The acclaimed Netflix limited series The Beast in Me received nominations for nine Primetime Emmys on July 8, including best limited or anthology series, as well as best actress (Claire Danes) and actor (Matthew Rhys) in a limited or anthology series or movie. Another of its noms came in the category of best original main title theme music, recognizing Sean Callery, a distinguished four-time Emmy-winning composer and one of the two representatives of the music peer group on the TV Academy’s board of governors — and that one has raised some questions.
Indeed, it was brought to the attention of The Hollywood Reporter that although Emmys rules state that main title theme music must be “at least 15 seconds in length” to be eligible for an Emmy, the longest the theme music is heard in any episode of The Beast in Me — namely, episode four — is 13 seconds.
The rules also state: “A Main Title Theme must appear in 50 percent or more of eligible episodes. The Main Title Theme has been further defined as a musical fingerprint and calling card that is identifiable and unique to a show, thereby drawing an audience in by setting the show’s tone and what is to come.” While main title theme music does appear in a majority of the eligible episodes of The Beast in Me — five of eight — each of those five episodes features different theme music.
(Click here to view a video comprising the theme music at the start of every episode of The Beast in Me.)
Asked to respond to these assertions, a spokesperson for the TV Academy insisted: “The theme song does appear in 5 of 8 episodes, so it meets the 50 percent rule, and in 3 of those 5 episodes the theme song does meet the 15 second rule. In discussions with the peer group, the decision was made to accept the submission because there is no language stating which rule takes precedence when the two conflict. We do state that the submission needs to be a minimum of 15 seconds and the episode that was submitted does that, but we don’t state that the theme needs to be a minimum of 15 seconds in each episode it appears in. The Peer Group Executive Committee realizes that they need to tighten up the language before next year’s competition and they will do that in October.”
The disputant says the TV Academy needs to check its math, emphasizing that the theme music is not heard for 15 seconds in any episode, let alone in three of them, and presenting the following specific counts: Episode 1 — titles start at 1:26, theme music heard for 11 seconds Episode 2 — no theme music; instead, “Wave of Mutilation” by Pixies Episode 3 — titles start at 5:12, theme music heard for 8 seconds Episode 4 — titles start at 2:54, theme music heard for 13 seconds Episode 5 — no theme music; instead, “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads Episode 6 — titles start at 1:29, theme music heard for 11 seconds Episode 7 — no theme music; instead, “The Little Drummer Boy” by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings Episode 8 — titles start at 5:22, theme music heard for 11 seconds
The TV Academy spokesperson countered, “Emmy eligibility is solely based on the cue sheets submitted that have been documented for each production after the episodes are completed. Based on the cue sheets, the main title theme for The Beast in Me is eligible in the category, as we originally stated. Note, the perceived timing of a viewer of the episode will not always correspond with that of the confirmed cue sheets, where sound beds and accompanying music are included if surrounding the main title. As stated, eligibility is solely based on the cue sheets.”
But the disputant says the TV Academy is contradicting its own rules by asserting “sound beds and accompanying music are included if surrounding the main title,” given that the rules state “score bookending the title sequence are not eligible.”
Regardless of which side of this argument one falls on, nobody is suggesting any impropriety on the part of Callery, a highly respected composer who is also Emmy-nominated this year on behalf of The Beast in Me in the category of best music composition for a limited or anthology series, movie or special (original dramatic score). Underscores the TV Academy spokesperson, “In no way, shape or form was Sean part of the submission process or the judging process.”
Caught between rural roots and urban opportunities, familial duty, friendship and forbidden carnal desire, young San Kyi (Nandar Myat Aung) struggles to find her place in Fruit Gathering, a sensitive Myanmar-Czechia-France co-production that just won Karlovy Vary’s top prize.
That’s an impressive achievement for Burmese writer-director Aung Phyoe, making his feature debut after several shorts. His flair for blending realist drama with more poetic, painterly imagery makes for a dreamy, hypnotic viewing experience, eased along by a confident, open-hearted performance from Nandar Myat Aung in the lead role. Fruit Gathering will be ripe for picking at further festivals, especially ones specializing in Asian and/or LGBTQ+ fare, possibly followed by niche distribution.
Fruit Gathering
The Bottom Line
Juicy but not too sweet.
Venue: Karlovy Vary Film Festival Cast: Nandar Myat Aung, Nandar Myint Lwin, Tin Tin Ei, Thida Soe Khant, Wutt Yeet Kyaw, Htet Aung Lynn, Khet Suu Myat, Min Nyo, Zun Pwint Phyu Director/screenwriter: Aung Phyoe
1 hour 37 minutes
Self-transplanted with her mother (Tin Tin Ei) and grandmother from the countryside to industry-rich Yangon, San Kyi has so far managed to resist the pressure from her mom to get married or pursue a career in something upmarket like tech. Instead, eager for a job that doesn’t demand too much thinking, San Kyi works in a massive clothing factory, sewing seams all day in a ferociously noisy, scrap-strewn environment where the supervisor gets snotty if she takes a bathroom break without seeking permission first.
