Bret Michaels has undergone emergency surgery after powering through three concerts while suffering from a debilitating kidney stone. The 63-year-old Poison frontman revealed that he spent seven days in “intense” pain before being admitted to the hospital immediately following a private performance. Although Michaels is now out of postoperative recovery, his statement indicates that he is waiting for a complete clean bill of health before returning to the stage.

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Michaels revealed his health scare in a Facebook update accompanied by a photograph from his hospital bed. The “Rock of Love” star smiled broadly while wearing his signature cap and making an “all good” hand gesture toward the camera.

According to the singer, the kidney stone would not pass despite causing seven days of excruciating pain. However, Michaels was determined not to disappoint fans attending his scheduled performances.

He completed a July 4 concert in Charleston, West Virginia, followed by a July 11 show in Grantville, Pennsylvania. Michaels then performed a special private concert at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Washington, on July 18. “But immediately, the next day following that show, I was admitted to the hospital, as the pain became too much when the stone would not pass,” Michaels told his followers.

The Poison Singer Is Recovering After His Operation

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Michaels confirmed that doctors successfully completed the procedure and that he had moved beyond the initial postoperative recovery stage. “The operation has been done and is complete & I’m out of post-op recovery, and I’m doing everything within my power to feel better and continue playing great shows for great fans when I’ve got a complete clean bill of health,” he wrote.

The musician expressed “complete gratitude” for the doctors and nurses who cared for him during the emergency. “Just want to say on this #WisdomWednesday that I am wise enough to know how important family, friends, fans, doctors and nurses play such a vital role in our everyday health,” Michaels added.

He also joked about arriving at the hospital directly from his concert without stopping to change. “Also just know, they eventually forced me out of my clothes & into a hospital gown lol as I had gone straight from the show to the hospital,” he shared.

Fans Urge Bret Michaels To Prioritize His Health

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Michaels’ followers flooded the post with supportive messages, with many expressing relief that his operation was successful. “Glad the operation was successful! Feel better soon!!!!” one person wrote.

Another fan urged the rocker to stop pushing through severe pain for the sake of his performances. “You need to listen to your body! You can reschedule your concerts! But you have only one body to take care of!” they commented.

Others shared their own frightening experiences with kidney stones. One follower recalled visiting an emergency room with pain so intense that she could not speak, adding that even morphine failed to provide relief. “Kidney stones are HORRIBLE!!!!! I went to an ER with such intense pain that I couldn’t speak! I just handed my driver’s license to the receptionist. 8 hours of pain and vomiting. Even morphine didn’t work!” the fan wrote.

Another person described suffering septic shock twice within one month and spending 21 days in intensive care before undergoing five months of dialysis. “Kidney stones are no joke. I gave birth to two children and kidney stones can really match up to the labor pain,” the follower wrote. “Take care of the stones. I’m so glad you’re doing much better. Again, take care.”

Bret Michaels Has More Concerts Scheduled

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The singer is currently touring as a solo artist while performing music from his career with Poison. His upcoming schedule includes a July 30 concert in Interlochen, Michigan, followed by a July 31 performance in Belleville, Illinois. Michaels also has additional dates booked throughout August and September.

His statement did not explicitly confirm whether those performances will proceed as scheduled. Instead, he emphasized that he wants to resume performing once he receives full medical clearance.

Michaels previously canceled an appearance at the President Donald Trump-supported Freedom 250 concert on May 29. At the time, he cited increasing political divisiveness and security concerns as the reasons for withdrawing. His latest interruption, however, stems from the kidney stone and subsequent emergency operation.

Poison’s Planned 2026 Reunion Tour Fell Apart

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Alongside his solo schedule, Michaels has been discussing the possibility of reuniting Poison for another tour. The hair-metal band last toured with Def Leppard in 2022 and had reportedly considered returning for a run of major headlining shows in 2026. However, those plans were ultimately abandoned.

Poison drummer Rikki Rockett claimed that the proposed tour fell apart because Michaels wanted the “lion’s share” of the money. Michaels has pushed back against the idea that ongoing drama will prevent the band from reuniting. Instead, he has identified 2027 as a potential year for Poison’s comeback.

During an appearance on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk,” the singer expressed confidence that the band could return to the road. “We’re hoping for ’27, ’cause I know it’s a big question,” Michaels said. “I think. I really strongly think ’27, without going into details yet, is going to be a good reunion year for Poison. I think it’s gonna be awesome.”

