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Today — 1 November 2024Main stream

World Series Game 5 Scores 18.6 Million Viewers for Fox Sports as Dodgers Clinch the Title; Most-Watched in Seven Years

1 November 2024 at 00:17
Fox is celebrating like they’re Freddie Freeman, posting strong numbers on Wednesday night as the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched the World Series in Game 5. According to Nielsen data via Fox Sports, an average of 18.6 million viewers tuned in to see the Dodgers come back from an early deficit to beat the New York […]

Oscar Predictions: Best Supporting Actress — Will ‘Wicked’ Make Ariana Grande ‘Popular’ Enough for Her First Nomination?’

31 October 2024 at 23:05
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual […]

Oscar Predictions: Best Supporting Actor — Could Another Villian Role Bring Denzel Washington Another Statuette?

31 October 2024 at 22:35
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual […]

Yesterday — 31 October 2024Main stream

Oscar Predictions: Best Picture — Will ‘Wicked’ Defy Gravity for Awards Attention?

31 October 2024 at 21:50
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual […]

George Lucas Cut a Bombshell ‘Star Wars’ Twist From ‘Phantom Menace’: Liam Neeson Was Going to Play the Real Obi-Wan Kenobi Who Died

31 October 2024 at 21:41
Love it or hate it, “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” is at least universally beloved for its casting of Ewan McGregor as young Obi-Wan Kenobi. But hold up. A recent interview with “Star Wars” concept and storyboard artist Iain McCaig (via StarWars.com) to mark “The Phantom Menace’s” 25th anniversary reveals that George Lucas was originally […]

Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and More Avengers Stars Assemble to Endorse Kamala Harris

31 October 2024 at 21:32
Mark Ruffalo, aka Hulk, gathered a group of his fellow Avengers to endorse Kamala Harris for President on Thursday. “Don’t sit this one out. It’s the one where we will lose big: Project 2025, women’s reproductive rights, climate change, LGBTQIA+ rights, public education, student debt relief, Affordable Care Act, Social Security, and as of today, […]

Dodgers Win! Here’s Where to Find the Team’s Official World Series Championship Merch Online

31 October 2024 at 21:27
The Los Angeles Dodgers managed to close out Game 5 in a very dramatic come-from-behind win against the New York Yankees at Yankees Stadium in The Bronx, New York to win the 2024 World Series, in front of a star-studded crowd that included Rob Lowe, John Travolta, Tim McGraw and Alec Baldwin. The Dodgers won […]

Stephanie Collie, ‘Peaky Blinders’ Costume Designer, Dies at 60

31 October 2024 at 20:06
Stephanie Collie, the costume designer behind film and television projects such as “Peaky Blinders,” died of cancer on Oct. 26 at St Christopher’s Hospice in London. Over the course of her career, Collie worked with talent including Michael Caine, Henry Cavill, Jessica Chastain, Daniel Craig, Penélope Cruz, Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson, Cillian Murphy, Gary […]

‘Presence’ Trailer: A Ghost Is the Camera’s POV and Haunts a Family in Steven Soderbergh’s Eerie Horror Movie

31 October 2024 at 16:00
Just in time for Halloween, Neon has pulled the curtain back on Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence,” the prolific filmmaker’s 34th narrative feature and his first foray into supernatural horror. The first trailer gives a glimpse of how the director is handling a unique formal premise. “Presence” unfolds from a phantom’s perspective, with the camera representing its […]

Los Angeles Dodgers Clinch World Series in Game 5 Against New York Yankees

31 October 2024 at 04:01
The Los Angeles Dodgers have clinched the fall classic, beating the New York Yankees 7-6 in Game 5 to win Major League Baseball’s 2024 World Series. The victory notched from a five-run deficit earlier in the game at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night marks the eighth World Series win in Dodgers’ franchise history. The contest […]

Menendez Resentencing Could Be in Doubt, as D.A. Pushes Newsom to Grant Clemency

By: Gmaddaus
30 October 2024 at 23:57
The Menendez brothers’ bid for release from prison has hit a snag, as a Los Angeles judge set a Dec. 11 date to consider the D.A.’s request to resentence them. District Attorney George Gascón may no longer be in office by that time, which could mean the request is withdrawn before it is heard. The […]

Before yesterdayMain stream

Hollywood’s New Leaders of 2024

30 October 2024 at 16:05
In entertainment, leadership takes many forms, because it’s needed in many ways at many different steps of the creative process. It could be finding the right story. Signing the right client. Packaging the right product. Developing the right promotional campaign. Amplifying the right message. Identifying the right launchpad. Leveraging success in the right way to […]

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” Draws Wellness Influencers to MAGA

30 October 2024 at 13:27

“Don’t you want a president who’s going to make America healthy again?” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked a roaring crowd, during Sunday’s triumphal rally in support of Trump at Madison Square Garden. 

