Blake Lively at SXSW for ‘Another Simple Favor’Entertainment
Author: business
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Emily Osment engagedEntertainment
Emily Osment engagedEntertainment
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Anna Kendrick avoids awkward questions amid Blake Lively legal battle
Blake Lively appears at ‘Another Simple Favor’ premiere amid lawsuits
Blake Lively made a public appearance at SXSW as she and “It Ends with Us” director Justin Baldoni litigate alleged on-set misconduct in court.
Anna Kendrick is doing herself a simple favor and avoiding those questions about co-star Blake Lively.
The “Pitch Perfect” franchise alum appeared at the “Another Simple Favor” premiere at South by Southwest Conference and Festival and brought her signature humor to the controversy surrounding her co-star’s legal drama with Justin Baldoni.
During a red carpet interview, a Variety reporter asked Kendrick if she felt the movie was impacted by “everything going around in the world,” seemingly referencing Lively’s legal battle with her ex-co-star and director.
“Why, what happened? I did ayahuasca and the last year of my life is just gone, but I heard the movie is amazing,” Kendrick said before blowing a kiss and walking away.
While stopping to interact with SXSW fans, Kendrick was asked what it means to her to be working with Lively once again to which she responded, “oh you know,” before moving down the line to take a photo with a fan.
“Another Simple Favor” follows Stephanie (Kendrick) on her way to the wedding of Emily (Lively) − years after a joint murder-suicide mission landed one in jail and one with a publishing contract.
Now, Emily is out of prison and set to wed a wealthy Italian businessman, played by Michele Morrone, and she wants Stephanie as her maid of honor.
Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively faced own feud rumors
Kendrick and Lively have long been the subject of feud rumors of their own. On a July 2021 episode of “Watch What Happens Live,” a fan asked guest Henry Golding about a potential feud between his “A Simple Favor” co-stars.
“No, definitely not. I think they got on pretty reasonably well … I think,” Golding replied. “Uhm, definitely no friction that I noticed.” Host Andy Cohen jokingly responded that the “key words are ‘reasonably’ and ‘that I noticed.’”
Lively’s appearance at Friday night’s SXSW premiere was one of her few public outings since her relationship with Baldoni, her director and co-star on “It Ends with Us,” soured and turned into multiple competing court battles.
Though “It Ends with Us” premiered in August, that was only the beginning for all the headlines that emerged about a reported rift among the cast. As 2024 came to a close, Lively sued Baldoni, his production company Wayfarer Studios and some of the public relations strategists they worked with, alleging sexual harassment in a workplace setting, retaliation, breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Contributing: Erin Jensen, KiMi Robinson, USA TODAY; Robbie Farias, Alexis Simmerman, Austin American-Statesman
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Emily Osment files for divorce after about 5 months of marriage
Emily Osment engaged
Hannah Montana alum Emily Osment got engaged to her boyfriend Jack Anthony in 2023 on a trip to Yosemite National Park in California.
Cover Media
“Hannah Montana” alum Emily Osment is splitting from her husband Jack Anthony after five months of marriage.
Through a statement provided by her reps to USA TODAY on Friday, Osment addressed the split with Anthony, whose legal name is Jack Farina.
“I think with any big decision in your life, whether it’s relationships or work or whatever it may be, you have to firmly plant both feet in that decision. Ultimately, it didn’t work out,” Osment said. Osment filed for divorce on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court nearly five months after they tied the knot on Oct. 12. The filing states the pair separated on Dec. 7.
According to People and E!, Osment shared a heartfelt, now-deleted Instagram post in June 2023, calling herself “deliriously happy” and flaunting a diamond engagement ring.
“I did not know life could be this sweet,” the actress captioned the post. “I am so proud of the life we have built together and the people we have become over the last few years.”
“This love is so big and so uniquely ours and I know it can do anything,” the “Young Sheldon” star added. “I am so honored to stand next to you every day. I love you, Jack.”
Emily Osment couldn’t ‘wait to be married’
At the time, Osment opened up to People magazine about her excitement ahead of tying the knot with Farina.
