Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster confirm romance as they hold hands

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster seemed to make their relationship official when they were spotted out on a dinner date on Monday evening.

The 56-year-old X-Men star and the 49-year-old Broadway veteran were seen holding hands and grinning ear to ear as they had a night on the town in Santa Monica, California, in new photos.

The outing comes the same day that Jackman was reported to be planning to go ‘public’ with his new ‘girlfriend’ in the imminent future.

The new pairing follows Hugh and his estranged wife Deborra-lee Furness’ announcement in September 2023 that they were separating after 27 years of marriage.

In the photos, Jackman looked casual-cool in a charcoal zip-up jacket that he wore over a slim gray sweater and a pair of tan chinos with black sneakers.

He also sported a dashing salt-and-pepper beard and wore his hair shaggier than usual.

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster seemed to make their relationship official when they were spotted holding hands dinner date on Monday evening in Santa Monica, Calif., in photos obtained by People; seen together in June 2022 in NYC

The outing comes the same day that Jackman was reported to be planning to go ‘public’ with his new ‘girlfriend’ in the imminent future; pictured in February 2022 in NYC

Sutton went with a more elegant look with a long double-breasted cashmere overcoat.

It featured interesting details usually reserved for military attire and classic trench coats, including a storm flap over her left shoulder and epaulets on her shoulders.

Read More Hugh Jackman set to go public with ‘girlfriend’ Sutton Foster imminently

The Music Man star wore a lovely dark green maxi dress underneath that flowed elegantly and reached down to her ankles.

She wore her shoulder-length brunette locks styled pin straight, and she completed her look with a pair of classic black pumps.

As Hugh and Sutton walked down the sidewalk they had their hands locked tightly, and they turned periodically to gaze into each others eyes.

The former costars appeared to be having a great time, as they could be seen smiling broadly and laughing together.

Representatives for Jackman and Foster didn’t immediately comment on their evening out together.

Their outing comes after the Logan star attended a performance of Foster’s production of Once Upon A Mattress in Los Angeles over the weekend, which had just transferred after wrapping up a run in New York at the end of November.

Hugh was casual in a charcoal zip-up jacket with a gray sweater, tan chinos and a salt-and-pepper beard; pictured in May 2022 in NYC

Sutton was the picture of elegant in a double-breasted brown cashmere overcoat that she wore with a dark green maxi dress and classic black pumps; pictured December 13 in LA

In September 2023, Hugh shocked fans when he filed for divorce from wife Deborra-Lee Furness after 27 years of marriage; pictured in May 2023 in NYC

Jackman isn’t the only one recently exiting a marriage, as Foster filed to divorce her husband, 53-year-old Ocean’s Eleven screenwriter Ted Griffin, in October of last year; seen in June 2022 in NYC

The two stars had previously shared the stage on Broadway when the played the leads in an acclaimed production of the classic musical The Music Man.

Jackman isn’t the only one recently exiting a marriage, as Foster filed for an uncontested divorce from her husband Ted Griffin in October of last year.

Read More Hugh Jackman and comedy legend seen in audience of Sutton Foster’s show amid affair rumors

She had been married to the 53-year-old Ocean’s screenwriter for 10 years.

Foster and Jackman have been swarmed in recent months by rumors that an affair between the two scuttled their marriages.

Fans had remarked on how close they appeared to be in their off-stage interactions while they appeared together in The Music Man, but Furness seemed to credence to the rumors when she like an Instagram post in October from a gossip blogger who claimed that her husband was ‘running off with the mistress’ and planning a ‘soft launch’ of their relationship, according to Us Weekly.

A source told DailyMail.com in October that Furness had her suspicions of an affair, but she was still ‘blindsided when she found out about the affair.’

They described the alleged affair as ‘Broadway’s worst-kept secret,’ adding that ‘Deborra-Lee was the last to know.’

According to a RadarOnline report, Furness was particularly upset over the behavior of Jackman’s close friend Ryan Reynolds and his wife Blake Lively because they allegedly ‘kept quiet’ about the rumored affair.

In October, Jackman’s ex Furness liked a post suggesting he had had an affair with Foster, and a source claimed to RadarOnline that she was upset that his friends Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively had allegedly kept quiet about the supposed affair; seen in August in NYC

‘They kept their lips sealed out of loyalty to Hugh,’ a source claimed to the publication.

‘Now she is seething with rage over being the last to know, Deb feels blindsided. She has a memory like a steel trap and isn’t afraid to use it.

‘Debs feels cheated by all three because someone could have told her what was happening and they all chose to keep their mouths shut,’ they added.

Daily Mail Australia contacted Furness and Reynolds’ representatives at the time for comment.

