Actress Taraji P. Henson attends 5th Annual Can We Talk? Multicultural Arts & Wellness Summit Brunch at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center on October 12, 2025, in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
Taraji P. Henson has been featured on many billboards, but the latest one promotes her upcoming Broadway debut. Taking to Instagram, she shared a video that pans across a billboard for the play Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, featuring photos of her and Cedric the Entertainer. The video also includes backstage and behind-the-scenes shots.
“I need somebody to pinch me!!! BROADWAY!!!!!! This moment is so surreal. Thank you God!” she captioned the post. “The entire cast is beyond gifted and amazing, and I cannot wait for you all to come see this show.”
Directed by Debbie Allen,August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone will play a 15-week engagement in the Barrymore Theatre beginning March 30. Taraji will take on the role of Bertha Holly, who runs a Pittsburgh boardinghouse with Cedric’s Seth Holly, providing shelter to Black travelers navigating uncertain paths in the aftermath of the Great Migration, according to Broadway.com.
Herald Loomis arrives with his young daughter, disrupting the stillness of their home, the play’s official website says. He searches for his lost wife and embarks on a journey of self-discovery after seven years of forced labor under Joe Turner, Broadway.com adds.
According to Cedric, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is “gonna be good!!!”
Zendaya and Tom Holland pose at a photocall for ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ at The Old Sessions House on Dec. 5, 2021, in London. (Dave Benett/WireImage/Getty Images)
Zendaya and Tom Holland have tied the knot, according to stylist Law Roach.
The famed celebrity stylist behind many of Zendaya’s looks opened up on the Actor Awards red carpet on Sunday when asked about the couple’s seemingly impending marriage.
“The wedding has already happened. You missed it,” Roach said while speaking with Access Hollywood on the red carpet at the awards ceremony.
“Is that true?” asked the reporter, to which Roach responded, “It’s very true.”
ABC News has reached out to representatives for Zendaya and Holland.
The couple’s engagement was confirmed by People last year after Zendaya was photographed wearing a large diamond ring at the 2025 Golden Globes.
The celebrity couple met in 2016 while filming the 2017 film Spider-Man: Homecoming, in which Holland starred as the superhero and Zendaya starred as “MJ,” or Michelle Jones-Watson.
Holland seemed to indicate a romance with Zendaya in 2021, wishing her a happy birthday in an Instagram post.
“My MJ, have the happiest of birthdays. Gimme a call when your [sic] up xxx,” wrote Holland in the post.
The photo showed Holland in full Spider-Man gear while Zendaya rested her chin on his shoulder and raised a camera to a mirror.
Michael B. Jordan accepts the outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role award for ‘Sinners’ on stage during the 32nd annual Actor Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on March 1, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
Michael B. Jordan had a big weekend, with wins at the NAACP Image Awards and the Actor Awards, and he doesn’t want it to end just yet.
After winning outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role for Sinners, which also took home outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture, he told Extra he’s honored “to be acknowledged by our peers and other actors that we admire.”
“To get that love and that affection and be in this room has us all kind of speechless,” he said of the Sinners cast, noting he’s generally feeling “gratitude.” “It’s a special movie, special project. We’ve been through so much together as a cast and as individuals and, man, I just don’t want it to stop. I don’t want it to end. I want to continue to do this over and over and over again. So yeah, it feels good.”
While accepting his award at the Actor Awards, Michael thanked his mother for the role she played in his success. He told Extra that he wouldn’t be close to where he is now without her love and support, which made her the perfect date.
“There’s been so much in my career my mom wasn’t able to be with me in these spaces, you know,” he said. “So for her to join me on this run, it couldn’t happen any other way.”
We’ll find out if Michael will add an Oscar to his trophy slate on March 15, when the Academy Awards air on ABC
Protesters clash with forces in Srinagar, Kashmir, on March 2, 2026, as authorities impose restrictions and curbs across Kashmir in response to demonstrations over the reported killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Muzamil Mattoo/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Trump administration officials told congressional staff in private briefings on Sunday that U.S. intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a preemptive strike against the United States interests, four people familiar with the briefing told ABC News.
