When Prince Andrew invited BBC current affairs show “Newsnight” to interview him at Buckingham Palace in 2019, neither he – nor his interviewer Emily Maitlis – had any inkling that it would not only result in the British royal’s public disgrace, including being stripped of his titles and patronages, but would spawn two dramatizations within […]

For decades, the British Royal Family managed to maintain a certain mystique and allure. Tabloid fodder and salacious stories leaked occasionally, but in the 1990s, the scandals surrounding Princess Diana and King Charles’ marriage almost caused the entire enterprise to collapse. However, the royals seemed to hit new heights in popularity in 2018 when Prince […]

Amazon Prime Video has officially ordered a series adaptation of Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta novels with Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis set for the lead roles. It was reported in February 2023 that the series, currently titled “Scarpetta,” was in the works. Now, Amazon has greenlit two seasons of the series and added five […]

“The Grand Tour” producer Andy Wilman says the seeds for his success were sown at school — which he attended with Jeremy Clarkson. “I went to school with him which is like, argh,” Wilman revealed. “But we didn’t plan any of this when we were at school, obviously not. We do have a synergy. Some […]

Prime Video and All3Media International are set to launch an Indian adaptation of the hit reality show “The Traitors,” with media personality Karan Johar tapped to host. The unscripted series, based on the BAFTA and Emmy-winning format created by IDTV and RTL Netherlands, will be produced by BBC Studios India Productions. The show will stream […]

In her latest video, Mother Jones video creator Kat Abughazaleh traces the history of former President Donald Trump’s dangerous lie that some states allow parents to “execute” babies in so-called “post-birth abortions.”

“You can look at the governor of West Virginia,” Trump said during last week’s debate, prompting an incredulous head shake from Vice President Kamala Harris. “He said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby. In other words, we’ll execute it.”

Northam, of course, did not say that. Trump wasn’t even correct about his own right-wing smear. His reference was to a wildly out-of-context quote from former Virginia governor Ralph Northam (not West Virginia). Northam’s 2019 radio appearance, in which he explained the tragic medical emergencies that can result in late-term abortions, has since been selectively edited by Republicans and used to claim their opponents are permitting infanticide—a lie that has been repeated with relish across Fox News, again and again.

As Kat explains, “There’s no such thing as a ‘post-birth’ abortion. These procedures are extremely rare and reserved for cases where the mother’s life is in danger or when a fatally ill or deformed baby needs palliative care.” In this video, Kat shows how this wasn’t Trump’s first time exploiting these tragedies, which are “designed to demonize grieving mothers and doctors,” while clarifying the facts about late-term abortion care that are too often lost to political noise. She notes that less than one percent of abortions occur after 21 weeks of pregnancy.

“By limiting abortion access in the first place, whether it’s totally or at the six-week mark, or by making parents jump through hoops just to get the medical care they need,” Kat explains, “Republicans are ensuring that there will be more cases that require traumatic medical intervention than if people were allowed to have control over their bodies in the first place.”

Mark Shopiro has been promoted to become head of Amazon’s Prime Video, Canada. He will report into Magda Grace, head of Prime Video, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Shopiro has been at Amazon since 2019, most recently overseeing the engagement, marketplace and sports business for Prime Video in Canada. Dan Slepak will step into the […]

The NFL gets ready for the start of the football week with the “Thursday Night Football” game. For Week 3, two AFC division rivals go head-to-head with the New England Patriots facing off against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on Thursday, Sept. 19. The game kickoffs at 8:15 […]

Prime Video has released a high-octane trailer for its spy series “Citadel: Diana,” starring Italy’s Matilda De Angelis (“The Undoing”) as Diana Cavalieri, an undercover Citadel agent fighting against an enemy syndicate set in a near-future Milan. The six-episode show – which marks the streamer’s most ambitious Italian original to date – is the country’s […]

Prime Video has halted production on the final season of “Good Omens.” The decision comes two months after series creator and showrunner Neil Gaiman was accused of sexual assault by several women. The series, which stars Michael Sheen and David Tennant as a BFF angel-and-demon duo, was preparing to shoot in Scotland before the streamer […]

