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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!

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.

Birkin was also a model and came to be widely seen as a fashion trendsetter, inspiring Hermes' famous Birkin handbag.

The news comes after Birkin was forced to cancel a handful of concerts in May due to health concerns, and less than two years after Birkin suffered a minor stroke.

Birkin was known for her professional and personal relationship with the musician Serge Gainsbourg.

The pair were together for 12 years but remained friends after their split, with Gainsbourg still writing songs for Birkin.

Her acting credits included films such as the 1966 classic Blow Up, Death on the Nile (1978), and Evil Under the Sun (1982).

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."

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.

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.

There's nothing but an empty set behind the wizard's curtain on the set of "Wicked" ... looking more like a ghost town as the SAG-AFTRA strike begins.

The Buckinghamshire village that Universal transformed into some vibrant sets for the Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo-led musical has become a dreamland for the cast and crew hard at work on the production ... but as the actors' strike went into effect Friday morning, the hundreds of cast and crew are nowhere to be found.

FYI, this movie has been brewin' since first announced back in 2016 -- obviously COVID was a big setback, but things were finally moving smoothly for the blockbuster before the strike.

HBO's "House of the Dragon" is also a project that's shooting overseas, but while that production's still going forward, don't think that makes the stars a bunch of scabs.

For those unaware, the actors in the 'GoT' prequel operate under the UK's local union, Equity -- which has strict rules against striking in solidarity with other unions like SAG-AFTRA.

"Wicked" is slated to come out next November ... but who knows if the team will be able to defy the gravity of the strike in time for its release.

SAG-AFTRA actors are facing a load of rules as the strike goes into effect ... and we're talking about everything, from acting on camera to even tweeting about projects.

TMZ has obtained a copy of the rigorous guidelines the 160,000 union members are required to follow until the strike ends ... and it cites the expected no-nos like acting, singing, and doing motion capture work in front of a camera.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg, because they also aren't allowed to do any voice acting, narrating, or re-recording their voice for a scene, also known as dubbing.

In addition, performers can't attend costume fittings, makeup tests, or rehearsals and they can't audition for upcoming projects.

There's also a ban on promotion, in every form -- they can't do interviews, tours, fan expos and conventions, podcast appearances, award shows or even post about a project on social media.

It appears pre-recorded promos are fair game for the studios, but SAG-AFTRA's asked publicists to add a disclaimer in front of pre-deadline press junkets so some actors don't come off as scabs down the line.

Stand-ins and background actors in the union are also forbidden from crossing that picket line ... leaving options incredibly limited for any shows or movies staying in production. Also, anyone not in SAG-AFTRA that crosses the line won't be getting future entry into the union.

Lindsay Lohan looks ready to welcome her first child, and not just because her baby bump's growing ... the kid's nursery is also coming together.

The actress showed off her pregnancy progress Wednesday, plus the room she's preparing for her kid.

Lindsay says she designed the nursery with Nestig, a furniture and decor brand for little ones, and she's drawn inspiration from the beach.

TMZ broke the story ... Lindsay's pregnant with a boy -- and, as you can see, she's going kinda traditional with a mostly blue decor.

Looks like Lindsay's kid will be chilling with a huge teddy bear and a sweet crib once he arrives. We don't know her due date, but considering she announced the pregnancy back in March ... it's a good bet she's into her third trimester.

Ryan Reynolds got a taste of home while filming the latest 'Deadpool' film over in Britain ... thanks to a visit from his wife Blake Lively and two of the couple's daughters.

In the ultimate take your kids to work day, Ryan was suited up as his Marvel movie character -- minus the famous mask -- when his family stopped by the set in the south of England. Ryan was clearly in dad mode, scooping up one of his kiddos while still in costume.

For Ryan and Blake's kids, having Deadpool as a daddy has got to be pretty cool ... not to mention, they also got to hang out with Hugh Jackman, who was decked out as his usual Wolverine comic book character.

One of the kids even played with a Wolverine action figure ... so she's getting the best of both worlds.

Superhero movie sets have been the background for some important moments between Ryan and Blake over the years, remember, they first met way back in 2010 on the set of "Green Lantern."

Ryan and Blake had a few minutes to themselves too ... and he used some of it to plant a kiss on her forehead and give her a hug.

We gotta say, Ryan and Blake's daughters probably have their peers beat when it comes to summer vacations.

Sam Smith was all about bringing extra to the "Barbie" movie premiere across the pond ... as in, lots of extra material to complete their look.

The singer showed up to Wednesday's European premier in London rocking a crewneck with 16 XL written across the front. Unclear if that's the actual size of the gear, but it's a BIG fashion statement nonetheless.

As you can see, Sam paired the super baggy top with, what else, super baggy jeans ... so baggy, in fact, you couldn't even see their feet.

