Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesABC News senior meteorologist Rob Marciano was fired this week after he got into a “heated screaming match” with one of the producers of Good Morning America, two sources familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast.Following the veteran weatherman’s recent outburst towards the producer, the network’s chief meteorologist, Ginger Zee, overheard the story of Marciano’s latest workplace tirade. Zee then decided to report the incident to network leadership, considering that it wasn’t the first time that Marciano had crossed the line on the set.Sources said that given the history of past complaints about Marciano’s behavior, the network decided this “was the last straw” and gave him his walking papers.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Charley GallayEmbattled kids TV creator Dan Schneider, who fell from grace at Nickelodeon in 2018 amidst reports that numerous members his staff has complained of his abusive behavior, has now filed a lawsuit against the creators of the explosive docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which included many allegations of Schneider’s misbehavior when it dropped in March. “Recently the docuseries Quiet on Set highlighted mistakes I made and poor judgment I exhibited during my time at Nickelodeon,” Schneider said, in a statement provided to The Daily Beast regarding the suit. “There is no doubt that I was sometimes a bad leader. I am sincerely apologetic and regretful for that behavior, and I will continue to take accountability for it.”“However, after seeing Quiet on Set and its Trailer, and the reactions to them, I sadly have no choice but to take legal action against the people behind it,” Schneider continued. “I have no objection to anyone highlighting my failures as a boss, but it is wrong to mislead millions of people to the false conclusion that I was in any way involved in heinous acts like those committed by child predators.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/UniversalWelcome to modern rom-com week at The Daily Beast’s Obsessed! In honor of two big romance releases this week—The Fall Guy and The Idea of You—we’re celebrating everything we love about the last 15 years of romantic comedies.David Leitch cut his film-industry teeth as an acclaimed stuntman, and having evolved into one of the medium’s finest action directors, he now pays tribute to the art of taking a punch, rolling a car, and being set on fire with The Fall Guy, a loose adaptation of the Lee Majors-headlined 1980s TV series.Starring Ryan Gosling as down-on-his-luck stunt maestro Colt Seavers, who gets a second shot at beat-’em-up glory when he’s hired to work on the debut feature of Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), the director he adores but foolishly spurned, Leitch’s summer spectacular blends comedy, romance, and mayhem to ideal popcorn-blockbuster effect. Featuring a steady stream of showstoppers, it’s a self-conscious love letter to the craftsmen who risk it all to make the movies magic, all while simultaneously proving—courtesy of Gosling and Blunt’s magnetic lead turns—the unrivaled power of A-list charisma.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty ImagesAn attempted attack on a Wisconsin middle school was thwarted by law enforcement before anyone—besides the wannabe active shooter—was harmed, authorities said Wednesday.The alleged gunman was “neutralized” outside Mount Horeb Middle School and “did not breach entryway” into the building, district officials said.“An initial search of the middle school has not yielded additional suspects,” the district said. “As importantly, we have no reports of individuals being harmed, with the exception of the alleged assailant.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty ImagesArizona Republicans voted to overturn the state’s 1864-era abortion ban Wednesday in a shocking about-face that could have ripple effects into November.Two Republicans, Sens. Shawnna Bolick and T.J. Shope, voted with Democrats in the Senate to repeal the ban, which bans all abortions except to save the woman’s life, in a contentious session in which one Republican called the state of his party “disgusting.”The reversal comes after last month’s ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court that the near-total ban is enforceable, replacing the 15-week ban that has been in place since shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in June 2022.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Dia Dipasupil/Getty ImagesAnyone who’s ever lived in the ’burbs knows what a thorny topic landscaping can be, and for the past couple years, Chris Pine has apparently been learning that first-hand. According to TMZ, our best Chris planted some ficus trees along the border of his Hollywood Hills property that have since sprouted into a two-year legal battle with his neighbor—music attorney Helen Yu. According to court documents, TMZ reports, Yu claims that the roots from Pine’s trees are encroaching on her property, including the foundation of her home, and that they’ve damaged her yard. Meanwhile, Pine reportedly claims that Yu’s fence actually intrudes on his side of the property line. (At the time of writing, his camp has not yet responded to the tabloid’s request for comment.) Where’s a homeowner’s association when you need it?Read more at The Daily Beast.

