NEW YORK: Advance ticket sales to Marvel’s “Black Panther” were outpacing all superhero movies on Fandango.
The online ticket service said that “Black Panther” was outselling its previous record-holder for presale, 2016’s “Batman v Superman.”
Following gushing early reaction from Monday night’s premiere, Ryan Coogler’s film is the top daily ticket-seller on Fandango.
“Black Panther” doesn’t open until Feb. 16, but anticipation is especially strong for the first superhero movie in years starring a black lead character.
The premiere in Los Angeles was attended by the film’s cast decked in regal African-themed attire. Analysts are forecasting a President’s Day weekend debut for “Black Panther” of at least $100 million in North America.
On Tuesday, “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman revealed that doubters had tried to convince him not to give the superhero an African accent — and how proud he was to prove them wrong.
Boseman was speaking at a Beverly Hills news conference along with director Coogler, co-stars Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira and the rest of the cast the morning after Monday’s glittering Hollywood premiere.
The 41-year-old American stars in the titular role in the 18th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — the first black superhero to get his own standalone movie.
“There was a time period where people would ask me questions about whether or not an audience could sit through a movie with a lead character that spoke with that accent,” Boseman said of the east African inflection he gives the superhero — alias King T’Challa.
“I became adamant about the fact that it’s not true,” he added, stressing that none of the naysayers had come from Marvel itself.
“The intonations and melodies inside an African accent are just as classical as a British one or a European one.”
The actor got his break after a decade as an obscure television and indie film actor when Marvel came calling in 2014 with a lucrative five-picture deal to play Black Panther.
His appearance in “Captain America: Civil War” (2016) brought Boseman his first taste of real fame and his celebrity looks set to skyrocket when “Black Panther” opens this month, followed in May by “Avengers: Infinity War.”
T’Challa, king and protector of the technologically advanced fictional African nation of Wakanda, has been characterized as the first black superhero, which is partly true.
Around 30 black characters have donned the lycra for the big screen since the early 1990s, including Marvel’s Falcon (Anthony Mackie since 2014), Wesley Snipes’s titular vampire hunter in “Blade” (1998) and Halle Berry’s Kenyan princess Storm in four “X-men” movies.
The Wakandan royal can claim to be the first black superhero to land a standalone movie in the MCU and the first in mainstream American comics, having been featured in “The Fantastic Four” in 1966.
Critical and celebrity reactions to “Black Panther” after Monday’s premiere were about as good as could be expected, with reviewers hailing the movie as “iconic” and “astonishing.”
Donald Glover, who is due to star as Lando Calrissian in the upcoming “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” called it “beautiful” while “Ant-Man” director Peyton Reed said it was “soulful, thoughtful and of the moment.”
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who produces every MCU movie, agreed that the messages of the movie — which posits Wakanda taking in refugees and extending its culture and technology to poorer nations — were particularly topical, but added that most of the script was written 18 months ago.
Coogler and the producers came in for particular praise at the news conference for their decision to feature a clique of powerful female characters — dubbed “the badass women of Wakanda” front and center.
“I was so pleased that this story... that it supported that. In African culture, they feel as if there is no king without a queen and this story, it highlights the queen, the warrior, the general, the young sister,” said Angela Bassett, who plays T’Challa’s mother Ramonda.
“I was so proud to have my daughter and my son there last night, because in their faces, in their spirit, they were feeling themselves. They stood taller after last night.”
Gurira (“The Walking Dead“) spoke of her trepidation over having her head shaved to play Okoye, the head of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje special forces, but how she saw it as “subversive in the right way.”
“In theory, it sounded amazing, and then the day came... It happened. Then you walk into the restroom to wash your hands, look up like, ‘What the?’
“It took a few days... Then the pride started to grow, there’s pride around it, and the embracing of this symbol of power and these women.”
‘Black Panther’ presales outpacing previous superhero movies
‘Black Panther’ presales outpacing previous superhero movies
Former UK home secretary mocked for claiming she visited ‘land border’ between Italy and Turkiye
- Suella Braverman was criticized for her ignorance by social media users, public figures
- Italy and Turkiye are separated by hundreds of kilometers and share no border
LONDON: Former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman faced widespread ridicule after claiming in a radio interview that she visited a land border between Italy and Turkiye — two countries separated by hundreds of kilometers.
