Clemons-Hopkins, Smart - Max/Beth DubberMax s Emmy-winning comedy Hacks returns for a third season on Thursday two years after season 2 began.The third season sees Deborah Vance, played by Jean Smart, "riding high off the success of her standup special" while her former writer, Hannah Einbinder s Ava, "pursues new opportunities back in Los Angeles," according to the streamer.The third season was delayed first because of a health issue from which Smart recovered and then Hollywood s summer of strikes.Co-star Carl Clemons-Hopkins, who plays Deborah s driven business manager Marcus, was confident the cast and crew would sync after all the stops, but tells ABC Audio he wondered if the viewers would hang on. "The concern for me came with, Will the audience still be there? Will they still ride as hard for it? "The wait for fans will be worth it, he says. The actor says the show "does an acutely brilliant job of bringing soft landings to hard conversation
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) The Federal Reserve decided to hold its benchmark interest rate steady on Wednesday, postponing highly anticipated rate cuts as elevated inflation continues to burden U.S. households.The announcement arrives days after new government data showed that the economy is cooling off.The slowdown has coincided with a months-long stretch of stubborn inflation, putting pressure on the Fed to keep interest rates high despite a risk of hindering economic activity with expensive borrowing costs."The economic outlook is uncertain, and the Committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks," the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed s decision-making body on interest rates, said in a statement on Wednesday.Due in part to a lack of recent progress in lowering inflation, the FOMC said it does not anticipate cutting interest rates until it retains confidence that inflation is moving sustainably downward."So far the data has not given us tha
Kinga Krzeminska/Getty Images(NEW YORK) Retail dairy samples recently tested for the avian flu virus, including cottage cheese and sour cream, did not detect any viable virus that would represent a risk to consumers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.In a joint press briefing with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Dr. Donald Prater, acting director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition for the FDA, shared updates on ongoing bird flu investigations.A multi-state outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows was first reported in late March, according to the CDC. The agency said at the time it had "confirmed one human HPAI A(H5N1) infection that had exposure to dairy cattle in Texas that were presumed to be infected with the virus," adding that it was "working with state health departments to continue to monitor workers who may have been in contact with infected or potentially infected birds/anima
Melissa McCarthy and Barbra Streisand in 2016; Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for BSBWhile she was around when it was invented, Barbra Streisand still doesn t seem to understand how social media works. After being dragged online for a seemingly insensitive comment she made on a friend s post, she s now apologizing.On April 29, actress Melissa McCarthy posted a couple of photos on Instagram of herself at an event with director Adam Shankman. Streisand responded by commenting, "Give him my regards did you take Ozempic?" She later deleted the comment, but not before it was captured by the Comments by Celebs account and captioned, "Babs!!"One user responded, "Omg Babs, you can’t just ask people if they’re on Ozempic." Another addressed the legendary singer directly: "you’re such a boomer. I cringed reading your question."Another user wrote, "Maybe STFU and keep these thoughts in your own head? It’s none of your business unless someone wants to
Former President Donald Trump awaits the start of proceedings at Manhattan criminal court, Apr. 30, 2024, in New York City. (Curtis Means/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)(NEW YORK) A Los Angeles-based attorney who represented both Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal explained to jurors how he brokered a pair of deals to keep their alleged affairs with Donald Trump out of print, claiming that he interpreted the "catch-and-kill" schemes as a mechanism to protect Trump from political liabilities, during Tuesday s proceedings in Trump s criminal hush money trial.The former president is accused of falsifying business records to hide the reimbursement of a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election. He has denied all wrongdoing.Keith Davidson testified Tuesday that interest in Stormy Daniels claim "reached a crescendo" in late 2016 in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape on whi