Regrets, Shaggy has a few.

Actor Matthew Lillard just took a stand in classic Hollywood fashion: years after doing so might have cost him something.

John Leguizamo works and works, and in between, he whines about Hollywood’s woke deficit.

The “Scream” and “Scooby-Doo” alum says he now regrets staying silent when actress Melissa Barrera lost her gig for her extreme pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel views.

Better late than brave?

Barrera’s comments, made shortly after the October 7 attacks, alarmed people in the industry. She was subsequently fired from the “Scream” franchise.

Lillard kept his head down.

Now, with pro-Palestinian activism commonplace in La-La Land and Hollywood stars rallying around Macklemore after he got bounced from Ed Sheeran’s stadium tour, Lillard is ready to speak truth to power.

It’s really f**king bulls**t and really hard, and she’s on the right side of history. When they start coming after your job, sometimes things are worth it. … When that happened to Melissa, the whole world didn’t pipe up. But she was a year early on what the f**k’s going on. But the whole world should have popped up and said, "She’s right." And they didn’t. And that’s brutal.

The cultural winds have shifted. What might once have put an actor’s career at risk now earns applause from plenty of his peers. And Lillard has finally found his voice.

Remember his impassioned public condemnation of the Oct. 7 attacks? His demands that Hamas release its hostages?

Neither do we.

Being forgotten fears Chuck Norris

They couldn’t beat him in life, but in death it’s easier. A little.

Action movie legend Chuck Norris died earlier this year. A huge part of his decades-long career was his starring role in CBS’ “Walker, Texas Ranger.” The series lasted for nine seasons, no small feat, bringing the iconic actor to the small screen.

So how did the Emmys honor his passing? By ignoring him.

This week’s Emmys telecast featured a segment remembering the TV stars who passed over the last year, much like the one that haunts the annual Oscars gala. And like the Academy Awards segment, the Emmys left out several notable stars.

Including Norris.

Accidental? On purpose? Do we even have to ask? It’s Hollywood ...

Ethan Miller/Getty Images/iHeartMedia

Grin and bare it

USA Today is a far cry from Blaze News, but every once in a while, the liberal rag lets a right-leaning opinion sneak out. This time, it’s a columnist who said what everyone should acknowledge about the latest Sydney Sweeney non-troversy.

It’s all about politics, even though the “Housemaid” starlet isn’t political. Wait ... what?

The liberal news outlet published an op-ed debunking the most recent attacks on Sweeney for baring (mostly) all on behalf of a sports betting platform.

Yes, it’s easy to argue that we’ve seen other attractive stars and athletes get nekkid for ad campaigns. It’s nothing new at all.

Yet what Ingrid Jacques argues is more important. Sweeney has a target on her back because people assume she’s pro MAGA. Even if she never wore a red hat in her life.

She’s a registered Republican in Florida, but she doesn’t weigh in on politics. Ever. It’s not her style, and that’s her choice. She keeps telling interviewers that she wants to keep her political views private.

For that, she must be punished, even if it doesn’t make a lick of sense. Even USA Today sees the scam ...

Mad hombre

An actor who spends way too much time complaining is getting another plum gig.

John Leguizamo works and works, and in between, he whines about Hollywood’s woke deficit.

Really.

Leguizamo has blasted James Franco for taking the role of Fidel Castro in an upcoming project. He’s not Cuban, the actor cried. He also shrieked over Chris Pratt taking on the title role in the “Super Mario Bros. Movie.”

He’s not Italian!

Leguizamo also said the movie industry doesn’t accept Latinos. That same industry cast the star in “The Odyssey,” one of the biggest movie projects in recent years. Now, he’ll play the main villain in the upcoming “Miami Vice” reboot with Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler. That’s one of nine projects he has lined up, according to IMDB.com.

If he ever stopped complaining about Hollywood for just a minute, he might land even more roles ...

Tom Cruise is utterly bizarre. He’s also America’s greatest movie star.

Tom Cruise is a strange human being. This is not up for debate.

