Month: July 2024

Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the woman who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her involvement in the killing of her abusive mother Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard in 2015, announced on Tuesday that she is expecting her first child with her boyfriend, Ken Urker, 31. Blanchard was released from prison in December 2023 after serving eight years of her sentence, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder for her role in the murder of her mother, who abused her for years via Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

The 32-year-old Blanchard shared the pregnancy news in a video titled “I’m Pregnant, My Journey So Far” posted on her YouTube channel on Tuesday, July 9:  “I know the rumors have been flying around for quite some time now, and I’m happy to announce that I am 11 weeks pregnant. Ken and I are expecting our very first child come January of 2025 … This was not planned at all, it was completely unexpected, but we’re both very excited to take on this new journey of parenthood.”  Blanchard added: “I know that there are going to be people who feel like I’m not ready to be a mother, and I don’t know if anyone’s really ready to be a mother. I don’t know anybody that said, ‘Okay, I’m ready, I’m doing this … All the things that I wanted in a mother, I want to give to this baby. I am a mother now, I am happy, and I just want to be a good mother for my child. I want to be everything my mother wasn’t.”

Blanchard and Urker first connected as pen pals while Blanchard was still in prison. Urker proposed in 2018, however their relationship at the time ended years prior to her 2023 prison release. Blanchard later married her ex-husband, Ryan Anderson, while still in prison.  However following her release from jail and subsequent split from Anderson in March, Blanchard and Urker reconnected. Blanchard told PEOPLE in May: “Ken and I reconnected as friends. It wasn’t like, jump out of a marriage and then let me meet up with you, and boom, we’re in a relationship. We had kept a friendship for the longest time. He was in a relationship. I was with Ryan, and so we were living different lives with respect to our partners, a ‘wish you the best’ type of thing.” After her marriage to Anderson fell apart, Blanchard said she reached out to Urker: “It wasn’t until I knew that my marriage was over that I was like, ‘I would like to see you and let’s hang out because we never got to hang out before when I was in prison’. I would say that Ken is my first love because that’s when I honestly felt like a mature love. It wasn’t based off of a fantasy. It was actually based on a connection that two people have for each other.”

Blanchard’s story was explored in the Lifetime docuseries The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, released in January.  She is currently appearing in  Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up, which airs Mondays at 9/8c on Lifetime.

Editorial credit: Natalia Deriabina / Shutterstock.com

Sony Pictures shared a trailer for the movie ‘Here,’ featuring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright.   The film adaptation of the Richard McGuire graphic novel of the same name is written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, who previously collaborated with Hanks and Wright on the 1994 Oscar-winning film, Forrest Gump.  “Here” also marks the sixth collaboration between director Zemeckis and Hanks.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Hanks, 67, and Wright, 58,  are de-aged in the movie through the generative AI-driven tool called Metaphysic Live. Zemeckis explained last year that “With ‘Here’, the film simply wouldn’t work without our actors seamlessly transforming into younger versions of themselves. It only works because the performances are so good. Both Tom and Robin understood instantly that, ‘Okay, we have to go back and channel what we were like 50 years ago or 40 years ago, and we have to bring that energy, that kind of posture, and even raise our voices higher. That kind of thing.”

Per an official film synopsis, ‘Here’ tells the story of “multiple families and the special place they inhabit,” traveling through generations and “capturing the human experience in its purest form.”  The film tells the century-long story of a single house and all the different people who lived there, with the camera siting at a fixed angle for the entire 104-minute duration without moving.

The trailer features Hanks and Wright depicted as teenagers and at different ages, all the way into their 80s, with the cast also including Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly, Michelle Dockery, Gwilym Lee, David Fynn and Ophelia Lovibond.

HERE opens in theaters Nov. 15; check out the trailer at this link.

Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson teams with Chris Evans to save a kidnapped, jacked Santa Clause (J.K. Simmons) in the first trailer for Amazon MGM Studios new holiday film, Red One.

Red One stars Johnson as the North Pole’s head of security, Santa’s primary E.L.F. (Extremely Large and Formidable). The character teams up with the world’s most infamous bounty hunter (Evans) to save Christmas after Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons) is kidnapped.

A film synopsis reads: “when Santa gets abducted, the head of E.L.F, Lucy Lui, calls in the world’s best tracker (Evans), who just so happens to be a Level 4 Naughty Lister.  On their quest to rescue Saint Nick, the unlikely duo must work with talking polar bears, battle regenerative snowmen on the beach, and slapbox Krampus.”

Red One is written by Chris Morgan from the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise, and directed by Jake Kasdan.  The film also stars Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Nick Kroll, Kristofer Hivju and Bonnie Hunt.

Red One opens in theaters Nov. 15; check out the trailer – here.

Editorial credit: Mark Fann / Shutterstock.com

After months of feuding with Drake, Kendrick Lamar has released the video for his chart-topping Drake diss track ‘Not Like Us,’ directed by Lamar and his pgLang co-founder and collaborator, Dave Free.

Out of all the songs released during Drake and Lamar’s diss-track war, ‘Not Like Us’ became the biggest hit, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The video for “Not Like Us” video features celebrity cameos from producer DJ Mustard (wearing a Toronto Blue Jays cap in a subtle dig towards Toronto-native Drake), Tommy the Clown, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, Schoolboy Q and NBA star DeMar DeRozan.

Also featured in the visual is Lamar dancing with his fiancée, Whitney Alford, and their two children. The video comes after Lamar, 37, held his ‘The Pop Out: Ken and Friends’ in Inglewood, CA last month on Juneteenth.

Take a look at the video for ‘Not Like Us’ – here.

Editorial credit: Tinseltown / Shutterstock.com

Pro wrestling icon John Cena has announced he plans to retire from the WWE following WrestleMania 2025. Cena, 47, made his future wrestling plans known during a surprise appearance at WWE’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view event at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto

Cena said to the live audience in a video the WWE posted to social media: “Why am I here? .. Tonight, I officially announce my retirement from the WWE. The 2025 Royal Rumble will be my last. The 2025 elimination chamber will be my last. And I’m here tonight to announce that in Las Vegas, Wrestlemania 2025 will be the last Wrestlemania I compete in .. I want to say thank you.”

During a post-show press conference, Cena added that he would remain a part of the WWE in other capacities: “People say they’re walking away, and two years later they come back. I want to set the record straight right now, I’m done. This is it. If you ever wanted to be a part of this one last time, we’re going to do it as big as we can and we’re fighting everybody and we hope you come enjoy the fun.”

Cena will take the ring in the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania one final time next year before his official retirement. The 16-time world champion said he plans to be involved in some capacity when the WWE’s Raw moves to Netflix in January.  Said Cena: “Raw makes history next year when it moves to Netflix. I’ve never been a part of Raw on Netflix. That is history, that is a first, and I will be there.”

Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com