Entertainment

This image released by Black Bear shows Leo Woodall in a scene from

How ‘Navalny’ filmmaker Daniel Roher’s post-Oscar creative depression inspired ‘Tuner’

Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press 6 minute read 10:35 AM CDT

For Daniel Roher, making things is kind of a compulsion. Perhaps it’s not surprising for someone who was able to direct two movies at the same time: A documentary about artificial intelligence, now streaming on Peacock, and the heist thriller “Tuner,” in theaters Friday.

But he is the kind of person who is constantly creating, if not movies, little sketches, doodles and paintings, often while he’s in conversation with someone else (including this reporter). That’s not to say he’s not engaged and present with whomever he’s talking to — his mind is just one where it can all happen simultaneously. If he were to describe himself in film editing terms, he’d be a montage of a human being, he said.

A post-Oscar creative paralysis

That’s why it was so alarming that not too long ago, sometime after he’d won the best documentary Oscar for “Navalny,” that tap turned off. He was 29 years old, had just won filmmaking’s top honor and was paralyzed by the question of what to do next.

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Rami Malek poses for portrait photographs for the film 'The Man I Love' at the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Rami Malek explores art, love and death in Ira Sachs’ Cannes entry ‘The Man I Love’

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Rami Malek explores art, love and death in Ira Sachs’ Cannes entry ‘The Man I Love’

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press 3 minute read 7:43 AM CDT

CANNES, France (AP) — In Ira Sachs’ 1980s-set drama “The Man I Love,” Rami Malek finds the most well-tailored role since his Oscar-winning portrayal of Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

While Sachs’ film, which is a competition entry at this year's Cannes Film Festival, likewise centers on a performer dying of AIDS, it’s otherwise an altogether different and dramatically more personal tale about art, love and death.

“It took me a minute to realize it was more about life,” Malek said in an interview alongside Sachs on a terrace in Cannes. “There’s a threat looming throughout, but it’s an undercurrent. Throughout the film there’s a cacophony of sound and imagery and beauty that is filling your soul.”

The film, which is for sale in Cannes, has earned Malek — an actor who has sometimes struggled to find well-suited roles since his breakout in “Mr. Robot” — some of the best reviews of his career.

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7:43 AM CDT

Entertainment

FILE - Geena Davis appears at the Fashion Trust U.S. Awards in Los Angeles on April 7, 2026. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

What it’s like inside the amfAR Gala, which has raised millions for AIDS research

Louise Dixon, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

What it’s like inside the amfAR Gala, which has raised millions for AIDS research

Louise Dixon, The Associated Press 4 minute read 7:04 AM CDT

CANNES, France (AP) — As the last Thursday of the Cannes Film Festival comes around, the rich and famous decamp from the Croisette and head up the coast to Antibes, where the famous Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc hosts the annual amfAR Gala.

The gala raises money for AIDS research, and this year's extravaganza is being hosted by Geena Davis, with Robbie Williams, Lizzo and Zara Larsson expected to perform. Since 1985, amfAR has raised nearly $950 million (841 million euros) in support of its programs and has awarded more than 3,800 grants to research teams worldwide.

The Associated Press has covered the event for more than a decade, and the AP will be offering a livestream of stars arriving for the gala Thursday beginning at 1600GMT on YouTube and APNews.com.

Here’s an insider’s look at how the evening plays out.

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7:04 AM CDT

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FILE - Britain's Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, looks round as he leaves after attending the Easter Matins Service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, England, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

Documents show Queen Elizabeth was eager for ex-Prince Andrew to become trade envoy

The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Documents show Queen Elizabeth was eager for ex-Prince Andrew to become trade envoy

The Associated Press 4 minute read Updated: 9:24 AM CDT

LONDON (AP) — The late Queen Elizabeth II was “very keen” for former Prince Andrew to be named Britain’s trade envoy in 2001, according to documents released Thursday that showed his appointment received little scrutiny from government ministers.