Nor is the fact that he’s a great movie star and perhaps the last truly great American movie star.

Cruise doesn’t overplay the working-class persona. He simply embodies the concerns of a terrified father trying to dodge alien death rays.

Even at 64, this genetic anomaly shows no signs of slowing down. Cruise is so monomaniacally devoted to his craft that what he does off-screen should have no bearing on what he delivers on-screen.

Losin' it

Yes, he sold his soul to a sci-fi cult founded by a charlatan and a known criminal. Yes, he bounced around on Oprah’s couch like a toddler who had just inhaled a dozen Red Bulls. Yes, he left a trail of high-profile divorces behind him. And yes, his relationship with his youngest daughter, Suri, has all the warmth of a North Korean prison camp in November.

None of this matters. Not in the grand scheme of things, anyway.

That’s because Tom Cruise is essentially a diminutive delivery system for larger-than-life cinema.

We live in a culture obsessed with dragging actors into the town square to answer for their sins, whether real or manufactured. Audiences demand that stars double as Sunday school teachers. Expecting a guy who scales mountain faces for fun to have a wholesome, normal domestic life is borderline delusional.

As a young man, Cruise briefly considered becoming a Franciscan priest. That didn't work out, but he eventually found a vocation almost as all-consuming.

All the right moves

Circa 1986, Cruise abandoned the real world to become a perpetual entertainment machine. If he wants to spend his days grazing on a handful of almonds, running on a treadmill at 3:00 a.m., and worshiping cosmic conquerors, that’s his business. And in truth, it’s really none of ours. He is an actor, not a member of Congress.

The miracle of Cruise is his ability to play an everyday American while living a life that seems more alien than the creatures he runs from.

Which brings us to Steven Spielberg’s 2005 masterpiece "War of the Worlds." Cruise plays Ray Ferrier, a divorced New Jersey dock worker with a rusted V8 engine block sitting on a coffee table in his messy living room.

A man worth hundreds of millions of dollars, who flies private jets around the globe, somehow steps onto the screen and instantly radiates the exact energy of a guy who owes child support and eats cereal straight out of the box. He doesn’t overplay the working-class persona. He doesn’t force a cringeworthy accent. He simply embodies the concerns of a terrified father trying to dodge alien death rays. And he does it superbly.

Far and away

This effortless ability to play an average American sets him apart from his peers. Brad Pitt is a fine actor. But he always looks like a Hollywood A-lister playing dress-up when he tries to portray a normal civilian. Pitt was fantastic in "Fight Club" and "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood," but he could never match the ferocious vulnerability delivered by Cruise in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 drama, "Magnolia."

In an ensemble that includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Robards, and William H. Macy, Cruise stands out as Frank T.J. Mackey, an obnoxious, hyper-alpha pickup-artist guru. But when Mackey sits beside the hospital bed of his estranged father, now comatose and dying, the tough-guy facade fades.

The scene had an eerie parallel in Cruise's own life. His mother left his father when Cruise was 12, and father and son didn't see each other again for a decade. They finally reunited when his father was dying of cancer in a hospital — on the condition, Cruise later said, that the son ask no questions about the past.

Cruise, who has described his father as a "bully and a coward," brought some of that history directly into the scene, rewriting the monologue himself. The result is a brutal, believable breakdown that remains one of the finest performances in modern film history.

Risky business

Cruise's range is genuinely impressive, even extending into areas where it really shouldn’t. In the 2008 comedy "Tropic Thunder," Cruise donned a fat suit, a bald cap, and inordinate amounts of fake chest hair to play Les Grossman, a psychopathic, Diet Coke-chugging studio executive. The performance was comedic gold, turning a Harvey Weinstein-esque caricature into a cult-classic figure. The idea of Maverick aggressively dancing to hip-hop while screaming expletives into a satellite phone should never have worked. But it did, with magnificent effect.

The first time I saw Cruise on screen was in Oliver Stone’s 1989 classic, "Born on the Fourth of July." I was much too young to watch it, and my father should really have known better than to let me see it. But he didn’t at the time, and I’m eternally grateful for his questionable parenting decisions.

