Entertainment
Hollywood’s New Obsession Is Called Zealot Porn, How To Spot It
By Joshua Tyler
| Updated
I recently coined the term “zealot porn” to help explain a new kind of entertainment. Zealot porn is what happens when you make programming specifically designed to torment characters for their personal ideological views, with the goal of your viewers deriving pleasure from their suffering.
zealot porn (noun) — Media that graphically depicts violent punishment of ideological opponents, crafted to gratify the viewer’s sense of moral superiority and deliver cathartic satisfaction through retributive spectacle.
The key to zealot porn is that not only must the characters on screen be portrayed as zealots, in order to dehumanize them, but the people watching must themselves be zealous opponents of the characters’ ideology, in order to fully enjoy their suffering. Zealot porn is what happens when you make stories about zealots for zealots.
zealot (noun) — a person consumed by devotion to a cause or belief, so blinded by passion that reason becomes collateral damage.
This new genre took its clearest and most defined form in the second season of Peacemaker, when creator James Gunn crafted a scene designed to give his viewers the jollies over watching the murder of people who seemed like they might think good things about Nazis. Obviously, no one likes Nazis, but whether you personally like or dislike the views of the people being harmed isn’t relevant to whether or not something is zealot porn.
What matters is the intent of the media you’re watching, and whether that intent is to give the audience pleasure by dehumanizing and punishing people for their views. What those views are or their morality is irrelevant to defining the genre.
How To Spot Zealot Porn
Zealot porn isn’t difficult to spot, if you’re not emotionally invested in the topic. It’s nearly impossible to spot, however, if you are.
To determine if you’re watching zealot porn, use this checklist. If more than three of these are true, you’re probably watching zealot pon.
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The “bad side” is cartoonishly evil, leaving no room for nuance -
Violence or humiliation is framed as morally satisfying, not disturbing -
The hero is always right, even when acting brutally -
Opponents exist only to be punished, not understood -
Emotional payoff outweighs logic or realism -
Scenarios feel engineered to justify a specific worldview -
Complex issues are reduced to simple good vs. evil
Zealot Porn Wins Oscars
The movie One Battle After Another is a zealous feast, and that won it Best Picture. We put together a video to explain it in depth.
Zealot Porn In Real Life
Zealot porn isn’t limited to fictional entertainment. Often, people get catharsis by watching videos or reading coverage of real-life ideological opponents being made to suffer. That’s on the rise too.
As I write this, prominent Democrat Eric Swalwell is getting his comeuppance over various salacious accusations, and Republicans are cheering and gaining pleasure from his downfall. This is a milder form, since no actual violence or death is involved.
catharsis (noun) — the sudden, involuntary purge of buried emotion that floods the mind like a breached dam, leaving behind a raw, emptied stillness that feels strangely like peace.
A more extreme example would be people celebrating the murder of conservative debater Charlie Kirk with similar elation. For them, watching him shot was another form of zealot porn, despite his very clearly not being a Nazi.
Others had similar reactions to videos showing the public execution of a health executive carried out by Luigi Mangione in 2024. That, too, was real-life zealot porn.
Early Zealot Porn
Zealot porn is not a new invention, but it’s been a long time since it was accepted in the mainstream. In the early days of Christianity, Romans fed believers to lions in front of cheering audiences. That was a low-tech version of zealot porn. Using media like movies and television as a delivery mechanism is, however, a recent phenomenon.
Past creators would have balked at the idea of dehumanizing characters for the audience’s base pleasure. Entire books have been written about it being a bad idea. It’s why George Orwell wrote 1984.
On a creative level, it would have formerly been considered bad writing. Normally, good writing aims to humanize the writer’s creations and make them relatable. Zealot porn does the opposite.
Early media that skewed closest to zealot porn are propaganda films from World War 2 or some of the more extreme grindhouse or blaxploitation movies of the 1970s. Most of those, however, focused more on the idea of dismantling a system or punishing someone who’d actively done something wrong. They’re revenge fantasies and not really the same. In the most despicable cases, as with movies like Triumph of the Will, they focused on hurting people based on some immutable outward physical characteristic.
The idea that it’s acceptable to dehumanize and destroy someone for their thoughts is newer in the modern mainstream, and it’s a growing phenomenon.
Quentin Tarantino Births Modern Zealot Porn
If you’re looking for the start of modern zealot porn, its roots can be found in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 movie, Inglourious Basterds.
The movie presents an alternate history in which a group of American commandos wipe out the evil Nazis and kill Hitler, without the need for a global war. It isn’t about character arcs or military realism; it’s about watching the most evil regime in history get flambéed to the sound of David Bowie.
Nazism was a uniquely perfect ideology to use in birthing modern zealot porn, because nearly everyone has been pre-conditioned toward a zealous hatred of Hitler and his cronies. So Tarantino gives audiences, raised on decades of history classes talking about how uniquely evil Nazis were, exactly what they want: Nazis humiliated, carved, and annihilated. Punished for their beliefs even more than just their actions.
Inglourious Basterds is bloody, indulgent, and engineered specifically for moral satisfaction.
Still, Inglourious Basterds largely focused on murdering those embedded in the Nazi regime’s power structure. It didn’t, for the most part, take pleasure in killing random Germans walking down the street who might be thinking Nazi thoughts.
