Author: business

The horror box office smash follows twin brothers Smoke and Stack, both played by actor Michael B. Jordan, in the 1930s as the duo returns to Clarksdale, Mississippi, from Chicago to start a juke joint. Chaos ensues when unwelcome bloodthirsty guests disrupt their shindig.

Although set in the small city, the movie was reportedly filmed in several locations in Louisiana.

As Capital B News first reported, local activist Tyler Yarbrough of Clarksdale had to travel 80 miles to see the film twice, which the 26-year-old credited for capturing the essence of the Mississippi Delta.

The movie theaters in his hometown, which has population of about 14,000 people as of 2023, have either closed or were transformed for other purposes, according to the report. Among them was the historically segregated Paramount Theater, which will serve as a creative arts community facility.

Combs is allowed to have five shirts, five sweaters, five pairs of pants and two sets of lace less shoes to wear in the Manhattan federal courtroom, according to an order signed by Judge Arun Subramanian on April 30. 

The attire will be a return to form for Combs, a fashion lover who partly rose to superstardom with the success of his Sean John clothing brand.

The embattled music mogul, 55, was arrested in September and has been charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to all five counts.

In an update with “Entertainment Tonight” published April 30, Jones’ co-hosts from the NBC morning show’s third hour addressed her absence once again.

“I don’t know anything about when or timeline (for the return), but we always think about her,” Carson Daly told Entertainment Tonight, adding that they “talk about (Jones) probably every day.”

“The Voice” host added that “we’re wishing her well and she’s spending much-needed time with her family and that’ll just take its course. And there’s so much love going out to her.”

‘Today’ co-hosts Al Roker, Craig Melvin offer update amid Sheinelle Jones absence

The beloved co-anchor and mom of three of the NBC morning show’s third hour paused hosting duties in December to “deal with a family health matter,” but it does not appear that she is stepping back permanently from her role. She first raised eyebrows when she was absent during the high-profile exit of former “Today” main co-anchor Hoda Kotb in January.

The Oscar-nominated actor, 29, and the Kylie Cosmetics founder, 27, were spotted attending a playoff game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves in Los Angeles on April 30. They didn’t shy away from some PDA, as they were spotted holding hands and sharing a kiss.

This was the latest date night for the A-list couple, who made waves in March when they were seen embracing in the audience of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. The pair kissed and held hands at the match, which Jenner’s sister, Kendall Jenner, also attended.

Chalamet and Jenner were also spotted attending the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in April, according to videos and photos shared on social media.

Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner spotted kissing, holding hands at tennis match

The pair have been romantically linked in 2023. The “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” star was by Chalamet’s side for some events during awards season in 2025 while he received acclaim for his role as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.”

Luckily, viewers won’t have to find out anytime soon. Despite a slight, and seemingly intentional, scare for audiences, Doocy announced during an May 1 broadcast that he would pare back his time as host rather than retire from the show outright.

Joking about the agony of the 3 a.m. wakeup call he has to abide by to make it to air by 6 a.m., Doocy said he would instead be helming the morning political commentary show three days a week, and broadcast from a new home in Florida rather than New York.

All the TV news anchors exiting their roles, including Lester Holt and Joy Reid

“It is a great job, but the hours suck,” he joked, describing driving into the city in the dark and missing breakfast every morning with his children.

“I’m not retiring, I’m not leaving the show. I’m still a host, but it’s time for a change,” said Doocy, who has been delivering hot takes from the “Fox and Friends” couch for 30 years.

“Another Simple Favor” director Paul Feig recruited the Italian actor, who broke through as a kidnapper hoping to seduce his captive in the erotic thriller “365 Days,” for the “A Simple Favor” sequel (streaming now on Prime Video).

Morrone, 34, plays Emily’s (Blake Lively) wealthy, Mafioso fiancé Dante Versano, who is instrumental in helping free his bride-to-be from prison. In the original 2018 movie, Emily was arrested after Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) secretly livestreamed Emily copping to faking her own death, which she tried to pin on her flailing husband Sean (Henry Golding). In the new installment, Emily taps Stephanie to be her maid of honor at a dreamy destination wedding in Capri.

“I read the script, it was incredible,” Morrone says.

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Over the last month, Combs has appeared in court a handful of times as federal prosecutors and the disgraced hip-hop mogul’s attorneys have ironed out the kinks of what is already shaping up to be one of the most closely followed celebrity trials in recent memory. With most of the legal housekeeping out of the way, both parties met with Judge Arun Subramanian on May 1 at a federal courthouse in lower Manhattan for one last pretrial conference, days before Combs’ trial kicks off May 5.

The rapper was arrested in September and subsequently charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to all five counts.

Here’s everything that happened in court:

Diddy on Trial newsletter: Step inside the courtroom with USA TODAY as Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces sex crimes and trafficking charges. Subscribe to the newsletter. 

In nearly 15 years of Marvel movies, Sebastian Stan’s character has been through the wringer: Bucky “died” in World War II, was turned into the infamous international assassin Winter Soldier, tried to kill his best friend, caused an Avengers civil war, and was blipped out of existence.

The new movie “Thunderbolts*” (in theaters May 2) shows a different side to Bucky. Once he was brainwashed, now he’s washing his mechanical arm next to the knives and forks. He’s also seen spilling a messy sandwich all over himself.

