“My dad has asked me to pass on this message: “My beautiful caring wife of nearly 40 years has passed away at 10:06am, after years of fighting cancer,” she said in a tweet. “She will never, ever be forgotten. Rest In Peace, mia Valeria.”
Harper had been suffering from leptomeningeal carcinomatosis since 2013. She previously beat back lung cancer in 2009, People reported.
In recent weeks, doctors had advised Harper’s husband, Tony Cacciotti, to place her in hospice care, something he had refused to do.
“I have been told by doctors to put Val in Hospice care and I can’t [because of our 40 years of shared commitment to each other] and I won’t because of the amazing good deeds she has graced us with while she’s been here on earth,” he said in a Facebook post last month.
“We will continue going forward as long as the powers above allow us, I will do my very best in making Val as comfortable as possible,” he wrote.
Mama June was living in such squalor before fleeing her house, it had to be totally gutted by the new owner ... and we've got pics of the shocking conditions.
Neighborhood sources tell us there's been constant demolition at June's house over the last week to clear it out. You can see from the pics ... everything from the kitchen to the bathrooms and bedrooms has been torn apart. Some rooms are stripped down to the drywall and subflooring.
SplashNews.com
Our sources say a family with 4 children is getting ready to move into the house, and it was so filthy they've decided to rip it up and start all over.
TMZ broke the story ... June and her boyfriend, Geno, recently left the Hampton, GA home and have plans to buy an RV and tour the country.
As a result, her daughter, Alana -- aka Honey Boo Boo -- is now living with her big sister, Pumpkin.
Alana turned 14 on Wednesday, but it doesn't appear June was part of the celebration. June's family issued her an ultimatum last month, choose Geno or Alana. So far, she's sticking with her BF.
As for her old house -- it's gonna need rehab and TLC. Not unlike June, if you ask her fam.
1968. With her ex-husband Sid Luft (Rufus Sewell) demanding custody of her children and struggling to pay a $4 million tax bill, fragile Hollywood legend Judy Garland (Renée Zellweger) takes up a sold-out residency at London’s Talk Of The Town nightclub. Can she keep it together so the show can go on?
There is an image around halfway through _Judy_ that captures Judy Garland (Zellweger) slumped in her dressing room, head bowed, cigarette burning in hand, surrounded by wall-to-wall flowers, a depleted Garland before literal garlands. It’s a moment that gets to the heart of the last days of Garland’s life, the difference between the private and the public, despair and sadness crystallised against a rose-coloured world-view. It’s something Rupert Goold’s film doesn’t quite manage again. For, despite an imposing performance by Renée Zellweger, Judy never exposes the dark heart of Garland’s last years, creating an enjoyable backstage drama movie while failing to get under its protagonist’s skin.
Like last year’s much better _Stan & Ollie_ (it shares a character in showbiz impresario Bernard Delfont), Tom Edge’s screenplay examines Garland through the prism of a late-in-life UK engagement peppered with flashbacks to key moments in her early years as a child star. After a talk-y start in Los Angeles (Gemma-Leah Devereux is a dead spit for Liza Minnelli), things pick up when Garland arrives in London, refuses to rehearse then knocks ‘By Myself’ out of the park. Garland is paired with an assistant-cum-minder, Ros (Jessie Buckley, using a fraction of her talents), and the subsequent uphill struggle to get Garland stage-ready is entertaining. We see glimpses of other areas of Garland’s life — a brutal TV interview about her children, her lover Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock) surprising her in London — but it’s in the theatre where ‘Judy’ impresses most.
The uphill struggle to get Garland stage-ready is entertained.
The film is less surefooted when it comes to dealing with Garland’s past. Interspersed in the ’60s timeline are flashbacks to young Judy in ’30s Hollywood, being ugly-shamed on the set of The Wizard Of Oz by Louis B. Mayer, denied a French fry at lunch with Mickey Rooney to control her weight, and an act of rebellion as she jumps in a tank at a manufactured birthday party staged two months before the actual date. Yet the correlation between Judy’s brutal management by Mayer and her later-in-life troubles feels simplistic, psychoanalysis 101 that undercuts any attempts at complexity. Equally banal is a plot thread back in London involving Garland and two gay fans (Andy Nyman, Daniel Cerqueira) that feels entirely engineered to pay homage to Garland’s status as a gay icon rather than offer any sense of convincing organic drama.
