Category: 5. Entertainment

This latest move follows the Union Ministry of Home Affairs’ recommendation to block 16 Pakistan-based YouTube channels after the recent act of terrorism in Pahalgam.

The Ministry alleged that these channels spread communally sensitive and provocative content as well as false information that targets India, its security agencies and armed forces. Besides the YouTube channels, social media profiles of numerous public figures from Pakistan, including actors Saba Qamar, Mahira Khan, Ahad Raza Mir, Yumna Zaidi, Danish Taimoor, Fawad Khan, Hania Aamir, and Mawra Hocane remain geo-blocked in India.

Moreover, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has told Indian OTT platforms, digital intermediaries, and media streaming services to stop distributing web series, songs, podcasts, films, and other media content hailing from Pakistan. The Ministry’s advisory mentioned national security as the primary concern. 

For a couple of decades, Ellen Jovin co-ran a communication company with her husband to help executives better express themselves. Then, in 2018, outside a subway station in New York, she set up a folding table and put up a sign, and the grammar table was born.

Reviews compared it to Lucy’s therapy stall in “The Peanuts” or the “Ask Ann Landers” advice column. Jovin then took the table on the road, setting it up in 50 states, and eventually writing the book “Rebel With a Clause,” answering questions she’d heard on the road, from “What’s the Oxford comma?” to the debate over split infinitives.

Now, Jovin’s husband, Brandt Johnson, has made a documentary about that road trip. It’s called “Rebel With a Clause.”

Here & Now‘s Robin Young has spoken to Jovin throughout the years and sat down with both her and Johnson at a screening of the documentary for the Boston Film Festival.

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Robin Young produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Todd Mundt. Young also produced it for the web.

This segment aired on July 3, 2025.

Michael Madsen, the rough-and-tumble actor best known for his work in the Quentin Tarantino films Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, died Thursday morning. He was 67.

Madsen was found unresponsive by deputies responding to a 911 call at his Malibu home and pronounced dead at 8:25 a.m., a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.

Liz Rodriguez, his rep at EMR Media Entertainment, told THR “we understand Michael had a cardiac arrest.”

Madsen’s official bio notes that he “balanced intensity with introspection … whether delivering chilling dialogue or quietly capturing a moment behind the camera, his commitment to storytelling remained constant. He brought both edge and soul to every role, and his enduring influence on American cinema is undeniable.”

His big screen body of work included WarGames (1983), The Natural (1984), The Doors (1991), Thelma & Louise (1991), Free Willy (1993), Species (1995), Donnie Brasco (1997), Die Another Day (2002), Sin City (2005) and Scary Movie 4 (2006).

He has 346 acting credits in IMDb in a career that began in the 1980s.

“Fame is a two-edged sword,” he told THR’s Scott Roxborough in 2018. “There are a lot of blessings but also a lot of heavy things that come with it. I think it has a lot to do with the characters I’ve played. I think I’ve been more believable than I should have been. I think people really fear me. They see me and go: ‘Holy shit, there’s that guy!’

“But I’m not that guy. I’m just an actor. I’m a father, I’ve got seven children. I’m married, I’ve been married 20 years. When I’m not making a movie, I’m home, in pajamas, watching The Rifleman on TV, hopefully with my 12-year-old making me a cheeseburger. I sure as hell had my rabble-rousing days, but sooner or later you have to get over that and move on.”

He appeared in dozens of films in the past five years alone, many of which were forgettable.

“Well, sometimes people forget that sometimes you have to pay the mortgage, sometimes you have to put your kids through school,” he said. “You can’t always pick the greatest script. And you pick a project you probably shouldn’t be involved in and then you have to live with it all your life.”

One of three kids, Madsen was born in Chicago on Sept. 25, 1957. His father, Calvin, was a firefighter with the Chicago Fire Department, and his mother, Elaine, was an author turned filmmaker who won an Emmy in 1983 for producing the documentary Better Than It Has to Be, about the history of movie-making in the Windy City. His folks divorced when he was 11.

Inspired by Robert Mitchum in the war movie Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (1957), Madsen began his career at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, where he learned from John Malkovich and appeared in Of Mice and Men as Carlson, the ranch hand who kills an innocent dog.

After moving to Los Angeles and working as a mechanic at a gas station in Beverly Hills, he appeared in two episodes of NBC’s St. Elsewhere in 1982, then played a cop in WarGames, directed by John Badham.

In Tarantino’s directorial debut film, Reservoir Dogs (1992), Madsen landed the role of the ultra-cruel Mr. Blonde. He said he really wanted to play Mr. Pink because he had more lines with the veteran Harvey Keitel, but Steve Buscemi got that part. It was Mr. Blonde or nothing, Tarantino told him.

“I had never met Quentin before,” he told The Independent in a 2016 interview. “I walked in the room at the 20th Century Fox lot and he was standing there with his arms folded, Harvey sitting on the couch in bare feet.” He did get to cut off a cop’s ear in the movie, however.

For Tarantino’s follow-up, Pulp Fiction (1994), Madsen declined the role of Vincent Vega, which went to John Travolta in what would be an Oscar-nominated turn. Madsen instead starred as the mobster Sonny Black in the crime film Donnie Brasco, directed by Mike Newell.

