The daily gossip: Simone Biles got engaged on Valentine's Day, Alec Baldwin sued by Halyna Hutchins' family, and more
Today's top entertainment and celebrity news
1. Simone Biles got engaged on Valentine's Day
Simone Biles had about as good a Valentine's Day as one can. The gymnast revealed Tuesday she got engaged to her boyfriend, Houston Texans safety Jonathan Owens. Biles shared a set of adorable photos on Instagram showing Owens down on one knee on Monday, as well as the engagement ring, which reportedly may have cost around $300,000. It was "the easiest yes," she wrote, adding, "I can't wait to spend forever & ever with you." Meanwhile, Owens wrote on Instagram that he "woke up this morning with a fiancée," who "really had no clue what was coming" when he proposed. Biles and Owens have been dating since 2020. They originally connected over Raya, according to Glamour — but although Biles might be the greatest gymnast of all time, Owens told Texas Monthly that when they first met, "I didn't know who she was. I just hadn't heard of her, and when I told her that, that's one of the things she liked."
2. Alec Baldwin sued by cinematographer Halyna Hutchins' family
Alec Baldwin has been hit with yet another lawsuit over the Rust on-set shooting, this time from the family of late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. In October, a prop gun Baldwin was holding discharged on the set of the movie, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. Hutchins' family has now filed a wrongful death lawsuit naming Baldwin and "others who were responsible for the safety on the set and whose reckless behavior and cost-cutting led to" her "senseless and tragic death," attorney Brian Panish said. The lawyer also said that Baldwin should have confirmed the gun didn't contain any live rounds. In December, Baldwin denied responsibility for the shooting and claimed he never pulled the trigger. A clip from that ABC News interview was played during Tuesday's press conference announcing the lawsuit — and Puck News' Matthew Belloni observed, "Non-shocker: Alec Baldwin's bizarre ABC interview comes back to haunt him."
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Variety The Hollywood Reporter
3. Netflix is making a 'BioShock' movie
Netflix is heading under the sea. A movie based on the video game franchise BioShock is in the works, the streamer announced Tuesday. Netflix has partnered with the game publisher Take-Two Interactive on the movie adaptation, and The Hollywood Reporter says the hope is for this to not just be one film but a "potential cinematic universe," because, well, that's just how Hollywood works now. The original BioShock game was released in 2007, and it takes players into an underwater city called Rapture, where its main character finds himself after a plane crash. Universal was once working on a BioShock movie with Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski. But the project fell apart, reportedly in part because Verbinski wanted an R rating. Now that the film is in the works again, would you kindly give him a call, Netflix?
Variety The Hollywood Reporter
4. 'Chip 'N Dale' reboot gets an insanely meta trailer
Wait a second, is the new straight-to-streaming Chip 'N Dale reboot actually going to be really good? Disney+ dropped a trailer for the new streaming movie Chip 'N Dale: Rescue Rangers, in which John Mulaney and Andy Samberg voice the animated characters, and it's definitely not what we were expecting: the film is going super meta, showing Chip and Dale washed up in real life 30 years after their animated show was canceled. The movie combines live-action and animation, Who Framed Roger Rabbit style, and the trailer includes a fun gag about Chip being hand-drawn but Dale being computer animated because he had "CGI surgery." Roger Rabbit himself shows up in the trailer, which also includes jokes about reboots, Beowulf-style animation, and even a jab at the terrible Cats film. If it looks more clever than expected, that might be because Akiva Schaffer of The Lonely Island is directing. Could he pull off the rare feat of taking what sounds like a terrible cash grab and turning it into something legitimately great, otherwise known as pulling a Lego Movie?
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5. Seth Rogen tells a story about crying on a date
Seth Rogen's appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! happened to be scheduled for Valentine's Day, so he naturally decided to tell an extremely romantic story about the time he wept on a dinner date. Rogen, who admitted he was a "bad dater" before getting married, recalled taking a woman he was casually seeing out to celebrate his birthday with plans to ask her to officially be his girlfriend. "I asked her around when the appetizers were arriving, and she said no," Rogen said. "And then I started crying." The fatal mistake, he recalled, was asking so early in the date, seeing as they still had food and even a cake coming, and "this poor woman had to sit there with me as I wept into my truffle mac and cheese." If this story didn't make it abundantly clear, Rogen joked, "I had terrible experiences dating women, and I think the women who dated me also did not have the best experiences."
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.
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