Update: Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón is planning to make a decision about the fate of the Menendez brothers and their possible early release very soon

“There’s actually two different camps in my office,” Gascón told CNN (via Deadline). “I have a group of people, including some that were involved in the original trial, that are adamant that they should spend the rest of their life in prison and that they were not molested. I have other people in the office that believe actually, that they probably were molested and that they deserve to have some relief… I plan to have a decision by the end of this week.“

— Original article follows —

Earlier this month, Monsters creator Ryan Murphy predicted that Erik and Lyle Menendez could be released by Christmas, and it may actually happen. Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón is said to be mulling an early release for the Menendez brothers as he seeks re-election.

“Given the totality of the circumstances, I don’t think they deserve to be in prison until they die,” Gascón told ABC News Nightline co-anchor Juju Chang in a recent interview. In a statement to Deadline, Chang said, “He is tipping his hand to the totality of evidence that his office has been considering. He also added that there are deep differences of opinion about this case within the DA’s office and that this is not a decision he is taking lightly.” The full interview, IMPACT x Nightline: Menendez Brothers: Monsters or Victims?, will stream on Hulu on October 17th.

A number of Menendez family members gathered outside Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center today to demand leniency for the brothers. One of the new pieces of evidence is a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano eight months before the murders. “I’ve been trying to avoid dad. It’s still happening Andy but it’s worse for me now. I can’t explain it. He’s so overweight that I just can’t stand to see him. I never know when it’s going to happen and it’s driving me crazy,” said Erik in the letter.

Thanks to Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and the true-crime documentary The Menendez Brothers, interest in the case has returned to heights not seen since their highly publicized trial in the ’90s. A new court hearing has been set for November 29th, which will determine whether the Menendez brothers should be resentenced in light of new evidence.

“We have been given evidence. We have been given a photocopy of a letter that allegedly was sent by one of the brothers to another family member talking about him being the victim of molestation. We’ve also got evidence that was provided by the defense, by his lawyers, that one of the members of the Menudo band alleged that he was molested by the father. None of this information has been confirmed,” Gascón announced on October 3rd. “We are not at this point ready to say that we either believe or do not believe that information, but we’re here to tell you is that we have a moral and an ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us and make a determination based on a resentencing side, whether they deserve to be resentenced, even though they were clearly the murderers, because they have been in prison for 35 years and they have paid back their dues to society, or whether behaviors is appropriate. If there was evidence that was not presented to the court at that time, and had that evidence been presented, perhaps a jury would have come to a different conclusion.“

Do you think the Menendez brothers will see an early release?

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Hoo-ah! Actually, how about who are two acting legends you’d want to see in a boxing match? If you went with Robert Mitchum and Charles Bronson, we’d all be in for one hell of a slobberknocker. But when we think of Al Pacino squaring off against Dustin Hoffman, we might have a real demonstration of The Method on our hands — and to think it was actually proposed.

Having come up around the same time, Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman quickly marked themselves as some of the most unique, bold talents on the screen. With that, people couldn’t help but lump them in the same class and debate over who had the upper hand — or the best right hook. As Pacino recalls in his new book Sonny Boy (which is crammed with amazing stories), “There must have been something in the air, because the comparisons were flying left and right. It got to the point where the great theater producer and impresario, Alexander H. Cohen, a guy I liked very much, suggested that Dustin and I get together at Madison Square Garden and fight each other in a boxing match, and he really meant it.” Oh come on, that’s a million times better than Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul!

Pacino would end up brushing off the potential bout with Hoffman, fully aware he wouldn’t stand a chance. “I said to Cohen, ‘Let me just tell you straight out: Dustin will beat me. He works out. He’ll knock me out.’ I thought Alexander would be better off asking Meryl Streep to fight me instead. But then I got a little worried. Sh*t, what if she wins? Luckily, the fight never got off the ground.” Now imagine Pacino being told he had to get into the ring with the Raging Bull himself, Robert De Niro…

Despite their decades-spanning careers and having numerous parallels, Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman only ever had one shared credit: 1990’s Dick Tracy, with Pacino giving an Oscar-nominated turn as Big Boy Caprice and Hoffman in the limited role of nervous, sweaty henchman Mumbles.

Imagine it’s the 1970s and make a call to your shady bookie. Who do you have in the boxing match between Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman? 

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You could pretty much call any adult who sings with puppets to be strange, but Jason Segel has run with it, once being called “weird” and making a career of it. And judging by Forgetting Sarah Marshall, he’s more man than muppet…

Appearing on Today (with Entertainment Weekly), Jason Segel remembered his time working with Judd Apatow initially on Freaks and Geeks, in which he played Rush-loving drummer Andopolis. It was here that Segel – like so many – was taken in by Apatow, who provided the budding actor with advice that would change his course. “It was a bit of an apprenticeship period, where we literally learned how to write a script. And his parting words to me were, ‘Listen, Jace, you’re a weird dude. The only way you’re going to make it is if you write your own material.’ He was right, and it changed my life. I wrote Forgetting Sarah Marshall like a year after that.”