“I cannot wait to be married,” the “Young & Hungry” star told People. “I wish we could just jump to that.”
“It’s so exciting, and we have to constantly remind ourselves, you’re only going to do this once,” Osment said. “So you might look at 1000 pictures of what looks like the exact same chair, and your wedding planner will say, ‘What kind of chairs do you want?’ And I’ll say, ‘Yes, there should be chairs there.’ And she’ll say, ‘No, but what kind of chairs?’ And I’ll say, ‘I don’t care. There should just be chairs.’ It’s a little bit like that.”
“A lot of very small decisions that don’t seem to matter, but on the day, you’re going to be so happy that you sat down and went through the tough decision making,” Osment added. “Because at the end of the day, you get to be married, and that’s the greatest thing ever.”
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‘Mickey 17’ ending explained: Robert Pattinson discusses spoilers
‘Mickey 17’: Robert Pattinson lives to die in sci-fi comedy
The “expendable” Mickey (Robert Pattinson) is left to die by his co-worker (Steven Yeun) in a clip from Bong Joon Ho’s sci-fi comedy “Mickey 17.”
Spoiler alert! We’re discussing important plot points and the ending of “Mickey 17” (in theaters now) so beware if you haven’t seen it yet.
Robert Pattinson’s underdog title character in the sci-fi satire “Mickey 17” has all sorts of obstacles thrown at him – that’s the breaks when you’re considered “expendable.” In the end, though, he not only survives but thrives, even as a copy of himself meets a heroic fate.
In Oscar-winning writer/director Bong Joon Ho’s new movie, Mickey Barnes (Pattinson) is an Earth man who signs up for a colonizing expedition to a distant icy planet and volunteers for a job that puts him in deadly situations constantly. Every time he dies, a new version with his memories is printed out. The 17th iteration is thought to have died, which leads to Mickey 18, but when the other didn’t perish, 17 and 18 have to figure out how to coexist.
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They get a common enemy: Villainous politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), the man leading the expedition, wants to kill the Mickeys. He also wants to wipe out the planet’s indigenous creatures, the Creepers, who had saved Mickey 17 earlier. After killing a baby Creeper, leading the mother Creeper to gather her fellow beasts and surround Marshall’s spaceship, Marshall sends 17 and 18 out to kill Creepers or else get blown up. But 17 warns the Creeper mom about Marshall’s plan to use nerve gas on them – and to keep them from wiping out humans in revenge – and 18 sacrifices himself to blow up Marshall.
While he’s looked down on for most of the movie, Mickey 17 gains new respect among his human co-workers. And when his girlfriend Nasha (Naomi Ackie) is put in charge, she lets Mickey push the button that explodes the human printer.
Does ‘Mickey 17’ have a post-credit scene?
Nope, but before detonating the human printer, Bong includes an important dream sequence where Mickey confronts Marshall’s scheming wife Ylfa (Toni Collette) when she’s printing out a new version of her husband. “Isn’t this what everybody wants?” Mickey tells her off in four-letter fashion.
“A lot of strange things have been happening” in Bong’s native South Korea and the world, the filmmaker says via a translator. “We’re going through climate disaster and fires and we all just feel a bit scared. We feel small and helpless. And what intensifies all that fear even more is hatred and disdain and contempt for one another.”
But in the moment, Mickey rejects all that, Bong adds. “Even the most powerless underdog can overcome his fears and find hope and fight against the vitriol and the hatred of the world. Maybe that’s kind of all we can do and all we can hope for in this crazy world.”
Pattinson sees the movie as “a very sort of extreme version of where your life could end up. I’m always a fan of saying people need to give themselves a break,” he says with a laugh. “It’s funny trying to put things in the context of the way the world is now – it shifts with such alarming pace that it’s almost impossible. Good advice today will be bad advice tomorrow.”
While Mickey 17 is definitely an underdog, “at the same time, what’s interesting is it’s not like he wants to be leading the world afterward,” Pattinson figures. “He doesn’t even really get it. When everyone’s like, ‘You saved the world!” and he’s like, ‘I did? OK, cool.’
