Mireya Acierto/FilmMagicCNN political commentator Alisyn Camerota announced Friday that her husband of 22 years has died after being diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer.Camerota, who shared that she would have celebrated their anniversary this month, wrote in an Instagram post that her partner Tim Lewis succumbed to his battle with cancer on July 27, two years after his diagnosis.Camerota praised Lewis for “soldiering through a devastating diagnosis with more humor, humility and bravery.” She captioned a photo from their wedding day, writing, “He was a phenomenal father, husband, friend and role model and the rest of us are left trying to follow in his footsteps.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

NetflixThe first teaser for the footage for the new Ryan Murphy series Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story didn’t so much raise an eyebrow as it catapulted that eyebrow off my forehead and to the moon.In it, the camera sensually pans around the actors playing the notorious brothers as they, while shirtless, start caressing each other’s bodies. I’m sorry, you think. Are they suggesting that these brothers were banging?!?!Monsters, which tells the story about the siblings who were convicted of murdering their parents, is now out on Netflix. And, well, yes, that is exactly what the trailer was suggesting—which the show itself stops just short of making explicit.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Kevin Mohatt/ReutersRobert F. Kennedy Jr is often described a black sheep amid the sprawling Kennedy family, but he has one thing in common with the men who made the Kennedy name: his reputation as a womanizer. That characterization rang true yet again Thursday when a report alleged that New York magazine’s star reporter, Olivia Nuzzi, engaged in a “personal relationship” with Kennedy after she penned a splashy profile of him in November, when his presidential run still had a glimmer of hope.Nuzzi, 31, has been emphatic that she and Kennedy, 70, never got physical with each other. She’s stopped short of detailing what their relationship entailed, but sources have told multiple outlets—including the New York Post—that it was “digital cheating.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

YouTube/Law&CrimeCarly Gregg, the Mississippi teen who shot her mother dead and wounded her stepfather, weeped as she was was found guilty Friday in the pair of ruthless shootings.The 15-year-old is set to spend the rest of her life in prison after being convicted on all charges, which included first-degree murder, attempted murder and tampering with evidence.The jury deliberated for two hours after watching home surveillance footage that shows Gregg, with a handgun tucked behind her back, darting into her mother Ashley Smylie’s room. Moments later, three shots could be heard ringing out followed by a scream.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Elijah Nouvelage'Kamala Harris fired up the Democratic base Friday as she blamed Donald Trump for women’s suffering under the “Trump abortion ban.”Speaking at a rally in Atlanta, Harris faulted Trump for the fall of Roe v. Wade and the abortion restrictions that states subsequently enacted. And she ridiculed her opponent’s debate performance, in which he touted his record on abortion.“In our debate last week—” Harris said before she was interrupted by laughter and applause. “Well, that was fun,” she said, before turning serious, saying, “But I know everyone here paid attention to the words, though, the words, right?”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Axelle/Bauer-GriffinClose friends of Cheryl Hines previously warned the Curb Your Enthusiasm actress against marrying philanderer—and failed presidential candidate— Robert F. Kenedy Jr.They were reportedly “mystified” that she chose to wed the scandalous Kennedy scion, who has now been revealed to have had an affair with political reporter Olivia Nuzzi, in 2014.Writing in his revealing 2015 biography RFK Jr.: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream author Jerry Oppenheimer wrote of his subject: “Any woman who gets involved with Bobby does so with her eyes open, or their brains lopped off. Any woman who thinks they’re going to change Bobby is misguided and purposefully ignorant.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyAfter decades of courting and mixing with figures of the highest echelons of celebrity, influence, and power, Sean “Diddy” Combs is behind bars following his indictment on three charges for sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. But how could Combs, who—according to court documents and witness claims—orchestrate a far-reaching sex trafficking enterprise, garner a threatening reputation for blowing up the vehicles of his adversaries, and assaulting his lovers and employees, and more—have evaded justice for as long as authorities say these activities have gone on for? One very important strategy for Combs, it seems, was to use his relationships with the rich and famous as a shield.Combs is a hip-hop figurehead who infiltrated the fashion world to the point that he was able to convince industry icons like Anna Wintour, Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger, and more to lend their voices to his rap album, Last Train To Paris. The album’s interludes were a triumph of Combs’ in displaying the reach he’d achieved within that industry. Though some close to Combs have denied ever witnessing him participate in the egregious activities he’s been accused of, which according to his indictment include trafficking people for the purposes of soliciting sex and forcibly drugging and threatening victims into participating in his elaborate sex performances, it stands to reason that at some point over the last couple of decades more than one powerful person had witnessed evidence of his alleged wrongdoing.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Randy Shropshire/Getty ImagesNew York magazine’s star political reporter, Olivia Nuzzi, is at the center of a bombshell report that emerged Thursday revealing that she had a personal relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the failed presidential candidate who’s nearly four decades her senior. News of the affair spread like wildfire, with the scandal being all-the-more intriguing because Nuzzi, 31, was engaged while Kennedy, 70, has been married to actress Cheryl Hines since 2014. She also profiled Kennedy for a splashy story in the magazine in November 2023.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Richard J. Donovan Correctional FacilityIn Aug. 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez blasted their parents with shotguns so many times that police initially thought it was a mob hit. After months of extravagantly spending their inheritances, the brothers were arrested, and convicted of the murders in a widely publicized 1996 trial—despite their attempts to argue that the grisly attack was incited by sexual abuse at the hands of their father and fear for their lives.Now, a new season of the Ryan Murphy true-crime anthology, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, has brought renewed attention to their crimes.The brothers have lived relatively quietly over the last three decades—at least compared to the media frenzy that enveloped them in the 90s. But being locked up isn’t the end of their story: since then, the pair has fought to reunite with each other, found love with women through the prison mail system, and uncovered new evidence that they hope will set them free.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images/The Daily BeastAn email account used by North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, the self-proclaimed “Black Nazi” Republican running for the state governorship, was signed up to the language app Duolingo for German lessons, The Daily Beast has learned.Robinson, who was revealed in a stunning CNN report Thursday to have posted on adult forums about his love of transgender porn and support for bringing back slavery, has indicated his affinity for Deutschland before — including in a 2012 post that said he preferred Adolf Hitler to Barack Obama for U.S. president.“I’d take [Adolf] Hitler over any of the sh*t that’s in Washington right now!” he wrote on the forum “Nude Africa.” Robinson told CNN he denies posting the comments.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyA new Kamala Harris campaign ad paints Donald Trump as a close ally of North Carolina’s “Black Nazi” and “perv” GOP candidate Mark Robinson. “I think you’re better than Martin Luther King,” the spot shows Trump saying to Robinson, the Tarheel state’s Republican gubernatorial nominee.Trump endorsed the Republican in March, before the latest bombshell findings. On Thursday, CNN published a story revealing a slew of lewd posts on a pornagraphic website that the outlet tied to Robinson. The North Carolina lieutenant governor denied that the account was his, but CNN found plenty of evidence to the contrary.Read more at The Daily Beast.