Following Jackman and Furness’ split, the former couple shared a statement addressing the breakup.

‘We have been blessed to share almost 3 decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage. Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth,’ they announced.

‘Our family has been and always will be our highest priority,’ they continued. ‘We undertake this next chapter with gratitude, love, and kindness. We greatly appreciate your understanding in respecting our privacy as our family navigates this transition in all of our lives.’

‘On the run’ hotel worker accused of selling Liam Payne drugs hands himself in

The ‘on-the-run’ hotel worker accused of selling Liam Payne drugs has turned himself in four days after the singer’s other alleged dealer was arrested.

Ezequiel David Pereyra, 21, is said to have negotiated his surrender to the authorities through his lawyer.

Police had come away empty-handed after heading to his home on the outskirts of Buenos Aires on Friday with an arrest warrant so he could be taken into pre-trial custody.

Pereyra’s unnamed lawyer informed officials yesterday his client would hand himself in at a building at Hornos 200, according to local reports.

It was not immediately clear if it was number 200 of a main road called General Hornos near Buenos Aires’ famous La Boca neighbourhood or the same location in a smaller residential street a short drive from Pereyra’s home address in Lomas de Zamora on the outskirts of the Argentine capital.

A source told respected Argentinian news daily La Nacion: ‘After Friday’s operation a place where police believed he was working and other residential addresses were put under surveillance and because of the pressure he did the right thing with help from his lawyer.’

Pereyra, suspended from his job at CasaSur Palermo Hotel – where Payne fell to his death from his third-floor balcony on October 16 – is understood to have been formally read his rights before being taken into custody so he could be taken to prison on the orders of Judge Laura Bruniard.

Bruniard had ordered his capture when he failed to honour a 24-hour deadline to hand himself in for pre-trial detention after she charged him on December 27 with supplying former One Direction singer Payne with drugs.

Public prosecutors confirmed late last month the judge had accused him of ‘selling Liam cocaine on October 15 at 3.25am and between 3.30pm and 4pm on October 16 so that he could consume it during his hotel stay’.

They also claimed witness statements and CCTV analysis supported the allegation Pereyra had received $100 fromPayne to buy narcotics and the singer had sent a car to his home on another occasion to pick up more drugs.

In November TMZ published footage showing Payne stepping out of a lift at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel and chatting with a man it identified as Pereyra shortly before the singer died, claiming the 31-year-old Brit had asked him for ‘seven grams of the same drug he had handed him earlier’.

Like Payne’s other alleged dealer Braian Nahuel Paiz, he is facing a prison sentence of between four to 15 years if convicted as charged.

Paiz was arrested at his home in Berazategui to the south-east of Quilmes near Buenos Aires on Friday so he could start his pre-trial detention.

His lawyer Fernando Madeo had previously claimed it was ‘impossible’ the charges against his client would stick following Payne’s death.

He also insisted the 24-year-old was the victim of a ‘witch hunt’ sparked by the authorities’ desire for culprits.

Waiter Paiz, who met Payne at a restaurant in the upmarket Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Puerto Madero where he had gone to eat with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy and friends, has confessed to consuming drugs with the singer at the hotel where he died but refuted claims he sold him any narcotics.

The other three men indicted – Payne’s close friend Roger Nores, chief hotel receptionist Esteban Grassi and the hotel’s head of security Gilda Martin – have all been charged with manslaughter but are allowed to remain free while their prosecution continues.

They are facing between one and five years in prison if convicted as charged, although they have been told they could be eligible for suspended jail sentences.

Judge Bruniard pointed the finger at the hotel chiefs over their decision to move Payne from the lobby to his third-floor room when he couldn’t stand on his feet, saying it ‘created a legally unacceptable risk to his life’ which had ‘foreseeable’ consequences.

Argentinian prosecutors referred to Payne’s friend Roger Nores in a lengthy statement they released last week as the ‘victim’s representative’ although they identified him only by his initials R.L.N.

Judge Bruniard in her indictment ruling accused the businessman, currently banned from leaving Argentina because of the charges against him, of ‘failing in his duty of care, assistance and help’ towards the singer and ‘abandoning him to his fate, knowing he couldn’t fend for himself, aware he suffered multiple additions to alcohol and cocaine and fully conscious of the state of intoxication, vulnerably and defenceless he was in’.

Nores told a recent TMZ documentary examining the life and death of Liam Payne that he was ‘in good spirits and perfectly balanced’ the day he died as he refuted claims the singer was acting erratically and was intoxicated shortly before his fatal fall.

The businessman had previously protested his innocence and refuted claims he was Payne’s ‘de facto’ manager.

He said in a statement shortly after it emerged he was being officially investigated before being charged: ‘I never abandoned Liam, I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened.