When Kennedy, the country’s most famous anti-vaccine activist, suspended his campaign to endorse Donald Trump, it not only represented the death of his presidential aspirations, but the dawn of something new: the so-called “Make America Healthy Again” movement, a tidy bit of sloganeering designed to highlight where Trump and Kennedy’s agendas overlap.

“How can you claim this is going to make people healthy?”

The concept is meant to convince skeptical Kennedy supporters to back Trump. But so far it’s mainly illustrated the various ways Kennedy is on board with Trump’s radical deregulation agenda, which would see the agencies responsible for policing food, environmental and medication safety defunded.

After all, the ex-president has done it before: Trump came into office pledging to make huge cuts to scientific and medical research. Under his administration, the FDA took fewer enforcement actions against companies suspected of marketing dangerous, unsafe, or ineffective products, and cuts to public health agencies may have harmed the country’s readiness to respond to COVID. 

There are signs that another Trump administration will be even worse for public health: Project 2025, an agenda for his second administration prepared by his allies, calls for the CDC to be broken up, slamming it as “perhaps the most incompetent and arrogant agency in the federal government.” It also demonizes the National Institutes of Health, claiming the agency has an “incestuous relationship” with vaccine manufacturers and is in the grip of “woke gender ideology.”  

Despite his governing record, Trump has adopted some MAHA talking points, promising to end the “chronic illness epidemic” in America, which, like Kennedy, he has previously blamed partly on vaccines. Trump, who already installed Kennedy on his presidential transition team, also publicly promised to put him on a panel to study what he called “the decades-long increase in chronic health problems, including autoimmune disorders, autism, obesity, infertility, and many more.” 

The main overlap between Trump and Kennedy—and the driving force behind the MAHA movement—is a their shared conviction that the institutions responsible for policing the safety of food and drugs should be defunded and their employees investigated and possibly jailed.

On Monday, Kennedy told a group of MAHA supporters that Trump had “promised me…control of the public health agencies,” including HHS, the CDC, FDA, NIH, USDA, “and a few others.” Kennedy recently tweeted that the FDA’s “war on public health is about to end” under a new Trump administration, before listing an array that encompassed pseudoscientific practices and products: “This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma.” He added, “If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.” 

At the Madison Square Garden rally, Kennedy accused Democrats of “giving us the sickest children in the world,” called the chronic disease crisis “existential for our country,” and said he was focused on “ending the corruption” at agencies including the NIH, the CDC, and the FDA, all which he lumped in with the CIA as being in dire need of top-to-bottom reform.  

According to researcher and author Matthew Remski, Kennedy’s recent appearances have seen him deemphasize attacks on vaccines to instead focus on a much broader set of purported issues around health.

“It’s probably the most successful rebrand that he’s managed since his anti-vax turn back in 2005,” says Remski, a co-host of Conspirituality, a podcast examining the alignment between New Age and right wing spheres. “MAHA represents his organizational capacity to bring the full spectrum of anti-vax-adjacent issues and concerns and grievances together under one umbrella.”

And could be a profitable one. The brand has given rise to the MAHA Alliance—a new conservative super PAC led by Del Bigtree, an anti-vaccine personality and Kennedy’s former campaign communications director. Bigtree says the group has already raised nearly $8 million, including a recent $3 million donation from Elon Musk.

Kennedy’s new role in GOP politics has opened doors to him and those in his circles—including some with a track record of promoting harmful or scientifically unsupported health claims. In September, Kennedy and a number of close allies and MAHA boosters took part in a Capitol Hill event on nutrition hosted by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), a longtime friend of the anti-vaccine movement. Billed as “a nonpartisan panel discussion about the industries that impact national health,” in his opening remarks, Kennedy accused the FDA, the USDA, and the CDC of being “sock puppets for the industry they’re supposed to regulate.” 

Other panelists included Calley Means, a self-styled “healthcare reform” advocate who had been involved in Kennedy’s campaign, men’s rights activist and pop psychologist Jordan Peterson (as well as his daughter Mikhaila, who promotes an all-meat regimen she’s dubbed “the Lion Diet”), and Vani Hari, a wellness influencer who uses the moniker Food Babe, who’s previously been accused of making unscientific claims in her quest to pressure food makers to drop certain ingredients.

Given “his distorted views,” Kennedy makes a poor figurehead for a movement purportedly centered on health.