For now, Michaels’ immediate priority is recovering from surgery and receiving the medical clearance necessary to continue his solo tour safely.

Tom Morello has paid a heartfelt tribute to his late mother with a major memorial project named in her honor.

The initiative aims to raise funds for organizations that were deeply meaningful to her, supporting causes ranging from medical care to assistance for children in need.

Fans praised the Rage Against the Machine guitarist for the tribute, with many saying his mother would have been proud of the impact the project is set to make.

Taking to Instagram on July 20, Morello announced plans for a memorial project celebrating his mother’s life and legacy while honoring the profound influence she had on him.

The post invited her friends, family, and everyone whose life she touched to donate to the memorial project, which is centered on “caring,” “service,” and “action.”

“Donations to the Mary Morello Memorial Project will support organizations that were deeply meaningful to Mary throughout her life, and reflect the causes she passionately believed in and was proud to work alongside,” the post read. Beyond donating, Morello also encouraged people to “do something” meaningful for the world and share their efforts online to continue his mother’s lifelong commitment to peace, equality, and justice.

Morello Reveals Charities Backed By Memorial Fund

Elsewhere in the post, Morello tagged the organizations that will receive donations from the memorial project, seemingly to provide transparency about where the funds will go.

The organizations support a wide range of nonprofit causes, including assistance for at-risk youth and children, as well as medical aid for those in need.

The groups named include the UFW Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, The Midnight Mission, Jail Guitar Doors, Orphans of the Storm, All Chicago, Corazón for Cuba, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, and the Center for Native American Youth.

The post also noted that additional organizations may be added in the future to benefit from the donations raised through the memorial project.

Fans Praise Tom Morello’s Emotional Tribute

The Guitarist Shares Emotional Video Of His Mother

Morello further honored his mother by sharing a heartfelt throwback video highlighting some of the special moments they shared over the years.

In one clip, Mary is seen attending one of his concerts during the early days of his career.

Another scene features Morello reflecting on his upbringing, saying he once took it for granted that everyone’s parents were like his mother before realizing that no one else’s parent was quite like her.

In another touching moment, Mary expressed her pride in her son’s career, saying: “I am proud that he has done exactly what he wanted every minute of his life. I have been proud of him every minute, and I love him with all my heart forever.”

Mary Morello Died At 102

The memorial project comes just days after Morello revealed that his mother had passed away in an Instagram post.

“Mary Morello is forever with the Rebels of Light & Song. (1923-2026),” he wrote at the time.

The retired history teacher lived to the remarkable age of 102 before her passing. While the circumstances surrounding her death have not been disclosed, Morello had previously canceled a series of European shows to return to the United States after his mother was hospitalized so he could be by her side.

Star Trek, as we know it, owes its legacy to a fanbase that has never stopped showing up, especially for its best moments, most notably in The Next Generation. Star Trek: The Next Generation was a true turning point for the franchise, seeing as it modernized Gene Roddenberry’s universe and set a new standard for modern sci-fi television.

Originally airing from September 28, 1987, to May 23, 1994, the space epic is the franchise’s second live-action series and took heavy inspiration from the first-ever Star Trek entry, The Original Series. Unlike its predecessor, however, The Next Generation moved away from relying strictly on a central trio, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Instead, it built a true ensemble cast featuring professional Enterprise crew that acted more like representatives of a utopian future than cowboys in space.

Nearly three decades after The Next Generation went off the air, another similarly phenomenal entry arose: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Often regarded as the spiritual successor to TNG, Strange New Worlds has consistently won over critics and lifelong fans alike with every passing season, proving that the franchise’s episodic, character-driven storytelling still works today. Now in its fourth season, the show has refined The Next Generation’s classic formula for a modern audience in ways few thought possible.

‘Strange New Worlds’ Won Over Critics From the Start

Image via Paramount Television

Right from its premiere in 2022, Strange New Worlds was met with critical acclaim, earning a Certified Fresh rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes for Season 1, which immediately placed the series among the highest-rated in the franchise. To date, it hasn’t gone below 80% across every season on the review aggregator website; even the latest Season 4 debuted to a perfect 100% score.