“He just wants to have a nice life and be a regular dude. He doesn’t really have any higher aspirations particularly. He was fine with being tortured every day if he could just go home to Nasha.”
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What’s real in Mildred Burke movie?
‘Queen of the Ring’: Wrestling icon Mildred Burke gets a biopic
Emily Bett Rickards stars as women’s wrestling pioneer Mildred Burke in the sports drama “Queen of the Ring,” also starring Josh Lucas.
Spoiler alert! We’re discussing the ending of the sports biopic “Queen of the Ring” (in theaters now), so beware if you want to go in cold.
Google Mildred Burke and you’ll find vintage pictures of the pro wrestling icon showing off her impressive biceps.
Those photos gave Emily Bett Rickards inspiration not only for what she needed to look like to play the pioneering athlete in the biopic “Queen of the Ring” but also a way into her personality.
“Mildred put on this muscle in a time when it was not in vogue,” Rickards, 33, says of Burke, the first million-dollar female athlete and champion wrestler who was a major draw from the 1930s to the mid-1950s. “There’s a lot more women in the gym now, but at the time, women were not muscular. She wanted her femininity to coincide with this physical strength.”
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So all the chicken breast Rickards ate and all the weights she lifted were worth it, the actress adds. “Putting on the muscle was important for the physicality of her. But more so than that, it actually helped me find out who she was, because that’s how she operated in the world. She’s flexing in all her pictures because that was her showwomanship, that was her claim to fame.”
Burke laid the foundation for modern champs like Becky Lynch and Toni Storm (who appears in “Queen of the Ring” alongside other actual wrestlers). Rickards talks about what’s real and what’s fiction in the movie based on Jeff Leen’s book “The Queen of the Ring: Sex, Muscles, Diamonds, and the Making of an American Legend”:
Did Mildred Burke really wrestle men?
In the movie and in real life, Millie (born Mildred Bliss on Aug. 5, 1915) was a single mom working at a diner in the ‘30s when she met wrestling manager Billy Wolfe (played by Josh Lucas) and bugged him to show her the ropes. On her first day of training, he had a man body-slam her to scare her off – she turned around and slammed him. “I was lifting dudes three times my size!” Rickards says of her wrestling scenes. “A lot of the time when you’re picking up someone, they’re doing most of the work. It’s wrestling, but it’s an art form and it’s so cool.”
Because women wrestling other women was illegal in many states at the time, Wolfe turned Burke into a traveling carnival attraction, named “the Kansas Cyclone,” who would take on guys in the audience and give them fits. “They didn’t believe that this woman in front of them stood a chance, and that’s their fault and their problem because she showed them that she could,” Rickard says.
Did the real Mildred Burke marry her manager Billy Wolfe?
Wolfe rounded up a league of women to wrestle alongside Millie, who fought for equal pay with the male wrestlers she knew she could outdraw. She married Wolfe to make sure she had a financial stake in their business, and even dealt with his cheating and womanizing, but they wound up divorcing in the early ‘50s, which adversely affected Millie’s finances and wrestling career.
“She did the best that she could but ultimately her downfall was not knowing the inner workings of business because she wasn’t allowed in the room,” Rickards says
Did Mildred Burke really beat her much-bigger foe?
In wrestling, every great babyface needs an equally good heel, and Burke had that in June Byers, aka “the Texas Tornado” (who was also Wolfe’s daughter-in-law). The real Byers was bigger in stature than Burke, so powerhouse Kailey Latimer was cast as June opposite Rickards because “it was supposed to be impossible for Mildred to beat this woman,” Rickards says.
The movie’s climax involves the controversial 1954 bout in Atlanta between the two, which turned into a “shoot” match instead of a worked one – or, in wrestling parlance, a real physical fight instead of a scripted throwdown. The rousing film version ends with Millie keeping her championship belt with a no-contest decision. In real life, the ending was a bit hazier – while Burke believed she was the winner, the Atlanta Athletic Commission awarded the title to Byers.
