Movies

The live-action 'Lion King' reboot was swimming in money this weekend here in America -- making it one of the best openings ever ... this in spite of critics kind of sh***in' on it.

Jon Favreau's latest re-imagining -- he also did the live-action version of "The Jungle Book" in 2016 -- hauled in a monster box office number in the North American market over the past few days, making an estimated $185 million ... and soaring past expectations.

The huge payday launched 'Lion King' into the 9th slot for highest-grossing opening ever (under "Avengers: Endgame," 'Infinity War,' 'The Force Awakens,' and other behemoths at the top) while also marking the largest July opening for a PG flick ever. In short, Disney made lots o' $$$$$$$$.

The funny thing is ... the movie is relatively so-so, according to critics anyway. It's got a 55% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Megacritic -- which ain't good -- but folks still shelled out.

The biggest gripes about Disney's latest live-action revival is that the lions don't have any discernible facial expressions regardless of what's happening -- unlike the cartoon, which is very expressive throughout the roller coaster of events (RIP, Mufasa).

Not only that, but the biggest showstopping songs are a shell of themselves, and Beyonce barely gets any screen time -- yeah, we've seen it ... critics are sorta spot-on.

Comic-Con may be 100 miles from Hollywood, but it seems Hollywood made the trek to San Diego 'cause everyone showed up.

Partial list ...  Angelina Jolie, Chris Hemsworth, Salma Hayek, Tom Cruise, Conan O'Brien, Natalie Portman, Cory Booker, Orlando Bloom, Olivia Munn, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Taron Egerton, Jessica Chastain, Cara Delevingne, Evan Rachel Wood, Jeremy Renner, Jerry O'Connell, John Bradley, Maisie Williams, Kristen Bell, Patrick Stewart, Norman Reedus, and Aisha Tyler.

Some of the panels ... "Game of Thrones," "The Eternals," "The Walking Dead," "Star Trek" Universe, "Riverdale," "Veronica Mars," "Black Widow," "Terminator: Dark Fate," and Marvel Studios.

The man who voiced the prince in "The Little Mermaid" says the guy expected to land the role in the live-action remake is a perfect fit ... and the new Ariel's a home run.

Christopher Daniel Barnes -- who voiced Prince Eric in the 1989 classic -- tells TMZ ... Harry Styles would be an excellent choice, because he actually checks all the boxes of a Disney prince in real life.

Styles is reportedly the front-runner for Eric, and Barnes says it's an added bonus he can sing ... now that some songs have actually been added for him.

Because, fun fact -- Barnes didn't get to sing any catchy tunes in 'Little Mermaid' ... and says he's the only Disney prince with that distinction.

It was a shocking scene. An enormously popular Hong Kong actor who has a number of American movie credits -- is in the hospital after a man jumped onstage and stabbed him ... and the dramatic scene plays out on video.

Actor Simon Yam -- who appeared in 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' -- was onstage Saturday for the opening of a new store in the southern province of China. He was speaking to the crowd when a man walked onstage, pulled out a knife from his pocket and lunged at Yam with the weapon, stabbing him in the abdomen. The assailant then follows up by slashing Yam and then trying to stab him a second time.

Security intervened and subdued the assailant, who was taken into custody.

64-year-old Yam, who also appeared in 'The Cradle of Life' starring Angelina Jolie, "Election," "Exiled" and many other movies, is recovering from abdomen wounds and wounds on his arm from the slashes.

Jennifer Lopez -- who regularly steps out in only the bare essentials -- covered her entire bod in the sweltering NYC heat, but it may be a brilliant marketing ploy.

It was 90 degrees Friday in the Big Apple, but felt north of 100 because of humidity. That's why walking out in Guess threads from head to toe would certainly draw attention.

You may recall ... less than 2 months ago Guess announced a J Lo "It's My Party" line. Camo is not part of her line, but it could be.

LES GROSSMAN IS ALIVE AND WELL!!!

