Steve Pond's Blog, page 96

Diddy Got a Standing Ovation in Prison After Sex Trafficking Trial Verdict, Lawyer Says

Sean “Diddy” Combs returned to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn last week to a standing ovation from his fellow inmates, his lawyer Marc Agnifilo told the Associated Press in an interview published Sunday.

“They all said: ‘We never get to see anyone who beats the government,'” he explained.

A jury found Combs guilty on two prostitution charges but not guilty of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking on last week. The split July 2 verdict arrived after seven weeks of a trial that included testimony from 34 individuals, including ex-girlfriends and professional associates. Combs remains in prison and faces up to 20 years behind bars.

Agnifilo said he warned Combs he could expect to be arrested on sex trafficking charges after federal authorities raided his home in March 2024. “I said: ‘Maybe it’s your fate in life to be the guy who wins. They need to see that someone can win. I think he took that to heart,” Agnifilo.

The attorney also said the team intentionally met Combs’ abuse against former partners and employees head-on. “The violence was so clear and up front and we knew the government was going to try to confuse the jury into thinking it was part of a sex trafficking effort. So we had to tell the jury what it was so they wouldn’t think it was something it wasn’t,” he explained.

Agnifilo said he woke up early the morning of the verdict and told the legal team to get bail organized. He also told the group, “It’s going to be a good verdict for us, but I think he went down on the prostitution counts so let’s try to get him out.”

Agnifilo is also deeply knowledgeable of New York’s racketeering laws, having expanded their use when he worked as a federal prosecutor 20 years ago.

“I knew the weak points in the statute,” he said. “The statute is very mechanical. If you know how the car works, you know where the fail points are.”

The prosecution, he continued, had “dozens of fail points” that sank their case. “They didn’t have a conspiracy, they just didn’t,” he added. “They basically had Combs’ personal life and tried to build racketeering around personal assistants.”

The post Diddy Got a Standing Ovation in Prison After Sex Trafficking Trial Verdict, Lawyer Says appeared first on TheWrap.

Texas Woman’s Flood Rescue Caught on Camera After Waters Swept Her 20 Miles | Video

An unnamed Texas woman, age 22, was rescued over the weekend after the devastating Guadalupe River floods swept her 20 miles over four hours before she eventually clung to a tree and cried for help. A Texas family saw her and helped initiate the rescue, Fox News reported Sunday, with what the network touted as “unbelievable video” of the moment caught on tape.

The Jeter family spoke to the news organization about the experience, which began while they were evacuating their own home. “We had not totally evacuated — our home as right on the river — but we’re 25 foot near … and floodwaters were rising,” patriarch Carl Jeter told Fox News. “I had gone about a half a block down the street where I could still watch, but was on dry land.”

Watch the news segment on the woman’s rescue via Fox News below:

“As soon as the water stopped rising and began to recede a little bit, I waded in, went up on my deck. And as I did, she spotted me, and she started to scream for help,” he continued. “At first I couldn’t locate her — I thought she was in the river itself going downstream … and then I finally was able to look across the river into the tree and I spotted her. So I began to call out to her and tell her that I see her. I got you, we’re going to get you some help. It’s going to be OK, just hang on.”

The woman told the outlet that she was separated from her family, who were still missing at the time of the report. Refrigerators and other debris in the water nearly took her under before she was saved.

The rescue effort involved “multiple teams,” Josh Jeter said. “There was a Swift Water Rescue from Bernie, Texas team that showed up, and then there were some Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens that showed up with boats as well.”

“We were able to help launch those boats by hand into the water for them to get in and rescue her,” he added. “It was just … you didn’t think about it, you just did what you needed to do to help them get into the water to save this young lady that’s clinging to life in a tree.”

At least 80 people, including dozens of young girls attending a summer camp in the area, died during the flash flood. Ten girls and one counselor from Camp Mystic are still unaccounted for.

Gov. Greg Abbott has also warned the state’s residents that more flash flooding is on the way.

Questions surrounding emergency readiness have been raised following the devastation. CNN reported officials in Kerr County previously debated installing flood warning sirens nine years ago (and again as recently as 2021) but failed to realize the plan. “We do not have a warning system,” Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said at a news conference Friday.