Rickards finds what happened afterward fascinating: Burke traveled to Japan to pioneer women’s wrestling there, plus “we end our story right as the age of television is taking off,” the actress says. “And unfortunately, that is why Mildred gets forgotten. That is really at the fault of Billy Wolfe, who didn’t believe that television was going to be a large thing for wrestling but clearly that did not go as he planned.”
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What to know about ‘American Idol’ Season 23: Release date, cast, more
‘American Idol’: Carrie Underwood makes history, replaces Katy Perry
Carrie Underwood, the season 4 winner of “American Idol,” is returning to the show. The Grammy winner will replace Katy Perry on the judges panel.
Get ready to sing your heart out, America. “Idol” returns this Sunday.
Season 23 of the reality singing competition that helped launch Kelly Clarkson’s career features longtime host Ryan Seacrest and judges Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood, who replaces “Teenage Dream” singer Katy Perry after seven seasons.
Some of the world’s most iconic singers, including Underwood, Jennifer Hudson and Adam Lambert, got their start on “American Idol,” which first premiered in 2002.
“20 years ago I auditioned for the judges of @americanidol, and today I am now one of those judges searching for someone who wants to BE AN IDOL!” Underwood wrote in an August social media post. “It all starts with an audition…will we #CUonIDOL?”
The season kicks off with three episodes of auditions before the lucky group of singers get a coveted trip to Hollywood.
Here’s what to know about Season 23 of “American Idol,” including how to tune in.
When does ‘American Idol’ start? Season 23 premiere date
Season 23 of “American Idol” premieres Sunday, March 9 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
‘American Idol’ Season 23 trailer
‘American Idol’ judges, host
Long-time judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan are joined by Carrie Underwood this season.
The “Before He Cheats” singer is taking over for Katy Perry, who revealed that she was leaving the show to focus on music. Underwood, an “American Idol” alum, returns to the show about 20 years after she won the competitive singing competition.
Ryan Seacrest, who has hosted 20 seasons of “American Idol,” will once again serve as emcee.
Grammy-nominated singer Jelly Roll will serve as a first-ever artist in residence. He will work closely with contestants, giving them firsthand advice on how to “navigate the journey,” as Variety first reported.
How to watch Season 23 of ‘American Idol’
“American Idol” airs Sunday nights on ABC with episodes available to stream on Hulu the next day.
Viewers may also catch the show live on the ABC app or website along with live-streaming sites that allow viewers to watch in real-time.
We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.
Contributing: Emily DeLetter, USA TODAY
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President says Fox show could only be hit with ‘him’
Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara speaks at the RNC
Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of Donald Trump, gives a speech to end the second night of the Republican National Convention.
Lara Trump is returning to her former home.
The ex-Republican National Committee co-chair is back at Fox News Channel with “My View with Lara Trump,” a Saturday night (9 p.m. ET) opinion show that debuted Feb. 22.
In doing so, she has passed up a cabinet position in father-in-law, President Donald Trump’s second White House term and another chance at serving in the United States Senate, making history as the first family member of a president actively serving to host a television program. Trump is the wife of President Trump’s middle son Eric, and the pair share two children: Luke and Carolina.
“The show is to really bring another level of transparency to things that I don’t know that we’ve ever had,” Trump told USA TODAY. “You know, you look at Donald Trump. I think people would be hard pressed to find a more transparent candidate and administration than we currently have right now.”
Trump, who is known to go to new terrain for conservatives such as her viral appearance on “The Breakfast Club,” says she would like to invite Democrats on the show — and interview the president.
After Fox News announced her hiring, criticism followed. The Daily Beast said she tried and failed to paint her father-in-law as “pro-feminist” after Trump featured female Trump administration officials Pam Bondi, Tulsi Gabbard and Karoline Leavitt. The New Yorker coined her “The New Trump-Family Megaphone,” but she disagrees with the backlash.
“Oh, you mean someone would criticize something that a Trump did?” Trump says. “Of course there will be critics, of course there will be people who say that” say says in reference to the “megaphone” headline, adding that it’s “not the intent of the show.”