Qian Weizhong/VCG via GettyJessica Seinfeld, cookbook author and wife to comedian Jerry Seinfeld, is funding a pro-Israel counterprotest at UCLA—where violence broke out Tuesday night after a mob attacked demonstrators inside a pro-Palestine encampment.A GoFundMe for the effort, which Seinfeld promoted in an Instagram story this week after contributing at least $5,000, has since made the majority of its donations anonymous. The fundraising page has raised more than $93,000 as of Wednesday and also changed its organizer name and description since launching over the weekend.The Daily Beast left messages for reps for the Seinfelds.Read more at The Daily Beast.

The Daily Beast/Marin County SheriffA 26-year-old parking attendant accused of abducting 16-year-old Mint Butterfield appeared Wednesday morning in court, where he was ordered not to have any contact with the teen.During the brief hearing, Christopher “Kio” Dizefalo, clad in a yellow prison jumpsuit over a long-sleeved pink T-shirt and orange jail sandals, told Marin County Superior Court Judge Kelly Simmons that he understood her instructions. Dizefalo, whose face is tattooed with an image of a scythe, is facing charges of child abduction, a felony, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor. He is presently detained on $50,000 bail.Mint’s parents are billionaire tech entrepreneur Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of workplace messaging app Slack, and former Etsy chair Caterina Fake, who, along with Butterfield, also co-founded Flickr, the photo-sharing site. Butterfield attended the hearing on Wednesday via Zoom, but did not speak at all during the proceedings.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty/MaxYou probably haven’t heard of the most important person who worked on Turtles All the Way Down. The adaptation of John Green’s 2017 novel of the same name, which lands on Max May 2, had one VIP star in a key on-set role: Chief Morale Booster. The lucky person (or rather, being) who landed the part? Bonbon, star Isabela Merced’s tiny pet dog.Bonbon—who is half-chihuahua, half-mini pinscher—is roaming around the HBO offices with Merced while helping to promote Turtles All the Way Down. He’s doing his job as CMB; Merced, Green, and I are all smiles as we kick off our conversation.“I’ll tell you what—Bonbon is about the best dog in the world,” Green says. “I say that as the owner of the best dog in the world, Potato.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

PoolIn early 2020, the most coveted seat in downtown New York was a spot in Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes trial.For four weeks, about 70 reporters and 30 public citizens endured frigid temperatures to secure a seat inside the 15th floor courtroom where Weinstein dodged questions from camera crews and ate fistfuls of candy as witnesses testified about how he lured them in with promises of career opportunities before sexually assaulting them.On Wednesday, Weinstein was wheeled into Manhattan criminal court for the first time since his rape conviction was overturned in a shock decision. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Greg Doherty/Getty Images for Maddox GalleryThe husband of a Formula One heiress has a secret pet peeve: tipping low wage workers.Luxury real estate agent Sam Palmer is married to Petra Ecclestone, who is set to inherit the billions amassed by her father, Bernie Ecclestone, the former chief executive of the F1 group who has an estimated net worth of $2.4 billion, according to Forbes. Palmer took to Instagram on Tuesday, from the couch of his $30.5 million Los Angeles mansion to speak his insanely out-of-touch truth.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Sony PicturesWelcome to modern rom-com week at The Daily Beast’s Obsessed! In honor of two big romance releases this week—The Fall Guy and The Idea of You—we’re celebrating everything we love about the last 15 years of romantic comedies.Remember when rom-coms actually looked good? When I think about all of the classic rom-coms that gave teenaged-me unrealistic expectations for my future love life, it’s the atmosphere that most often comes rushing back—the warm autumnal hues of When Harry Met Sally, the sun-kissed Californian glow of Clueless, and the soft, cloudy drowsiness of While You Were Sleeping. These movies understood that the core of any great romance is its mood—the underlying emotional narrative, which imbues each encounter with its own temperature, taste, and smell. Why is it that now, whenever I watch a rom-com, it feels like I’m sitting through an extremely long and involved infomercial for allergy medication? The vibes are nowhere to be found!Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Courtesy of Audrey ThomasThe disbarred defense attorney who represented convicted con artist Anna Delvey in the fake German heiress’ infamous fraud case is suing Spirit Airlines over a confrontation with a gate agent that she says left her so distraught, she had to be committed to a mental institution.Former lawyer Audrey A. Thomas, a controversial figure who has long made headlines for her courtroom histrionics, claims it all started when the unnamed Spirit employee took offense to being called “lady” instead of “ma’am,” according to a six-figure lawsuit filed April 26 and obtained by The Daily Beast. It says things spiraled out of control from there, with Thomas contending the stress of it all forced her to miss a conference in Colorado Springs, where she believes she would have sold hundreds of her religious-themed self-help books.