Incidentally, while the factory hardly looks inviting, the conditions don’t seem to be too bad compared to those seen in older documentaries about East and South Asian sweatshops. They’re comparable to what’s on display in, say, Chinese director Wang Bing’s doc Youth but without the company-owned residential housing. At least the workers are allowed to submit petitions circulated by labor organizers requesting better pay and more safety measures, although tellingly San Kyi refuses to sign lest she might get fired for it. A union leader (Wutt Yee Kyaw) pours scorn on her for not showing more solidarity with her colleagues.
Later, after she’s injured herself by a sewing accident, San Kyi will rethink her position on workers’ rights, but industrial relations in the textile industry are not the film’s main focus. It’s all background color, as much a part of the vivid landscape as the interludes where we see San Kyi back home visiting the mango farms and spirit-dance ceremonies of her agrarian childhood.
At least it’s at this factory that San Kyi meets Theint Theint Oo (Nandar Myint Lwin), a young co-worker around the same age as San Kyi with a radiant smile and street sense to burn. The two young women start out just hanging together during their lunch breaks but soon grow inseparable. The script suggests early on that Theint Theint may be the kind of pal who always forgets to bring enough cash for dinner. A darker interpretation might posit that she sees San Kyi as little more than a mark, but the truth probably falls somewhere in a grayer area.
Either way, by the time San Kyi is buying nearly identical blouses for the two of them to wear on strolls around town, it’s pretty clear that she’s smitten with Theint Theint. The latter is ambiguously flirtatious and keen to have languid girls’ night sleepovers in the same bed, but also open about the fact that she’s got a man in the background, who is conveniently always away working in another country. Afraid of losing her new limerent object of desire, San Kyi entertains the thought of going abroad with Theint Theint to work as housekeepers or factory workers in somewhere affluent like Singapore or Malaysia.
Clearly, things are heading for a smash up when San Kyi lends Theint Theint a substantial amount of money. Somehow the tension is heightened by the fact that Theint Theint gets closer to San Kyi’s family, even accepting a job offer that comes through the local guy whom San Kyi’s mom was trying to set San Kyi up with as a potential husband. It all serves to underscore how narrowly female relationships are usually defined in highly traditional, painfully patriarchal Myanmar society. The intense feeling between these two young women could never be openly romantic, although no one bats an eye when they walk hand and hand through the streets, much the way Queen Victoria is said to have refused to sign legislation banning lesbianism because she wouldn’t acknowledge such a thing even existed.
Aung Phyoe suggests the messy, uncontrollable nature of desire via some slightly heavy-handed imagery of flooded apartments and generally juicy, watery, somewhat soluble imagery. But the story surprisingly shifts tack halfway through and becomes less interested in the two women’s relationship and more in San Kyi’s personal development, especially after some hard knocks change how she sees the world.
Every so often, the camera will linger on a tiny detail like a vase that has some emotional significance, or the light coming in a window. There’s a tiny hint that these cinematic still life pictures are being seen through San Kyi’s eyes, like scenes in a book told through limited third-person point of view. Indeed, there’s a faintly literary quality to the filmmaking, as if inspired by romance and high-brow fiction, but Aung Phyoe’s touch is feathery soft, as gentle as the soft thud of a mango falling from a tree.
An unlikely meeting between Hunter Biden and far-right internet personality Nick Fuentes for an independent web channel reportedly veered into an argument that nearly led to a physical altercation at a Philadelphia hotel over the weekend.
According to a report published Monday by TMZ, the meeting between Biden — the son of former Democratic President Joe Biden — and the white nationalist podcast host was brokered by Andrew Callaghan, founder and host of the gonzo video news series Channel 5, and took place in a Philadelphia hotel room. The meeting of the two men, both of whom have courted controversy in recent years, was billed as a no-limits conversation where any topic was on the table.
The outlet reported, citing “sources familiar with the situation,” that the conversation was initially affable but soon grew tense as the men on opposite sides of the political spectrum moved to different topics. Eventually, the tension turned into an argument, and it grew so heated that Callaghan had to intervene before the situation escalated into violence.
The interview is set to air later this month, according to TMZ. Neither Biden, Fuentes nor Callaghan has spoken publicly about the interview and what happened between the three of them.
The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Callaghan and his public relations representative on Monday but had not received a response by publication time regarding the details of the reported altercation and what may have led the conversation to go astray. We will update this story with any further information as it is received.
Biden is the second son of former President Biden and an artist and businessman. He has been the subject of several controversies since 2019 after becoming the target of false allegations that he asked his father to have a Ukrainian prosecutor fired to protect him from legal trouble. Biden was also convicted of three weapons possession charges for owning a gun, which was purchased in 2018 during the period he was addicted to drugs; he was disbarred as a result of the felony conviction in Washington, D.C. and Connecticut. On December 1, 2024, President Biden issued a full and unconditional pardon for his son — reversing promises to the public that he would not do so.
