Movies

Ridley Scott allegedly has his actors interacting with live animals on the set of "Gladiator 2" -- something PETA has become aware of, and which it's urging the production to halt.

The animal rights org fired off a handful of letters over the past few days -- all obtained by TMZ -- and they're aimed at the director and his big-ticket cast ... Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal and others.

In the correspondence to Ridley, PETA says it's received whistleblower complaints alleging he's using both horses and macaque monkeys on set while shooting in Malta ... including a claim at least one of the horses recently collapsed. PETA is presuming the alleged collapse is due to extreme temperatures on the Mediterranean island.

It says, "Scorching summer heat and oppressive costumes are a dangerous mix for horses, who are naturally skittish animals, prone to flight and injury, and vulnerable to the stresses of a film set. The film and TV industries have a past riddled with on-set horse injuries and even deaths. We sincerely hope Gladiator 2 avoids adding another death to that list."

PETA also lists the dangers of working with live macaques, saying they're unpredictable and can hurt humans. They also say these monkeys are often ripped from their mothers at a young age for these types of film settings ... calling their alleged use unethical.

Despite the SAG-AFTRA strike, PETA says it's heard rumors "Gladiator 2" is continuing production this week, and asks Ridley to leave live animals out of it completely, suggesting he use CGI animals instead.

We've reached out to Ridley, Paramount, and the production company behind 'G2' ... so far, no word back.

BTW, we're told a similar letter was fired off to all the actors attached to 'Gladiator 2.'

Pras is doing A-OK in spite of his recent conviction for criminal conspiracy ... at least, that's the update Wyclef Jean is sharing about his fellow artist.

TMZ Hip Hop connected with Wyclef outside NBC Studios on Monday, looking spry and lively after surviving a burnout earlier this year after he denied all retirement rumors.

He also assured us Pras was still in good spirits since we last spoke to him in May after the guilty verdict.

Pras is currently awaiting sentencing for his role in a $20 million fraud political theater, the type of stuff that makes for a ripe movie script ... but Wyclef says don't expect to see a feature film of the legendary hip hop trio anytime soon.

Wyclef says Fugees' life story is still being written in real time and there's no way to put a cap on the saga just yet.

He, Pras and Lauryn Hill recently reunited at this year's Roots Picnic but haven't released an album together since 1996's Diamond-selling blockbuster album "The Score."

It's splitsville for Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello -- as the couple just announced they're throwing in the towel on their marriage ... and going their separate ways.

They issued a joint statement Monday, telling Page Six ... "We have made the difficult decision to divorce. As two people that love and care for one another very much, we politely ask for respect of our privacy at this time as we navigate this new phase of our lives."

The outlet reports they've been growing apart for quite some time and have recently been spending time apart to figure out a path forward.

The two actors got together in 2014, and were engaged 6 months later. They got married in 2015 --- but never had any children together ... although Sofia has a son from a previous relationship. They've often been considered one of Hollywood's big-time power couples.

Vergara -- whose been overseas celebrating her 51st birthday over the past several weeks -- appears to have been telegraphing she may be a single woman ... posting a ton of hot shots of herself in a bathing suit, with no sign of Joe in any of her recent snaps. Granted, the guy's been busy on the East Coast lately filming a new movie with Vince Vaughn ... pre-strike.

This is Sofia's second marriage and Joe's first. SV was in a long-term relationship with businessman Nick Loeb before she hooked up with Joe ... the remnants of which proved to be dramatic, as their embryo case dragged on for years in court.

Here's hoping this uncoupling isn't as eventful.

Lindsay Lohan is officially a mama for the very first time ... giving birth to her baby boy.

A rep for Lindsay tells us the actress and her husband, Bader Shammas, welcomed Luai Shammas -- which means "shield or protector" in Arabic -- after Lohan delivered the baby boy in Dubai ... where she and Bader call home. The rep adds, "The family is over the moon in love."

A source close to Lindsay tells us she gave birth Monday, and some members of her family are soon to be on their way to Dubai to meet Luai.

Remember, Lindsay revealed she was pregnant back in March ... which, of course, came with an outpouring of support from her famous friends and family.

TMZ was first to report Lindsay was going to be giving birth to a boy.

As we told you, Lindsay and Bader spent some QT time with her fam in the Big Apple in April, before flying home to Dubai to prepare to give birth. It was the first time her parents, Dina and Michael, her brothers Cody and Michael Jr., and her sister, Aliana had been together in at least 7 years.

Since announcing the news, the actress has been beaming with excitement ... showing off her baby bump and telling us... "We are very excited for our new family member to arrive and we are looking forward to this next chapter of our lives!"

