The first rule of social media is you do not fall for extortion scams. The second rule of social media is you do not fall for extortion scams. Maybe the rule needs an addendum that says you should never believe that a celebrity is asking for your help or your money. But that’s just what one French woman found out in the hardest – and most financially crippling – way possible, as AI images led her believe that Brad Pitt was personally requesting her aid, resulting in her throwing away $850,000.

With the images of an AI-generated Brad Pitt going viral, it can no longer be ignored by the star. As such, a rep for Pitt made the following statement: “It’s awful that scammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities, but this is an important reminder to not respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence.”

The 57-year-old woman – who is only being known as “Anne” at this time – was led to believe that Brad Pitt was contacting her to help raise money for cancer treatment. The reason millionaire “Brad Pitt” couldn’t cover his own expenses? His then-ongoing legal battle with ex-wife Angelina Jolie. “Anne” discovered the scam when she saw photos of Pitt out and about with current girlfriend Ines de Ramon. On the scenario, the woman stated, “At first I said to myself that it was fake, that it’s ridiculous…But I’m not used to social media and I didn’t really understand what was happening to me.”

We know that a certain generation can easily get fooled by AI-generated images – and even pictures like these, which look like crappy copy and paste jobs where someone cut out Brad Pitt’s head from Us Weekly and glued them to some stock images – but it is genuinely unfortunate and sad that this woman was duped to such a degree. The harassment, too, has gone too far, as the woman has seen apparently non-stop cyberbullying as a result of the story.

While there’s no evidence that Brad Pitt and his team will seek any legal action against the perpetrators if they are caught, it would seem like they would have a case, as someone used his likeness to make a financial gain.

Brad Pitt can next be seen in F1, in which he plays a retired Formula One driver for Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski.

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Season two of Apple TV+’s Severance has been one of the most highly anticipated sophomore seasons in recent memory. With the first being a smash but concluding all the way back in 2022, fans couldn’t wait to hop back on the streaming service to see what was going on at Lumon Industries. As for co-star Christopher Walken, he’s just fine watching Severance on DVD, thankyouverymuch.

With the second season of Severance underway, Christopher Walken was asked on Andy Cohen Live (via The Hollywood Reporter) if he had gotten a chance to watch it in its entirety. “Not all of them. I can’t. I don’t have the equipment. So, they’re good enough to send me DVDs.” That equipment, of course, is Apple TV+, which is common enough to find on pretty much every smart TV on the market. But Walken doesn’t have it…or any streamer, as it seems.

OK, so maybe Christopher Walken isn’t actively or purposely championing physical media here, but that he still relies on discs – especially for a show he’s a part of – is pretty cool. That he also doesn’t bother with streaming services on top of it shows a complete disinterest in learning just what’s going on in that world, letting it sit in some unaccessible corner, so to speak. Hey, he’s 81, why should he bother with Hulu, Fubo, Freevee, Tubi, or any other ridiculous-sounding streamer?

On Severance, Christopher Walken plays Burt Goodman, the head of optics and design who maintains a close relationship with Irving Bailiff (John Turturro, who actually recommended Walken for the role). The strong cast also features Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, and Jen Tullock. For his performance, Walken received his only Primetime Emmy nomination for a series, also being nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the ensemble. (He had previously only ever been nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for Sarah, Plain and Tall.)

Episodes of Severance drop on Fridays on Apple TV+; the season will conclude on March 21st.

What do you think of season two of Severance so far? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Put away the tossed salad and scrambled eggs because the Frasier revival has been canceled after just two seasons. But that doesn’t mean we won’t see more, as even though Paramount+ will no longer produce the show, CBS Studios is still on board for the future of Frasier.

While the future of Frasier is currently uncertain, as you can stream the original Frasier on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu, that could be an indicator that the revival may find a home there as well.

Already a spin-off, Frasier didn’t initially seem worthy of coming back. But the nostalgia wave was strong enough for it to land on Paramount+; it, too, proved to be just what it needed to be: something comfortable for fans of the original to nestle into. Sure, it was missing both the late John Mahoney (who played Frasier Crane’s father Martin) and David Hyde Pierce (who won four Emmys playing brother Niles on the original show), but some familiar characters such as Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth), Roz (Peri Gilpin) and Bob “Bulldog” Briscoe (Dan Butler) helped fill out the void.