MEGA/GC ImagesDiddy has earned himself yet another name at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where he is being held: Inmate 37452-054. In the Federal Bureau of Prisons system, Sean “Diddy” Combs is listed under his government name, Sean John Combs. Yet he has been known by various names over his more than 30 years in the hip-hop industry, including Puff, Puff Daddy, Puffy, P. Diddy, and most recently, Love. Along with basic characteristics—such his age (54) his sex (male) and race (Black)—the date of Diddy’s release was listed as “unknown” after his request to be released on bail was denied twice. A judge deemed the Bad Boy mogul a flight risk and cited anger issues and substance abuse in his decision. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Steve Lawson/FacebookA 73-year-old married pastor has been fired from his Texas church after admitting to an “inappropriate relationship.”Steven J. Lawson, a father of four, parted ways with the Trinity Bible Church in Dallas after informing elders about the unnamed woman, the house of worship said in a statement.The church has not revealed any further details about its reasons for axing the prominent figure in evangelicalism and author of 28 books, including one titled The Moment of Truth.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Bettmann/GettyThe shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant will be brought back online to sell power to Microsoft for its data centers under a deal announced Friday, as the tech giant’s energy needs rocket in the age of artificial intelligence.The agreement between Microsoft and Constellation Energy, the dormant plant’s owner, would see the site’s Unit 1 reactor put back into service by 2028. The Pennsylvania plant’s other reactor, Unit 2, was destroyed in a partial meltdown in 1979 in what remains the worst nuclear accident in American history.The plant’s previous owner, Exelon, shut down the site in 2019, citing financial difficulties. If the new deal with Microsoft is approved, it would mark the first time that a U.S. nuclear power plant is brought out of retirement after being decommissioned.Read more at The Daily Beast.

