Category: Entertainment

Wai Ching Ho, best known for her role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing crime boss Madame Gao in Daredevil, Iron Fist and The Defenders, has died. She was 82.

Ho’s death was confirmed by two of her former co-stars, Peter Shinkoda and Judy Lei. Her cause of death wasn’t immediately available.

Shinkoda, who played Nobu in Daredevil, took to his Instagram to pay tribute. “I won’t ever forget you. I learned every minute from you when we were together on and off set. I know wisdom – I’d hang on your every word. We will meet again, my friend. You were beautiful,” he wrote.

The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to her rep for more details on her death.

Born on Nov. 16, 1943, in Hong Kong, Ho found herself working across film, television and the stage. Her first onscreen credit was in the series One Life to Live in 1983.

She later landed the role of Madame Gao in the Marvel series Daredevil in 2015, before reprising the character in the spin-offs Iron Fist and The Defenders in 2017.

Ho has also had appearances in Swans Crossing, Wonderland, Deadline, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Children of Invention, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Blue Bloods, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Tracers, Orange Is the New Black, Fresh Off the Boat, New Amsterdam, Hustlers, The World’s Greatest, Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, Law & Order and Only Murders in the Building, among others.

Her voice could also be recognized for voicing Grandma Wu in the Pixar animated film Turning Red.

As for the stage, Ho starred in the Off-Broadway play Laowang: A Chinatown King Lear last year, as well as Snow in Midsummer in 2022 and Celine Song’s play Endlings in 2020.

Lei, who starred alongside Ho in 2022’s The World’s Greatest, which she also wrote and directed, wrote on Instagram that she’s “so sad to hear of her passing,” adding, “Wai Ching was super kind and generous when she played the Chinese School teacher in my first film back in 2019. We had lost our filming location close to midnight the night before and I broke the news to her in the morning. She came to the new location, all prepped and ready to play—she even brought her own outfit. I forgot to have her sign some paperwork and went to her home a few days later to have her sign it. She never displayed an ounce of disappointment in my lack of experience. That type of grace is something I’ll never forget.”

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission.

Aniya and Carl, Trinity and Bryce, Melanie and Sincere and Kayda and Zach are the four remaining couples heading into Love Island USA‘s season eight finale. The July 12 conclusion — determining who will take home the $100,000 prize — airs at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET exclusively on Peacock, and while the service doesn’t offer a free trial directly, fans can enjoy free Peacock access through partner subscriptions, including DirecTV and Instacart+. More on each option below.

At a Glance: How to Watch Love Island USA Season Eight Finale

Where to Watch Love Island USA Season 8 Finale

The eighth season of Love Island USA concludes on Sunday, July 12, at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET, with a supersized two-hour finale on Peacock.

Will Love Island Aftersun Air on Finale Night?

No, Love Island Aftersun with Ciara Miller and Tefi Pessoa (Love Island‘s weekly after show) concluded on Saturday, July 11. The companion show’s episodes are currently available to stream on-demand on Peacock.

Where to Watch Love Island USA Season 8 Finale With Peacock Free Trial

While Peacock doesn’t offer a free trial directly through its site, there is a little-known workaround through partner subscription DirecTV. Customers who sign up for one of DirecTV’s signature packages — Entertainment, Choice, Ultimate or Premier — can get two months of the Movies Extra Pack + Peacock at no cost (a $19.98 value).

Plus, DirecTV offers a five-day free trial for any plan, meaning new members can stream Love Island USA (and everything else Peacock has to offer) at absolutely no cost during that period. Simply select your preferred signature package, then opt to add “Movies Extra Pack + Peacock Premium” where it instructs you to pick your add-ons.

For another savvy streaming hack, the ad-supported Peacock Premium plan (reg. $10.99 per month or $109.99 annually) is included for free with an Instacart+ membership. Following this membership’s 14-day free trial period, a subscription costs $9.99 per month or $99 per year with annual billing.

Who Is in Love Island USA Season 8 Finale?