Playing Ron Kovic, a paralyzed Vietnam veteran, Cruise captures the heartbreak of a young American patriot who was betrayed by the country he served. The performance, which earned him an Academy Award nomination, remains a masterclass in psychological horror.

Yet people still wax lyrical about Daniel Day-Lewis and his much-discussed commitment to method acting, while treating Cruise as little more than a charismatic movie star. The disrespect is almost automatic. Cruise gets lumped in with Jason Statham and Keanu Reeves, as though physicality and box-office appeal somehow disqualify an actor from serious dramatic greatness. That’s the great irony of Cruise’s career. One of Hollywood’s most technically gifted dramatic actors has spent decades being dismissed because he also happens to be one of its biggest movie stars.

Blaze Media

Minority report

At an age when most Hollywood legends are retired or playing roles no one cares about, Cruise instead chooses to hang off the side of an Airbus A400M aircraft at 5,000 feet. He breaks his ankle while jumping between buildings in London, gets up, finishes the shot on camera, and then gets physiotherapy so he can do it all over again. The sexagenarian treats his body like an industrial turbine. He treats his craft with the devotion it deserves. Tom Cruise is an absolute machine, and he has given so many memorable performances.

The obsession with his off-screen antics reveals a sickening hypocrisy in how we consume art. We routinely listen to songs sung by disgusting individuals and admire paintings by violent lunatics, yet we expect our action heroes to be salt-of-the-earth types who adopt African children and fight for Zelenskyy on the front lines.

Cruise traded a quiet life for total mastery of cinema. When you sit down to watch a newly minted sequel to "Days of Thunder," you’re not buying a ticket to a lecture on family values. Instead, you’re paying for two hours of pure, unfiltered adrenaline, delivered by someone who sacrificed his sanity and his physical safety to make sure you enjoy your popcorn. Forget the trampolining on a couch. Forget the celebrity gossip. Tom Cruise is bizarre, but his body of work is damn near unimpeachable.

EXCLUSIVE: Rob Schneider opens up about his friendship with Charlie Kirk: ‘He changed my thinking’

It started as a practical joke.

Rob Schneider teases that his pal Adam Sandler created his, “You can do it!” line from 1998’s “The Waterboy” so people would harass him wherever he went.

'When you have your friend Charlie Kirk murdered ... I don’t know what else you can do but fight for this country.'

And they do, Schneider playfully tells Align, whether he’s having dinner or just walking down the street. It helps that the actor repeated the line in five subsequent films, including last year’s “Happy Gilmore 2.”

“It’s still happening,” Schneider says of the fan reaction. So he decided to lean into the catchphrase. The quote inspired the You Can Do It Foundation, a group that celebrates faith, family, and freedom through the arts — Schneider is the official spokesperson.

Now that nonprofit has teamed up with the American Rights Alliance, an organization that defends constitutional rights through legal advocacy, public policy, and education.

We can do it

Together, the groups created You Can Do It, America! The national initiative will promote “values-driven” media and educational outreach.

And boy, is that content needed today, he says.

Modern schools are “taken over by communist teachers who are now more interested in taking kids out of the classroom to protest against the president who is not the party they approve of and tearing down the structure of our society,” the comic actor says. “We need to have stories to remind people how exceptional the United States is.”

“There may have been 117 billion human beings in the history of the world, but less than 1% of them got to live in a society that has free speech and are able to cast a ballot and were able to benefit from their own labors,” he adds.

It’s serious, sober stuff from the man also known as “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.”

Sacrifice in stride

Schneider’s expansive show-business career began with his standout work on “Saturday Night Live” (1990-1994). He segued seamlessly to the big screen (“The Animal,” “The Hot Chick,” “The Benchwarmers,” “Grown Ups 1 and 2”) while continuing to tour as a stand-up comedian.

He’s still working — he’ll return to the “Grown Ups” franchise next year and reprise the voice of the principal in “Leo 2.” But the roles aren’t coming as frequently as in the past.