It’s a small film that never successfully evokes the scale of old-school Hollywood — the LA sequences feel very stage-bound — or the louche London of the ’60s. Zellweger goes some way to etching Judy’s loss — there’s a touching late-on moment when Judy phones home to daughter Lorna (Bella Ramsey) — and goes for broke on stage, barnstorming her way through ‘The Trolley Song’ or smouldering on ‘Come Rain Or Come Shine’. Yet the film really stumbles in its big climax, pulling a cheap trick, parlaying one of Hollywood’s saddest, most tragic stories into a feel-good moment. Garland — and Zellweger — deserved so much more.
Judy is an enjoyable, sincere attempt to present a multi-faceted portrait of a Hollywood legend, bolstered by a strong Renée Zellweger. Yet it never really finds the subtleties and depths to make it compelling and the ‘inspirational’ ending diminishes a sad, complex life.
It’s finally Judgement Day, and to commemorate it, the team behind Terminator: Dark Fate has finally released the final trailer of the movie, as well as its official movie poster.
The sixth instalment in the Terminator franchise, Terminator: Dark Fate will be produced by James Cameron and Tim Miller. Dark Fate will serve as a direct sequel to the first two Terminator films. According to Tim Miller, every Terminator film that came after Terminator 2: Judgement Day happened in an alternate universe and will not affect the main canon.
Terminator fans can also look forward to the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton. While Hamilton will be reprising her role as Sarah Connor, it has long been revealed that Schwarzenegger will come back as a different Terminator, with a whole new chassis number.
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New year, new Terminator, are we right?
The new trailer gives us a better glimpse at what to expect from the movie, including an older Sarah Connor that is just as much of a badass as she was in every other Terminator film, as well as several cool fight scenes including the new cast and, of course, Schwarzenegger himself.
We can’t wait to see what the full movie has in store for us.
Terminator: Dark Fate will be released in theatres on November 1, 2019.
Germaine is a fun-sized introvert who loves nothing better than sleeping in on rainy days. She can be found reading fanfiction and manga while still waiting for her Hogwarts acceptance letter. It’ll come eventually.
Anyone as obsessed with California as Lana Del Rey is — obsessed with its beauty and its glamour and with the potential for danger that’s always underbellied the swollen promise of this place — was probably destined for a Laurel Canyon phase, and that’s just where we find the singer on her stirring and emotionally risky new album, “Norman F— Rockwell!”
She might be the decade’s least likely pop star: a believer in slooow tempos who concentrates on albums at a moment when bite-size singles predominate. But where others can struggle to outlive a viral smash, she offers fans entrée into a fully realized world. Which means she’s free to evolve at her own idiosyncratic pace.
The follow-up to 2017’s “Lust for Life,” which featured cameos by the Weeknd and ASAP Rocky, Del Rey’s fifth major-label studio disc surrounds her breathy singing with stately piano and gently fingerpicked acoustic guitar; it’s a quieter, more hand-played effort than her earlier work that went for a hip-hop torch-song vibe and made her a favorite of Kanye West, whose wedding she performed at in 2014.
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In “Bartender,” she describes a party where the “ladies of the canyon” are listening to Crosby, Stills & Nash, while “Venice Bitch” evokes that veteran band’s “Our House” as she sings, “You’re in the yard / I light the fire.” (Later she borrows the title of Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl.”)
For Del Rey, who famously assembled her breakthrough “Video Games” clip from found footage, all these references are the latest product of her ongoing rummage through California’s history; no doubt she’ll eventually get deep into the Gold Rush.
Yet she and her primary producer, Jack Antonoff, are also looking back at Laurel Canyon’s folk-rock fantasy of domestic bliss as a way to deepen Del Rey’s own songs about reaching for, and occasionally attaining, the kind of romantic intimacy that’s eluded her in the past.