The government released confidential papers related to the appointment in response to legislation passed by Parliament after lawmakers accused the king’s brother of putting his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein ahead of the nation. The former prince was stripped of his royal titles, including Duke of York, last year and is now known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

“The Queen is very keen that the Duke of York should take on a prominent role in the promotion of national interests,” the head of Britain’s trade body wrote to two senior cabinet ministers on Feb. 25, 2000.

The queen worried about her son

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Updated: 9:24 AM CDT

Business

This image released by CBS shows host Stephen Colbert on the set of

Stephen Colbert is saying goodbye to ‘The Late Show.’ How it ends is still a secret

Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Stephen Colbert is saying goodbye to ‘The Late Show.’ How it ends is still a secret

Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press 2 minute read Yesterday at 11:16 PM CDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen Colbert’s long goodbye to late-night TV ends Thursday night when the host of “The Late Show” appears behind his CBS desk for the final time.

What is planned for the finale has not been revealed but the folks at “The Late Show” have had months to prepare for the end of the network’s 33-year franchise.

Guests in the final week have included Michael Keaton, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Steven Spielberg, David Byrne and Bruce Springsteen, while there's been a wacky version of “It’s Raining Men” remade into “It’s Raining Fish.”

CBS announced last summer that Colbert’s show would end, citing economic reasons after 11 seasons. But Colbert is the ratings leader in late-night TV. Many — including Colbert — have expressed skepticism that President Donald Trump’s repeated criticism of the show wasn't a factor.

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Yesterday at 11:16 PM CDT

Entertainment

Artist JR, the ‘French Banksy’ creates a ‘cave’ installation over Paris’ oldest bridge

Thomas Adamson, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Artist JR, the ‘French Banksy’ creates a ‘cave’ installation over Paris’ oldest bridge

Thomas Adamson, The Associated Press 5 minute read Updated: 9:46 AM CDT

PARIS (AP) — The oldest bridge in Paris looked Thursday as if it had been swallowed by a mountain.

The transformation is the work of JR, the street artist known as the “French Banksy,” who this week began inflating a giant artificial “cave” over the Pont Neuf, turning the 17th-century bridge that has carried Parisians across the Seine for more than 400 years into a rocky illusion rising over the river.

JR has said the idea of La Caverne du Pont Neuf, is to bring “mineral and nature” back to the heart of the city. He says he is not covering the bridge so much as revealing the stone taken from limestone quarries from which Paris itself was cut.

A jagged mass of gray rock now seems to rise over its arches. From downstream, the landmark appears to have vanished beneath a prehistoric cliff, its stone openings transformed into dark cave mouths above the water.

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Updated: 9:46 AM CDT

Entertainment

Just for Laughs founder Gilbert Rozon, right, leaves the courtroom for a break during his civil trial in Montreal on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

Gilbert Rozon, Just for Laughs founder, agrees to pay $930K to nine accusers: lawyers

The Canadian Press 1 minute read Preview

Gilbert Rozon, Just for Laughs founder, agrees to pay $930K to nine accusers: lawyers

The Canadian Press 1 minute read Yesterday at 10:22 PM CDT

MONTREAL - The lawyers for nine women who sued Just For Laughs founder Gilbert Rozon for sexual assault say the media mogul has agreed to pay the complainants $930,000.

The settlement comes after Quebec Superior Court Justice Chantal Tremblay ruled in late March that Rozen pay eight of the nine women a total of $880,000.

A statement from the women's law firm, Trudel Johnston & Lespérance, says the comedy festival founder also agreed to waive his right to appeal.

Rozon's lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Yesterday at 10:22 PM CDT

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Owner of ‘Peanuts’ music sues 3 companies and US government alleging illegal use of its catchy tunes

Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:19 PM CDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The owner of the music of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and other “Peanuts” television specials filed four lawsuits Wednesday against defendants including the U.S. Department of the Interior, alleging they illegally used the jazzy ditties of pianist Vince Guaraldi in social media posts and a video game.