By comparison, The Next Generation, which holds a 92% Tomatometer score, is remembered far more for its evolution than its debut. While later seasons produced some of the greatest episodes in Star Trek history, the show’s uneven first two years remain a frequent talking point among Trekkies. That difference matters because first impressions shape a series’ reputation. Strange New Worlds, which sits at 90%, never had to overcome an inconsistent beginning and understood exactly what made the franchise special.

‘Strange New Worlds’ Perfected the Star Trek Formula

Much of Strange New Worlds‘ success comes from how effectively it balances old and new. Like The Next Generation, it embraces classic Star Trek episodic storytelling and adventure-of-the-week structure while still developing its characters across the seasons. But unlike many modern streaming dramas that rely heavily on serialized plots, the four-season series refines the franchise’s formula without feeling dated.

In one episode, Strange New Worlds unexpectedly delivers a musical, the very first in Star Trek history, “Subspace Rhapsody.” And in the next, it’s exploring courtroom drama in “Ad Astra per Aspera,” before seamlessly crossing over with Star Trek: Lower Decks in “Those Old Scientists,” effortlessly balancing the distinct tones of both series.

No matter how ambitious its genre experiments become, every episode of Strange New Worlds remains unmistakably Star Trek at its core. Under Captain Christopher Pike, the series never loses sight of the optimism, curiosity, and humanity that have defined the franchise, values that The Next Generation helped popularize. Still, the difference is clearer when compared with the older series: although it excelled at exploring ethical dilemmas, it rarely ventured this boldly across genres, and when it did experiment, the results were far more uneven and divisive.

‘Strange New Worlds’ Features Fewer Weak Episodes

Image via Jan Thijs/Paramount+

Looking at the critical reception of Strange New Worlds and The Next Generation, it stems directly from how both series were constructed. The classic drama operated under the draining 22-26-episode syndication model of the late 1980s and ’90s, forcing writers to prioritize quantity over consistent quality. So with 178 episodes across seven seasons, the inconsistency was almost unavoidable.

While The Next Generation gave fans all-time classics like “The Best of Both Worlds” and “The Inner Light,” it also produced its fair share of misfires. Early episodes such as “Code of Honor” remain among the most criticized in the franchise, while “Sub Rosa” has become infamous as one of Star Trek’s most divisive and frequently hate-watched episodes. Even many longtime fans admit there are entries they simply skip on rewatches.

Those uneven early years are reflected in the show’s critical reception. The first season struggled with frequent writer turnover and an uncertain creative direction. At the same time, the strike-shortened second season holds a lukewarm 57% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, ending with the widely panned clip-show finale “Shades of Gray.” Moreover, it wasn’t until Season 3, particularly the highly memorable “The Best of Both Worlds,” that The Next Generation truly found its footing.

Meanwhile, Strange New Worlds benefits from a tighter 10-episode season, giving each story more room to be carefully crafted without the need for filler. As a result, the series has produced very few episodes that critics or audiences consider weak. One of its finest is the Season 1 finale, “A Quality of Mercy,” which cleverly reimagines The Original Series episode “Balance of Terror.” By exploring how Pike and Kirk would handle the same crisis differently, the episode offers a compelling meditation on leadership, sacrifice, as well as destiny, and it is widely regarded as one of the strongest episodes of modern Star Trek.

The Next Generation will always be one of the most important series in Star Trek history. But when it comes to consistent critical acclaim and overall storytelling, Strange New Worlds may have quietly outdone the classic. Even so, it doesn’t replace TNG‘s legacy; instead, it builds on it, proving that Star Trek can still evolve while staying true to everything that made the franchise great.

Both Star Trek shows stream on Paramount+.

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Release Date

2022 – 2027-00-00

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Network

Paramount+

Showrunner

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Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman

Directors

Dan Liu, Amanda Row, Maja Vrvilo, Akiva Goldsman, Dermott Downs, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Jonathan Frakes, Jordan Canning, Leslie Hope, Valerie Weiss, Sydney Freeland, Christopher J. Byrne, Rachel Leiterman

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Writers

Onitra Johnson

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There’s a running joke that most of Matt Damon‘s filmography has him playing characters who are trying to get home. It’s a joke with some truth to it: from the gritty, war-torn landscape of Saving Private Ryan to being stranded on another planet in The Martian, Damon more often than not plays someone struggling against impossible odds. The Odyssey takes things to a new extreme, thanks to the double-header of being based on an iconic Greek myth and being directed by Christopher Nolan, but there’s another epic starring Damon that’s flown under the radar and is completely free to watch.

