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Off Campus’ Belmont Cameli has enthusiastically praised costar Ella Bright amid online rumors of a falling out.

“Everything about Ella makes the perfect Hannah [Wells],” Cameli, 28, said of Bright, who stars opposite him in the Prime Video series, during an E! News interview on Saturday, September 12. “I mean, she’s fantastic, she’s an incredible actress and she’s the best person for that character by far.”

The kind words come after unfounded rumors of a feud began circulating online amid production on season 2 of the romantic drama earlier this year. Social media users noted at the time that Cameli, who plays Garrett Graham, appeared to delete or archive several Instagram grid posts that featured Bright, 19.

During Cameli’s chat with the outlet, he stated that he’d maintained a fun-filled rapport with Bright after forming a firm friendship with her during the filming of season 1. “I’ve been calling her “Wellsy” a lot, which is really fun,” he said. “And she always rolls her eyes … ‘What’s up Wellsy?’”

Last week, Cameli made a rare comment about navigating his rising star, acknowledging that fans of the show are bound to have opinions on his private life. “Being an actor, everybody has something to say about your performance, but then they also have everything to say about what’s happening in your personal life, too,” he said in a joint interview with Macklin Celebrini for The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, September 10.

He continued, “Look, if you’re a fan of the show, the thing that I’m so proud of and pour my heart and soul into, then that’s f***ing awesome. But the way our show popped, there’s another level to fandom these days, especially with the internet. Sometimes there’s a real venom to the way people put you under microscopes. You feel constantly observed.”

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Despite the negativity he’s picked up on, Cameli told the outlet that he’s learning how to deal with his growing public profile. “I’ve been pretty good with handling that. You can say whatever you want about me or people in my life, but it’s not going to affect me because I’m fully aware of what my reality looks like and feels like,” he explained, adding that “mean things” said about him are “just all noise.”

Related: Off Campus’ Ella Bright Addresses Speculation Belmont Cameli Archived Pics

Off Campus star Ella Bright is addressing speculation surrounding her costar Belmont Cameli’s social media feed. Eagle-eyed fans recently noticed that Cameli, 28, appeared to delete or, at the very least archive, several promotional photos featuring Bright, 19, from his feed. Us can confirm that the Along for the Ride actor currently has other images […]

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Both Cameli and Bright spoke to Us in May about their fondness for one another while filming the beginning of Off Campus. “Doing a job like this would be so miserable if you didn’t like your costar,” Cameli exclusively told Us at the time. “We are so lucky. Ella and I are really, really good friends. We get along so well and we spend a ton of time together on set.”

For Bright’s part, she said, “Honestly, we just have so much fun. It’s so cool to be able to go on this journey with everybody who just cares so much about this show and these characters. Everyone is here for the same reason. It definitely loosens the pressure a lot, because you’re sharing it with all these really great and talented people.”

Aaron Rodgers threw some not-so-subtle shade at his Pittsburgh Steelers teammates and NFL officials after the team’s season-opening victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

“I think we did a lot of good things out there,” Rodgers, 42, told sports commentator Pam Oliver while speaking to reporters after his Sunday, September 13, win. “We had a chance to be really, really explosive. We had a couple drops, a couple off targets, a couple non-calls, looked like penalties.”

The Steelers defeated the Falcons 20-13 in their season opener at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh on Sunday. Despite their win, the Steelers endured a few sluggish moments that included unnecessary penalties and dropped passes.

“We had a 40-yard PI. It could have been a touchdown,” Rodgers continued of his teammates’ play on Sunday. “We had a couple other ones — could have been big plays. So, you know, we were just a little bit off. But they got a good scheme.”

The quarterback added, “It’s good to be out of here. One and zero.”

Rodgers also opened up about reuniting with coach Mike McCarthy, who spent 13 seasons leading the Green Bay Packers during Rodgers’ tenure with the team. McCarthy, who was fired by Green Bay in 2018, took over as the Steelers ahead of the 2026 NFL season.

“I’m enjoying it for sure,” Rodgers told Oliver. “To be back here with Mike, about to give him this game ball, which will be really special.”

Rodgers also gave a shoutout to linebacker T.J. Watt, brother of retired defensive end and future hall-of-famer J.J. Watt, noting that he played an “unbelievable” game.

“He’s been on a different level this entire camp. I’m so proud of him. I love the way he leads,” he continued before shouting out defensive tackle Cameron Heyward, whom Rodgers called “the epitome of a Pittsburgh Steeler.”

Related: Aaron Rodgers, 42, Gets Honest About Potential Retirement Ahead of Big Game

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers knows he may be about to play his last game on Sunday, January 4. Ahead of the Steelers’ do-or-die regular season finale against the Baltimore Ravens — one that Pittsburgh needs to win to make the playoffs — Rodgers, 42, reflected on his impending free agency and potential retirement decision. […]

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“To be able to share this team with him, to be able to share in the leadership opportunity is really, really special in my last year, and I’m just so thankful for just the opportunity [to] back out here and play the game I love with guys I really respect and love as well,” Rodgers concluded.

Sunday’s game marked the last first game of Rodgers’ NFL career as he enjoys his final run after 22 seasons. (The athlete was drafted in 2005 by the Packers and spent 18 seasons with the team until 2022. He moved on to New York Jets for two seasons, 2023 and 2024, before finishing up his career with the Steelers beginning in 2025.)

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Rodgers confirmed his retirement in May, telling reporters at the time, “Yes, this is it.”

Later, Rodgers shared how he hopes to spend his retirement, teasing that he’d like to start a family with his mystery wife, Brittani.

