crime spree was later documented in a 2013 Sofia Coppola film.
The Paris: The Memoir author allowed scenes from the movie to be filmed at her house where the burglaries took place.
The model made her debut as a DJ at Brazil’s Pop Music Festival in June.
“When I am up on stage, it’s an indescribable feeling,” Paris told Billboard in October 2020. “The energy and the love that I get from the audience is such a magical feeling, and being up there, I feel like I am on top of the world.”
Actor Chris Zylka proposed to the “Nothing in This World” singer in January 2018 after one year of dating. That November, the entertainers called off their engagement.
The podcaster opened up about her traumatic experiences at Provo Canyon School in the documentary This Is Paris.
“There was no getting out of there. You are sitting on a chair, staring at a wall all day long, getting yelled at or hit. I felt like a lot of the people that worked there got off on torturing children and seeing them naked,” Paris alleged in the film.
She continued: “I was freezing, starving, I was alone and I was scared. My parents live in New York, they didn’t know, but I was so angry and so upset, I hated them. I was there for 11 months and the only thing that saved my sanity was thinking about what I wanted to do and who I wanted to become when I got out of there. I was gonna do everything in my power to be so successful that my parents could never control me again.”
Paris and Reum tied the knot in November after two years of dating.
“When you find your soulmate, you don’t just know it. You feel it,” the Hottie and the Nottie actress wrote via Instagram the previous February, announcing the lovebirds’ engagement. “I said yes, yes to forever. There’s no one I’d rather spend forever with.”
In April, Paris announced that she and Carter had welcomed a daughter, London, via surrogate. She also made her reality TV return with the release of Paris & Nicole: The Encore on Peacock alongside longtime friend Nicole Richie.
“Reflecting on [the show’s] humble, run-and-gun origin as a contained pandemic production, it’s impossible not to be awestruck by how Mike orchestrated one of the buzziest and most critically acclaimed shows,” Executive Vice President of HBO Programming, Francesca Orsi, told Variety in November 2022 after the series’ renewal was confirmed.
She continued: “And yet, he’s only continued to reach new heights in season 2, which is the ultimate testament to Mike’s raw, unparalleled vision. His courage to explore the uncharted waters of the human psyche, paired with his signature irreverent humor and buoyant directing style, have us all dreaming of more vacation days at the resort we’ve come to adore. We couldn’t be more thrilled to get the chance to collaborate on a third season together.”
The comedy drama’s first season, which premiered in July 2021, was set at the fictional White Lotus hotel chain’s Hawaii location and featured stars Connie Britton, Sydney Sweeney, Murray Bartlett and more.
Jennifer Coolidge, who won an Emmy for her portrayal of Tanya McQuoid, was one of only two actors from season 1 to return for the next installment, which took place in Italy. However, it will be a different actor who returns for the third season.
Scroll through for everything we know about season 3 of The White Lotus so far:
After the December 2022 finale, White revealed in HBO Max’s Unpacking S2 E7 special that the third installment may take place in Asia and focus on “death and Eastern religion and spirituality.”
“The first season kind of highlighted money, and then the second season is sex,” he said. “I think the third season would be maybe a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality. It feels like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round at White Lotus.”
By March 2023, Variety reported that the location was confirmed to be Thailand.
Prior to the shocking season 2 finale — where Tanya met her fate — White played coy about whether the Legally Blonde actress would continue on with the HBO series.
“Tanya is such a fun character to write, and Jennifer is one of the highlights of my experience on this show as well as my career. So, I’m definitely open to keep going with Jennifer,” he told Variety in November 2022.
Following the December 2022 finale, White opened up about why he brought Coolidge back to kill her beloved character.
“In the end of last season, Tanya is sitting with Greg in the last episode and he’s talking about his health issues. And she says, ‘I’ve had every kind of treatment over the years, death is the last immersive experience I haven’t tried,’” he said in HBO Max’s Unpacking S2 E7 special. “I was thinking, it’d be so fun to bring Tanya back because she’s such a great character, but maybe that’s the journey for her, a journey to death. Not that I really wanted to kill Tanya because I love her as a character and obviously love Jennifer, but I just felt like, we’re going to Italy, she’s such a diva — a larger than life female archetype — it felt like we could devise our own operatic conclusion to Tanya’s life and her story.”
When asked about tying up loose ends with Greg (Jon Gries) and Quentin’s (Tom Hollander) plot to kill Tanya, White hinted at Haley Lu Richardson’s Portia potentially wanting answers: “It’s possible that Portia is scared enough to just leave it alone, but the fact that all of those guys die on the boat, it feels like there’s gotta be somebody who’s gonna track it down to Greg. But maybe you’ll have to wait to find out what happens.”
HBO shared the season's official logline in December 2023.
"The social satire is set at an exclusive Thai resort and follows the exploits of various guests and employees over the span of a week," the network shared.
HBO announced in December 2023 that the eight-episode season is set to debut on Sunday, February 16, on Max. A teaser trailer offering a first look at the new season was also released that same month.
In April 2023, Variety reported that Natasha Rothwell will be back after portraying spa manager Belinda in season 1.
Rothwell revealed in December 2023 that she knows what's coming in the new episodes. "I will say I've read all of the scripts and people are in for a treat. It's bigger than ever," she told Entertainment Tonight. "Buckle up."
As for the crop of newcomers, HBO announced in January 2024 that Leslie Bibb, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey, Dom Hetrakul and Tayme Thapthimthong will star in the new season alongside Rothwell.
Later that month, it was confirmed that The Gilded Age star Carrie Coon will also join the ensemble cast as well as Walton Goggins, Sarah Catherine Hook, Sam Nivola, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Aimee Lou Wood. Shortly after that, Nicholas Duvernay, Francesca Corney and Arnas Fedaravičius were revealed to be joining season 3.
In February 2024, Variety reported that Blackpink’s Lisa (real name Lalisa Manobal) will be making her acting debut on The White Lotus.
Entertainment Tonight confirmed later that month that Survivor alums Natalie Cole and Carl Boudreux, who appeared on the David vs. Goliath season alongside White, were added to the star studded cast.
A November 2024 promo for the upcoming White Lotus season offered a first look at the singer’s character, Mook, who works at The White Lotus in Thailand.
“Welcome to the White Lotus in Thailand,” she said in the clip. It was previously revealed that Lisa will be credited under her full name, Lalisa Manobal, for the role.
HBO dropped Biković from the project in February 2024 after Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called out the network for casting him despite his support of Russia amid the country’s war against Ukraine.
Biković subsequently slammed the decision in a statement.
“Today, a targeted campaign has been unleashed against me, seemingly as an external maneuver to influence decisions that can create a disturbing precedent shadowing the essence of artistic freedom,” he said. “The result of such a narrative is the triumph of absurdity and the defeat of art.”
Days later, Julian Kostov was announced as Biković’s replacement.