You wouldn’t call the album happy, exactly — heed that F-bomb in the middle of the title — but tracks such as the tender “Love Song” and “F— It I Love You” represent a clear shift from the gloomy fatalism that so distinguished Del Rey when she emerged in the early 2010s as an alternative to the cheerful likes of Kesha and Katy Perry
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“You write, I tour, we make it work,” she sings of a relationship between two creatives in “Venice Bitch.” “You’re beautiful and I’m insane.”
Why the turn toward the light? Del Rey is 34, for one — mature enough by today’s slow-to-grow standards that the old stories about Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash are probably beginning to hold some appeal. (She guards her personal life pretty tightly, so we’re left to presume these songs bear some connection to reality.)
But Del Rey is also a proven dissenter, and nearly 10 years after she released her debut album, “Born to Die,” its influence is unmistakable in music by Ariana Grande, Lorde and Billie Eilish. No less influential is her cut-and-paste visual style, which is impossible not to think of every time the opening credits to HBO’s “Succession” come on screen.
What stands out now — in an era defined by bleary, depressive pop songs — is someone yearning, as Del Rey does in “Venice Bitch,” for “Hallmark — one dream, one life, one lover.” Or her insistence in the strummy “Mariners Apartment Complex” that “you took my sadness out of context.”
The gratifying thing about this album — beyond its gorgeous melodies and Del Rey’s singing, which has never been more vivid — is that even as she’s mellowed her attack, her sense of humor has grown more pointed. The title track is somehow both sensitive and merciless in its description of a “man-child” who talks to the walls when his friends get bored of him.
“Why wait for the best when I could have you?” she wonders over a handsome arrangement lush with horns and strings.
And for all her interest in the idea of creating a home — “You don’t ever have to be stronger than you really are when you’re lying in my arms,” she comforts a lover in “California” — Del Rey isn’t blocking out the world outside. Near the end of “The Greatest,” in which she sings longingly about a bar where the Beach Boys used to go, she strings together a series of short lines that together offer a chilling portrait of life in 2019:
L.A. is in flames, it’s getting hot
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Kanye West is blond and gone
“Life on Mars” ain’t just a song
I hope the live-stream’s almost on
Antonoff keeps playing a little piano lick after that, each repetition slightly softer than the one before it. It feels like a cushion Del Rey knew you’d need.
The final trailer for director Todd Phillips’ Joker is out, and it’s a film that I’m looking forward to covering. Yes, despite it all, including the fact that I think it is unnecessary because we have perfected the Joker, I am curious to see the vision that Phillips has put together, especially with Joaquin Phoenix playing the titular character. So, here we go to watch the trailer!
Oh, angry Black woman at the very beginning. How avant-garde.
When early images of the film were coming out and I realized that it was taking place in the ’80s, it really seemed to channel the ’80s New York crime wave aesthetic. That makes sense, since Gotham is supposed to be a fictional mirror of New York/New Jersey. At the same time, watching this trailer, I couldn’t help seeing the character of Arthur Fleck in this film feeling a lot like Bernhard Goetz, the 1982 New York Subway shooter.
I don’t think the trailer looks terrible, or that this movie is inherently unwatchable because of the optics of it in today’s society. Despite the fact that I think movies should be careful in how they choose to portray violence, I don’t think that movies about violence inherently cause people to act violently. I grew up watching movies about angry white men my whole life, and I’m not a violent person. But, then again, I don’t see myself reflected in the struggles of cynical, disenfranchised white male characters, nor do I look at characters like the Joker as cathartic avatars of my own frustration.
In 2012, when a shooter in tactical clothing committed a mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado during a screening of The Dark Knight, he did so with his hair dyed orange. During the trial, it was said that his actions had been caused due to his dissatisfaction with life and finding work, as well as health issues. Again, I don’t think the shooter committed these atrocities because of the Joker—that takes away too much responsibility from these terrorists—but the character of the Joker has been elevated in a way that feeds into a vicious cycle that is uncomfortable.
People take comfort in that nihilism, in that idea that chaos is fair, the idea that all that stands between good men and bad men is “one bad day.” And although plenty of stress is put on the fact that those ideas will not win in the end, when you put them at the forefront—when you constantly promote the idea in art, because it is seen as deeper or more intrinsically real, with no balance—it does a disservice to the power of art.
