Open Thread

Billboard Magazine reports: Britney Spears is speaking out after making headlines for lighting a cigarette during a recent flight. On Thursday (May 22), the 43-year-old pop star lit a cigarette aboard a JSX public charter flight and was asked to extinguish it by a flight attendant, according to People. Smoking on airplanes is a violation of federal aviation regulations. Following …

Variety reports: It’s a Memorial Day weekend for the box office record books. Movie theaters across the country were jamming as “Lilo & Stitch” and Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” fueled the largest Memorial Day holiday in history — and established several other benchmarks in the process. Families turned out in force for Disney’s live-action “Lilo & …

Variety reports: Bringing a turbulent world together through cinema, the 78th Cannes Film Festival closed with its most political moment, as Iranian director Jafar Panahi accepted the Palme d’Or for “It Was Just an Accident,” a film directly inspired by his time in prison. Filled with equal helpings of absurdist humor and ire, Panahi’s film follows five characters who think …

Variety reports: Billy Joel has announced the cancellation of 17 shows he booked at stadiums across North America and England, due to his recent diagnosis of Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH). In a statement, Joel and his team said the condition had been exacerbated by recent concert performances, “leading to problems with hearing, vision, and balance.” Under his doctor’s orders, Joel …

Variety reports: Eleven tribute concerts paying homage to Jill Sobule have been announced for late May through early September, most of them under the banner of “Jillith Fair,” with cities from L.A. to Northampton, Mass. all set to celebrate the lauded singer-songwriter, who died May 1 at age 66. The shows begin May 31 with a concert in Northampton, Mass. …

Deadline reports: Country singer Martina McBride is the latest entertainer to testify on Capitol Hill for the need for proposed legislation to protect individuals voices and likenesses from unauthorized use, including in AI deepfakes. A coalition of unions and guilds, studios and record labels are pushing for passage of the No Fakes Act, which gives individuals the right to authorize …

Deadline Hollywood reports: George Wendt, best known for playing the beer-swilling Norm on Cheers, died peacefully in his sleep while at home early Tuesday morning, according to a family representative. He was 76. Wendt was on Cheers for the entirety of the show’s epic run from 1982–1993. On a series full of beloved characters, his Norm Peterson was arguably the …

People reports: In a career move that has set the Croisette abuzz, Harry Melling, 36, widely remembered as the petulant Dudley Dursley from the iconic Harry Potter film series, has emerged as the unexpected talk of the Cannes Film Festival. The 36-year-old actor is starring in the audacious new X-rated film Pillion, which didn’t just premiere but exploded onto the …

USA Today reports: Austria won Eurovision Song Contest 2025 on May 17, the country’s first victory since bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst won in 2014. Operatic singer JJ won ahead of Israel’s Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Oct. 7 attacks, who sang “New Day Will Rise.” The event is the world’s biggest music competition, watched by more than 160 …

Variety reports: Pedro Pascal had a strong message about the current political chaos in the U.S. at the Cannes press conference for Ari Aster’s “Eddington,” telling journalists: “Fuck the people who try to make you scared.” When the cast — also including Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone and Austin Butler — was asked if they were worried about reentering the U.S. …

Variety reports: “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” 20th Century Studios‘ Bruce Springsteen biopic, will hit theaters on Oct. 24, 2025. “The Bear” star Jeremy Allen White plays the Boss in the film directed and written by Scott Cooper (“Crazy Heart,” “Hostiles”). “Deliver Me From Nowhere” adapts Warren Zanes’ book of the same name about the making of Springsteen’s 1982 album “Nebraska.” …

Variety reports: Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey, and their Icon Productions banner, have chosen Lionsgate as the studio partner on “The Resurrection of the Christ,” the follow-up to their landmark 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ.” Until last year, “The Passion” was the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time domestically. It debuted to an opening weekend of $83 million …

Variety reports: Turns out, Warner Bros. Discovery thinks HBO has some pretty good brand equity, after all. This summer, streamer Max will bend the knee and rebrand back to its original name, HBO Max. The change comes just over two years after Warner Bros. Discovery decided to drop HBO from the streamer’s name to become just Max. Note that while …

Variety reports: Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial escalated as Daniel Phillip, a 41-year-old male escort, was called to the witness stand. In an extremely graphic testimony that lasted about an hour, Phillip was questioned by lead prosecutor Maurene Comey about his sexual encounters with Combs and his then-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura from around 2012 to 2014. According to Phillip, …

Variety reports: NBC is celebrating 100 years on the airwaves with a variety special spectacular. The announcement was made by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler — who have both been associated with NBC for over two decades — during the NBCUniversal upfront presentation to advertisers on Monday at Radio City Music Hall. “Hosted by a mix of legendary NBC alumni …

Variety reports: The world has taken an interest in Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost’s American upbringing, and so did anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che during SNL. “I also love that conservatives are already complaining that this pope is too woke. How woke can a 69-year-old man from Chicago be? It’s not like he came out and was like, ‘Hey, …

Deadline reports: With a new single racking up millions of streams, Kanye West is continuing to spread alarming antisemitic rhetoric. On Thursday, the 24x Grammy winner released ‘Heil Hitler’ on multiple streaming platforms, many of which have since removed the track while it continues to rack up millions of streams on Elon Musk‘s X, along with the single’s art, which …

Variety reports: Liev Schreiber says his 16-year-old daughter Kai never actually told him and her mom, Naomi Watts, she was trans. “Kai was always who Kai is,” the “Ray Donovan” star told me Thursday morning. “But I suppose the most profound moment was her asking us to change her pronouns. To be honest with you, it didn’t feel like that …

Variety reports: Sebastian Stan and Leo Woodall are set to star in Justin Kurzel’s “Burning Rainbow Farm,” about a deadly Waco-like police siege that took place in 2001. Rocket Science will be launching the film in Cannes. CAA Media Finance is handling North American distribution rights. “Burning Rainbow Farm” is set to tell the story of Tom Crosslin and Rollie …

Deadline reports: Some cast members of the Kennedy Center performance of Les Misérables plan to skip the show on June 11 when President Donald Trump is in attendance, according to an exclusive CNN report. According to CNN, at least 10 to 12 performers plan to sit out the June 11 show. The news outlet cites anonymous sources, and notes that …