“I’m hopefully going to be supporting my pregnant wife because we’re going to start a family and I am not going to be making a lot of appearances or statements,” he told Adam Schein of SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio on Tuesday, September 8. “And I’m looking forward to a life of quiet after 22 years in the pros and three in college and getting my body healed up and working on a family. That’s what I’m looking forward to.”

Former NFL running back LeShon Johnson has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in a deadly dogfighting ring.

Johnson, 55, received 60 months in prison, along with three years of supervised release and a $30,000 fine, on Thursday, September 10, after he was convicted of six dog fighting-related charges for his role in a dogfighting operation that resulted in the “death or serious bodily injury” of hundreds of pit bulls.

Johnson was previously found guilty in August 2025 of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act’s prohibitions against possessing, selling, transporting, and delivering animals to be used in fighting ventures.

“Testimony at trial showed that Johnson … had been running a major operation since at least 2007 that bred and sold fighting dogs for profit,” read a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Johnson, who previously ran “Krazyside Kennels,” referred to his new operation, based out of Broken Arrow and Haskell, Oklahoma, as “Mal Kant Kennels.” Evidence showed that the athlete “bred and trafficked hundreds of dogs for the purpose of dog fighting around the country.”

Authorities had seized 190 dogs from his property — the largest number ever seized from a single individual in a federal dog fighting case, according to the release.

Evidence also showed that Johnson had advertised many of his dogs as “champions” and “grand champions,” meaning they had won three or five fights, respectively. He is also said to have sold litters of puppies from favorable fighting bloodlines and “stud fees” for the right to breed with one of his male dogs. Proceeds totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In a statement, Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said that Johnson would “face justice for building another particularly egregious and violent dog fighting scheme.”

“As Johnson was well aware, dogfighting is a felony in all 50 states,” the statement continued. “To anyone attempting to build violent and illicit business schemes: you can run, but you can’t hide from the Department of Justice.”

Related: Former Eagles Player Died of Head Trauma, Stab Wounds in Apparent Homicide

Former Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Kevin Johnson died at age 55 of “blunt head trauma and stab wounds,” the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has determined. His death is being investigated as a homicide. Johnson was found dead on Wednesday, January 21, at a homeless encampment in Los Angeles after officers responded to a report […]

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Johnson previously pleaded guilty in 2004 to Oklahoma dogfighting offenses in a separate case.

Johnson’s attorney, Billy Coyle IV, told ESPN that he had asked for probation for his client, arguing that Johnson had “zero criminal history points” — which doesn’t take into account past cases — and is a “medically compromised human being” suffering from severe dementia and Parkinson’s disease. In a pre-sentence memorandum, Coyle said Johnson has had a daily caretaker for the past two years.

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“The main point was just to show the court that he’d been out on bond for pretrial release for over two years,” Coyle told ESPN. “He’s got no infractions whatsoever. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t smoke. I don’t think the necessity of sending him to prison or jail was necessary.”

A final decision to appeal the sentencing has not yet been made.

Johnson played in the NFL from 1994 to 1999 with the Green Bay Packers, the Arizona Cardinals and the New York Giants. He also played for the now-defunct Chicago Enforcers in the XFL’s only season in 2001.

Nkechi Diallo, the controversial figure formerly known as Rachel Dolezal who notoriously claimed to be Black, is following a new career path.

“The cap & gown🎓and a new title! 💋,” Diallo, 48, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, September 12, alongside photos of herself wearing a graduation cap and gown and holding a personalized desk sign reading, “Nkechi Diallo, Certified Sex Coach.”

Diallo said she graduated from The Sexology Institute’s “300+ hour certification program” and has subsequently opened her own “online intimacy and relationship coaching practice,” called Bandwidth.

The Sexology Institute confirmed to Us on Sunday that Diallo has graduated from their program and is certified as a sex coach.

“This work is personal,” Diallo continued in her post. “As a single mom of three boys, I know what hypervigilance, burnout, and carrying the mental load do to connection — and I believe joy, closeness and aliveness in your body aren’t luxuries. They’re capacities we can design, develop and expand.”

Diallo added, “Bandwidth is for the people who’ve poured into everyone else: single parents, parents of neurodivergent kids, and folks whose work lives at the margins. Together we clear the static, make room for what matters, and expand your bandwidth for a life that’s authored — not absent or performed.”

The photos showed Diallo sporting a black cap and gown, a red stole and black fishnet tights. Diallo also included a professional headshot for her Bandwidth business.

“Certified. I did it! Woohoo, my office is open!” she wrote over the images.

Diallo is a former college instructor who made headlines in 2015 after claiming to be a Black woman for years despite having a white mother and father. Her parents, Ruthanne and Larry Dolezal, told Spokane newspaper The Spokesman-Review at the time that Diallo began to “disguise herself” after adopting four Black children.

Diallo doubled down regarding her identity, telling the outlet, “There’s a lot of complexities … and I don’t know that everyone would understand that.”

Amid backlash over her claims, Diallo resigned as president of her chapter of the NAACP and lost her part-time teaching job at Eastern Washington University.

“Everything I do is connected to other people, so I don’t know how to assess the damage other than within my own mind,” she told Vanity Fair in July 2015. “It’s taken my entire life to negotiate how to identify, and I’ve done a lot of research and a lot of studying. I could have a long conversation, an academic conversation about that.”

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Diallo told the outlet that she felt she “didn’t mislead anybody.”

“I didn’t deceive anybody. If people feel misled or deceived, then sorry that they feel that way, but I believe that’s more due to their definition and construct of race in their own minds than it is to my integrity or honesty, because I wouldn’t say I’m African-American, but I would say I’m black, and there’s a difference in those terms,” she added.

Diallo later drew attention again in February 2024 when she was fired from a teaching position in Arizona after administrators discovered her OnlyFans account.