The officials said there was more of a general threat in the region from Iran’s missiles and proxy forces, sources told ABC News.
The intel shared with staff appears to contradict some of President Donald Trump and the White House’s previous statements about Iran and the reasoning for attacking the country.
The president said in his video address announcing the strikes, “our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”
On a call with reporters this weekend, senior Trump administration officials said there were indicators that Iranians could launch a preemptive attack against U.S. forces and allies in the region.
While Trump was meeting with military leaders this weekend, he spoke with ABC News about the general threat from the Iranian regime.
“I think there was a threat. Had we not done Midnight Hammer, which was one of the greatest things [this] country has ever done, we would’ve been faced with a nuclear weapon within a month — we would have been faced with a very powerful nuclear weapon within a month,” Trump said this weekend.
“And then they were trying to build back –not there because that area was obliterated, but they were working on another site despite the negotiations — which at some points were going very well,” Trump continued. “But in the end we didn’t think they were going to get there [in terms of negotiations]. And they would’ve had in a fairly short period of time some very fairly big nuclear capacity and we were not going to put up with that.”
During a press briefing Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the attack was a response to Iranian aggression against the U.S. over a number of years.
“We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it. Their war on Americans has become our retribution against their Ayatollah and his death cult,” Hegseth said. “It took the 47th president, a fighter who always puts America first, to finally draw the line after 47 years of Iranian belligerence.”
The U.S. and Israel launched an attack on Israel on Saturday, killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran. Trump told Fox News’s Bret Baier on Monday that 49 senior leaders were killed in the initial strikes.
Following the start of the U.S.-Israel operation, Iran launched retaliatory strikes with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and Gulf nations.
The conflict has resulted in at least four deaths of U.S. servicemembers so far, but military officials said Monday more deaths are expected.
“We expect to take additional losses,” Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a briefing. “And, as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses. But as the secretary said, this is major combat operations.”
Caine did not specify a timeline, but said, “This is not a single overnight operation. The military objective … will take some time to achieve.”
Trump told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the U.S. military is “knocking the crap” out of Iran — but the “big wave” is yet to come.
“We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon,” Trump told Tapper Monday morning.
CNN was the first to report on what the Trump admin told congressional staff.
–ABC News’ John Parkinson and Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.
Rue Rose Shumpert and Teyana Taylor attend the 32nd Annual Actor Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on March 01, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)
Teyana Taylor was a nominee at the 2026 Actor Awards Sunday night, but her daughter Rue Rose Shumpert was the star of the show. Rue attended the event with Teyana and appeared to be ready for the spotlight, as she was captured fixing her mother’s dress, striking some poses and even performing a song from the movie Frozen.
She introduced herself in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, saying, “My name is Rue Rose, and my age is 5.” She asked if she could sing a song, before announcing, “I’m going to sing Frozen, but just in a different voice.”
After being met with applause from her mother, Rue asked to sing another song, and was told she and Teyana would “come back and sing.”
On Monday Teyana reflected on having Rue with her at the awards show, calling Rue “the most perfect date.”
“Rue Rose, thank you for choosing me to be your mama. You make every room brighter, every step lighter, every dream bigger. Bigger than fashion. Bigger than awards. This one felt like legacy,” she wrote on Instagram. “Sharing this night with you is a memory I’ll hold in my heart forever.”
She added that Rue “had a blastttttttt” turning the red carpet “upside down.” “I think it’s time for her sag card!!! lol,” she wrote
Teyana Taylor was a nominee at the 2026 Actor Awards Sunday night, but her daughter Rue Rose Shumpert was the star of the show. Rue attended the event with Teyana and appeared to be ready for the spotlight, as she was captured fixing her mother’s dress, striking some poses and even performing a song from the movie Frozen.