Furentes has been a growing voice in the alt-right, ultra-nationalist space for several years. He hosts a livestreamed show called America First, where he has advanced white nationalism and an ideology of white supremacy. He and his followers, known as “Groypers,” have waged war on late activist Charlie Kirk and his Turning Point USA for being insufficiently conservative. In 2020, he founded the America First Political Action Conference.
Callaghan has been at the forefront of DIY reporting since his teens, beginning with interviews of fringe dark-web figures and protest movements. He has parleyed his esoteric interview style into leading Channel 5, which he’s quickly been growing into a small but formidable empire over the past several years.
Disney‘s live-action Moana did not make the summer splash that the studio had hoped, leading to questions about not only what might be in store at the box office for the Dwayne Johnson-led title but also the potential for developing remakes of other animated favorites.
After last year’s Lilo & Stitch had a record-breaking $183 million four-day opening weekend domestically before surpassing $1 billion in its global run, the live-action Moana appeared to represent a likely win as the summer approached. After all, the original 2016 animated movie — starring Johnson as the voice of demigod Maui who helps the titular girl (Auli’i Cravalho) save her island — has become a beloved property for families and counts as the most-watched feature on Disney+. And, of course, Moana 2 confirmed the excitement for new theatrical entries from the franchise when it hit $1 billion after its November 2024 release — although there is more to discuss with that one in a moment.
Despite Disney anticipating an opening above $60 million domestically after third-party tracking initially suggested the film could launch to as much as $75 million, the live-action Moana was left gasping at the box office. Its $43 million opening in North America puts it in dubious company as one of the weakest debuts for Disney’s remakes and is particularly tough given its $250 million production budget. Other misfires included last year’s $42.2 million opening for Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot’s Snow White and the $45.9 million bow for 2019’s Tim Burton-directed Dumbo, although both of those reimagined originals from generations prior and might have felt dated to younger audiences. Additionally, the live-action Snow White found itself caught up in the culture wars.
Starring Catherine Laga’aia in the title role, the new Moana had a few strikes against it that dinged the opening. Its 34 percent approval score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes makes it among the worst-reviewed live-action updates, although the fan response has been another story, as it earned an A- CinemaScore, including an A+ from those under 18, and is “verified hot” with a 90 percent Rotten Tomatoes audience rating.
While Lilo & Stitch had given audiences more than two decades to miss the first one — and likely had the advantage of millennial parents wanting to share the story with their children — Moana was the most recent original to get Disney’s live-action treatment. Moana 2 was initially conceived as a Disney+ series but flipped to a theatrical release for 2024, which complicated the timing for the live-action movie that began production earlier that year. Given that Johnson voiced the sequel, fans may have felt that they had already scratched their Moana itch for the time being.
Catherine Laga’aia in Moana.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
It also faced competition for families from such summer titles as Disney’s own Toy Story 5 and Illumination’s Minions & Monsters. That said, the latter may have dealt with some burnout of its own in opening over the Fourth of July weekend to the lowest domestic sum for the Despicable Me franchise.
“Everything comes down to timing in this business, and it just did not work in Moana’s favor in this case,” Fandango director of analytics and Box Office Theory founder Shawn Robbins tells The Hollywood Reporter. He points out that certain titles found the sweet spot to capitalize on nostalgia, like Disney’s live-action takes on Beauty and the Beast (2017), Aladdin (2019) and The Lion King (2019), with these reimaginings of 1990s originals all opening above $90 million domestically en route to surpassing $1 billion globally. Another of last year’s successes was Universal’s live-action remake of 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon.
“It’s always a case-by-case basis,” says Robbins about which Disney’s movies could still work for live-action. Indeed, feature projects that were previously in development before seemingly stalling out have included live-action versions of Disney’s Robin Hood, Bambi, The Aristocats and The Sword in the Stone. “Who knows where Disney goes from here?”
A scene from Disney’s 2010 animated movie Tangled.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Disney will aim to get the right recipe for Tangled, as the live-action retelling of the 2010 animated feature focusing on Rapunzel is currently in production in Spain. Weeks after Snow White’s disappointing 2025 launch, the studio opted to pause development on Tangled but resumed its progress in the fall after the out-of-this-world box office returns for Lilo & Stitch. Speaking of the latter, a live-action Lilo & Stitch sequel is also in the works, and there are certainly plenty of fans who are holding their collective breath that a live-action Frozen ends up in development.
The Moana team can take heart knowing that the live-action movie has had its share of vocal supporters. “Listen to the people who showed up, rather than the ones hating it unseen just because,” Role Models screenwriter Timothy Dowling posted over the weekend in praising the new Moana. Given the positive exit scores, Disney remains hopeful that the film can have legs, as the primary box office draw for the next two weekends will be Christopher Nolan’s R-rated The Odyssey.