Aniya and Carl, Trinity and Bryce, Melanie and Sincere and Kayda and Zach are the final four couples. See the full season eight cast list here.

I’ve got a text!

Prepare to recouple with Love Island USA for season eight — Peacock has revealed the initial group of Islanders who will be searching for love this summer as well as several bombshells.

Peacock’s hit reality dating series, which has become a cultural phenomenon over the last two years, centers on a group of single Islanders in search of love in a stunning Fijian villa. Throughout their stay, they will couple up, while also facing challenges, temptations and plenty of twists and turns, including new “bombshell” Islanders.

Last year, the show became the streamer’s most-watched original series, with season seven accounting for 18.4 billion minutes of watch time over its six-week run. At the end of the season, Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales were crowned the winners, in addition to Olandria Carthen and Nicolas Vansteenberghe, Huda Mustafa and Chris Seeley and Iris Kendall and Jose “Pepe” Garcia-Gonzalez also making it to the finale.

Ahead of season eight, Peacock also issued a reminder to fans, asking them to “keep it kind, keep it positive” on social media throughout the upcoming season.

Love Island USA season eight premiered June 2 at 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m ET and saw Vanderpump Rules alum Ariana Madix return as host for the third time, as well as narrator Iain Stirling.

New episodes will drop every day during premiere week and then Thursdays through Tuesdays thereafter, with Love Island Aftersun (hosted by Ciara Miller and content creator Tefi Pessoa) also returning every Saturday starting June 13.

New episodes, hosted by Ariana Madix and narrated by Iain Stirling, drop Thursdays through Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, with Love Island Aftersun (hosted by Ciara Miller and Tefi Pessoa) airing every Saturday. Viewers will also again be able to vote for their favorite couples via the Love Island USA app.

See season eight’s castmembers below, and check out all of the Casa Amor Islanders here. The Hollywood Reporter will continue to update this list as more Islanders and bombshells enter the villa each week, and check out all the season eight coverage and interviews here.

Viewers first encountered Reese Witherspoon‘s Elle Woods in the 2001 movie Legally Blonde and its 2003 sequel Red, White and Blonde.

But when it came time to explore Elle’s high school years, specifically another outsider experience moving to Seattle, 25 years after the original film was released, the team behind Elle, the Prime Video Legally Blonde prequel that began streaming earlier this month, saw an opportunity to spend more time not only with the title character, now played by Lexi Minetree, but also with the characters around her in the form of an eight-episode series that has already been renewed for and completed production on season two.

“When you have hours and hours and hours, obviously you can get so much more in depth with the character and get to know her family so it’s a much more dynamic way to tell the story of this girl,” co-showrunner Caroline Dries told The Hollywood Reporter at Elle‘s New York premiere last month.

Jason Moore — who directed the first two episodes of Elle, serves as an executive producer on the first season and has a resume that includes helming the first Pitch Perfect movie — said the series in particular offered the opportunity to better flesh out Elle’s family.

“I think the key thing that a TV show offers is the depth of time,” Moore told THR at the premiere. “You can explore a character for four to five hours as opposed to only 90 minutes. There’s a depth to Reese’s performance [in Legally Blonde], no doubt about it. Most of the people around her are less deep. Her parents are drawn cartoon-y and the students only get a certain amount of airtime, so you see how she grows in that period. When you can really settle into longer scenes, conversations with her mom and seeing how we’re all shaped by our parents, that’s a slow process.”

Co-showrunner Laura Kittrell said she was particularly excited to have viewers “meet the characters that are formed from whole cloth for the show and the world that we’ve created for Elle that’s separate from the movie.”

Executive producer Lauren Neustadter, who executive produces Elle through her and Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, said that while Witherspoon’s Elle is confident going into Harvard Law, they wanted to see what the character was like during the psychologically challenging high school years, and as Tom Everett Scott, who plays Elle’s father, put it, “an age that’s even more fragile than finishing college.”