She introduced herself in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, saying, “My name is Rue Rose, and my age is 5.” She asked if she could sing a song, before announcing, “I’m going to sing Frozen, but just in a different voice.”
After being met with applause from her mother, Rue asked to sing another song, and was told she and Teyana would “come back and sing.”
On Monday Teyana reflected on having Rue with her at the awards show, calling Rue “the most perfect date.”
“Rue Rose, thank you for choosing me to be your mama. You make every room brighter, every step lighter, every dream bigger. Bigger than fashion. Bigger than awards. This one felt like legacy,” she wrote on Instagram. “Sharing this night with you is a memory I’ll hold in my heart forever.”
She added that Rue “had a blastttttttt” turning the red carpet “upside down.” “I think it’s time for her sag card!!! lol,” she wrote.
If they laugh, we’ll say, we’re getting a fifth Zombies movie someday.
A fifth film in the hit Zombies franchise has been greenlit for Disney+ and Disney Channel. It will begin production in New Zealand in the spring, with its official title to be announced at a later date.
Malachi Barton and Freya Skye are set to star in this new movie after joining the franchise as characters Victor and Nova in the fourth film. Original stars Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly will not return as Zed and Addison, although they will remain involved as executive producers.
Also returning for the fifth film is Trevor Tordjman, who will reprise his role as Bucky, Addison’s cousin and the beloved cheer captain from the original trilogy.
Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires stars Swayam Bhatia, Julian Lerner and Mekonnen Knife will also make up this new movie’s cast.
As far as plot goes, Zombies 5 will feature the introduction of mermaids into the Zombies universe.
There is peace between the Daywalkers and Vampires following the events of the fourth film. But it is “put to the test when a band of fierce mermaids arrives in Rayburn, making waves and casting a persuasive siren song to lure in new allies,” according to an official description. “Nova and Victor must unite their groups once more to discover what the mermaids are really after in order to protect the fragile harmony they worked so hard to build.”
New cast members include Diaana Babnicova as Pearl, Taylor Oliver as Fin and Olive Mortimer as Sandy, who are a trio of mysterious mermaids. Emily Costtrici also joins the cast as Izzy, a zombie who is Zed’s cousin and a new transfer student.
Paul Hoen, who has directed all of the films in the Zombies franchises, returns to helm this fifth installment.
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U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon on March 2, 2026 in Arlington, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday defended the ongoing U.S. attack on Iran as necessary because of Tehran’s missile arsenal and nuclear ambitions, calling it “our retribution” for its yearslong role in sponsoring terrorism.
Hegseth declined to say how long the operation would last or rule out the potential of sending U.S. troops on the ground.
“We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it. Their war on Americans has become our retribution against their Ayatollah and his death cult,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth’s press conference was his first since the large-scale operation began two days ago. The attack resulted in the death of Iran’s supreme leader and some of its senior leadership.
President Donald Trump in recent days told reporters he expect the operation could last four to five weeks — a timeline Hegseth wouldn’t commit to.
Four U.S. service members have died, with several more severely wounded, according to U.S. Central Command.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who also briefed reporters on Monday, said the U.S. is sending additional forces into the region, primarily aviation assets.
“We expect to take additional losses and, as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses,” Caine said, later adding, “this is major combat operations.”
When pressed on the missions objectives, Hegseth insisted the goals were clear.
“The mission of Operation Epic Fury is laser-focused,” Hegseth said. “Destroy Iranian offensive missiles, destroy Iranian missile production, destroy their navy and other security infrastructure, and they will never have nuclear weapons. We’re hitting them surgically, overwhelmingly and unapologetically.”
Critics of the administration have questioned the timing of the operation though because of U.S. intelligence that has found the threat from Iran was not imminent. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, Iran is working on developing a missile capable of reaching the U.S. by 2035.