Watch Fox News’ interview with the Jeter family in the video above.

The post Texas Woman’s Flood Rescue Caught on Camera After Waters Swept Her 20 Miles | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Scarlett Johansson Becomes Hollywood’s Highest Grossing Lead Actor With ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’

Four years after exiting the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Black Widow,” Scarlett Johansson has now set a new record as the global box office’s highest grossing lead actor before inflation adjustment, passing fellow MCU stars Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Downey Jr. And it is all thanks to “Jurassic World: Rebirth.”

In the new film, Johannson takes over from Chris Pratt as the lead star of the dinosaur franchise, playing ex-military operative Zora Bennett in a mission to one of the few remaining islands where dinosaurs still live following the events of the “Jurassic World” trilogy. In its first six days in theaters worldwide, the film has earned a $318 million global launch, second only to the Chinese animated film “Ne Zha 2” among all 2025 releases.

According to data from The Numbers, that start gives Johansson a lifetime career box office gross of $14.8 billion in films where she plays a lead role or a lead ensemble role. More than $8.7 billion of that total comes from the four “Avengers” films and “Captain America: Civil War,” in which she played Natasha Romanov, a.k.a. Black Widow.

Other lead ensemble roles that count towards that total include her MCU debut film, “Iron Man 2,” and the two animated “Sing” films, in which she voiced the rock-loving porcupine Ash.

Of the top five highest grossing lead actors on The Numbers’ list, the only one that has not appeared in a Marvel film is Tom Hanks, with the others being Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Jackson (Nick Fury) and Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Star-Lord). Jackson previously held the record with $14.6 billion, with Pixar’s two “Incredibles” films being counted by the site as a lead ensemble role.

Downey Jr., the MCU’s founding father, has $14.2 billion in leading roles in The Numbers’ books, with approximately $11.8 billion coming from his nine Marvel movies. His Best Supporting Actor Oscar winning turn in the $976 million “Oppenheimer,” as the name of that award would suggest, is not included in that count.

Depending on whether one counts Doctor Doom as a lead ensemble role, Downey Jr. will have a chance to take the box office crown back from Johansson in December 2026 when “Avengers: Doomsday” hits theaters … assuming of course that the film and/or its 2027 follow-up “Avengers: Secret Wars” doesn’t use multiversal loopholes to bring Black Widow back from the dead despite Johansson’s assertions in multiple interviews that her time in the MCU has ended.

The post Scarlett Johansson Becomes Hollywood’s Highest Grossing Lead Actor With ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ appeared first on TheWrap.

TikTok Is Building a New Version of the App for September Release | Report

TikTok’s staff is reportedly building a new version of the app for American users — dubbed M2 — for a September release ahead of an expected sale, The Information reported this week. Any potential deal will still have to be approved by the Chinese government.

The news comes amid suggestions from the Trump administration that a group of “non-Chinese” investors are pursuing the app. The group is said to include Oracle.

In late June, The White House said keeping TikTok available to the American public is the president’s “main priority.” The press secretary added that Trump wants to accomplish his goal “while protecting [Americans’] privacy and security.”

On June 29, Trump then told Fox News “a group of very wealthy people” were clamoring to buy the app. “I think President Xi will probably do it,” he said.

The app was initially set to be banned on Jan. 19 after President Biden signed a law in 2024 requiring ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell TikTok’s American operations. Lawmakers were concerned that ByteDance could use the platform to spy on citizens for China’s government.

On Jan. 20, Trump gave the app a 75-day extension, a decision he re-upped in April. That deadline extension will expire on Sept. 17.

The post TikTok Is Building a New Version of the App for September Release | Report appeared first on TheWrap.

Uma Thurman Confirms ‘Red, White & Royal Blue 2’ Return, Praises Its ‘Better World’ With Female President | Video

Uma Thurman is locked in for the “Red, White & Royal Blue” sequel. “When it’s ready, I will do it,” she told Letterboxd in an interview out Thursday. The actress starred in the 2023 movie as the first female president, Ellen Claremont, who is also a supportive mom when her son comes out.

