Category: 5. Entertainment

Here are the new Harry Potter cast members side by side with the actors who played the characters in the Warner Bros. movies.

John Oliver may delight in biting the corporate hand that feeds him — “there’s no tastier hand,” he insists — but he is deeply grateful for his perch. With his pal Stephen Colbert’s Late Show recently canceled amid financial losses to the tune of tens of millions a year and a pending multibillion-dollar merger at its parent company, Oliver’s Last Week Tonight finds itself ensconced in its premium cable/streaming corner at HBO, where it tackles complicated, often uncomfortable subjects such as immigration, policing and juvenile justice.

Still, Oliver is adamant that it’s the show’s bevy of awards — 30 Emmys and counting — that has kept it on the air and without interference for 12 seasons. Come September, it will vie for six more, including outstanding scripted variety series. Zooming from Last Week Tonight’s Manhattan offices in late July, Oliver weighed in on his battles with legal, his concerns for late night and his desired level of anxiety.

Last Week Tonight segments come together in six weeks. When in that timeline does the comedy get layered in?

Really late. The jokes used to come in earlier, but you don’t want to start writing before a story is stable because then you’ll fall in love with jokes that are built on material that doesn’t stand up, and that’s a terrible position to put comedy writers in. So, it’s only in the last two weeks that the jokes come in. But in that first month, you’re trying to give people ingredients that they’ll be able to create comedy from. You want it to be like an episode of Chopped, where it’s not impossible to make something palatable at the end. So, you’re not giving them broken glass and weed killer. You’ll give them eggs.

When was last time a Last Week segment made you genuinely anxious?

I mean, there’s always a low-level anxiety with every story. I’d argue a healthy level of anxiety. And it’s only ever about whether people are going to be willing to listen to us talk about something, because it’s so superficially dry or contentious that you’re not sure if it’s something people will want to hear, and then you’re practicing force-feeding. But that’s part of the joy of having this show — the ability to show people things they might not necessarily think, on their face, they want to see. I mean, just a few weeks ago, we did a long piece on juvenile justice, and that’s the kind of story where you think, “I’m not sure people want to hear this,” but I am sure that it’s the absolute point of having a show like this.

From the Emmy stage, you thanked HBO and “our lawyers, who are angry with us all the time.” What is that push and pull like?

They are our final line of defense, so it has to be a functional relationship, but it can be fraught, especially toward the end. The general tension that we land on is having a slightly different view of their job. They think it’s to stop us from getting sued, and I think it’s to make sure that when we are sued, we win. So, yeah, I’m half-joking when I say it’s a fraught relationship. It’s an important process for the script to go through, but it can be not infrequently tense.

I can imagine.

But you also don’t get to be angry at the lifesaving device. (Laughs.)

You’ve had a revolving door of corporate owners. Is interference something you’ve either experienced or worry about?

We’ve not experienced interference, and I refuse to worry about something that hasn’t happened yet. My tolerance level, were it to, would be zero. This would be over real quick.

Put another way, is there a “there but for the grace of God go I” aspect to what appears to have happened with Colbert and his show?

We are fortunate enough to be in a very different situation than network commercial TV, so those corporate pressures are not comparable, and we have no pressures from advertisers.

Presumably you saw the shots of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav palling around with Ivanka Trump in Sun Valley. What goes through your mind when you see something like that?

I try to pay as little attention to what is happening outside of our show as possible because it feels like wasted energy. The moment that intrudes on our show, I will react very badly to it, but it hasn’t. So, yeah, I try not to get angry about things that aren’t happening to us.

At the same time, you seem to bite the hand that feeds you with regularity and some degree of glee …

There’s no tastier hand!

I was watching the segment that you did a few months ago about Trump and the media, and at one point, you just started railing against your corporate parent and the idiocy of the HBO Max name changes. Again, seemingly with glee. Did you hear from anyone afterward?

No. And you’re right, I’m truly happy in those moments. That’s probably the most at peace I am, when I’m trying to draw fire from our owners.

Should we unpack that? What does that say about you?

I don’t know, and I refuse to turn this into a therapy session. (Laughs.) But I always used to love watching David Letterman do it. To me, it felt like a really healthy sign of contempt and just a very fun and slightly important indication of noncompliance. So, I loved it when he’d make fun of G.E. and CBS and, yeah, for me, making fun of whoever owns us on a minute-to-minute basis is a thrill.

You grew up on Letterman. Do you worry about the future of late night TV?