“It’s fun and hilarious for me,” says Stan, who is at this point an elder statesman in the cinematic universe. “I was able to finally kind of tap into maybe what his sense of humor is, which I never would’ve thought when we did (2014’s) ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier.’ ”

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The latest Marvel adventure puts a spotlight on Bucky and other supporting players from Marvel projects. Russian assassin Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and her boisterous dad, Red Guardian (David Harbour), the foster family of Black Widow, are front and center. Also along for the ride: John Walker (Wyatt Russell), a disgraced former Captain America and now U.S. Agent, and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), whose invisibility has done a number on her psyche. All have done bad things but have to look at the darkness inside for the sake of redemption.

“Thunderbolts*” discusses “themes of feeling like an outsider, uncomfortable in your own skin. Feeling isolated, even depressed, ashamed, those are not happy feelings,” says Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who plays antagonistic CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. The movie is about “peeling back the layers on that and to understand where you’ve been in order to figure out where you’re going.”

‘Thunderbolts*’ story got a boost from ‘The Bear,’ ‘Beef’ creators

The scrappy antiheroes team up to take on Valentina, their former employer, who tries to trick them into murdering each other. From the start, Eric Pearson’s original “Thunderbolts*” script was meant to be a flip on the “Suicide Squad” mold, about characters who need to learn to work together.

But the introduction of Bob (Lewis Pullman), a guy with amnesia who becomes the extremely powerful Sentry, unlocked an emotional narrative for director Jake Schreier. He enlisted the help of writers Joanna Calo (“The Bear”) and Lee Sung Jin (“Beef”) to tackle a mental health angle as each character faces their past in The Void, an otherworldly surrealist space caused by Bob’s appearance.

The Bob storyline was personal for Schreier:  “I tracked it to a friend of mine who’s gone through a lot of this stuff. These heights that you could reach, and the hubris that it takes to get there, but then this self-destructive depression and isolation that almost seems linked (and) you needed to learn to find some balance or middle ground.”

Bob is “a very difficult character to wrap your head around,” Pullman adds. “Whether it’s Marvel or not, the continuity and the complexities of this man is very nebulous at times.”

‘Thunderbolts*’: Marvel castoffs get their own movie adventure

Ace assassin Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) teams with her dad, Red Guardian (David Harbour), and other unlikely heroes in Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*.”

Wyatt Russell’s John Walker faces a father’s ‘horrible’ shame

The returning Marvel characters also have to take on a lot psychologically. Walker’s rise and fall were one of the main storylines in the Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and in “Thunderbolts*” he needs a win desperately: His wife has left him and taken their baby daughter.

Walker grows as a person during the movie – he “now can take a hint and understands how to be part of a team a little more,” Russell says. But Walker also faces a “shame room” in The Void that originally was written as an argument between Walker and his wife. Because Russell thought a child should be involved, it turned into a scene where Walker neglects his kid while reading an exposé about himself on his phone.

“Seeing your lack of empathy to your own child and to your own experience, through your own eyes, is really sad. That’s a horrible moment for him that he doesn’t want anybody to know,” Russell says. “As a father myself, there’s nothing more special than your children. And there’s nothing more difficult than knowing that you’re not being the best father that you can be. He knows he can’t go back to that moment and actually get that time back and that crushes me.”

‘Thunderbolts*’ stars are already at work on ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

But alongside the deep themes at play, “Thunderbolts*” offers goofy interactions between its main characters and a heartwarming bond that forms among the team. Which is nice since most of the Thunderbolts will be returning for Marvel’s “Avengers: Doomsday” (out May 1, 2026). That started filming this week and revealed its cast in March via livestreamed empty director’s chairs.

“My brain always just goes to, I hope the movie’s good,” Russell says. “But you look at your name on the back of that chair and you’re like, ‘This is so cool. What a crazy experience.’ ” While Louis-Dreyfus didn’t get a “Doomsday” chair, “I stand at the ready. Also, at this point, I’m not really allowed to say too much, let’s just put it that way,” she teases.

Stan appeared in the last two “Avengers” movies, “Infinity War” and “Endgame,” and those “felt so out of this world in terms of achievement and being able to get all those people together and everything. So how do you build from there to this?” the actor says. Stan is looking forward to working with the legacy “X-Men” actors such as Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, plus seeing Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.

Russell views the Marvel universe as a big summer camp. He felt a little awkward at first doing the “Winter Soldier” TV show with Stan and Anthony Mackie, “and then (with ‘Thunderbolts*’) I was like, ‘I’m not the new kid! All right!’ That was a fun feeling.”

He grins, joking with Stan: “And you started the summer camp.”

The rock star, 77, aired some grievances about former Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth in a blunt conversation with Rolling Stone published April 29. Hagar said he “wanted to break the guy’s” neck sometimes during their 2002 tour together.

USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Roth for comment.

“Dave always wants too much,” Hagar said. “He always tries to upstage. He tried to pull stuff on the Sam and Dave tour (of 2002). The nights when he was opening, when we flip-flopped … which I would never do again. I would never bother. But look, I’m not an opening act for anybody.

“On those nights, he would call in and say that the bus broke down, 10 minutes before he was supposed to go on. And because I care about my fans, I would go on. And I did that about four times.”

Roth, 70, served as lead vocalist for Van Halen until leaving the band in 1985 and being replaced by Hagar. In 2002, the duo launched a co-headlining tour together. During a press conference at the time, Roth, who noted there was a “rivalry between us,” announced that he and Hagar would “flip a coin and the winner will headline opening night and then we’ll flip-flop,” according to Ultimate Classic Rock.