Inglorious Basterds is a more high-class type of zealot porn, but its existence helped give a green light to the growing wave of more extreme copycats that followed.
If modern zealot porn has a father, it’s Quentin Tarantino.
Robert Rodriguez Targets Conservatives For Destruction
If modern zealot porn has a mother, it’s Robert Rodriguez.
Robert Rodriguez’s Machete began as a fake trailer and mutated into a full-on immigration revenge epic. Danny Trejo stars as a former Mexican Federale turned one-man army after being betrayed by corrupt politicians and anti-immigrant vigilantes.
Where Tarantino created a movie designed to visit violence on a historical group almost universally agreed to be evil, Robert Rodriguez targeted his movie at a mainstream, modern group of people and their current (and widely held) beliefs on border security.
To make that work, he had to dehumanize his targets by twisting their views to cartoonish extremes. Rodriguez takes anti-immigration rhetoric and dumbs it down to absurdist levels, so that he can turn those who agree with it into fodder for righteous decapitation.
Every kill in his 2010 movie is meant not just payback for Machete’s betrayal but for decades of what his audience would perceive as xenophobic cruelty. The film is indulgent, cartoonishly violent, and completely lost in the bubble of its own politics.
Kevin Smith Finds Catharsis In Crazy Christians
If modern zealot porn has a weird uncle, it’s Kevin Smith.
Two years after Inglorious Basterds, filmmaker Kevin Smith applied Robert Rodregeuz’s anti-Conservative formula to fundamentalist Christians with the movie Red State.
The Evangelicals depicted in the movie are a cartoonish, demonic caricature of what real-life hard-line Christians are. That’s a key piece of the zealot porn formula, since it serves to dehumanize the real-world group, thus allowing the audience to take pleasure in their violent end.
By the movie’s end, Red State takes intense pleasure in their doom. As an audience, it feels acceptable because the movie makes them into monsters before it does its worst.
Later examples of purified zealot porn won’t go through as much trouble, but Red State, like Inglorious Basterds before it, was still pushing at the boundaries of what audiences would find acceptable. It’s more restrained than its predecessors but also more pointed in its attack on its character’s beliefs.
Thriving In Independent Film
Once Tarantino, Rodriguez, and Smith showed creators the way, there was a brief explosion in copycats. Those copycats stuck mainly to the topics that those three had already covered.
God Bless America followed in Rodriguez and Smith’s footsteps, gleefully cartooning conservatives for the righteous satisfaction of its audience in 2011. Iron Sky continued Tarantino’s zealous crusade against Nazis in 2012. All of those movies followed a similar pattern, where they turned their ideological opponents into cartoonish straw men to justify dehumanizing them before the slaughter.
Like Machete and Red State before them, none of these movies gained the widespread acceptance and viewership that Tarantino earned when he kicked things off with Inglourious Basterds. Their targets were often too divisive, and most people still recoiled at the idea of getting satisfaction from watching the suffering of people who might share the same views as their neighbors.
The Purge Takes Zealot Porn Big Time
It wasn’t until the arrival of The Purge franchise’s first sequel, in 2014, that zealot porn began to flirt with mainstream acceptance again.
The first entry in the series is a simple survival horror, but the second movie, The Purge: Anarchy, begins drifting into zealot porn as it sets up cathartic violence against wealthy elites. By the time The Purge: Election Year rolls around in 2016, it’s closer to an early-stage blockbuster zealot porn franchise. Each Purge sequel picks a different ideological target.
The Purge: Election Year takes aim at conservatives by turning them into cartoonish caricatures worthy of slaughter, in the mold of Kevin Smith’s Red State.
2018’s The First Purge goes back to the old standby by turning white Americans into modern-day Nazis, thinking racist thoughts, and in need of some murdering.
That push transitioned into zealot porn against nationalists in 2021’s The Forever Purge. That movie takes a weaker approach to it than its predecessors and isn’t as clearly dedicated to its satiation through zealotry.
The Hunt Bait And Switches Audiences
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve probably noticed that most of the earliest zealot porn entries are aimed squarely at pleasuring left-wing viewers. Their targets are always conservatives or Christians, and they expect their audience to be the most liberal of liberal extremists.
The Hunt tried to trick audiences into thinking it was a commentary on the phenomenon of conservatives being targeted by billing itself as a movie about elite liberals hunting conservatives for their views. In reality, it’s another example of zealous slaughter of conservatives as the movie turns the hunted right-wingers into idiotic caricatures and tries to make the case that they had it coming due to some conspiratorial tweets.
The movie’s only real hero is totally apolitical, which I guess is in its own way a commentary on political polarization, but a weak one.
The Hunt is more of a muddled commentary on the rising popularity of zealot porn than an example of zealot porn itself.
Streaming Pushes Zealot Porn Forward To Its Final Form
Movies had begun paving the way towards making zealot porn socially acceptable, and streaming television took the next step.
The Boys is the best example of this. It started as a show primarily designed to deconstruct and hate on the standard tropes of superheroes. Over time, it morphed into something increasingly political. It creates supervillains designed to embody the political ideology its writers loathe most and then constructs situations in which they’re either humiliated or killed in the worst possible ways.
No character embodies that more than the character of Homelander. He isn’t just evil, he’s the delusional cartoon version of what bubble-dwellers imagine Fox News viewers to be. And even while he survives, the show does everything it can to humiliate and degrade him. Meanwhile, the show’s creators used social media to openly invite audiences to see him as an avatar for Donald Trump and his ideological supporters.