And Moore added that while Minetree’s Elle has the same “intrepid spirit” that came across through Witherspoon’s performance, the series focuses more on “how she began.”

“When you ask who is Elle Woods alone in a room wearing a T-shirt, that’s Elle in a nutshell,” Moore said.

The Elle castmembers, writers, director and producers all sang Minetree’s praises.

“Lexi is a dream come true to work with truly,” Dries said. “She’s so funny, she’s smart, she’s goofy, she’s kind, she’s inclusive, she’s all of the things you’d expect to find in Elle Woods. She’s also a great actor, which I don’t think we stress enough because we’re so glowing about her personality. She’s so pitch perfect that it’s almost an afterthought, her performance. We take it for granted.”

Beyond her pleasant disposition and acting ability, Moore was impressed by her attention to detail and preparation.

“You could just tell that this young woman thinks like Elle Woods or Reese or Tracy Flick or these characters, that she’s organized; she’s thoughtful; she’s determined; she’s vocal; she’s articulate; she’s funny; and that’s just who she is naturally,” he said. “Watching the amount of detail that she put in, I’ve rarely worked with actors who have that much forethought. She’s thinking about the whole arc of the series. I think she had all of the scripts memorized when she started shooting the first episode because she’s that kind of actor.”

According to Neustadter, Minetree nailed the assignment from her initial audition tape, famously inspired by Elle’s Harvard Law admissions video essay from Legally Blonde.

“We really saw from that how incredibly smart she was, how much she understood the character and what we were trying to do,” she said. “And then when she read the scenes, she just blew us away. I think she just really channels Reese without ever imitating her, and I think she just does an amazing job of becoming the character of Elle Woods.”

Neustadter hopes the series can provide a “shot of joy and optimism” at a time when the “world feels very heavy.” Meanwhile, Scott, who reconnects with his ’90s roots in the show, shared how he was proud to be part of a franchise that was so inspiring for his own daughter, who accompanied him to the premiere.

Recalling how he got the audition when he was visiting New York with her to help her find an apartment, they watched the original movie, “and my daughter told me how important it’s been to her, this character and how inspiring. And I thought, ‘No pressure, but I should probably book this.’”

The next day he auditioned and got the part and celebrated with her “over a slice of pizza.”

“For me, it’s been really fun and personal,” he said. “I’m glad that this character exists for young women and women of any age and anybody who’s been told they can’t do something that they know they can.”

Disney‘s live-action Moana, which stars Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Laga’aia, got off to a rocky start as the reimagining of the original 2016 animated feature opened at the box office.

Director Thomas Kail‘s new feature led the weekend in opening with $43 million from 3,900 North American screens, putting it well short of its targeted $60 million-plus figure after initial tracking suggested the film could even reach $75 million. Earning an A- CinemaScore from audiences, Moana carries a $250 million production budget and will need to draw families in the coming summer stretch as Christopher Nolan’s R-rated The Odyssey joins the fray next weekend from Universal. Moana added $52 million from overseas markets.

Moana’s audience was 66 percent female, a statistic that could bode well opposite next weekend’s more male-skewing The Odyssey. Meanwhile, 56 percent of viewers were parents with children, which is higher than most Disney live-action remakes. Moviegoers under 18 found Moana especially transportive, giving the film an A+ CinemaScore.

This start is reminiscent of the $42 million opening in March 2025 for Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot’s Snow White, a box office disappointment that earned a B+ CinemaScore and had a production budget of $270 million. Weeks after the subdued debut, Disney paused development on its planned live-action Tangled. The feature went back into development in the fall following the success of Lilo & Stitch, which opened in May 2025 to $146 million in North America, en route to hitting $1 billion globally. Tangled is currently in production in Spain, while a live-action sequel to Lilo & Stitch is on its way.

The original Moana becomes the most recent Disney animated property to be given the live-action treatment, with the first film having hit theaters less than a decade ago when it scored an $82 million five-day domestic opening over Thanksgiving in 2016, leading to a $643 million global cume. That 2016 film introduced Johnson as demigod Maui alongside Auli’i Cravalho as the titular girl with exceptional navigation skills, with the pair teaming up to stop a curse from targeting her island.