Jason Segel, of course, is one of many alumnus of The Judd Apatow School of Comedy for Stoners. On this collection, Segel remembered the writer/director/producer “systematically started putting us in movies. He put Seth in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and then Seth did Knocked Up as the lead, and he put the rest of us in as the friends. After Knocked Up he took me to a Lakers game and he said, ‘I think you’re at bat. Do you have any ideas?’ I said ‘Yeah, I just started writing this thing called Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Apatow would end up serving as producer and Forgetting Sarah Marshall would take in more than $100 million worldwide.

Jason Segel would go on to resurrect The Muppets in the 2011 namesake movie, following that up by reteaming with Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s Nicholas Stoller for The Five-Year Engagement. Surprisingly, Segel has done very little directing, only doing so for his short-lived drama Dispatches from Elsewhere. Season two of Shrinking is currently on Apple TV+, itself a series I could see Segel excelling at directing a few episodes of.

What is your favorite Jason Segel project to date? Do you prefer him as an actor or a writer?

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I am the one who reduces, reuses and recycles! Walter White is back, but instead of cooking up meth, he’s cleaning up trash. You’re goddamn right…

In the 30-second ad, Walter White (that is, Heisenberg) is seen rolling a barrel in the desert. But this isn’t a Golden Moth product. Instead, it’s revealed to be a garbage can, which he sets up next to a spread of trash. Amongst the pile is a pair of pants that were made famous in both the first episode and the final season’s “Ozymandias.” Once the camera cuts to a close-up, Walter White holds up a discarded cup from Los Pollos Hermanos and says, “Keep litter out of my territory.”

The video was shared by Lujan Grisham, the current governor of New Mexico, the state which, of course, Walter White called home. It’s part of an initiative called “Breaking Bad Habits!” In a statement, Grisham said, “I need everyone’s attention. We’re going to talk about what you can do to reduce packaging and plastics and have a discussion about that and about where they go.”

Using an anti-hero in your campaign for the environment might seem like a curious choice, but with the obvious geographical connection and immediately identifiable figure, there might be no one better. Walter White may have been killed off in Breaking Bad’s finale, but the guy is still far more relevant than Captain Planet and the Planeteers.

Walter White has lived on as one of the greatest TV characters ever, solidified even more so due to Bryan Cranston’s willingness to use him elsewhere, as in the case of the “Breaking Bad Habits!” campaign. He previously brought back the character for a pair of Super Bowl ads: one for Esurance and another promoting PopCorners alongside Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman.

But these will be about the extent of Walter White’s returns, as Bryan Cranston is still against a full-on Breaking Bad reunion. Malcolm in the Middle on the other hand…

What do you think of Walter White’s return for this campaign? What do you think would make the most sense for the character to plug?

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Paul Di’Anno, former lead singer of Iron Maiden, is dead at the age of 66. He was the vocalist for the band’s first two albums, Iron Maiden and Killers, released in 1980 and 1981, respectively. Di’Anno’s label, Conquest Music, confirmed the news of his passing in a statement released on behalf of his family.

“On behalf of his family, Conquest Music are sad to confirm the death of Paul Andrews, professionally known as Paul Di’Anno,” reads the statement. “Paul passed away at his home in Salisbury at the age of 66. Born in Chingford, East London on 17th May 1958, Paul first came to prominence as lead singer of English Heavy Metal band, Iron Maiden between 1978 and 1981. He sang on their groundbreaking debut album Iron Maiden, and the influential follow up release, Killers.“

The statement continues, “Since leaving Iron Maiden, Paul Di’Anno had a long and eventful recording career with Battlezone and Killers as well as numerous solo releases and guest appearances. Despite being troubled by severe health issues in recent years that restricted him to performing in a wheelchair, Paul continued to entertain his fans around the world, racking up well over 100 shows since 2023. His first career retrospective album, The Book of the Beast was released in September 2024 and featured highlights of his recordings since leaving Iron Maiden. Conquest Music are proud to have had Paul Di’Anno in our artist family and ask his legion of fans to raise a glass in his memory.“

Di’Anno wound up being fired from Iron Maiden, allegedly over drug use and partying, with the band wanting someone more reliable on tour. He was replaced by Bruce Dickinson. In an interview with Metal Hammer in 2020, he said, “I don’t blame them for getting rid of me. Obviously, the band was Steve’s [Harris] baby, but I wish I’d been able to contribute more. After a while, that got me down. In the end, I couldn’t give 100 percent to Maiden anymore, and it wasn’t fair to the band, the fans or to myself. The two albums I made with the band were pivotal [to the metal genre]. Later on in my life, when I met Metallica, Pantera and Sepultura, and they told me that those albums were what got them into music, it made me incredibly proud.“

After leaving Iron Maiden, Di’Anno was featured in various other bands, including Gogmagog, Di’Anno, Battlezone, Killers, Rockfellas, and Warhorse. The statement has some good advice: Raise a glass and perhaps even listen to some tunes. Our thoughts go out to DiAnno’s family and loved ones.