‘There were over 15 people at the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left.

‘I could have never imagined something like this would happen.

‘I’ve given my statement to the prosecutor on October 17 as a witness and I haven’t spoken to any police officer or prosecutor ever since.

‘I wasn’t Liam’s manager. He was just my very dear friend.’

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Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni’s lawyers trade jabs amid ongoing legal battle

Blake Lively’s lawyers have issued a statement amid the ongoing legal feud between her and Justin Baldoni.

In the new statement, released Jan. 7, Lively’s lawyers said, “Ms. Lively’s federal litigation before the Southern District of New York involves serious claims of sexual harassment and retaliation, backed by concrete facts. This is not a ‘feud’ arising from ‘creative differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation. As alleged in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms. Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set.”

The statement, issued on Lively’s behalf, also claimed that Baldoni’s response — his lawsuit filed Dec. 31 against The New York Times — was allegedly meant to “launch more attacks against Ms. Lively since her filing.”

The statement continued, “While we go through the legal process, we urge everyone to remember that sexual harassment and retaliation are illegal in every workplace and in every industry. A classic tactic to distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, brought it on themselves, misunderstood the intentions, or even lied. Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender, and suggest that the offender is actually the victim.”

“These concepts normalize and trivialize allegations of serious misconduct,” the statement concluded. “Most importantly, media statements are not a defense to Ms. Lively’s legal claims. We will continue to prosecute her claims in federal court, where the rule of law determines who prevails, not hyperbole and threats.”

The statement from Lively’s camp comes after Baldoni sued the New York Times for libel and false light invasion of privacy for publishing a story detailing Lively’s initial claims against him, including sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against Lively during the production of the film “It Ends with Us,” which Baldoni also directed and starred in with Lively. The lawsuit came after Lively’s initial complaint, filed Dec. 20, and subsequent lawsuit, filed Dec. 31, against Baldoni.

In a statement to “Good Morning America” addressing Lively’s latest comments, Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, said, “It is painfully ironic that Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of weaponizing the media when her own team orchestrated this vicious attack by sending the New York Times grossly edited documents prior to even filing the complaint. We are releasing all of the evidence which will show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie. None of this will come as a surprise because consistent with her past behavior Blake Lively used other people to communicate those threats and bully her way to get whatever she wanted. We have all the receipts and more.”

Read more about the legal battle between Lively and Baldoni below.

Lively first filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department in late December, alleging “severe emotional distress” after she said Baldoni and key stakeholders in the film sexually harassed her and attempted, along with Baldoni’s production company, to orchestrate a smear campaign against her.

The complaint was detailed in a New York Times article titled “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.” Included in the report were details surrounding a January 2024 “all hands” meeting — held “prior to resuming filming of ‘It Ends With Us,’” according to the complaint — that was held to address Lively’s workplace concerns, adding that it was attended by key stakeholders in the film and Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds.

According to the complaint, Lively said she laid out specific demands at that meeting to ensure a safe and professional working environment.

Lively claimed Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios, which produced “It Ends With Us,” then engaged in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation, according to the complaint. The complaint included alleged texts from Baldoni’s publicist to a Wayfarer publicist, who allegedly wrote that Baldoni “wants to feel like [Ms. Lively] can be buried,” and “We can’t write we will destroy her.”

Freedman, the attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, denied the allegations.

“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” Freedman said in a statement to ABC News at the time, in response to Lively’s initial complaint. He claimed Lively’s complaint was “yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film […].”

Lively was criticized during the “It Ends with Us” tour for her conduct during press interviews and from some who felt she did not highlight the film’s focus of domestic violence enough.

On Dec. 31, Baldoni filed a lawsuit against the Times for libel and false light invasion of privacy, after it published the article about Lively’s complaint.

The lawsuit claimed the Times, which included the alleged text messages and email exchanges between Baldoni’s publicists Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan, had relied on “cherry-picked” and altered communications, with details “stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced” to “mislead.”

Baldoni is seeking $250 million in damages in his suit against the Times and also listed nine other co-plaintiffs including Wayfarer Studios LLC and his publicists, Abel and Nathan.

Freedman claimed in a statement to “GMA” that the Times “cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative.”

A Times spokesperson told “GMA” that the they “plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”

“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported,” the spokesperson continued. “It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article.”

“To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error,” the spokesperson claimed. “We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well.”

Also on Dec. 31, Lively formalized her initial California Civil Rights Department complaint into a lawsuit, which reiterated details she previously presented in her complaint.

Attorneys for Lively said in a statement that the actress’s “decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks.”

“As alleged in Ms. Lively’s federal Complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns,” Lively’s attorneys claimed. “Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court. Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.”