Whenever Homelander or one of these symbols gets publicly humiliated, exploded, or blackmailed, the show delivers a dirty hit of catharsis to its similarly minded, zealous viewers. That’s exactly what they’re going for.
Peacemaker Perfects Zealot Porn
Peacemaker took zealot porn to the next and purest level. All previous efforts used cartoonish oversimplification to dehumanize their ideological opponents, before brutally making them suffer.
Peacemaker doesn’t bother. Returning to the genre’s roots by setting the show’s second season in a world run by Nazis, Peacemaker doesn’t show its residents as engaging in evil before killing them. It simply kills them, because they’re residents of a Nazi world. The show assumes that the viewers will do all the dehumanization in their heads, on their own.
That works because we’re dealing with Nazis, but as Inglorious Basterds demonstrated, it’s unlikely to stop there. Movies like One Battle After Another represent the next wave of mainstreamed zealot porn, which takes the dehumanization of wrongthinkers to previously unseen levels.
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Season 3 of Euphoria is expanding by bringing back Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi and more OG stars — while also bringing in newcomers including Priscilla Delgado, Darrell Britt-Gibson and Toby Wallace.
Euphoria, which premiered in 2019, originally followed troubled high school student Rue (Zendaya) as she struggled to remain sober after rehab. The hit HBO series was quickly renewed for a second season after its premiere, but it took nearly three years for the next batch of episodes to air.
Season 3 was originally set to air on HBO in 2025 before facing several obstacles, including creator Sam Levinson’s commitment to his short-lived series The Idol. The dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, which took place in late 2023, also prolonged the delay.
Since season 2 concluded, the cast went through a loss when Angus Cloud died at age 25 in July 2023 following an accidental overdose. The show is expected to address the fate of his character, Fezco, while Eric Dane‘s Cal made an appearance in the trailer one month after the actor’s death following a battle with ALS. He was 53.
Eddy Chen/HBO The third season of Euphoria is officially come back after a major delay — but not every fan favorite is returning for more episodes of the show. Euphoria, which premiered in 2019, follows troubled high school student Rue (Zendaya) as she struggles to remain sober after rehab. The ensemble cast initially included Hunter […]
“Some people ask why it took so long between seasons 2 and 3. There were obvious factors — the strikes, trying to make a schedule work with our very in-demand cast, but the real time was in trying to figure out how to find a way to pay respect to those who we lost,” Levinson said in a speech at the season 3 premiere in April 2026.
He continued: “When Angus died, it was tough. I loved him deeply, and I fought hard to keep him clean. The year he died, in 2023, he was one of 73,000 people in America who died of a fentanyl overdose. I learned a whole lot that year, but what I realized more than anything is that death is what gives life meaning. You can’t be arrogant about existence. You’re forced to reckon with the fact that life itself is a wonder, a gift, a profound blessing.”
Levinson also explained how the show will pay tribute on screen.
“There are a lot of scenes where people are either talking to him on the phone,” he told Variety about the decision for Fez to still be part of the story. “I thought that if I couldn’t keep him alive in life then maybe within this show that I can control and keep him alive there. I think the whole thing was to honor him and also I can’t wait for you to see the last few episodes. I think he would be cracking up at his story line. I think he would love it.”
Scroll down to see who is in the Euphoria season 3 cast:
Zendaya
It wouldn’t be Euphoria without Zendaya, who is back on the show.
Hunter Schafer
Hunter Schafer has not yet appeared on screen in season 3 but will be back.
Maude Apatow
Maude Apatow also returned in the season 3 premiere of Euphoria.
Eric Dane
Before his death, Eric Dane filmed scenes for Euphoria’s third season.
Alexa Demie
Alexa Demie is back on Euphoria as well.
Jacob Elordi
Jacob Elordi is back on the hit HBO series.
Sydney Sweeney
Sydney Sweeney reprised her role as Cassie in season 3.
Colman Domingo
Based on the season 3 premiere, Colman Domingo is back in a larger capacity in season 3.
Euphoria fans have watched the cast change on and off screen since the series first debuted. Based on the Israeli series of the same name, Euphoria follows troubled high school student Rue (Zendaya) as she struggled to remain sober after rehab. The series also explores topics including mental illness, toxic relationships, sexuality and more. After […]
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Season 3 introduced Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in a key role during the premiere.
Martha Kelly
Rue’s biggest challenge in season 3 has been the return of Laurie, who is played by Martha Kelly.
Chloe Cherry
Chloe Cherry returned as Faye in season 3 of the hit HBO series.
Toby Wallace
The season 3 premiere introduced Toby Wallace as Faye’s love interest and drug dealer Wayne.
Jessica Treska
Jessica Treska had a scene-stealing role in the season 3 premiere of Euphoria.
Anna Van Patten
Grace Van Patten’s sister has a role in season 3.
Euphoria‘s newest episode dove deeper into Cassie’s OnlyFans career — with a topless Sydney Sweeney scene — and a return from Eric Dane‘s Cal.
During the Sunday, April 19, episode of the hit series, a flashback showed Cassie’s evolution into creating explicit content for subscribers. That included a sequence of Cassie’s photo shoots that ranged from her topless while licking ice cream to a skin-tight shirt that had the design of the American flag to her pretending to be an adult baby.
