The daily gossip: Evangeline Lilly rallied against vaccine mandates, Kanye West claims Donda 2 drops next month, and more

Today's top entertainment and celebrity news

Evangeline Lilly
(Image credit: Rich Fury/Getty Images)

1. Evangeline Lilly went to a rally against vaccine mandates

You have to log off, Kate! You have to log off! Evangeline Lilly, who plays The Wasp in Marvel's Ant-Man, has sparked backlash after revealing she attended a rally against vaccine mandates in Washington, D.C. Yes, that would be the rally where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust and suggested anti-vaxxers are worse off today than Anne Frank. On Instagram, Lilly said she went to "support bodily sovereignty," writing that "nobody should ever be forced to inject their body with anything." It's the latest anti-vaxx mess for Marvel after Black Panther star Letitia Wright shared an anti-vaccine video and reportedly pushed anti-vaccine views on set. Lilly is a repeat offender in this area, though, after declaring she wasn't self-isolating over COVID-19 because it's just "a respiratory flu." She'll be back in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania next summer, though if it now opens with a title card reading, "Note: The Wasp died on the way back to her home planet," don't be shocked.

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2. Kanye West claims 'Donda 2' drops next month

Kanye West has announced a release date for his next album, and what reason could there possibly be to doubt it will drop on that date? Ye said Thursday that his follow-up album to Donda, which is apparently straight up called Donda 2, will be released on Feb. 22. He shared the news on Instagram along with a photo of his childhood home burning, also revealing the album will be produced by Future. We'd recommend not getting too attached to the date, though, considering Donda was repeatedly delayed last year as West just couldn't stop holding listening events that were not followed by the album itself coming out. Whenever Donda 2 does release, keep an eye out for a possible Pete Davidson diss track after a recent collaboration with The Game included Ye rapping that he'll "beat Pete Davidson's a--."

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Variety

3. A drunk Halle Berry accidentally tricked people into thinking she got married

Halle Berry did not say "I do" over the holidays, despite what she drunkenly tricked the world into thinking. On The Tonight Show, Berry shared the story about how her Instagram post on New Year's Day duped a bunch of stars into thinking she and her boyfriend Van Hunt tied the knot. They were celebrating the holidays on an island and having a "copious amounts of drinks," she explained, when they passed a chapel and got the "crazy idea" of taking a photo there to "fool his mom" by texting her, "Guess what? We got married! Not!" Deciding they weren't thinking big enough, Berry posted an Instagram photo of the two of them kissing in a chapel captioned "well…IT'S OFFICIAL!" The idea was that the post's second photo would clarify they just meant the "official" start of 2022. Clearly, lots of famous people missed that, so congratulations poured in from Ava DuVernay, Taraji P. Henson, The Rock, and more. "Nobody got it," Berry said. "After like 20 minutes went by, we were like, 'We are such a---holes!'"

ET People

4. Nicole Kidman got Kristen Stewart walkie-talkies for Christmas when she was 10

Kristen Stewart may not have gotten to work with Nicole Kidman as planned, but at least she got a rad Christmas gift out of it. Stewart and Kidman — both vying for the Best Actress Oscar — chatted in Variety's latest Actors on Actors interview about nearly starring together in David Fincher's Panic Room. Kidman was originally cast as Stewart's character's mom, but she ended up dropping out due to an injury and was replaced by Jodie Foster. But Stewart recalled that before that, they already rehearsed for a few weeks together. "Like, I know you," Stewart, who was 10 at the time, told Kidman. "I was a little guy, but ... it's an interesting time to meet somebody." Stewart recalls feeling like she was "buds" with Kidman, who was "so nice to me," and Kidman even "gave me walkie-talkies for Christmas." Cut to two decades later, Kidman said, "and thus we're sitting here, and I get to be your bud."

Variety Entertainment Weekly

5. 'Jeopardy!' champions keep getting defeated by Chicago librarians

If you're on a Jeopardy! streak when Johnny Gilbert announces one of your competitors is a "librarian from Chicago, Illinois," chances are, you're toast. Amy Schneider's epic Jeopardy! run finally came to an end on Wednesday night after 40 straight wins, and the giant killer to defeat her was Rhone Talsma, a librarian from Chicago. In a bizarre twist of fate, fans may recall James Holzhauer's stunning 32-game Jeopardy! winning streak in 2019 was ended by Emma Boettcher, who was ... a librarian from the University of Chicago. Holzhauer acknowledged the strange coincidence on Twitter with a meme of Wesley Snipes declaring, "Always bet on a librarian from Chicago, Il." This wasn't even the only freaky coincidence of Schneider's last game — both she and recent super champion Matt Amodio lost after getting a Final Jeopardy! question wrong in the category of Countries of the World. We'll take "time is a flat circle" for $1,000.

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.