Lee Mendelson Film Productions filed the suits in federal courts in New York and Washington, D.C. The defendants also include a video game company, an auction house and a belt-maker.

One lawsuit argues the Interior Department did not have permission to use Guaraldi's arrangement of “O Tannenbaum” from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in a digital holiday card posted to social media.

The department said in an email to The Associated Press that it does not comment on litigation.

Entertainment

Gretna Van Fleet smiles during an interview at her home in Frankenmuth, Mich, Monday, Jan. 14, 2019. (Kaytie Boomer/Saginaw News via AP)

Michigan woman whose name inspired band to become Greta Van Fleet dies at 95

The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Michigan woman whose name inspired band to become Greta Van Fleet dies at 95

The Associated Press 2 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 5:02 PM CDT

FRANKENMUTH, Mich. (AP) — Gretna Van Fleet didn't play music with Greta Van Fleet. But maybe she got the next best thing: The Grammy-winning rock band uses her name.

The 95-year-old Michigan woman died Monday at a senior living center in Frankenmuth, according to her obituary, the same community where the band was formed in 2012 when Van Fleet was in her 80s.

“I think they checked out my background to make sure I wasn’t on the Ten Most Wanted list or something, and they went ahead with it,” Van Fleet jokingly told MLive.com in 2019, ahead of the band's appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”

“But later, when I met the boys, I said, ‘That’s OK.' But, no, they did not approach me to begin with," Van Fleet said.

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Updated: Yesterday at 5:02 PM CDT

Business

FILE - James Murdoch arrives at St Bride's Church for the celebration ceremony of the wedding of Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall in London, March 5, 2016. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP, File)

James Murdoch, media scion, strikes deal for New York Magazine and Vox

Jocelyn Noveck, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

James Murdoch, media scion, strikes deal for New York Magazine and Vox

Jocelyn Noveck, The Associated Press 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:56 PM CDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Promising a commitment to "ambitious journalism and agenda-setting conversations,” media scion James Murdoch has struck a deal with the Vox Media digital company to acquire New York magazine, the Vox Media Podcast Network and the Vox editorial brand.

The deal with Vox, widely seen as liberal-leaning, represents a major move toward his own media empire for the 53-year-old younger son of Rupert Murdoch, who himself owned New York Magazine from 1976 until 1991. And it comes less than a year after the Murdoch family reached a deal on control of the 95-year-old mogul’s media empire after his death, ensuring no change in direction at Fox News, the most popular network for conservatives, under Rupert's chosen heir, Lachlan Murdoch.

Under the new deal, expected to close within weeks, Lupa Systems, James Murdoch’s media company, acquires the three divisions — about half of Vox Media. Neither Vox Media nor Lupa was disclosing the sum. The New York Times cited people familiar with the matter saying it was more than $300 million. The acquired divisions will operate, according to a statement, as a subsidiary of Lupa — called Vox Media.

Lots included and some excluded

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Updated: Yesterday at 6:56 PM CDT

Entertainment

This image released by Neon shows, from left, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, and Keke Palmer in a scene from

Movie Review: Boots Riley’s ‘I Love Boosters’ is a wild, surrealist social satire

Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Movie Review: Boots Riley’s ‘I Love Boosters’ is a wild, surrealist social satire

Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:33 PM CDT

Boots Riley holds nothing back in his audacious, surrealist social satire “I Love Boosters.” The film is a go-for-broke expression of wild imagination and social consciousness that’s impossible not to admire for its wacky, bold vision, with teleporting, high fashion snobbery and pyramid schemes.

Here is a movie where we get Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie and Taylour Paige leading a vigilante shoplifting operation, Demi Moore as a toxic girl boss, Don Cheadle as a sleazy lifestyle evangelist, Will Poulter as a fussy store manager and LaKeith Stanfield as a discount brand model with a strange accent and a hypnotizing stare. It sounds like fun, right? Like a raucous, madcap ride through the inequities of the fashion business from the executive suite, down to the retail store where the goods are sold and the Chinese factories where they’re made? And on a certain level it is all of that, but one thing it is not is very funny. “I Love Boosters” can be amusing and clever, but the laugh-out-loud comedy just isn’t quite there. And it doesn’t help that the film goes more off the rails as it progresses to a climax that is less rousing than mind-numbing.