On network TV? Yeah, it’s constantly evolving. What’s happened to The Late Show is incredibly sad for comedy and, obviously, for the staff in that building. It really resonated with me when Stephen said he was hoping to hand this show over to someone else. You hope that the franchise lives on partly because there are generations of teenagers watching those shows and deciding, “Maybe I’d like to be a comedy writer,” and then maybe writing on that show. So, just as there are Colbert writers that watched Letterman, there will be future writers that watched Colbert, and you want that to continue. I’m sure it’ll find a way to exist in some form, we just don’t yet know exactly what that’s going to look like for network television.

You’ve had success having a point of view on your show, as Colbert has, at least in the ratings. Late night used to be broad, unifying entertainment. I know Jay Leno recently spoke on this topic, about making a show for everyone …

I’m going to take a hard pass on taking comedic advice from Jay Leno.

Fair enough, but should these shows still try to be for everyone, or is that as antiquated as the tanning bed?

Who thinks that way? Executives? Comedy can’t be for everyone. It’s inherently subjective. So, yeah, when you do stand-up, some people try to play to a broader audience, which is completely legitimate. Others decide not to, which is equally legitimate. I guess I don’t think it’s a question of what you should do because I don’t think comedy is prescriptive in that way. It’s just what people want. I think our show clearly comes from a point of view, but most of those long stories we do are not party political. They’re about systemic issues. Our last few shows were about gang databases, AI slop, juvenile justice, med spas, air traffic control. I’m not saying that these don’t have a point of view in them. Of course they do. But I hope a lot of them actually reach across people’s political persuasions. You want people to at least be able to agree on the problem, even if you disagree on what the solution to it is.

As someone who’s found a version of a late night show that succeeds on streaming, do you think it’s replicable and, if so, what should it look like?

I have absolutely no idea. [Late New York Times media columnist] David Carr said something so nice at the end of our first year. He’d liked our show, and he said to me, “If you had described this show to me before I saw it, I would’ve said it sounded terrible.” It was so honest; I’ve never forgotten it. Because I don’t think, on the page, our show sounds very good. I mean, we’re doing, like, 40 minutes on juvenile justice.

It doesn’t exactly scream commercial.

No, it doesn’t. So I don’t know that you can emulate this success. I think it might’ve been a mistake or a lightning strike. I just don’t know that this is scalable. But I’d really like late night to exist in some form somewhere. My favorite thing is when you can have things that both have a strong point of view and are incredibly stupid. Seth [Meyers], last week, did some great shows, and he also did an amazing segment about how to pronounce “croissant.” Did you see that? It was so good. It was the hardest I laughed all week. So, I love the fact that those things can coexist, and I don’t want that to go away.

The camaraderie that the late night hosts have now is so vastly different from the environment you grew up with.

Well, the stakes are just lower now. There’s no point being in a war. You’re not fighting over any meaningful territory. (Laughs.)

Many of you came on Colbert’s show on July 21, appearing in a Coldplay kiss-cam spoof, shortly after the news of his cancellation. What did that outreach look like?

Well, we’ve been in contact as a group since the strike [several of them hosted a podcast, Strike Force Five], so as soon as the news broke, we were all checking in with Stephen in that chat and then he came up with the idea and asked us to come, and of course we’re all going to do it. You want to be able to support him and his staff in a horrible, horrible time.

I did appreciate just how much everyone sort of played into their brand while sitting there, down to Anderson Cooper looking fairly uncomfortable.

Anderson was almost emitting a sense of, “Why am I here?” A legitimate question!

Back to your show. Amid all the bleakness, you and your writers decided to give yourselves this ambitious side project, rebranding a minor league baseball team the Erie Moon Mammoths. How much pressure did you feel to make sure that was something that could produce actual civic pride, rather than simply five funny minutes on HBO?

The reason we first started talking about it is that we were doing a show about deportations — so, monumentally bleak — and it felt like an example of when you’ve had a kale-based meal, it’s nice to serve something resembling a dessert at the end of it. One of our writers, Charlie, he pitched this story about minor league baseball and just how eccentric and, in many ways, life affirming it is, and we had the idea at the end of that to issue this offer [to have Last Week Tonight have carte blanche to rebrand a team]. We thought someone might take our offer, but we weren’t sure. So, if it was just that and no one offered, that was fine. Once it became clear that people were really interested, then it felt like it might be something that could spin us out of a bunch of very dense, dark stories. Then you want to execute it as well as you possibly can. You don’t want it to be a drive-by joke at the place you’re picking. You want to pick a place that can handle it but also needs it.