CBS is returning in full force this fall with a stacked schedule of daytime premieres from The Bold and the Beautiful, The Young and the Restless and more.

The network released its official daytime guide ahead of each show’s return. Drew Carey’s 20th season as the host of The Price Is Right kicks off September 21, with the addition of Wild Wheel Wednesday.

“During the Showcase Showdown, contestants will have the chance to win not only over $100,000, but also a special prize chosen by Drew, making every spin of the Big Wheel even more thrilling,” read a press release. “Themed episodes this season include Veteran’s Day, Halloween, Earth Day, Breast Cancer Awareness, Pet Adoption Week, Pride, Cinco De Mayo, St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Week.”

Host Wayne Brady is back with Let’s Make a Deal with a brand new game of Cash Course.

Related: Daytime TV Changes, Casting Swaps, Cancellations and Premieres Explained

Daytime TV has gone through many changes — including heartbreaking cancellations and surprising casting swaps — ahead of the fall season. One major shakeup took place at ABC, when DeMarco Morgan and Eva Pilgrim both left GMA3. Pilgrim then moved to Inside Edition, which came after ABC News grouped its overnight programming and GMA3 with […]

“A ball-rolling obstacle course where Traders line up green and gold balls on a custom-designed course for a guaranteed chance to win big cash, with the opportunity to take home a grand prize of $10,000 — but look out for the spinning duck, stone toad and the octopus!” the press release continued. “This season also marks a major milestone for Let’s Make a Deal, with the show celebrating its 3,000th episode with Brady as host. The milestone will be commemorated with a special episode airing in January 2027.”

The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful and more fan favorites are returning as well. Keep scrolling for a full breakdown of when each show premieres:

Tuesday, September 8
The Bold and the Beautiful 1:30 p.m. on CBS

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Monday, September 21
Let’s Make a Deal 10 a.m. on CBS
The Price Is Right 11 a.m. on CBS

Thursday, October 8
The Young and the Restless 12:30 p.m. on CBS

Tuesday, December 29
Beyond the Gates 2 p.m. on CBS

Editor’s note: The below interview contains major spoilers for Lanterns Episode 5.

HBO’s Lanterns is officially heading into its final stretch of episodes, but it seems as though there’ll be no getting out of the 2016 story without several explosive twists. In an hour that would normally play out at the very end of a superhero movie, Episode 5 brings Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart’s (Aaron Pierre) investigation in Rushville to a head as the identity of the Manhunter is revealed.

The reason things have been so peaceful can all be tied back to the day Zoe (Poorna Jagannathan) came into town, using her power to both heal William Macon (Garret Dillahunt) and save Kerry Kane’s (Kelly Macdonald) life, as well as seemingly strike several other bargains to keep Rushville safe and quiet. It’s no wonder, then, that the locals are willing to fight to the death to protect her — and for a time, it even seems like John is on Zoe’s side if it means getting the Green Lantern ring for himself. Yet once the smoke clears, and John ultimately leaves the ring in the custody of the Guardians, very few characters have made it through unscathed.

Ahead of the Lanterns premiere, Collider had the opportunity to speak with several members of the cast and creative team, including Dillahunt and Jagannathan. Below, the co-stars discuss the biggest twist surrounding Zoe’s true origins, Dillahunt’s most revealing scene of the series, why Zoe’s interest in John Stewart runs much deeper than the opportunity to manipulate a Lantern candidate, and more.

COLLIDER: Garret, I have to start with you. This is a Deadwood house, first and foremost. It was a thrill to get to see you back on a horse. I was curious about what it felt like to get to play a modern cowboy in Lanterns.

GARRET DILLAHUNT: Well, I love that. I’ve been fortunate to be on so many Westerns and Western-adjacent kinds of shows. In fact, the wrangler on this, his name is Todd Forsberg; I’ve worked with him two or three times before this. I recommended him for this job because we also got to shoot in L.A., which was unusual, and his ranch is in Piru, so this was the closest job he’d ever had. I also know he’s got beautiful animals, and they’d be so well-trained. I loved it. I felt very comfortable on it, and it’s just a great character in this weird little universe they’ve created, this weird little town.

Poorna Jagannathan Was Shocked by Who She Was Really Playing in ‘Lanterns’

“I can’t describe the feeling. I’ve never had [it] in my entire life.”

Image via HBO Max

Speaking of great characters, Poorna, the twist surrounding who you’re really playing — my jaw was on the floor, and I have a feeling viewers’ jaws are going to be on the floor.

POORNA JAGANNATHAN: You think mine wasn’t?

I was going to ask you what your reaction was to not just reading it in the script, but what was the conversation like when you were told who you were really playing?

JAGANNATHAN: They didn’t tell me! I read it in the script. Yeah, they didn’t tell me.

DILLAHUNT: I can’t believe that. It’s amazing.

JAGANNATHAN: And when I died in the car, I was like, “Okay. It’s been a great ride. Loved being part of this universe. Thank you for having me.” And then when the last page happened, and it was revealed that I was a Manhunter, I was confronted by my own mind. I just assumed it’d be a man. I assumed it’d be a white guy. You know what I mean? When I read a script, I’m so good at figuring things out. I feel like I have such a good grip on that — I was completely shattered when I read that. I was like, “Holy shit.” Everything I knew so far was just gone. I texted and called Carly Lane Chris Mundy at, like, midnight, screaming.

DILLAHUNT: You were screaming while you texted?

JAGANNATHAN: Both. I texted, and then I called, and then I screamed, and then I left an audio message. But I can’t describe the feeling. I’ve never had [it] in my entire life.