Both Baldoni and Lively are seeking a jury trial.

“GMA” has reached out to Baldoni’s rep for comment about Lively’s lawsuit.

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster Hold Hands on L.A. Date Night, Confirm Romance

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster Hold Hands on L.A. Date Night, Confirm Romance

Erin Carlson

January 7, 2025 at 12:54 AM

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster are stepping out to confirm their romance hand in hand.

The duo were photographed holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes in Los Angeles on Monday, January 6, according to images published by People. Jackman, 56, sported a black jacket, gray T-shirt and white jeans, while Foster looked equally chic in a beige trench coat and green maxi dress.

According to the outlet, the actors — who costarred in a revival of The Music Man revival on Broadway — had dined together in Santa Monica.

Two days prior, Jackman was spotted supporting Foster’s West Coast run of Once Upon a Mattress.

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster Are ‘Happier Than Ever’: What We Know About ‘Joyful’ Relationship

The Deadpool & Wolverine star was seen at L.A.’s Ahmanson Theatre on Saturday, January 4, per photos circulating on social media. In the snaps, Jackman was seen recording seatmate Carol Burnett receiving an unexpected round of applause during intermission.

Sources exclusively told Us Weekly in November 2024 that a romance between Jackman and Foster sparked while the twosome began working together on The Music Man the year prior.

“They’re happier than ever,” a source said at the time, noting that their relationship is a “wonderful next chapter” with a “balance of playfulness and genuine admiration.”

Per the insider, Jackman was drawn to Foster’s “immense talent, infectious positivity and grounded nature” with the Tony-winning actress appreciating his “kindness, professionalism and ability to make others feel valued.”

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster’s Romance ‘Is the Reason’ He Divorced Deborra-Lee Furness: Source

Jackman was previously married to Deborra-lee Furness for 27 years, announcing their separation in September 2023.

“We have been blessed to share almost three decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage,” Jackman and Furness, 69, said in a joint statement at the time. “Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth. Our family has been and always will be our highest priority.”

The statement concluded, “We undertake this next chapter with gratitude, love, and kindness. We greatly appreciate your understanding in respecting our privacy as our family navigates this transition in all of our lives.”

Jackman and Furness share two adult children.

Who Is Sutton Foster’s Ex-Husband Ted Griffin? What She Said About Their Marriage Before Divorce

Foster, for her part, was married to screenwriter Ted Griffin for a decade. She filed for divorce in October 2024, which has yet to be settled. The Younger alum and Griffin, 53, share daughter Emily, whom they adopted in 2017. (Foster was also previously married to fellow Broadway star Christian Borle between 2006 and 2009.)

According to the insider, Foster and Jackman’s relationship was “the reason Hugh and Deb got divorced.”

“A lot of people on Broadway knew, and we kept it quiet because both of them are so nice and great people,” the source claimed in November. “Everyone respected their privacy. But there was an affair and overlap.”

The Story Behind Netflix’s Jerry Springer Documentary

Fights broke out all the time on The Jerry Springer Show, the NBC talk show that ran from 1991 to 2018, where guests went on to discuss their deepest, darkest secrets and confront their biggest enemies.

But the drama that played out on TV was only half the story. In the two-part documentary, Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, out Jan. 7 on Netflix, former producers reveal what went into creating the show and how they primed guests for those fights. Springer died in 2023, and none of them have a bad word to say about him. But there is so much trash-talking among the producers about how the show was run, it’s surprising that a fight doesn’t break out in the docu-series itself.

Here’s a look at the juiciest tidbits about what went into the making of The Jerry Springer Show.

Springer, a former news anchor who served as the mayor of Cincinnati from 1977 to 1978, initially wanted to host a serious show and had dreams of running for Congress. Instead of becoming a politician, he became a subject of politicians’ inquiries: Jerry Springer includes footage of a Chicago city council hearing into the violence of the show.

The docu-series argues that the sensational tone of the show can be traced back to its Executive Producer Richard Dominick, who worked at tabloids like Weekly World News and the Sun before he became The Jerry Springer Show showrunner from 1994 to 2008. Under Dominick’s tenure, ratings went through the roof. Guests included a man who cut off his own penis and a man who left his wife and two daughters and married a horse.

Dominick appears in the series and has no regrets about his approach. As he explains, “Life is hard,” and weird news “takes you away from your world.”

Annette Grundy, one of the producers under Dominick, says that the aim was to put together a program that would catch people’s eye even with the sound turned off.

When the show first started out, it was pretty tame. Springer would interview guests like a teenager excited about going to college. Then Dominick was hired, and he knew those softball interviews were not going to get the kind of high ratings that the networks wanted.

