Kimberly Guilfoyle asked a MAGA donor to pay a $100,000 American Express bill without leaving a paper trail, a bombshell new report alleges.

Guilfoyle, 57, now the U.S. ambassador to Greece, begged for a cash infusion from Eric Deters, a 63-year-old former congressional candidate from Kentucky, he tells the Wall Street Journal, which also reviewed alleged Signal texts between the two.

“It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express,” the Trump-appointed Guilfoyle texted Deters, according to the Journal. “Please.”

In another message shared with the Journal, she allegedly wrote: “Honey please I need you to get this done for me today. You could just send it here.”

The Journal reports that the latter text, complete with a prayer hands emoji and a PDF with bill payment instructions from American Express, was sent on July 3, 2025, less than a week before her July 9 confirmation hearing.

The texts came as Deters was seeking Guilfoyle’s help in “getting the attention of the new Trump administration on some personal tax and legal issues,” according to WSJ.

Deters ultimately did not make the payment. He says he told Guilfoyle, then still freshly split with Donald Trump Jr., that doing so would end his marriage. However, the Journal reports that in one message, Deters wrote that he has paid Guilfoyle $300,000 over the years and had “not received one favor.”

He allegedly added, “I am not naive or a sucker. I need results.”

Guilfoyle responded that Deters needed to stop creating a paper trail.

“Stop papering all these things,” she wrote, according to WSJ. “It’s really dangerous... Just call me on Signal.”

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.

Guilfoyle’s lawyer, Jesse Binnall, told WSJ that he disputes the messages’ authenticity, but declined to provide specifics to the paper. He said Guilfoyle “was owed a balance for traveling to and supporting these patriotic events.” Deters denies he owed Guilfoyle anything.

A U.S. Embassy official told the Journal: “Guilfoyle’s career in and out of public service is guided by deep and abiding values. The bipartisan Senate Foreign Relations Committee fully vetted her, and the U.S. Senate confirmed her. The Ambassador remains committed to representing the American people with dedication and integrity.”

However, in texts reviewed by WSJ, she appeared aware of the seriousness of her dealings with Deters.

“It’s unbelievable when we have a private arrangement with you that you would now CC a producer talking about money,” she allegedly texted him, upset that Deters told a producer on her podcast about their deal. “Do not say we have any arrangement.”

She continued, “What a nightmare you’ll literally cost me my ambassadorship stop writing.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s latest cringe workout video caught him in some humiliating scenes.

Hegseth, 46, ran with members of the military this morning in California, but he couldn’t really keep up as he was seen trailing behind the pack of runners. Dozens of runners passed Hegseth or were seen keeping a faster pace than him.

Another video from Wednesday’s workout showed the defense secretary doing a floor workout.

In another clip, an out-of-breath Hegseth was seen too tired to continue doing pull-ups, so he started high-fiving people around him.

His workout was swiftly mocked, as many pointed out that he appeared to be struggling.

“This man would not survive a Pilates class,” one user wrote.

“low t pete,” another said, in reference to Hegseth’s more recent obsession with getting testosterone levels up in the military.

“I see at least one female, maybe two outrunning Hegseth. Maybe he needs to lay off the extra testosterone,” another joked.

Hegseth has frequently joined members of the military for PT as he has fixated on physical appearance among troops.

“It all starts with physical fitness and appearance,” Hegseth told gathered generals when he worked out with them last week. “If the Secretary of War can do regular, hard PT, so can every member of our joint force.”

The former Fox News weekend host has posted several videos throughout his tenure that are ostensibly meant to highlight his manliness.

Last week, he posted a video of himself running around the Pentagon with generals, although in that video he seemed to be keeping pace with everyone else.

And throughout his time leading the largest military in the world, he’s posted videos of himself on a spin bike, bench pressing, and doing push-ups and pull-ups with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in what they call “The Pete and Bobby Challenge.”

He also posted a stranger image earlier this year of himself doing pull-ups on a tree with Dr. Oz.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Conservationist Terri Irwin is marking 35 years since the chance encounter that changed her life with an emotional tribute to her late husband, Steve Irwin.

On Tuesday, Terri shared a throwback photo on Instagram of the Crocodile Hunter proudly holding up a black snake as she watched beside him.

“It was 35 years ago today that I met the most incredible man at a tiny roadside wildlife park in Queensland Australia,” she wrote. “This chance meeting would change my life forever.”

Terri continued, “I always felt that Steve and I were more than soulmates. Our life’s purpose was even bigger. I am truly blessed to live a life so full of love, family, and adventure.💕”

The couple met on Oct. 6, 1991, just two days after Steve took over management of the wildlife park his parents founded, then known as the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, according to Australia Zoo.

Terri, who was visiting Australia from the U.S., stopped at the park and met Steve during a wildlife demonstration. The pair married the following year.

Their daughter, Bindi Irwin, 28, also commemorated the milestone Tuesday with a photo of her parents.

“35 years ago, today, my parents met,” she wrote. “They began the most beautiful love story together, which continues to transcend life and loss. ❤️”

Terri responded in the comments, writing, “So blessed to have a chance meeting begin a lifetime of love. Every day I am thankful for the family we grew together. You and Robert light up my world.💕”

Robert Irwin, 22, also shared his mother’s tribute to his Instagram Stories and called his parents “My absolute heroes in life.”

Steve and Terri welcomed Bindi in 1998 and Robert in 2003 before Steve’s sudden death on Sept. 4, 2006.

The 44-year-old wildlife conservationist was pierced through the chest by a short-tail stingray while filming a documentary at Batt Reef, off the coast of Queensland. He went into cardiac arrest and died.

Terri has never remarried and told People in 2018 that she had not been on a date since Steve’s death.

“But I’m content. I have two beautiful kids, a really full plate,” she said. “I’ve already had my happily ever after.”

The latest family tribute comes just over a month after the Irwins marked 20 years since Steve’s death.

In September, Terri reflected on the final weeks the family spent together during a crocodile research expedition in 2006.

“After 20 years, grief still walks with me like my shadow,” she wrote, adding that time had brought “more perspective and understanding.”

“Ours was to be a long and sweet goodbye,” Terri continued. “Steve spent time with Bindi and Robert building swings and climbing trees. We all slowed down. Time slowed down.”

She ended the message with a reminder to “hold every moment dear with the ones you love.”

Bindi called her father the family’s “superhero,” while Robert thanked Steve for teaching him to approach wildlife with empathy and passion.

“Thank you, Dad, for showing me and the entire world what it is to truly live,” Robert wrote. “Your mission and light lives on always.”

Steve rose to worldwide fame through The Crocodile Hunter, which followed his wildlife work with Terri and helped turn Australia Zoo into an international attraction.

His family has continued that mission in the decades since his death, remaining closely involved with the zoo and conservation efforts.

Bindi and Robert also followed their parents onto television, starring with Terri in Crikey! It’s the Irwins from 2018 to 2022. That same year the series debuted, Steve received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

MAGA actress Sydney Sweeney, 29, is related to Marilyn Monroe, according to a new study from the website MyHeritage.

The blonde actresses are apparently ninth cousins once removed. Their connection traces back through Sweeney’s father, Steven Sweeney, and Monroe’s biological father, Charles Stanley Gifford, whose family trees connect through their shared ancestor, Ezra Perry. According to MyHeritage, an online genealogy company, Perry lived in Sandwich, MA, in the 17th century.