The thing is, “I Love Boosters” does start on a strong, albeit minor key as we’re introduced to the Velvet Gang, Corvette (Palmer), Sade (Ackie) and Mariah (Paige) and their booster operation, stealing overpriced designer wares from high end stores and selling them for a steep discount on the street. There’s a kind of a Robin Hood sensibility to it all. Mariah calls it “Triple F,” or “Fashion Forward Filanthropy.” She knows how to spell philanthropy, she deadpans; This is branding.

But despite the colorful surroundings, there’s a pervasive hopelessness in this off-kilter world that looks a lot like our own. Corvette, particularly, feels outside of it all, as a woman who dreams of being a designer herself but is currently squatting in a closed fast food chicken shop and being haunted by a boulder of debt (like, literally). It doesn’t help that the founder she idolizes, Moore’s Christie Smith, has become obsessed with stopping the boosters. To Christie, a genius megalomaniac, they’re the big problem with her business and not the fact that her store employees are being paid a pittance and her factory employees even less. The people who work at the factories are also getting sick from sandblasting the denim. And yes, these are all real things.

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Yesterday at 2:33 PM CDT

Entertainment

Actor Jessie T. Usher shoots a selfie at the premiere of the series finale of the fifth season of the Amazon Prime Video series

As ‘The Boys’ ends, actors reveal their craziest stunts and what’s next for Vought

Leslie Ambriz And Cristina Jaleru, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

As ‘The Boys’ ends, actors reveal their craziest stunts and what’s next for Vought

Leslie Ambriz And Cristina Jaleru, The Associated Press 6 minute read Yesterday at 12:52 PM CDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — After five seasons of death, depravity and digs at the capitalistic superhero-industrial complex, “The Boys” dropped its series finale Wednesday.

But the gutsy (in more than one way) Vought Cinematic Universe is not coming to an end, with two spinoffs on the horizon at Amazon's Prime Video: “Vought Rising” and “The Boys: Mexico.” “Vought Rising” is due out in 2027 and traces the origins of the titular corporation's “supe” program, bringing back fan favorite Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles).

“I mean, look, you hope it’s received well. We don’t necessarily know just yet, my fingers are crossed,” Ackles said at “The Boys” series finale's premiere Tuesday in Los Angeles, praising “The Boys” cast and crew for building a remarkable fanbase. “So, I’m hoping that we can just capitalize on that as much as we can and that they will go with us on this new journey.”

How last season of ‘The Boys’ came together

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Yesterday at 12:52 PM CDT

Entertainment

Summer Movie Guide 2026: Here’s what’s coming to theaters and streaming from May to August

Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press 21 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 4:11 PM CDT

This summer at the movies, the Minions are filmmakers, the Mandalorian is working for the good guys, Matt Damon tries to find his way home (again), Anne Hathaway, Zendaya and Tom Holland are everywhere and no one remembers Peter Parker. Well, at least in the movie. The hope is that audiences not only remember but want to know what comes next for Spider-Man.

Hollywood’s summer movie season kicks off the first weekend in May not with a superhero movie but with “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” though one might argue that Miranda Priestly might be the Iron Man of fashion. May also brings a Billie Eilish concert film, the first “Star Wars” movie in seven years and a D-Day drama with Brendan Fraser as Dwight D. Eisenhower.

June kicks off with a live-action He-Man, a John Carney musical (with Nick Jonas and Paul Rudd!), an original Steven Spielberg sci-fi spectacle, the return of Supergirl and Woody and Buzz as well.

July brings a dose of Minions in 1920s Hollywood, Moana and a back-to-back dose of Holland and Zendaya, first in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and then in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of “The Odyssey” where Holland plays Odysseus’ son Telemachus and Zendaya is the goddess Athena.