“Plaintiff suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to the psych ward at Mount Sinai Hospital for several days and has been placed on anxiety medications and is now in therapy to cope with the stress of this unwarranted attack by Jane Doe,” the lawsuit states. “Therefore Plaintiff believes that spirit should compensate Plaintiff for all of the losses that Plaintiff had.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Screenshot/YouTubePublishing maven Judith Regan wrote earlier this month how she wrangled O.J. Simpson for an hourslong interview to discuss the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, a taped sit-down that wouldn’t be seen for more than 12 years after a fiery backlash.Much like that infamous interview, however, Regan’s recounting in The Hollywood Reporter has vanished from public view.“On April 25, this article was removed at the author’s request,” reads the editor’s note affixed atop a now-blank page published on April 18, a week after Simpson’s death from prostate cancer. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photo by Mark Peterson / Getty What do you call a lawyer who obeys Donald Trump’s advice?Felon.Okay; I’m just kidding. Some of the crimes are misdemeanors, and a few people have been indicted but not yet convicted.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Phillip Faraone/WireImageTwo weeks later, we’re still talking about Ryan Gosling’s latest Saturday Night Live hosting gig. It broke records on Peacock; Gosling is talking about it in interviews; the sketches are still gaining traction on YouTube. But the episode’s biggest cultural impact lies with one sketch, an instantly viral hit that became so massive, Gosling just reprised the character at his new movie’s Los Angeles premiere.“Beavis and Butt-Head,” in which Gosling and cast member/writer Mikey Day play guys that just happen to look like the famous MTV cartoon characters, has been viewed more than 13 million times on YouTube. Its popularity stems not just from its inherently silly premise—how do two people look exactly like Beavis and Butt-Head without realizing it?—but also the incredible amount of breaking that happens. When SNL stalwart Heidi Gardner loses it upon the sight of Day’s incredibly authentic Butt-Head makeup, it’s impossible not to laugh along with her.One could argue that it’s Gardner’s reaction that made the sketch iconic, but Gosling and Day’s take on the characters is certainly the most recognizable element. That’s why it immediately became news (of the best, most fun variety) when they donned the hair, makeup, and costumes once more to walk the red carpet of The Fall Guy last night.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / XThis is a movie—well, sort of. The viral clip of actor Robert De Niro screaming at unseen people that “This is not a movie!” on a Manhattan set for Netflix’s limited series Zero Day, The Daily Beast has confirmed, is just him performing a scene from the upcoming project. But the clip took on a life of its own this week, after pro-Israel activists shared it as proof the actor had “had enough” of pro-Palestine protestors.In the clip, originally posted on Sunday, April 28, De Niro can be heard saying, “This is not a movie! This is real,” in the muffled audio. “Let ‘em get their job done,” he also says before telling the unseen people he’s addressing to “stay behind the barricades” and “If you’re going to keep talking nonsense, then you gotta go home.” The most suspicious part of the speech is when he says “They say they’re gonna do it again! We don’t want that, you don’t want that, none of us want that.” As De Niro has previously expressed support for Israel, activists were all too excited to interpret the words as shouting down pro-Palestine supporters. The video was shared widely with the caption, “Robert De Niro Stands With Israel!” and pro-Israel voices on X praised him for going after “pro-terrorism supporters” and “standing up to the Hamas supporting rabble protesting.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesAfter over a month of trying to win GOP support, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) says she is coming for House Speaker Mike Johnson as soon as next week. During a press conference outside of the Capitol on Wednesday morning, the MAGA Republican lawmaker announced that she “absolutely” plans to call for a vote on her motion to vacate Johnson from the speakership next week. “I can’t wait to see Democrats go out and support a Republican speaker and have to go home to their primaries and have to run for Congress again,” she said, according to NBC. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Moscow News Agency/Handout via Reuters A far-right Russian philosopher who’s called for Russia to expand its borders and rise up against the West says his interview with Tucker Carlson shows Americans are ready to accept his fascist ideas.Alexander Dugin, dubbed “Putin’s brain” for supposedly influencing the Russian leader’s geopolitical crusades, took to Telegram in the wake of his interview with the former Fox News host to note that he’d made it into the “American mainstream” by sitting down with Carlson, and that the “American public is a little ready for my ideas.”He claimed there’d been a “defamation” campaign against him hatched by “globalists” and “left-wing liberals” who portrayed him as “Dr. Evil” and “the most dangerous philosopher in the world.” Of course, Carlson himself used precisely those descriptors in trying to hype the 20-minute interview on X, falsely claiming Dugin’s ideas are “so dangerous” that “Amazon won’t sell his books.” (In fact, several of his books are currently available for purchase on Amazon in Russian.)Read more at The Daily Beast.