The U.S. also bombed three of Iran’s nuclear sites last year. Experts say there are recent signs of Iran trying to rebuild its program and begin again enriching uranium, but that there was no evidence they were close to building a bomb.
Trump said over the weekend that a preemptive attack on Iran was justified by “imminent threats” from the Iranian guard, though he provided no evidence, and to topple the Iranian regime.
Hegseth said Monday that Iran was “stalling” during recent negotiations with U.S. officials to buy time to build up its ballistic missile program and restart its nuclear ambitions.
“Their goal: hold us hostage, threatening to strike our forces. Well, President Trump doesn’t play those games,” Hegseth said.
Iran has responded with a massive attack on U.S. allies across the Middle East, targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and Gulf nations. Four U.S. service members have been killed, which Hegseth said occurred when Iran hit a tactical operations center that had been fortified.
The attack resulted in the death of Iran’s supreme leader and some of its senior leadership.
In a phone call with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, Trump said the “attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates” to lead Iran.
Hegseth, though, on Monday said the operation was not a “so-called regime-change war.”
“Turns out the regime who chanted ‘death to America’ and ‘death to Israel’ was gifted death from America and death from Israel. This is not a so-called regime-change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it,” Hegseth said.
The defense secretary rejected that the U.S. would be involved in another “forever war” in the region, though he gave little detail on what comes next.
Hegseth declined to give a timeline on how long the military operation could last, after Trump told ABC News the attacks could last four or five more weeks.
“President Trump has all the latitude in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take. Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It could move up, it could move back. We’re going to execute at his command the objectives we’ve set out to achieve,” Hegseth said.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump speaks to announce that the U.S. had begun “major combat operations” in Iran, on the day Israel and the U.S. conducted strikes on Iran, Feb. 28, 2026. (The White House)
(WASHINGTON) — An Iranian plot to kill then-candidate Donald Trump was clearly on the president’s mind when he ordered the attack that killed Iran’s supreme leader.
“I got him before he got me,” Trump Sunday night, not long after he announced Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed. “They tried twice. Well, I got him first.”
President Trump was referring to an Iranian plot to kill him during the 2024 presidential campaign. During the summer of 2024, U.S. intelligence believed the Iranian government was plotting to kill then-candidate Trump.
The plot was not tied to the assassination attempts against the candidate in Butler, Pennsylvania, or West Palm Beach, Florida, but Trump was briefed on the threat and additional resources were added by the Biden administration to his Secret Service detail.
When I spoke with President Trump late Sunday night after he had returned to the White House from a weekend overseeing military operations in Iran from his club in Mar-a-Lago, he sounded like a president who is feeling invincible.
He said he believes the military operation has been an unmitigated success.
“Nobody else could have done this but me, and you know that,” Trump told me.
Trump told me the Iranians had made significant concessions in the last round of talks. He suggested his decision to cut off talks those and order the attack was driven in part by the success of the military operations to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, whom the U.S. said was an illegitimately elected president , and to strike the Iranian nuclear facilities last summer in coordination with Israel.
“A year ago, it would have been great to accept that deal for me,” he said on Sunday, “but we have become spoiled.”
Trump told me that someone in the Iranian government reached out to him, but he would not say who.
“I probably shouldn’t tell you,” he said. “One of the few remaining people who are still alive. He doesn’t report to the Supreme Leader anymore.”
Before the attacks, the administration had identified possible leaders of a post-Khamenei Iran, but Trump said they are all gone. Khamenei was killed on Saturday alongside around 40 senior Iranian officials, the Israel Defense Forces said.
“The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,” Trump said. “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.”
When asked about his statement earlier in the day that there would be more American casualties.
“It’s war and you have casualties in war,” he said.
Trump marveled at the level of American losses so far, pointing to last summer’s attack and the operation against Maduro in Venezuela as evidence of his administration’s military precision.
“All the things we went through and we lost three people. We lost three,” he said. “But if you ask Iran how many they lost, they can’t count that high.”