“Cassie was exactly the kind of girl you would dream of signing. Beautiful — but directionless,” Rue (Zendaya) said in a voiceover. “So desperate for attention that she was willing to humiliate herself.”
Cassie ultimately met up with Maddie (Alexa Demie), who agreed to work with her to build up her image — without Nate’s (Jacob Elordi) knowledge. Nate, meanwhile, reunited with his dad, Cal, who was described as a “broke sexual deviant who narrowly avoided prison.” The father-son reunion featured a conversation about whether Cal was or wasn’t gay before he gave Nate advice about Cassie’s OnlyFans career.
Before Euphoria returned for season 3 earlier this month, Sweeney, 28, spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about her evolving relationship with her body — and how it inspired her lingerie brand, Syrn.
“I grew up with boobs. I was wearing a 32DD in sixth grade, and I never felt confident,” Sweeney told Us. “I never had anything I felt good in, and I just wanted to hide. It wasn’t until [I played] Cassie in Euphoria that I started realizing it’s actually powerful to be confident; our bodies are incredible. We should embrace [them] and feel really good in our skin.”
Sweeney recalled facing challenges with the line.
Theo James, Dakota Johnson and more actors have opened up about their nude scenes — and broke down the experience of going full frontal. James raised eyebrows with his performance as Cameron during season 2 of The White Lotus, particularly in a memorable scene where Harper (Aubrey Plaza) accidentally snuck a peek at Cameron (James) […]
“I’d always be like, ‘Oh, this fit doesn’t work,’” she says. “‘I don’t have the support I want. The straps are digging into my shoulders or it’s kind of itchy and riding up,’” she explained. “I started a whole Pinterest board of thousands of photos of inspiration, and I [thought], ‘I should actually do this.’ And we put it together.”
She continued: “That’s kind of why I wanted to build all these different worlds,” she explains, “So [fans] could honestly choose what they wanted to be [at] the start of the day or the end of the day.”
Euphoria airs on HBO Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
WWE star Brock Lesnar has seemingly hung up his boots.
On the second night of WrestleMania, staged in Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, on Sunday, April 19, Lesnar, 48, appeared to retire from the sport following his clash against Oba Femi which ended in under five minutes, per reporting by TMZ.
In a video shared by the official WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) Instagram account after the match, Lesnar was seen sitting inside the ring on his own as he removed his boots and gloves before symbolically placing them in the ring’s center. (Wrestlers “often signal their retirement by leaving their shoes on the mat following their final bout,” per NBC reporting.)
The video was captioned by the WWE, “What are you doing, Brock?!”
John Cena received support from Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Jelly Roll before his WWE rematch match — but their congratulations didn’t help him win. WWE aired video tributes from sports and entertainment superstars on WWE SmackDown on Friday, December 12, before Cena, 48, entered the ring for the final time at the Capital One […]
Us Weekly has reached out to the WWE for comment.
As Lesnar stood up to face the roaring crowd, he held his hands in the air, sparking an even louder cheer. The pro wrestler’s manager, Paul Heyman, was then seen stepping into the ring as Lesnar walked around, soaking up the stadium atmosphere.
Heyman, who shared the clip via his own social media account, then approached his client before the pair embraced and Heyman whispered audible words into Lesnar’s ear, kissed his cheek and affectionately patted his head.
Their embrace, which appeared to spring tears from Lesnar, was followed by Heyman raising Lesnar’s arm high into the air to encourage further applause before Lesnar took a bow.
John Cena is breaking up with the WWE. At the Money in the Bank live event held in Toronto, Canada, on Saturday, July 6, the wrestler, 47, announced he will take a step back from the World Wrestling Entertainment company. “Tonight, I announce my retirement from the WWE,” the sportsman-turrned-actor told the crowd at the […]
Fans were quick to comment on the video, with one fan writing, “Retired already? 🤯 Still the greatest combat athlete ever. No one can match that fear and aura. There will only ever be one Beast Incarnate — Brock Lesnar 💪🏽.”
Another WWE fan wrote, “Seriously, I was not ready for this 💔Nobody will ever have the same level of dominance and aura in professional wrestling as you did.”
On day 1 of WrestleMania, an annual two-night event that serves as the sport’s flagship event, fellow wrestling legend John Cena resurfaced following his own recent retirement.
Just five months after hanging up his boots at the end of 2025, losing his final match to rising star Gunther, Cena, 48, appeared as a host at WrestleMania, switching his former costume for a slick suit and tie. “Wow, I didn’t expect that. Thank you so much,” said the 17-time WWE world champion. “Sorry, long-time fan, long-time performer, first-time host. How am I doing so far?”
Everyone could smell what Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was cooking when he entered the WWE ring for the first time in 11 years on Saturday, April 6, during the show’s main event. It looked like no time had passed when Johnson, 51, pinned Cody Rhodes on the mat during Night 1 of Wrestlemania 40 at […]
Lesnar boasts his own pro wrestling achievements, serving as a former three-time universal champion and UFC heavyweight champion among other prestigious titles.
Lesnar also attracted headlines in January 2024 when he was named in a sexual misconduct lawsuit filed by former WWE employee Janel Grant, who alleged that former WWE executive Vince McMahon requested that she make “personalized sexual content” for Lesnar among other allegations.