I think Joker looks interesting. I’m excited to see a comic book movie in this sort of arthouse style. I think there’s merit in telling stories about chaos, but I think those stories have to be balanced out with heroes. I think a serious, introspective Joker movie without Batman, without some real emotional balance, just seems incomplete. But the movie isn’t out yet, so maybe that hope is there in the end.
We’ll find out when Joker hits theaters this October.
Michael Jackson accuser Wade Robson is blasting Netflix for its decision to air a new Dave Chappelle comedy special defending MJ against allegations of molestation ... Wade says the streaming service is trivializing sexual abuse.
Wade is going scorched-earth on Dave and Netflix, telling TMZ this content in a Netflix special serves to "shame victims," and is "disgusting, irresponsible and inexcusable."
Robson says Netflix is just as guilty as Dave for trivializing and condoning sexual abuse ... because the streaming service provided Chappelle a massive platform.
Netflix
In his new comedy special, 'Sticks & Stones,' DC straight-up says of Wade and James, "I don't believe these motherf***ers" after rehashing their allegations from the HBO documentary "Leaving Neverland" in graphic detail.
Wade, who says he doesn't care if Chappelle believes him or not, adds in his strong response ... "1 in 6 boys and 1 in 4 girls are sexually abused before the age of 18, and considering their actions, Dave Chappelle, Netflix, and the Michael Jackson Estate, who have recently supported Chappelle’s views, are part of the problem. I believe we can and should do better than this.”
Sources close to Wade and James tell TMZ ... both accusers feel Netflix is essentially condoning what Chappelle is espousing in his special -- that if you're a celebrity, it's OKAY to sexually assault a child.
TMZ.com
However, lots of people enjoyed Chappelle's special and are praising Dave for pushing the envelope ... like comedian Donnell Rawlings, who says the people up in arms are forgetting one crucial element -- DAVE'S MAKING A DAMN JOKE!!!
We reached out to Netflix ... no word back, so far.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway might be a “Swifty.” Or at least she’s using popular pop music to avoid answering questions.
During an interview with Fox News on Tuesday evening, Conway responded to pop star Taylor Swift’s criticism of the White House by singing the lyrics of one of Swift’s newest songs entitled “You Need to Calm Down.”
“I actually like the new Taylor Swift song that is ‘You Need to Calm Down.’I can sing it for you,” Conway told Fox’s Martha MacCallum. “’If you say it on the street, that’s a knock out, if you put it in a tweet, that’s a cop-out.’ I love that. That’s Washington in a nutshell.”
The singing was awkward for a number of reasons, but primarily because most Swift fans believe the lyrics are an implicit dig at President Trump.
During a speech at the MTV Video Music Awards this week, Swift called out the White House for not responding to her petition in support of the passage of the Equality Act, which would give protections in the workplace to members of the LGBT community. MacCallum pressed Conway on why the White House doesn’t support the Equality Act, but she dodged, saying there are several “poison pills” in the legislation that would “harm other people.”
Disgraced movie executive Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty to two new charges of predatory sexual assault Monday under a new grand jury indictment that will allow an actor he allegedly assaulted in the early ’90s to testify about what prosecutors said is a pattern of sexually criminal behavior.
Annabella Sciorra, best known for her role in The Sopranos, will testify that Weinstein raped her inside her Manhattan apartment in 1993, Manhattan prosecutors said.
In addition to the new charges, Weinstein has already been charged with two counts of predatory sexual assault, one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree, one count of first-degree rape, and one count of third-degree rape.
Weinstein pleaded not guilty to all charges, arguing that all of the sexual acts were consensual.
Weinstein's trial had been scheduled to begin on Sept. 9, but in order to allow his lawyers to prepare a defense against these new charges, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge James Burke moved the start date to Jan. 6, 2020.
Per New York's penal code, in order to prove predatory sexual assault, prosecutors must present evidence that Weinstein committed felony sexual assault against at least two individuals.
Sciorra first spoke about the alleged rape in October 2017, shortly after the publication of the explosive New Yorker story in which numerous women accused Weinstein of sexual assault over a period of decades.
In an interview with reporter Ronan Farrow published two weeks later, Sciorra described her alleged assault in graphic terms. She said that Weinstein raped her and performed oral sex upon her without her consent after driving her home from an industry dinner in 1993. Sciorra also alleged that the movie executive made aggressive sexual advances toward her in 1995 and 1997.