In the martial arts action films Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and 2, released in 2003 and 2004, Madsen portrayed the assassin Budd (code name Sidewinder) and strip club bouncer who is an early target of the avenging Bride (Uma Thurman).

He then was the quiet cowpoke Joe Gage in The Hateful Eight (2015) and Sheriff Hackett on Bounty Law, the fictional 1960s TV show at the center of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

Survivors include his younger sister, Oscar-nominated actress Virginia Madsen. One of his children with wife DeAnna Madsen, Hudson, died by suicide in 2022.

Madsen also was a published poet and accomplished photographer, and he has a book, Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems, due out next year.

Writes Tarantino in the foreword: “For me, the real journey that Michael the writer is exploring is what it means to be a man in a world where the notions of manhood that some of us grew up with are barely remembered. But then if everybody embarked on the hero’s journey, everybody would be a hero, wouldn’t they?”

Hilary Lewis contributed to this report.

F1: The Movie may have just released, but it seems like it won’t be the last time Brad Pitt stars in a sports movie.

Pitt was a guest on a Wednesday episode of the New Heights podcast, hosted by Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce and former Philadelphia Eagles’ center Jason Kelce. During their conversation, Jason asked the Oscar winner if he wants to do another sports film after watching his “very cinematic” film, F1.

The actor responded, “I love a sports movie when they work … It’s the greatest. I look back at Gene Hackman and Hoosiers and [Robert] Redford and The Natural, there’s even something more. Sports for me, even one game is an entire lifetime.”

While speaking to the Kelce brothers, who have both won Super Bowl championships, he continued, “We watch you guys, we watch your fate. We watch how you deal with adversity, how you fight through it and it’s really an amazing metaphor for a lifetime.”

Before F1, one of Pitt’s most loved projects was in 2011’s Moneyball, which The Hollywood Reporter included in its list of the best baseball movies of all time. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including a nom for Pitt in the best actor category.

“When we get it right in these sports movies and I felt like we really got it right in Moneyball in a lovely, beautiful way to add to that lexicon,” he said. “I think this one does too on a really big level because the racing is probably the most visceral racing experience you’ll ever have. But like all great sports movies, when they’re great, there’s also a story there. You’re moved by it. And were funny as fuck. So, we got that to deliver it, but this kind of spiritual ending to it all, I’m really proud about.”

Elsewhere in the podcast, Pitt explained that he enjoys watching what the new generation of actors is doing. “I like to see what they are up against and the way they negotiate and work their way through it. They enjoy it more. We were more uptight and it had to be about acting and ‘You didn’t sell out, you didn’t sell out.’ But now it’s like, ‘We can be artists in many different arenas, so let’s do it and let’s enjoy it.’”

However, he concluded by sharing some advice. “But they also get caught up in you ‘have to have a franchise’ or ‘have to have a superhero.’ But I keep saying, ‘Don’t! Don’t! One day they’ll die.’”

Hollywood actor Michael Madsen died in his California home on Thursday morning, US media reported. He was 67.

He was found unresponsive by authorities responding to a 911 call at his Malibu home and pronounced dead at 08:25 local time (BST), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

He is believed to have died of cardiac arrest, according to a representative.

Madsen was a prolific actor, best known for his roles in the Quentin Tarantino movies Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

In one of the seminal movies of the 1990s, Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, he played psychotic thief Mr Blonde, who shocked audiences in a scene where he cut off a policeman’s ear.

During a career spanning four decades, Madsen also took on a number of tv roles.

In both tv and film, he often portrayed the law enforcers like sheriffs and detectives, as well as the law breakers, such as a washed-out hitman in the Kill Bill franchise.

In recent years, he lent his voices to video games, including Grand Theft Auto III and the Dishonored series.

Michael Madsen was born in Chicago in September 1957. His father was a Navy veteran of World War Two who later became a firefighter, and his mother was a filmmaker.

He was the brother of Virginia Madsen, who is known for several movies including Sideways, for which she was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe.

He was married three times, and is survived by four children, including actor Christian Madsen.

Madsen divorced his wife of 28 years, DeAnna, in 2024, over the death of their son Hudson, according to People magazine.

The actor Michael Madsen has died aged 67 at his home in Malibu, according to authorities and his representatives. No foul play is suspected, the sheriff’s department confirmed, after deputies responded to the Los Angeles county home following a call to the emergency services on Thursday morning.

He was pronounced dead at 8.25am. In an email, Madsen’s manager, Ron Smith, confirmed his client had died from cardiac arrest.

A statement from Smith and another manager, Susan Ferris, along with publicist Liz Rodriguez said:

“In the last two years Michael Madsen has been doing some incredible work with independent film including upcoming feature films Resurrection Road, Concessions and Cookbook for Southern Housewives, and was really looking forward to this next chapter in his life.

“Michael was also preparing to release a new book called Tears for My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems, currently being edited. Michael Madsen was one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, who will be missed by many.”