Tom Cruise revived the overweight studio exec character from "Tropic Thunder" Thursday night on Conan O'Brien's show at Comic-Con in San Diego. 11 years later and Tom has NOT lost the famous dance moves that catapulted Les into legendary status.

Tom made a surprise appearance at Comic-Con to promote the first "Top Gun: Maverick" trailer -- which looks SICK, BTW -- and later stopped by "Conan" to reminisce about the Ben Stiller-directed action-comedy.

Ya gotta watch ... after busting out the dance moves and explaining how that sequence all came about ... Tom summed up the glory days by busting out Les' signature cursing dialogue -- at Conan's request. Tom obliged.

Tom, of course, dropped the classic Les line -- "Would you stand back and literally f*** your own face?!?" -- during a scene with Matthew McConaughey as Rick Peck.

Bradley Cooper and Irina Shayk may have parted ways, but they have come together as parents in a big way ... agreeing to live in the same town and share custody ... TMZ has learned.

Sources connected to the former couple tell us, they have agreed to joint legal and physical custody of 2-year-old Lea De Seine. We're told it's a 50/50 split, although with work schedules it varies from month to month.

And, what's more ... our sources say they do NOT have a formal, written custody agreement.  They're so in sync with co-parenting, they don't feel the need to memorialize it.

We're also told they agreed to live in the same city ... New York City. They had a home in L.A. and also one in New York that they bought last October. It's unclear if Bradley will still be spending much time in L.A.

Bradley and Irina started dating in 2015 and split last month.

Will Smith and his family are in full vacation mode on a breathtaking Italian island ... golfing, swimming, boating and hopping on jet skis for some summer fun overseas!!!

Will brought the gang with him to Sardinia ... and they added a new guest to the bunch, Willow's boyfriend Tyler Cole.

The only thing more beautiful than the Smith clan ... the sparkling blue waters. Willow and Tyler dove right in, while Will and Jada Pinkett Smith stayed on land and hit the links for a competitive round between husband and wife.

Cuba Gooding Jr.'s motion to dismiss his groping charges doesn't sit well with the D.A.'s Office, which is calling him out for using the alleged victim's mental health as an excuse to toss the case.

The Manhattan D.A. responded to Cuba's motion to dismiss the case, saying the Oscar winner and his legal team are jumping the gun. In docs, obtained by TMZ, prosecutors say the alleged victim's mental health and expert evaluations of the surveillance videos ... are matters to be addressed once Gooding is on trial.

Further, the D.A. basically calls out Gooding's team for victim shaming, saying her mental health history is irrelevant to whether the actor touched her breast that night in the NYC bar. Prosecutors added ... if the judge were to dismiss Gooding's case, it would send a horrible message to the public -- that the tactic of exposing an accuser's past works.

Essentially, it would create a chilling effect for alleged victims coming forward.

According to the docs, the fact Gooding is a "world renowned" Oscar-winning movie star who has no prior convictions bares no relevance to his guilt or innocence in the matter.

Gooding's lawyers filed the motion to dismiss last month, but the judge said she would not make any "rash decisions" ... and tabled the matter for August 14.

As we reported ... Gooding turned himself in last month a few days after a woman called 911 claiming he touched her breast without consent at a New York bar. He was charged with one count of misdemeanor forcible touching and one count of sexual abuse in the third degree ... Cuba pled not guilty.

We obtained video of the incident via the bar's security footage, as well as another run-in after the alleged groping incident.

The Oscar-winner's attorneys, Mark Heller and Peter Toumbekis, claim he's innocent and believe the video evidence is inconclusive. Their motion cited blog posts where the accuser allegedly said she was starving for attention and also suffering PTSD and anxiety disorder.

Cuba himself claimed she has a "warped mental state" and has denied any misconduct with her. His lawyers argued the case is plagued by inconsistencies and an alleged NYPD screw-up.

In the docs, prosecutors shoot down any claim of police misconduct ... saying Cuba's attorneys misrepresented the police report and NYPD's initial investigation of the case.