Lesnar was, however, not listed as a defendant in the lawsuit and did not publicly address the filing. McMahon has repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing against him, and according to an April report by the U.K.’s Independent, is fighting the suit while reportedly attempting to return to WWE.
Eddie Murphy has been awarded the prestigious American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, a recognition reserved for artists whose work has left a lasting mark on the world of film. From rising as a star on “Saturday Night Live” to appearing in box office hits, Murphy’s career spans decades of influence, reinvention, and lasting cultural impact.
Eddie Murphy’s Special Moment
On April 18, entertainers gathered at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles to celebrate the career of Eddie Murphy, who was honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award, which is given to artists whose “work has stood the test of time,” per the organization.
The audience, which consisted of Murphy’s friends, family, and peers, gave a standing ovation as the 65-year-old actor walked to the podium to receive his award. “Seeing all of my family, all my kids, my beautiful wife, and seeing all the different people I worked with, I’m just really filled up,” Murphy said.
Filmmaker Spike Lee presented the award to the actor, and among those in attendance were Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Arsenio Hall, Tracy Morgan, and Kevin Hart.
“This is a special moment. I wish y’all could feel what I’m feeling, see what I’m seeing. I almost teared up. I’m going to get backstage and cry,” said Murphy.
Mike Myers Appeared As Shrek
Mike Myers, Murphy’s longtime friend and co-star on the “Shrek” franchise, was among those who honored the comedian. Donning a black suit with a bowtie paired with swamp green makeup and Shrek ears, Myers took the stage to say a few words about his friend.
“None of ‘Shrek’s success could have happened without Eddie Murphy,” said Myers, adding that Murphy’s character in the franchise, Donkey, is a “masterpiece.” He then described the actor, saying, “Lovable, hilarious, joyous, vulnerable, and loyal. Eddie combines all of those in a tour de force, and plainly put, Eddie is one of the greatest.”
The first “Shrek” movie was released in 2001, and three more movies have come out since. Murphy and Myers will reunite once again as Shrek and Donkey in the fifth installment, which is slated for release in 2027. In 2025, Murphy also confirmed that a Donkey spinoff was in the works, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Dave Chappelle Referred To Eddie Murphy As His Hero
Comedian Dave Chappelle also honored Murphy, saying that among the people whom he looked up to, he was the only one left. “You were the hero I worried about… It was you, Michael Jackson, Rick James, and Prince. All of whom are deceased, and somehow, you survived it,” Chappelle said. He shared that as a teen, he watched Murphy’s 1987 stand-up comedy film “Raw” daily after getting home from school.
Chappelle also shared a glimpse of the depth of their relationship, revealing that he visited the actor shortly after his 65th birthday on April 3. The comedian worked with Murphy’s late brother, Charlie Murphy, on “The Chappelle Show,” and it was the first time the two discussed Charlie since he passed away from leukemia in 2017.
Murphy urged Chappelle to do “The Chappele Show” movie, and it seems the latter is open to the idea but admitted that it “would be tough” without Charlie. “So Eddie, if I do it, man, do the Charlie parts and let’s f-cking go,” the comedian said.
Stevie Wonder Made A Surprise Appearance
Music legend Stevie Wonder surprised the audience with an appearance, sharing that he first came to know about Murphy due to his impersonation of him on “SNL.” “He made fun of a blind man,” Wonder said jokingly to the crowd.
On a more serious note, Wonder said, “It’s not easy to make people smile, trying to get them to look on the brighter side, but Eddie has a way of getting in our head and hearts to create a belly laugh that eases the pain, builds the bridge, and diffuses a situation that makes a real difference.”
Murphy’s most notable impression of Wonder was in the 1982 “SNL” sketch, where he sang a duet with Joe Piscopo as Frank Sinatra. In 1983, Murphy and Wonder appeared together in a sketch in which the former played a Stevie Wonder impersonator coaching the real Stevie Wonder to impersonate himself.
Eddie Murphy’s Decades-Long Career
Murphy started in the comedy scene in his teens, and his career skyrocketed when he was cast on “SNL” in December 1980. In the years following, his stand-up comedy specials helped cement his reputation as one of the best comedians of his generation.
From there, Murphy transitioned to movies, starring in films such as “48 Hrs.,” “Beverly Hills Cop,” and “Coming to America,” “The Nutty Professor,” and the “Shrek” movies. Despite being known for his comedy chops, the actor has also taken serious roles in films, including the character of Jimmy “Thunder” Early in the movie “Dreamgirls,” which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Murphy has a slew of projects in the works, including a fifth installment of “Beverly Hills Cop,” the Donkey spin-off film, and producing a George Clinton biopic.
“The 51st AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Eddie Murphy” will be available to stream on Netflix on May 31.
Amy Duggar King and her husband, Dillion King, are fiercely protective of their 6-year-old son, Daxton.
“We can’t shield you from the whole world, but we will protect your world fiercely,” Amy, 39, wrote via Instagram on Sunday, April 19, alongside a photo of her son. “Your safety, your steadiness and the life we’re building around you.”
She continued, “Dad and I will never be passive about who we allow near you. Not everyone deserves a place in your story.”
Without detailing the inspiration of her post, Amy made it clear that her son’s privacy was a top priority.