That’s not an accident.

“I’ve suffered personally and professionally [for speaking out], but compared to what the ultimate sacrifice is, what Charlie Kirk went through,” he says, his voice trailing off. Failing to make another “Deuce Bigalow” sequel pales in comparison.

Fast friends

Kirk wasn’t just a political figure Schneider admired from afar. The two became friends after Schneider began appearing at Turning Point USA events, including joining Kirk on his college tour. In October 2024, the two appeared together at Grand Canyon University in Arizona, where Schneider got an up-close look at Kirk’s exchanges with students.

Schneider has since said that the experience changed his own thinking. “Charlie did for me what he did for so many university students across this country,” he told an AmFest 2025 audience last December. “He dismantled foundational thinking.”

What seems to have stayed with Schneider most, however, was the way Kirk treated the students who disagreed with him. “Charlie respected the dignity of every human being with love, with Christ’s love,” he said in an interview shortly after Kirk's murder.

“It was this summer that I’d realized he was a true, authentic American genius,” Schneider said. “He had the intellect and the love of country.”

RELATED: The gift of turning 60

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Media malfeasance

Kirk comes up repeatedly during our own conversation, which we're having shortly after the one-year anniversary of Kirk's murder. Schneider shows real passion when he describes what his friend brought to the culture and why his voice mattered.

He's also furious at what he sees as the media’s character assassination of the late leader. Media outlets, he argues, too often regurgitate false or misleading quotes about Kirk, staining the man’s legacy in the process.

Then-Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah wrote this following Kirk’s death:

“Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is ... not the same as violence.”

The Post subsequently fired Attiah over her social media posts, although an arbitrator later ordered the newspaper to reinstate her with back pay.

Never mind that Kirk never once "espoused violence" in any of his many public appearances.

“They can repeat it without being accused of character assassination or being liable for slander ... an accusation being enough proof," says Schneider.

"That’s what runs on social media."

Swimming to Cuba

He’s equally aghast that the Democrats are embracing communism anew, ignoring the ugly historical precedents.

“When the Iron Curtain fell ... no one was running to go into communist East Germany ... nobody’s swimming to get to Cuba,” he says, later paraphrasing Milton Friedman’s famous line.

“There’s never been a system that has taken more people out of poverty [than capitalism],” he says.

Schneider’s new initiative opens up a world of possibilities, allowing for stories that Hollywood won’t touch.

“I want to see a movie about someone who is de-transitioned, and that’s a TV series I’d like to make,” he says. Schneider also suggests projects about political dissidents here in the U.S., folks who have been targeted by groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Schneider has built up decades of goodwill with his warmhearted comedies and timeless “SNL” routines. But something else has connected him to his fans in recent years: his willingness to speak boldly about the state of the country in ways that most celebrities would never attempt.

“I can’t go anywhere without someone coming up and hugging me, shaking my hand. 'Thank you for speaking up and being our voice,'” he says. “I’m just a simple comedian. I’m a college dropout ... I make silly movies, but at a certain point I’m fed up. And if I can speak for some Americans and make them feel emboldened ...”

“When you have your friend Charlie Kirk murdered ... I don’t know what else you can do but fight for this country, in a way that I can, through the culture and whatever platform I have,” he says.

William Morris Endeavor Sticks With Hasan Piker, Much to Notorious Influencer's Surprise

William Morris Endeavor, the high-powered Hollywood talent agency led by super agent Ari Emanuel, is standing by its longtime client Hasan Piker, a curious turn that has surprised even the far-left influencer himself, given the agency's penchant for quickly dropping other clients at the slightest whiff of controversy.

The post William Morris Endeavor Sticks With Hasan Piker, Much to Notorious Influencer's Surprise appeared first on .