She has a clear plan, though, for “My View,” which is already a ratings hit. As left-leaning news networks MSNBC and CNN reshuffle their talent amid President Trump’s second term, axing his critics or offering them lesser time slots, “My View” garnered the most viewers of any cable program over its opening weekend according to Nielsen ratings.
The show beat out ESPN college basketball with 2.4 million viewers ahead of March Madness.
Lara Trump: Father-in-law President Donald Trump is ‘biggest cheerleader’
Trump tells USA TODAY the president thought the first episode was “amazing” and she praised him as her “biggest cheerleader.”
“He’s called me twice since the show to tell me what an amazing job he thought I did, how much he enjoyed the show and unfortunately, both times, I missed his call,” Trump says, adding that her phone was dead, and she was on a plane during the respective attempts.
“I’m really grateful, and I’m happy (President Trump) loved it,” she says. “Of course, he told me that the only way that I was going to get a huge audience is if I had him on and so I think that — I don’t want to say I’ve proven him wrong. When he comes on, I guess the audience will be even bigger.”
When does Lara Trump plan to have the president on ‘My View’?
For those wondering when her father-in-law will make his “My View” debut, Trump says she would like to have him on the show after he hits 100 days in office.
“I really wanted to establish myself in this position before having him on. So, you know, we’ll see. We don’t have anything officially planned,” she says.
She insists she’s carving her own lane on Fox News and praised President Trump’s administration during her interview with USA TODAY.
Trump decided to host her new Fox show to “bring an extra layer of transparency and more information, not less information, to people out there.”
“You know what side I’m on, you know for whom I voted, and you know that I obviously want to see this country succeed with my father-in-law as president, but I think anyone who tunes into the show regularly will very quickly learn that I’m simply trying to give more insights,” she says.
Who will be the guests on Laura Trump’s new show?
Her dream guests? Her own family.
“I actually would love to do an interview with my whole family, and I would love for people see because I don’t know that’s anyone’s ever done that, just the way we all interact I think is very cool,” she says. “And I think, you know, people love to write articles about this, that and the other. We all get along so well. I think the past eight years have made us all closer.”
She also wants to invite Democrats, suggesting moderate Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman and late-night talk show host Bill Maher as potential guests.
And the show’s cheeky title isn’t throwing shade at “The View,” the ABC daytime hit show famously critical of the president.
“Some took it as a swipe at ‘The View,’ but mostly it’s because it is really what this show is all about. It’s my view on things and my perspective,” she says, adding that they went with the simplest and most straightforward name.
Trump did divulge that she “probably would have said yes” to co-hosting “The View,” but did say “not to my knowledge” when asked if producers had ever asked her to.
Lara Trump skipped chance to become U.S. Senator (again)
To host “My View,” Trump took her name out of consideration to replace Marco Rubio, her father-in-law’s pick for Secretary of State, in the U. S. Senate representing Florida, where she currently lives. She previously was floated as a Senate candidate in 2022 in her home state of North Carolina.
Motherhood is more important, she says, adding that “for me, being the mom of two young kids who are 5 and 7 right now, my kids need me. They want me around. That doesn’t last forever. There will come a point where they’re like, ‘get away, mom. We don’t need you around here.’”
She lives in Florida and films the show in various locations around the country.
“With that in mind, this great opportunity at Fox came up and I said, you know, ‘it just feels like this is the position that God is pushing me in. There’s a reason you don’t see a lot of moms of school aged children as United States Senators.” There are four moms of school-aged children in the Senate.
She says “it’s not that they don’t have the drive to do it. It’s very challenging to be away from your children if you don’t move them fully to D.C. for the amount of time it’s necessary to do the job of United States Senator.”
For now, the “No Days Off” singer says the Senate can wait. Voters can find her seated on the anchor desk every Saturday, giving her view.
“I actually hope that maybe we bring new people into the fold to tune into Fox because of this show because I do think you’re getting something that is different, that isn’t solely based on the frenzied 24-hour news cycle that we’re all used to,” Trump adds.
“I think it’s hard sometimes to take a second to take a breath and really appreciate the people who are making the big changes right now. And that’s truly what I hope to highlight.”
