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Variety reports: Now, in her own great tradition of being extra, Lizzo has come out with an album that feels like it provides all the clubby, poppy endorphins a populace could really require for a single summer. The neo-disco force is strong, as anyone coming into the album from the lead single “About Damn Time” will have already sussed. “Everybody’s …

Variety reports: Is it illegal to work out naked? Chris Meloni, of “Law and Order” fame, would say no. At least, that’s according to his recent Peloton ad, which features the 61-year-old actor baring it all in a series of fitness positions. “Apparently, some people think the way I work out is strange,” Meloni says at the beginning of the …

Variety reports: A Virginia judge on Wednesday denied Amber Heard’s motion for a mistrial in her defamation suit with former husband Johnny Depp, finding no grounds to overturn the jury’s $10 million verdict in Depp’s favor. Heard had asked the court to nullify the verdict and order a new trial, after discovering that one of the seven jurors did not …

Variety reports: For the first time in memory, the Television Academy announced this year’s Primetime Emmys nominees without an acknowledgement of which network or platform leads the list. That left programmers like HBO and Netflix scrambling to count their nominations in the quest for this year’s bragging rights. Instead, the TV Academy argues that the shows are the thing, and …

Deadline reports: Lawyers for Twitter called Elon Musk’s planned termination of his $44 billion takeover of the social media firm “invalid and wrongful” in a letter disclosed to the SEC after the close of today’s trading. Twitter shares slumped 11% to close at $32.65, well below the $54 a share that Musk had agreed to pay in the spring. Continuing …

Variety reports: Disney’s “Thor: Love and Thunder,” the fourth standalone Marvel story about Chris Hemsworth’s hunky Asgardian superhero, hammered home a box office win with its $143 million debut. The movie, which is playing in 4,375 North American theaters, arrived ever-so-slightly behind estimates of $150 million, but those opening weekend returns are unquestionably something to celebrate. “Love and Thunder” also …

Deadline reports: The harassment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at a Washington, D.C. steakhouse may only be the appetizer to further incidents, if an activist group has its way. ShutDownDC is promising a bounty of $50 to anyone who provides a “confirmed sighting” of Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett or John Roberts …

Deadline Hollywood reports: If there wasn’t enough drama swirling around Johnny Depp’s win over Amber Heard in his multimillion-dollar defamation suit last month, things have turned judicially weird. According to today’s filing, it seems that there are two individuals residing at the same address with, at the very least, “the same last name” — one a 77-year-old individual and another …

TV Insider reports: Anson Williams, best known for playing Warren “Potsie” Weber on the beloved sitcom Happy Days, has revealed that he’s running for mayor in his hometown of Ojai, California. According to Ojai Valley News, Williams announced his campaign during an Ojai City Council meeting on June 28. Speaking during the public comment section of the meeting, the Golden …

Deadline reports: Kate Bedingfield plans to depart her post as White House communications director, according to White House officials. Bedingfield, who has been with President Joe Biden since the start of his term and, before that, was a senior official on his presidential campaign, plans to leave this summer and perhaps in the next few weeks. Her exit is the …

Variety reports: “Million Dollar Listing New York” — a key installment in Bravo’s long-running real estate franchise — won’t be returning anytime soon, sources tell Variety. Bravo never uses the word “canceled,” instead considering series to be “paused,” since it sometimes brings shows back years later, as was the case with the revived “Real Housewives of Miami” on Peacock last …

Broadway.com reports: Jim Parsons is returning to the New York stage. The four-time Emmy winner will star in the Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty and Terrence McNally musical A Man of No Importance at off-Broadway’s Classic Stage Company. John Doyle will direct the production, which will begin performances on October 11, open on October 30 and run through December 4. Parons …

Variety reports: Despite denying any involvement with Britney Spears’ conservatorship, the pop star’s former business manager Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group was directly involved in creating the legal arrangement, according to new court documents, filed by Spears’ attorney. The filing claims that Tri Star received at least $18 million from the conservatorship. Tri Star and its founder, Lou Taylor, …

Variety reports: Universal’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” is setting off fireworks at the Fourth of July box office, projecting a $129.2 million opening over the four-day holiday weekend from 4,400 locations. On a three-day scale, the “Despicable Me” prequel looks to gross $109.4 million — that number would mark the highest domestic opening for an animated film since 2019’s …

The New York Daily News reports: The show must go on — and so will the masks for “The Minutes.” The Tracy Letts-written drama isn’t going along with the updated mask protocols for Broadway theaters starting this weekend. Producers of the play announced Thursday that audiences will be required to continue wearing masks throughout the production’s run. Despite The Broadway …

I woke up this morning to the sad news from several readers that beloved longtime JMG community member Safari has passed away unexpectedly, apparently only a few days after his final posting here. As many of you know, Safari was a cheerful guy who enjoyed funny wordplay, sharing his cooking, photos of his cat, and his adventures with his students …

Deadline reports: A little over a month after the more transmissible BA.2.12.1 Omicron subvariant became officially dominant in the U.S. on May 24, two sister subvariants of Omicron have quickly eclipsed BA.2.12.1 across the country. BA.5 and BA.4 are, like BA.2.12.1, more transmissible, but have the added advantage of reportedly being more able to reinfect those who’ve already had Covid. …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Stranger Things Season 4 Vol. 1 closed the 28-day window Netflix uses to measure premiere viewership for its TV series and movies with 930.3 million hours viewed. That is the most for any English-language Netflix series ever and the second largest audience overall behind the streamer’s Korean smash Squid Game, which clocked in 1.6 billion hours viewed …

Variety reports: Carol Burnett is breaking bad. The comedy legend will appear as a guest star in the sixth and final season of “Better Call Saul,” portraying a character named Marion, AMC announced. It’s unclear at this point how Marion fits into the denouement of the complicated journey and transformation of series antihero Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) into Albuquerque’s notorious …

Variety reports: Paramount and Skydance’s all-American blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick” is still flying high at the box office, crossing the coveted $1 billion milestone over the weekend. It’s the first movie of the year and only the second in COVID times (following Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” with $1.9 billion) to reach that benchmark. It’s even more impressive that “Maverick” …