REVIEW: ‘Aliens’

There are many reasons Aliens is an important film. It confirmed James Cameron's status as a blockbuster talent after he had directed The Terminator and cowrote Rambo: First Blood Part II. ("The action is mine," he told the New York Times, "the politics is Stallone's.") It turned Sigourney Weaver into a feminist hero. But what makes it a great and eminently rewatchable movie is that it deftly combines horror, action, and science fiction, showcases jaw-dropping practical effects, and weaves in themes of corporate greed, militarism, and motherhood without being preachy or pretentious. In a decade when it was fun to mock sequels, Aliens reminded filmgoers why the risk was worth it.

The post REVIEW: ‘Aliens’ appeared first on .

'LAND' MAN: Adam Carolla kills at GOP convention with perfect 'progressive' punchline

Quick — what’s the most ridiculous relic of the woke era, the one even the most liberal of liberals would probably rather forget?

For our money, it’s the land acknowledgment.

Sweeney caught holy heck last year when she dared to playfully blur the line between genes and jeans for American Eagle wear.

You remember those. When every award show or ribbon cutting had to start with someone pretending to feel bad about “stealing” the country from Native Americans (although not bad enough to give it back).

The ritual has mostly faded from view — aside from Billie Eilish’s recent cringeworthy attempt to bring it back.

And after that awkward moment, we’re all ready to move on, right?

Not Adam Carolla.

During his remarks at the first-ever GOP midterms convention, the comic brought down the house with a caustic callback to peak 2021:

“All right. I would like to start tonight with a land acknowledgment. … This is the greatest land in the history of mankind. And if that bothers you, you, your communist and hippie buddies, should get the hell off it!”

Too late? Not by our lights. Sorry, libs. Some things are so embarrassing you never get to live them down.

Whoopi 101

It’s like they never left.

“The View” is back and just as disassociated from reality as ever.

The ABC chat-fest returned from its late-summer vacation and proved the hosts hadn’t used the downtime to catch up on their reading ... or thinking.

Never change, ladies.

Here’s Whoopi Goldberg recoiling in horror over Sen. John Fetterman making a guest appearance at this week’s GOP midterm convention. Seems she has other plans for the Pennsylvania moderate.

You could be, you know, helping us block this idea that we're taking votes away from people. You could stand for that. That would be a good thing. You could stand for bringing back education, real education to our kids in the schools and fight for all the things that we have grown up with and make them better.

Goldberg followed this rant with a detailed, point-by-point criticism of Republican policy.

Just kidding!

As for “real education,” does she mean far-left indoctrination like Colorado high schoolers committing violence at anti-ICE protests? Sorry, Whoopi. That’s on your party ...

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Ghoulish groupthink

Few things are as insufferable as film festival “standing ovations.”

There’s nothing wrong with celebrating an outstanding performance, especially in a live setting like the theater. Once awards season hits, however, what brings an audience to its feet is more likely to be adherence to Hollywood groupthink than artistic excellence.

And they tend to go on and on. Remember: The longer you clap, the more virtue you signal.

Take the new documentary “NAZA," which argues that Israeli forces are systematically targeting and killing innocent Palestinian civilians.

That's one way to spin October 7.

The movie has earned rapturous reviews to date and is a likely Oscar contender in the Best Documentary field. The screening also sparked a record-setting 25-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.

We’ll have to wait and see if the filmmakers turn their artistic sights on Iran next, a country where the government slaughtered tens of thousands of its own citizens ...

Male call

Sydney Sweeney is making America male again.

The actress is back with a new, provocative ad campaign for Novig, a sports trading app. Sweeney uses a series of sports items to cover up select portions of her figure, all the while promoting a product that doesn’t go near politics.

Triggering.

Sweeney caught holy heck last year when she dared to playfully blur the line between genes and jeans for American Eagle wear.

She survived that cancel culture attack and is now shoving it in the left’s face. Here’s betting leftists won’t look away when the ad comes on their TV sets ...

Old time rock 'n' roll

Rock stars behave themselves better than they ever did.

Remember all the tales of groupies gone wild, trashed hotel rooms, and other flights of debauchery? Now, rockers beg for forgiveness after stepping out on their spouses.

That’s progress, but the headlines are a little less fun to chew over.