Producers say they got marching orders to make sure guests got into fights after an explosive 1997 episode called “Klanfrontation,” in which members of the Ku Klux Klan got into a brawl with Irv Rubin, the founder of the Jewish Defense League. The KKK members had just been initiated into the Klan, and the point of the episode was to see if they could give up their allegiance to the Klan before they got in too deep.

After this episode, show producers focused on setting up more explosive arguments through the guests.

Show guests were initially treated like royalty, shuttled to the studio in a limousine. When they got to the studio, the producers would coach them on what to say on air and try to get them worked up. In Jerry Springer, one guest recalls receiving drink tickets and being encouraged to get drunk.

In Jerry Springer, there is footage of producers doing mock interviews with guests in which they are literally screaming at them. One named Toby Yoshimura recalls, “I would throw the door open to the dressing room, pick up a chair, throw it across the green room and start screaming.” Footage of his mock interview with a guest shows him calling her a “meth-head piece of s***.” As he explains what he was trying to do, “you’re starting a s***-fight. You rev them up to tornado level and then you send them out on stage.”

As for Springer’s approach to the show, he once described the difference between himself and the popular TV show host Oprah Winfrey by saying, “she does a real talk show. I don’t do a talk show. I do a circus. There are just no lions.”

Springer viewed the show as a place to “demonstrate outrageousness,” he says in archival footage included in the docu-series. He always maintained that all opinions deserve to be heard, no matter how out-there they are.

“In a free society, the media should reflect all elements of that society, not just the mainstream. On our show, for example, we have Klansmen on, we have neo-Nazis on — they killed my family,” Springer, the son of Holocaust survivors, says in another interview shown in the series. “I hate these people. I hate what they stand for. I may hate what you say, but I’ll fight to the death for your right to say it.”

“Magnificent life”: Peter, Paul and Mary folk star dies at 86

Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter best known as one-third of Peter, Paul and Mary, the folk-music trio whose impassioned harmonies transfixed millions as they lifted their voices in favor of civil rights and against war, has died. He was 86.

Yarrow, who also co-wrote the group’s most enduring song, Puff the Magic Dragon, died Tuesday in New York, publicist Ken Sunshine said. Yarrow had bladder cancer for the past four years.

“Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life. The world knows Peter Yarrow the iconic folk activist, but the human being behind the legend is every bit as generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise as his lyrics suggest,” his daughter Bethany said in a statement.

READ MORE: Hugh Jackman photographed on ‘date night’ with Sutton Foster

During an incredible run of success spanning the 1960s, Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers released six Billboard Top 10 singles, two No. 1 albums and won five Grammys.

They also brought early exposure to Bob Dylan by turning two of his songs, Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right and Blowin’ in the Wind, into Billboard Top 10 hits as they helped lead an American renaissance in folk music. They performed Blowin’ in the Wind at the 1963 March on Washington at which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

After an eight-year hiatus to pursue solo careers, the trio reunited in 1978 for a Survival Sunday, an anti-nuclear-power concert that Yarrow had organised in Los Angeles. They would remain together until Travers’ death in 2009. Upon her passing, Yarrow and Stookey continued to perform both separately and together.

Born May 31, 1938, in New York, Yarrow was raised in an upper middle class family he said placed high value on art and scholarship. He took violin lessons as a child, later switching to guitar as he came to embrace the work of such folk-music icons as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.

Upon graduating from Cornell University in 1959, he returned to New York, where he worked as a struggling Greenwich Village musician until connecting with Stookey and Travers.

Although his degree was in psychology, he had found his true calling in folk music at Cornell when he worked as a teaching assistant for a class in American folklore his senior year.

“I did it for the money because I wanted to wash dishes less and play guitar more,” he told the late record company executive Joe Smith. But as he led the class in song, he began to discover the emotional impact music could have on an audience.

READ MORE: Naomi Osaka announces split from rapper partner

“I saw these young people at Cornell who were basically very conservative in their backgrounds opening their hearts up and singing with an emotionality and a concern through this vehicle called folk music,” he said.

“It gave me a clue that the world was on its way to a certain kind of movement, and that folk music might play a part in it and that I might play a part in folk music.”

Soon after returning to New York, he met impresario Albert Grossman, who would go on to manage Dylan, Janis Joplin and others and who at the time was looking to put together a group that would rival the Kingston Trio, which in 1958 had a hit version of the traditional folk ballad Tom Dooley.

But Grossman wanted a trio with a female singer and a member who could be funny enough to keep an audience engaged with comic patter.

For the latter, Yarrow suggested a guitar-strumming Greenwich Village comic he’d seen named Noel Stookey.

