Author: Gesi Lloyd

Marvel executives never doubted Shaquille O’Neal’s star power. They doubted whether audiences could see past it. The NBA legend confirmed in a new Variety interview that Marvel turned down his years long campaign to join the Avengers franchise, telling him plainly that his face is too recognizable for viewers to accept him as anyone other than himself. An eight year pitch that never landed O’Neal’s Marvel dream did not start this week. He first went public with it back in 2018 during an Entertainment Weekly interview, where he said he wanted to join the Avengers and even joked about wanting…

Retired Judge Michael Chitty ruled Saturday that Karmelo Anthony will not receive a new trial, keeping his murder conviction and 35-year sentence exactly where they were before the hearing started. The decision followed two days of testimony in McKinney, Texas, where attorneys from both sides walked through what really happened behind closed doors during Anthony’s original trial. A conviction that already made headlines Anthony, 19, was convicted in June of stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf to death during a heated confrontation at a Frisco track meet in April 2025. A Collin County jury took about three hours to reach a guilty…

Prince Harry and Meghan are relocating back to the United Kingdom after six years in the United States, bringing their children Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, to start school there in September. King Charles was informed of the move on Aug. 16, just weeks after hosting the family for their first full reunion with him in four years. When exactly is this happening, and how did it come together? The couple is expected to relocate within days, according to multiple reports, with the timeline driven partly by the UK school year starting in early September. Notably, the move itself was…

Trade negotiations between the United States and Canada collapsed late Friday, triggering 50% tariffs on a portion of Canadian exports to the US after months of on-again, off-again talks failed to produce a deal before President Trump’s deadline expired at midnight. What led to the breakdown? Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the suspension of negotiations shortly before the deadline, saying that while meaningful progress had been made in recent weeks, it fell short of what Canada needed. He described last-minute changes to the US proposed terms as unfair and economically unworkable, and said the shift raised doubts about whether…

TikTok and its former parent company ByteDance agreed to pay $400 million to settle a Department of Justice lawsuit alleging the platform violated children’s online privacy protections, marking one of the largest settlements ever reached under federal children’s privacy law. What was TikTok accused of doing? The Justice Department sued TikTok and ByteDance in August 2024, alleging the platform collected personal information from millions of users under age 13 without obtaining parental consent, in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. That law, enacted in 2000, requires online services aimed at children to secure parental permission before gathering data…

Stephen Schneider, 63, of Bayville surrendered to New Jersey State Police on Friday and now faces two counts of second degree reckless vessel homicide, along with charges of operating a vessel under the influence and reckless operation, after his boat struck a channel marker in Barnegat Bay on July 19 and threw his two grandchildren overboard. What happened the night of the crash? Schneider was piloting a 30 foot Tidewater Custom 280 around 9:09 p.m. when the vessel struck a wooden channel marker in the Intracoastal Waterway off Berkeley Township, according to state police. His grandchildren, 9 year old Mya…

At least six people have died in Indiana since severe storms began hitting the state on August 11, according to the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, with the number climbing from five to six as officials confirmed a new fatality Saturday. The dead include a 4 year old boy killed when a tree fell on his home in Jennings County, a 19 year old man and 58 year old woman in Delaware County, and additional victims confirmed in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties. Why did the White River break a record that survived 113 years? The White River crested at…

Netflix filed an anti-SLAPP motion Friday in LA Superior Court asking a judge to dismiss Banks’s defamation suit over the docuseries Reality Check, Inside America’s Next Top Model, arguing that her complaints amount to ordinary editorial choices rather than anything legally defamatory. A hearing on the motion is set for Oct. 30. What is Banks actually suing over? Banks sued in June, claiming Netflix and directors Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan used only about 16 minutes of a three and a half hour interview to construct what her lawsuit calls a false and defamatory narrative. The most contested moment involves…

Who is the Earth, Wind & Fire drummer in the hospital right now. That’s John Paris, 58, the band’s longtime drummer, who remains sedated after a cardiac emergency struck backstage on Aug. 6, just hours before Earth, Wind & Fire was set to perform with Lionel Richie at San Francisco’s Chase Center. The Drummer briefly opened his eyes and asked for his wife before doctors put him back under to stabilize his breathing and blood pressure. What actually happened the night of the concert? The San Francisco Fire Department confirmed crews responded to Chase Center around 5:30 p.m. for a…

What did Marvel show at D23 for Avengers: Doomsday, and is it actually new. Marvel Studios brought back the same special look trailer that first played at San Diego Comic Con in July, this time unveiling it on the D23 stage with Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell standing right there to introduce it. The film hits theaters Dec. 18, and the footage leans hard into Downey’s Doctor Doom, confirming he hails from Earth 828, the same reality tied to the Fantastic Four. Is Doctor Doom finally getting his moment? The Doomsday clip opens with Vanessa Kirby’s Sue…