An even bigger hit when it debuted theatrically less than two years ago was Moana 2, the animated 2024 sequel that saw Johnson and Cravalho reprise their roles. Originally conceived as a Disney+ series, Moana 2 opened to $225 million domestically over the five-day Thanksgiving frame and ultimately surpassed $1 billion globally for its run. However, moving it to a theatrical release created a tricky timing situation for the live-action Moana, which began production in mid-2024 after a delay amid the strikes.

Disney’s live-action remakes of its popular animated properties have included such photorealistic versions as Alice in Wonderland (2010), Beauty and the Beast (2017) and The Lion King (2019), all of which opened to more than $100 million domestically. Those three had the benefit of a higher Rotten Tomatoes score than the live-action Moana’s current 34 percent critics rating, although The Hollywood Reporter’s review from chief film critic David Rooney noted that “this charming new iteration stands confidently on its own.”

In contrast to the critic score, the new Moana is “verified hot” with a 90 percent approval for audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. The franchise clearly has plenty of fans, as Disney touts that the property has amassed more than 1.5 billion hours streamed on Disney+, along with selling more than 22 million toys and surpassing 26 billion music streams. Additionally, the original 2016 movie remains Disney+’s most-watched feature.

Also opening in wide release is Warner Bros.‘ Evil Dead Burn, which kept the No. 4 spot warm with $13.7 million domestically. Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright and Hunter Doohan star in director Sébastien Vanicek’s movie that marks the sixth title in the Evil Dead horror franchise after it kicked off with Sam Raimi’s 1981 original.

In his review for THR, Rooney noted the latest film’s “orgiastic slaughter.” Earning a B CinemaScore, the new installment follows Evil Dead Rise, which opened to $24.5 million domestically in April 2023.

After kicking off its box office run last week, Universal’s Minions & Monsters provided family competition for Moana and landed in second place with a frame of $20.5 million, declining just 45 percent. This brings its domestic run to $108.2 million after notching the lowest opening weekend for a film in Illumination’s Despicable Me franchise that launched in 2010.

Taking third place is Disney’s Toy Story 5, featuring the returns of voice stars Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. The animated sequel scooped up $18.5 million to raise its global cume to $879.1 million.

Young Washington rounds out the top five, as the Angel Studios release collected $6.4 million in its sophomore frame. William Franklyn-Miller stars as a twentysomething George Washington in the film that now stands at $33.1 million after opening over the Fourth of July weekend.

A24 continued to expand director Olivia Wilde’s relationship comedy The Invite in its third weekend, as the standout from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival increased to 1,610 North American screens. With a cast that includes Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton, the Annapurna-produced movie delivered $5.7 million, bringing its domestic total to $7.3 million.

Over the weekend, Michael crossed $1 billion globally, becoming the second 2026 title to reach the milestone after Universal’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Lionsgate released the Michael Jackson-centric feature in U.S. theaters April 24, and it has since become the highest-grossing biopic ever after passing Oppenheimer, not to mention the studio’s first title to hit the billion-dollar mark. Michael stars Jaafar Jackson, a nephew of the late music superstar.

“This historic milestone is a testament to the enduring power of cinema to bring us together, and it is a chapter in movie history I will never forget,” Michael director Antoine Fuqua said in a statement.

This story was first published on July 11 at 9:58 a.m.

On a textual level, MGM+’s The Westies is all about people who refuse to abide by the rules. Within the Irish and Italian criminal organizations of 1980s New York, low-level gangsters threaten rivals they’ve been explicitly instructed to leave alone. Mid-level ones deal drugs under the noses of bosses who’ve forbidden them. The best-laid plans are derailed by impulsive outbursts of anger or fear.