The characters and their motivations — everyone has these layers that are gradually peeled back the more we get to know what’s going on in this small, unassuming town. Garret, Macon is a character who certainly puts on a very specific outward persona to the rest of the world, but as we later learn, it’s hiding some very complicated, complex motives. He’s also willing to go to some great lengths, I would say, to throw Hal and John off a particular scent, including a very memorable scene where you are stripping down in front of everyone.

DILLAHUNT: It is memorable.

JAGANNATHAN: What do you remember about it?

What stands out most in your mind from preparing to film that scene, filming the scene — and also, did you get to keep the sketch of yourself afterward?

DILLAHUNT: [Laughs] Yeah, I didn’t want that sketch. But it was a fun scene. It was certainly a challenge. I thought those days were over. But I knew that Zoe had healed Macon. He still has the scar from his port from when he was battling cancer, and then he became this sort of preternaturally fit old man, and so I felt an onus to try and get in as good a shape as I could, and so I worked really hard, and barely ate that day, and sipped water and ate rice cakes and all that stuff.

JAGANNATHAN: His workout routine to get fit started that morning. [Laughs] No, he trained for [it] a lot.

DILLAHUNT: It was great. It was weirdly… I don’t need to do them every day, but it was a very supportive set and well-lit, and they took good care of me, and I think the scene works. It’s funny, it’s weird, it’s uncomfortable.

JAGANNATHAN: But we were all at the scene. We were like, “Holy shit, this is happening.” We were so excited to be at the scene.

What’s really going on in the town slowly starts to be revealed through the characters, and everything that they really feel like they owe, Poorna, to your character. Once you found out who you were really playing, how did you want to approach the Manhunter? Because it feels like villain is not really the right term. There’s definitely an antagonistic presence that she brings to the show, but I think her motives are a lot more complicated than that. So, how did you try to wrap your head around how best to portray her?

JAGANNATHAN: I think superhero is also not the right term, then. Both the antagonist and protagonist are very complex and flip between both poles. And I agree, for me, she’s an extraordinarily sympathetic character who is a victim of so many things, including just her own programming.

But I love that scene on the top of [Episode] 5, the contract that she makes with Sheriff Kane, with Kelly [Macdonald]’s character, which is, “I did this for you because down the line, I might need something from you, someone who is willing to go the distance for me.” And there’s a real feeling she’s made that contract with every single person in that town, which is why they go so hard to protect her and fight for her.

So, it’s an unexpected foil. It’s an unexpected arrangement. That’s what I love about it. The way that Chris really explained it to me is that she’s the only surviving Manhunter out of everyone, and she takes different forms, and really is here as a human with human emotions and human feelings — but her need to survive she puts above everyone and everything else, which is what makes her slightly different.

‘Lanterns’ Poorna Jagannathan Explains the Deeper Layers Beneath Zoe and John’s Connection

“She is showing John Stewart who she really is in as many words as she can…”

Image via HBO

Previously, I know you spoke with my colleague, Perri [Nemiroff], about doing a love scene for this show. The one that really stands out to me as having so much going on underneath it is the moment with Zoe and John in the hotel room. It feels like a goodbye of sorts. It also feels like she’s trying to tell him things without really telling him things. How did you and Aaron [Pierre] want to approach all the complex emotions at play?

JAGANNATHAN: I was not aware of that layer, that she was telling him who she was, until the day of shoot. With the writers, we were just figuring stuff out, and I didn’t know that. But it is. She is showing John Stewart who she really is in as many words as she can, and she’s saying, “This is who I am, and it’s not bad. So, leave town. Who you are expecting to find is not who you think. It’s me. So, just leave, or you will get killed.” Because she knows what Macon is capable of, she knows what she’s capable of, she knows the mandate of the town, and so she wants John Stewart to live. She wants that. She is in love with him, as well.

DILLAHUNT: Well. She likes him.

JAGANNATHAN: [Laughs] Yeah. So, it’s a very moving scene. I don’t know if you picked it up, but it’s also where John Stewart picks up what she’s put down. It’s like all these things swirling in his mind actually solidify at that moment, and she also knows who she is.

I think even the ending where there’s a gun pointed at her head, and she looks up, and she sees John Stewart, it’s just… she’s never been outmaneuvered. She’s had to survive for so many lifetimes, but she’s never been outmaneuvered. So it’s that wonderful game-recognizes-game moment.

New episodes of Lanterns premiere Sundays on HBO.

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Lanterns

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Release Date

August 16, 2026

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HBO

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The conservatorship cases that ran entertainment news for five years happen constantly in ordinary probate courtrooms, usually with no cameras and no legal team. A Las Vegas fellowship is one of the few programs that puts new attorneys in those rooms on purpose.

For most of the last decade, the biggest running legal story in entertainment was not a criminal trial. It was probate.

Britney Spears spent 13 years under a conservatorship before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny ended it on November 12, 2021, finding that it was no longer required. Amanda Bynes was released from hers by a Ventura County judge four months later, in March 2022, after nearly nine years. In September 2023, a Shelby County, Tennessee probate judge terminated the conservatorship that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy had held over former NFL tackle Michael Oher since 2004, with reporting at the time noting the judge remarked from the bench that she had never seen such an arrangement created over an adult with no disability. She declined to dismiss the underlying case, and the parties’ claims over money and name and likeness rights continued past that ruling. Wendy Williams has been under a court-appointed guardianship in New York since 2022, when a temporary guardian was appointed early that year, and it remains in place. The file is sealed, so most of what the public knows comes from attorney statements rather than court documents.

Those four names generated years of coverage, documentaries, podcasts, and a hashtag that became a movement. What they did not generate is much attention for the version of the same proceeding that happens without a publicist.