As for Johnson — who was cited as a key draw for those who did check out this weekend’s film — Moana 2 was a bright spot at the box office amid the star’s recent stretch that includes commercial misfires Black Adam, Red One and The Smashing Machine. He returns to another proven franchise later this year with Sony’s Jumanji: Open World, which will hope to excite fans despite opening just a week after both Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three.
For the bigger 2026 picture, the spring was full of promise, thanks to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Michael — which both crossed the billion-dollar mark globally — and other hits like Project Hail Mary and The Devil Wears Prada 2. The summer has seen reasons to celebrate, including Toy Story 5 appearing to head for the 10-figure club, not to mention surprise breakouts Obsession and Backrooms. But there have been wobbly recent weeks with disappointments like Supergirl, plus June’s Masters of the Universe. The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day are two behemoths waiting in the wings later this month.
“It has been a wild summer,” admits Robbins, who points out that the season’s biggest smashes are having to do some heavy lifting for the industry at large. “Now there have been a few underperformers consecutively. That just really underscores what the expectation has been for a long time, that it would be a very top-heavy summer for the most part — and maybe for the year.”
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Ahead of fall’s Dancing With the Starsseason 35 premiere, a new spinoff is joining the franchise to determine who will become a pro dancer on the flagship series. Hosted by fan-favorite season 34 winner Robert Irwin, Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro premieres on Monday, July 13 at 8 p.m. PT/ET on ABC, which is available on any streaming service that carries said network, namely DirecTV (with a five-day free trial), Fubo (with a one-day free trial), Sling and Hulu + Live TV.
Unlike Dancing With the Stars, the spinoff competition does not stream live on Disney+, however it will be available to watch on a one-day delay (every Tuesday) on Disney+/Hulu.
At a Glance: How to WatchDancing With the Stars: The Next Pro
Where to Watch Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro: Air Date, Time
The spinoff competition series will be broadcast Mondays on ABC, at 8 p.m. PT/ET, starting with the July 13 premiere.
Where to Stream Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro Online
Since The Next Pro airs on ABC, it will also be available to watch live on any streaming service that carries the network, including DirecTV (with a five-day free trial), Fubo (with a one-day free trial), Sling and Hulu + Live TV. Episodes will be available to stream the following day on Disney+/Hulu. More on each option — and their new subscriber discounts — below.
DirecTV
Five-day free trial; packages from $19.99 per month
ABC is included in any of DirecTV’s signature packages: Entertainment, Choice, Ultimate or Premier. Plus, DirecTV offers a five-day free trial for its streaming service, meaning new subscribers can tune in at no cost for a limited time.
Learn more about each plan option, including how to build your own channel lineup (starting at just $19.99 per month), at directv.com.
Fubo
Fubo
One-day free trial; packages from $64.99 per month ($54.99 for first month)
ABC is available to stream with a subscription to Fubo, which offers a one-day free trial for new subscribers. After the trial, plans start at $54.99 for the first month and $64.99 monthly thereafter.
Sling
Plans from $4.99 per day or $19.99 per month
ABC is included in Sling’s Blue Plan, from $45.99 per month, and Sling’s Orange & Blue plan, from $60.99 per month. That said, local channel availability depends on your TV market. Visit Sling.com to check station availability and package options, starting as low as $4.99 per day or $19.99 per month.
Hulu + Live TV
Three-day free trial; packages from $89.99 per month
Watch ABC for free with a three-day trial to Hulu + Live TV. Subscriptions come bundled with Disney+ and ESPN+, and start at $89.99 per month.
Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro Host, Judges, Cast
Season 34 DWTS winner Robert Irwin will serve as host, while mother-son duo Shirley and Mark Ballas will be on the weekly judging panel. Rotating guest judges — who will double as weekly mentors — will take the panel’s third slot. This season’s guest judges include Derek Hough, Witney Carson, Jenna Johnson, Britt Stewart, Daniella Karagach, Brandon Armstrong and Kym Johnson-Herjavec.
Twelve contestants will compete on The Next Pro. These professional dancers include Benjamin Castro, Allen Genkin, Selena Hamilton, Natalie Jolley, Erik Linder, Nina Mayster, Jake Monreal, Briar Nolet, AJ Pritchard, Tristen Sanders, Stephani Sosa and Adele Zaikman. Sosa is sister to current pro Ezra and was a troupe member on season 33.
Cinema United and other organizations that have opposed Paramount’s attempted mega-merger with Warner Bros. Discovery applauded the move by 12 state attorneys general on Monday to sue to block the $111 billion deal.
Cinema United, the trade organization that advocates on behalf of movie theaters across the country and internationally, took a victory lap on the challenge to a deal it vociferously opposed, arguing that small businesses across the country would suffer. “The ramifications of further movie studio consolidation will be significant and lasting, not just in Hollywood, but on Main Streets across this nation where local movie theaters serve as cultural and financial cornerstones for communities of all sizes,” president and CEO Michael O’Leary said in a statement.