Amy King (née Duggar) said she is “sickened, heartbroken and deeply angry” after learning of cousin Joseph Duggar’s arrest. “My first thoughts are with the victim, a child who deserved to be safe, protected and surrounded by people she could trust,” King, 39, told Us Weekly in a statement on Friday, March 20. “The courage […]
“We are the gatekeepers of their safety, their peace and their innocence. And we shouldn’t open doors just because someone expects us to,” she captioned her upload. “Access is earned, not assumed. It should be a privilege for someone to know your child, it’s not a right! And peace at home is worth more than approval from anyone outside of it.”
Amy’s family has recently gone through strife after her cousin Joseph Duggar was arrested for unlawful sexual activity with a minor. Joseph, 31, was arrested in Arkansas on March 18, following allegations that he molested a 9-year-old child in Florida in 2020. The victim, now 14, claimed in a police statement that the Counting On alum “eventually apologized for his actions” at the time before the incidents stopped.
Two days later, Joseph and wife Kendra Duggar were each booked for four counts of child endangerment. The charges were unrelated to Joseph’s sexual misconduct claims.
Kendra, 27, was released on bail within hours of her arrest. Joseph was extradited to Florida two weeks later, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges before being released on a $600,000 bond.
Amy, who is the niece of Joseph’s father Jim Bob Duggar, broke her silence shortly after her cousin was taken into custody.
“My first thoughts are with the victim, a child who deserved to be safe, protected and surrounded by people she could trust,” she told Us Weekly in a statement last month. “The courage it took for her to come forward, especially after years of carrying something so heavy, cannot be overstated. That bravery deserves to be honored above all else.”
Amy has long been touted as the “black sheep” of the Duggar family since she wasn’t raised to follow the same strict guidelines. She had also been distant from Joseph and Kendra, who share four children, ahead of the scandal.
“I haven’t seen or heard from Jo in about 5 years,” Amy revealed in a March 23 social media post. “That doesn’t mean I didn’t still love him and want the best for him. I don’t think people understand how much time I spent with them and countless hours filming. I grew up over there [at his parents’ house].”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
Christine Quinn’s estranged husband, Christian Dumontet, is seeking sole ownership of their once-joint home in Los Angeles.
Dumontet, 47, filed court documents on Friday, April 17, and obtained by Us Weekly, asking for control over the property in order to sell it and pay off the mortgage.
According to Dumontet, he wants to sell the house to “stop the ongoing financial loss associated with maintaining a non-income-producing asset.”
Dumontet said he purchased the residence months before he married Quinn, 37, in 2019, and now has a $3.5 million balance on his mortgage loan. He alleged the house has cost him $400,00 a year to maintain.
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images Christine Quinn’s estranged husband Christian Dumontet is making more claims about his ex as their messy divorce continues. Dumontet, 44, asked a superior court judge in Los Angeles on Tuesday, August 20, to amend the temporary restraining order against him by Quinn, 35, Us Weekly can confirm. According to court documents, Dumontet (who […]
“This is not sustainable,” Dumontet wrote in his filing. “I require immediate court intervention to stop this financial hemorrhaging.”
Dumontet and Quinn, who share 4-year-old son Christian, separated in 2024. Dumontet was ordered to move out of the house after the Selling Sunset alum was granted a temporary restraining order in March 2024 after Dumontet’s two arrests. (Dumontet was arrested following an alleged domestic violence altercation, released on bond and arrested hours later for breaking the TRO.)
In Dumontet’s April court documents, he claimed that he wasn’t able to “regain the ability to act with respect” to the house until September 2025. Once his home access was restored, Dumontet began repairing, renovating and preparing the house for sale that allegedly cost him thousands of dollars.
Dumontet, who stated that he has since moved to France with his new girlfriend and their 12-month-old son, now wants to sell the house to use the funds to cover his reported debt.
In the filing, Dumontet stressed that neither he nor Quinn live in the house and it doesn’t generate any income.
“[Quinn] has never made any financial contribution to the [home], whether toward the purchase price, mortgage payments, carrying costs, maintenance, or otherwise,” the filing reads, with Dumontet allegedly paying “exuberant costs to keep” the home that caused him “irreparable financial harm.”
Christine Quinn shot to fame showcasing luxury dream homes on Selling Sunset, but behind closed doors her own life was turning into a nightmare. According to newly obtained police records, Us Weekly can exclusively reveal that 18 emergency calls were made to the Los Angeles Police Department over the last five years regarding alleged incidents […]
Dumontet stated that Quinn is “not on the hook” for any debt the house accumulates.
“I alone am suffering this harm, and without court intervention, I will continue to,” he added.
Dumontet’s request for an emergency order was denied while the house went back on the market Saturday, April 18, for almost $7.5 million.
Us Weekly has reached out to Quinn for comment.
Amid her divorce, Quinn moved to Texas with her son.
“I am really, really grateful to be living here,” the reality TV star told People in January 2025. “[It’s a blessing to] be close to my family. I have a sister who lives really close to me, and my son has a cousin.”
She added, “I found a wonderful house. I would say it’s, like, 60 percent done, but there’s still some things that I want to do and really take it to the next level because I love interior design.”
There’s a reason why Pete Davidson was not featured in the documentary about Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels.
“I interviewed so many people for the film, and at a certain point, after I’d interviewed [John] Mulaney and he had said everything he had said, I just didn’t know where we were gonna put more voices,” director Morgan Neville told People in an interview published on Saturday, April 18. “It just felt like it was full, you know?”