U.S. Central Command on Monday said another member of the U.S. military had been killed during the operation against Iran, bringing the total known U.S. deaths to four people. At least 555 people have been killed in Iran in U.S.-Israeli strikes, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said in a statement on Monday.
When asked on Sunday how long the war would go on, Trump said, “We always thought it was a four-to-five-week deal.”
Was he prepared to go longer?
“Sure. We have a lot of ammunition,” he said. “It could also go less.”
An ATACM long-range missile is fired towards Iran from an undisclosed location, Feb. 28, 2026. (U.S. Central Command)
(NEW YORK) — Stocks slid on Monday morning in the first trading session after the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran over the weekend.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 280 points, or 0.5%, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 0.5%.
The strikes early Saturday morning prompted Iranian drone attacks and missile fire targeting U.S. military bases and Gulf countries. Tit-for-tat strikes rapidly widened into a regional war.
Four U.S. service members have been killed in action, U.S. Central Command said on Monday. At least 555 people have been killed in the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said.
Oil prices spiked on Monday amid fears of a prolonged disruption of the Strait of Hormuz, a trading route that facilitates the transport of about one-fifth of global oil supply. Iran asserts control over the passage of tankers through the strait.
Brent crude prices soared more than 7%, threatening to push up prices for auto fuel and hike transport costs for other goods.
An array of global stock exchanges suffered marked losses on Monday.
In Europe, the pan-continental STOXX 600 index tumbled 1.6%. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index slipped 1.3%, while South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 1%.
Angelo Kourkafas, a senior global strategist for investment strategy at Edward Jones, on Monday acknowledged the volatility in markets but downplayed the long-term risk.
“While the situation remains dynamic, both historical patterns and market fundamentals offer some reassurance,” Kourkafas said in a statement to ABC News. “Geopolitical flare ups can create short term volatility, but recent episodes have produced limited and short lived market impacts.”
The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), a measure of anticipated market volatility, climbed more than 7% on Monday.
President Donald Trump announced “major combat operations” against Iran on Saturday, with daytime strikes in the joint U.S.-Israel attack targeting military and government sites, officials said.
On Sunday, Iranian state television confirmed that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was among those killed by airstrikes in Tehran on Saturday.
Iran is responding to the U.S.-Israeli operation with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and Gulf nations.
Israel is also intensifying its long-running strike campaign in Lebanon following fresh attacks by the Iranian-aligned Hezbollah militia.
In remarks on Monday, Iranian and American officials signaled expectations of an extended conflict.
The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, said that Iran is prepared for a long war.
“Iran, unlike the United States, has prepared itself for a long war,” Larijani wrote in a post on X on Monday. He added that Iranian armed forces “have not engaged in any attacks except in defense.”
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not specify a timeline, but said, “This is not a single overnight operation. The military objectives … will take some time to achieve.”
Ashley Tisdale French has found her next role. Deadline reports the actress is set to star in and executive produce a new comedy series for CBS called You’re Only Young Twice. The show centers on a pair who got pregnant and married while in high school, who then plan to get divorced and start their lives over again when their child goes to college and they both turn 35. The nearly divorced empty-nester couple tackle dating, co-parenting and a second chance at love …
Have you watched the Oscar-nominated film Hamnet yet? No fear if not. The movie makes its exclusive streaming debut to Peacock on March 6. Chloé Zhao directed the film that tells the fictionalized story of what inspired one of Shakespeare’s most memorable works. Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn and Noah Jupe star in the film …
Speaking of Buckley, she’s part of some major star power that’s joined the upcoming film adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s bestselling book Three Incestuous Sisters. Deadline reports that Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Saoirse Ronan and Josh O’Connor are all set to star in the new film, which will be directed by Alice Rohrwacher. Plot details are being kept under wraps, as the outlet reports this will be a loose adaptation of Niffenegger’s novel. Rohrwacher wrote the film’s script alongside Ottessa Moshfegh …