Curtis Means/ReutersWe regret to inform you that Donald Trump is just asking questions about the true motives behind the pro-Palestinian protests currently taking place on campuses across the country.“Do you think that the Radical Left Lunatics that are causing all of the CHAOS at our Colleges and Universities are doing so in order to take the FOCUS away from our Southern Border, where millions of people, many from prisons and mental institutions, are pouring into our Country?” the former president posted on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday morning. “Just askin’…???”Trump’s latest comments about the protests against Israel’s war in Gaza followed remarks made in a Fox News interview on Tuesday night, in which he claimed that he believes there are a “lot of paid agitators” among the demonstrators. Read more at The Daily Beast.

WKBW TV/YouTubeDemocratic state Sen. Timothy Kennedy on Tuesday won the special election for the New York congressional seat vacated by a retiring Democrat, further narrowing the GOP’s slender majority in the House.Kennedy comfortably defeated his Republican opponent Gary Dickson in the race for the Buffalo-area district seat by a margin of more than 36 percentage points, according to the Associated Press. When Kennedy is officially sworn in to succeed the retiring Brian Higgins, the GOP House majority will be cut to 217-213, affording Speaker Mike Johnson just a single vote to spare on partisan issues.Republicans will nevertheless take comfort from three upcoming special elections in the next two months for vacant GOP seats, including in the California district most recently held by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Bob Strong/ReutersNovelist Paul Auster has died at the age of 77 due to complications from lung cancer, his friend and fellow author Jacki Lyden confirmed.A New Jersey native who ultimately made Brooklyn his home, Auster wrote 34 books throughout his career, including the New York Trilogy, which began with City of Glass, the 1985 novel that wound up being Auster’s breakthrough (after it was first rejected by 17 publishers, according to The New York Times).Highly regarded as a leading figure in literary postmodernism, Auster was influenced by Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett, and like Beckett, he lived for a time in Paris, where he translated French literature.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Scouted/The Daily Beast/Murad.Scouted selects products independently. If you purchase something from our posts, we may earn a small commission.While a consistent topical skincare routine is essential for maintaining healthy skin, there are many other elements that contribute to the health of our skin, from diet to environment and even lifestyle factors like stress and anxiety. Murad’s new supplement is formulated to help combat the impact of stress on our skin health. Recent studies have found that stress can increase your ‘biological age’ internally and even make you look up to three years older than you actually are—not to mention the associated increased risk of cardiovascular issues and mood disorders. This research is precisely what led Murad to formulate its latest supplement, Stress Less, which contains a blend of clinical-grade adaptogens, including ashwagandha and L-theanine, along with skin-boosting ingredients like hyaluronic acid.“Murad’s Stress Less Supplement was formulated with a focus on addressing everyday stress, knowing how much it can affect the core of our well-being. This is something Dr. Murad has long been aware of and continues to study,” Emily Philen, Senior Manager of R&D Scientific Affairs at Murad, tells The Daily Beast. The goal was to create a stomach-friendly, easy-to-swallow supplement that helps the body manage responses to stress with a little boost of skin-enhancing ingredients.Read more at The Daily Beast.

David Swanson/ReutersPolice officers were called to quell violent scenes that broke out on the UCLA campus late Tuesday as opposing groups of protesters brawled inside the pro-Palestine encampment.The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed early Wednesday that its officers were helping to “restore order and maintain public safety.” It said it was acting at the request of UCLA “due to multiple acts of violence within the large encampment on their campus.”The trouble started shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday when a group of counter-protesters surrounded the encampment, according to KABC, hours after the university declared the encampment “unlawful” and urged students to leave or face sanctions. Barricades around the encampment were torn down by counter-protesters, and people were seen throwing fireworks and using sticks as weapons during the ensuing clashes.Read more at The Daily Beast.