Neville noted that Davidson, 32, was not available when they first started filming the documentary, recalling that he didn’t know “where anything’s gonna fit” with all the SNL alums participating.
“That was the hard part,” Neville said. “It was like an embarrassment of riches, that you could interview a thousand people about Lorne Michaels. So many people have stories.”
Pete Davidson got candid about why he thought some of his Saturday Night Live costars found his success “annoying” before he left the show. “You got to remember [that] everyone there did Second City improv, [they] worked so hard — so hard,” Davidson, 31, said during the Wednesday, August 13, episode of Power 105.1 FM’s […]
Neville also hoped to focus more on Michaels, 81, rather than celebrities like who he crossed paths with.
“I was just trying to distill his essence into a film,” he said. “A lot of those stories are not about Lorne, they’re about those people.”
“I just wanted to make sure I was staying on Lorne’s story and not other people’s stories,” he continued. “Because there are stories everywhere and it’s huge. There are thousand-page books about the show. So, it’s really just trying to get that essence of what makes him tick that I was just zeroed in on.”
Davidson has been candid through the years about his relationship with Michaels. In the 2025 documentary SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, Davidson recalled calling for a meeting with Michaels after his first year on the show.
A Saturday Night Live reunion is on the way! Pete Davidson is slated to host the next episode of the variety series nearly one year after his departure. “Coming up next!!!” a post read on SNL’s Instagram account on Saturday, April 15, revealing that Davidson, 29, will lead the Saturday, May 6, episode. Rapper Lil Uzi Vert will […]
“I was like, ‘Please fire me,’” he shared in the series’ first episode. “And he was like, ‘Why?’ I was like, ‘I don’t belong here. Everybody here’s so talented, and they don’t want to be my friend.’”
Davidson went on to jokingly compare himself to acting like “a child,” adding, “I was like, ‘Nobody wants to be my friend.’ And he said, ‘You don’t figure it out until your third or fourth year. … It’s just gonna suck for three or four years.’ I was like, ‘All right,’ and he was right.”
Davidson ultimately remained on the show for eight seasons, before his exit in 2022.
“I appreciate SNL always having my back and allowing me to work on myself and grow,” he said during his final Weekend Update appearance on the season 47 finale. “Thank you to Lorne for never giving up on me or judging me even when everyone else was and for believing in me and allowing me to have a place that I could call home with memories that will last a lifetime. So, thank you guys.”
Lorne is currently in theaters.
Matt Bomer’s son and Billie Lourd’s sister were all smiles while attending prom together.
“Prom Power! Proud Parents!🏳️🌈,” Bryan Lourd’s husband, Bruce Bozzi, wrote via Instagram on Sunday, April 19, alongside a photo of the group standing in a line.
Matt stood beside husband Simon Halls and son Walker in the image, as Bozzi and Bryan wrapped their arms around daughter Ava. Walker looked dapper in a tux while Ava stunned in a strapless gown with a sweetheart neckline and a black ribbon sash.
Bozzi noted that Billie snapped the image of the group. “@mattbomer @halls.simon #bwl 📸: @praisethelourd : proud sister #marriageequality #surrogacy #ivf,” he continued in the caption.
Billie Lourd and her husband, Austen Rydell, are able to balance raising two children because they have each other. “My husband is my best friend. We have so much fun together, and we’re in the trenches together with our kids,” Lourd, 32, jokingly told Us Weekly exclusively at the Tuesday, March 25, premiere of Mid-Century […]
In the comments section, Billie wrote, “Our lil gal is all grown up I could weeeeeeep ❤️🥹👸🏼🥹❤️.” Andy Cohen added, “Couldn’t love this pic more.”
Matt and Simon, who tied the knot in 2011, are parents to Kit and twins Walker and Henry. Matt, for his part, has given fans glimpses of parenthood through the years.
“I feel really lucky that I can say it’s our kids because they’re all teenagers now and I can still say that it’s them,” Bomer told Forbes in 2023 when asked what brought him the most joy in his life at the time. “I think it’s a joy to hear about their lives and what’s going on with them and be a part of a family. I think that’s an amazing, miraculous thing and I love our boys very much.”
Bryan, meanwhile, married Bozzi in 2016 and legally adopted Ava. He is also dad to daughter Billie, whom he welcomed with late actress Carrie Fisher. (Fisher died in December 2016 after a sudden cardiac arrest. She was 60.)
In November 2025, Billie shared a sweet Instagram post commemorating a milestone birthday for Ava while sharing throwback images of the duo.
“💕👯♀️💕My magical lil sis is not so lil anymore?! She’s 18?!!!! What is time?!!” Billie wrote at the time. “The day I met her was one of the greatest days of my life. I always dreamed of having a sister and she is dreamier than any dream I could have ever had. She is the funniest, kindest, hottest, most grounded soul of a human and I am so proud / emotional af / greater than grateful to get to call her my sister. 💕 HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVA!!!”
Bruce wrote in the comments section, “We Love You!!! 💖💖.”
A Taylor Swift-obsessed influencer has claimed she makes up to $10,000 per social media post.
According to a report by the New York Post, published on Saturday, April 18, full-time influencer Olivia Levin has scored the significant sum on multiple occasions. “It ranges, sometimes it’s $1,000, but sometimes it’s like $10,000,” Levin, 26, told the outlet.