It became a feel-good story at a time when we so desperately need a feel-good story.

I know. It is odd the extent to which it repaired some of my faith in human nature, and that is a very weird thing to find yourself saying when you’re standing next to a seven-foot purple mammoth.

Speaking of happy endings, earlier this year, HBO let you return to releasing full segments of your show on YouTube the day after airing. What changed?

I think they wanted to see if moving it back on YouTube had an effect on our ratings. I didn’t think it would, which is why I was against moving it in the first place. And I was massively grateful that, upon looking at it, they realized it wasn’t having a negative enough effect to be worth doing. Again, in the difficulty of the media environment that we’re in, I try to be as cognizant as I can be that HBO is still a fantastic place to work.

And yet you make a lot of jokes about how all these Emmys are your show’s only armor against getting canceled.

I mean, two things can be true at the same time. (Laughs.) It’s a fantastic place to work while we are insulated by golden armor. If that stops, we might be going away.

Do you genuinely believe that?

It’s not entirely a joke, that’s for sure. I think it is objectively very, very helpful to have won Emmys with the show. I think it has helped us keep our independence and keep the show on the air. So, yeah, I do think there is a utility to it. It’s something that I know has always been important to HBO, and so I’m massively grateful that we’ve won them, and long may that continue. Please! I don’t want my theory tested.

This story appeared in the Aug. 6 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

A still from the 2001 film “Shrek,” which is part of the fall lineup at IU Cinema. Photo courtesy of IU Cinema

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Movie buffs can anticipate an entertaining season this fall as Indiana University Cinema presents an eclectic lineup of film series, special guests and festival favorites.

To kick things off, the cinema will host its annual open house Aug. 21, featuring activities and refreshments. The open house will feature a trailer reel on the big screen to tease the upcoming season, which includes events like a 3D presentation of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Dial M for Murder,” a Welcome Week screening of nostalgic favorite “Shrek,” and returning series like CINEkids, Michael A. McRobbie’s Choice, Underground and more.

In collaboration with the Black Film Center & Archive, IU Cinema welcomes back filmmaker and former cinema guest Julie Dash to campus as part of a 25th-anniversary screening of her influential “Daughters of the Dust,” the first full-length film directed by an African American woman to have a general theatrical release in the United States.

Other visiting filmmakers include:

• Delaney Buffett with her new comedy “Adult Best Friends.”
• Producer and Funny or Die CEO Mike Farah with the Emmy-winning “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”
• Director Ian Bell and producer Alex Megaro with their archival documentary “WTO/99,” which chronicles the historic 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization.

Delaney Buffett, who co-wrote and directed the film “Adult Best Friends,” will visit IU Cinema this fall. Buffett also stars in the new comedy alongside Zachary Quinto and co-writer Katie Corwin. Photo courtesy of IU Cinema

Fans of old Hollywood can celebrate the centennials of several silver screen icons with Three Cheers for 100 Years, which honors the enduring legacies of Paul Newman, Dick Van Dyke, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Sellers, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.

The films in this series run the gamut, including:

• Cozy caper classic “The Pink Panther.”
• “Robin and the 7 Hoods,” a swinging spoof starring the Rat Pack.
• “What a Way to Go!,” a rom-com with an unusual twist.
• “Some Like It Hot,” a groundbreaking, rules-defying comedy.

Be sure to also check out IU Cinema’s lower-lobby display, which is partially dedicated to these legendary men.

Bringing audiences the best new art house and independent filmmaking from North, Central and South America, New Americas Cinema includes:

• “The Fishbowl,” a fierce and thought-provoking eco-drama from Puerto Rico.
• Writer, director and actor Eva Victor’s acclaimed and wryly funny feature debut “Sorry, Baby.”
• “Mickey 17,” the star-studded latest from Oscar-winning filmmaker Bong Joon-ho.
• “Seeds,” the stunning winner of the 2025 Sundance U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Award.
• “Gaucho Gaucho,” the sumptuously photographed documentary about modern-day Argentine cowboys and cowgirls.
• “Every Little Thing,” a heartwarming look at one of nature’s mightiest yet tiniest creatures, the hummingbird.