Kim Kardashian admitted that she has a favorite sister, and it’s Khloe Kardashian! She explained why she’s crazy for Koko in a candid ‘Vogue Arabia’ interview.
Leave it to Kanye West to get Kim Kardashian to open up in one of her most candid interviews ever. Kanye interviewed his wife in a unique, honest interview for Vogue Arabia’s September issue, asking her about everything under the sun, including her Paris robbery, studying law, and the lessons she’s learned from being famous. But maybe the juiciest tidbit? She revealed who her favorite sister is! She admitted that it was an impossible decision, but she named the lucky lady anyway: her younger sister, Khloe Kardashian!
“It changes, just like friends or relationships go in and out. I think this year has been a really strong Kim and Khloe year,” she revealed to Kanye. “I’m obviously so close with Kendall and Kylie too but I’ve spent so much more time on this earth with Kourtney and Khloe – 16 and 17 years longer with them. We have more history, have been through so much together, and we have more friends in common. Kourtney and I will always be really close, but this year, Khloe and I really bonded.”
No siblings are closer than the Kardashian Jenner clan. And Kim makes it clear that she’s not trying to exclude her sisters, or her brother, Rob Kardashian. It’s just that this year, she and Khloe have clicked more than ever! After all, they had their babies,True Thompson and Chicago West, mere weeks apart in early 2018. With one year old babies on their hands, of course they’re together constantly during playtime!
Txema Yeste/Vogue Arabia
The whole Kardashian-Jenner family has rallied around Khloe, actually. With the news that her ex, Lamar Odom, would be competing on Dancing With The Stars, her family is worried that he’ll start talking openly about them again. “Everyone wishes Lamar well,” a source revealed to HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “The show tends to dive deep into personal lives… it’s safe to say they won’t be tuning in.”
Even if Spider-Man does indeed leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe, actor Tom Holland is coming back to play the character again in a third movie following the box office smash Spider-Man: Far From Home. Holland appeared at the Keystone Comic-Con in Philadelphia this weekend (after his separate appearance at Disney's D23) where he confirmed there is "definitely more to come" for Spider-Man movies featuring him in the lead role, according to GameSpot sister site ComicBook.
In fact, Holland pointed out that he and the creative team have already pitched a third Spider-Man movie. It was previously confirmed that Far From Home writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers will return for the third movie, but it's unknown if director Jon Watts will come back as well. For what it's worth, it was recently reported that Marvel is now trying to hire Watts for another movie.
Whatever the case, Holland said the new Spider-Man movie will be "very different," but whether or not that's due to Spider-Man's exit from the MCU is unknown.
"We sat down with some of our creatives. We pitched Spider-Man 3, which is going to be something very special, it's going to be something very different," Holland said.
Holland also spoke about his future as Spider-Man, and he referred to Marvel in the past tense with Sony as his future.
"I'm just so grateful that Marvel changed my life and allowed my dreams to come true and Sony allowing me to continue living my dream," he said. "It's a crazy week and it's never been done before so we'll see how it goes and it'll be as amazing and as fun."
Last week, news broke that Disney and Marvel could not agree on terms regarding the future of Spider-Man movies. Sony holds the movie rights to Spider-Man. Years ago, Sony and Disney agreed on a deal to have Spider-Man join the MCU, beginning with Captain America: Civil War. That deal was never expected to last forever, and now it seems it is coming to an end.
Sony has a history of producing its own Spider-Man movies, as the company made the original Spider-Man films starring Tobey Maguire and later the Amazing Spider-Man franchise with Andrew Garfield.
Back in July, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige talked about how the next Spider-Man movie will "have to do something completely different" due to the events of Far From Home. If you've seen the movie, you know what he's talking about.
It is no surprise that Sony wants to make more Spider-Man movies with Holland, as Homecoming and Far From Home were enormously successful at the box office. Homecoming made $880 million at the box office, with Far From Home bringing in $1.11 billion to surpass Skyfall ($1.108 billion) to become Sony's highest-grossing movie ever.