On a metatextual level, however, the entire season is an eight-hour exercise in coloring within the lines, without so much as a bit of snazzy shading to offer the illusion of depth. Despite a pair of decent lead turns from J.K. Simmons and Titus Welliver, the best that can be said of the latest gang drama from Chris Brancato and Michael Panes (Godfather of Harlem) is that it’s too competent to be unbearable, even if it’s also too unimaginative to be interesting.

The Alan Taylor-directed premiere begins at a moment of relative peace for the Irish American Westies (a real outfit that operated out of midcentury Manhattan, not that you need to know that to follow the series) and the Italian American Gambino crime family (also real, and more famous). After years of mutual violence, bosses Eamon Sweeney (Simmons) and Paul Castellano (Ron Lea) have called a truce, not out of any particular goodwill but out of a businessman’s understanding that both factions stand to make a ton of money off construction on the Javits Center in Hell’s Kitchen, if only they can stop getting in each other’s way.

Their followers, though, are less than thrilled with the détente, and less than conscientious about following its rules. The brutal efforts required to keep the men in line come at the cost of sowing discontent within the ranks — including in their increasingly disillusioned protégés, Jimmy Roarke (Tom Brittney) and John Gotti (Hamish Allan-Headly). Meanwhile, the feds have started circling, led by FBI agent Birdie Polk (Jessica Frances Dukes) with the reluctant help of dirty NYPD officer Glenn Keenan (Welliver).

With so much plot to get through, Brancato and Panes deserve credit for keeping the tone smooth and the pace even. The narrative beats move deliberately enough that a casual viewer won’t get lost in the weeds, but briskly enough that an attentive one will always have some new wrinkle to look forward to. The mood is resolutely straight-faced but not self-indulgent — this is not the kind of show that pretends to have big smart things to say about the false promise of the American Dream or the corrosive effects of revenge, but one that just thinks it’s neat when glowering tough guys point guns at each other.

All of it is set against a version of New York that appears admirably lived-in, from grimy streets to cramped apartments to bars that look run-down even before various thugs take guns and bats to them. As with the rest of the show, it’s nothing we haven’t seen in countless other gritty period dramas, but it speaks to the care and effort of production designer Rocco Mateo. If all you’re searching for is a generic crime drama to look pretty on your flatscreen while you cook dinner or answer emails, you could do worse than The Westies.

But you could probably do better, too. The Westies’ most glaring issue is its characters, or really the lack thereof: Nearly everyone onscreen comes off like a well-worn cliché rather than an individual with any distinctive personality or inner life.

Our hero, Jimmy, always does the right thing not because there’s any comprehensible reason he seems so much smarter and kinder than everyone else in his orbit, but because “good” and “smart” is just what heroes are. (“Hero” being a relative term in a milieu where everyone has at least a few murders under their belt.) He has a perfectly loving connection with his girlfriend, Bridget (a likable Sarah Bolger), not because there appears to be anything specific about their connection, but because that’s just what heroes deserve.

Bridget has her own subplot involving a secret history with the IRA, which is maybe the one element of The Westies that doesn’t feel straight out of a “how to write a gangster drama” checklist. But it’s so disconnected from the rest of the plot that I don’t know why I even brought it up in the first place, or more to the point, why the writers did.

Jimmy’s best friend is Mickey (Stanley Morgan), who’s practically a parody of the “hotheaded low-level gangster” stereotype. His contribution is being predictably unpredictable, by which I mean his ability to control himself waxes and wanes with the show’s need to throw a wrench into Jimmy’s careful plans or inject some tension into a high-stakes negotiation. Their other friends are interchangeably forgettable, and exist mainly to fill up screen space or get killed off.

Their most hated enemy is John Gotti, and if he feels familiar it’s less because Gotti, the actual historical figure, is so well-known and more because The Westies’ version of him is a sanded-down copy of every Italian mobster you’ve seen in every movie. You know that scene where a powerful gangster pretends to be extremely offended by something a less powerful guy has said, just to make him sweat a bit before bursting into raucous laughter? That’s how we’re introduced to him, because of course it is.