Enter Van Halen. Or more specifically, Alex Van Halen and Sammy Hagar. The two once rocked the world after Hagar took over for David Lee Roth in the mid-1980s. These days, the rockers don’t see eye to eye.

“In my opinion, Sammy Hagar is a complete idiot,” Van Halen said when a Brazilian interviewer brought up Hagar’s 2011 memoir.

Hagar responded with the 2026 version of drunken fisticuffs at Whisky a Go Go: a stern Instagram post.

“This comment and post is so unnecessary at this time in our lives, but I guess the truth hurts sometimes. Peace already.”

Sounds like there's only one way to settle this AARP-approved altercation: on the pickleball court.

'None of this is happening!' 'The Matrix' director says kids do not get transgender surgeries — he's wrong

J.K. Rowling is a “literal Nazi.” Supporting “Harry Potter” means supporting “trans genocide.” And transgender surgeries on minors? They're not happening.

Those are some of the claims “The Matrix” co-creator Lily (formerly Andy) Wachowski made in a bizarre new interview.

'If you support "Harry Potter," you're supporting trans genocide.'

And that's just for starters.

In the words of Joe Pantoliano's traitorous Cypher: “Buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, ’cause Kansas is going bye-bye.”

Members only

Speaking to Variety about his new studio, Wachowski soon began spinning a dystopian fantasy to rival anything he's done with Keanu Reeves: The United States was this close to a “trans tipping point” of equality — until evil billionaires stepped in to stop it with their lies.

For example, do you really think minors are undergoing transgender surgeries? Think again.

“None of this is happening! This is all right-wing propaganda against trans people. That is what has caused the shift,” he said.

Never mind that even the most skeptical reports do indeed prove him wrong

An article by Snopes, which sought to disprove data from a 2024 study, ended up admitting that hundreds of children have had gender surgeries in recent years, including 85 who underwent a "gender-affirming surgical procedure" in 2019. The author seemingly found solace in the fact that they were mostly "chest-related procedures," though.

The article also noted that health insurance claims showed more than 230 surgeries on minors in 2019, over 250 in 2020, and over 280 in 2021.

Crucially, 56 of the procedures from that period were genital surgeries, something Wachowski specifically denied in a mocking description of the "propaganda" deployed by conservatives.

"Jesse Watters was talking to the Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed about cutting kids' tallywackers off."

Other estimates are considerably higher. Do No Harm, an advocacy group opposed to gender-transition procedures for minors, says its analysis of insurance claims found 13,994 minors receiving puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones or undergoing gender-related surgeries between 2019 and 2023. Of those, the group says 5,747 underwent surgery.

Getty Images

Sapphic 'Star Wars'

Wachowski also complained that Hollywood has shown little interest in the transgender- and gay-themed projects he has pitched.

“If I never make another movie again, I'm fine. I'm getting old,” he said. “But in my experience of pitching stuff, I've pitched a lot of wonderful, cool queer stories and trans stories, and Hollywood didn't want any of it.”

Among those projects was one Wachowski described as “Star Wars” with “lesbians in space.”

“I cannot find a studio that will do any of it,” he said.

Larry (L) and Andy (R) Wachowski. Bob Riha Jr./WireImage/Getty Images

Bitter 'pill'

Asked about Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump using the term “red pill” — a reference to “The Matrix” that has since taken on a life of its own in politics and online culture — Wachowski rejected the idea that they had simply misunderstood his movie.

Instead, he accused them of "co-opting" the message.

"That's what fascists do,” Wachowski said. “They co-opt the messages of progressives and use it to their benefit to confuse and obfuscate what is going on and the intention of their ideology.”

When the conversation turned separately to Musk and “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, Wachowski went considerably farther.

“I mean … these people are Nazis,” he said. “They're literal Nazis.”

Wachowski then accused Rowling, a prominent critic of transgender activism, of financing a “genocide.”

“She is funding trans genocide,” Wachowski said. “J.K. Rowling funds trans genocide, full stop.”

“So if you support ‘Harry Potter,’ you're supporting trans genocide.”