Even with Spider-Man leaving the MCU, Disney will continue to benefit from the character as it gets 100% of the money from Spider-Man merchandise. (Disney paid Sony a reported one-time $175 million fee for the Spider-Man merch rights, in addition to an annual royalty fee around $30 million)
In addition to Spider-Man, Sony is investing in Holland with the Uncharted movie where Holland plays a younger Nathan Drake. The movie recently lost director Dan Trachtenberg, but Holland is still on board and the movie aims to start shooting in early 2020.
It’s a great time to be a Marvel fan. In addition to all of the iconic comic books, the publishing company has consistently put out new movies over the years.
One of the forthcoming films on its roster is Black Panther 2 and, while many details aren’t yet available, we at least know its release date. Let’s talk more about when you should prepare to head to the theater.
The cast and crew of ‘Black Panther’ | Photo by Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images
Marvel just broke the news
Fans have been waiting with bated breath for a potential release date, and they finally got it on Saturday, Aug. 24. That day, Marvel announced the release date at Disney’s D23 Expo. It said the film will hit theaters on May 6, 2022.
The sequel’s official title is not yet known. But officials have confirmed that director Ryan Coogler will return to the franchise.
“We’re really hard at work on it trying to give you something special,” Coogler told the crowd, according to Polygon. “We’re gonna take our time; we want it to be right.”
Are plot details for Black Panther 2 available?
As of writing, the plot is unclear. However, it is believed that Michael B. Jordan will return to his role as Killmonger.
You’ll simply have to wait and see what happens. But, either way, the movie will likely be a massive success. The first film, which came out in February of 2018, raked in more than a billion dollars at the global box office, smashing records and winning troves of awards, including three Academy Awards.
The fan reactions to this news are wild
As you can imagine, people are super pumped to finally see a release date for the sequel. Many of them immediately took to social media to share their reactions, which ranged from excitement to full-on hysterics.
But some people aren’t happy that they’ll have to wait over two years for the movie.
“BLACK PANTHER 2 (May 6, 2022) is farther away in terms of days than the last time Barack Obama was the President of the United States. 987 days,” one person tweeted.
“Jesus. A 4 year wait for Black Panther 2. Chadwick [Boseman] was late 30s when he was cast as Black Panther. By the time BP2 comes out he’s gonna be on the later end of his 40s. Jeez. At this rate he’s gonna be 50 by the time BP3 comes out,” commented another.
British actor Tom Holland showed face on the main stage at D23 on Saturday, in the thick of an ugly studio battle over the rights to his iconic Marvel character Spider-Man.
Headlines have been rolling in for days about the contentious battle for the cinematic future of the hero, after Sony Pictures became unwilling to offer up a significant share of future profits to Disney in exchange for the Midas touch of Marvel Studios president and producer Kevin Feige.
“It’s been a crazy week, and I love you all from the bottom of my heart, and I love you 3000,” Holland said.
It was not a surprise to see Holland at the biennial convention held near Disneyland, at a convention center in Anaheim, Ca. He’s a co-lead on the original animation “Onward,” alongside Chris Pratt.
In the film, Holland and Pratt play elfen brothers with opposing personalities. While the pair are close with their mom, announced as “Veep” star Julia Louis Dreyfus, they both navigate their teen years having lost their father at a young age.
Disney Studios also revealed a new poster for the film and a first look at the characters in action. In the still, Holland’s character can be seen wielding a magical staff that appears to be shooting out some sort of magical beam.
Holland, 23, has played Spider-Man in numerous films produced by Marvel Studios, both in standalones from Sony Pictures and the “Avengers” series released by Disney. Varietyreported this week about the contentious, monthslong battle to keep the quality control from Marvel Studios while still releasing standalone films at Sony.
In the video, Money says he discovered he had cancer after what he thought was a routine checkup. The 70-year-old whose real name is Edward Mahoney learned that the disease had spread to his liver and lymph nodes.
Eddie Money performs during Grandstand Under the Stars at the Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque, Iowa.
(Jessica Reilly/Telegraph Herald via AP)
He's had numerous health problems recently including heart valve surgery earlier this year and pneumonia after the procedure, leading to his cancellation of a planned summer tour.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are the subjects of intense public scrutiny these days, and their popularity is definitely taking a hit. Between rumors of Markle’s diva behavior and criticism of the couple’s habit of taking private jets, royal watchers are quickly losing patience with the one-time golden couple.