Overall, though, the show had been holding its own and we here at JoBlo.com really dug what the revival series had to offer, even giving the second season an 8/10, with our own Alex Maidy noting that the character of Frasier Crane had a strong future ahead of him. The show may not have been getting the Emmy love that the original did, but it had its fans for sure.

Kelsey Grammer had high hopes for the revival, saying he wanted to bring back some Cheers characters, chiefly Diane (Shelley Long) and Sam (Ted Danson). And here’s hoping that both the series and the fans will get the chance to see that happen. But as of now, we’re all a bit disappointed, especially considering the original Frasier ran for 11 seasons and 260+ episodes – almost as long as Cheers – and this continuation has been halted at just 20 episodes.

What do you make of the Frasier revival being canceled? Do you think it will find a home on another streaming service? Let us know below!

The post Frasier tossed by Paramount+ after two seasons; who will scramble to pick it up? appeared first on JoBlo.

This week’s catch-all of nifty tips, info, and observations features rankings of two of the three groups of heroes in Marvel Rivals: the support heroes and the damage dealers. So if you’ve got strong feelings about where, say, the Punisher should land in such a tally, you can see for yourself just how right or wrong…

Read more…

This week’s catch-all of nifty tips, info, and observations features rankings of two of the three groups of heroes in Marvel Rivals: the support heroes and the damage dealers. So if you’ve got strong feelings about where, say, the Punisher should land in such a tally, you can see for yourself just how right or wrong…

Read more…

Typically, MLK Day weekend is a box office bonanza, but it seems that a potential, would-be blockbuster in the form of Wolf Man is seriously underperforming, cratering Hollywood’s hopes for a high-grossing weekend. Indeed, some box office forecasters believed the film would open in the $30 million range (we predicted a much more modest $17 million), but in the end, the film will be lucky to pass $12 million this weekend. In fact, at its current rate, the film won’t even come close to topping the weekend, with Mufasa: The Lion King in line for a solid $16 million gross, while the well-reviewed One of Them Days (which our own Tyler Nichols surprisingly loved), will come in second-place with Deadline estimating $14 million.

So what happened? It seems horror audiences were put off by Leigh Whannell’s grounded take on the classic monster, which ditched almost all of the elements people associated with (and loved) about the character – meaning no full moons or silver bullets. The result is a bit of a bore, and the CinemaScore has been a toxic C-minus, which suggests Wolf Man’s word-of-mouth is howlingly bad. Truth be told, Whannell’s movie is derivative of other, better horror films like The Fly. Why bother making a Wolf Man movie if it won’t feature the elements of the character that people love? Whannell’s take emphasizes generational trauma passed down by fathers, but was that a movie anyone needed or wanted right now? The Blumhouse movie simply isn’t scary or particularly entertaining, even if it is well-acted by star Christopher Abbott, who will likely emerge from this relatively unscathed.

Meanwhile, last week’s champ, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is down about 50% for an $8 million weekend, with it looking like it will be narrowly edged out by Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Thieves is performing nearly identically to the first film, meaning it should turn a nice profit for Lionsgate, who’s badly in need of a win, even if it’s a single or double rather than a home run at this point.

We’ll be back tomorrow with the full box office wrap-up!

The post Box Office Update: Wolf Man lands with a thud; hyped horror flick severely underperforming appeared first on JoBlo.

While O’Shea Jackson Jr. and rapper Wale might be huge wrestling fans, they’re not keen on one particular WWE Hall of Famer: Hulk Hogan. In fact, they’re not really feeling him at all and now we know exactly why.

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While O’Shea Jackson Jr. and rapper Wale might be huge wrestling fans, they’re not keen on one particular WWE Hall of Famer: Hulk Hogan. In fact, they’re not really feeling him at all and now we know exactly why.

Read more…

“Amistad.” “Blood Diamond.” “In America.” All major blockbuster films starring Djimon Hounsou that earned him widespread awards recognition and critical acclaim. Yet, in a recent interview, the actor revealed he still has difficulty making ends meet as a working artist.

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“Amistad.” “Blood Diamond.” “In America.” All major blockbuster films starring Djimon Hounsou that earned him widespread awards recognition and critical acclaim. Yet, in a recent interview, the actor revealed he still has difficulty making ends meet as a working artist.

Read more…