ReutersDonald Trump’s shortest-tenured political aide has a new gig in Washington—advising the Democratic nominee for president. Anthony Scaramucci, who infamously served as Trump’s White House communications director for just 10 days in 2017, said Thursday he’s now “working alongside” Kamala Harris’ campaign. The advisory role isn’t within the campaign itself, he said during a panel at a crypto conference. Instead, he says the veep’s team has called on him to help develop her policies on digital assets ahead of Election Day. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Scott Kowalchyk/CBSAnderson Cooper is both confused and “fascinated” by North Carolina governor candidate Mark Robinson’s “apparent porn selection.”The CNN anchor sat down with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show Thursday where he shared the aspects of Robinson’s scandal that caught his attention most. “I didn’t know that porn sites had comment sections,” the CNN anchor told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show Thursday, noting the most transfixing comment he’d read from Robinson’s alleged porn site visits “was about the transporn and how excited [he was], that he liked it.” Robinson has run on his evangelical Christian views and ultra-MAGA politics.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Universal StudiosGrotesque and sexy in hilariously outrageous ways, writer/director Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is a squishy tale of one woman’s war against the ravages of time. Indebted to the work of David Cronenberg, Brian De Palma, and, most self-consciously of all, Stanley Kubrick, this body horror shocker is neither subtle nor concise when it comes to its themes or its phantasmagoric nastiness.Nonetheless, like a band latching onto a tasty riff and deliriously riding it into the ground, this genre jaw-dropper—premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 5 and in theaters on Sept. 20, following its win for Best Screenplay at May’s Cannes Film Festival—pushes everything past the point of moderation and decency until it becomes a riotous discourse on the personal and cultural forces that drive women to madness in search of physical perfection.Spearheaded by literally and figuratively revealing performances from a fantastic Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, The Substance is a study of Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore), a TV exercise queen who, after spending her 50th birthday taping her hit program—think old-school Jane Fonda workout vids in which hotties do synchronized routines in spandex—overhears her network boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid) slander her as a haggard “old b---h” and demand that she be replaced.Read more at The Daily Beast.

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/Getty ImagesThe son of Martin Luther King Jr. has blasted North Carolina GOP gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson over his alleged “grotesque characterization” of his father.Martin Luther King III spoke out after Robinson denied claims in a CNN report that he made a series of offensive comments on the message board of a pornographic website a decade ago.He reportedly called himself a “black NAZI” and said he wished slavery would be reinstated. Robinson also reportedly called Martin Luther King Jr. a “commie bastard” in 2011 and allegedly wrote: “I’m not in the KKK. They don’t let blacks join. If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Alex Wong/Getty ImagesMelania Trump is promoting her upcoming book by bragging about her controversial “evisceration” of the most iconic garden in America.The former first lady was widely criticized for ripping up the White House Rose Garden designed by Jackie Kennedy in its last major renovation in the early 1960s.But she was happy to show off her plans and photos of the new-look landscaping, with some carefully placed snaps of herself and her book, in a new video plug on X, formerly known as Twitter.Read more at The Daily Beast.

David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via GettyDonald Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski apparently had second thoughts about sharing scandalous claims involving his boss’ new ally, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his alleged romantic relationship with a reporter.News broke Thursday that New York magazine’s 31-year-old Washington correspondent, Olivia Nuzzi, had been placed on leave over what the publication called a “personal relationship” with one of her former reporting subjects. Media reporter Oliver Darcy identified the subject as 70-year-old Kennedy, the former presidential candidate who ended his own bid for the White House to support Trump instead.Nuzzi told The Daily Beast that the relationship was “never physical” but said it “should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Chip Somodevilla/GettyRep. Matt Gaetz was at a 2017 party with a 17-year-old girl at the heart of an alleged sex trafficking scandal, according to legal documents filed Thursday. The filings cite affidavits based on three witness testimonies—which remain sealed—which put the Florida congressman at the party, according to Notus. One witness cited by the filings says the girl, a high school junior, was naked and said people were there to “engage in sexual activities” while drugs including cocaine and ecstasy were present. The documents were filed by lawyers trying to recoup legal fees in a lawsuit filed by Chris Dorworth—a lobbyist friend of Gaetz’s who hosted the alleged party at his Florida home. Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyRoyal relations have reached a fresh nadir, with the sending of birthday wishes to Prince Harry by King Charles and Prince William’s offices on Sunday revealed to be a triumph of performative style over meaningful substance.The clearest evidence of this is that none of the senior royals have any plans to meet with Prince Harry when he comes to the U.K. later this month and, furthermore, have no plans to do so in the short to medium term, well-placed sources have told The Daily Beast.Harry is not expected to stay in a royal residence, The Daily Beast understands, instead likely staying in a central London hotel, as he did last time, further cementing his estrangement and alienation from his family of origin.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Samir Hussein/Getty ImagesSean “Diddy” Combs is reportedly on suicide watch in jail after twice being denied bail following his arrest for sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution.The rap mogul, 54, is said to be in shock as he awaits trial at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.According to People, Combs has been designated for suicide watch as a preventative measure because his mental state is “unclear” but it is not known if he is suicidal.Read more at The Daily Beast.