Speaking on LBC Radio on Thursday morning, Braverman, known for her hardline anti-immigration stance, described visiting what she said was a wall built by Italy to stem migration.
“Italy have reinforced their borders. They built a wall. I went to see that wall,” she said.
“They built a wall on the land border between Italy and Turkey. They’ve got drones. They’ve got armored vehicles. They’ve got soldiers. The numbers crossing that border have plummeted.”
The statement quickly went viral, with social media users and public figures mocking the former Home Secretary for referencing a non-existent border.
Italy and Turkiye, located in southern Europe and western Asia respectively, share no land border.
Former Conservative MP Sir Michael Take responded sarcastically, suggesting that people were overreacting and quipping that Braverman should have claimed that “Italy had built (a wall) on its border with Syria.”
How easy of you all to leap on poor Suella Braverman for a simple slip of the tongue.
— Sir Michael Take CBE (@MichaelTakeMP) January 2, 2025
She didn’t mean to say the wall Italy built on its border with Turkey.
She was talking about the wall Italy had built on its border with Syria.
Show Suella some respectpic.twitter.com/ToLZImF7cH
Food critic Jay Rayner also shared the clip, jokingly asking: “And is this wall ‘on the land border between Italy and Turkey’ with you in the room right now?”
Others criticized the apparent ignorance displayed by a senior politician who once held responsibility for national security and immigration.
Portuguese journalist and political commentator Bruno Macaes commented on X: “How did we get to a point where British politics is a global laughing stock?”
British politician, former cabinet minister says she went to see the Italy-Turkey border. How did we get to a point where British politics is a global laughing stock? pic.twitter.com/MHvNvSqOAz
— Bruno Maçães (@MacaesBruno) January 2, 2025
Following the backlash, Braverman attempted to clarify her remarks, admitting on X that she had misspoken.
“And, obviously I meant Greece’s land border with Turkey which I was honoured to visit,” she wrote.
Bereaved orca seen carrying another dead calf in US waters
- Scientists say whales are among the world’s most intelligent animals, exhibiting complex social behavior including self-awareness and suffering
Washington, USA: A bereaved female killer whale who carried her dead calf for more than two weeks in 2018 has again lost a newborn and is bearing its body, US marine researchers said.
Scientists say whales are among the world’s most intelligent animals, exhibiting complex social behavior including self-awareness and suffering.
The Washington state-based Center for Whale Research said the endangered orca named Tahlequah, also known as J35, was spotted carrying her deceased calf in Puget Sound off Seattle on New Year’s Day.
“J35 has been seen carrying the body of the deceased calf,” the center said in an Instagram post Thursday.
“This behavior was seen previously by J35 in 2018 when she carried the body of her deceased calf for 17 days,” it said.
When Tahlequah was carrying her previous deceased newborn seven years ago she was seen sometimes nudging its body with her nose and sometimes gripping it with her mouth, US media reported.
“It’s a very tragic tour of grief,” Center for Whale Research founder Ken Balcomb told public broadcaster NPR at the time.
The center said the loss of the latest female newborn was “particularly devastating” because Tahlequah has now lost two of her four documented calves.
“We hope to have more information on the situation through further observation,” the post said.
The center also said Tahlequah’s pod had been joined by another newborn. “The calf’s sex is not yet known but the team reports that the calf appeared physically and behaviorally normal,” the center said.
Tahlequah and her pod mates are Southern Resident Killer Whales, a population listed as endangered in the United States.
There are only three pods in the population, numbering around 70 whales. They spend several weeks of each spring and fall in the waters of Puget Sound.
Their numbers are dwindling owing to a combination of factors, including a reduction in their prey and the noise and disturbance caused by ships and boats, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Olympics-World’s oldest living gold medallist Agnes Keleti dies at 103
- Keleti joined the National Gymnastics Association in 1938 and won her first Hungarian championship in 1940
BUDAPEST: Five-time Olympic champion Hungarian gymnast Agnes Keleti, the world’s oldest living Olympic gold medallist and a survivor of the persecution of Jews in World War Two, died at the age of 103 on Thursday, the Hungarian Olympic Committee said.