via YouTube / Associated PressThe first Chinese scientist to publish a genomic sequence of the COVID-19 virus—without permission of government health authorities—says he has been allowed to return to his lab following a sit-in protest he started after he claimed to have been locked out of the facility over the weekend.Virologist Zhang Yongzhen on Wednesday wrote online that the medical center where his lab is located had “tentatively agreed” to permit him and the rest of his team to return and resume their research activities. In an earlier post that has since been deleted, Zhang said he and his colleagues had been suddenly informed last Thursday that their lab had been closed for renovations, according to the Associated Press.Zhang started sitting outside the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center where his lab is hosted after guards prevented him from entering over the weekend. Images shared online show Zhang lying on a piece of cardboard in front of the entrance to the facility. His protest was widely discussed on Chinese social media, putting the actions of local authorities under scrutiny.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyNow that Judge Juan Merchan has ruled that the World’s #1 Dad, Donald Trump, is permitted to skip a day of his criminal trial to attend his youngest son Barron’s high school graduation, I thought it might be a nice idea for a professional writer to prepare some remarks for the former president to deliver to the graduates. Just a few words of life advice from an old man who has seen and done it all.And, because I’m a generous spirit, I decided to take up the assignment myself.I’ll set the scene. As the high school band performs a stirring rendition of The Village People’s “YMCA,” President 45 strides onto stage, perhaps performing his “I’m flossing the space between my ears” dance. Magic.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastFor nearly two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Florida was the last safe haven for people in need of abortions in the South. As of today, that’s no longer true.It’s hard to adequately convey the devastation of a six-week abortion ban taking effect in one of the country’s most populous states.Last year, one in three abortions in the South happened in Florida. Already this year, 1,300 people have traveled from other states to Florida to access abortion. As of today, if you’re more than six weeks pregnant and living in south Florida, the closest abortion clinic will be in Charlotte, North Carolina—a 14-hour drive away. Beyond 12 weeks and you’ll have to drive 17 hours to Virginia.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Chingis Kondarov/ReutersWhile Kremlin-appointed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov reportedly circles the drain with a terminal diagnosis of necrotizing pancreatitis, the spotlight has shifted to his three notorious sons, including his 16-year-old teenager Adam, who was reportedly given a major promotion this week.On Sunday, just a week after news of Kadyrov’s diagnoses broke, the Chechen leader announced that his 16-year-old son, Adam Kadyrov, will become the supervisor of a Chechen special forces training school in Gudermes, according to the Current Time. “He is closely familiar with the activities of the famous university, so I believe that he will cope with his assigned responsibilities very well,” Kadyrov said in a post on social media.Ramzan Kadyrov’s effort to prop up his son isn’t a surefire sign that he is grooming him to take on larger responsibilities in the region. For the people of Chechnya, however, the looming power vacuum and possible succession fight could determine the the future of a republic that has been wracked with countless reports of human rights violations, kidnappings, and torture incidents. (The United States has sanctioned Kadyrov for alleged involvement in “gross violations of human rights,” including extrajudicial killings.)Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesThe firm that has repped ex-President Donald Trump and his campaign in multiple battles with high-profile women has asked a federal judge to let them abandon the embattled politician in a sex discrimination suit by a former female adviser—even if he and his team protest.The firm, LaRocca, Hornik, Greenberg, Kittredge, Carlin & McPartland, unsuccessfully defended the former commander-in-chief against rape allegations by writer E. Jean Carroll and in the 2016 NDA case brought by one-time aide Jessica Denson. But on Friday the firm submitted a motion in Manhattan federal court to withdraw as his attorneys as yet another suit advances. The lawyers withheld details about why they wanted to pull out, except to say that their rapport with the campaign had suffered “an irreparable breakdown.The firm asked to explain its exit request to the bench in private, and signaled that the campaign might fight to keep them onboard.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesMost people tend to know Netflix best for their explosive docudramas on cults and killers, or for reviving mid TV shows from other networks, or for titillating sex and violence, or even for mind-bending sci-fi. But for the past decade, there is no genre the global streaming giant has thoroughly dominated more than stand-up comedy.If the key to comedy remains timing, then this week’s kickoff of the second Netflix is a Joke Fest across Los Angeles feels most auspicious.Set aside anything Jerry Seinfeld has said as fuel to gin up publicity for his own Netflix movie (Unfrosted, premiering Friday) and his Hollywood Bowl shows Wednesday and Thursday where he shares a bill with Jim Gaffigan, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Nate Bargatze. Fans of all political persuasions keep watching old Seinfeld episodes and snapping up tickets to his live shows. Nobody at the 17,500-seat amphitheater in the Hollywood hills is likely to make much of a fuss—especially after paying up to $700 for a ticket.Read more at The Daily Beast.