A24Sebastian Stan is more than just a Marvel standout, and he proves that in phenomenal fashion with A Different Man, Aaron Schimberg’s noir-ish tale of transformation, mania, and murder.Initially encased in facial prosthetics, Stan is extraordinary as Edward, who finds a miracle cure for his neurofibromatosis (a condition that results in disfiguring tumors), only to wind up starring in an off-Broadway play about his former life that’s written by the neighbor (Renate Reinsve) for whom he pines and which ultimately features a stranger (Adam Pearson) who looks exactly like he once did.Charting Edward’s constantly shifting feelings about his past and present selves with agility and intensity, the actor crafts a complex portrait of desire, discomfort, confusion, and self-destruction. Like a one-man funhouse mirror, he’s a lost soul trying to lucidly see and accept himself, and Stan conveys his upheaval with equal parts poignancy, creepiness, and absurdity.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/NBCA nostalgia-packed Emmys reunited cast members from one of the most beloved TV dramas of all time, The West Wing. On stage to present one of the final awards of the evening, several of the show’s cast members reflected on its influence, and what’s changed in the 25 years since it debuted. Turns out it’s quite a lot.Janel Moloney remarked that “our political landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years,” Allison Janney joked about West Wing writers having to actually “use their imaginations to create interesting plot lines” for the show’s political operators, and Richard Schiff argued that today’s headlines would have been seen as “far-fetched” and “ridiculous” on their series that celebrated civic duty, workplace camaraderie, and political idealism.Such earnestness came to be a hallmark of Aaron Sorkin’s much-heralded D.C. drama that premiered 25 years ago this week on NBC. To say the series had an impactful run when it aired would be putting it mildly. It won 26 Emmys and frequently appears high up in rankings of the greatest television series of all time. On Friday, members of the cast will reunite once more at a White House event hosted by first lady Jill Biden.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Amazon StudiosIf you were to drink a shot every time Prince Andrew, Duke of York (Michael Sheen), mentions he fought in the Falklands War in A Very Royal Scandal, you would be on your way to getting wasted by the end of the three-part limited series.How Prince Andrew responds in the Prime Video drama to his connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and accusations made by Virginia Giuffre is informed by how he believes he should be treated as a member of the British royal family with military experience. “I don’t need your permission to do an interview, thank you very much. I fought in the f---ing Falklands,” Andrew yells in the first episode after his press secretary is vehemently against talking to the press. (“I am the second f---ing son of the f---ing sovereign” is his very Kendall Roy argument seconds before.)Portraying events leading up to, during, and after the instantly infamous interview with Emily Maitlis on the BBC’s Newsnight in November 2019, the anthology series from the producers of A Very English Scandal and A Very British Scandal takes us behind closed doors with both Andrew and Emily Maitlis. While this isn’t the first adaptation of this seismic televised conversation (Netflix’s Scoop beat the series to the punch), it does boast Maitlis as an executive producer, and gave actress Ruth Wilson access to the woman she is portraying.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/ReutersListen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.With all due respect to the Buckeye State, the co-hosts of The New Abnormal think its elected officials could do with a little more backbone.Gov. Mike DeWine and Rob Rue, the mayor of Springfield, both demonstrated their lack of spine this week, suggesting only in the mildest terms that Donald Trump might want to reconsider a promised visit to the city after the former president made the baseless claim during last week’s presidential debate that its Haitian residents were kidnapping and eating people’s pets.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Rebecca Noble/Getty ImagesA New York magazine political reporter who allegedly engaged in an undisclosed affair with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledged she began a personal relationship with a “reporting subject,” but denied that it became physical.Olivia Nuzzi, New York’s 31-year-old Washington columnist, was placed on leave for what the magazine called a “violation of our readers’ trust.”In a statement sent to the Daily Beast, Nuzzi, who previously worked for the Beast between 2016-2017, acknowledged a relationship with one of her sources, but denied that it ever became physical.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty ImagesVice President Kamala Harris had a matter-of-fact response Wednesday when Oprah Winfrey told her she was surprised she was a gun owner, saying, “If somebody breaks into my house, they’re getting shot.”Winfrey hosted the vice president for an at-times tear-inducing rally event in Michiganthat featured a diverse array of participants, both in-person and virtually.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Comedy CentralThe Daily Show kicked off its Thursday night episode by playing clips of North Carolina’s Trump-aligned Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson railing against “transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth.” Then, host Ronny Chieng spent the next several minutes highlighting Robinson’s apparent obsession with transgender porn. “I guess there are more than two genders when it’s time to jerk it,” Chieng joked. Chieng went on to say that “this is not going to play well with his base,” before sharing more messages that Robinson allegedly posted on the porn forum, including calling himself a “Black Nazi” and saying that he would prefer Adolf Hitler to Barack Obama. Read more at The Daily Beast.