Sweeney’s red-carpet fashion has generated comparisons to Monroe in the past. At the Santa Barbara Film Festival in February, Sweeney wore a vintage white Ceil Chapman gown almost identical to the one the Some Like It Hot star wore on the cover of Life Magazine in 1952. Additionally, at the Los Angeles premiere of The Housemaid, Sweeney wore a plunging halter gown reminiscent of Monroe’s dress in 1955’s The Seven Year Itch.

“People have always drawn parallels between Sydney Sweeney and Marilyn Monroe, but seeing their paths align on a deeper level inspired us to look for a real bond in the MyHeritage archives,” Roi Mandel, Director of Research at MyHeritage, said in a statement according to Entertainment Weekly. “Uncovering their shared branch was incredible; it’s a powerful reminder that humanity is one vast family tree, and when we dig deep, we uncover how remarkably interconnected we all are.”

Sweeney came under fire in September for posing nude in an ad for the sports-betting app Novig. In the ad, Sweeney covers parts of her body with basketballs, footballs, and tennis rackets while repeating the word “sports.” Stars began clapping back, especially female Olympic athletes, slamming Sweeney for sexualizing women’s sports.

Last year, the Euphoria actress prompted similar blowback by starring in an American Eagle ad campaign declaring “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” MAGA and right-wingers embraced the campaign and made Sweeney an unofficial poster child for their views. President Donald Trump, 80, has praised the actress.

The Female Athlete Project, an online platform and community, wrote a scathing statement in response to Sweeney’s Novig ad.

“We’re not entirely sure if ‘Novig’ or Sydney Sweeney and her PR team have ever watched sports,” the statement said. “But honestly, wow. It’s incredible they could fit so much misogyny in 40 seconds. Sport has long treated women’s bodies as commodities. And this objectification does nothing to support real women in sports.”

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Read more at The Daily Beast.

Sacha Baron Cohen is hitting back at critics who say his latest Ali G revival “enforces racist stereotypes.”

Dressed in elaborate prosthetics as a balding progressive activist, Baron Cohen, 54, posted a satirical take on the backlash against his upcoming mockumentary, Ali G: Who Iz I?

“I’m here on behalf of the Campaign for Ethical Comedy,” Baron Cohen said (in character) in the video. “I’m sure you’ve heard of our five Cs: Consider, contextualize, consult community, and obtain consent before you laugh—That’s right, do the work before you smirk.”

He adds, still in character, “Regarding the Ali G trailer, it’s so sad that Sacha Baron Cohen cannot come up with a new character, so I urge you to boycott this Ali G movie.”

The snarky parody follows the trailer for Who Iz I?, which prompted a campaign asking theaters not to play the film when it’s released on Oct. 23. According to media bias organization NewsCord, nearly 56,000 concerned fans have joined the campaign to ask local theaters to block the film.

Backlash to the trailer includes complaints about the faux wannabe rapper character wearing fake dreadlocks and a Rastafarian hat. Critics argue that the caricature is also intensified by Ali G’s declaration to an interviewer that he aspires to be an “absent” father.

Racism accusations have followed the character since shortly after he debuted it in 1998. The character made Baron Cohen a star on Da Ali G Show, but a 2000 report on the perspectives of Black comedians called the caricature an “alibi for racism.” He later made the 2002 Ali G film Ali G in Da House before retiring the character in 2007. Amazon MGM Studios is behind its revival.

To tease the comeback in July, the actor donned the character’s classic yellow-tinted sunglasses, skull cap, and thick gold chain while pretending to sell weed at Wimbledon. He showed off the stunt in a post on Instagram with the caption, “I iz BACK! And if u iz at dis borin wimbledore final lookin 2 get grand slammed, I iz here wif de hookup 🌱🍄❄️💊💉 dm me, especially if u iz fit.”

To promote the trailer, Baron Cohen once again framed backlash around “political correctness.” He wrote in an unapologetic post on X, “In an age where a comedian’s career can be ended by a single un-PC joke, I thought I’d play it safe and bring this guy back.”

Mere hours after Variety reported on NewsCord’s campaign in August, Baron Cohen posted a video of himself speaking at the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington in 2023 and blocked fans from commenting. “The power of unity is exactly why those who stand in the way of equality and freedom seek to divide us. They appeal to the worst instincts of humanity, which often simmer just below the surface,” he says in the clip.

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Read more at The Daily Beast.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcomed the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln back to the U.S. with a furious rant against the press—which exposed the appalling conditions on the vessel.

The aircraft carrier is due to finally return home to San Diego on Thursday after being in the Middle East for an extended deployment. Hegseth visited the aircraft carrier Wednesday to praise their work.

But what was supposed to be a celebratory moment for the crew after roughly 10 and a half months at sea turned into U.S. service members being subjected to the Pentagon chief airing grievances.

“I realize I’m the only thing standing between you and home,” Hegseth kicked off his remarks.

He also acknowledged he was the one who signed orders to extend their tour twice, but it didn’t take long for him to get to his repeated complaints about the media. Hegseth was a member of the media as a weekend Fox News anchor.

“There were a few folks in the media who tried to turn the USS Abraham Lincoln into some sort of symbol, a symbol of dysfunction or a symbol of low morale or a symbol of a failed mission,” Hegseth complained. “And what I look at right here and when I talk to your leadership, and I have had a chance to talk to a number of you, I know it’s the exact opposite.”

But the former TV personality was not done whining about the press for reporting on the concerns that sailors’ families had about the abysmal conditions and morale onboard as the deployment dragged on.

“They see success, and they see excellence, and they see difficulty and challenge that needs to be overcome, an extension, a challenging environment, and they want to point at it as a symbol of something that was missed or wrong,” Hegseth ranted.

“Instead, what makes the U.S. military and the U.S. Navy and all these sailors different is that you adapt, and that you’re resilient, and you overcome. You finish the mission nonetheless,” Hegseth said. “Yes, it’s hard.”

The USS Lincoln was at sea without a port call for 286 days straight, the second-longest deployment without a port stop since the Vietnam War.

There were reports of supply shortages and mental health challenges that prompted families and members of Congress to sound the alarm.

In fact, the Pentagon admitted that a crew member jumped overboard in an unsuccessful attempt to take his own life, and also acknowledged that eight sailors in total attempted suicide on the Lincoln, and its escort vessels, during the deployment.

While Hegseth praised the crew repeatedly and acknowledged the deployment “wasn’t easy,” he was called out for seemingly being out of touch with the demands of the mission.

At one point, Hegseth praised the crew for doing 60 hours of constant flight operations, but he was immediately corrected by those standing in the crowd that it was far more.

He had to clarify that it was 160 hours with 60 strike hours. For his error, he dropped down and gave them two push-ups.

Hegseth has been increasingly outspoken in public, at the same time as speculation has mounted that he would be fired if Democrats win the midterm elections.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump repeatedly slumped in his chair during an economic announcement on Wednesday, renewing questions about his stamina in the final stretch of the midterm election campaign.

Trump, 80, held an afternoon event to announce that millions of children will be automatically enrolled in his so-called “Trump Accounts,” which give eligible children a one-time $1,000 federal government contribution.

But as the president called on others to speak—including Dell Technologies chief Michael Dell, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz—he often slumped over in his chair and appeared low on energy as he later took questions.

The scenes came shortly before Trump was due to travel to Texas on Wednesday afternoon for another rally to help embattled Senate candidate Ken Paxton.