Elsewhere in the interview, Thurman also noted that the role gave her the opportunity to enjoy an alternate political timeline, even if it was pretend. “I like playing fun characters,” she explained. “I loved Ellen. Ellen was great to watch, even to imagine that, like, today it’s like, it’s such an alternative better world.”

Thurman, who currently stars in “The Old Guard 2,” also had plenty of praise for the character in an interview with Forbes published Friday. “I think she would squelch divisiveness. I think she led with love, but strength — and we’re not seeing that these days. When we were making the ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ film, we all kind of sadly nodded that it’s … what was beautiful about making that movie is that there was something of an idealized world in that film, and I think it’s very important to remember that we can have an idealized world,” she explained.

“It is not impossible and it can exist between two people, it can exist in a family, it can exist in a community. Hopefully one day, on a larger scale.”

Taylor Zakhar Perez, who played Thurman’s son Alex Claremont-Diaz in the film, is equally enthusiastic about a sequel — but he isn’t giving away any details about its potential plot.

“I purposefully said, ‘Please do not share with me anything until we are ready to prep it, because I want plausible deniability,” the actor told Elle in May. “I have not read a script, but I hear it’s very good.”

Amazon MGM Studios announced they’d greenlit the development of a sequel in May. Nicholas Galitzine, who played Alex’s love interest in the film, is expected to return, along with writer-director Matthew López.

“Red, White & Royal Blue” is available to stream on Prime Video.

The post Uma Thurman Confirms ‘Red, White & Royal Blue 2’ Return, Praises Its ‘Better World’ With Female President | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

‘Lilo & Stitch’ Passes ‘Minecraft’ as Hollywood’s Highest-Grossing Film of 2025

There is a new leader atop Hollywood’s 2025 box office charts, as Disney’s remake of “Lilo & Stitch” has passed the global theatrical run of Warner Bros./Legendary’s “A Minecraft Movie” in its seventh weekend in theaters.

The live-action remake added $3.8 million domestically, bringing its total to $408.5 million in the U.S. and $972.7 million worldwide. “A Minecraft Movie,” which busted a multiweek drought that plagued the American box office in April, grossed $954 million worldwide.

If “Lilo & Stitch” can push just a bit more, it will become the first $1 billion hit since Chengdu Coco Cartoon’s Lunar New Year release “Ne Zha 2,” which not only became China’s first $1 billion hit but became the first animated film ever to cross $2 billion thanks almost entirely to Chinese audiences. Barring a meteoric run from “Avatar: Fire and Ash” this winter, “Ne Zha 2” stands to be the first non-Hollywood production to be the highest-grossing film in a calendar year.

“Lilo & Stitch” has been the shining spot in what has largely been a rough first half of 2025 for Disney. While the year kicked off with Disney’s holiday offering, “Mufasa,” legging out to $722 milllion worldwide, A pair of Marvel films — “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Thunderbolts*” — had lackluster runs with global totals of $415 million and $389 million, respectively.

Then, in the past three weeks, Pixar’s “Elio” has bombed despite strong audience word-of-mouth with just $96.8 million grossed globally over three weekends, continuing the struggles of original animation in movie theaters.

The second half of 2025 will bring much better fortunes, primarily from Disney’s two big holiday offerings: “Zootopia 2,” which will try to join “Moana 2” and the first “Zootopia” in the $1 billion club; and “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” which is a lock to hit $1 billion and will try to make “Avatar” the second franchise alongside Marvel’s “Avengers” with three $2 billion hits.

Later this month, Disney will also have one more chance to get the MCU back in fans’ good graces with “The Fantastic 4: First Steps,” which has earned Fandango’s best first-day presales for 2025 so far and is projected for a $120 million-plus opening. Other theatrical releases on Disney’s slate include the sci-fi thriller “Predator: Badlands” and James L. Brooks’ dramedy “Ella McCay.”

The post ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Passes ‘Minecraft’ as Hollywood’s Highest-Grossing Film of 2025 appeared first on TheWrap.