The number nobody can actually count

There are an estimated 1.3 million adult guardianship cases in the United States, covering roughly $50 billion in assets. That figure originates with the National Center for State Courts and was cited in “Ensuring Trust,” a November 2018 report by the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging.

The number should be read with real skepticism, and the Senate report’s own caveats support the doubt. It notes the estimate was based on information from selected states with the most reliable data, and that few states can report accurate or detailed guardianship figures at all. The advocacy group Justice in Aging has made the same point more bluntly, observing that national guardianship estimates rest on the handful of states that track cases reasonably well. The figure is also approaching a decade old, and no newer national count has replaced it.

What that uncertainty means in practice is that the single most restrictive thing a civil court can do to an adult, which is to hand control of their money, their medical decisions, or their living situation to somebody else, happens at a scale the country cannot measure.

What #FreeBritney actually changed, and what it did not

The fan movement produced one clear legislative result. California AB 1194, authored by Assemblymember Evan Low, was signed and chaptered on September 30, 2021, roughly six weeks before Spears’ conservatorship ended. It tightened oversight of professional fiduciaries, gave conservatees the right to choose their own attorney, and restricted compensating a conservator for unsuccessfully fighting their own removal. The bill was openly credited to the Spears case and the documentaries about it.

The federal bill everybody remembers went nowhere. The FREE Act, H.R. 4545, was introduced in July 2021 by Representatives Nancy Mace and Charlie Crist, referred to a House Judiciary subcommittee in November 2022, and expired without a hearing when that Congress ended in January 2023. It never became law, and a striking amount of coverage still implies otherwise.

More broadly, the American Bar Association’s Commission on Law and Aging counted roughly 37 guardianship bills enacted across 16 states in 2021, and credited the Spears publicity with significantly raising public awareness. The ABA also called the timing coincidental, situating 2021 as the culmination of about thirty years of existing advocacy that the hashtag amplified rather than started. Some of the reforms frequently lumped into the Britney story, including changes in Nevada and New Mexico, actually predate the hashtag and grew out of local guardianship fraud scandals.

So the celebrity cases moved the law a little and moved public attention a lot. The caseload underneath them did not shrink.

The clients who get no coverage at all

Low-income Americans received no legal help, or not enough of it, for 92 percent of the substantial civil problems they faced in a year. Evictions, custody fights, debt collection, denied benefits, guardianship disputes. That figure comes from the Legal Services Corporation’s 2022 Justice Gap study, built on an intake census of LSC-funded aid offices and a nationally representative survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. NORC polled more than 5,000 adults, and the 92 percent finding is drawn from the 2,003 respondents living at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty line. Four years later, it is still the most recent national measurement.

A large share of the lawyers hired to close that gap passed the bar within the last twelve months. What they learn in that first year, and how closely anyone watches them do it, varies enormously from one program to the next.

No, it is nothing like the shows

Television has trained an entire generation of applicants to expect the wrong job.

The legal drama in its most popular form is about the closing argument. “Suits” ran nine seasons on the premise that a brilliant fraud could out-argue anyone in a conference room. Netflix’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” runs on courtroom reversals. Even the reboots lean on it, with the 2024 “Matlock” built around Kathy Bates outmaneuvering a firm from inside it.

The show that gets closest to the actual work is “Better Call Saul,” and it gets there by being about paperwork. Jimmy McGill’s elder law practice, the boxes of documents, the nursing home residents, the class action assembled one resident at a time out of billing records, is a reasonably honest picture of what a guardianship or elder abuse matter involves. It is largely not oratory. It is records.

A first-year legal aid attorney spends the bulk of that year interviewing clients and reviewing files under supervision. Many draft filings as their licensure allows. No fellowship guarantees courtroom appearances or independent case management, whatever a recruiting page implies.

The first real skill is the interview, and it is harder than it looks

Fellows learn to explain confidentiality and the scope of representation in language a frightened person can follow. They practice pulling the urgent legal question out of a much larger pile of practical problems. When a client is distressed and the paperwork is incomplete, the fellow builds a timeline out of whatever facts and documents exist.

This gets filed under soft skills, which badly undersells it. Listening determines which legal issues surface and what evidence gets collected. A fellow who can ask a hard question without leading or blaming the client ends up with an accurate record and a clear sense of what is missing. A fellow who cannot ends up with neither, and the case suffers for it.

Fellows also learn where the lawyer’s job stops. Clients frequently need housing placement, medical care, or a safety plan that no filing will produce. Knowing the line between representation and referral is part of the training.

Case preparation is where legal knowledge turns into judgment

File review comes first, then deadline management and research. Drafting and evidence organization follow as the matter develops. Fellows prepare for negotiations and, under supervision, communicate with opposing parties.

The skill that separates a second-year lawyer from a first-year one is sorting facts by legal weight. Take a habitability dispute. A fellow might line the lease up against every notice the landlord sent, then pull payment records and photographs of the unit before recommending a next step to the supervising attorney. Some of what the client volunteers will be legally decisive. Much of it will matter enormously to the client and not at all to the claim. Learning to tell those apart quickly, without dismissing the client, takes months of repetition.

Filing standards vary by state, so the mechanics a fellow learns in Nevada will not transfer cleanly to Ohio. The habits of mind do.

A Las Vegas program routes new lawyers straight into guardianship court

The Community Justice Fellowship at the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, sponsored by the Las Vegas firm Paul Padda Law, is worth examining because it publishes terms most programs keep vague, and because one of its four rotations is the exact practice area the celebrity cases made famous.

The fellow spends a year rotating through the Children’s Attorneys Project, which represents abused and neglected children in foster care; the Family Justice Project, covering protective orders, divorce, and custody for domestic violence survivors; the Consumer Rights Project, which covers debt collection, bankruptcy, foreclosure, predatory lending, fraud, and tenant matters; and the Guardianship Advocacy Project, which represents seniors, adults with disabilities, and minors in guardianship proceedings. According to the posting, the fellow conducts client interviews and moves matters from intake through resolution.