That movie is The Great Wall, which debuted in 2016. Directed by legendary filmmaker Zhang Yimou, The Great Wall follows a pair of mercenaries, William Garin (Damon) and Pero Tovar (Pedro Pascal), who learn a startling secret about the Great Wall of China: it was built to keep a race of serpentine monsters called Tao Tei from devouring everything in their path. To combat the Tao Te, Garin and Tovar join forces with a group of elite warriors. The Great Wall is currently available to stream on Tubi, meaning that fans can check out one of the more outlandish movies of Damon’s career.

‘The Great Wall’ Was Hit With Controversy Prior to Its Release

Image via Universal Pictures

While moviegoers might not remember much of The Great Wall‘s plot, they probably remember that the series was at the center of a brief controversy due to casting Damon in the lead role. Many felt that the movie was dipping into the “white savior” stereotype, but the opposite turned out to be true. Apart from Damon, Pascal, and Willem Dafoe, the majority of the cast is of Chinese descent while the production took place entirely in China. Zhang Yimou would even put a pin on the controversy during an interview, saying that Damon was never meant to be playing a Chinese character.

“In many ways, The Great Wall is the opposite of what is being suggested. For the first time, a film deeply rooted in Chinese culture, with one of the largest Chinese casts ever assembled, is being made at tentpole scale for a world audience. I believe that is a trend that should be embraced by our industry.”

True to his word, Yimou tends to put most of the focus on the “Nameless Order,” the group of warriors that have dedicated their lives to battling the Tao Tei. This lets him deliver some incredible visuals, both in terms of costuming and fight scenes. Lin Mae (Jing Tian), one of the members of the Nameless Order, is a standout thanks to the royal blue armor she’s wearing and the deadly grace with which she moves. Yimou is no stranger to crafting incredible fight scenes, thanks to his work on martial arts classics including Hero and House of Flying Daggers, which means that The Great Wall definitely isn’t lacking in terms of craft.

‘The Great Wall’ Was Part of A Long-Running Hollywood Trend

Another thing that stands out about The Great Wall was that it was released at a time when Hollywood saw China as one of its biggest markets. Legendary Pictures, the production company behind The Great Wall, was even bought out by the Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group in 2016. This meant that movies like The Great Wall and Skyscraper could be filmed entirely in China, while also having their narratives take place in the country, and often relied on the Chinese box office to turn a profit. Ironically, The Great Wall wasn’t a success in the U.S. or China, with Matt Damon later revealing that his daughter mocked him for starring in it.

The Great Wall might not be on the same level as The Odyssey or The Martian, but it’s far from Matt Damon’s worst movie. If you’re looking for a Saturday night movie or a visually stunning experience, it’s worth a watch.

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Release Date

December 16, 2016

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Runtime

103 minutes

Director

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Zhang Yimou

Writers

Tony Gilroy, Carlo Bernard, Edward Zwick, Doug Miro, Marshall Herskovitz, Max Brooks

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Producers

Alex Gartner, Charles Roven, E. Bennett Walsh, Jon Jashni, Peter Loehr, Thomas Tull, Jillian Share, Zhang Zhao, La Peikang

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Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise changed shape each time Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) survived it. The 1981 original treated the Necronomicon and its Deadites as cabin-bound nightmare fuel. Evil Dead II pushed the same possession horror into physical comedy, geysers of blood, demonic slapstick, and Campbell fighting his own hand. Then, Army of Darkness dropped Ash into a medieval fantasy complete with an army of skeletons. And while Raimi did not helm the complete television continuation from 2015 — the helm rotated between horror and action veterans like M.J. Bassett, Rick Jacobson, David Frazee, and Michael Hurst — he directed the pilot episode and co-created the rest of the show.

That show is currently trending on the Apple TV Store and Lionsgate+. The 2015-2018 television continuation restores the claustrophobic possession horror, Raimi’s elastic camera movement, chainsaw dismemberment, absurd one-liners, and the uncomfortable truth that Ash is brave enough to save humanity while remaining barely qualified to manage his own life. The story catches him three decades later, drifting between dead-end Value Stop jobs and pretending the cabin years never damaged him. On the Apple TV Store in both the UK and the U.S., the series stayed between #10 and #19 spots from July 16 to July 22. On Lionsgate+ (Amazon Channels) in Italy, the 2015-2018 Evil Dead TV run popped up twice in the most streamed Top 10 media on the platform — once at #8 and then at #10 on July 22.