The president’s health has long come under scrutiny, but all the more so as he barnstorms the country trying to drum up support for the GOP ahead of the November 3 election.

Trump is embarking on what aides are calling an all-out blitz of campaign rally appearances in support of vulnerable candidates, even in places Republicans would normally be safe.

In the last week alone, he has visited Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio, Texas and Nebraska, begging supporters to show up in force—even if it means voting by mail after years of the president railing against it.

“So what I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot. Just come and vote,” he urged supporters.

But the travel schedule is grueling and often requires late nights—last week, for example, the president did not return to the White House from an out-of-state trip until 2:54 a.m.

Wednesday’s event was the latest in a series of events in recent months while on camera, where he either appeared slumped over, shifting in his chair or struggling to keep his eyes open as others spoke.

Doctors have told the Daily Beast that Trump’s late-night social media posting frenzies are unlikely to help.

In one of his latest posting sprees, the president wrongly claimed that “125 Million People voted today in the first round of India’s Presidential Election.”

But it was Brazil that went to the polls on Sunday, with right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of jailed former president and Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro, taking a narrow lead over left-wing incumbent Lula da Silva.

The White House nevertheless insists Trump is firing on all cylinders as he criss-crosses the country urging people to help the GOP keep its majority in Congress.

“Can everybody just close your eyes and pretend I’m on the ballot?” he begged the crowd at a rally in Mobile, Alabama last week.

After the Oval Office event, the president boarded Marine One for his latest trip to Texas.

The visit to San Antonio is the second time the president has headed to the Lone Star state in less than a week, or the fourth a month.

Rather than sticking with incumbent John Cornyn, Trump backed the trouble-plagued Paxton - even as he faced a securities-fraud case, FBI scrutiny, impeachment and allegations of bribery and abuse of office—then watched Paxton’s campaign become a genuine headache.

Republican groups have already poured more than $100 million into saving the embattled GOP candidate amid polls showing Democrat James Talarico slightly ahead.

Asked if he regretted endorsing Paxton, Trump said no. “He was a great attorney general, I think he’ll be a great senator,” he told reporters.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Wealthy executives standing behind Donald Trump in the Oval Office struggled to contain their laughter as the president delivered a self-aggrandizing rant from the Resolute Desk.

Billionaire tech CEO Michael Dell and venture capitalist Brad Gerstner looked uncomfortable as the 80-year-old president delivered a tirade about tariffs and boasted he was creating “the greatest economy” in a press briefing for his “Trump Accounts” on Wednesday.

As Trump rambled about how factories were being built “all over the country” and that “there’s never been a time like this” in America, both Dell, 61, and Gerstner, 55, seemed embarrassed by the president’s speech.

Their mannerisms included looking away from the president as he spoke—staring up at the ceiling, down at their shoes, or darting their eyes around the room full of reporters.

Gerstner’s body language, with his hands clasped tightly in front of him, seemed to suggest he was uneasy about the president’s claims, as did Dell’s strained mouth and eyebrow movements.

“There’s never been a time like this, ever, where $21 trillion—that’s even a lot of money for Brad and Michael and Susan,” Trump said, looking back toward the billionaires. Dell, who Forbes says is worth $282 billion, and Gerstner, a multi-millionaire, returned scrunched smiles and nodded at the president before turning their gaze elsewhere in the room.

The Dell Technologies founder and Altimeter Capital CEO stood idly by as Trump claimed, “I can do whatever I want, if I want.” Trump even said that he could use the office of the presidency to target his political foes such as Hillary Clinton or “Barack Hussein Obama.”

Later, as the president sounded off about how his administration has cultivated “the greatest growth of any country, maybe ever in history,” Dell and Gerstner once again seemed put off by Trump’s braggadocio.

As Trump described how the U.S. was creating the “biggest” factories for semiconductor production and turning away from trade with countries like Taiwan, the duo kept looking down and around the room.

The Daily Beast has reached out to Altimeter Capital and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation for comment.

Dell said Tuesday that he and his wife, Susan, would make good on their promise to donate $6.25 billion of their wealth to fund 25 million Trump accounts with $250 by the end of the week.

Earlier in the press briefing, Trump had difficulty finding Dell, despite him standing right behind the Resolute Desk.

“Thank you, Brad, Susan, thank you. Michael, wherever you may be,” Trump said, as Susan, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz all pointed at Dell right behind the president’s chair.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Nathan Fielder has revealed that he cut off contact with Elizabeth Holmes’ partner, Billy Evans, after he tried to manipulate the bombshell documentary You Can See Everything.

The film follows Fielder, 43, as he lives with Holmes, 42, and Evans, 33, in the weeks leading up to Holmes’ prison sentence for fraud. It explores Holmes’ enigmatic persona as Fielder tries to understand the motives behind her scam biotech company, Theranos. Evans, the father of Holmes’ two children, features prominently in the film, which premieres in theaters on Oct. 16.

Director Lance Oppenheim, 30, said that neither Holmes nor Evans has seen the documentary. He and Fielder discussed the film after a Los Angeles screening on Tuesday night.

“Neither of them have seen the film,” Oppenheim told moderator Bill Hader. “Elizabeth is still incarcerated; Billy hasn’t seen it.”

Fielder said that Evans “started trying to exert a level of control over the process that made it very hard to engage with him, and it was uncomfortable for us and A24.”

“We sort of had to stop,” he added. “Communication broke down basically, and we’ve been in that state for a little bit. So it’s been challenging in that way.”

Evans is the multi-millionaire heir to a luxury hotel chain. In 2025, he founded an unlaunched medical diagnostics and artificial intelligence company called Haemanthus, which is derived from the Greek for “blood flower.” Holmes has been advising Evans from her Texas prison perch, according to NPR. Evans has drawn criticism for venturing into biotech when a jury found Holmes guilty of four felony counts of investor fraud in the same industry.

Evans and Holmes met in 2017 at a charity event when Theranos was under investigation for fraud.

“I fell in love in that first conversation,” Evans tells Fielder in the You Can See Everything trailer. Fielder asked Evans if he was worried Holmes was “scamming” him when they met.

“One hundred percent,” Evans replied. “But what did she have to gain from me?”

“Well,” Fielder said, “isn’t your family rich?”

Holmes, who came out as a MAGA supporter this past month, began an 11-year fraud sentence in May 2023. In December 2025, she formally asked President Donald Trump, 80, for early release. The Federal Bureau of Prisons approved her request on Sept. 24. Holmes will move from prison to a residential halfway house in Texas next year. She maintains her innocence.

Fielder is still flummoxed about why Holmes let him live with her during her last few weeks of freedom. He’s also processing the whole endeavor, trying to parse through and make sense of his experience.

“I still am not sure to this day what I experienced, and it’s one of the reasons I’m excited for it to come out and more people see it,” Fielder said. “It was just a small group for so long, and I actually think maybe it being out there, everyone can help me understand what I went through.”

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Read more at The Daily Beast.

Christa Pike, a Tennessee death row inmate who survived a failed execution last week, is awake and conscious.

Pike, 50, would have been the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Her first words, the New York Post reports, were “Where am I and who are you?”

According to the BBC, Pike’s attorney Randy Spivey told reporters there is “still a lot of cognitive confusion” and a “long road to recovery,” but that Pike is “very aware of what they did to her.”

She survived two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital, leaving her injured and on a ventilator, ABC reported.