Chris Pratt wore a shirt that repped the "Don't Tread On Me" flag, which has now been labeled by some as "racist" and something white supremacists use ... but that's not entirely accurate.

Here's the deal ... Chris was out in L.A. with his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, earlier this week ... and he was wearing a navy t-shirt with the American flag on it and a rattlesnake superimposed, sitting atop the phrase "Don't Tread On Me." It's a mash-up of Old Glory and the Gadsden flag. 

Chris has been criticized over the past few days for repping the flag and the slogan -- originally created during the Revolutionary War as a message from the American colonies to England. It has since been adopted by the Tea Party and other far-right political groups. 

The Gadsden flag has also been used by some white supremacists in recent years -- most notably in 2014 when the bodies of 2 dead police officers were draped with the Gadsden flag that also bore swastikas. It's also been seen in the same company as confederate and Nazi flags.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled in 2016 that the flag alone could be viewed as racial harassment in the workplace, depending on the context. While it noted the flag doesn't have racist origins, today it can be "sometimes interpreted to convey racially-tinged messages in some contexts." The agency called for further investigation.

The reason why Chris Pratt is being called out might have to do with a Yahoo UK article that flat-out called his wardrobe a "white supremacist" shirt ... making the leap many other outlets wouldn't.

A bunch of big celebs like a bunch of Presidential candidates ... so they're funding a bunch of candidates with the hope one of them makes a move on January 20, 2021 ... to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

We've done some digging and found the top several Democratic presidential candidates all have their share of celebrity backers, but a handful are sharing the love ... or hedging their political bets.

For instance, according to filings by the 2019 Federal Election Commission ... Barbra Streisand donated $1,000 each last quarter to the campaigns of Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg.

The Katzenbergs -- both Jeffrey and Marilyn -- dropped $2,800 each (the max one-time donation) on those same 6 candidates ... except substitute Kirsten Gillibrand for Klobuchar.

Anna Wintour's donated to at least 4 candidates, so far -- $2,800 to Mayor Pete, Harris and Beto and a grand to Gillibrand.

Shonda Rhimes donated $2,800 to Booker and Warren last quarter, and the same amount to Harris and Gillibrand the quarter before that.

Finally, Ryan Murphy is Team Harris to the tune of $5,500 and Team Buttigieg for $2,800.

Bernie Sanders is noticeably absent from this list, but he's received donations from stars like Shailene Woodley, Josh Hutcherson and Milla Jovovich ... it's just that none of them double-dipped with anyone else as far as we can tell. And, of course, he has the public support of Cardi B.

As for Joe Biden ... his donation numbers from last quarter aren't in yet.

As we told you ... Mayor Pete's got a wide variety of celebs supporting him, as does Elizabeth Warren, and there's still a lot of time for more of that sweet Hollywood money to pour in.

The real-life Peter Parker is staying true to the comics -- cuddling up with a beautiful blonde who's reminiscent of Spidey's first love, and who's also a big fan of beer!

"Spider-Man: Far From Home" star Tom Holland was spotted Sunday hanging out with a mystery chick at British Summer Time Hyde Park Festival in London, where the pair could be seen double-fisting beers and what appeared to be water cups as they went off to watch music acts. 

We're told Tom and his lady friend were spotted watching The Black Eyed Peas and Robbie Williams at different points. Based on what we see here, things seem pretty romantic between 'em.

The woman is definitely rocking a Gwen Stacy vibe, and was pretty handsy with Tommy boy ... putting her arm around his waist, and even giving him a pat on the booty. As they strolled along, they got closer and closer -- practically linking arms.

Funny enough, Tom's way more of a smooth operator here than he is on camera opposite Zendaya -- who plays MJ. As Petey P, Tom's a goofy, awkward teen navigating love. 

Here, he's more like notorious playboy Bruce Wayne (pardon the Marvel-DC crossover).

Pete Buttigieg may have lost some early steam in his campaign to nab the Democratic nomination for president ... but Hollywood's still got his back big-time.