The series is Ash vs Evil Dead; it was co-created by Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, and Tom Spezialy, with Raimi directing the pilot and Campbell returning alongside Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo, and Lucy Lawless. Its three seasons contain only 30 episodes, generally running around half an hour each, making the complete story roughly a 15-hour binge.

Fans Didn’t Love Fede Alvarez’s Brutally Serious Take on ‘Evil Dead’ in 2013

Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead in 2013 dropped all comedy to focus on extreme, graphic, and visceral survival horror, but its critics’ and audience score (64% each) on movie aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes says that it didn’t exactly click well with audiences. When Bruce Campbell returned as Ash in 2015 for the series, it was an instant hit; 11 years later, Ash vs Evil Dead still sits at a 99% overall score, with Season 1 at 98% and Seasons 2 and 3 at a perfect 100% each.

The show ended with Season 3, but Ash’s story didn’t stop there. After he finally accepts his responsibility and saves the world, he awakens in a devastated future where the Deadite war is still waiting for him. Starz canceled the series before a fourth season, leaving Ash in the post-apocalyptic future without a filmed resolution. Evil Dead Rise and Evil Dead Burn continue the wider franchise as standalone sequels with new characters and settings, not continuing Ash’s storyline nor bringing back Jane Levy’s Mia from 2013.

Ash vs Evil Dead is currently available to stream on Lionsgate+ and can be purchased or rented on the Apple TV Store in the U.S. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Beloved seven-time Jeopardy! champion Dr. Courtney Shah has died. She was 52.

“My mom died today, at 4:57am on July 22, 2026, in the comfort of her home,” Shah’s daughter, Maya Shah, wrote via CaringBridge, announcing her mother’s death after battling brain cancer. “I don’t know what you believe about death, but I like to think that she’s at peace now. We loved her in this world, and we loved her out of this world, and we’ll go on loving her.”

Maya continued via the same online tribute, seemingly addressing her late mother’s many fans, “Thank you for your grace in all of this. It hasn’t been easy, it will continue not to be easy. Hug your loved ones. Tell stories about my mom. Light a candle, say a prayer, pour out a drink — find something that feels meaningful to you to honor the gift that was her presence. Tell us about it on here, or hold it in your heart just for yourself.”

In February 2026, Maya announced via the same CaringBridge site that her mother had been diagnosed with brain cancer.

Related: Stars Rally Around Sheinelle Jones After Death of Husband Uche Ojeh

The Hollywood and news communities are supporting Sheinelle Jones in the wake of her husband Uche Ojeh’s death. Savannah Guthrie announced on the Friday, May 23, episode of Today that Ojeh recently died at age 45 after a private battle with the brain cancer glioblastoma. “There are no words for the pain that we feel […]

“My mom has a brain tumor,” she wrote at the time. “Around the second week of January this year, my mom was experiencing some numbness and weakness in the left side of her face.”

On March 14, 2026, the family announced that Courtney was not responding to the chemotherapy and, as a result, decided to forgo any additional treatment.

“I’m sad to share that we didn’t get the news we were hoping for this week. Courtney’s brain cancer hasn’t been responding to radiation or chemo in the way we hoped,” an update on the website read in part. “With careful consideration, she’s made the brave, clear-eyed decision to stop treatment and transition to hospice. It’s not what any of us wanted, but only she knows her experience, and we trust her with that.”

The emotional update continued, “So are we sad? Of course.. Devastated? Absolutely. But also just… with her. Behind her. Fully.”

In her final update prior to announcing her mother’s death, Maya described what her new reality was like as she watched her mother receive hospice care.

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“From my understanding now, hospice medicine focuses on providing comfort, quality of life, and symptom relief for patients with life-limiting conditions. One of the hospice nurses who came by our house called it ‘comfort care’ which helped me make sense of it,” she wrote in March. “Hospice has been great. A nurse comes to our house once a week to check in with my mom, see how things are going, address any discomforts, and work with a doctor to make changes in her care as needed.”

She added, “Mom has told me she’s comfortable, and she seems more at-ease and content than I’ve seen her in months. Although there’s no more treating the cancer with chemo or radiation, there’s comfort, time together, and lots of glimmers to be found.”