While they haven’t spoken out or made any statements themselves, the odds are good that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle know exactly what is being said about them. Fortunately, their relationship is built on a solid foundation. Read on to learn how these two originally met and how, contrary to popular belief, Prince Harry took his time before proposing to Markle.
How did Meghan Markle meet Prince Harry?
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex |TOLGA AKMEN/AFP/Getty Images
The love story of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle began in the summer of 2016. Markle was an actress, best known for her work on the popular television show, Suits. Prince Harry, the redheaded royal with a penchant for mischief, had dated a string of girlfriends but was beginning to earn the reputation of a confirmed bachelor.
It seems as though the two met on a blind date that was orchestrated by a mutual friend. Neither Markle nor Prince Harry has named the friend that set them up out of respect for their privacy, but fans suspect that it could have been a fashion designer named Mischa Nonoo or a close friend of Prince Harry’s, Violet von Westenholz.
Whomever it was that set up the first meeting, it was clear that sparks flew from day one. Prince Harry even revealed in their post-engagement interview that he knew Meghan Markle was the one from the “very first time we met.”
Even if Prince Harry was swept off his feet by the sophisticated actress, he took his time and really got to know her before taking the next step in their relationship.
How long did Meghan Markle and Prince Harry date?
Following their initial meeting, it seems as though the two started dating right away. It took around four months for the news of their relationship to leak to the press, and by that time, Markle and Prince Harry had already traveled the world together, establishing a deep connection with each other through a series of private, romantic trips.
Their relationship was confirmed to the media on November 2016 in a statement that also called for the public and press to treat Markle with respect and dignity.
Around the same time, reportedly, Markle started meeting Prince Harry’s family, including his father, Prince Charles, and brother Prince William.
Throughout the remainder of 2016 and all throughout 2017, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle continued their romance in relative secrecy. Neither revealed many details of their affair to the press, but they were seen often together, traveling or enjoying downtime.
Although much of their relationship was conducted long-distance, Meghan Markle later revealed that they never went more than two weeks without seeing each other.
The couple got engaged after a year of dating
In November 2017, the palace announced that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had gotten engaged. The historic news marked the beginning of a fresh, modern start for the royal family, and a bold new time in Markle and Prince Harry’s lives. They tied the knot in grand style in May 2018 and welcomed their son, Archie Harrison, exactly one year later.
The couple has not always had an easy time of it, and there’s no doubt that the press has been on a crusade to portray them both in a negative light in months of late. Still, Markle and Prince Harry are strong enough to make it through the hard times and come out the other end of it better than ever.
An action-packed first day of Disney’s D23 Expo was headlined by an endlessly starry Disney Plus presentation to unveil the new streaming platform.
With no fewer than six new series announced in the space of two hours, it’s clear that Disney isn’t messing around when it comes to competing in the streaming wars, so neither shall we. With out further ado here are five takeaways from day one at the Anaheim Convention Center:
Disney execs began the highly anticipate Disney Plus panel by listing all of the old, classic Mouse House properties which will be available on the streamer from launch on Nov. 12. However, simply putting all of Disney’s admittedly vast library of old content in one place isn’t going to cut the mustard with sharks like Apple and WarnerMedia in the streaming waters. So what does Disney do in response? Lean even more heavily into their IP library to bring out new shows with subtle twists. Think a new “Lizzie McGuire” but she’s 30, “The Muppets” but it’s a non-scripted short-form series, Star Wars but it’s a samurai-Western series with “The Mandalorian,” Obi-Wan Kenobi but he’s…oh not wait it’s still Ewan McGregor.
Spiderman Tags Out, Three New Heroes Tag In
Kevin Feige has been in the news this week for being caught up in the Marvel-Sony spat which has led to Spiderman’s future in the MCU dangling by a thread. However, at the Disney Plus presentation Feige appeared to be in a bullish mood, rattling off his usual spree of eye-catching Marvel announcements. This time it was a triple whammy of a “Ms. Marvel” series, to feature a Muslim-American superhero, “She Hulk,” meaning that Bruce Banner has company in the Hulk department, and “Moon Knight,” which definitely felt like the least flashy and well known Marvel property on show. While the potential loss of Spiderman is undoubtedly a body blow to Marvel on the film front, Feige set out to demonstrate that the content powerhouse is fully intent on spreading its box office dominance to the TV side.
