Jason Collins is a gay professional basketball player. And based on this fact, some people on Twitter apparently want the center to be killed. Despite receiving an onslaught of support after he came out of the closet this week, Collins has also been the subject of some serious Internet hate and even a few threats against his life. Among the worst we’ve seen: “Yous a dead f****t talkn on tv Boy.” Listening to Jason Collins describe his gayness as ‘beautiful’ makes me wanna puke. And kill him.” “Jason collins comes out the closet! Kill that biiitttchhhh!!!” “Jason Collins should get the death penalty lol how u a 7 foot gay dude lol the west is crazy smh” Granted, there will always be moronic haters who hide behind a keyboard. Remember when Selena Gomez received death threats for dating Justin Bieber? But Collins has handled the adversity very well this week, appearing on Good Morning America; on a Grantland podcast with Bill Simmons; and will soon sit across from Oprah on OWN. What is your reaction to Collins coming out? Good for him! Who cares? He should go back in the closet! View Poll »
Actor Simon Pegg discusses his character Scotty in this character profile video for Star Trek Into Darkness . Take a look: Star Trek Into Darkness Scotty Video Pegg rejoins Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as part of the Enterprise Crew in the follow-up to 2009’s Star Trek reboot. This time, the Enterprise defies commands when it sets out to find the man responsible for attacking Star Fleet. Benedict Cumberbatch, Alice Eve , Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Karl Urban, Bruce Greenwood also star. J.J. Abrams directs Into Darkness , which will hit theaters May 17.
Kelsey Grammer will play the villain in Transformers 4 ! The villain will be a full-on human being. His name is Harold Attinger, and he is some kind of intelligence operative. Little else is known about the character. Grammer joins Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor in the cast of the film, which will launch a brand new trilogy (yes, that’s right, there will eventually by SIX Transformers movies). Michael Bay will once again direct. Transformers 4 is set to premiere June 27, 2014.
It’s a new era for Star Wars , with J.J. Abrams taking the helm as Disney is now in charge of Lucasfilm. But while many hope that Abrams will inject something new into the franchise, the director still wants to maintain a connection to the other six films. That’s why, at a press conference in Germany today, Abrams said that he wants original composer John Williams to score Star Wars Episode VII . The director stated, “For Star Wars , it’s very early days, but I believe that, going forward, John Williams will be doing that film, because he was there long before I was.” Michael Arndt is currently writing the new movie’s script, which is thought to take place some 20-30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi . It is believed that Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill will reprise their roles from the first trilogy, though not much else is known about the plot or casting. Star Wars Episode VII has a release date set for Summer 2015.
James Franco: Actor turned Soap Star turned Professor turned Oscar Host turned Director. Plus he’s incredibly good looking. Way to make us all feel bad about ourselves, James. Franco’s directorial debut, an adaptation of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is preparing to show at Sundance, but Franco is already moving on to his next directorial project: an adaptation of Andre Dubus III’s The Garden of Last Days . The book follows three strangers whose lives intersect at a Florida strip club. it is set during September 11, 2001, though Dubus has given permission for the date to be changed for the film. Franco will also star in the film. There is no word yet on when production is set to begin.
Production has just barely begun in Chicago for the young adult adaptation Divergent , and already there’s an image! Shailene Woodley stars in the first Divergent image as Beatrice “Tris” Prior. Take a look: The film takes place in a futuristic dystopia where society is divided into five factions, each based on a different virtue. On their sixteenth birthday, everyone must choose whether to stay in the faction they were born in, or be initiated into a new one. Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Kate Winslet, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Tony Goldwyn, Ben Lamb and Christian Madsen also star. Divergent is based on the first novel in the series by Veronica Roth. It will hit theaters March 21, 2014.