According to CNN, Pike’s attorneys believed her to be brain dead just hours before she woke up and began talking.

They say she has a blood clot in one of her arms, is unable to swallow or eat, and was left with pneumonia after the failed execution.

They also revealed that she is still shackled to her hospital bed.

Pike had been on Death Row for 30 years, after murdering her 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer as a teen in 1995. She is the first-ever prisoner to survive a lethal injection.

“What happened to Christa was exactly what the state was warned would happen, and there are so many questions that need to be answered, not by Christa but by the state of Tennessee,” Spivey said at a news conference.

Pike’s attorneys had warned that difficult IV access and blown veins could complicate the execution.

Her execution was temporarily halted by a federal appeals court stay just an hour before it was initially set to be carried out.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti successfully petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the stay and allow the execution to move forward.

The failed attempt took about an hour, Spivey told reporters. He counted at least seven needles, he said, “one of which appeared to be bent when it was pulled from her arm after an unsuccessful attempt.”

Following the botched injections, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called off Pike’s execution and postponed all state killings for the rest of the year.

On Wednesday, Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles ordered that all evidence, including recordings, witness accounts, emails, along with drugs, syringes, IV lines and other medical items, be preserved while an investigation takes place into the botched execution.

Pike’s was the second botched execution in Tennessee this year, after the state failed to carry out a lethal injection on Tony Carruthers on May 21. The execution team failed to insert a backup IV line despite trying for more than an hour. Gov. Lee granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve after the failed execution.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The Bear star Jeremy Allen White knows he looks a lot like comedy icon Gene Wilder—and that fans want him to put it to use by starring in a biopic.

White, 35, who won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto on FX’s The Bear, said he would be willing to step into that real-life role if asked.

“Absolutely, it would be my honor,” White said on the Today show. “Young Frankenstein is one of my earliest film memories. Blazing Saddles—he’s a genius. It would be an honor. He was a genius. It would be an honor. Yeah, I love him. I’ve always loved him.”

Wilder died at the age of 83 on August 29, 2016, from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease.

As for whether any movement has been made to make a potential project happen, Allen said, “I need the call.” No new developments, he added, but “We’ll see—we’re manifesting it.”

Allen played Bruce Springsteen in the 2025 biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere, for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture—Drama. He also plays real-life journalist Jeff Horwitz in the Social Network sequel, The Social Reckoning, which is in theaters this weekend.

White told Today that he doesn’t always jump at the chance to play real people.

“I had a little hesitation” going into Reckoning, he said. “I did a film called Deliver Me From Nowhere, playing Bruce Springsteen—very public person, very beloved person, well-known person. It was a wonderful experience, but it was a tremendous amount of pressure.”

Springsteen was pleased with White’s performance, he told SiriusXM’s E Street Radio last January.

“Jeremy is such a terrific actor that you just fall right into it,” the rocker said. “He’s just done a great job.”

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Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Amazon’s highly anticipated Prime Big Deal Days event (aka fall Prime Day) officially kicks off on Oct. 6 for two days of sitewide savings of up to 40 percent. Amazon’s October Prime Day beauty deals span from makeup and skincare to wellness and supplements—including plenty of beauty scores on masstige, drugstore, and premium brands.

Many of the featured beauty brands on sale (Westmore Beauty, Laura Geller, Paula’s Choice, Medicube, and more) right now rarely get marked down, so this is the perfect opportunity to stock up on some of your pricier holy grail products or treat yourself to a new splurge without the dreaded buyer’s remorse from paying full price.

Keep in mind that you do need to be an Amazon Prime member to take advantage of the deals, but you can easily sign up for a free 30-day trial if you’re not ready to commit for the entire year.

Scroll down to see a few discounted beauty items our editors are adding to their carts for Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2026.

MORE FROM SCOUTED:

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Hollywood’s GLP-1 era is no longer just changing waistlines. It’s changing how performers do their jobs.

As the popular weight-loss drugs become a fixture among celebrities, the folks keeping shows and productions running say they are adapting to appetite changes and side effects that can follow performers into rehearsals, fittings, and grueling workdays.

And the pool of people who may bring those effects to work is growing fast. Eleven percent of U.S. adults said they currently use a GLP-1 medication for weight loss in 2026, up from just 3 percent in 2024, according to a Gallup survey released in July.

Aimée Steele, a production vocal coach whose Broadway credits include Buena Vista Social Club and Girl from the North Country, told Women’s Health that she’s seen the pharmaceutical boom show up in performers’ voices.

“We were dealing with dry mouth and vocal cord gravel way back when,” Steele said. “It used to be the SSRI dryness, then decongestant dryness. Now it’s GLP-1 dryness.”

Steele said she has also seen nausea, acid reflux, and fatigue among performers using the drugs, especially during a demanding show schedule.

“You’re doing eight shows a week, you’re dehydrated, your body’s not possibly getting the nutrients, the vitamins, and the enrichment it needs, so the fatigue just comes right in,” she said.

Those potentially career-halting side effects overlap with known adverse reactions to the popular weight-loss drugs. Wegovy’s prescribing information lists nausea, vomiting, constipation, fatigue, and gastroesophageal reflux disease among its most common side effects.

Comedian Amy Schumer, 45, has described just how debilitating that trade-off can be. She told Howard Stern in 2025 that semaglutide left her bedridden, vomiting, and without enough energy to play with her son.

“I looked great and I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow, so what’s the point?” she said.

Singer Macy Gray, 59, also described struggling while filming MTV’s The Surreal Life in 2024, saying Ozempic left her constipated and awake with stomach pain.

The ripple effects can extend beyond the talent.

Kinyarda Wright, owner of Around the Clock Craft Services, told Women’s Health she has noticed more leftover food and crews gravitating toward smaller, protein-heavy options. On a Gucci campaign shoot, she said some workers skipped full meals and instead reached for foods such as apple chips and sugar snap peas.

Requests have also shifted toward keto and gluten-free options, while sugary sodas have increasingly given way to sparkling and spring water.

Costume departments may be the least shocked. Broadway costume designers James Nguyen and AC Gottlieb said adjusting garments around fluctuating bodies has always been part of the job, whether the cause is pregnancy, rehearsals, muscle gain, or weight loss.

Los Angeles registered dietitian Ashley Koff told the outlet performers and athletes still need to fuel demanding schedules. She recalled NBA coaches telling her that some players taking the drugs were struggling to eat enough, prompting closer attention to hydration, sleep, recovery, and injection timing.

Still, for some high-profile users, the drugs have had the opposite effect on energy.

Serena Williams, 45, said she began taking Zepbound after struggling to lose weight following the birth of her second daughter despite exercising and eating well.

“When I started, I just had more energy,” Williams told SELF in January, adding that she could more easily keep up with her 2-year-old daughter, Adira.

Williams also said she felt physically better and joked that she wished she had taken a GLP-1 while she was still playing professionally.

Steele has seen a similar upside among performers.

“They feel more confident in their body, and therefore more energetic and more easily able to live out loud,” she said. “When you have a human being that feels better in their body, they’re going to feel that confidence and that mental burden that’s lifted.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump insisted the plague in Russia was “under control” while admitting he’d been in the dark about it, amid mounting concerns over a researcher’s death.

Trump was taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday when he was confronted about fears regarding the plague.

“Is the plague in Russia a bioweapon?” Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Trump.

“Well, we don’t think so. We’re going to find out soon enough, but we don’t think so, Trump responded.