Jonathan Bailey Admits ‘Bridgerton’ Didn’t Make Him Better at Love: ‘It’s Fantasy, Isn’t It?’ | Video

Jonathan Bailey’s big “Bridgerton” breakout came on Netflix in 2020, but that doesn’t mean the romance series is rubbing off on him in the years since.

While interviewing on Friday’s episode of “Chicken Shop Date” with host Amelia Dimoldenberg in promotion of “Jurassic World Rebirth,” Bailey admitted that co-starring as Lord Anthony Bridgerton over three seasons has not made him better at love.

“It’s fantasy, isn’t it? Romance is grounded and real,” Bailey responded to Dimoldenberg asking if he’s “better at romance” thanks to the Shonda Rhimes-produced project.

Watch Bailey’s full interview below:

“I can imagine you in ‘Bridgerton,'” Bailey offered shortly after, a suggestion that seemed to surprise Dimoldenberg. “Do you want to be in it?”

“Can you cast me in it?” she asked. Bailey admitted he has “no power” when it comes to making casting decisions, but he said he could “put a word in.”

The pair also discussed a potential character for the host. “She’d be …” Bailey began before Dimoldenberg cut in, “Uptight?”

“She’d be really uptight,” he agreed with a laugh. “She’d be a sort of potential spinster, but —” before Dimoldenberg cried in horror, “Potential spinster!?”

The actor joined Dimoldenberg while promoting his newest film, “Jurassic World Rebirth.” Bailey stars in the movie alongside Scarlett Johansson and Marhershala Ali. In an interview with People published Friday, Bailey said it was “so apparent very quickly that it was going to be a knockout summer” from the moment filming began.

Johansson agreed. “I think as a huge fan, I’m just excited for ‘Jurassic’ nerds to see it because I think they’ll like it a lot. And I hope that there are other 10-year-olds that have the same experience that I did when I saw the first ‘Jurassic’ in theaters, where they can just be completely carried away for two hours. It makes you dream,” she told the outlet.

Watch the “Chicken Shop Date” interview with Bailey in the video above.

The post Jonathan Bailey Admits ‘Bridgerton’ Didn’t Make Him Better at Love: ‘It’s Fantasy, Isn’t It?’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Bob Costas Fears the Ease of Sports Gambling Will Lead to Addiction: ‘It’s Going to Ruin Some Lives, That’s Inevitable’ | Video

Bob Costas issued a warning against legalized sports betting while speaking to “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker on Sunday, emphasizing its impact on families.

“In the big picture, the house always wins,” he said, “[and] now you’ve got young guys with a phone in their hand, it’s right there. And some of those people are going to become addicted to it and it’s going to ruin some lives, that’s inevitable.”

Costas, who has been open about his father’s own sports gambling addiction in the past, also admitted to Welker he could not read gambling promos while calling games for the Major League Baseball Network.

“I just couldn’t in good conscience encourage people to do something which I know — for some of them it’s obviously just a little recreation and it’s fine, but there’s an insidious aspect to it that I didn’t want to be part of,” he explained.

Watch his full “Meet the Press” interview below:

There are 38 states in the United States that allow some degree of legal sports betting. Since the Supreme Court dismantled the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018, nearly every state has attempted some form of legalization.

“It’s not fair enough to know exactly what the legislation would look like, but perhaps there should be more regulation. We’re moving toward nearly all 50 states legalizing gambling at this point,” Costas warned. “And it’s inevitable if in fact as a group and over time gamblers didn’t lose more than they win, then no back alley crap game, no casino in Atlantic City or Vegas, no racetrack, and now Bet MGM, Draft Kings, whatever it is, would ever exist.”

The renowned broadcaster emphasized that sports gambling strikes a personal nerve. “Well, my father was an inveterate gambler,” he later said, “and I looked at him as a sort of Runyon-esque character: colorful, humorous, high-spirited. But it would be untruthful to say that it was all smooth sailing.

“There was a lot of trauma in our family life because he had a volatile temper and the mortgage was often riding on how his bets went,” Costas continued. “And he didn’t bet on, you know, cards or poker games or crap games or go to the racetrack. He bet on baseball, football, basketball games.”