Born as Agnes Klein in Budapest on Jan. 9, 1921, Keleti joined the National Gymnastics Association in 1938 and won her first Hungarian championship in 1940, only to be banned from all sports activities that year because of her Jewish origin.
“Agnes Keleti is the greatest gymnast produced by Hungary, but one whose life and career were intertwined with the politics of her country and her religion,” the International Olympic Committee said in a profile on its website.
The HOC said Keleti escaped deportation to Nazi death camps, where hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were killed, by hiding in a village south of Budapest with false papers. Her father and several relatives died in the Auschwitz death camp.
She won her first gold at the Helsinki games in 1952 aged 31, when most gymnasts had long been retired, the HOC said.
Keleti reached the peak of her career in Melbourne in 1956, where she won four gold medals and became the oldest female gymnast to win gold, the HOC said. A year later Keleti settled in Israel, where she married and had two children.
Her 10 Olympic medals, including five golds, rank Keleti as the second most successful Hungarian athlete of all time, the HOC said. She has also received multiple Hungarian state awards.
Harry Chandler, Navy medic who survived Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, dies at 103
- Harry Chandler’s family says he died at a senior living center in Tequesta, Florida on Monday
- He had congestive heart failure but his doctors and nurses noted his advanced age when giving a cause of death
HONOLULU: Harry Chandler, a Navy medic who helped pull injured sailors from the oily waters of Pearl Harbor after the 1941 Japanese attack on the naval base, has died. He was 103.
Chandler died Monday at a senior living center in Tequesta, Florida, according to Ron Mahaffee, the husband of his granddaughter Kelli Fahey. Chandler had congestive heart failure, but Mahaffee said doctors and nurses noted his advanced age when giving a cause of death.
The third Pearl Harbor survivor to die in the past few weeks, Chandler was a hospital corpsman 3rd class on Dec. 7, 1941, when waves of Japanese fighter planes dropped bombs and fired machine guns on battleships in the harbor and plunged the US into World War II.
He told The Associated Press in 2023 that he saw the planes approach as he was raising the flag that morning at a mobile hospital in Aiea Heights, which is in the hills overlooking the base.
“I thought they were planes coming in from the states until I saw the bombs dropping,” Chandler said. His first instinct was to take cover and ”get the hell out of here.”
“I was afraid that they’d start strafing,” he said.
His unit rode trucks down to attend the injured. He said in a Pacific Historic Parks oral history interview that he boarded a boat to help pluck wounded sailors from the water.
The harbor was covered in oil from exploding ships, so Chandler washed the sailors off after lifting them out. He said he was too focused on his work to be afraid.
“It got so busy you weren’t scared. Weren’t scared at all. We were busy. It was after you got scared,” Chandler said.
He realized later that he could have been killed, “But you didn’t think about that while you were busy taking care of people.”
The attack killed more than 2,300 US servicemen. Nearly half, or 1,177, were sailors and Marines on board the USS Arizona, which sank nine minutes after it was bombed.
Chandler’s memories came flowing back when he visited Pearl Harbor for a 2023 ceremony commemorating the 82nd anniversary of the bombing.
“I look out there, and I can still see what’s going on. I can still see what was happening,” Chandler told The Associated Press.
Asked what he wanted Americans to know about Pearl Harbor, he said: “Be prepared.”
“We should have known that was going to happen. The intelligence has to be better,” he said.
After the war Chandler worked as a painter and wallpaper hanger and bought an upholstery business with his brother. He also joined the Navy reserves, retiring as a senior chief in 1981.
Chandler was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and lived for most of his adult life in nearby South Hadley, Mahaffee said. In recent decades he split his time between Massachusetts and Florida.
An avid golfer, he shot five hole-in-ones during his lifetime, his grandson-in-law added.
Chandler had one biological daughter and adopted two daughters from his second marriage, to Anna Chandler, who died in 2004. He is survived by two daughters, nine grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.