IU Cinema will show a 4K restoration of the cult classic movie “Donnie Darko” this fall. Photo courtesy of IU Cinema

Featuring nightmares both new and familiar, Friday Night Frights creeps back onto IU Cinema’s screen with:

• The Italian zombie flick “Demons.”
• David Cronenberg’s “Scanners.”
• Guillermo del Toro’s gothic spine-tingler “Crimson Peak.”
• Supernatural South Korean film “Exhuma.”
• A 4K restoration of the cult classic “Donnie Darko.”
• Two double features on Halloween, starting with the new slasher “Clown in a Cornfield” and the psychological thriller “Red Rooms,” followed by John Carpenter’s “The Fog” in 4K and the body-horror, cyber-punk benchmark “Tetsuo: The Iron Man.”

Q+, a series that focuses on the history of queerness and film, questions whether queer films must be told by queer creatives by showcasing Todd Haynes’ musical fantasia “Velvet Goldmine,” the stone-cold comedy classic “The Birdcage” starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, and Alfonso Cuarón’s steamy, award-winning coming-of-age drama “Y tu mamá también.”

Other upcoming programs at IU Cinema include:

• A series spotlighting Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein’s infamous unfinished work “¡Que viva México!,” which is contextualized in the cinema’s lower-lobby exhibition space with materials from the Lilly Library and the IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
• A new 2K restoration of “Salomé,” a highly stylized Oscar Wilde adaptation starring and co-directed by multihyphenate Alla Nazimova for Silent Movie Day.
• The One and Only Huckleberry, a four-film tribute to the late and eternally great Val Kilmer.
• The world premiere of a new score for “Ten Nights in a Barroom,” a 1926 silent film with an all-Black cast, as part of the Jon Vickers Scoring Award.
• A pair of the most beloved holiday movies ever made, “The Muppet Christmas Carol” and a new 4K restoration of “The Apartment.”

For full information and film listings, visit the cinema’s website or their IU Events calendar and follow @iucinema on Instagram, X, Bluesky and Facebook.

Initiatives like this are made possible in part by generous donors to Indiana University. You can show your support for IU Cinema by making a gift to the IU Cinema Fund.

With music festivals and concerts drawing crowds across the UK this summer, new data has revealed that more than half of people aged 18 to 28 — Gen Z — have experienced hearing problems linked to loud music.

A poll of 2000 young adults for the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) found that 58% of Gen Z respondents reported hearing loss, tinnitus, or both after attending festivals, gigs, or nightclubs. While most symptoms were temporary, the charity warned that repeated exposure could lead to permanent, preventable damage.

One in Three Adults Affected by Hearing Loss

According to the hearing loss charity, these problems currently affect around one in three adults in the UK – about 18 million people, while the British Academy of Audiology said that hearing loss is the second most common disability in the UK – albeit an “invisible” one. 

Hearing loss has been linked with a range of mental health conditions including an increased risk of dementia, and with physical conditions including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, anaemia, chronic kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, sleep apnoea, balance problems, and falls. 

It also affects employment rates and income. The BAA said hearing loss costs the UK economy £25-30 billion annually in lost productivity and unemployment, in addition to £1 billion spent by the NHS on hearing services.

Unsafe Listening Habits Among Young People

While most hearing loss occurs in people over 60, around 28% are aged between 16 and 60. Some have congenital issues or sequelae of childhood ear infections, but unsafe listening habits are increasingly recognised as a key factor.

Research from the Medical Research Council’s Institute of Hearing Research found that 18.8% of young people are exposed to music at levels harmful to hearing. Up to 80% of nightclub attendees experience temporary tinnitus.

Despite three-quarters of Gen Z respondents being aware of a risk of permanent hearing damage when exposed to noisy venues, 35% said they do not plan to wear hearing protection such as earplugs at live music events this year. 

‘We Need to Raise Awareness’

Franki Oliver, audiology manager at RNID, noted that live music events and nightclubs generally now provide free earplugs, while comfortable and reusable earplugs are readily available. “We need to raise awareness of this more among the general public,” he told Medscape News UK.

“There is growing concern that headphone use, both by over-ear headphones and in-ear buds, could risk permanent hearing damage, especially if people aren’t aware of the risks, Oliver added. He highlighted recent research suggesting that gamers could be at increased risk of hearing loss and tinnitus due to headphone use. Also, people who wear headphones in the presence of background noise, such as during a noisy commute, could be increasing the volume to dangerous levels without realising. 

“Experts generally agree that 85 decibels is the level at which hearing damage can start, which is about the same as a food blender,” said Oliver. 