Over a four-decade career, Madsen had won acclaim for his portrayals of often enigmatic and frequently wise-cracking tough guys in films including Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Reservoir Dogs, Thelma & Louise and Donnie Brasco.

He also features in later Tarantino films including The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Other credits amongst the 346 listed in IMDb include The Doors, Free Willy, Species, Die Another Day, Sin City and Scary Movie 4.

Madsen began his career in Chicago as part of the Steppenwolf Theatre company as as apprentice to John Malkovich before debuting on the big screen in 1983 sci-fi WarGames.

Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter in 2018, Madsen spoke about his industry typecasting, calling fame “a two-edged sword. here are a lot of blessings but also a lot of heavy things that come with it. I think it has a lot to do with the characters I’ve played. I think I’ve been more believable than I should have been. I think people really fear me. They see me and go: ‘Holy shit, there’s that guy!’

“But I’m not that guy. I’m just an actor. I’m a father, I’ve got seven children. I’m married, I’ve been married 20 years. When I’m not making a movie, I’m home, in pyjamas, watching The Rifleman on TV, hopefully with my 12-year-old making me a cheeseburger. I sure as hell had my rabble-rousing days, but sooner or later you have to get over that and move on.”

The brother of the actor Virginia Madsen, he was married three times and had six children, one of whom pre-deceases him.

More to follow …

CNN
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George Takei has a very personal view about current US immigration enforcement efforts.

The “Star Trek” star appeared on an episode of Audie Cornish’s podcast “The Assignment” to promote his new graphic memoir, “It Rhymes With Takei.” He talked about being held as a five-year-old child with his family in an internment camp for Japanese Americans by the US government during World War II.

Takai is the author of several books and has shared his story before, but he sees an urgency in making sure that people know their history, so the horrors his and other families endured won’t be repeated.

“Our democracy reflects the people and if the people are cowed and silent it fails,” he told Cornish.

The actor turned activist has his own rich history of advocacy on multiple fronts, ranging from immigration to LGBTQ+ rights. The man who at one point was closeted about his sexuality now understands the importance of representation.

He explained to Cornish that he was a teen who had fallen in love with acting when he saw his favorite movie star “heartthrob” actor Tab Hunter lose work after a tabloid reported that Hunter was gay. It was a cautionary tale for Takei.

“You could not aspire to be an actor, to be hired by a producer in a Hollywood if it was known that you were gay,” he said. “And so I put myself in my own self created, invisible barbwire prison camp. The term then was ‘closeted.’ I was visible in other social and justice issues, but I never touched my own situation because I desperately, passionately wanted to be an actor.”

Takei came out in 2005 amid the fight for marriage equality.

He has used his popularity as having starred as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu in the beloved “Star Trek” franchise to give voice to what he views as injustices.

These days, he’s raising his voice about the policies of the Trump administration.

“We have what I call ‘Klingon in the White House,’” he said. “This authoritarian, self-important, singularly minded person there advocating for erasure.”

Takei also has his memories of how he and his family were treated during World War II.

“They categorized us as ‘enemy alien.’ We were neither,” he said. “We were American born, educated, patriotic Americans and yet they had this falsity and they fanned the flames of hatred. The whole country was swept up.”

The camp where he and his family were forced to live was the result of an executive order. He said his father had shared with him how important the constitution is and often quoted President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.

Now as an adult, Takei recognizes that then President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who signed the executive order that led to the camps got “swept up” in the “hysteria” of the time and “panicked out of ignorance” about the Japanese Americans who resembled the people who bombed Peal Harbor.

“This is where teachers and librarians are the pillars of democracy,” Takei said. “They can teach them this truth that people, even great presidents, can be stampeded by hysteria. And that’s what we’re going through right now.”

Such truth is vital, according to Takei, given what he sees as the lies told by politicians that are believed by voters until it’s too late.

A community cafe founded in memory of a man who took his own life is celebrating its tenth anniversary this weekend.

Johnny’s Happy Place in Kettering, Northamptonshire, was set up in 2014 by the family of Johnny Mackay, who died at the age of 29 after years of drug and alcohol addiction and undiagnosed mental health issues.

The cafe offers free mental health sessions with trained counsellors, and art therapy.

Johnny’s mother, Denise McKay, 76, said: “It’s been a remarkable journey. We get more and more people in every week, and what surprises me most is that [the local community] is embracing us, supporting us financially, and becoming involved.”

In the wake of Mr McKay’s death, his family and friends were determined to honour his memory, and two months later they were offered an unused cafe space that became the foundation for Johnny’s Happy Place.

Ms McKay, who previously worked in the hotel trade and now also volunteers with the British Heart Foundation, said the cafe has been her lifeline.

“When Johnny died, I sort of gave up my life. I didn’t do anything, I just focused on this,” she said.

“Starting a cafe sounded preposterous at the time. None of us had any experience, but I’m so glad it was suggested. Every time I open the door, I’m pleased to be here.”

Ten years on, Ms McKay said strangers still share stories about Johnny with her.

“They knew him and they have such wonderful anecdotes,” she added.

Johnny’s Happy Place will hold its anniversary event at the cafe on 6 July.