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A Video Game Trailer Just Beat Hollywood on Netflix

SPIDEY SENSELESS: Andrew Garfield still wants gay Spider-Man

Andrew Garfield is really committed to the bit.

The versatile star played Spider-Man in two feature films, but back in 2013 he shared a curious wish for the web-slinger.

'I would like to avoid being in a tampon commercial 20 years after I'm dead.'

Why couldn’t he be gay?

The comments caught fire at the time, and more than a decade later, he hasn’t budged on the issue.

“I like the idea of a place where everyone is being honored and everyone is being included, and it was just a kind of act of saying, ‘Well, why not?’ And you’ll be telling on yourself if you have a strong opinion either way.”

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the fourth solo adventure in the Tom Holland-led series, shattered records mere weeks ago and is now in the top five grossing films of all time.

If it ain’t broke, why in the world would Hollywood want to fix it? Or is the MCU “telling” on itself for wanting the good box office times to keep rolling?

Goodbye, Dolly

We just can’t quit Dolly Parton.

The country music superstar passed last month at the age of 80, but interest in all things Dolly is just warming up. Parton’s songs zoomed up the iTunes music charts in the days after her death. Her estate announced that she previously recorded a special new song, “My Place in History,” to be released on her 100th birthday in 2046.

This week, an ABC broadcast of her beloved 1980 film “9 to 5” scored the network its biggest ratings for a film in over three years.

Meanwhile, country superstar Jelly Roll is still juggling the fallout from his disastrous week guest-hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” …

Joseph Prezioso/Getty Images

Down with 'Uprising'?

“First reaction” stories should be relegated to fifth-rate movie blogs and Bluesky. These stories capture early film reviews from influencers who like almost everything.

If you need a reference point, the recent “Supergirl” earned solid "first reactions." Raves even. So there’s that.

Which makes the terrible “first reactions” to “The Uprising” genuinely newsworthy. Our friend Andrew Garfield anchors the film, based on actual events of a peasant uprising against King Richard II.

Director Paul Greengrass has made some great films, including “United 93” and “Captain Phillips.”

So what went wrong? The pacing, the dialogue, and the execution, apparently …

Clooney ... for her

George Clooney has seen the future, and he’s a mite worried about it.

You can’t blame him. He’s a big Hollywood star, and the rise of AI will dramatically impact his industry. Jobs will be lost. Old stars will be reborn (just ask the Val Kilmer estate that OK’d a digital Kilmer “comeback” for an upcoming film).

Clooney is keeping his sense of humor about the future and his own possible “comeback.”

"I would like to avoid being in a tampon commercial 20 years after I'm dead. I would like that. I would like to avoid that."

We feel his pain. But if AI can fix old “Facts of Life” episodes and digitally remove Clooney’s mullet, it won’t be all bad …

Marvel make-'em-ups

When you think improv, names like Larry David, Robin Williams, and Colin Mochrie come to mind.

What about Thor, Captain America, and Ant-Man?

The upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday” began production without a finished script. Seems problematic for a movie with a budget north of $400 million, no? Not according to directors Anthony and Joe Russo.

The duo, who previously gave us “Infinity War” and “Endgame,” explained away the lack of a finished script.

We’re improvisation-based, rehearsal-based directors. We like to see what the actors bring to the characters, and sometimes you don’t get the actors until a few days or a few weeks before you shoot them. And a lot of the time, that’s when the magic happens.

“Doomsday” isn’t a comedy, but that defense is hysterical …

Blind casting

Wait … was “Saturday Night Live’s” Pat not available?

Actress Sandra Hüller of “Project Hail Mary” fame is set to star in the upcoming “Arbeit und Struktur” (“Work and Structure”), a biopic of the late German writer and artist Wolfgang Herrndorf.

Yes, Hüller is female and Herrndorf, best known for his 2010 coming-of-age best-seller “Tschick,” was a man.

The actress called the role a “profound challenge.” Hard to argue with that.

