Random Thoughts

UltimateMarvel wrote:That looks terrible! Zachary stop before it's too late.

Maggie Q has been tapped to star as Detective Renée Ballard in the next spinoff of the Bosch TV franchise.

The Ballard character was first featured in author Michael Connelly’s The Late Show circa 2017, after which she appeared in Dark Sacred Night, The Night Fire and other novels.

First teased over a year ago and ordered to series by Prime Video in November, the as-yet-untitled new entry in the Bosch universe finds Detective Ballard “running the LAPD’s new cold case division — a poorly funded, all-volunteer unit with the largest case load in the city.

“Ballard approaches these frozen-in-time cases with empathy and determination,” the synopsis continues. “When she uncovers a larger conspiracy during her investigations, she’ll lean on the assistance of her retired ally, Harry Bosch, to navigate the dangers that threaten both her unit and her life.”

As our sister site Deadline correctly pointed out in reporting this casting, Maggie Q like Renée Ballard was raised in Hawai’i.

Novelist and Bosch EP Connelly said in a previous statement, “It is so exciting to bring Renée Ballard to the screen and to do it with Prime Video, my streaming partners for going on 10 years. This show will have the same authenticity and propulsive momentum of Bosch: Legacy. Fans of the books will love it.”

The original Bosch series, starring Titus Welliver as the titular LAPD detective, ran for seven seasons on Prime Video from 2014 to 2021. The sequel series Bosch: Legacy, also starring Welliver, wrapped its second season on Amazon Freevee back in November, and was long ago renewed for a third. Another spinoff, starring Bosch vet Jamie Hector as Harry’s former partner, Detective Jerry Edgar, was in development as recently as May 2023.

Maggie Q’s previous TV roles include the Fox comedy Pivoting, ABC/Netflix’s Designated Survivor, CBS’ Stalker and the lead in The CW’s Nikita.

joey con carne wrote:There's something about Maggie Q that just grosses me out. I have always felt that way whenever I see her in anything. I have to turn it off.

UltimateMarvel wrote:

WyldeMan wrote:So Kate Middleton's got stomach cancer, that's what all the secrecy was about. She's been doing Chemo.

Now we know why she's been gone for a year and a half. I hope she can recover.

Rusty wrote:This looks a little different. It looks like his recently fired interpreter was the culprit. Either he stole money from Ohtan, or Ohtan payed his debts for him.

I'd say it was the former. Some of these dudes are stupid with their money and allow managers/agents, etc to have complete access to their finances so they can do/pay for everything for them. They make themselves easy targets, and the money they make is too tempting for some.

UltimateMarvel wrote:

WyldeMan wrote:No worries, by all accounts her husband has been banging her best friend during this ordeal so the Royals are business as usual.

Damn! This family needs our support now more than ever through this tough time. I ask that you show some compassion and donate to help them in any way you can. Thank you!

Facing multiple accusation of rape and sex trafficking, Sean “Diddy” Combs saw his homes in L.A. and Miami raid Monday by the federal government.

“Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our local law enforcement partners,” a spokesperson for the federal agency told Deadline. “We will provide further information as it becomes available.”

There is no official confirmation that Combs, aka Diddy, is the direct target of the investigation. However, a well placed law enforcement source tells Deadline that Combs is “at the center of their actions” today. The US Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York are also involved in the matter, with a possible criminal case being put together, I hear.

As allegations and suits against him swirled, the famed producer/performer stepped back as chairman of his Revolt Media in November amid his legal troubles.

Already up against several sexual assault lawsuits (including with a minor) and a multi-million dollar abuse settlement with longtime ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura, the one-time hip hop mogul was accused last month of wide spread misconduct by one of the producers of his latest album The Love Album: Off The Grid. In a $30 million federal action, Rodney Jones Jr., AKA Lil Rod claims he was subjected to a possible drugging and rape, ritual humiliation, and being short changed more than $50,000 for his work on the September 15, 2023 released Love record.

Representatives for Combs did not respond to request for comment on today’s raid.

However, one of the lawyers working for Ventura and another Jane Doe accusing Combs did have something to say. “We will always support law enforcement when it seeks to prosecute those that have violated the law, NYC-based attorney Doug Wigdor said in a statement Monday after the feds had moved in on Combs’ residences. “Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct.”