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Eva Mendes would start off the new millennium with a breakthrough role alongside Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke in Antoine Fuqua’s Training Day. She would parlay that into a rising career with roles in films like 2 Fast 2 Furious, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Hitch and The Place Beyond the Pines. The latter film is where Ryan Gosling would enter her life and her priorities would eventually shift from her acting career to being a mother to her and Gosling’s family after tying the knot. Mendes has often been asked about unceremonious retirement, where she replies, “I got tired fighting for the good roles…There just was a point where I thought, ‘I’m going to create my own opportunities and become a producer on things and create my own material,’ but it just didn’t feel worth it to me.”

According to Deadline, Mendes explained what would coerce her to come back to acting when she was interviewed by The Sunday Times. Mendes said she would only return to acting if the project was also with her husband, “That’s the one thing I would love to do.” She expounded that leaving the film world was a pretty easy decision for her, “I was never in love with acting. I don’t mean this in a self-deprecating way, but I wasn’t a great actress. I had my moments when I worked with really great people.” She mentioned that she was proudest of the projects she got to do with Gosling — The Place Beyond the Pines and Drunk History Christmas. “He gets something out of me that’s never been accessible before.”

She has considered what she would do if she were to un-retire, but now with a family, she had whittled down her ambitions,  “I have such a short list of what I will do, with four kids. I mean, if it was a fun project. But now I won’t do violence, I don’t want to do sexuality, the list is short.” Mendes would show her support of Gosling’s latest films, especially Barbie. Whenever certain backlash would become vocal online, she responded, “So proud of my man. So much hate when he took on this role. So many people trying to shame him for doing it. Despite all the #NotMyKen ridicule and articles written about him, he created this completely original, hilarious, heartbreaking, now iconic character and took it all the way to Oscars. So beyond proud to be this Ken’s Barbie.”

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Even with certain terms being met amid last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike, the threat of artificial intelligence in the business is still prevalent, especially with loopholes and tricky terminology. And Nicolas Cage has been one of the biggest skeptics on the use of AI in Hollywood, now warning those who will enter the business that it’s something they’re going to have to face head on.

Appearing at this year’s Newport Beach Film Festival, Nicolas Cage took time to call out AI, particularly a form dubbed EBDR, or an employment-based digital replica. In short, AI can be (used with the performer’s participation) to alleviate workload and production costs. Going through this on The Flash, Cage has enough experience to know that it’s going to do more harm than good to the new generation of actors.

Nicolas Cage took his stance on AI by saying, “The studios want this so that they can change your face after you’ve already shot it — they can change your face, they can change your voice, they can change your line deliveries, they can change your body language, they can change your performance. I’m asking you, if you’re approached by a studio to sign a contract, permitting them to use EBDR on your performance, I want you to consider what I am calling MVMFMBMI: my voice, my face, my body, my imagination — my performance, in response. Protect your instrument.”

Nicolas Cage also noted that AI lacks pretty much everything we love about the craft of acting. “Film performance, to me, is very much a handmade, organic, from-scratch process. It’s from the heart, it’s from the imagination, it’s from thoughts and detail and thinking and honing and preparing.” What, you think artificial intelligence could possibly generate Longlegs?

Earlier this year, a study revealed that the use of AI in Hollywood could end up costing the industry more than 200,000 jobs in just three years. While we’ll have to wait to see if those numbers turn out to be accurate, even the possibility is scary enough. And of course this isn’t just about acting, as we have already seen it take heavy criticism in the graphic design realm as well.

What do you make of EBDR? Do you see this posing a significant threat in Hollywood?

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We’ve all heard stories about our favorite stars acting like complete jerks on the set, whether it’s lashing out at cast and crew members or showing up whenever the hell they want because they know cameras won’t roll without them. And we’ve seen them act quite grouchy in public as well, although it’s hard to blame them for wanting to not be bothered every time they leave the house. And if he had his way, Chris Pratt would make sure every prominent celebrity would be pleasant and patient both on the set and with fans.