“If you listen to them, it’s under control. You know, people have said that before about other things, so we hope it is,” Trump added.

Trump then rambled, “very sophisticated, very smart, and they’re saying it’s very much under control.”

The question comes after a researcher who worked at an anti-plague research institute died. The World Health Organization (WHO) noted unconfirmed reports that it was the pneumonic plague.

The situation has sparked memories of COVID-19 and the allegations that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab.

Doocy noted that the U.S. had received reassurances before during Trump’s first term, alluding to COVID-19.

“Are you getting the same vibe right now from Russia that you got from China at the start of COVID?” he asked.

“Well, China didn’t say much, and Russia is not saying much either, but they do say they have it very much under control,” the president responded.

Trump was asked moments later whether he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He indicated their call was imminent, but the plague did not appear to be top of mind in his response.

“I have a call set up. Today is his birthday,” Trump said. “Today is Vladimir Putin’s birthday. I’m sure you’re going to celebrate it. You’re going to celebrate his birthday. No, I have a call set up.”

While Trump emphasized claims that the situation was under control, the State Department on Tuesday issued an urgent alert.

“The U.S. Embassy is aware of press reports from the Irkutsk region of suspected pneumonic plague resulting in the death of an individual and of associated quarantine measures in, and closures of, hospitals in Irkutsk,” the statement from the U.S. embassy in Moscow read. “We continue to track the situation closely.”

It warned that the U.S. government has “limited ability to help U.S. citizens in Russia, especially outside of Moscow.”

It urged U.S. citizens to follow the guidance of local health authorities and to immediately seek medical care if they develop a fever or respiratory symptoms.

Director-General of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Wednesday Russian officials told him 200 people have been placed in quarantine, the AP reported.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Several people involved with Trump-endorsed Rep. Mike Collins’ Senate campaign have ties to a group founded by a former Ku Klux Klan leader, the Daily Beast has learned.

At least two of Collins’ campaign-appointed leaders, Joshua Mote and Michael Boggus, have ties to American Patriots USA, a far-right group founded by Chester Doles, a former Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi National Alliance leader.

Doles has touted being a fifth-generation member of the Ku Klux Klan, and was jailed after he was convicted of beating a Black man in Maryland in 1993. And despite recent claims that he has left white surpremacy behind, the hate group leader has still been front and center at events featuring white supremacists, including the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017.

Boggus, a convoy captain who represented Banks County, served as “state director” of APUSA, which is classified as a white nationalist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He campaigned with Doles in a 2020 bid for Congress, and has defended the former KKK leader’s racist past.

“He’s proven to me that he’s walked away from that lifestyle. Because I cannot stand the Klan,” Boggus said at the time, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Boggus did not respond to questions from the Daily Beast.

Mote, a Collins’ convoy captain in Hall County, has served under Doles as a vice president of APUSA.

“I’m super excited to announce that my friend, Mike Collins, has made his announcement that he is running to be our next United States senator,” Mote said in a video he shared on Facebook in July 2025, on which Collins commented: “Thank you! We’re gonna put the hammer down!!!”

In a statement to the Daily Beast, Mote said the Collins’ campaign asked him to serve as a convoy captain in February, but he stepped away from the role in April following the death of his 2-year-old son.

Mote denied being a racist and asserted APUSA was “never a hate group” during his time there, which he claimed was eight months.

“When we learned who [Doles] was, and that he was not the reformed Christian he claimed to be, we left immediately,” Mote said.

Before he was a convoy captain, Mote was listed as the manager of Cody Cantrell’s campaign for sheriff in White County, Georgia, on the “White Information Network.” Photographs later circulated of Cantrell allegedly giving a Klan salute, and no official paperwork for his candidacy was ever filed.

Before he enlisted APUSA affiliates to aid his campaign, Collins himself had denounced the group as a “hate organization,” after Doles listed him as an “invited speaker” for a pro-Trump demonstration in 2019, the AJC reported.

“White supremacy and white nationalism have no place in our country, and I will continue to denounce any and all forms of hate,” Collins said at the time.

Since the start of his Senate campaign, Collins has touted his “convoy captains” initiative—appointing campaign organizers in each county across the state to coordinate grassroots efforts in his bid to defeat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.

“Y’all...we’ve got so many convoy captains across the state,” Collins said at a campaign event in Morrow last month, where he lavished praise on his organizers. “It is amazing because we do run a huge grassroots organization; it’s one of the reasons we’ve been so successful.” Collins did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.

The ties are the latest in a series of controversies surrounding Collins and his campaign, several of which have involved white nationalist figures or groups—even within his own family.

In July, CNN reported that Collins’ son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II, has a track record of sharing antisemitic material and Nazi imagery in comments across the internet.

Scheer, who was featured prominently on Collins’ campaign website, has blamed Jews for “porn” and “killing JFK,” as well as orchestrating both the 9/11 attacks and the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, a Trump-aligned conservative activist, last September.

“There’s nothing wrong with White Nationalism,” he told a user in the comments section under one of his videos.

Collins has an incendiary record on social media himself, where he has been likened to a mini-Trump. He backtracked in May 2024 after praising Ole Miss University students who racially harassed a Black protester on campus, and his X account was suspended in 2024 over hateful comments he made about a Venezuelan immigrant—though X owner Elon Musk eventually overturned it.

In August, racist online posts from Preston Parra, 24, who interned for Rep. Collins in 2024 before working for the lawmaker’s PAC until late May 2025, were unearthed, including images depicting himself as a KKK member and sharing swastikas. Parra defended his posts to The Washington Post as “satirical” and intentionally provocative.

As scandals have plagued the Collins campaign, the GOP has reportedly weighed whether to pull funds entirely from his Senate bid, with one Republican poll showing Ossoff led Collins by 7 points.

“If you went to a laboratory and tried to create the worst general election candidate for this state and environment possible, you couldn’t do better than Mike Collins,” a GOP strategist told MS Now in June.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, was spotted voicing concerns about some Democrats’ electability ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Slotkin was seen speaking with Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat, over lunch in Las Vegas on Tuesday. During the lunch, Politico overheard Slotkin say she was confident about Democrats’ chances in Senate races in her native Michigan and Ohio, but that she had concerns about Texas Senate Democratic nominee James Talarico.

Politico reported that Slotkin said she was skeptical about Talarico’s chances as she “didn’t want to get her heart broken again.”

In both 2018 and 2024, Democrats were hopeful that they could flip a Texas Senate seat blue, though both times they were unsuccessful.

Texas Democrats believe that this election cycle could finally be the year they flip the seat blue, given how the overall political environment is very favorable for them and that the Republican nominee, Ken Paxton, is likely to turn off some voters with scandals ranging from an extramarital affair to corruption allegations.

Polling also suggests that Talarico has a real chance at beating Paxton on Nov. 3, as some polls have put him just a few points behind.

Still, as Slotkin said, Democrats have had their hearts broken in the Lone Star State before, particularly in 2018 with nominee Beto O’Rourke, as he wound up losing to Sen. Ted Cruz by about three points even in an election cycle that was favorable to Democrats.

Slotkin, a freshman senator elected to the upper chamber in 2024, has been making the rounds campaigning as she tries to grow the Democratic Party’s coalition ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

She most recently appeared alongside Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed in an attempt to bridge the divide between moderates and progressives ahead of November.