The Alejandro Mayorkas-run department long has been at the forefront of human-trafficking investigations, but DHS did not release specifics of the raids or why they were carried out. Video aired by local news out Fox11 showed the Los Angeles raid in progress.

Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.

UltimateMarvel wrote:I thought they ended the franchise with the last one? I don't even remember how it ended.

joey con carne wrote:They want privacy! They want privacy! Is that really too much to ask? Privacy!

During its two-season run on HBO, “Euphoria” has launched its young cast into superstardom and won multiple Emmys, while also being a magnet for controversy — but whatever lies ahead for the Sam Levinson-created show is going to have to wait.

Earlier this week, HBO officially delayed the drama, which was set to begin production later this spring. “HBO and Sam Levinson remain committed to making an exceptional third season,” an HBO spokesperson told Variety. “In the interim, we are allowing our in-demand cast to pursue other opportunities.”

What the network isn’t saying is that no one at HBO is at all sure a third season of “Euphoria” will ever come to fruition given the disparate visions for the show’s next chapter. But “Euphoria” has been invaluable to the network — attracting the often-elusive millennial and Gen Z viewers, as well as massive ratings — and executives from Casey Bloys on down feel they need to try to complete the story.  

Sources tell Variety that Levinson, who exerts full creative control over the show, writing and directing every episode, proposed his vision for the season in winter 2023, featuring a time jump five years into the future for the former students of East Highland High School. HBO thought his pitch and early drafts for the season — which included meaty arcs for Sydney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi that a source described as “very compelling” — were a strong start. But after the WGA strike ended, and as the full scripts began coming in, they didn’t pass muster with Zendaya, “Euphoria’s” two-time Emmy-winning star who is now 27 years old. (HBO declined to comment, while Levinson’s team referred to HBO’s previous statement and declined further comment.)

Zendaya — who is in high demand in the film world thanks to the box-office performance of “Dune: Part Two” ($580 million worldwide and counting) — and Levinson have enjoyed a creatively symbiotic relationship from the start of “Euphoria,” one that carried over to the Netflix film “Malcolm & Marie” during the pandemic. Though she doesn’t have veto power over the scripts, as the star and an executive producer of “Euphoria,” Zendaya offered Levinson significant input for where she’d like Season 3 to go. (A representative for Zendaya did not respond to a request for comment.) Sources say Levinson already was in overhaul mode, because actor Angus Cloud, who died of an overdose last July at age 25, figured heavily into the initial concept for the season. In November, “Euphoria” producer Kevin Turen died suddenly of heart failure at the age of 45, which was another traumatic blow for Levinson and the cast, and further slowed down the creative process.

When Levinson turned in his revised scripts in late 2023 and early 2024, HBO execs were now the ones feeling unsatisfied. There was a new arc for Zendaya’s Rue, whose character in Levinson’s first pass had been relegated to the background in a somewhat surprising storyline about her working as a private detective, which HBO had immediately vetoed. Among many other ideas for the rewrites, Zendaya had pitched an idea in which Rue, who is now sober as a twentysomething young woman, would be a pregnancy surrogate. But insiders say the new scripts simply didn’t feel like the show tonally.  

Given all the creative disagreements, HBO explored other options, including the idea of Levinson himself stepping away from “Euphoria.” Other scenarios have been proposed but discarded, such as a movie or specials, like the two one-offs that HBO aired during the pandemic, one in December 2020, the other the following month. But sources tell Variety that not only are the show’s cast contracted for a third season, but they’re all truly committed to seeing “Euphoria” — with Levinson — through to the end with a third season, particularly Zendaya, Sweeney and Elordi.  

The same can’t necessarily be said for their respective representatives, given the required time commitment. After the second season, HBO renegotiated the cast’s deals, and gave them significant salary bumps. But for Zendaya, Sweeney and Elordi, all three earn on “Euphoria” far less than what they could command doing films instead. Like Zendaya, Sweeney, 26, is coming off a hot big-screen hit with the romantic comedy “Anyone but You” ($217 million, despite being a title with no underlying pre-branded intellectual property). Elordi, 26, also has seen his stock rise significantly following the critical success of the psychological thriller “Saltburn” and is currently shooting Guillermo del Toro’s big-budget Netflix film “Frankenstein.”  