Cinema United has long opposed a mega-merger of another major Hollywood entity with Warner Bros., claiming that such a transaction would concentrate too much power in the hands of a single distributor. The group is not only concerned about bargaining power, but about the diversity and number of films that would be released each year were two major distributors to merge. (Paramount Skydance CEO Ellison has promised to release at least 30 films theatrically a year across Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, which he says will operate as studios independently, if the merger is consummated.)
Cinema United’s take is especially salient given that, in their lawsuit, the state regulators argued that the theatrical market, in particular, would be harmed by a reduction in owners of wide-release, high-grossing films. They claimed that the mega-deal would raise prices for consumers, reduce the amount of projects in theaters and throttle the diversity and quality of entertainment.
Along with California, attorneys general for Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington joined the suit filed in California federal court on Monday.
Equally vocal on the alleged evils of corporate consolidation in the entertainment industry has been the Writers Guild of America, the union representing film and television writers across the country. The union said on Monday that it had “engaged with the offices of many State Attorneys General” to argue against the merger for some time.
“This is one of the worst proposed mergers we’ve seen. We’ve been very clear from day one that combining Warner Bros. Discovery with Paramount threatens our members and this industry, and must be blocked,” Writers Guild of America West president Michele Mulroney said in a statement.
Added her counterpart from the Writers Guild of America East, Tom Fontana, “The proposed Paramount Skydance merger with Warner Bros. Discovery would create an alarming amount of consolidation and contraction and cause irreparable harm to our members. People will lose their jobs, their income, their homes. The damage this deal would do to America’s entertainment and news industries would be an absolute, unmitigated disaster.”
Ahead of Monday’s announcement, the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit devoted to antitrust policy, had helped organize a series of town halls for industry workers opposed to the Paramount-Warner Bros. deal. Unsurprisingly, a moderator for these town halls, American Economic Liberties Project senior advisor Alvaro Bedoya, cheered on the legal challenges.
“The rich guys who run Paramount can say what they want, but the people who actually work for them know that this will kill jobs and screw over the small businesses that are the lifeblood of this industry. I hope the states win and win fast, because these people need it,” the former FTC commissioner said in a statement.
In response to Monday’s lawsuit, Paramount alleged that the lawsuit would help shield tech giants like Apple and Amazon as well as the dominant streaming company, Netflix, from competition and that a blocked transaction would result in consequences for entertainment workers and consumers.
But the merger’s opponents aren’t convinced. New York mayor Zohran Mamdani got in the action on Monday, posting on the social platform X that he was “proud” that New York is one of the states participating in the suit. He added, “New York’s workers helped build this industry. They should not be sacrificed for the sake of further corporate consolidation.”
By now it’s well-known that Jay-Z‘s third and eagerly anticipated “Extra Innings” show at Yankee Stadiumwas delayed by roughly three hours due to a security breach at the gates that led to thousands of people being trapped outside as they were slowly admitted by security. The show didn’t begin until after midnight ET Monday morning and ended with celebratory fireworks around 2:45 a.m.
But the enthusiasm from the packed crowd hadn’t dampened by the time Jay-Z finally took the stage, as the audience went wild for surprise guest performances from Rihanna — who made a rare concert appearence — as well as from Beyoncé, Jeezy, Clipse and more.
Most of the audience stayed through the show, and concertgoers commuting home on the subway could be heard musing about how it was the best show of Jay-Z’s three-night run, excitedly recounting how they saw Rihanna and Beyoncé.
Until the show suddenly kicked off around 12:21 a.m. ET, it wasn’t clear if the concert would even happen. The stadium was mostly filled by the expected 9:30 p.m. start time, with fans donning merch to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Jay-Z’s seminal album Reasonable Doubt. At 9:45 p.m., a voice over the loudspeaker thanked people for their patience and said they were still trying to get everyone in safely.
Over the next two hours, though, patient but frustrated fans received few updates apart from consistent messaging from security officials that they wanted to wait for everyone who had purchased a ticket to get in. Chatting with concertgoers, security officials mentioned people rushing the gate and how people were now being let in slowly. The crowd inside remained calm, though, sticking around and mostly staying in their seats when they weren’t taking advantage of the delay to visit the concession stands and the restrooms.
Still, there were scattered expressions of frustration and confusion among concertgoers (“This is crazy,” one fan said, likely voicing the thoughts of many people in the audience.) And there were some brief boos amid a “Hova” chant before 11 p.m. A rumor began spreading that Kanye “Ye” West, Jay-Z’s former close collaborator from whom he’s since become estranged, would be appearing, after Jay had been performing some of their Watch the Throne collabs (not to mention earlier work that West had produced) on the previous two nights.
Still, as the clock creeped closer to midnight, and fans also heard that supposedly Jay-Z had to end the show by midnight, confusion reigned with many people suspecting the concert might get canceled.
Around 11:45 p.m. there was another update, saying they were still trying to get people inside safely and that safety was the most important thing to organizers and Jay. Then, at 12:21 a.m., the lights went down and the video of Beyoncé cutting Jay-Z’s hair that kicked on Friday night’s show appeared on the video screens onstage. It was happening!