Stookey, who would use his middle name as a member of the group, happened to be a friend of Travers, who as a teenager had performed and recorded with Pete Seeger and others.

Gripped by stage fright, she was reluctant to join the pair at first, changing her mind after she heard how well her contralto voice melded with Yarrow’s tenor and Stookey’s baritone.

“We called Noel up. He was there,” Yarrow said, recalling the first time the three performed together.

“We mentioned a bunch of folk songs, which he didn’t know because he didn’t have a real folk-music background, and wound up singing Mary Had a Little Lamb. And it was immediately great, was just as clear as a bell, and we started working.”

They could also show a soft and poignant side, particularly on Puff the Magic Dragon, which Yarrow had written during his Cornell years with college friend Leonard Lipton.

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It tells the tale of Jackie Paper, a young boy who embarks on countless adventures with his make-believe dragon friend until he outgrows such childhood fantasies and leaves a sobbing, heartbroken Puff behind. As Yarrow explains: “A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys.”

Some insisted they heard drug references in the song, a contention at the heart of a famous scene in the film Meet the Parents, when Ben Stiller angers his girlfriend’s tightly wound father (Robert De Niro) by saying “puff” refers to marijuana smoke. Yarrow maintained it reflected the loss of childhood innocence and nothing more.

After recording their last No. 1 hit, a 1969 cover of John Denver’s Leaving on a Jet Plane, the trio split up the following year to pursue solo careers.

That same year Yarrow had pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with a 14-year-old girl who had come to his hotel room with her older sister to ask for autographs. The pair found him naked when he answered the door and let them in.

Yarrow, who resumed his career after serving three months in jail, was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter in 1981. Over the decades, he apologised repeatedly.

“I fully support the current movements demanding equal rights for all and refusing to allow continued abuse and injury — most particularly of a sexual nature, of which I am, with great sorrow, guilty,” he told The New York Times in 2019 after being disinvited from a festival over the sentence.

Over the years, Yarrow continued to write and co-write songs, including the 1976 hit Torn Between Two Lovers for Mary MacGregor. He received an Emmy nomination in 1979 for the animated film Puff the Magic Dragon.

Later songs include the civil rights anthem No Easy Walk to Freedom, co-written with Margery Tabankin, and Light One Candle, calling for peace in Lebanon.

Yarrow, who with Travers and Stookey had supported Democratic Sen. Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential bid, met the Minnesota senator’s niece, Mary Beth McCarthy, at a campaign event. The couple married the following year. They had two children before divorcing.

In addition to his ex-wife and daughter, he is survived by a son, Christopher, and a granddaughter, Valentina.

Peter Yarrow of folk-music trio Peter, Paul and Mary dies at 86

Peter Yarrow, founding member of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, in 2017

Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter best known as one-third of Peter, Paul and Mary, the folk-music trio whose impassioned harmonies transfixed millions as they lifted their voices in favor of civil rights and against war, has died. He was 86.

Yarrow, who also co-wrote the group’s most enduring song, “Puff the Magic Dragon,” died Tuesday in New York, publicist Ken Sunshine said. Yarrow had bladder cancer for the past four years.

“Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life. The world knows Peter Yarrow the iconic folk activist, but the human being behind the legend is every bit as generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise as his lyrics suggest,” his daughter Bethany said in a statement.

During an incredible run of success spanning the 1960s, Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers released six Billboard Top 10 singles, two No. 1 albums and won five Grammys.

They also brought early exposure to Bob Dylan by turning two of his songs, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and “Blowin’ in the Wind,” into Billboard Top 10 hits as they helped lead an American renaissance in folk music. They performed “Blowin’ in the Wind” at the 1963 March on Washington at which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

After an eight-year hiatus to pursue solo careers, the trio reunited in 1978 for a “Survival Sunday,” an anti-nuclear-power concert that Yarrow had organized in Los Angeles. They would remain together until Travers’ death in 2009. Upon her passing, Yarrow and Stookey continued to perform both separately and together.

Born May 31, 1938, in New York, Yarrow was raised in an upper middle class family he said placed high value on art and scholarship. He took violin lessons as a child, later switching to guitar as he came to embrace the work of such folk-music icons as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.

Upon graduating from Cornell University in 1959, he returned to New York, where he worked as a struggling Greenwich Village musician until connecting with Stookey and Travers. Although his degree was in psychology, he had found his true calling in folk music at Cornell when he worked as a teaching assistant for a class in American folklore his senior year.

“I did it for the money because I wanted to wash dishes less and play guitar more,” he told the late record company executive Joe Smith. But as he led the class in song, he began to discover the emotional impact music could have on an audience.