A few of the cast members do manage to suggest an interiority beyond what’s dictated in the scripts, and it won’t surprise you who they are. Sweeney might not be one of Simmons’ more interesting roles, but the actor brings enough snark or weariness to his line readings to make the character feel alive. And Welliver carries Keenan with a heaviness that hints at some profound private pain, though the precise cause of that sorrow becomes less interesting the more we learn about it.

Or perhaps it’s not that his backstory is insufficiently sad as much as the fact that, by the time we get the full scope of it, The Westies has given us so little reason to get invested in it — or anything else. There will be no complex emotions to process here, no grander themes to parse, not even any memorable quirks or zingy one-liners to remember. The best gangster dramas, from the works of Coppola to Scorsese to David Chase, offer vivid style, compelling characters and ambitious ideas in addition to the usual bag of body parts and revenge plots. The Westies settles for retracing the familiar tropes they’re built on.

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission.

On Saturday, July 11, Argentina and Switzerland will go head to head in the final quarterfinal matchup, culminating the 2026 FIFA World Cup‘s third knockout stage. Broadcast live at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET on Fox, the game can also be livestreamed on any streaming service that carries the network, namely DirecTV (with a five-day free trial), Fubo (with a one-day free trial), Sling and Hulu + Live TV.

As with every game in this year’s tournament, the Argentina vs. Switzerland match will also stream live on Fox One, the official 2026 World Cup streamer. Following the service’s three-day free trial, a Fox One subscription costs $19.99 per month. For Spanish-language coverage, Peacock is the official World Cup streamer.

At a Glance: How to Watch Argentina vs. Switzerland World Cup Quarterfinal Soccer Match

Where to Watch Argentina vs. Switzerland World Cup Match: Air Date, Time

The Switzerland vs. Argentina quarterfinal match will be broadcast live from Kansas City Stadium on July 11, at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET, on Fox. It will also air live on Telemundo in Spanish.

Where to Stream Argentina vs. Switzerland World Cup Match Online Free

Since the match airs on Fox, it will also be available to watch live on any streaming service that carries said network, including DirecTV (with a five-day free trial), Fubo (with a one-day free trial), Sling and Hulu + Live TV.

All matches will also stream live on Fox One, the official World Cup streamer. Following Fox One’s three-day free trial, the service costs $19.99 per month. For Spanish-language coverage, Peacock is the official World Cup streamer.

Related: The Best Peacock Subscription Deals and Free Trial Hacks

The LGBTQ+ cruise ship that Patti LuPone is performing on has been blocked from entering Egypt after being banned from entering Turkey.

CNN confirmed Friday that Egyptian authorities did not allow Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady to enter its waters. Rich Campbell, the president and CEO of Atlantis Events, told the outlet, “We had full approval and they denied us clearance at the 11th hour.”

The news comes after LuPone took to Instagram on July 2 to reveal the ship had been turned away from Turkey. The Tony Award winner wrote, “I am shocked. The Atlantis cruise I am performing on next week has been banned from entering Turkey. A ship — a magnificent ship — full of gay men. And me. Denied entry to Turkey simply because of who is on board.”

She continued, “I am furious, but I am sailing, as the ship will make other ports of call. I am ready to perform for all the wonderful men on this Atlantis cruise, who deserve so much better than this.”

Per Atlantis’ website, the Egypt stop on the cruise was added to the itinerary after the ship was not allowed to dock in Turkey.

Egyptian officials have not shared why the cruise ship was blocked, though the Aydin government shared a post on X, which read, “The organization, planned by groups known for behaviors that do not align with the structure of our society and our moral values and which has come to the agenda in the press and broadcast organs and social media platforms, to dock a cruise ship rented by these groups at Aydın Kuşadası Port on July 7, 2026, and which has caused great discomfort in various segments of our society, has been canceled.” The organization in reference is Atlantis, an LGBTQ+ cruise line.