Jay-Z quickly took the stage leading a hyped up crowd through “Brooklyn’s Finest.” After the high-energy kickoff, he took a few minutes to apologize for and explain the delay, saying in part that he didn’t want people to get “trampled,” noting safety concerns behind the delay as organizers had to deal with crowd control given that there were “10,000 people outside.”
Still he promised “I got some shit for you,” suggesting the show would be worth the wait.
And Hova delivered. While fans were originally speculating if West would show, there was an appearance from an arguably more elusive performer and close Jay-Z collaborator, Rihanna, performing live for the first time in more than two years, and more than 10 years after her Anti world tour in 2016. When she walked out from backstage on “Run This Town,” another West collab, the crowd went wild.
She then delivered a solo version of “Bitch Better Have My Money” and left the stage, later being led out of the stadium, through the audience, around 1:45 a.m.
Before Rihanna, fans got their first performance of “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” in the three-night run and guest appearances from Teyana Taylor, performing the Mary J. Blige portion of “Can’t Knock the Hustle” that Beyoncé delivered during night one; Jermaine Dupri on “Money Ain’t a Thang,” with the crowd enthusiastically rapping the opening lines from the Vol. 2 … Hard Knock Life track before Dupri took the stage); Jeezy; The-Dream; and Usher.
Usher onstage with Jay-Z early Monday morning.
Courtesy of Roc Nation
The extensive, decades-spanning setlist (45 songs!) featured a mix of hits and deeper cuts including tracks from Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint, albums celebrated on the previous two evenings, as well as more of The Black Album than he’d performed on those previous outings.
During “99 Problems,” another first at the Yankee Stadium shows, enthusiastically received by the sleep-deprived crowd, helicopter-captured video from inside the stadium broadcast on the screen behind Jay-Z showed that the audience was still packed.
Jay-Z also welcomed Swizz Beatz, with the two performing a cover of the late DMX’s “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem” with enthusiastic backing from the audience, as the kick-off to a string of tracks that ended with the more recent hit “On to the Next One.” Pharrell Williams returned for a multi-song set, including their collab “Frontin’,” in an echo of Saturday night’s performance. Jay and Pharrell also brought out the Clipse, to loud cheers, for “Grindin’.”
When Jay-Z asked the audience around 2 a.m. if they were ready to go home, the crowd responded with a resounding “no.”
The encore kicked off with another appearance from Queen Bey, who came out during night one and returned with Lebanese dance group the Mayyas. Sporting a summery Yankee fan look after her pinstripe attire Friday night, she performed “Drunk in Love.”
The married couple shared a kiss onstage before Beyoncé again expressed her support for the audience. “I love you all so much,” she said. “I appreciate your loyalty to this man right here.”
Thenm after what had been the closing tracks on the previous nights, “Ni**as in Paris” into “Big Pimpin’,” Hov kept the show going with “Empire State of Mind,” along with guest appearances from Fat Joe and Jadakiss on “New York,” and then “Lucifer” and “Encore.”
The three-night stand was capped by celebratory fireworks, which could be seen shooting off from Yankee Stadium at 2:45 a.m. Monday morning.
On “Izzo,” Jay altered one of the lyrics to address the fact that the show hadn’t begun on time, and he quipped multiple times throughout the show that they’d go until 5 a.m. But near the end of the more-than-two-hour concert he just found himself musing, “It’s been a night. We’re just enjoying the night. It’s one of those legendary nights.”
Of all the ways in which people have decided to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, few are as left-field as a sketch comedy collaboration between Larry David and President Barack Obama.
Jeff Schaffer, David’s frequent writing partner and showrunner of Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, seems as aware of this as anyone. But when the Obamas and their Higher Ground productions company expressed an interest, who was he to turn them down? The fruits of their labor, a seven-episode exploration of American history through David’s curmudgeonly eyes, is already halfway through its HBO run. And, yes, it’s even a little educational. “I enjoy history, but I like ancient history — Greek and Roman stuff,” says Schaffer. “But Larry’s American history knowledge was astounding. He wanted to do something on winning the popular vote but losing the election, and he goes ‘You know, like Samual J. Tilden.’ Who? He could have been a country music star for all I knew.”
During a recent episode of The Hollywood Reporter podcast, I’m Having an Episode (Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple), Schaffer talked about collaborating with a former president and making a production schedule that would accommodate the erratic behavior of the sitting one. (And, for good measure, he discussed one of the more unlikely gems of his long comedy career: “Scotty Doesn’t Know.”)
He’s at the methadone clinic right now. He’s all fucked up, but we still love him. So we’re gonna celebrate him and we hope he gets better soon.
Especially before they shut down the methadone clinics.
I hope our friend doesn’t live in a rural area.
For many, this was not a “rah rah” Fourth of July. But, also, it’s a time to acknowledge the country’s history and you’re working with a beloved former president. [The series is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama via their production company, Higher Ground.] How does that mix of variables color the experience?