‘My View’ third episode will feature Vivek Ramaswamy, Sean Duffy
“My View” airs Saturday nights on Fox. The March 8 episode will feature Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Florida gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
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Crossword Blog & Answers for March 8, 2025 by Sally Hoelscher
There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today’s puzzle before reading further! Right From the Start
Constructor: Jake Halperin
Editor: Anna Gundlach
What I Learned from Today’s Puzzle
- GERALD (65A: Arnold’s best friend in “Hey Arnold!”) Hey Arnold! is an animated TV series about a fourth grader named Arnold who lives with his grandparents. Although I’ve written about this show before, both times were mentions of the character of Helga, so I wasn’t familiar with GERALD. As the clue mentions, GERALD (voiced by Jamil Walker Smith) is the 9-year-old best friend of the title character.
- ORTEGA (47D: “Stuck in the Middle” star Jenna) Stuck in the Middle is a Disney TV series that originally aired from 2016-2018. Jenna ORTEGA portrays Harley Diaz, the middle child in a family of seven children.
Random Thoughts & Interesting Things
- ISSA (1A: Hoorae Media founder Rae) ISSA Rae founded Hoorae Media (pronounced “hooray”) in 2020. Hoorae’s productions include the TV shows Insecure, A Black Lady Sketch Show and Rap Sh!t.
- CVS (11A: Chain with famously long receipts) This clue made me laugh. A few years ago when we saw CVS clued as [Largest pharmacy chain in the U.S.], I wrote, “As I filled in this answer, I had the thought that an alternative clue could be [Pharmacy chain with the longest receipts].”
- LEA (16A: “The French Dispatch” actress Seydoux) The French Dispatch is the abbreviated title of the 2021 movie The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun. The movie follows three different storylines surrounding the publication of the final issue of a fictional newspaper. LÉA Seydoux stars as a prison guard and the muse for an imprisoned painter in the storyline, “The Concrete Masterpiece.”
- SEA (23A: With 25-Across, novelty “pet” that is actually a shrimp) and MONKEY (25A: See 23-Across) It was a fun choice to pair these two answers together, since they are in the same row of the puzzle. When I was a kid, the SEA MONKEY was marketed extensively on TV and in comic books. I was curious, but my parents never gave in and purchased a SEA MONKEY kit. SEA MONKEYs are brine shrimp sold as novelty pets. They were given the name of SEA MONKEY because their tail vaguely resembles that of a MONKEY. They are sold as eggs, which hatch when added to water and augmented with yeast, borax, soda, salt, and some food (also included in the kit). The SEA MONKEY slogan is “The World’s Only Instant Pets.” I haven’t thought about SEA MONKEYs in a long time!
- CANOED (33A: Paddled in a lake) and DROVE (41A: Went for a spin) Whether you’re on a lake or the road, this puzzle has you covered.
- DENCH (38A: “J. Edgar” actress Judi) J. Edgar is a 2011 biographical movie about the career of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The movie was produced and directed by Clint Eastwood. Leonardo DiCaprio portrays the title character, and Judi DENCH portrays Annie Hoover, J. Edgar Hoover’s mother.
- YEN (45A: Currency in Hokkaido) Hokkaido is the second-largest island of Japan. The currency in Japan is the Japanese YEN.
- RABAT (57A: Capital of Morocco) Morocco is a country in North Africa. RABAT is its capital.
- PROPER FRACTIONS (61A: Ratios like 2/3 and 3/4, but not 4/3 and 3/2) Who put math in this word puzzle?! (Just kidding; I like it.) Here’s a little math review. PROPER FRACTIONS are those with a numerator (the top number) that is less than the denominator (the bottom number). The value of a PROPER FRACTION is less than one.
- ART (64A: Mary Cassatt’s field) Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was an impressionist painter. Her ART includes “The Child’s Bath,” on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.
- ADOPTS (68A: Takes home a furry friend) My furry friend, Willow, is a fan of this clue.
- ENOLA (29D: ___ Holmes (Sherlock’s sister)) I have previously written about ENOLA Holmes.