There’s a massive kickboxing event in the Centennial State tonight! Jonathan “The General” Haggerty (23-4-0) defends his One Bantamweight Muay Thai World Championship against One Flyweight Kickboxing World Champion Superlek “The Kicking Machine” Kiatmoo9 (138-29-4) on Friday, Sept. 6. One 168: Denver — Jonathan Haggerty vs. Superlek Kiatmoo9 takes place at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado […]

Argentine auteur Paula Hernández, helmer of “The Sleepwalkers” and “Las siamesas,” is attached to direct and co-write project series “Duarte. Evita behind the Icon,” produced by Buenos Aires-based powerhouse Kapow, the associate producer on Fabula-Fremantle hit drama “La Jauría.” In development, and scheduled for a 2025 second-half shoot, “Duarte” is structured as a 5 episode, […]

Season 2 of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” was the second-most-watched streaming original series in the U.S. between Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 — the four days of Labor Day weekend — per Luminate. This marked the season’s first weekend of streaming, but excludes its first day on Aug. 29. Amazon […]

Amazon Prime Video has ordered a docuseries about the popular Lisa Frank brand titled “Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story.” According to its official description, “Glitter and Greed” will examine “the neon-hued world of Lisa Frank Inc., a brand that defined girlhood for a generation of Americans only to seemingly disappear overnight. Behind the […]

Colombian rock star Juanes, winner of 26 Latin Grammys and three Grammy awards to date, is making his big screen debut in Prime Video drama “Pimpinero: Blood and Oil,” by Andrés Baiz (“Narcos,” “Griselda”), which bows its trailer exclusively in Variety ahead of its Toronto Film Festival (TIFF) world premiere. Juanes stars alongside Alberto Guerra […]

Ananya Panday couldn’t put down the script for “Call Me Bae” — literally. “I finished reading all eight episodes in one night because I couldn’t stop,” the Bollywood star told Variety about her new Prime Video series. Written by Ishita Moitra, Samina Motlekar and Rohit Nair, “Call Me Bae” tells the story of Bae, a […]

Update: A “Reacher” spinoff series is currently in the works at Amazon Prime Video, Variety has learned from sources. According to sources, Nick Santora is writing the spinoff with Nicholas Wooton. Santora developed “Reacher” for television and serves as executive producer and showrunner on the series. Exact plot details for the spinoff are being kept […]

Tissues at the ready, “The Grand Tour” fans – the last ever episode is gearing up to be a tear-jerker. Prime Video has released a nearly three-minute-long trailer for the final episode, “The Grand Tour: One for the Road,” which sees hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May head to Zimbabwe on what is […]

Ever since the July 13 assassination attempt against Donald Trump, the former president and his allies have promoted unfounded conspiracy theories and blamed Democrats directly for the violence. The effort appears highly coordinated: From JD Vance to Trump’s sons and MAGA Republicans in Congress, many have used the same rhetoric to declare that Trump’s political opponents sought to have him murdered at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. No one has furnished any evidence to support that claim. And while Trump himself was relatively quiet in this regard during the initial aftermath, he has since been pouring fuel on the fire, starting with a campaign speech on Aug. 5 in Atlanta, where Vance introduced him by emphasizing that Trump’s opponents had “even tried to kill him.”

Trump took the narrative to the next level in a softball interview with TV host Dr. Phil that aired this week. The first quarter of the hour-long conversation focused on Trump’s brush with death as a divine miracle, which was a major theme of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee just days after the attack. “It has to be God,” Trump said to Dr. Phil about surviving the shooting. He went on to claim that the assassination attempt could’ve ended up like the 2017 massacre on the Las Vegas Strip, where hundreds of people were gunned down.

