Colin Jost limps away from Olympics surfing correspondent gig amid “growing list of ailments”
NBCUniversal
After scraping his foot on a coral reef and getting a staph infection, then suffering a subsequent ear infection, SNL‘s “Weekend Update” co-anchor Colin Jost has apparently signed off as NBC’s “Olympic surfing correspondent.”
While the funnyman told NBC’s Olympics anchor Mike Tirico he had a “growing list of ailments” in the South Pacific and planned to get “as many infections as there are Olympic Events,” Deadline reports Jost has left Tahiti, and the network replaced him at the surfing beat with Australian weatherman Luke Bradnam.
Jost recently updated his Instagram with footage of a pre-taped, hard-hitting interview with Teahupo’o [TAY-ah-HOOP-oh], a display of skulls in Tahiti that shares the name with the monster wave break in which the Olympic competition is taking place.
Jost asked the wall-mounted noggins if the term “Teahup’o” is “offensive to skulls.”
One replied the term is in fact insulting and just another example of “this anti-skull nonsense: You know, they put us on the poison label, they put us on the pirate flag.” Some commenters correctly pointed out that the mounted skulls sounded suspiciously like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s alter ego, comedian Robert Smigel.
Jost captioned the video bit by saying, “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
Deadline notes it’s not known if he’ll be rejoining NBC’s coverage of the Summer Games in Paris.
Multiple people are now facing federal charges in connection with the ketamine death of Friends star Matthew Perry, ABC News has learned.
The arrests were made in an early morning operation Thursday, according to law enforcement sources.
The charges will be announced at a news briefing later on Thursday with the U.S. attorney for Los Angeles and the DEA administrator.
Perry died on Oct. 28, 2023, at the age of 54. He was discovered unresponsive in a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home, police said. An autopsy report revealed he died from the acute effects of ketamine.
Perry had high levels of ketamine in his blood, likely lapsed into unconsciousness and then went underwater, according to the autopsy report.
He was reported to have been receiving ketamine infusions for depression and anxiety, with the most recent therapy 1 1/2 weeks before his death, according to the autopsy report. The medical examiner wrote that the ketamine in his system at the time of death could not have been from that infusion therapy, as ketamine’s half-life is three to four hours or less. His method of intake was listed in the report as unknown.
The autopsy report also listed drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects as contributing factors not related to the immediate cause of death. The manner of death was ruled an accident.
Prescription drugs and loose pills were found at his home, but nothing near where he was found dead, according to the autopsy report.
Multiple agencies have been investigating in the months since his death, including the Los Angeles Police Department, Drug Enforcement Administration, United States Postal Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Perry was known for playing Chandler Bing on the hit sitcom Friends, which ran from 1994 to 2004.
Gena Rowlands, the award-winning actress known for her acclaimed roles in A Woman Under the Influence,Gloria and The Notebook, has died. She was 94.
Rowlands’ son, film director Nick Cassavetes, revealed in June 2024 that his mother had been living with Alzheimer’s disease for five years.
Her death was confirmed by The Associated Press.
A four-time Emmy winner and two-time GoldenGlobe winner, as well as the recipient of an Honorary Academy Award, Rowlands’ career in theater, film and television spanned nearly seven decades. She was perhaps best known for her film collaborations with her husband, the late actor and director John Cassavetes, and received two Oscar nominations for her starring roles in his films A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria.
Born Virginia Cathryn Rowlands in Cambria, Wisconsin, she made her Broadway debut in The Seven Year Itch in 1953. Rowlands met John Cassavetes when they were both students at the American Academy for Dramatic Arts and they were married in 1954. She spent the next six years working in TV, including opposite Cassavetes in the detective series Johnny Staccato, in which he starred. She also appeared in hit series like Bonanza, The Virginian, 77 Sunset Strip and Peyton Place.
Rowlands made her film debut in 1958 in The High Cost of Living. In 1963, she starred in her first movie directed by John Cassavetes: A Child Is Waiting. The couple would make nine more films over the next 10 years, including the Oscar-nominated 1968 drama Faces.
One of Rowlands’ most acclaimed roles was in the 1974 drama A Woman Under the Influence, which Cassavetes both wrote and directed as a showcase for her. The film, about the mental and emotional unraveling of a middle-aged, blue-collar housewife, earned Rowlands a best actress Golden Globe win and Academy Award nomination.
She received a second best actress Oscar nod for her 1980 title role in the crime thriller Gloria, also written and directed by Cassavetes, playing a woman who protects the young son of a mob bookkeeper by going on the run with him and an incriminating ledger of mob accounts.
Rowlands continued to work steadily in TV and movies, but arguably, her best-known, and most beloved, later big-screen role was in the 2004 romantic drama The Notebook, directed by Nick Cassavetes. Rowlands portrayed the elderly version of Rachel McAdams‘ character, opposite James Garner as her husband, who was played as a younger man by Ryan Gosling.
Nick Cassavetes directed his mother in three other films – Unhook the Stars, She’s So Lovely and Yellow – while Rowlands’ daughter, Zoe, directed her in 2007’s Broken English.
Later in her career, Rowlands appeared on hit TV shows including Monk and NCIS. Her last credited acting role was in 2014’s Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.
In addition to Nick and Zoe, Rowlands is survived by her and Cassavetes’ other daughter, Alexandra. Both daughters are actor/directors.
Lenny Kravitz’s daughter, actress Zoë Kravitz, is opening up about what it was like growing up with a famous rock star father.
In a new interview with Esquire, Zoë discusses the differences of living with her dad versus her mom, Lisa Bonet,when she was young, noting that Bonet was a much stricter parent.
“It was this whirlwind of a completely different universe,” she says of visiting her dad after her parents broke up, which was during the height of his fame. “And then I would go home to this really quiet, really simple life [with Bonet].”
By 11, Zoë had opted out of Bonet’s stricter household and moved in with her dad in Miami, which gave her lots of freedom — but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
“It wasn’t that my dad didn’t care, he just cared about different things,” she said. “Just like it happens in the movies, it’s like, ‘Oh, you think this is perfect? You think this is great? Guess what comes with this.’”
Zoë also says that when she was young she would often see her dad being taken advantage of by people around him, noting he had a hard time saying no.
“I can smell it out pretty quickly,” she says of her suspicions that people may take advantage of her dad. “I had to when I was a kid, because he didn’t. He’s really trusting, and it’s sweet, but I can tell exactly what someone wants.”