That’s the yin and the yang of the American experience, right? Larry’s there to grouse about it, and President Obama’s there to say, “Hey, no matter how sticky things get, we can still find inspiration in each other.” It’s a comedy, so there’s a lot of Larry in here. But there are also times, especially in the beginning and the end, where we want to make sure that we’re actually saying something, too. We can get through this. And this messy, weird experiment in democracy is still is still working. We’re celebrating America, warts and all. And right now there’s a saggy orange wart that we wish would go away as quickly as possible. But the body’s still okay.
So, Larry and President Obama know one another, but this is still such a strange pairing. How did this happen?
Higher Ground and the Obamas wanted to do something to celebrate the 250th. Larry — who says “no” to everything, like you and I breathe — he’s such an American history buff. It intrigued him. I think really the the genesis of Larry’s interest starts four years ago, when Larry and I did a commercial where he played someone who was basically crapping all over the best inventions of humanity. We did it for FTX. I wonder whatever happened to them. They were so nice. (Laughs.) Anyway, remembered how much fun he had being in costume — and he forgot how much he hated being in wigs. So we just started talking about events and other things and we had some funny ideas.
I realize the president wasn’t in the writers room with you two, but what was the dynamic when the three of you were talking about the series?
The most amazing part of this was getting to see Larry and President Obama together. The first meeting we had — I’ve never met the president before — and he just says, “Do you play golf?” Not really. Then he he points to Larry and he goes, “This guy’s better than you’d think he’d be, but he wears so much sunscreen.” Obama’s just crapping all over Larry. And Larry goes, “I’m sorry my dad’s not from Kenya.” And this is minute one. These two are so funny together. So my big mission was just like, I just need to get them on screen together. That’s all I want. And when you see them on screen together, they’re so funny. It’s a very interesting odd couple.
How contemporary did you want to get with this? I think the closest to today that I’ve seen was Rosa Parks.
We go all the way up to almost today, but one thing that we really tried to do was talk about things that are happening now through a historical lens. There’s a sketch where we talk about vaccinations, but we’re not talking about vaccination issues that are happening right now. We’re talking about when the polio vaccine first came out. When you look at the history of America is that we’ve made a lot of the same mistakes again and again. We really have learned very little.
Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld in Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America.
HBO
Was that helpful for you to realize, given our current strife?
We’re still around! There was a a tremendous amount of suspicion about polio vaccine when it came out. And now we’re doing that again? It’s a two steps forward, one step back progress — this American experiment. Selfishness and pettiness are not twentieth century inventions. There are cracks at Trump in there, without any direct hits. One sketch in particular has Jimmy Kimmel playing a man who can’t fathom a president trying to seek more than two terms. Were jokes like that cathartic?
We shot that sketch in November 2025, and we knew that Trump was going to do more insane evil things between when we shot and when we aired. So we basically left spaces so we could come back and chronicle each new horror of the madness of King Trump. We know that if you give this guy a few months, he’s gonna do something else completely diabolical and stupid that we weren’t even expecting: things like sending troops into American cities to harass and even kill American citizens. That was in between starting wars with foreign countries to deflect from the fact that you’re best friends with a pedophile. We left space to come in and and refill.
You and Larry work with a lot of artistic liberty, but you’re still making this with another production company on this. What is an Obama note like?
We had one meeting, and President Obama had read roughs of the sketches. He was very complimentary. And I remember he had a note about a particular sketch and Larry just goes, “Yeah, yeah, we’ll we’ll take care of it.” And Obama just goes, “I see how this is gonna be. You know, when I was in the Oval Office, I like to think that I listened to my advisors and I took advice from them. And I was president of the United States. That’s when Larry just goes, “Yeah, but I’m president of this.” Obama spent a half an hour telling [him] how funny I think this is. One note and [he] gets into a defensive crouch.” But they did give very good notes. And for certain sketches, which we haven’t gotten to yet, they were their knowledge was instrumental.
Looking at your long résumé, what is something that you worked on that you thought should have hit bigger than it did?
There are things like like EuroTrip. Alec Berg and Dave Mandel and I wrote that, and I directed. When it came out, not that many people saw it. But thanks to DVD, it has had this life. The song “Scotty Doesn’t Know” is like having some sort of renaissance that I don’t understand. A lot of my friends’ kids are in college, and they’re sending me stuff of bars singing “Scotty Doesn’t Know” when it comes on. I guess that we were disappointed that more people didn’t see it when it came out. But it’s had the life that we wanted it to have. We wanted to make a movie for teens to watch together in their parents’ basement while stealing their parents’ liquor. That’s happened.
That movie came out when I was mid-college and, by senior year, “Scotty Doesn’t Know” was playing at most parties.
There’s a gold record right here. We got a gold record from the single.
We’ve never spoken about this, so can you tell me how that all came together? Matt Damon making a cameo as a pop-punk frontman was an unexpected way to start that movie.