Later in the interview, Trump returned to the shooting unprompted, focusing blame on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I think to a certain extent it’s Biden’s fault and Harris’ fault. And I’m the opponent. Look, they were weaponizing government against me, they brought in the whole DOJ to try and get me. They weren’t too interested in my health and safety,” he claimed without evidence. He further suggested that they played a role in undermining his security: “They were making it very difficult to have proper staffing in terms of Secret Service.”

“I’m not saying they wanted you to get shot,” Dr. Phil said, “but do you think it was OK with them if you did?”

“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “There’s a lot of hatred.” (Biden, Harris, and other Democratic leaders condemned the shooting in the aftermath and Biden phoned Trump to offer prayers and support—a call Trump said was “very nice” in a leaked conversation with RFK Jr.)

Trump then reiterated the same claim he made in his Aug. 5 speech: “They’re saying I’m a threat to democracy,” he told Dr. Phil. “They would say that, that was [a] standard line, just keep saying it, and you know that can get assassins or potential assassins going…Maybe that bullet is because of their rhetoric.”

The deceased 20-year-old gunman was a registered Republican voter, as noted throughout national media coverage—and as I reported in the days and weeks after the attack, there appears to be no solid evidence that he was driven by partisanship or ideology. A sweeping FBI investigation, including analysis of his digital devices and interviews with more than 450 people, has found no clear motive, according to congressional testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray. FBI officials reiterated those findings on Wednesday in a call with reporters. They suggested that the gunman, who also considered attacking a Biden event, was seeking infamy and selected the Trump rally as a “target of opportunity.” (I reported five days after the attack about the emerging indicators of this behavioral profile—a common one among political assassins, as I documented in my book, Trigger Points.)

The provocative rhetoric from Trump and his allies isn’t just unfounded but also carries a disturbing risk: Threat assessment and law enforcement leaders have told me that the messaging is fueling the danger of political violence headed into the election. Sources also told me that Trump’s political incitement more broadly—increasingly focused on a supposed grand conspiracy to steal the election from him—has made potential violence from MAGA extremists a top concern. As one source put it, “they’re piling on the idea that the opposition is so out to get Trump that they even tried to kill him, and therefore retaliation is justified.” Another described how conspiracy theories about the Trump shooting give extremist groups “a really big plot point” for retaliatory violence.

The “J 13 Forum,” a faux congressional hearing held by Trump allies at the Heritage Foundation, leaned into speculation and innuendo.

The blame narrative from Trump and his allies also expanded this week when Republican Reps. Cory Mills of Florida and Eli Crane of Arizona convened an “independent” hearing they called the “J 13 Forum” at the Heritage Foundation (home of Project 2025). They and several colleagues conducted congressional testimony-style interviews with participants including former Secret Service agent and right-wing media personality Dan Bongino, and former Blackwater CEO and Trump political operative Erik Prince. Many key questions indeed still loom about the catastrophic security failure that occurred in Pennsylvania; ongoing investigations by the FBI, Homeland Security, and a bipartisan congressional task force will last many months, if not years. Nonetheless, the “J 13 Forum” leaned into speculation and innuendo about what could explain the disaster, with Mills suggesting from the outset that a nefarious plot would inevitably be uncovered.

“You will see at this stage, where I think that criminal gross negligence and purposeful intent will be indistinguishable,” he said.

The faux congressional hearing included various unsubstantiated claims about the tactical response to the gunman in Butler and heated rhetoric from Bongino about the alleged role of DEI policy at the Secret Service. At one point, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida prompted Prince to highlight the risk of a foreign terrorist team carrying out such an assassination attempt on US soil. “I’m very concerned,” Prince responded. “I don’t think they have any idea what’s coming at them.”

Notably, Mills has been involved in the blame narrative from the start—he was among the Trump allies using the same attack lines in the initial aftermath. “What about the rhetoric said by President Biden, when he said it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye?” Mills asked on Fox’s Varney & Co. five days after the shooting. (Biden went on to apologize for that previous word choice, despite the fact that it clearly was taken out of context by Mills and others in the aftermath.) With that setup, Mills landed his allegation: “They tried to silence him. They tried to imprison him. And now they’ve tried to kill him.”