“I saw these young people at Cornell who were basically very conservative in their backgrounds opening their hearts up and singing with an emotionality and a concern through this vehicle called folk music,” he said. “It gave me a clue that the world was on its way to a certain kind of movement, and that folk music might play a part in it and that I might play a part in folk music.”

The American singing group Peter, Paul and Mary performs on “The Jack Benny Program,” circa 1963.

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Soon after returning to New York, he met impresario Albert Grossman, who would go on to manage Dylan, Janis Joplin and others and who at the time was looking to put together a group that would rival the Kingston Trio, which in 1958 had a hit version of the traditional folk ballad “Tom Dooley.”

But Grossman wanted a trio with a female singer and a member who could be funny enough to keep an audience engaged with comic patter. For the latter, Yarrow suggested a guitar-strumming Greenwich Village comic he’d seen named Noel Stookey.

Stookey, who would use his middle name as a member of the group, happened to be a friend of Travers, who as a teenager had performed and recorded with Pete Seeger and others. Gripped by stage fright, she was reluctant to join the pair at first, changing her mind after she heard how well her contralto voice melded with Yarrow’s tenor and Stookey’s baritone.

“We called Noel up. He was there,” Yarrow said, recalling the first time the three performed together. “We mentioned a bunch of folk songs, which he didn’t know because he didn’t have a real folk-music background, and wound up singing ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.’ And it was immediately great, was just as clear as a bell, and we started working.”

Peter Yarrow, right, sings an anti-war protest song to Vietnamese children affected by Agent Orange at the Friendship Village for Agent Orange victims, on the outskirts of Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2005.

Richard Vogel/AP

After months of rehearsal the three became an overnight sensation when their first album, 1962’s eponymous “Peter, Paul and Mary,” reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart. Their second, “In the Wind,” reached No. 4 and their third, “Moving,” put them back at No. 1.

From their earliest albums, the trio sang out against war and injustice in songs like Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer” and “Where Have all the Flowers Gone,” Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “When the Ship Comes In” and Yarrow’s own “Day is Done.”

They could also show a soft and poignant side, particularly on “Puff the Magic Dragon,” which Yarrow had written during his Cornell years with college friend Leonard Lipton.

In addition to daughter Bethany, he is survived by his wife, Marybeth, son Christopher, and granddaughter Valentina.

‘SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night’ Trailer: Amy Poehler, Pete Davidson, Molly Shannon, Tracy Morgan, and More Revisit Their ‘SNL’ Roots

Acclaimed Academy and Emmy award-winning documentarian Morgan Neville is honoring the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live” with docuseries “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night,” which he executive produces. The four-part series offers a behind-the-scenes look at the history of the beloved sketch series, with each episode taking a different perspective on how the show began.

More than 60 SNL alums are interviewed onscreen, including Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Molly Shannon, Pete Davidson, Stephen Colbert, Tracy Morgan, Bob Odenkirk, Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, John Mulaney, Larry David, Will Ferrell, Rachel Dratch, and Fred Armisen.

The first installment, “Five Minutes,” is about the audition process. Emmy Award winner Robert Alexander directs the first episode, which includes never-before-seen audition footage and firsthand accounts from alums as they reflect on their preparation and journey to the “SNL” stage.

The second episode, tilted “Written By: A Week Inside The SNL Writers Room,” offers a behind-the-scenes look at the writing process from script to screen. Academy Award winner Marshall Curry directs.

“More Cowbell” follows as the third episode, and it will examine the making of the now-iconic sketch starring Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken. Emmy nominee Neil Berkeley helms it.

Emmy nominee Jason Zeldes directs the fourth and final episode in the docuseries, titled “Season 11: The Weird Year.” Per the official synopsis, the installment is “an exploration into ‘SNL’s 11th season, examining the pivotal year that reset the show’s direction and cemented its enduring DNA with Lorne Michaels at the helm.”

Neville and Caitrin Rogers executive produce, with Juaquin Cambron serving as the showrunner and executive producer.

“I’ve been obsessed with ‘Saturday Night Live’ as long as I can remember,” Neville said in a press statement. “For ‘SNL50,’ I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite independent filmmakers to tell some deeper stories of ‘SNL.’ Taken together, these standalone episodes give a new perspective of ‘SNL’ and what makes it work.”

Neville recently directed the Steve Martin documentary, another “SNL” tie, and Pharrell Williams’ Lego feature “Piece By Piece.”

“SNL” will mark its 50th anniversary with a celebratory weekend culminating in a live primetime special airing on Sunday, February 16 on NBC and Peacock. Music documentary “Ladies & Gentleman… 50 years of ‘SNL’ Music” will premiere January 27 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and stream the next day on Peacock.