Of the ship being turned away by Turkey and Egypt, passenger Greg Morley told CNN, “My mind went to the LGBTQ communities in Egypt and Turkey where LGBTQ individuals don’t have the opportunities to just sail away.” Morley added, “Discrimination and the lack of opportunities that come with the shortsighted marginalization of LGBTQ people and other minorities damages far beyond a cruise ship rescheduling.”

The Agatha All Along actress shared a photo on Instagram Friday of herself and the cruise ship passengers, though she did not mention the ship being turned away from Egypt in the caption.

“A ship — a magnificent ship — full of gay men,” she wrote. “And me.”

The Hollywood Reporter reached out to LuPone’s rep for comment.

Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady set sail on July 5 and will finish its voyage in Italy on July 15. The cruise was described as “an epic all-gay voyage from Athens to Venice to the Mediterranean’s most iconic destinations — Mykonos, Santorini, Istanbul, Dubrovnik, and more. We’ll dazzle 2,500 guys with stellar entertainment, the world’s best parties, and awesome experiences aboard Virgin’s Scarlet Lady” in a May Instagram post made by Atlantis.

Christopher Nolan says the online conversation surrounding The Odyssey is ultimately “irrelevant.”

In a recent interview with The Telegraph, the Oscar-winning filmmaker responded to criticism surrounding his adaptation of Homer’s epic, which has sparked online debate over some of its casting choices and the use of American accents and modern dialogue in its trailers.

“Comes with the territory,” Nolan told the publication. “But look, these conversations that happen before people see the film — they’re always irrelevant, because no one having them knows what the film actually is yet.”

The director went on to compare the early reaction to The Odyssey with his experience of the beloved Dark Knight trilogy.

“I spent 10 years of my life dealing with Batman,” the 55-year-old said. “When I came on to Batman Begins, writers and artists had been working on this beloved character for almost 65 years, and a lot of freighted thoughts were out there about what he represents. And what I learnt over my time on that trilogy is you can’t worry about any of that at all. What you have to do is honour the original text by interpreting it in the strongest way you personally can.”

Nolan recalled facing similar skepticism before The Dark Knight, particularly after the late Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker. At the time, Ledger was known for rom-com films such as 10 Things I Hate About You and A Knight’s Tale, and some fans questioned the casting. Ledger ultimately won a posthumous Academy Award for best supporting actor for his performance.

“In the end, fans of the property — even when we were doing something that was not what they would have done — enjoyed the sincerity of the attempt to put as good a version of it on screen as we could,” Nolan added.

“So, when it comes to The Odyssey, all I can do is make the best film I possibly can in the most sincere way. It’s very different from how anyone else would do it, but that’s what adaptation is.”

Nolan has also addressed The Odyssey’s use of modern dialogue.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, the filmmaker said the decision was intended to make Homer’s story feel more fresh to modern audiences.

“When you look at the ancient world, people tend to view the ancient world in weird ways and there’s a lot of cultural prejudice — elevating it just because it’s old,” he said. “When you go to the poem, what you find is something that’s really earthy, grounded and accessible. So, for me, in building the world of the film, what I talk to all the actors about is, I want to center it on that and make it feel very fresh for modern audiences and do away with some of those assumptions.”

Following the film’s casting announcement, conservative commentator Matt Walsh criticized Lupita Nyong’o’s casting as Helen of Troy in posts on X, with Elon Musk replied to one of Walsh’s posts, agreeing. Musk also interacted with posts mocking Elliot Page’s casting as Sinon.

The epic stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, whose long journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War reunites him with his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and son, Telemachus (Tom Holland). The cast also includes Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Jon Bernthal, Travis Scott, Charlize Theron and more.

The Odyssey arrives in theaters July 17.

“I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Hilary Duff said just hours before her second sold-out Los Angeles show.