According to filings by the 2019 Federal Election Commission ... contributions for Mayor Pete have been pouring in from celebs since he announced his 2020 presidential run -- with well over 30 Hollywood types forking over cash to the South Bend Mayor.

Among the names ... Gwyneth Paltrow ($2,800), Anna Wintour ($2,800), Mandy Moore ($3,818.86), Tom Ford ($5,600), Larry David ($2,800), Kevin Bacon ($2,800), Michael J. Fox ($2,800), Frances McDormand ($3,000), Matt Bomer ($2,800), Jeffrey Katzenberg ($2,800), Marilyn Katzenberg ($2,800) and John Stamos ($1,000).

And, there are others who opened their wallets for Pete, including Brad Falchuk, Sean Hayes, Caroline Kennedy, Ryan Murphy, Sarah Silverman, Ted Danson, Sharon Stone and George Takei. 

Looks like $2,800 seems to be the magic number -- the max one-time donation. Funny enough the largest one-time contribution we found in the famous batch of donors -- $6,600 -- was one Cooper Hefner -- the guy running Playboy Enterprises. The smallest donations came in at $250. 

Pete may be behind in the polls, but he's still one of the most popular Democratic candidates -- raising more than $24m this past quarter.

BTW, he's not the only Dem who's got Hollywood in his corner ... Senator Elizabeth Warren has a healthy amount of support as well -- Amy Schumer, Rosie O'Donnell, Scarlett Johansson and others plunked down cash -- raising a total of just over $19m over the course of this last cycle. 

Drake Bell thinks Austin Butler has all the right features to play Elvis Presley on the big screen ... but his biggest challenge will be singing like the king of rock 'n roll.

We got the "Drake & Josh" star in New York City after news broke Austin got the nod to play EP in Baz Luhrmann's movie about the icon. Drake, a self-proclaimed Elvis fanatic, says it's going to be a tough call whether his fellow Nickelodeon alum should attempt to really sing Elvis classics, or just lip-sync.

He's a bit of an expert on the topic, because Drake rattled off several other actors who were in Austin's shoes -- Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin, Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury and Taron Egerton as Elton John.

Vocal abilities aside ... Drake says he's glad Austin got the part -- beating out Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Harry Styles, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and a last minute push from G-Eazy -- because he's got the right look.

Drake's a little bummed he never got a casting call though ... and ya gotta see his Elvis impersonation!

Sarunas Jackson is totally down with the James Bond franchise casting a black woman to take over the role of 007 ... no matter what the true motives are behind the monumental decision.

We got the "Insecure" actor at LAX and our photog asked about reports that Lashana Lynch is being cast as 007 in next year's Bond 25 movie. Sarunas says it's amazing, even if money is the driving force behind the change from a traditionally white male lead.

Sarunas says the shift is great for black girls and black women ... and he thinks decision makers are finally recognizing they've been leaving out a key demographic -- and it's spending power.

If you think you saw Vanessa Hudgens walking with Elvis Presley in L.A. Monday afternoon, you're sorta dead-on ... since her BF is about to step into the king's blue suede shoes.

The former Disney star was hand in hand with Austin Butler on the heels of the big Hollywood casting news -- he's playing Elvis in an upcoming biopic, and beat out heavy hitters like Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller and Harry Styles.

The decision to go with Austin caught some folks by surprise -- fact is, he's relatively unknown compared to his competition, but looks at these pics and it's easy to see why he was tapped for the role. Dude's got the hair and the look working!

His appearance and acting skills obviously impressed director Baz Luhrmann and co. enough to land the potentially career-changing gig.

As for Vanessa, she wrote on social media Monday that she was "OVERRRR THE F***ING MOOOOOOOOONNNNN" for her man, with whom she's been with since 2011.

BTW, just 'cause you might not have heard of Austin before today ... that doesn't mean he's a hound dog in the acting game. He's been in the biz since 2006, having appeared in numerous hit series like 'Ned's Declassified,' "Zoey 101," "Life Unexpected," "Switched at Birth," "The Carrie Diaries," "The Shannara Chronicles" and tons of other shows and movies.