Appearing at New York Comic Con (via People), Chris Pratt addressed his fellow Hollywood stars, particularly those who turn into primadonnas on the set. “Look, these guys can attest to this, because they’re the same way, like, there’s no room for sh*tty attitudes there. You can’t have a bad…you can’t have a bad attitude in moviemaking, it ruins everything for everyone, and then you don’t last long.” He added, “It sucks when people have a crappy attitude. So when you show up on set, there’s no reason why you should…Like, ‘Oh, are you having a hard time living your dream? Is that tough for you today?’ Like, come on and pull your head out. Have fun.”

Chris Pratt does indeed seem to have as much fun as possible both on and off the set, with co-stars often praising his personality and composure and his fanbase recognizing this in public. Heck, the dude is even patient with TMZ lurkers, to give you an idea of how conscious he is with his persona.

Chris Pratt recently wrapped up his tenure as Star-Lord (or did he…?) and voiced two iconic characters, Mario and Garfield. His next film, The Electric State, will debut on Netflix in March and co-stars Millie Bobby Brown, Ke Huy Quan, Stanley Tucci, and Giancarlo Esposito, with voices from the likes of Jason Alexander, Woody Harrelson, Billy Bob Thornton, Brian Cox, and more. No word yet on if Cox was in one of his moods or not…

What do you make of stories of celebrities acting unprofessional on the set? Does it change your image of them or does it not matter? Give us your take in the comments section below.

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You might think you’re a Netflix junkie just because you’ll binge Love Is Blind for an entire Sunday, but nobody is a bigger fan of the steamer than CEO Ted Sarandos. And who can blame him? Since coming on board and taking over the position, Sarandos has helped Netflix grow into a behemoth within the movie and TV industries, now with a major investment in live sports. While there is constant content being pushed on the streaming service, what role does it truly have for the filmmakers?

Ted Sarandos recently defended Netflix’s insistence on sticking with their model, which is essentially shunning theatrical releases as much as possible. As per Deadline, Sarandos stated, “We believe that not making them wait for months to watch the movie that everyone’s talking about adds that value. So what we do for filmmakers is, we…bring them the biggest audience in the world for their films, and then we help them make the best films of their life.” He added, “I’m just going to reiterate, we are in the subscriptions streaming business, and you can see our results. It’s a pretty good business and it appeals to a very large segment of consumers and fans.” We can all admit that it’s just plain easier to press play on the remote than it is to go through the so-called hassle of going to the movies. But is Netflix really encouraging directors to produce their best work or is it more about generating content? Judging by the fact that Sarandos said the viewer numbers comes before the film quality itself, well…

So, what are these “consumers and fans” contributing to the filmmakers? Sarandos added, “Our top 10 films that premiere on Netflix all have over 100 million views, among the most watched films in the world. It’s our desire to connect keep adding value to our consumers for their subscription dollar.” This is a stance that is often argued in favor of subscription services, although there is a false equivalency at play, as Sarandos would go on to suggest that any movie that gets 100 million views is akin to making $1 billion at the box office (going off of average movie ticket prices).

As far as actual accolades, Sarandos did point out that Netflix has released nine Best Picture nominees (positioning it between RKO and Orion), although considering they have produced over 4,000 original movies in less than a decade since their first, we’re not so sure how much backpatting needs to be done…Historically speaking, only Focus Features has more Best Picture contenders without a win.

What do you make of Ted Sarandos’ comments regarding Netflix? We’d love to hear your thoughts below.

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The crash and burn of Mel Gibson is one of the most infamous in modern Hollywood. Beginning in 2006, Gibson went a spiral that’s been written about over and over. It took a few years but Mel Gibson eventually came back, starring in everything from action flicks to comedies to movies where he speaks through a beaver puppet. Yet, with him now mostly acting in B-movies, it can’t be denied that his talents in front of the camera are being wasted somewhat. Yet, his career as a director seems to still be doing well, with him helming the upcoming Flight Risk. One of his actors from 2016’s Hacksaw Ridge – his first directing gig since his controversies subsided – Andrew Garfield, thinks his return is well deserved.

Speaking with People, Garfield said he learned a lot from the situation and working with Gibson. “I learned that people can heal. I learned that people can change, that people can get help. I learned that everyone deserves respect. And that people deserve second chances, third chances, fourth chances. That none of us are infallible.”

As for Mel Gibson’s progress since the aforementioned moments and the stage that he deserves, Garfield added, “He’s done a lot of beautiful healing with himself. And thank God. Because he’s an amazing filmmaker, and I think he deserves to make films. He deserves to tell stories, because he has a very, very big, compassionate heart. He’s the kind of director that would come from behind the monitors, just with his eyes wet. He knew when it was right and he knew when it wasn’t right. And I just really trusted him. And he’s a visceral storyteller so he can feel… He’s like he can’t help but feel everything. He’s a real empathetic guy.”

What do you make of Andrew Garfield’s remarks over Mel Gibson? Do you think Gibson has earned a spot back in the Hollywood elite? Chime in in the comments section below.

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