Levin’s @SwiftiesForEternity Instagram account boasts more than 630,000 followers and is even followed by Travis Kelce’s mom, Donna Kelce, Swift’s soon-to-be mother-in-law. (Swift, 36, and the NFL star, also 36, announced their engagement in August 2025 after nearly two years of dating.)
Levin, based in Connecticut, shares fan sightings of Swift via her Instagram account as well as Swift-related social media content, commentary on Swift’s public outings, interactions with fellow Swifties, memes focused on Swift and updates on Levin’s own life.
It’s safe to say Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce could afford to rent out (several) restaurants every day for the rest of their relationship. Swift and Kelce broke the internet in September 2023 when they confirmed their romance by the Grammy winner watching Kansas City Chiefs play the Chicago Bears at Arrowhead Stadium in Missouri. […]
Her prominence as a Swiftie influencer even landed her a book deal. Levin’s debut novel, “The Story of Us: How the Taylor Swift Fandom Changed Our Lives,” was released on Tuesday, April 14.
In a social media post from September 2025 that announced the book’s release, Levin wrote, “The Story of Us is my love letter to you, the Swifties, who gave me purpose, friendship, and a kind of joy I didn’t even know was possible.”
Olivia Levin Courtesy of Olivia Levin/Instagram
Levin continued at the time, “If you’ve been here from the beginning, get ready to revisit the eras, the livestreams, the chaos, the inside jokes, the happiness, the fun, and the magic. If you’re newer here, welcome. I hope reading this book makes you feel like you were part of it all along.”
The influencer told the New York Post that her social media career began after she was laid off from her job in the book publishing industry in 2023. “At a certain point, I stopped looking for 9-to-5 jobs because I met my brand partnerships agent who started getting me brand deals,” she said.
Her foray into influencing coincided with the launch of Swift’s Eras Tour which kicked off in Glendale, Arizona on March 17, 2023. The timing was perfect as she quickly boosted her profile by helping other Swifties secure Eras Tour tickets without being scammed online.
Taylor Swift Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartRadio
“People who had extra tickets or couldn’t make it any more would message me and I would verify the tickets and post them and help them transfer it to another fan at face value,” she told the outlet.
Today, Levin’s posts draw solid engagement, including the September 2025 book deal announcement which attracted support from @kelcebrothers, another prolific Swiftie fan account. “Congratulations Olivia!!!,” the account, which boasts more than 744,000 followers of its own, commented on Levin’s exciting news.
Natalie Portman has rarely opened up about motherhood through the years, but with a third baby on the way, the Oscar winner is sharing more than ever about parenting, pregnancy and what family means to her.
Portman confirmed to Harper’s Bazaar in April 2026 that she and boyfriend Tanguy Destable are expecting their first baby together. (Portman and Destable each have two children from previous relationships.)
“Tanguy and I are very excited,” Portman told the outlet. “I’m just very grateful. I know it’s such a privilege and a miracle. I grew up hearing about how hard it is to get pregnant. I have so many people I love who’ve had such a hard time with it that I want to be respectful around that as well. It’s such a beautiful, joyous thing, and it’s also not an easy thing.”
She continued, “I know how lucky it is. I’m very aware, and I’m very grateful. I have deep appreciation and gratitude.”
Keep scrolling for more of Portman’s candid comments about motherhood:
Watching Her Kids Grow Up
Since her divorce, Natalie Portman has started to speak more candidly about her role as a mom. She shares son Aleph and daughter Amalia with ex-husband Benjamin Millepied.
“My kids are always a source of excitement, because you just see them develop into the individuals they are,” she told Jenna Ortega in an Interview magazine profile published in April 2025. “And also, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my friends, with their kids and my kids; that’s pretty fun.”
Portman also subtly addressed her ex when asked whether having kids helped her find a “balance” between her professional and private lives.
“Having kids, that wasn’t really my motivation,” she said. “I was just excited to have kids, and with a person that I was in love with. But it’s really important to have people in your life who keep you on the ground.”
Navigating Pregnancy in the Spotlight
This isn’t Portman’s first time experiencing the scrutiny that comes with a high-profile pregnancy, recalling the unwanted comments she received while attending the 2011 Oscars during her first pregnancy.
“Everyone was like, ‘Oh, you’re going to pop.’ I was like, ‘I’m four months pregnant,’” Portman recalled on the “Dish From Waitrose” podcast in May 2025. “Everyone was like, ‘You must be giving birth tomorrow. Hope it doesn’t happen on the red carpet.’ I was like, ‘I’ve got five more months to go.’”
She added at the time, “I couldn’t drink at all during all of those events, which was hard. It’s a lot of stress. It’s a lot of attention. … And I was sober while everyone else was not.”
Portman further joked she was “probably the only actress eating my way to the Oscars” that year. In February 2011, she took home the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Nina Sayers in Black Swan months before giving birth to son Aleph that June.
How Pregnancy With Baby No. 3 Is Different
While speaking with Harper’s Bazaar in April 2026, Natalie Portman compared her pregnancy with her third baby to when she was expecting Aleph and Amalia.
“I have more energy than I thought I might,” she told the magazine, revealing she has stayed active by swimming, doing Gyrotonics and playing with her eldest kids. “[That] is always the best.”
This story was compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists.
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