The 38-year-old singer and actress is in the midst of The Lucky Me tour, her first major tour in over a decade. She waded back into the touring water last year with her intimate Small Rooms, Big Nerves tour. Hordes of young millennials and older Gen Z fans flocked to Inglewood’s Kia Forum on Wednesday. The crowd, many of whom were dressed in bright pink, green and orange, looked like they wandered off the set of Duff’s teen star-making show Lizzie McGuire.

Duff got emotional about playing in L.A., noting that her family was in attendance. “I’m home,” she shouted to Wednesday’s gathered crowd, telling them that she’s been to so many shows at the Forum over the year.

“Honestly, [the tour’s] just been joyful and fun and extremely rewarding. That’s not to say not a ton of work,” she told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of her second L.A. show. “But what a summer.”

Duff’s promoting her latest album, Luck… or Something, her first in a decade. The singer’s prolific career as a teen and young star was a bit of a balancing act, juggling acting and an earnest pop career, and balance seems to be a theme of the new tour as well. The singer has been made to thread the tough but necessary needle of fitting her aughts hits and her new music into a single setlist. She also has to make sure it’s engaging for both new and old fans.

She started the show with her 2005 song “Wake Up” and her early-career hit single “So Yesterday.” Starting with songs any fans in the audience would know felt like Duff was easing the crowd back into seeing her live.

“The first new song that I sing is ‘Roommates,’ and I feel like that one really goes off,” Duff said. “It’s exciting to me when they’re scream-singing the new stuff back to me as much as they do the old stuff.”

The singer’s right. She has no reason to be concerned about the ratio of old to new music — the crowd was equally as passionate about her older offerings as they were about her songs off of Luck… or Something. They were hanging on her every word.

“It’s just a dance, honestly. Everything’s been very intentional on my part, and I don’t quite know how to explain what the formula for the balance is for me,” she explained. “I think it’s more intuitive.”

Throughout the show, while Duff changes, she’s played video packages that acted as a buffer in between acts of the show. Some of those videos were Duff now but some were of the singer in her younger Lizzie McGuire days.

Naturally, those nostalgia-heavy videos got major applause. Duff took the time to thank the fans, many of whom have been with her since her younger days. “I’m so glad that girl was there for you,” she told the crowd. The singer described this tour as not only a “healing experience” for the audience members but for her as well.

“I’m a Libra, so I feel like naturally balance is something that I gravitate towards,” she told THR. “The show for me feels like a very big celebration that’s representative of my present self and celebrating an important part of my life, which is my past. When I first met everyone.”

She added, “And that naturally is the nostalgic element that feels emotional for people.”

Duff, now in her 30s and more heavily involved in creating music, is certainly singing about different things than she did in her youth. When she and her collaborator (and husband) Matthew Koma work on music these days, she has a very specific process. “When Matt and I were tackling Luck or Something, it was about the storytelling first,” she said.

“It’s more a feeling of what I want to get across first and what I want to talk about,” she continued. She doesn’t create the music, but she’s particular about what she likes.

Some of those new lyrics have landed her a new partnership. “Was it a sip of wine or Aperol?” Duff sang in her Luck or Something… song “Adult Size Medium.” The callout landed the singer a sponsor on the tour through a partnership with Aperol, whom she also called out mid-concert when explaining the wine fridge she keeps on stage. “I feel like I summoned them,” she joked.

“It was really sweet when this came up, and I obviously love being partners with a brand that genuinely resonates with me and that I use,” she said. Duff explained that the messaging of their partnership, “share the moment,” has been particularly relevant to her current state.

Duff added, “In my life right now where I feel like I’m just pedaling as fast as I can to keep up. It’s important to slow down and realize all the little victories or the goals that I’m meeting.”

Duff’s iconic 2003 hit, “What Dreams Are Made Of,” from the Lizzie McGuire Movie, served as the perfect finale to her set, clocking just shy of two hours long. The singer leaned all the way into the feel-good and joyful song, dropping pink, white and orange balloons from the ceiling as confetti shot in the air.

“’Dreams’ is always such a fun one,” she said of the finale. “I get to relax and let all the tricks do the job and just enjoy with everybody.”