Military historian J. Michael Wenger has estimated that there were some 87,000 military personnel on the island of Oahu the day of the attack. With Chandler’s death only 15 are still living, according to a tally maintained by Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.
Bob Fernandez, who served on the USS Curtiss, also died this month, at age 100, and Warren Upton, 105, who served on the USS Utah, died last week.
Blake Lively sues ‘It Ends With Us’ director Justin Baldoni alleging harassment and smear campaign
- The lawsuit was filed Tuesday, just hours after the director, Justin Baldoni, and several others tied to the film filed their own lawsuit against The New York Times
- Lively’s suit filed in federal court in New York says the director schemed with publicists to plant negative stories about her
Actor Blake Lively sued “It Ends With Us” director Justin Baldoni and several others tied to the romantic drama on Tuesday, alleging harassment and a coordinated campaign to attack her reputation for coming forward about her treatment on the set.
The federal lawsuit was filed in New York just hours after Baldoni and many of the other defendants in Lively’s suit sued The New York Times for libel for its story on her allegations, saying the newspaper and the star were the ones conducting a coordinated smear campaign.
The lawsuits are major developments in a story emerging from the surprise hit film that has already made major waves in Hollywood and led to discussions of the treatment of female actors both on sets and in media.
Lively’s suit said that Baldoni, the film’s production company Wayfarer Studios and others engaged in “a carefully crafted, coordinated, and resourced retaliatory scheme to silence her, and others, from speaking out.”
She accuses Baldoni and the studio of embarking on a “multi-tiered plan” to damage her reputation following a meeting in which she and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, addressed “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” by Baldoni and a producer Jamey Heath, who is also named in both lawsuits.
The plan, the suit said, included a proposal to plant theories on online message boards, engineer a social media campaign and place news stories critical of Lively.
The alleged mistreatment on set included comments from Baldoni on the bodies of Lively and other women on the set. And the suit says Baldoni and Heath “discussed their personal sexual experiences and previous porn addiction, and tried to pressure Ms. Lively to reveal details about her intimate life.”
Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Lively’s lawsuit. But he previously called the same allegations “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”
Lively’s lawsuit comes the same day as the libel lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by Baldoni and others against the Times seeking at least $250 million. The Times stood by its reporting and said it plans to “vigorously defend” against the lawsuit.
Others who are defendants in Lively’s suit and plaintiffs in the libel suit include Wayfarer and crisis communications expert Melissa Nathan, whose text message was quoted in the headline of the Dec. 21 Times story: “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”
Written by Megan Twohey, Mike McIntire and Julie Tate, the story was published just after Lively filed a legal complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, a predecessor to her new lawsuit.
The libel lawsuit says the newspaper “relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives. But the Times did not care.”
A spokesperson for the Times, Danielle Rhoades, said in a statement that “our story was meticulously and responsibly reported.”
“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 statement said.
But Baldoni’s lawsuit says that “If the Times truly reviewed the thousands of private communications it claimed to have obtained, its reporters would have seen incontrovertible evidence that it was Lively, not Plaintiffs, who engaged in a calculated smear campaign.”
Lively is not a defendant in the libel lawsuit. Her lawyers said in a statement that “Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint, filed earlier today.”
The romantic drama “It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie’s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Lively and Baldoni. Baldoni took a backseat in promoting the film while Lively took centerstage along with Reynolds, who was on the press circuit for “Deadpool & Wolverine” at the same time.
Lively came to fame through the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” and bolstered her stardom on the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012. She has since starred in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”
Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book pushing back against traditional notions of masculinity. He responded to concerns that “It Ends With Us” romanticized domestic violence, telling the AP at the time that critics were “absolutely entitled to that opinion.”
He was dropped by his agency, WME, immediately after Lively filed her complaint and the Times published its story. The agency represents both Lively and Reynolds.
Baldoni’s attorney, Freedman, said in a statement on the libel suit that “the New York Times cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites.”
“In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revitalize Lively’s self-induced floundering public image and counter the organic groundswell of criticism among the online public,” he added. “The irony is rich.”