As we reported, Lindsay and Bader tied the knot last summer ... an announcement that came on her birthday. The two started dating just before the pandemic shut down the world, and in November 2021 she announced their engagement.

And now, they have started growing their own little family.

A miracle came down on behalf of one Hollywood show that can now continue to work with its actors amid the SAG-AFTRA strike ... and it benefits none other than Jesus, or at least fans of his story.

Showrunners for the popular Christian-based TV series "The Chosen" announced Sunday they'd gotten the green light to move forward with production ... including their main cast, several of whom are in the actors' union. It's the first show to catch this break.

The reason ... they received a waiver from the Screen Actors Guild, which essentially gives them an exemption to keep filming -- even though the rest of the major productions in town are shut down. Deadline was first to report the news.

The folks who run "The Chosen" Twitter account had actually been pleading with SAG to cut them some slack ... and luckily, it came in record time. They were worried they'd have to pause things in Utah -- where they're in the middle of shooting a new season -- unless they got the waiver ... and since they received it in just a few days, they're not totally off schedule.

Now, as for why they're getting the waiver while other productions have to wait in the wings ... it actually has nothing to do with what you may think -- namely, some kind of religious loophole. On the contrary, it has more to do with whether the show/movie is independent ... aka, not having major ties to a TV or movie studio as far as funding.

"The Chosen" certainly has a grassroots background -- it initially got off the ground via crowdfunding -- but has since kinda gone mainstream ... with licensing deals being struck among a number of major studios like Netflix, Amazon, CW, Peacock, and others.

Despite that, it'll be allowed to resume ... so, fans of the show gotta be stoked. Praise be!

Howard Stern gave fans a big shock, going live on his own station without warning ... and he brought some of Hollywood's biggest names along with him to hijack the airwaves.

Stern's SiriusXM show went live Sunday night -- it was NOT a promoted show -- and said he was going back to his roots to spin some tracks, but he wasn't alone in the studio.

Howard's pals Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore, Robert Downey Jr., Brooke Shields and Jon Bon Jovi all jumped on the mic with him, making the surprise airing a real star-studded event.

Sounds like the gang was having dessert together when the idea came up for the radio host to play some tunes -- which is why his celebrity takeover was so spur-of-the-moment.

They all picked out some of their favs, with JBJ choosing The Eagles' "Hotel California" -- and the rock legend even belted out the hit with Jimmy and Robert!

Awkwardness was in the air at Disneyland this weekend, where the studio forged ahead with their "Haunted Mansion" premiere amid the SAG strike ... without any of the cast in sight.

The premiere went down Saturday at the Anaheim park -- in front of the actual Haunted Mansion ride, no less. Like we said, none of the major stars who act in the film showed up -- obviously, they're showing solidarity with their union, which went on strike last week.

In their place, a bunch of randos walked the carpet instead ... including a handful of Disney cast members who were dressed up as 'HM' ghosts and even just regular Disney characters. There were also some influencers there -- Holly Madison and other Playboy-adjacent people -- plus some Disney Imagineers and composers/BTS folks tied to the movie as well.

The big names who were notably missing ... Lakeith Stanfield, Danny DeVito, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto, Winona Ryder, Rosario Dawson ... and every other cast member. One person who did show was director Justin Simien.

He did some interviews with press, and said he was feeling "ambivalent" over the fact his cast couldn't speak for themselves ... while also expressing support for their cause.

Simien also addressed Disney chief Bob Iger's recent comments about the ongoing strikes -- where he said the union's demands weren't "realistic," while lamenting the fact they were hurting showbiz at large -- and JS walked the line ... saying he'd be happy to talk to BI to see where the gap is between what he wants and what actors at large are asking for.

It's a little unclear why Simien attended the "Haunted Mansion" premiere. We know he's part of the DGA, which recently struck its own deal with studio heads, and presumably ... he's obligated to go to this sort of stuff, despite the fact he says he's standing with the actors. Christopher Nolan did something similar at the UK "Oppenheimer" premiere last week.

In any case, he did his best to appease both sides, it seems. Dude's sorta stuck between a rock and a hard place right now ... as are a ton of other directors caught in this conflict.

Considering how empty this event felt -- ya gotta wonder if other studios will scrap their own premieres in the coming months. A lot of summer blockbusters already did their press, but there's still several big-budget flicks slated to be released through the rest of the year.

Levitating in this majestic pic is a woman who is no stranger to the spotlight, and when she's putting on a show ... you can expect her to bust out the "pencil sharpener" dance move. See if you can erase the alterations made to the image!

Madonna, Elton John and Miley Cyrus are just a few name-drops this star has collabed with, but aside from her stellar singing skills, she's quite the fashionista -- and just last weekend she bedazzled at the "Barbie" premiere, looking fantastic in sheer!