“We have this fight over moderate versus progressive, or young versus old. And I want to tell you, being your senator for over 18 months, sitting in those rooms, that debate of moderate versus progressive is not the real debate,” Slotkin told voters.

“The real debate among Democrats right now is fight versus flight. It is: Do you believe that in order to have the country we believe in, we got to fight for it? Or do you believe that if you just wait, Elissa — and I’ve had someone tell me this, ‘Elissa, politics is a long game. It’s cyclical. If you just wait, we don’t have any good tools right now. If you just wait, people will come back to us, and it’ll all be okay.’”

To that, she said, “I am on Team Fight. And I need someone with me who is on Team Fight,” noting that she believed that person was El-Sayed.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The U.S. Embassy in Russia is re-upping its “Do Not Travel” warning amid reports of “suspected pneumonic plague” in the Irkutsk region of Siberia.

In a statement on Tuesday, the State Department said it is monitoring press reports of quarantine measures and hospital closures.

“The U.S. government has limited ability to help U.S. citizens in Russia, especially outside of Moscow,” the alert said. “U.S. government personnel may face additional restrictions for personal and official travel to specific regions due to health and security concerns.”

The State Department’s existing “Do Not Travel” warning for Russia, issued in December 2025 due to wrongful detention and security concerns, remains in place.

“U.S. citizens planning travel to Russia are again strongly advised not to travel to Russia due to risk of wrongful detention and security concerns,” the statement said.

Americans currently in Russia were reminded to “depart immediately.”

The embassy’s statement follows the death of a lab technician at an infectious disease institute in Siberia last week.

Russian officials have not confirmed the researcher’s name, but local and international media outlets identify her as Darya Shipilova, 28.

Unconfirmed reports suggest she contracted the illness after a lab leak or mishap.

Local media and officials have provided conflicting updates about the case.

Russia’s public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said Shipilova died of “pneumonia of unknown etiology” and reported that the epidemiological and sanitary situation in the region was stable.

On Tuesday, Russian authorities told the World Health Organization that they found no plague in Irkutsk and were not aware of any symptoms among people who had been in contact with the deceased.

Meanwhile, CNN reports that a local official said authorities are implementing a “comprehensive set of anti-epidemic measures.”

Local media says that nearly 200 people have been placed under medical observation and several hospitals have been quarantined. The reports are unconfirmed.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that he was concerned about a potential outbreak, the Washington Post reported.

“The germs have really become relatively stronger than they were and things that used to work on pneumonia don’t work as well anymore,” he added.

Trump said on Tuesday that he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the possible plague case, the AP reported.

The World Health Organization said in a statement to PBS that the possible case presents a “very low” risk outside of Russia.

Infectious disease experts told The Atlantic that a large outbreak is unlikely.

“Once you have an accurate diagnosis, it’s readily treated with multiple types of antibiotics,” David Wagner, executive director of Northern Arizona University’s Pathogen and Microbiome Institute, told the magazine.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Actor Shia LaBeouf’s marriage is ending.

According to TMZ, the controversial actor’s wife and fellow actress Mia Goth, 32, filed for divorce from LaBeouf, 40, citing “irreconcilable differences,” a little over a year after they officially separated last July.

News that the couple, who share a 3-year-old daughter, Isabel, is calling it quits comes just months after the actor was arrested and charged with three counts of simple battery following a brawl in February.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years of probation, a six-month suspended sentence, and mandated alcohol treatment. In an interview with Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan, released just a few weeks after the incident, he said of his split with Goth, “We’re good as is.” LaBeouf and Goth, who appeared as Penelope’s maidservant Melantho in this summer’s The Odyssey, got married in a surprise Las Vegas ceremony in 2016.

“We’re in a good spot. I mean, this isn’t new. It’s new for you guys, but we’ve been there for a while,” LaBoeuf said, adding that there was “nothing” to repair between them.

“We’re trying to figure out co-parenting, and we’re good,” he added. “She’s a good girl. Even through all this, she gives me grace. I still talk to my kid twice a day. She’s a good woman, bro. Any other woman be like, ‘Yo, f--- you, get outta here, I don’t wanna talk.’ She don’t do that to me.”

The Transformers was kicked out of a New Orleans bar, where he allegedly struck a bartender and another man. He then got into a fight with more men outside. One man claimed he was punched by the actor, while the other claimed he was head-butted. He was also accused of a hate crime as he reportedly used “homophobic language” during the altercation, as one victim alleged to People.

In his interview with Callaghan, LaBeouf added more fuel to the allegation when he declared, “I’ll be honest with you, big gay people are scary to me. When I’m like, standing by myself and three gay dudes are next to me touching my leg, I get scared. I’m sorry. If that’s homophobic, then I’m that.”

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Read more at The Daily Beast.

Fox News’ most stalwart host has addressed Donald Trump’s deepening rift with the network.

Sean Hannity, 64, is shrugging off the 80-year-old president’s meltdown against the right-wing network he watches religiously, suggesting the president’s temper tantrum will be short-lived.

Hannity, who has been at the network since it launched 30 years ago, tells Mediaite he views Trump’s latest attack on Fox as a merely “throwaway comment” after he saw a segment he didn’t like.

“It’s really that simple for me,” Hannity said.

Trump fired off criticism of Fox on Truth Social and at a Nebraska rally, accusing the Rupert Murdoch-owned network of giving unfair airtime to candidates running against Republicans in key Senate midterm races. He specifically singled out Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate in Michigan who is leading his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, in most polls.

“FoxNews spends more time covering the Jihadist and Dumocrat candidates than they do the good old fashioned Republicans, the people that have saved America, and are making it great again,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to El-Sayed, who is Muslim.

“All they talk about is Dumocrat Jihadists like El-Sayed, with his softball interview by Martha MacCallum, and the like,” he continued. “She never interviews me like that.”

Trump continued his rant, accusing the channel of not covering his “record breaking rallies.”

“Fox is promoting the Dumocrats, not the Republicans and MAGA,” he said, adding, “They have totally lost their way!”

It did not stop there. The president’s eyes appeared glued to the news channel as he criticized it for running a segment on “slezebag” Dan Osborn, an independent candidate challenging Republican Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts.

“The ‘other side’ doesn’t give our people any positive exposure or airtime,” he wrote. “It is a miracle that I won, the last by a landslide, three Presidential Races!”

He took his criticism to a rally he held in Nebraska that night, though he did not name Fox directly.

“El-Sayed was interviewed just a little while ago on a certain network,” Trump said. “Why are they putting these people on our television networks? Why?”

During his interview, Hannity pointed out that Trump has praised him and his fellow Fox News Trump loyalists, Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters.

“He’s praised a lot of us over and over again,” Hannity said.

Hannity has deep ties to Trump, appearing at a campaign rally for the now-president in 2018 and even helping him write an advertisement during the 2020 campaign that aired on his primetime show, according to reports.

“Do I think he wants more positive coverage? Yeah,” Hannity conceded. “There’s a lot at stake, and you know, I think right now, being [32] days out of an election, you know, everybody wants the best coverage they can get.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Chuck Lorre, the comedy writer who created iconic sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men, is revealing new details about how badly Roseanne Barr behaved on the set of Roseanne.

“There was malice,” he said, adding that it was “absolute.”

Lorre wrote on Roseanne for two years early in his career. The hit sitcom starred Barr as Roseanne Conner, a working-class mother raising three kids with her husband in suburban Illinois.