Although Zendaya has yet to read Levinson’s new scripts, sources say the third season isn’t dead and could very well come together. HBO has freed up the cast for the rest of 2024, promising to come back to them on Oct. 1 with a solid plan to begin filming in 2025. The shoot, if were it to happen, would tie up the cast for 25 weeks, and the season will likely be reduced from eight episodes to six — though if Levinson were to need more, HBO is open to it.  

Levinson is now taking another swing at the material, while creative conversations continue between him and HBO. (He has an overall deal with the network.) The network is intent on trying to get one final season of “Euphoria” out of Levinson and his all-star cast. Some believe that the success or lack thereof of Zendaya’s upcoming film “Challengers,” which opens April 26, could influence “Euphoria’s” fate — and looming in the background, of course, is the upcoming “Spider-Man 4,” though the script for that film is still being worked on, and there’s no director or start date.  

What’s not on the table for “Euphoria” is going into production without completed scripts that everyone is happy with. Levinson did that during the unprecedented situation that was “The Idol,” his troubled project with the Weeknd, which was deemed a creative disaster and a costly vanity project for HBO.

Dev Patel makes his feature directorial debut with the upcoming action movie “Monkey Man,” which blew the roof off SXSW earlier this month and earned strong reviews, but getting the film made was no walk in the park. During a Reddit AMA ahead of the film’s April theatrical release, Patel told fans that directing, acting in and producing “Monkey Man” was “the most demanding thing I’ve ever done in my life” because “everyday we faced absolute catastrophe.”

“I begged our financier not to shut us down a few weeks before principal photography,” Patel wrote. “We were meant to shoot in India then COVID hit. I lost my initial production designer and [cinematographer] and the film was basically dead, then we pivoted and went to a tiny island in Indonesia where we could create a bubble in an empty hotel for the whole crew of nearly 500 people. It was a grueling nine months of absolute joy and utter chaos.”

“All of the locations we prepped for months at — we lost day of — so we had to adapt last minute,” he continued. “The borders closed also, so I couldn’t bring in lots of supporting characters. I ended up having to put every tailor, lighting guy, accountant etc. in front of the camera. Speaking of cameras, most of our equipment broke and we couldn’t fly in new stuff so we literally shot stuff on my mobile phone, go pros — when a crane broke we ended [up] creating this camera rig from rope which I termed the ‘pendulum cam,’ which swings over a large crowd of people then detaches and the operators run through the crowd whilst it was rolling.”

And the list goes on and on. Patel wrote that there were days when his production designer said the production “literally didn’t have any money” to complete certain sets. “One of our producers ran his personal credit card to buy the glass to cover the table tops” in one of the main action scenes, he wrote.

“Speaking of tables, we only had three or four break away tables so once I would perform a huge bulk of stunts I would scream CUT and then immediately all of us would get on our hands and knees looking for all of the broken pieces of wood to glue the tables back together for the next shot,” Patel added. “In a very long nutshell, every obstacle provided us with a new opportunity to innovate. BOOM!”

“Monkey Man,” which Patel also co-wrote, centers on Kid (Patel), who scrapes by with the cash he makes getting beaten in an underground fight club before unresolved trauma from his childhood drives him to infiltrate the social scene of India’s wealthiest and most corrupt. When it becomes clear that the people who murdered his mother continue to inflict casteist and Islamophobic violence on millions of others, he unites with people on the outskirts of society to get revenge on their common enemies.

“The action genre has been abused by the system,” Patel said at SXSW while introducing the film. “You know, a quick buck. Mindless shit. I wanted to give it soul. Real trauma. Real pain. You guys deserve that. I wanted to infuse it with a little bit of culture.”

“Monkey Man” is produced by Jordan Peele, who came on board well after production. The film is opening in theaters April 5 from Universal Pictures.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Damn! It sounds like everything that could go wrong in a movie production, went wrong. Somehow they glued together a decent looking movie or at least 2 very badass trailers anyway. lol

Tyger wrote:

WyldeMan wrote:And in unrelated news, "Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV" has forever tainted my fond childhood memories of Nickelodeon...