Do you have the moves to identify this scrambled star?

Tom Cruise is flying high in the new 'Mission: Impossible,' but the flick itself is already coming in for a mediocre landing at the box office ... at least that's the outlook.

The early ticket sale numbers are in, and with the pace it's currently at right now ... 'Dead Reckoning: Part One' is projected to rake in about $78 million domestically through its 5-day run. The movie got released early this past week, with full screenings starting Tuesday.

The problem with that figure, assuming it holds true through Sat/Sun, is that the early estimates had 'M:I 7' coming in at a way higher amount ... about $90 mil in North America.

While the early global box office numbers have helped boost 'Dead Reckoning' to a total projected opening of about $122 mil thus far ... the movie is still well below its reported budget of $290 million (for just Part 1, mind you). At this rate, it needs to have the kind of legs "Top Gun: Maverick" had to make its money back ... let alone turn a profit.

Meanwhile, "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" are waiting in the wings ... with both set to come out next week, and likely knocking 'M:I 7' down a few notches. "Barbie," particularly, is expected to take the cake among the 3 films ... with a projected domestic opening of $93 million.

Considering all the marketing that's gone into "Barbie," ya gotta figure their actual haul will be somewhat close to that number ... not to mention whatever "Oppenheimer" snags as well.

In any case, this appears to be bad news for Tom and co. ... again, only if these figures work out how they're expected to. Funny enough, Tom has been embracing all the summer blockbusters -- encouraging moviegoers to go see all the big flicks coming out, including his direct competition. He did this publicly amid reports that he was actually pissed BTS.

The irony, of course, is that Tom is a huge advocate of seeing movies in theaters ... and he's repeatedly gone on record as touting that as his ultimate goal as he continues his legacy.

The new live-action "Snow White" movie is sure gonna look different from what most people remember about the fairy tale classic -- 'cause there are hardly any dwarves to be found.

A handful of on-set photos were published this week -- with production going down in the London area -- and based on the images here ... you can see Disney's made a conscious decision to lose most of the heigh-ho crew and replace them with random, ordinary people.

Take a look ... there's only 1 little person featured in the 7-man (and now woman) brigade. There's also a man in blue leading the charge who doesn't seem to be a "dwarf" himself.

As for the others ... aside from the shorter guy toward the front, the rest of the dwarves are of typical height. In fact, the last one in the very back actually looks to be quite tall. The dwarves, as it were, are also of mixed races and genders ... but it's very clear they're the ones that Snow White meets in the woods and befriends through her magical adventure.

Speaking of SW ... the woman who's seen here in the red hood is actually Rachel Zegler's stand-in. No word on why Zegler herself wasn't on set for this day of shooting, but she's already been spotted out in the whole Snow White getup ... looking kinda Disneyland-esque.

Also worth noting, Disney has tried clarifying what's being depicted in these pics. They say there are 2 stand-ins for a couple of their main actors -- Zegler and a guy named Andrew Burnap -- and that these photos weren't official film photos. Sooo ... pickup shots then?

What Disney appears to concede in their ever-evolving statements about these pics is that this is, in fact, what the movie will look like as it pertains to portraying the classic dwarves as we know them ... aka, they're pivoting away from having 7 "dwarfs" on camera together.

Remember, they actually said they'd be doing this on the heels of Peter Dinklage's viral tirade about the film ... when he went on Marc Maron's podcast to rail against the fact they were going to feature dwarves in a manner he characterized as backwards and insulting.

While some were outraged about the fact that Zegler, a Latina, would be playing Snow White ... he was more concerned about showing little people in a demeaning way, and Disney heard him loud and clear ... changing course. At the time, they said ... "To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community."

Tom Holland is playing a gay man in a new TV show ... but it's not sitting well with some of his 'Spider-Man' fans while others are defending him.

Holland -- who recently announced he will return to the superhero role in "Spider Man 4" -- came under fire on social media Friday for his part in the Apple TV series, "The Crowded Room."

In one scene, Holland and another man have steamy sex, which sparked the online outrage.

One person tweeted, "Tom Gone Wrong #NotMySpiderMan."

Another wrote, "LMAOOOOOOO dis is really somebody’s favorite Spider-Man"

It's probably a mix of unabashed homophobia and people who think only a gay actor should play a gay role.

But some of Tom's fervent supporters responded to the online haters by arguing previous 'Spider-Man' actors had taken similar LGBTQ roles, such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

A-listers Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman are one heck of a dynamic duo to say the least, but can you put YOUR star power to the test and detect the discreet differences in these A-list images? Ready? Action!