Courtney first competed on Jeopardy! in 2021, earning a total of $118,558 across a seven-game winning streak. The former Lower Columbia College professor also competed in the 2022 Tournament of Champions, where she placed third in her quarterfinal match and earned a $5,000 consolation prize as a quarterfinalist, per Jeopardy!.

Influencer Sara Gilson was reportedly shot and killed by her estranged husband, Shawn Duffey, two weeks after she accused her former spouse of pedophilia.

Gilson and Duffey were found dead in their Oklahoma home on Thursday, July 23, according to Tulsa’s ABC affiliate. Per the local outlet, local police officers were called to the scene after a reported shooting left two people dead.

Upon their on-scene arrival, law enforcement officials pronounced Gilson and Duffey dead and interviewed a family member who was present at the time. The unidentified family member alleged that the separated couple died by murder-suicide. An investigation into the fatal incident is ongoing.

Just two weeks earlier, Gilson claimed via TikTok that her marriage was over and that Duffey was guilty of pedophilia. (Duffey never publicly addressed the accusations before his death.)

Related: Influencer Deaths of 2026

Social media is paying tribute to many influencers who died in 2026. While recording a private New Year’s Eve livestream, Sergio Jiménez died at age 37. Days later, content creator Athira Auni died on January 3 at age 21 after a motorcycle accident. In February, Chinnu Papu died by suicide at age 24. In March, […]

“Preparing for when Netflix drops a documentary about my soon-to-be ex-husband, who I just found out is a pedophile,” Gilson wrote over a July 11 TikTok video of herself sitting in a chair and pretending to get mic’ed up, following the viral social media trend.

Without further clarifying the accusations, Gilson captioned her post, “I wish I was joking.”

Gilson, who is survived by her two children from a previous relationship, filed for a protective order against Duffey last month. The Oklahoman reported that Duffey was immediately ordered out of their home and to stay 100 yards away from Gilson. The order was extended through August 24.

Gilson was a hairstylist with 38,000 TikTok followers at the time of publication, often posting about fashion and other lifestyle content.

In the weeks prior to her death, Gilson thanked her followers for their support amid her divorce.

“Thank you for the army. Your thoughts, prayers and gift cards have meant more than you know,” she wrote via TikTok on June 20. “While I’m grieving and trying to process the worst thing imaginable, I’m solely focused on my children and their well-being. Their safety and mental health is my only concern at this time.”

She added at the time, “We are not OK and I’m not sure I’ll ever be the same, but God has been so faithful in this process and I feel his presence in everything I do.”

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If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. 

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.

If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.

President Donald Trump took aim at frequent target Kaitlan Collins during this year’s rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me. It’s a fake — she shouldn’t get the award, it was a fake,” Trump, 80, said during the Friday, July 24, event, which was moved to the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C., following the security breach and subsequent shooting at the annual April fundraiser.

Collins, 34, was previously awarded for her coverage of the president’s contentious Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy — an exchange that sparked fierce criticism of the president and his continued friendship with various dictators, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

“But I don’t mind, I said, ‘Kaitlan, congratulations.’ But it was fake, there’s no question about it,” the president continued, before turning his attention to Collins’ appearance. “She’s a young, attractive woman. She never smiles. I said, ‘Kaitlan, do you ever smile? Smile. You have a nice position, you’re at CNN fake news, you should be a happy person. So smile, Kaitlan, just smile.”

Related: President Donald Trump Criticizes CNN’s Kaitlan Collins for Not Smiling

President Donald Trump once again criticized CNN’s chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins during an Oval Office press conference on Wednesday, June 3. Trump, 79, called CNN “a very corrupt organization” before taking aim at Collins, 34, who was in attendance for the press briefing. Pointing to Collins, he described the journalist as “a corrupt […]

He added of the news anchor’s looks, “I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship, but then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney.”

Trump’s decision to compare Collins to Mulvaney, a trans actress, has been wildly criticized as transphobic, as the president and his administration have repeatedly targeted trans athletes competing in women’s sports and trans youth — as well as trans adults — accessing gender-affirming care.

Us has reached out to the White House for comment.

The president’s speech at the rescheduled dinner, meant to celebrate the freedom of speech and freedom of the press, was not the first instance in which the commander-in-chief has targeted Collins and her looks specifically.