HEAD CASE: Kathy Griffin whines she's real 'victim' of tacky Trump decapitation stunt

Kathy Griffin hasn’t learned a single lesson since crashing her own career.

The “D-list” diva shared a horrifying image of herself holding a fake, bloodied head of President Donald Trump, ISIS-style, in 2017. The backlash proved swift and furious. She apologized (then took it back) and watched her stand-up gigs evaporate.

Country singer Jelly Roll famously shed a whole lotta weight in recent years. Good for him! Now he’s hoping to shed fans.

It took years to rebuild a semblance of a career, and she eventually leaned into her Trump derangement syndrome.

Now she’s playing the Victim Card™ via the “Talk Your Head Off” podcast with Gen Z host Adam Mockler. Mockler complained of the “chilling effect” created when President Trump goes after his critics in the media and the legal arena.

Griffin’s response? She knows the feeling.

“I actually was a victim of that myself in 2017 when I released a controversial photo that I thought everyone else would agree with me,” Griffin said, referring to BloodyHeadGate. “I was very, very wrong.”

That last sentence might be the first wise thing she’s said in ages ...

Hostin-ator

AI just got dumber.

"The View" host Sunny Hostin just sold her likeness to AI startup Fountain O. That means the company can use Hostin’s name and brand for AI-based TV shows and movies based on Hostin’s novels.

Wait … she has enough time to share TV’s most idiotic opinions and write novels? Respect!

The deal means her fans can not only see AI reproductions of her stories but watch Hostin herself in them.

“To be able to bring my novels to life in movie and TV form, and actually have my image inserted in the productions, so that audiences can relate to me through my stories beyond my role as an author, is incredibly exciting to me.”

Maybe those “Terminator” films depicting computers conquering humanity didn’t anticipate the Hostin factor …

Jelly rolled

Is anything more fickle than pop music stardom? The list of one-hit wonders may literally be a mile long, and even today’s red-hot stars could run cold in a New York Minute.

Remember Jewel? Right Said Fred? Young MC? That should keep today’s chart-toppers hungry and humble.

Not Jelly Roll. The country singer famously shed a whole lotta weight in recent years. Good for him! Now he’s hoping to shed fans. How? He hosted “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” this week and read straight from the far-left show’s cue cards.

Trump bad. Trump dumb. Trump [fill in the blank]. “Funny” rarely enters the equation on the show, and Mr. Roll did nothing to change that approach. And, naturally, some of the singer’s fans recoiled at his liberal lurch.

He is a country crooner, after all. His response? To paraphrase he Critical Drinker, “Go away now.”

“For those who threatened to stop listening to my music based on my comments last night, I just want to say with conviction: go right ahead.”

Sounds like a plan. In related news, look for Jelly to join Chumbawamba on their 2027 "That One Song You Kinda Liked" tour.

Randy Holmes/Jim Watson/Getty Images

Ali who?

Sacha Baron Cohen was king of the comedy world following his gonzo 2006 film “Borat.” It’s been downhill ever since.

Even worse, Cohen went woke, tackling predictable targets (Trump!) and demanding that the real estate mogul be kicked off of social media.

Sad.

Still, there’s always hope for a creative rebound. And Cohen’s next project is a film-length “documentary” based on his classic Ali G character. “Ali G: Who Iz I” hits theaters this fall, and while the trailer isn’t a hoot, perhaps the best bits are being saved for the film itself.

We’ll see come the film’s release day — Oct. 23. Right now, some comedy pearl-clutchers are coming after Cohen.

A media “watchdog” group, NewsCord, is trying to coax movie houses to ban the film. His routines, it claims, have “enforced harmful stereotypes across marginalized communities through his characters.”

Will that effort get traction? It’s not 2020 any more, thank goodness. For now, Cohen is leaning into his old bad-boy shtick, ignoring how he abandoned his principles over time. Maybe he thinks being unwoke is cool (it is … but not thanks to him).

“In an age when a single comedian’s career can be ended by a single un-PC joke, I thought I’d play it safe and bring this guy back,” he shared on social media.