Every season of “SNL” can also be exclusively streamed on Peacock, with new “SNL” episodes streaming live on the platform in addition to the broadcast on NBC (11:30pm ET/8:30pm PT).

Here’s the full list of “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” contributors.

“SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” premieres January 16 on Peacock. Check out the trailer below.

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck finalize their divorce, officially ending Bennifer 2.0

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have finalized their divorce half a year after the singer filed for a dissolution of marriage. According to the Associated Press, Lopez filed documents on Monday, Jan. 6 in Los Angeles Superior Court to show that the former couple settled their divorce through mediation in September.

Per the terms of their split, neither star will pay the other spousal support. The singer has also requested that her former name, Jennifer Lynn Lopez, be restored and will drop Affleck from her legal name once a judge finalizes their breakup. Additional financial details of the settlement were not filed publicly.

TMZ, the first to break the news of the divorce settlement, reports that the exes also reached an agreement on the $61 million home purchased during their marriage, but the details remain confidential. The property has been put up for sale.

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for Lopez and Affleck for comment.

After marrying on July 16, 2022 in Las Vegas, Lopez and Affleck separated in April 2024, and Lopez officially filed for divorce four months later on Aug. 20 2024, the two-year anniversary of the couple’s 2022 Georgia wedding ceremony. They cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for their split. This marked the second marriage for Affleck, the fourth for Lopez, and the culmination of their highly-publicized 22-year-long romance.

The former couple first met in 2002 on the set of their panned crime drama Gigli (while Lopez was married to her second husband, Cris Judd), and they were engaged soon after. They went on to share the screen for Lopez’s “Jenny From the Block” music video in 2003, and Affleck was the subject of several tracks on her third studio album, This is Me… Then. But before they could walk down the aisle, their whirlwind romance came to an end: the couple announced their first split in 2004, citing the excessive media attention. In the years to follow, they would speak at length about how the overwhelming press coverage complicated their relationship.

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To the shock and delight of many, Lopez and Affleck would rekindle their romance two decades later, in 2021. April of that year saw the couple unexpectedly spotted together, immediately sparking relationship rumors that were soon confirmed when they announced their second engagement. In July 2022, Lopez revealed that she and Affleck had eloped in Las Vegas, on what she described as the “best night ever.”

Public scrutiny continued to play a role in their relationship the second time around; in addition to the general media frenzy, Lopez got intimate and explicit about her relationship with Affleck on her latest album, This Is Me… Now, and the Air actor featured prominently in the documentary about the making of said visual album.

By 2024, reports emerged that Bennifer had hit a rough patch, as the couple began attending events separately. In May, PEOPLE reported that Affleck and Lopez were not living together in their Los Angeles home and two months later, Lopez filed for divorce.

The couple have no children together but both have kids from prior marriages. Lopez shares twins Max and Emme, 16, with ex-husband Marc Anthony while Affleck shares three children — Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15, and Samuel, 12 — with ex Jennifer Garner.

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster pictured holding hands

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Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster have seemingly confirmed their romance.

The ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ actor – who worked with the acrtess in 2022 Broadway production ‘The Music Man’ – stepped out for dinner in Santa Monica with the 49-year-old beauty on Monday (06.01.25) , with the pair arriving together and holding hands.

In photographs obtained by People magazine, Hugh dressed casually in white jeans, a grey t-shirt and a black jacket, while Sutton had a camel trench coat over a long olive green dress, and the pair were seen looking into each other’s eyes and smiling broadly.

The couple have been romantically linked for some time, but this is their public first outing tgether and comes three months after Sutton filed for divorce from Ted Griffin after 10 years of marriage.

But on Saturday (04.01.25), the 56-year-old actor was seen in the audience of one of Sutton’s final performances of ‘Once Upon a Mattress’ at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre.

The award-winning actress previously hailed Hugh – who split from Deborra-Lee Furness, with whom he has Oscar, 24, and Ava, 19, in September 2023 after 27 years of marriage – one of her “best friends”.

Speaking to Vogue magazine in 2022, she said: “He has an impeccable reputation of being the hardest working man, incredibly kind, and generous–and all of that is true.

“He’s now become one of my best friends, which was a surprise, because you usually go into these things thinking, ‘Well, I hope we get along.’ But we just spent Memorial Day with our families. It’s really fun to meet new friends after 40.”

And Sutton – who has seven-year-old daughter Emily with Ted – addressed the onstage chemistry that had wowed fans.

She said: “One of the things that our director said early on was when you’re watching two characters fall in love, you look for the moments where they make each other smile.

“So it’s sort of birthed out of that, and it’s a spontaneous moment that’s different every single night. It toes that line of, is it Harold and Marian, or Hugh and Sutton?”