The two movie stars paid a visit to London earlier this week ahead of their newest project's release, Paramount+'s "Special Ops: Lioness," and they sure dressed the part, looking fierce AF in front of the city's skyline.

Thumbs up if you can score the changes!

Ron Perlman is super pissed at the studio executive who wants to bleed striking writers dry before coming to the table to end one of two Hollywood strikes ... so much so, he's making threats.

The "Hellboy" star did not mince words in a since-deleted social media rant Friday, making some ominous threats towards the anonymous studio exec who was quoted as saying studios are purposefully delaying negotiations with the Writers Guild of America "until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses."

In the video, an incensed Ron says ... "Listen to me, motherf*****, there's a lot of ways to lose your house. Some of it is financial, some of it is karma, and some of it is just figuring out who the f*** said that -- and we know who said that -- and where he f****** lives."

Ron continues ... "There's a lot of ways to lose your house. You wish that on people, you wish that families starve, while you're making $27 f***** million a year for creating nothing? Be careful, motherf*****. Be really careful, 'cause that's the kind of s*** that stirs s*** up."

The rant comes in response to a Deadline article this week that quotes anonymous studio executives as revealing their strike plan is to let writers fall into dire straits in order to force a studio-friendly deal.

Cops say Robert De Niro's grandson ingested fake oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl, and even though his alleged dealer knew the pills could kill ... she sold them anyway.

According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, investigators found several pills at the death scene of 19-year-old Leandro De Niro. They say they went through the teen's phone, and discovered he had exchanged texts with a 20-year-old woman named Sophia Marks about purchasing counterfeit oxycodone and Xanax just days before his death.

Most disturbing, cops say during one exchange Marks asked, "do you really need them? I don't wanna kill you." She continued, "I just don't like serving u them cuz they not script."

Eventually, the two struck a deal for 3 of the fake oxycodone pills and two tablets of Xanax for $105 ... and Marks allegedly texted (about the Oxy), "don't go overboard with these."

The drugs were delivered by car to De Niro around 9 PM July 1, and at 1:50 AM July 2 cops say Marks texted the teen, "u good?" ... De Niro never responded.

De Niro was found dead of a suspected overdose on July 2 ... investigators found one bag of cocaine, one straw with residue, two blue pills with "M" and "30" (the oxycodone) and seven rectangular tablets -- believed to be Xanax.

Shockingly enough, cops say Marks continued to sell after De Niro's death -- selling an undercover agent 25 pills for $500 on July 9 ... allegedly telling the undercover, "please be careful with these. don't do more than one at a time. my friend just died."

Investigators say further analysis revealed both the pills found at the De Niro scene as well as those sold to the undercover all contained traces of fentanyl.

Ariana Grande is an expert in the studio, even outside her sweet spot of the recording booth ... so claims her longtime collaborator Leon Thomas III!!!

Leon and Ariana starred on the Nickelodeon series "Victorious" together back in the day, and he recalled coaching the megastar singer during a recent sit-down on the "Shirley's Temple" podcast.

Leon says he advised AG, early on, to learn the art of engineering her own music and swears he saw her grow into a master wizard at Pro Tools software.

Their still-developing creativity led them to make their own rendition of Drake and Rihanna's "Take Care" duet.

Leon says he was too mortified to let Drizzy hear, but AG didn't sound half-bad -- about as good as a rookie who was destined to sell more than 90 million records!!!

AG's last album, "Positions," (which Leon helped produce) was released in 2020, and it just may be time for her to fire up those studio skills again ... now that the actors' strike is in full swing.

Fran Drescher is ripping Hollywood studios, saying their negotiation strategy was all a ploy to have extra time to promote upcoming blockbusters.

We got the actress and President of SAG-AFTRA on Friday's picket line outside Netflix HQ, and she said the studios duped the union leading up to Thursday's strike.

Fran says her union was sincere in extending the strike deadline 12 days in hopes to avoid a nasty standoff ... but she's convinced the studios weren't negotiating in good faith and only wanted to use the extension to hold premieres for some upcoming flicks, like "Barbie."

Fran's not holding back ... ripping the studios' negotiating tactics as "thoughtless, insensitive and not compassionate." She says they straight-up don't care about the actors who make this whole industry go forward.

As we reported, Fran went nuclear Thursday in announcing the strike ... the union's first walkout in 43 years, with actors joining already striking writers on the picket lines.

Fran sees an end to the standoff, even though she has said both sides are far apart ... telling us the public has the power to make this whole thing go away.

The way Fran sees it ... public opinion and the way people spend their money will dictate a lot of the outcome, and she's asking folks to stand tall with the folks in front of the cameras to give them some leverage against the studios and their CEOs.