It originally ran from 1988 through 1997 and was rebooted in 2018. The reboot lasted about two months before racist tweets surfaced in which Barr compared Valerie Jarrett, an Iranian-African American former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, to the offspring of the “Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes.”

ABC canceled the reboot and launched a spinoff called The Conners without Barr. Since then, Barr has gone full MAGA, but according to Lorre, she was causing trouble long before her Trumpy turn.

Lorre said the root of the problem was that Barr “hated that there were writers” who worked on her show.

She “fundamentally hated that other people wrote words that she would say,” he continued. “The premise of writer and actor—she was a stand-up comedian. She made herself a superstar based on her words, her writing, and it transitioned to a television show where you can’t do it alone. It’s impossible. That transition was not going to happen. So there was this built-in animosity between Rosie and the writing staff, any writing staff. Didn’t matter if I was on it, it was the premise of other people putting words in a stand-up comedian’s mouth.”

“There are very few comics that can do that,” he added.

Still, he said he put up with the turbulent atmosphere and the “60, 70″ hour workweeks because he needed the money. After what he said were 15 to 20 years of “poverty,” Lorre was clinging to a stable income, one that let him deal with health issues without worrying about depleting his bank account.

“I was not going to go back,” he said. “Under no circumstances was I going to go back to scrambling to pay the rent, scrambling to take your kid to a doctor if they had an earache.”

Barr claimed she fired Lorre from Roseanne in a 2011 blog post. She also insulted his character and his comedy.

“I fired Chuck Lorre for being a big drunk on my show,” Barr wrote, according to Deadline. “And he went on to become one of TV’s most successful writers (about d--k jokes).”

The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons and Two and a Half Men’s Jon Cryer won Emmys for their roles on those shows—but despite numerous nominations, Lorre has never won a competitive Emmy for his work.

In addition to going after Barr, Lorre drew the ire of Donald Trump’s White House this past week after he delivered a blistering speech in which he called the president a “bloated orange piece of s--t.”

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Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump has thrown two of his top political consultants under the bus after they were busted working for a pro-Putin Balkan regime just weeks before Republicans face crucial midterm elections.

Chris LaCivita and James Blair—two of the most influential figures in Trump’s political operation—traveled to Republika Srpska, a Serbian entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Republicans at home are fighting to hold onto Congress.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that the pair were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each through a DC-based law firm retained by Republika Srpska’s government.

Their job, according to two people familiar with the engagement, was to provide advice on voting issues relating to the tiny Balkan entity, which has a population of 1.2 million people.

But the trip has sparked fury inside MAGA world, with operatives questioning why two of Trump’s senior political advisers were working overseas at such a critical moment—and how much they were being paid.

Trump also weighed in on Wednesday, calling out the pair in a Truth Social post and threatening to “terminate them, immediately!” if they were found to have had a conflict of interest.

Asked in the Oval Office later if he had spoken to the pair over any potential conflicts, Trump replied, “They don’t have a conflict because they are independent people” who only worked for him as outside consultants.

“I assume they have a lot of clients,” he added, noting he would ask to see their client list.

“I don’t know who their clients are. If I thought they had a conflict here, I would terminate, but all they are is consultants. They don’t work in the White House.”

The backlash within the GOP and MAGA world has also been fierce. Republicans are just weeks away from the midterms, with Democrats aggressively targeting Trump’s agenda and warning voters that the party is on the brink of losing its grip on Congress.

One Republican operative told the Daily Beast the trip was “clearly a bad look” given the timing.

Another described the trip to Politico as “legitimately shocking,” complaining that Republicans were “fighting for our lives” while LaCivita and Blair were overseas “taking hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Steve Bannon was even less forgiving, calling the pair “grifters” as he called for a forensic audit to see where the money went.

“Newsom just said ‘the Democrats need to focus on ending Trump’s presidency in 28 days’ while these two grifters are out of the country—and we wonder why the MAGA base may have an enthusiasm gap,” he told Politico.

“If this doesn’t show how checked out Republicans are, not sure what does,” added another operative said.

Blair served as deputy White House chief of staff until April and has been at the center of Trump’s political operations.

He is now serving as the chief of the president’s MAGA Inc. super PAC, but unlike many in the GOP, he has taken a more optimistic view of the looming election.

“I don’t think there will be a blue wave at all,” he said last month in an interview with The Free Press.

LaCivita, meanwhile, helped run Trump’s 2024 campaign alongside Susie Wiles, now the president’s chief of staff.

He previously sued the Daily Beast over a 2024 report about the millions that flowed into his company, Advancing Strategies LLC, while he was managing Trump’s campaign, but abandoned the lawsuit in January, avoiding having to open up his bank accounts and tax returns.

LaCivita had demanded a retraction, an apology, and “triple damages,” and got none of those.

The engagement is the latest example of Trump advisers from far-right politicians abroad who have sought favor from the U.S. president.

But while political consultants and lobbyists with ties to U.S. presidents often offer their services to foreign campaigns, the timing and location raised eyebrows.

Republika Srpska’s ruling nationalist party has aligned itself closely with Vladimir Putin’s Russia while simultaneously spending heavily to cultivate Trump and his allies.

Its leader, Milorad Dodik, thanked Putin for his support after this latest election victory and credited Trump’s 2024 win with creating a more favorable political climate.

Trump allies have meanwhile embraced the party’s Christian conservatism and opposition to EU membership.

“Not a good look,” one insider told Politico. “I think Chris is doing what Chris has always done—and my guess is after 2 years on the campaign and 2 more in the WH James wanted a taste of $… and honestly I think it may piss DJT off.”

The Daily Beast has reached out to LaCivita and Blair for comment.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Ben Affleck is sharing his unfiltered thoughts about potentially running for political office someday.

The Oscar winner, 54, is promoting his new Netflix film Animals, which he directed and stars in as a political candidate alongside Scandal star Kerry Washington. Washington told Variety that the cast tried to convince him to make the fictional role a reality.

“We keep telling him that he should, but he doesn’t want to,” the actress, 49, said.

Affleck responded in his own cover story for the outlet on Wednesday. “There’s a reason why political stories are often chosen as parables for moral compromise,” he said.

“You really get thrust up into the contrast between the ideal version of us and how we should be in our lives and the way it is,” Affleck added. “It’s a very depressing world, in my opinion. Tawdry. And that has no appeal to me.”

It’s not the first time Affleck has responded to those encouraging him to put his name on a non-awards season ballot. In 2012, he addressed speculation that he might run for the Senate on Face the Nation. Avoiding a denial at the time, Affleck said he was “not one to get into conjecture.”

Washington insisted that Affleck could be a good candidate, if he were willing. “We’re in a place in our politics right now where, I mean, anything is possible, but I would hope that the people who are running for office want to be there, and he has been very explicit in saying that he doesn’t want to run for office until he does,” she said.

Affleck has remained engaged politically, however, using his star power to lobby Congress on issues like Alzheimer’s research and to support his nonprofit in the Congo.

In Animals, Affleck plays a candidate running for Mayor of Los Angeles whose son is kidnapped for ransom. He and his wife, Abigail, played by Kerry Washington, are forced to take extreme and desperate measures to get him back, according to the film’s description.

Politics isn’t the only thing the actor is swearing off. He also told the outlet why social media will never be for him, though he admits he tried it.