Nevada is a pointed place to do that work. Beginning in 2015, local reporting exposed how Clark County’s private guardianship system was operating, with one guardian, April Parks, at the center of it. Parks pleaded guilty in 2018 and was sentenced in 2019 to 16 to 40 years for exploitation, theft and racketeering involving roughly 150 wards. The Nevada Legislature rewrote the state’s guardianship law in 2017, creating a compliance office and making appointment of counsel for a proposed protected person automatic rather than something the person had to know to request. All of that landed years before anyone was chanting about Britney Spears.

Two published terms stand out. The current posting states that fellows are awarded a full-time position with the Legal Aid Center at the conclusion of the fellowship, which distinguishes it from fixed-term programs that leave participants job hunting in month ten. That language is specific to this cycle and worth confirming annually, because an earlier listing for the same program, posted through the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, promised nothing of the kind and said only that preference went to applicants who wanted full-time employment there. The salary is listed at $75,000 for new law graduates and $80,000 for outgoing judicial clerks.

For context, NALP’s 2023 Public Service Attorney Salary Survey put the median entry-level salary at civil legal services organizations at $64,200, more than $5,000 below the medians for public defenders ($69,600) and other public interest employers ($69,500). Legal aid pays the least of the public service employers NALP tracks, and the gap widens with experience.

The fellowship now underway runs from August 2026 through July 2027. Applications were open from December 1, 2025, to January 31, 2026. Candidates should confirm the next cycle and its terms directly with the organization.

Four very different jobs share one word

“Fellowship” is the term usually attached to these arrangements, and by itself it tells a candidate almost nothing. Yale Law School’s public interest fellowship guidance treats the category as an umbrella, and its own list runs to six types. Four groups cover most of what is actually on the market.

Organization-based fellowships. The employer defines the work. A legal aid office has a caseload and hires a fellow to carry part of it. The Nevada program is this model.

Project-based fellowships. The candidate designs the position, recruits a host organization, and applies for funding. The Skadden Fellowship Foundation is the archetype. Applicants build their own two-year job at a nonpartisan host. For the class of 2027 the foundation provides $68,000 per year in base salary support plus $5,202 toward the employer share of FICA, and hosts must pay at least $68,000 unless a collective bargaining agreement mandates otherwise. Hosts paying more receive a supplement of $2,000 or $5,000 annually. The foundation has funded 1,018 fellows since 1988 and says roughly 90 percent stayed in public interest work.

Law school or foundation placements. A school or funder pays a graduate to work at an outside organization for a set term.

Government honors programs. Structurally similar, often called something else entirely.

The distinction changes who owns the work. In a project fellowship, the fellow owns the idea and has to make it produce. In an organization-based placement, the office owns the docket and the fellow learns by absorbing part of it. Both are legitimate training. They are different jobs, and candidates routinely apply to both without noticing.

A postgraduate fellowship is also a different animal from a summer internship. Fellows stay longer and carry real responsibility. Some programs require bar admission; others operate under a jurisdiction’s supervised practice rules, which let a graduate perform limited legal work under a licensed attorney’s oversight.

Rotations and supervision are program-specific, not standard

Neither is guaranteed anywhere, and both should be confirmed in writing before anyone accepts.

Rotations expose a fellow to different client populations and procedures. A housing docket moves fast and rewards speed. A guardianship matter demands sustained attention to a person’s autonomy and financial records over months. The benefit is comparative. After a year, a fellow can say with some confidence whether urgent litigation or long-arc representation suits them.

Rotations are not automatically better. A focused fellowship builds depth in one field, and depth has its own market value.

Supervision should get less hands-on as the year goes on. Early months may involve observation, joint client meetings, and close review of every draft, with responsibility expanding as the fellow demonstrates competence. Candidates should ask whether case reviews are scheduled or improvised, whether feedback addresses interview technique and writing specifically, what the protocol is for urgent client situations, how often ethics comes up, and whether the fellow will see more than one attorney’s approach.

Supervision will not prevent burnout by itself. It can surface a workload problem early. Caseload size and organizational resources decide whether the job is survivable.

The employment question deserves a direct answer

Employment outcomes need blunt questions. Some host organizations retain fellows. Some help them build networks and send them elsewhere. Some have no permanent opening and never did. Ask what happened to the last three fellows. Ask whether a permanent position is budgeted. Ask whether continued employment is guaranteed in writing or merely described as possible, and get the answer for the cycle being applied to rather than a previous one.

Money belongs in the same conversation. Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce reported in June 2024 that law graduates leave school with a median debt burden of $118,500, and that four years out the median borrower still owes close to $120,000. Against that, an entry-level legal aid salary and the availability of loan repayment assistance stop being secondary details.

How competitive is it, actually

Public interest law is not one hiring market, and the answer depends entirely on which corner of it someone is looking at.

Nationally funded project fellowships draw large volumes of polished proposals from applicants who have been preparing them since their second year of law school. Local legal aid offices in lower-salary markets or high-burnout practice areas often struggle to fill positions. The same applicant can face brutal odds at one and a warm reception at the other.

What consistently helps: a sustained record of clinic work or public interest internships, demonstrated research and writing ability, evidence the candidate understands the client population, a credible explanation of interest in that organization’s actual docket, and relevant language skills where the community needs them. References from public interest supervisors carry real weight. General enthusiasm without any of that is where applications stall. A highly ranked law school is not a universal requirement.