“She’s a young beautiful woman. Never smiles. I never see a smile off her face,” Trump said of the reporter during an Oval Office press conference earlier this month. “I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes, like she has hatred, because we had borders, because we have a strong military, because we cut our taxes, because we do things that everybody wanted, and then we win our election in a massive landslide.”

Related: Donald Trump Storms Out of ‘Meet the Press’ Interview Amid Jan. 6 Questions

President Donald Trump’s seemingly endless war with the media continues after the commander-in-chief abruptly ended an interview on Meet the Press. “Let’s call it quits, because I’ve had enough,” Trump, 79, told Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker on Sunday, January 7, after the reporter questioned the president about the so-called “weaponization” fund meant to […]

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He continued at the time, “People like you have abused our people so badly. The fake news, like CNN, like The New York Times, and like others, have abused our people, have abused our people so badly.”

Two days after The New York Times published the first of two stories on the security concerns surrounding the president’s new Air Force One jet, gifted to him by Turkey, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed subpoenas against three reporters in an attempt to force them to reveal their sources.

On Thursday, July 23, the DOJ dropped the subpoenas it filed against the reporters, admitting the administration made “legal errors,” per the Associated Press, after a federal judge criticized the DOJ for potentially violating the First Amendment.

Transformers had a one-of-a-kind premise when the first film was released. Years later, Real Steel brought a similar premise, but this time combined robots with wrestling. Then in 2013, Guillermo del Toro dropped Transformers machinery into a Godzilla-scale monster war. This new film followed two human pilots operating a skyscraper-sized weapon through a shared neural connection. While it didn’t go parabolic relative to Transformers, it still performed decently at the box office. Three years later, its sequel arrived and grossed $290.9 million worldwide against a production budget of $150 million, which was underwhelming when other costs were weighed in. That sequel is now trending in the U.S. on streaming.

It also arrived with a cast full of future stars — John Boyega was coming off the new Star Wars trilogy and Cailee Spaeny later led Priscilla and Alien: Romulus. Scott Eastwood, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Jing Tian, and Burn Gorman round out the rest of the cast, some returning from the original like Day. Now eight years after its theatrical release, the sequel is climbing rather than merely appearing in HBO Max’s U.S. catalog. It entered the platform’s movie Top 10 at No. 6 on July 20, rose to No. 4 on July 21, and reached No. 3 on July 22. That’s not all though; the film also sat in the ballpark of Top 20 films in Mongolia and Zimbabwe.

The franchise is Pacific Rim, and we’re talking about Pacific Rim: Uprising, Steven S. DeKnight’s 2018 sequel, with del Toro producing rather than directing. Boyega plays Jake Pentecost, the estranged son of Idris Elba’s Stacker Pentecost, who returns to the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps when a new Kaiju threat emerges. Spaeny’s teenage engineer Amara Namani builds her own Jaeger from scraps, while Kikuchi returns as Mako Mori, and Charlie Day’s Newt Geiszler becomes central to the invasion. The movie holds just a 42% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.6/10 on IMDb, yet it still has managed to find streaming success on HBO Max almost a decade later.

Why ‘Pacific Rim 3’ Didn’t Happen

The first Pacific Rim earned $411 million worldwide against a reported $190 million budget, and scored 72% on Rotten Tomatoes. Those numbers were respectable enough to justify another attempt, especially with $309 million coming from outside North America. Uprising then fell to $290.9 million worldwide on a $150 million budget, while its domestic gross dropped from $101.8 million to $59.9 million. Its critical reception wasn’t good either and, at the time of writing, has collapsed to 42%, with audiences giving it only 36% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Director Steven S. DeKnight later summarized the franchise’s problem directly and said that the films are “really, really expensive.” His proposed third movie would have united Jaegers and liberated Kaiju before opening the franchise into a multiverse. During an interview to Syfy, S. DeKnight also went on to add that he “would personally love to see Guillermo del Toro return and do a third one.” While that hasn’t happened so far, the franchise’s story was later continued with a comics trilogy.

Pacific Rim: Uprising is currently trending on HBO Max in the U.S. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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Release Date

March 23, 2018

Runtime

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111 minutes

Director

Steven S. DeKnight

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Writers

Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder, Steven S. DeKnight, T.S. Nowlin, Travis Beacham

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Producers

Guillermo del Toro, Jon Jashni, Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Thomas Tull, Femi Oguns

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