“I got banned from Instagram twice for impersonating myself,” he said. “I had six followers. It was my kids and some of their friends. It was just an excuse for me to look at their social media accounts. There used to be a time when everything you said or did wasn’t on the permanent record. As you get older, you become aware of what that means. I experienced the whole world and had a whole life in private. I have a real sense of how valuable that is.”

The star also declared that having an internet presence can ruin an actor’s mystique.

“I think Daniel Day-Lewis and Meryl Streep and Viola Davis and Denzel Washington are brilliant actors,” he said. “It doesn’t help me appreciate their movies to see what they had for lunch. I realize I sound like an old, out-of-touch person, but I believe that as an actor, you have to maintain an illusion.”

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Read more at The Daily Beast.

Weather anchor Jane Bunn is opening up about her weight-loss transformation after viral photos sparked concern over her dramatic new look.

“For the past few months I’ve really been prioritizing my health, and that shift has brought so much energy and joy into my life,” Bunn told the Herald Sun in an Oct. 6 interview.

The 47-year-old meteorologist, who’s gained a devoted fanbase since joining 7News Melbourne in 2014, shared photos of herself at a St. Kilda Football Club Hall of Fame event in an Oct. 5 Instagram post.

At the event, the 7News Melbourne anchor showed off her slim frame in a strappy magenta top tucked into a long, tiered black skirt with rhinestones by Sass & Bide.

She wore a glamorous makeup look with thick, winged eyeliner and styled her sandy blond hair up, leaving out two face-framing front pieces.

Dangly Swarovski earrings and silver Tony Bianco pumps completed her ensemble.

“Best and fairest and hall of fame tonight!” Bunn captioned her post, tagging the St. Kilda Football Club’s Instagram account.

The photos racked up more than 600 comments, with several fans calling out her weight loss.

“Jane, you look absolutely stunning, darling. Please don’t lose any more weight,” one person said.

“Be careful not to lose too much weight, Jane. I had a friend who did this. She went too far; now she’s back to what she was. It’s not sustainable,” said another fan.

“Jane, you look amazing. No need to lose anymore,” added another person.

Fans speculated that Bunn might have used a weight-loss drug to achieve her new look, but she has not publicly confirmed or denied it.

Bunn told the Herald Sun that she was “always surprised” about the wide-ranging interest in her appearance.

The meteorologist, who’s been married to her husband Michael Bunn for about 20 years, said she started her weight-loss journey after her news team moved to a different studio.

The move meant she would now show up in a full-body shot during her segment, so she started eating and drinking less, she said.

“There is actually this sign in your head that tells you ‘you have eaten enough,’ and I struggled with that for a very long time—about actually listening to that—and now I do,” Bunn said.

She added, “I’m feeling terrific, happy, and healthy.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Vice President JD Vance will participate in a town hall hosted by CBS News next week, as he takes questions from Michigan voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

The town hall will be hosted by CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil. It will be recorded next week, but will not air until Saturday, Oct. 17.

The event only adds to the flurry of campaign events both he and President Donald Trump are embarking on ahead of the midterms, which are expected to be a disaster for Republicans at the ballot box come Election Day.

The vice president will take questions from voters on both sides of the aisle on an array of topics, including “affordability, tariffs, immigration, healthcare, artificial intelligence, the war with Iran and the state of our democracy,” a press release from CBS stated.

“As Americans head to the polls, CBS News presents the town hall with Vice President Vance in front of an audience of Michigan voters from across the political spectrum,” the press release said.

Controversy has swirled around CBS News since Bari Weiss, who had no professional experience in TV news before assuming her new role, took over the network as editor-in-chief late last year after her “anti-woke” news and opinion blog, The Free Press, was purchased by Paramount Skydance for $150 million, of which David Ellison, a son of billionaire Trump donor Larry Ellison, is the CEO.

She and Ellison, 43, have attempted to make the network more Trump-friendly, but buyouts, layoffs, and criticism have marked the network’s rightward lurch.

She also tapped Dokoupil, 45, to revamp the network’s signature evening news programming. But ratings have been consistently down throughout his time leading the program, as ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News have been neck and neck with each other in the ratings for the top evening news program.

Vance’s big night with Dokoupil on the network comes just weeks ahead of the midterm elections, in which Republicans are expected to lose control of the House and potentially the Senate.

Trump, whose approval rating has sunk to one of the lowest of any president, has urged Republican voters to simply vote like he is on the ballot. He has been blitzing around the country, including to reliably red places like Oklahoma and Texas, to try and muster up support for his MAGA candidates ahead of Nov. 4.

Vance meanwhile has sort of acknowledged that some voters feel disillusioned by the Trump administration’s policies, as he’s begged voters to just give them another chance at running the federal government.

He said last month that his message to voters would be: “Give us another chance or give us another couple of years to continue to work on the amazing things that we’ve been doing for the past two years.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis offered a ridiculous excuse for Sen. Mitch McConnell after he vanished from the Senate for three months.

The North Carolina senator was confronted on Wednesday about his close relationship with the frail 84-year-old Kentucky Republican and whether he should have stepped down amid his health crisis.

But Tillis, who has blasted the Trump administration ahead of his retirement from the Senate, dismissed McConnell’s three-month absence by pointing at another person: Joe Biden.

His McConnell defense came during an appearance on MS NOW, as part of his promotional tour for his new book.

After the former Senate majority leader was absent from Capitol Hill for three months with almost no updates on his health, he dramatically returned to the Senate in mid-September, wheeled around by his aides in a wheelchair.

But he remains largely out of public view. When he is spotted being wheeled about the U.S. Capitol and outside his D.C. home, he has remained quiet, instead smiling and giving a thumbs-up or peace sign when asked any questions.

“Why wouldn’t his constituents be better served if Mitch McConnell stepped down and let someone else serve out these waining few months of his term?” MS NOW anchor Peter Alexander asked Tillis, 66.

“I think it’s the same question people ask of Biden,” Tillis responded.

“Understood, but Biden, he is no longer the president,” Alexander pointed out. “Mitch McConnell still serves.”

“Why not lead by example then?” the anchor pressed. “You can say, ‘You know what, you were right, Biden should have. I think McConnell should have too.’”

“Guess what? We’re following the bad advice of people who masked the fact that President Biden was not prepared to serve a second term,” Tillis responded.

While questions about the former president’s health raised serious questions in the final months of his term, and the fallout from his abysmal debate performance forced him out of the 2024 presidential race, Biden did not vanish from public view for more than 90 days.

Tillis did not respond directly when grilled on whether he would tell McConnell he should step down as someone close to the ailing senator.

“Mitch McConnell is retiring this year,” Tillis said.

“The difference between the Biden situation and the Mitch situation is I’ve had conversations with Mitch. That man’s brain is as sharp as it ever is. His body’s failing him because he’s had a lifelong struggle with polio,” he added.

Tillis repeated his claim that he met with McConnell a couple of weeks ago and asked him how he was doing.

“He spent probably less than 30 seconds talking about that, and he immediately jumped to ‘What are we going to do to help Ukraine? What are we going to do to save the Senate and keep the filibuster?’ Does that sound like a man who’s not prepared to actually finish out his term?” Tillis said forcefully.

While Republicans have repeatedly claimed they’ve had conversations with McConnell, he has not done a single interview or taken any questions from the press since his disappearance June 14.

“The flip side of it was we had people rationalizing, ‘No, nothing to see here; President Biden’s fine. Whoopsie, we’re going to have a different president,’” Tillis argued about Biden.

Read more at The Daily Beast.