He attempted to bond with his father through sports. “I’m sure I would have been a sports fan anyway like most of my fans, but I became even more knowledgeable. I became granularly knowledgeable because he was following all this so closely, and I was by his side,” Costas said.

Costas also discussed the intersection of sports and politics with Welker. “I think that politics inevitably has intersected with sports. Anyone who says that politics has no place in sports has to be abysmally unaware of the history here, a history that goes all the way back to Jack Johnson and Jesse Owens and Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson and Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe and Curt Flood and Tommy Smith and John Carlos,” he insisted.

“Now, of the names I’ve mentioned, with the exception of Billie Jean, most of them are African American. But that’s part of the story because until fairly recently in our nation’s history sports and some aspects of entertainment have been the only avenues that were broadly – and even then there was a fight, Jackie Robinson didn’t come until 1947– that were broadly accessible to people of color or where someone like Billie Jean King could make a larger statement about women’s rights, not just within sports. And to turn your back on that is to wear a blindfold.”

Watch the interview with Bob Costas in the video above.

The post Bob Costas Fears the Ease of Sports Gambling Will Lead to Addiction: ‘It’s Going to Ruin Some Lives, That’s Inevitable’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

‘Superman’ Star David Cornswet Says Previous Men of Steel Henry Cavill and Tyler Hoechlin Were ‘Very Encouraging’ | Video

There’s a new Superman in town, and it sounds like other actors who have taken on the role have nothing but support for him. While speaking to Heart at the London premiere for James Gunn’s “Superman” Wednesday, David Corenswet revealed Henry Cavill and Tyler Hoechlin have been “very encouraging.”

“I had the pleasure of exchanging letters with two previous Supermans, Henry Cavill and Tyler Hoechlin,” he said. “They were very encouraging and we had a lovely exchange and I’m excited to meet them one day it’ll be great when we can all get in a room together.”

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“They really just conveyed to me an encouragement and a sense of, you know, have fun with it. Which I think is Superman’s way of doing it too,” Corwenswet added.

The latest iteration of the “Superman” story will be released in theaters July 11. Corenswet was cast in the titular role in June 2023 and will star opposite Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Lois Lane.

In an interview with The Times of London published Saturday, Gunn admitted the movie might not please everyone.

“I mean, Superman is the story of America,” he explained. “An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”

Gunn also acknowledged that the movie may hit audiences in different ways depending on where they live — but he’s not too concerned about that. “But it’s about human kindness and obviously there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about kindness,” the director said. “But screw them.”

The post ‘Superman’ Star David Cornswet Says Previous Men of Steel Henry Cavill and Tyler Hoechlin Were ‘Very Encouraging’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

James Gunn Says ‘Superman’ Is About ‘Basic Human Kindness’ and the Pro-Immigrant ‘Story of America’

James Gunn’s “Superman” will be a little different, the director told The Times of London in an interview published Saturday; this version of the superhuman hero’s story will likely resonate with American audiences, given the political turmoil surrounding immigration in the country.

“I mean, Superman is the story of America,” he explained. “An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”

Gunn added that the movie also contains a 10-minute scene that features Clark Kent and Lois Lane discussing geopolitics and whether or not it’s okay to kill others in the name of justice — or at all. “Yes, it’s about politics,” Gunn said.

“But on another level it’s about morality. Do you never kill no matter what — which is what Superman believes — or do you have some balance, as Lois believes? It’s really about their relationship and the way different opinions on basic moral beliefs can tear two people apart.”

The story of Superman has always been about immigrants, the director also noted. The comic’s original writers were from immigrant families: Joseph Schuster was born to a Jewish family from Canada, and Jerry Siegel to Jewish Lithuanian immigrants. In 2018, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released a book titled “Superman Was a Refugee Too” in Italy.

While Gunn admitted the movie will “play differently” depending on what city and/or state audiences are in, he also said, “But it’s about human kindness and obviously there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about kindness. But screw them.”

Read the interview with James Gunn at The Times.

The post James Gunn Says ‘Superman’ Is About ‘Basic Human Kindness’ and the Pro-Immigrant ‘Story of America’ appeared first on TheWrap.