Five things to get in writing before signing

1. Employment status and pay, including whether the position is an employee role or a stipend arrangement.
2. Bar admission expectations, and what the fellow may do before admission under the jurisdiction’s supervised practice rules.
3. The training and supervision plan, including how often formal case reviews happen.
4. Whether rotations exist and how they are structured.
5. Whether continued employment is guaranteed, considered, or off the table, and what happened to recent fellows.

PSJD, the public interest career database run by NALP, and law school public interest career offices both post program descriptions that can be compared on these points.

The part the documentaries leave out

Britney Spears had a team. She had Mathew Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor from a major firm, and she had a movement with millions of followers online and a crowd outside the courthouse on hearing days. Michael Oher had a probate petition that made national news within hours. Those are not the conditions under which most guardianship cases are litigated.

The ordinary version involves a person who did not know they could ask for their own attorney, a family member with control of the checkbook, and a court file nobody outside the room will ever read. Whether that person gets a hearing worth having often comes down to whether a legal aid office had somebody available, and whether that somebody had been taught how to read a stack of financial records and notice what was missing.

That is the job. It looks almost nothing like the shows, and the offer letter will not tell you much about it. The terms underneath it will tell you everything.

Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Lanterns Episode 5.

HBO’s Lanterns has been quite a trip for both longtime Green Lantern fans and newcomers alike. The offbeat take on Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) has stripped the superheroes of their traditional ring-slinging adventures in favor of a grounded detective story that deconstructs both DC icons before pitting them firmly against each other. Episode 5 goes a step further here as they close in on the Manhunter, bringing the 2016 mystery to a close and leaving us wondering what the next three episodes could tackle. Lanterns takes what would have normally been the third act of a two-and-a-half-hour superhero movie and uses it as a nexus point that launches the narrative into the present day — and we still have plenty of questions.

‘Lanterns’ Episode 5 Pits the Entirety of Rushville Against Our Heroes

This week’s episode begins in 2007, when a younger Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) finds her way to Rushville after escaping her past in Gotham — only, she hasn’t really escaped, as two armed men arrive and flank her in the local diner. “Nice trick you pulled with the plates,” one of them tells her, revealing that her father was a thief who stole from their employer. But Kerry isn’t a snitch, and instead tries to explain that she only wishes to live her own life apart from the organization. This doesn’t convince the goons, but before things can go from bad to worse, Zoe (Poorna Jagannathan) arrives, killing one and sparing the other. Upon learning their orders were to take Kerry’s pinkie back to her boss, Zoe tells Kerry to cut it off before sending the thug out of town. Zoe tells Kerry that she’s been in her shoes. “Someone once gave me a chance when I needed it the most, and now I’m offering the same chance to you,” she explains. Zoe suggests Kerry stick around on one condition. “One day, some people are going to come looking for me,” Zoe reveals, and admits she’ll need someone to protect her. When Kerry agrees to these terms, Zoe says she’ll grow her a new pinkie.

Back in 2016, John wakes up in the crashed vehicle and attempts to get out. Unfortunately, his leg is pinned. Hal approaches and apologizes. “I’m sure you understand my position because you’re working with the Guardians to replace me,” the Green Lantern tells him. Hal believes that William Macon’s (Garret Dillahunt) militia will gear up to protect Zoe while Antaan’s (Paul Ben-Victor) alien forces fight back. This distraction will give him just enough time to locate the Manhunter and return her to the Guardians on Oa. Meanwhile, Rushville begins to mobilize as they anticipate a threat. On the ranch, Zoe, Kerry, and Billy (Jason Ritter) argue about what to do next. Zoe tells her grandson, Noah (Cary Christopher), that the best thing Billy can do now is to protect him. “A lot of people are going to die today — people you know, some you love,” she tells him. “But no matter what happens, don’t forget everything I’ve told you.” It’s an ominous warning, one that makes us believe there may be something more to Noah than meets the eye, but that’s all we get from this interaction.

While all of this is going on, John tries to pull himself out of the car, but things get a bit hairy for the Lantern trainee when the vehicle catches fire. For a moment, it looks like he’ll be spared when a black SUV pulls up, and Zoe pops out. Instead of sparing John, she watches as the rental blows up with him still inside, engulfing him in flames. Elsewhere, Hal is watching over Rushville from the water tower. He activates “sentry protocol” and sends the “Halogram” out to investigate. Eventually, this leads him to Kerry, who shoots at him first before explaining. “Zoe can’t hear us, but she can see us,” she tells him. Hal protects himself with the ring as Kerry tries to explain what she’s doing. “You can never understand what she gave me,” she says — perhaps Zoe did more than just give her a new pinkie. The sheriff insists that Rushville can have peace, but Hal tells her that she’s harboring a war criminal. “I’m not going anywhere until she’s stopped,” he says, and it’s with that thought that the sheriff tells him that everything that happens next is on him.

John Stewart Makes a Deal with a Manhunter in ‘Lanterns’ Episode 5

Image via HBO

At the hospital, Zoe watches over John. He can’t feel anything, since all of his nerve endings are dead thanks to the vehicle fire. He tells her he knows everything about her true identity, but admits he doesn’t fully trust the Guardians and what they’re telling him after what went down with the ring in last week’s episode. “They just expected me to take the ring,” he says, frustrated that he hasn’t been backed by anybody this whole time. Zoe tells John that the Manhunters were created to enforce justice — at least, until they were deemed too ruthless, which is a judgment call she hasn’t once proven inaccurate. Zoe can heal him, but her help has a price: once she kills Hal, John will take the ring and tell the Guardians Hal died defending Rushville from Antaan and his forces. This way, John gets the ring, and Zoe can continue to live in peace.