Alec, Dave and I, along with the band Lustra, wrote the lyrics. Obviously, the band came up with an amazing hook. We were shooting this movie in Prague during SARS and the [Iraq] war. We didn’t have a lot of money. We couldn’t be flying people in. Matt was shooting The Brothers Grimm in Prague. His head was shaved because he was wearing a wig the whole time. He’d quit smoking, so, in his words, he had swelled up like a tick. So we were like, “Hey, do you want to do this?” He had one one night available, which was the shortest night of the year. It was literally June 21st. There’s like five hours of nighttime to get this thing done. But he was so fun, and we just raced to get it. It’s crazy that it even existed. If Matt hadn’t been there. If he hadn’t looked like that. It just all came together. I was talking to Matt a little while ago, and he was like, “I was Private Ryan and Saving Private Ryan. I was Ripley and The Talented Mr. Ripley. I was Will Hunting in Good Will Hunting. And I walk down the street, and people just go, “Scotty Doesn’t Know!”
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Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness releases new episodes Fridays on HBO Max.
One of the breakout stars for the U.S. at this year’s FIFA World Cup has secured new representation for his off the pitch endeavors.
Folarin Balogun, the striker for the U.S. men’s national team and the Ligue 1 club Monaco, has signed with Klutch Sports Group. Balogun was a breakout for the U.S., scoring three goals to help lead the team to the round of 16.
“Folarin Balogun is one of the most talented and influential players in global football today. His relentless ambition and cultural impact represent the standard of excellence we hope to continue to bring to the sport,” said Rich Paul, Founder and CEO of Klutch Sports Group. “We are incredibly proud to welcome him to KLUTCH and excited about everything we can build together.”
Klutch first entered the global soccer business when it acquired the football-focused European agency ROOF two years ago. Balogun however is the first soccer star to sign with Klutch directly.
The high profile of the World Cup and a newfound excitement for soccer could lead to new opportunity for the 25 year old, who also found himself at the center of one of the tournament’s more memorable storylines after President Donald Trump called FIFA chief Gianni Infantino in an effort to get a red card issue to Balogun reviewed. He was ultimately allowed to play in the round of 16 matchup against Belgium.
With athletes becoming many of the worlds biggest celebrities, the opportunities for off the field work continues to grow. That includes entertainment in the form of docuseries and scripted fare, but also high-profile endorsement deals across seemingly every category.
It’s an area that Klutch, which counts superstars like LeBron James and Jalen Hurts on its roster, knows well.
Jay-Z fans were caught on video rushing an entrance to Yankee Stadium on Sunday night ahead of the veteran rapper’s third and final performance of three shows at his hometown stadium, which was delayed roughly three hours as security navigated the massive crowd that had gathered outside, admitting those with tickets, as the already packed audience within the venue were told Jay-Z was waiting to take the stage until everyone who had purchased a ticket could get in.
Early in his performance, which was scheduled for Sunday night but began after midnight on Monday, Jay-Z apologized for the delay and told the sold-out crowd at the 46,000-seat stadium in the South Bronx that, “like, 10,000 people” were outside, so security “closed all the doors, and somebody rushed the door. They closed the door for you guys’ safety and everyone’s safety outside.”
Video posted to X seems to confirm the breach of at least one turnstile at the stadium. In footage posted by users @HipHopKlipz36 and @TheRocSupremacy, several young concertgoers are seen breaching a turnstile, and a bottleneck quickly forms, with several individuals becoming stuck in the entryway as a heaving crowd seems to be pushing them forward.
⚠️This was part of the issue that caused the delay at the Jay-Z show – @yankeestadium please improve security and organization as this could have been dangerous for those outside and inside the stadium‼️ pic.twitter.com/WW6WcCfQgT
While certain elated fans jump up and down, excited to have gotten past the turnstile, several others are soon in peril behind them. It’s unclear if those seen in the video are ticketholders or if they are unticketed fans attempting to gain entry.
What caused the delay of the JAY-Z show. This happened in multiple entrances. Some had no tickets, nobody was checked. Luckily everyone made it out safe. pic.twitter.com/McBULCNDKl
After about a minute of this dangerous situation unfolding, security and New York Police Department officers are seen rushing over to the entrance to stop a potential stampede. There have been no injuries reported during the concert.
It is unclear if this was an isolated incident or if reported similar breaches of security did in fact occur around the stadium’s many entrances.
Sunday night’s show was the third and final performance of Jay-Z’s historic three-night Yankee Stadium run, a celebration of the 30th anniversary of his seminal album Reasonable Doubt and the 25th anniversary of The Blueprint, with the third night more of an overarching career retrospective. Like the first two nights, it was a star-studded event. Beyoncé, Rihanna, Teyana Taylor, Usher and Pharrell Williams all graced the stage at the show, which wrapped at 2:45 a.m. Monday.
On Monday, the baseball team, Jay-Z’s company, and the promoter of the event released a joint statement after the show, saying: “The Yankees, Roc Nation and Live Nation express our deep gratitude to the NYPD and to Yankee Stadium security personnel for their leadership and direction throughout the evening, putting the welfare of attendees above all other considerations.”