During her panel remarks, Hari pushed a new campaign against Kellogg’s cereals’ use of food dyes as part of a larger agenda against foods with “synthetic preservatives and pesticides.” The science demonstrating danger from the synthetic food dyes Kellogg’s uses in the U.S. is far from settled; according to a 2014 NPR profile, a previous campaign Hari mounted against supposedly-questionable beer additives actually targeted products derived from algae and fish.

Dr. Andrea Love, an immunologist and microbiologist who combats health misinformation, told Mother Jones the panel gave participants like Hari “a huge megaphone.” Love has pointed out that some of the Kellogg’s ingredients that Hari has claimed are “banned” in other countries legally appear there under different names. When Love later criticized a video actress Eva Mendes made praising Hari’s campaign and calling Kellogg’s dyes “harmful for children,” Calley Means baselessly accused Love of “advertising for Monsanto.” Peterson called her “a liar” as well as “incompetent, deceitful, resentful and arrogant.”

Danielle Shine—an Australian registered dietitian and nutritionist who studies nutrition misinformation also drew fire from Means and Peterson after commenting on Mendes’ video—says Kennedy makes a poor figurehead for a movement purportedly centered on health, given “his distorted views.”

“It’s perplexing that someone who seems to lack an understanding of basic science and promotes misinformation about vaccinations, food, and health would be positioned to lead a public health initiative,” she says. “His rhetoric repeatedly demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of food and nutrition science.”

Kennedy’s demonization of public health agencies, as he foregrounds influencers who make unsubstantiated claims about science and health, illustrates, Love argues, that the efforts of the so-called Make America Healthy Again circle are entirely misdirected.

“They’re pushing towards an ecosystem where there’s less protection, safety, oversight and regulation,” she says. “They’re not talking about the things that do matter, like getting more Americans insured… They say they’re going to take on a company like Kellogg’s, an entity that has no impact on health outcomes, while also pushing to take all authority, oversight, and funding away from federal entities who do that.”

“How,” she adds, with a measure of disbelief, “can you claim this is going to make people healthy?”

‘Unstoppable’ Trailer: Jennifer Lopez and Jharrel Jerome Get in the Ring for Amazon MGM’s Inspiring Wrestling Biopic

30 October 2024 at 14:00
Amazon MGM Studios has released the trailer for its biographical wrestling drama “Unstoppable,” starring Jharrel Jerome and Jennifer Lopez. The film will screen in select theaters on Dec. 6, before coming to Prime Video on Jan. 16, 2025. “Unstoppable” tells the true story of Anthony Robles (Jerome) who was born with one leg but whose […]

‘Dancing With the Stars’ Halloween Night Results in First 10s of the Season — and a Shocking Elimination

30 October 2024 at 02:03
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from the Oct. 29 episode of “Dancing With the Stars.” For Halloween, the celebrities on “Dancing With the Stars” took on their nightmares, each performing a routine inspired by their biggest fears — from snakes, the boogeyman and killers, to dolls, the dark and vampires. And their biggest fear may have […]

Russo Bros. and Robert Downey Jr. Were Already Working on a New Project When Marvel Called to Reunite: ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Idea Is ‘Really Explosive’

29 October 2024 at 21:52
Joe Russo revealed to GamesRadar+ at MCM Comic Con 2024 that Marvel approached the Russo Brothers and Robert Downey Jr. to return for another “Avengers” movie of their record-breaking “Avengers: Infinity War” when the trio was already in discussions with each other for another project. It was announced at Comic-Con in July that Anthony and […]

‘Anora’ and ‘Challengers’ Get Awards Boosts From Gotham Nominations in Year Without Oscar Frontrunners

29 October 2024 at 19:30
Awards season is underway, and the Gotham nominations are only a small blip for what could be on Oscar voters radar. While any nomination (or win) from any industry group marks a chance at gaining momentum, it’s important to member the Oscar punditry golden rule: it’s not about what everyone wants to win, it’s about […]

Eckhart Schmidt, German Helmer Best Known for Cannibal Groupie Pic, ‘The Fan,’ Dies at 85 

29 October 2024 at 18:48
One of European cinema’s most distinctive, fearless and tireless narrative and documentary filmmakers, Eckhart Schmidt, died of natural causes at his home in Munich on Oct. 25, only a few days before his 86th birthday.  His best-known film, the psychological horror thriller, “The Fan,” was graphic and shocking when it premiered in 1982, and its stomach-churning […]

Nicolle Pangis Joins Netflix as VP Advertising

29 October 2024 at 18:06
Nicolle Pangis, a former CEO of the cable-ad-sales entity Ampersand, will join Netflix as its new vice president of advertising, a role that has not been easy to navigate at the streaming giant as it seeks to make dollars from Madison Avenue a bigger part of its overall business plan. More to come…

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