I watched Quiet On Set and was selfishly relieved that they didn’t really talk about the era of Nick I loved. The closest was All That, which I think I only watched the first 2 seasons of or stopped in the 3rd season.

Danny McBride and friend David Gordon Green were sitting around Rough House Pictures in South Carolina and spitballing about about improvements they might make to the movie-going experience.

In a GQ interview, McBride (The Righteous Gemstones, Eastbound & Down) revealed he hates the modern-theater-that-serves-dinner trend. “I hate it, I can’t stand it,” he said. “I also don’t think it makes sense to combine booze with movies. You’re going to have to piss. Doesn’t alcohol make you want to get up and get loose? You don’t want to sit there, drink beer, and just be quiet. I would have no interest in going to see a movie and just pounding IPAs. Just f**king falling asleep.”

Ah, but there is an alternative vision to that.

Weed and movies “go together f**king perfectly,” said McBride. The friends have talked about the concept of opening a theater with a built-in dispensary — Green Screen, they’d call it.

“If I went to a theater, and it was like, ‘Here’s your popcorn and here’s f**king weed,’ I feel like that would be an awesome little combo right there,” McBride said.

Green wondered: “Why did we not do anything with that?”

“Too busy,” McBride replied.

Anna Paquin is battling an undisclosed illness that is hampering her mobility.

On Wednesday, the actress walked the red carpet using a cane for assistance. She was with her husband, Stephen Moyer, at the Crosby Street Hotel in New York City for their latest film, A Bit of Light.

“It hasn’t been easy,” Paquin said to People of needing a cane to walk and experiencing some difficulties with her speech. (A source clarifies that the actress will hopefully make a full recovery.)

Despite the physical issues, Paquin is grateful to still be working.

“My first love was independent filmmaking,” said Paquin. “That’s how I entered the film industry. I was working with people who were all about telling stories and telling them with integrity and truth.”

Paquin was directed by husband Moyer in the indie drama, which is based on a stage play.

A Bit of Light stars Paquin as an alcoholic mother who loses custody of her children and has to pick up the pieces of her broken life while reconciling with her past.

She said as a mom she understood that parenthood can be complex, and that women can often be forgotten as fully formed people once they become mothers.

“Not everyone ends up having the journey with motherhood that they have hoped or had planned,” Paquin says. “We’re all flawed and imperfect, and Ella is kind of on some level repeating some sort of familial patterns as far as stuffing feelings down.”

She added, “It’s very relatable because there’s so many ways that people can get in their own way, or sort of learn to cope with trauma.”

A Bit of Light is in theaters Friday, April 5.

A New York judge decided today that Jonathan Majors will still be sentenced next week on his assault and harassment conviction.

Judge Michael Gaffey has denied the defense motion to set aside the verdicts and strip the guilty results against the Creed III actor that a jury delivered on December 18 last year. With this last Hail Mary effort now dead, Majors will be sentenced on April 8, as previously scheduled.

Majors’ top lawyer Priya Chaudhry did not respond to requests for comment on the new ruling. If and when she does, this post will be updated. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office declined comment.

In his decision, Judge Gaffey took on each objection by the defense.

“Defendant first argues that his conviction of reckless assault in the third degree should be set aside because the court erred in submitting the count to the jury,” the judge wrote This Court disagrees. At the outset, contrary to Defendant’s contentions, the court submitted the count of reckless assault as an alternate theory to the intentional assault count, and not as a lesser included offense …there was a reasonable view of the evidence to support that Defendant acted recklessly”

“Defendant next contends that the court should not have submitted the reckless assault count to the jury without a justification charge,” Judge Gaffey says in the order. “This argument is wholly unpreserved, and as a result, this Court is without power to consider it.Certainly, on appeal, Defendant is free to request that the Appellate Term exercise its interest of justice jurisdiction and reach whether the court should have sua sponte charged justification, or alternatively, whether trial counsel was ineffective for failing to request such charge.”

“Finally, the trial evidence was legally sufficient to establish Defendant’s guilt of harassment in the second degree,” he noted. “Such evidence clearly established that Defendant subjected Ms. Jabbari to physical contact, and the jury reasonably could have inferred his intent from the conduct and surrounding circumstances.”