When Hal arrives at the diner, he finds dead bodies everywhere. Naturally, it’s a trap, but he’s anticipated Antaan’s attack and defends himself with a giant green bubble. But the Green Lantern doesn’t want to fight; he wants to strike a deal — well, that’s what he tells the alien terrorist, anyway. Hal lies, telling Antaan that William Macon is actually the Manhunter, information that he seems to take with a grain of salt (but take it he does). In an interesting turn, Antaan reveals to Hal that John was compromised by the Manhunter through coitus, which is apparently the synthetic’s main form of deception. Just then, Macon puts the hit out on Hal, and the townsfolk in Rushville get AMBER alert-style texts telling them to attack and kill the Green Lantern. Fortunately for Hal, this helps his case with Antaan, who leaves in pursuit of Macon.

Back at the hospital, Zoe and John spend way too much time talking about racial barriers (which is apparently why Zoe took the form she did) while John is literally suffering from near-fatal wounds, which feels a bit disingenuous considering his pain, but we’ll ignore that. As John’s body is restored, we get a flashback montage of his upbringing, training, and time in the Marines that recaps the entirety of “OutKast” in less time. Upon being restored, John has a revelation of his own. “You killed Abin Sur,” he tells her. “He brought you here to spare you.” Of course, Zoe doesn’t deny it. Instead, she justifies her actions, noting that she simply “couldn’t help it.” Even more concerning is that Zoe is drawn to John because he “really sees” her. After this interaction, Macon calls Zoe, and the two say their goodbyes as Antaan and his forces arrive at the ranch. “Thank you for everything,” she tells her husband. “Thank you for the gift of time,” he replies.

As Antaan’s forces invade the compound, Macon’s men fight back. The whole thing is a bloodbath as Antaan’s men suicide-bomb the Weenie and some of the other surrounding structures, slowly taking out the whole militia. Unfazed by the surrounding intensity, Macon sits in his office and drinks some whiskey when Antaan arrives. Macon pretends to be the Manhunter, and here we learn that Antaan and the android were previously involved in an intimate capacity, though they were unable to conceive any children. Antaan then attacks and kills Macon after realizing that the real Manhunter would never have welcomed death. In the wake of her husband’s demise, Zoe begins attacking the entire town, forcing Hal into space to disarm the laser weapons — a sequence we wish Lanterns would’ve shown.

Hal and John Face Off Over the Ring as ‘Lanterns’ Wraps Up the 2016 Story

Image via HBO Max

After John escapes the hospital, he calls his father and demands that his parents patch him through to the Guardians before telling his mother that he plans to take the ring right from Hal’s finger. Of course, Hal is busy on the streets saving the locals from alien threats, but when the Halogram arrives and informs him of Zoe’s position, he completely diverts his attention. Before Hal can apprehend her, Zoe orders her men to blow up the nearby water tower — which houses not water, but the same dark energy he and John encountered on the Macon ranch before. Hal fights his way through, but not before sending an enraged Antaan into the shadows to his death. When the ring warns Hal that it’s time to recharge, he returns to the motel — but he isn’t anticipating a fight.

In the chaos, John grabs Hal, and they duke it out in the motel. John maintains that he deserves the ring, that he’s earned it after all these years preparing to wield it, while Hal issues a reminder that he was chosen. Eventually, John gains the upper hand, but before he can knock Hal out, the motel is attacked by another energy beam. John escapes in the aftermath, leaving Hal inside and trapped under debris. When Zoe arrives and asks where John is, Hal tells her that he “promoted himself,” but the Manhunter insists that she promoted him. Hal believes if John wanted him dead, he would’ve done it himself, making Zoe wonder why the ex-Marine would leave him to be discovered in the rubble. “Bait,” Hal replies — before John, with a sniper rifle from afar, shoots the Manhunter through the head.

Although the Manhunter has been killed and the alien threats neutralized, Rushville has been totally decimated. Walking back to Hal’s motel room, John pauses to give a watch to a young girl crying beside her wounded parents before retrieving his own belongings and confirming the Manhunter kill, carving Zoe’s crystallized heart out of her chest and putting it in his bag. Walking over to Hal, he takes the lantern and ring off his finger. “Was it worth it?” Hal asks, but John doesn’t answer. Instead, he walks off with his prize, wandering through the completely demolished town. When he’s met by Macon’s men, who quickly surround him, Kerry lets him go after inquiring about Hal’s whereabouts.

This chapter of Lanterns ends with John meeting with Lianna (Laura Linney). He tells the Guardian that Hal is still alive and brings her the Manhunter’s heart as proof of the kill. “Even we make mistakes,” she tells John. “All we can do is correct them.” John confesses that he’s spent a lot of his life wondering how he would feel after taking the ring, but when he put it on, he just felt empty. “Hal betrayed everything to keep this ring,” he explains. “And it broke him. Probably doesn’t even remember why he wanted the damn thing.” Instead of putting on the ring and finally reciting the oath, John gives it back to the Guardian and walks out.

New episodes of Lanterns air Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

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Release Date

August 16, 2026

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Network

HBO

Directors

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Alik Sakharov, James Hawes, Stephen Williams, Geeta Patel

Writers

Damon Lindelof, Chris Mundy, Tom King, Vanessa Baden Kelly, Justin Britt-Gibson, Breannah Gibson

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Pros & Cons

• It’s a bold choice not to give John the ring here, but one that will no doubt pay off before the season is up.
• The Manhunter climax comes together well, but the fact that there’s still three more episodes signals that there’s still more to explore in Rushville.
• Halogram working alongside Hal is a fascinating contrast that we ought to get more of.

• Lanterns could’ve been a much stronger series if Hal and John weren’t always betraying one another.
• Hopefully this won’t be Hal’s last time as a Green Lantern.