Entertainment

This image released by Neon shows, seated from left, Thomas Harvey, William Patterson, John Henrik Clarke, Mrs. J.B Matthews, and Louise Patterson, standing from left, Ernest Crichlow, Romare Bearden, and Ida Mae Cullen a scene from the documentary

‘Once Upon a Time in Harlem’ has its day at the Cannes Film Festival, 50 years after it was shot

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

‘Once Upon a Time in Harlem’ has its day at the Cannes Film Festival, 50 years after it was shot

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 11:24 AM CDT

CANNES, France (AP) — David Greaves was 26 when his father, the pioneering filmmaker William Greaves, asked him to be one of four cameramen documenting a historic gathering in Harlem.

In August 1972, William Greaves assembled as many artists, writers, poets, musicians and organizers from the Harlem Renaissance as he could. They came for a cocktail party at Duke Ellington’s Harlem townhouse. There, they talked about the seminal 1920s cultural movement: what they remembered, who not to forget, what it all meant.

“My father would say, ‘Capture the life that’s happening,’” David recalls.

It took more than half a century for the result to see the light of day. But 54 years after that gathering, “Once Upon a Time Harlem” screened this week at the Cannes Film Festival.

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Updated: Yesterday at 11:24 AM CDT

Entertainment

Alan Bradley, as shown in this handout photo, the Canadian mystery writer whose tales of a precocious 11-year-old super-sleuth charmed readers worldwide, has died. His publisher, Doubleday Canada, says he died in the Isle of Man at age 87.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout-CNW Group/Penguin Random House Canada Limited-Jeff Bassett
(Mandatory Credit)

Canadian mystery writer Alan Bradley, who created Flavia de Luce character, dies at 87

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Canadian mystery writer Alan Bradley, who created Flavia de Luce character, dies at 87

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 12:28 PM CDT

Alan Bradley, the Canadian mystery writer whose tales of a precocious 11-year-old super-sleuth earned an international fan base, has died.

He died on Monday at age 87 in the Isle of Man, where he'd lived for more than a decade, said his publisher, Doubleday Canada.

"Alan's extraordinary imagination, generosity of spirit, and wonderful craft as a storyteller brought joy to readers in Canada and around the world for more than fifteen years," said Kristin Cochrane, CEO of Doubleday parent company Penguin Random House Canada.

Bradley's debut novel "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" and the character at its centre — kid detective Flavia de Luce — won a devoted fan base.

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Updated: Yesterday at 12:28 PM CDT

Entertainment

Iris Lebedeva, director Andrey Zvyagintsev and Dmitriy Mazurov pose for photographers at the photo call for the film Minotaur' at the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Photo by Millie Turner/Invision/AP)

‘Minotaur,’ about murder and corruption in Putin’s Russia, jolts the Cannes Film Festival

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

‘Minotaur,’ about murder and corruption in Putin’s Russia, jolts the Cannes Film Festival

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press 3 minute read Yesterday at 8:53 AM CDT

CANNES, France (AP) — Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev sent shock waves through the Cannes Film Festival with a soberly damning crime film about murder and corruption in Russia, set against the conscription of young men into President Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine.

“Minotaur,” which debuted Tuesday night at the French festival, was one of the most anticipated selections at this year's Cannes. The film rewarded those expectations, receiving one of the festival's most enthusiastic responses and putting the Russian filmmaker squarely in the mix for the Palme d'Or.

While “Minotaur” is outwardly centered around a married couple, its story has obvious political reverberations. Dmitriy Mazurov plays the chief executive of a large shipping company who, as Russia's military mobilizes for the all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is asked to contribute a quota of 150 workers to the mounting war effort.

At the same time, Mazurov begins investigating the suspected infidelity of his wife, played by Iris Lebedeva. As “Minotaur” evolves, their family drama takes on darker symbolism for the deceptions and savagery of Putin's war.

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