With Majors’ once stellar career in tatters now, Wednesday’s ruling from Judge Gaffey comes almost a month after the much accused Majors’ ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari sued him for defamation. Lawyers for Majors said at the time he would be filing counterclaims, but that doesn’t seem to have occurred.

Arrested on March 25, 2023, after the alleged assault on Jabbari in New York City, Majors was convicted  late last year of reckless assault and harassment in his much delayed trial. Originally up against a total of four misdemeanor charges, Majors, who pleaded not guilty, was not convicted by the jury of three men and three women of intentional assault in the third degree and of aggravated harassment in the second degree against then-girlfriend Jabbari in the incident over a year ago.

Present in court every day of the trial but never testifying in his own defense, Majors always insisted he never attacked British dancer Jabbari after his girlfriend of almost two years discovered texts from another woman on his phone while the duo were being driven through the NYC night in March 2023. Attorney Chaudhry said Majors was the actual victim of abuse by Jabbari and racism by the NYPD. Before the trial began, the Magazine Dreams star took Jabbari to court and had the police issue a de facto warrant for the her arrest – – a move the DA’s office shut down pretty quickly.

In January of this year, a few weeks after his conviction, Majors told ABC News “my hands have never struck a woman.” A slew of allegations from other women since the trial ended, and detailed descriptions of a litany of assaults, violence and recriminations in Jabbari’s defamation action seems to say otherwise.

Despite that and his conviction, a smiling Majors showed up with Harlem actress Meagan Good last month at the 7th Annual AAFCA Special Achievement Awards luncheon in L.A. Good attended court with Majors almost every day of the trial last year.

Professionally, Majors has seen his career fall apart, with his management and PR firms dropping him soon after the incident with Jabbari and his arrest last year. Very soon afterwards, the Searchlight release of once Oscar-tipped Magazine Dreams was shelved. In the days following the trial verdict, Marvel cut loose the Loki actor who was to play Kang the Conqueror in the expanding MCU. While Majors has lost several film roles and ad campaigns, the actor’s agency WME has stuck with him so far.

UltimateMarvel wrote:It sounds like it's over for Jonathan Majors.

Sad to hear about Anna's condition. It sounds like it's serious.

It was always weird to me how Amanda Bynes turned out the way she did. Did Quiet On Set shed some light on her?

Rusty wrote:

WyldeMan wrote:DUNE PART 2 NOW STREAMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Part 1 is still behind a paywall for me here.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Anyone got to see the Solar Eclipse? People were traveling from all over to certain parts just to see it, that is crazy to me.

WWE's Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Received Over $9 Million In TKO Stock

TKO, the parent company of WWE, has given Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson 96,558 shares of TKO on Sunday, April 7, following WrestleMania 40. The stock received by The Rock is valued at around $9.41 million, as per Brandon Thurston of "WrestleNomics."

The SEC filing has revealed that The Rock received the shares in exchange for services he fulfilled under the contract he signed in January 2024. The Rock wrestled on night 1 of WrestleMania 40, teaming with Roman Reigns to pin Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins, and his wrestling at "The Show of Shows" was perhaps a part of his contract for which he has now been paid.

In January, the former WWE Champion was added to TKO's Board of Directors, while he also received the trademark of The Rock name and several of his nicknames.

Reports earlier this year had stated that The Rock was going to be paid $30 million by TKO to be on the Board of Directors of the company and face Reigns in a singles match at WrestleMania 40, which later became a tag team match. Incidentally, former WWE CEO Vince McMahon had recently sold TKO stock to TKO — as well as Endeavor — selling stock worth $165 million to TKO.
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"The People's Champion" disclosed in his segment with Cody Rhodes on the "WWE Raw" after WrestleMania 40 that he will be stepping away from WWE for a while, but promised to return, seemingly teasing a singles match with "The American Nightmare" in the future. He was reiterating what he said after night 1 of WrestleMania 40, where he expressed his love for the business and his desire to wrestle once again.

Read More: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1558900/wwes-dwayne-the-rock-johnson-received-over-9-million-tko-stock/