- HARRY (50D: “Call Me” singer Debbie) Debbie HARRY is the lead singer of the band Blondie. “Call Me” is a 1980 song by Blondie, which Debbie HARRY wrote the lyrics to as well as sang. “Call Me” is the theme song for the movie American Gigolo.
- ELOTE (51D: Cotija-covered corn) ELOTE is the term used in Central America and Mexico for an ear of corn. ELOTE is sold as street food in some regions of Mexico. The corn is charred on the grill, and served in a spicy and creamy cotija cheese sauce.
- TRAP (55D: “Home Alone” hazard) Let’s all just take a moment to let it sink in that the movie Home Alone was released in 1990, meaning it will be 35 years old in November… Macaulay Culkin stars as eight-year-old Kevin McCallister, who sets a number of TRAPs for the burglars attempting to break into his family’s home.
- RED (62D: Color of light with the longest wavelength) Here’s a fun fact for you to share with your friends. Hooray for science in the crossword!
- A few other clues I especially enjoyed:
- EYES (34A: Body parts visible in the dark, in cartoons)
- AHA (24D: “Mystery solved!”)
- YO-YO (35D: Toy that might go “around the world”)
Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis
- FAIR WEATHER FANS (17A: People who support a team when it’s doing well)
- JUST THE THING (26A: Exactly what’s needed)
- MORAL SUPPORT (46A: Emotional encouragement)
- PROPER FRACTIONS (61A: Ratios like 2/3 and 3/4, but not 4/3 and 3/2)
RIGHT FROM THE START: The word at the START of each theme answer is a synonym of the word RIGHT: FAIR, JUST, MORAL, and PROPER.
I enjoy a synonym theme such as this one. It took me a few moments to realize that the word RIGHT in the title was not being used in the directional sense (opposite of left), but rather being used in the sense of FAIR, JUST, MORAL, and PROPER. This made for a nice “Aha!” moment. Thank you, Jake, for this enjoyable puzzle.
For more on USA TODAY’s Crossword Puzzles
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Who’s hosting ‘SNL’ tonight? Watch Lady Gaga as host, musical guest
‘Saturday Night Live’ celebrates 50 years of comedy
Live from New York, it’s the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live.”
“Saturday Night Live” is set to air its 15th episode of Season 50 this weekend, with its host making a return appearance to the iconic late-night show.
During this Saturday’s episode of the long-time comedy show, Lady Gaga will pull double duty as both emcee and musical guest.
It will mark the second time Lady Gaga has played the role of host and musical guest. She first performed on the show Nov. 16, 2013.
Her latest studio album, “Mayhem” dropped Friday. The 14-track album will be her seventh studio album, which she’s calling a return to her pop roots, USA TODAY previously reported.
It will include the previously released goth-pop of “Disease” as well as her No. 1 hit with Bruno Mars, “Die with a Smile.”
Here’s what to know about the March 8 show, including what time it airs and where to watch.
Who is the ‘SNL’ musical guest on March 8?
Lady Gaga is the March 8 musical guest.
How to watch ‘SNL’ on Mar. 8?
The March 8 “SNL” episode will be available to watch live on NBC at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT.
Viewers can also stream it the next day on Peacock.
Who is in the Season 50 ‘SNL’ cast?
James Austin Johnson reprised his role as President Donald Trump. Bowen Yang has played the role of Vice President JD Vance.
Former cast member Maya Rudolph played the role of Vice President Kamala Harris in the lead-up to the November presidential election.
Season 50 returning cast members include:
- Michael Che
- Mikey Day
- Andrew Dismukes
- Chloe Fineman
- Heidi Gardner
- Marcello Hernández
- James Austin Johnson
- Colin Jost
- Michael Longfellow
- Ego Nwodim
- Ashley Padilla
- Sarah Sherman
- Kenan Thompson
- Devon Walker
- Emil Wakim
- Jane Wickline
- Bowen Yang
New cast members this season are:
- Ashley Padilla
- Emil Wakim
- Jane Wicklin
Contributing: Melissa Ruggieri
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.