Sam's not in the movie, instead they're singing on the "Barbie" soundtrack ... with a song called "Man I Am," dropping next week, at the same time the Greta Gerwig film hits cinemas back here in the States.

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, meanwhile, were on the other end of the fashion spectrum ... Ryan went with a mint green suit, and Margot wore pink once again, as she has throughout her movie promotion.

Barbie fanatics may recognize Margot's outfit inspiration ... she channeled a doll from way back in the day, "Enchanted Evening" Barbie.

Morgan Freeman is on the mend from a nasty infection that derailed his plans to jet across the pond to promote his latest show.

The 86-year-old actor was forced to cancel a UK trip after he came down with a fever ... according to his rep, who says doctors told Morgan he was contagious. Obviously, that meant doing a bunch of interviews was out of the question.

Morgan was scheduled to do a media tour to promote the new Taylor Sheridan show, "Special Ops: Lioness" -- Morgan costars with Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman -- but he was notably MIA from the interviews and Tuesday's screening.

He was also supposed to appear with his costars on the BBC program, "The One Show" -- but his absence was something host Alex Jones (not that one) said she was completely "gutted" about.

BTW, Morgan's also been struggling with fibromyalgia since 2008, after getting hurt in an almost-deadly car crash.

He donned a black compression glove on his hand at this year's Oscars ... something he often wears for comfort after ending up with permanent nerve damage from the wreck.

Jamie Foxx's whirlwind recovery reveal is still in full swing in Chicago ... the actor was just photographed hitting the pickleball courts around town.

Check out the image posted on Instagram Tuesday night ... Jamie playing doubles with his partner against a couple of other dudes -- and they're clearly having a blast, laughing it up at the net together.

But, this is only his latest, happy moment ... Jamie's been having fun all over the Windy City lately, taking a ride on a yacht along the river, whacking golf balls at the driving range and even saving the day by returning a lost purse to a woman. He's also been spending quality time with his fam and close friends.

Nice to see Jamie in such good spirits and looking strong after everything he's been through the last several months.

From our vantage point, it appears Jamie is well on his way to full recovery while continuing his treatment at a physical rehab facility in Chi Town. As you know, Jamie suffered a medical emergency in April, which, to this day, still remains a mystery.

Jamie Foxx isn't just out and about as he recovers in Chicago -- he's saving the day for women in distress, and his act of kindness was captured on video.

This video is pretty wild ... it shows Jamie in a chauffeur-driven SUV roll up next to a group of people riding through downtown Chicago on a pedicab. They were all thanking him profusely for returning a purse.

The man who posted the video says his mother had lost her handbag, and apparently, Jamie found it ... and somehow tracked down the group. You clearly see him smiling and hopping back into his ride after handing her the purse.

It's yet another clear sign of how well Jamie's doing these days. TMZ broke the story ... he was swinging away at a Topgolf driving range over the weekend, and showing no ill effects as he had a chill night with a small group of family and friends.

He was also spotted on a yacht, cruising on the Chicago River. As we reported, Jamie's still getting treatment at a physical rehab facility in Chi town, but all visual signs are pointing to him making a full recovery.

Fran Drescher's Hollywood union is about to head into a strike this week -- which is why her members are pissed over her chillaxin' in Europe ... just a day before s*** hits the fan.

SAG-AFTRA actors seem to be furious after seeing their President hobnobbing in Italy Monday ... next to none other than Kim Kardashian, who's catching a lot of heat amid the ongoing writers' strike (more on that later).

Fran posed for a cozy pic with Kim at a Dolce & Gabbana event -- which KK posted -- and now SAG members are calling Fran out for what they perceive as not taking their own looming strike very seriously. On its face, you can't blame 'em ... 'cause the clock's ticking.

If a deal isn't reached between SAG and movie studio bosses by midnight tonight, actors of all ilks are expected to walk off sets/hit the streets in a new wave of picketing that could rock the industry ... even more so than it already has with writers fighting their own fight.

While SAG itself as an org has actually defended Fran being in Italy -- saying she was there working as an ambassador on behalf of Dolce and Gabbana, which was know by the negotiating committee -- that hasn't appeased the rank and file. SAG says Fran has been in negotiations every day in person or over videoconference and will be returning to LA tomorrow.

Several SAG members blasted this photo ... saying Fran appears to not really care about the fact that actors/her members are about to be out of work. Rather than trying to hammer out a new contract, they say she's just having the time of her life halfway across the world.

There's another element of criticism ... pointed at Kim. As you know, she's in the new season of 'American Horror Story' -- which had already been written before the writers' strike -- but she's been labeled a scab by some ... seeing how she's crossed the picket line and continues to work with Ryan Murphy -- who's also caught a bad rap in this whole saga.

The fact Fran's sidled up next to her specifically doesn't sit well with a lot of actors, and the consensus seems to be ... at the very least, this is not a good look at such a crucial time.