Risk of noise induced hearing damage is influenced by duration of exposure as well as intensity. At 85 dB, the ‘safe’ length of exposure is 8 hours over the course of a day, but sound intensity increases logarithmically, so the safe exposure time halves with every 3 dB increase. 

“By the time you’ve reached 100 dB — common in live venues and nightclubs, and even on some sections of the underground — the length of time you can be safely exposed is around 15 minutes,” Oliver said.

The RNID survey also showed a potential for change among younger adults:

• 28% of respondents said they would protect their hearing if it didn’t affect their enjoyment of music
• 23% would do so if earplugs were more comfortable
• 22% would use protection if free earplugs were available at events

Oliver described these findings as “encouraging”.

Changing Habits for Festival Goers

The RNID recommends several steps to reduce the risk of hearing damage:

• Use earplugs: Specially designed music earplugs lower volume without distorting sound quality
• Avoid speaker proximity: Position yourself away from speakers at gigs or clubs
• Take breaks: For every hour of sound, rest your ears for at least 5 minutes
• Lower headphone volume: Keep it below 60%, especially in noisy settings
• Consider noise-cancelling headphones: These reduce the need to turn up the volume

Oliver said that GPs could play a greater role in prevention. “GPs could provide invaluable support in raising awareness of hearing protection through surgery posters or when talking to patients, especially those who are concerned about their hearing or tinnitus,” he said.

Dr Sheena Meredith is an established medical writer, editor, and consultant in healthcare communications, with extensive experience writing for medical professionals and the general public. She is qualified in medicine and in law and medical ethics. 

The sneakerina just earned another ringing endorsement. Zendaya officially hopped aboard the budding trend, joining the likes of Dua Lipa, Jennifer Lawrence, and Chloë Sevigny in embracing the ballet flat-sneaker hybrid.

While there are scores of sneakerinas on the market—ranging from the affordable Adidas and Pumas, to the higher-priced Wales Bonner and Louis Vuitton—Zendaya opted for the ECCO Biom C-Trail, a leather shoe with criss-crossing, pointe shoe-esque laces. Her funky footwear choice comes with another fashion girl stamp of approval: Sevigny, a longtime champion of the shoe, has been repping them for well over a year, styling them with everything from pastoral gingham skirts to denim smocks and gym shorts.

Sevigny’s approval notwithstanding, the $200 Biom C-Trails have a fashion pedigree: they were designed by former Chloé creative director Natacha Ramsay-Levi. But the GORPy flat isn’t just for the fashion-forward. With its rubber soles and all-terrain tread, it proved a welcome shoe choice for Zendaya’s recent hike with her fiancé, Tom Holland, and their dogs.

Zendaya went the high-low route, styling her sneakerinas with a pair of black, below-the-knee shorts, a Pepto Bismol pink men’s sweater from The Row, and—of course—her Jessica McCormack engagement ring.

With an endorsement from Sevigny and Zendaya, it seems like we’ve got a hot contender for the top sneakerina.

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We’ll keep you updated on all the latest ‘Wicked’ drops, from Lego sets to candles.

If Cynthia Erivo’s version of ‘Defying Gravity’ plays on a constant loop in your head like it does mine, then you’ll be delighted to know that we’re finally just a few months away from the release of the highly anticipated “Wicked” sequel, “Wicked: For Good.” The bewitching follow-up to last year’s film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical hits theaters on Friday, November 21 and following in the footsteps of “Barbie” and most recently, “F1 The Movie,” the collabs are showing up in a big way for fans.

In the lead up to the film’s November 2025 release, tons of brands are already releasing special product collaborations that pay homage to the enchanting world of “Wicked,” with limited-edition launches from Funko Pop, Voluspa, Lego, Roots and plenty more set to go live in the coming months.

To help you gear up for the new film, we’ll be keeping a running list of the best “Wicked” product launches that are worth shopping—no matter if you’re a good witch or a bad witch:

MORE: New ‘Wicked: For Good’ LEGO sets are gonna be Popular. Preorder yours today

Shop all the best ‘Wicked’ product collabs: Funko Pop, Voluspa and more

When does “Wicked: For Good” come out?

The highly anticipated “Wicked: For Good” film is set to release on Friday, November 21, 2025. The film will serve as a follow-up or ‘part 2’ of the first “Wicked” film, which was released on November 22, 2024.

The musical film will feature the same primary cast members, including Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey and more.

Streaming guide: Deals, bundles and free trials on Disney+, Apple TV+, Sling TV