Herbert and Catherine Schaible – a couple serving probation for the 2009 death of their two-year old son – may face new charges this week after they allowed a second child to pass away without medical care. The Schaibles belong to a fundamentalist Christian church that believes solely in faith healing. As a result, they lost 8-month-old Brandon last week after a multi-day battle with diarrhea and breathing difficulties that was never addressed by a doctor. Four years ago, another untreated son passed away from bacterial pneumonia. On 10 years’ probation for that incident, the couple may now face new charges because The Associated Press reports that terms of that probation included mandatory medical assistance for all future kids. “There are way more questions than answers at this point. We haven’t seen the autopsy report. We don’t know the cause of death of this child,” said Catherine’s attorney, Mythri Jayaraman. The lawyer went on to say “Mr. and Mrs. Schaible are distraught, they are grieving, they are tremendously sad about the loss of their most recent baby.” In 2009, a jury convicted the Schaibles of involuntary manslaughter after the death of Kent, 2. The boy’s symptoms at the time of his passing included coughing, congestion, crankiness and a loss of appetite. Similar to their actions back then, the Schaibles told investigators in regard to Brandon’s recent death that they prayed to God to make their son well instead of providing him with any medical treatment.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has admitted that he and his brother were behind the Boston Marathon bombings, a law enforcement official said this afternoon. Tsarnaev made his admissions to FBI agents who questioned him at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the Boston Globe reported on Tuesday. He is still hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds. The suspect had been given a Miranda warning at the time of the confession. Tsarnaev was charged with using a weapon of mass destruction Monday. Attorneys for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (left, above) are certain to challenge the legality of those admissions, and claims that he and his brother acted alone . The 19-year-old, who was captured after a massive manhunt Fiday night, reportedly said his older brother was radicalized in an extreme form of Islam. But in an interview with the Globe, a senior police official said authorities are not worried about the initial admission to authorities being thrown out. This is due in part to the fact that they reportedly have a strong witness: the man who was abducted by the Tsarnaev brothers last Thursday night. Police sources told the Globe that the carjacking victim has told police that Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother pointed guns at him that evening. At that point, Tamerlan reportedly told him, “We just killed a cop. We blew up the marathon. And now we’re going to New York. Don’t [expletive] with us.” The carjacking took place in Allston shortly after, police say, the Tsarnaevs ambushed and murdered an MIT Police Officer in his cruiser in Cambridge. Boston Police, State Police, Watertown Police, Transit Police and other officers confronted the Tsarnaevs early Friday after the stolen SUV was spotted. “We already knew these guys had admitted to killing three civilians and a police officer, and that they were prepared to kill many others,” the senior official said. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in a shootout with police, while Dzhokhar escaped on foot and somehow managed to avoid capture for nearly 24 hours. According to the official, the bombers told the carjack victim that they were going to New York and used his ATM card at various locations for cash. Investigators are trying to determine if the two had either friends or co-conspirators in New York, where they said they were headed more than once. But the haphazard, ill-planned escape has many investigators skeptical that there were other any radical Islamists involved in the brothers’ attack. “If they had accomplices in New York, you’d think they would have had an established contingency plan to get there, and wouldn’t be shooting cops and stealing cars,” the official said. “That said, we haven’t ruled out anything in New York. We’re looking into who they knew down there and was anyone in New York prepared to hide them.”
Fury is a new WWII drama in development from director David Ayer, whose last film End of Watch received high critical acclaim. Brad Pitt is already attached to star, and now Shia LaBeouf is in talks to join Fury and co-star with him. The movie takes place during the end of WWII, as a five-man crew for a tank called Fury takes on a desperate German army. Pitt stars as the leader of the crew, a Sargeant called Wardaddy. LaBeouf would play a member of the crew, though details about the character are not yet available.
Gus Van Sant is gunning to take a seat in the director’s chair on the Fifty Shades of Grey movie. He’s so eager to win the job, in fact, that he shot a test scene without even being asked to submit one. So who was his Christian in the steamy sex scene? Alex Pettyfer. Pettyfer was thrust onto the scene with last year’s Magic Mike , and it appears as though the 23-year-old has already typecast himself as a hunk (poor him?). A director has yet to be chosen for the Fifty Shades of Grey movie , but the studio has been eager to fast-track the film in order to capitalize on the success of the novel. Once a director is chosen, the biggest question left is who should play Christian and Anastasia in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie?