“WandaVision” is a Sitcom?
After the three new series came a parade of familiar Marvel faces. Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan bantered a little for “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” without really saying anything, and Tom Hiddleston appeared on the jumbo screen for 30 seconds to wave hello and not reveal much about his new “Loki” series. However, then came arguably the most surprising revelation to emerge from the Marvel part of the Disney Plus presentation which is that “WandaVision” is going to be “half classic sitcom and half MCU spectacular.” If that’s leaving you perplexed, imagine what the reaction in the hall was when Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen unveiled a clip for the series which basically consisted of old footage of Scarlet Witch and Vision cooking goulash etc. interwoven with clips from “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” Granted the show’s set in the 1950s, but it still seems like a bit of a stretch to juxtapose Dick Van Dyke with an all-powerful mutant and a…whatever Vision is.
An Adorably Furry Affair
Disney knows how to play to a crowd. About halfway through the Disney Plus presentation, just as the parade of announcements seemed to be dragging on a bit, they brought out the dogs. Talking dog movies have historically been a mixed bag to say the least, but the trailer for Disney’s live action “Lady and the Tramp” looks utterly delightful. The reveal that all the canine comedians in the film were rescues only made the “aww’s” in the room grow louder. However, fuzzy ears and wet noses aside, there are still some question marks hanging over the film, primarily how will it handle re-casting its villainous cat duo and their stereotypical, downright racist portrayal in the original film. The trailer might be adorable, but the success of “Lady and the Tramp” will all come to down to whether its box office bark is bigger than its bite.
‘Dancing With the Stars’ Foxtrots Away from Controversy
One of the biggest Disney-related headlines going into D23 was the decision to have Sean Spicer as a contestant on next season of “Dancing With the Stars.” After the monumental online backlash, the D23 “DWTS” panel, which took place in front of hundreds of avid fans, seemed like the perfect place for showrunner and executive producer er Andrew Llinares to clear the air. However, Llinares and the panel remained entirely silent on the matter, other than host Tom Bergeron saying “there’s been a little press” about the new season. That’s putting it mildly Tom! Instead, the hardest questions thrown at Llinares and Bergeron was who’s your favorite Disney character and who would you play if you could dance on Disney night one more time? The show’s silent response on Friday was deafening.
But the company isn’t ready to offer any clear answer at this moment. Disney+ streaming service president Michael Paull told The Verge during an interview at D23, the company’s biennial conference, that Disney “has nothing to announce on that” at this time.
Still, it’s hard to imagine that Disney wouldn’t want to bring the two popular Spider-Man movies to Disney+. The company’s goal is to have as many exclusive titles as possible on Disney+ eventually, including all the film’s it’s produced as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That would include Homecoming and Far From Home. Paull couldn’t talk about Spider-Man officially (trade publications are reporting that Disney and Sony are still in talks about the character’s future), but he said there’s “obviously a ton of commitment within the company” to get all its big players back.
“I think as you can see from what we’re making available, and from seeing some of the titles that we’re making available at launch, there’s been a lot of effort that went into bringing it all back together so that we could make it available on the service,” Paull said.
Disney took a $150 million hit when it broke its streaming-rights contract with Netflix early in an effort to launch Disney+ with as many original, exclusive titles as possible. That includes Star Wars movies. The entire Star Wars collection will be available on Disney+ at launch, as Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and Disney CEO Bob Iger both confirmed during a Disney+ investors day in April.
Only four Marvel movies will reportedly be available to stream when Disney+ launches on November 12th — Captain Marvel, Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man, and Iron Man 3. Avengers: Endgame will be available to stream in December. The company is hoping to add a few more titles by the end of 2020. That isn’t exactly the full collection putative subscribers were hoping for — but chasing back the rights to the company’s movies is clearly a goal, as Paull pointed out.
The question is whether Homecoming and Far From Home are a part of that future — and whether Sony is willing to license the rights, given its dispute with Disney over future collaborations.
