Home//People/June 17, 2024/In This Issue
People|June 17, 2024Chatter‘So sad for him that he made such a great mistake that he has to live with’—SHANIA TWAIN, on her ex-husband Robert John “Mutt” Lange having an affair, on the Great Company With Jaime Laing podcast‘He taught me that age is just a number. It’s a f---ing big number, but it’s a number!’—KRIS JENNER, on her 25-year age gap with boyfriend Corey Gamble, on The Kardashians‘Thank you for choosing me as your Daddy and helping me create some of the best memories of a LIFETIME’—LUDACRIS, wishing his daughter Cadence a happy 9th birthday, on Instagram‘I always loved what I was doing. If it had felt like work, I probably would have stopped it a long time ago’—DICK VAN DYKE, on his long career, to Deadline‘Leave your mark. Let them know…1 min
People|June 17, 2024Can ‘Bad Boys’ Help Repair Will Smith’s Good-Guy Image?Will Smith is looking for a comeback with his latest movie, Bad Boys: Ride or Die. Since slapping Chris Rock onstage at the 2022 Academy Awards after the comedian cracked a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, the actor, 55, has kept a low profile. Now he’s back in the spotlight to promote the fourth movie in the Bad Boys franchise (the first film of the series costarring Martin Lawrence cemented Smith’s status as a movie star in 1995) and his biggest project since the Oscars scandal. “He has had plenty of time to reflect,” says a film source. “He wants to move forward.”‘[WILL] IS HOPING FOR BOX OFFICE MAGIC AND A BRIGHT FUTURE ’—A SOURCE, on Smith’s latest Bad Boys projectAccording to the insider, lying low has been…2 min
People|June 17, 2024Padma Lakshmi Feels ‘More Confident Now’ Than in Her 20s“If you had told me I would be modeling lingerie at 35, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Padma Lakshmi says with a laugh. Yet that’s exactly what she’s doing at 53 with her new line of lingerie, swimwear and loungewear, a collaboration with Bare Necessities, launching June 6. “I feel more confident now than I did in my 20s, when I was perkier, tighter, smaller,” says the TV host, author and food expert.‘I WOULDN’T CHANGE HAVING THE RÉSUMÉ AND BODY I DO AT 53 WITH THE BODY AND RÉSUMÉ OF A 23-YEAR-OLD’When reviewing photos for her new 19-piece collection, she says, “I told them not to take out the stretch marks on my thigh and bottom.” It was a request sparked by a lesson she learned early on: When she…2 min
People|June 17, 2024Donald Trump Found Guilty of 34 FeloniesDonald Trump earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first U.S. President convicted of a felony, following an unprecedented Manhattan criminal trial. On May 30 jurors reached a unanimous verdict after a five-week trial, during which more than 20 witnesses provided sworn testimony. The jury ultimately affirmed the prosecution’s argument that Trump falsified 34 business records to conceal a scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election.Nicknamed the “hush money trial,” the case revolved around what Trump, 77, did after his attorney Michael Cohen paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in the final days of the 2016 election to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump, which he denies. Trump reimbursed Cohen over time, and prosecutors said he falsely reported the reimbursem*nts as “legal expenses.”Shortly before the…2 min
People|June 17, 2024Gabby Petito’s Family Speaks Out: ‘We’re Fighting for Gabby’A solemn silence falls over the crowded conference room in a Nashville hotel as Gabby Petito’s mom, Nichole Schmidt, strides toward the stage with a look of determination on her face. She gazes briefly at the audience of 400 people who have traveled there for CrimeCon 2024, an annual true-crime convention, before delivering, for the first time, the victim impact statement she’d written but had never gotten the chance to read in court to the man who killed her 22-year-old daughter. “We were denied the chance to confront our daughter’s killer, to look him in the eye and express the profound pain his actions inflicted upon us,” Nichole, 45, a former teaching assistant, tells the room. “The unbearable weight of Gabby’s absence is compounded by the sickening injustice of her…9 min
People|June 17, 2024Tony Hale: Facing His FearsJust how qualified is Tony Hale to play the role of Fear in Inside Out 2? “Well, I’ve had a lot of experience with it,” quips the actor, 53. In fact, he doesn’t need to look far for a recent source of fright in his life: A few weeks before the Disney and Pixar sequel’s June 14 release, the Emmy-winning Veep star and his wife, Martel Thompson, began the process of becoming empty nesters as their child graduated from high school.“We’re taking it day-to-day,” says Hale of sending 18-year-old daughter Loy Ann off to college later this summer. “I am now grappling with my own transition in it all. Because we were a little unit, and now she’s going off and having independence. And we want her to have independence!…5 min
People|June 17, 2024David Duchovny: What I Know NowFailure doesn’t really faze David Duchovny these days. The actor, 63, has written five books, recorded three studio albums and starred in hit series The X-Files and Californication, but now he’s facing the subject head-on with his new podcast Fail Better. “It’s not about reveling in the shame of it all,” he says of discussing his missteps and those of his celebrity guests like Ben Stiller and Bette Midler. “It’s about the true hurt of it and the response after the hurt. How do you go ahead in your life stronger and not debilitated by the wound of a big failure?”He’s putting himself out there again with his new movie Reverse the Curse (out June 14), which he also directed and adapted from his 2016 novel Bucky F*cking Dent, about…6 min
People|June 17, 2024A TV Star’s Hollywood HideawayRICHA MOORJANI’S SERENE CONDOPASADENAWhen Richa Moorjani finished filming the fourth and final season of the hit Netflix coming-of-age dramedy Never Have I Ever in 2022, she wasn’t ready to say goodbye to everything about her character Kamala. “There’s a lamp in the corner of my living room that has lotus flowers on it. That’s actually from the set,” says Moorjani, 35. “‘Kamala’ means ‘lotus flower,’ so it was very meaningful to me. I wanted it to feel like I was bringing a part of my home from set to my real home.”The sense of connection the actress—who also stars in the latest season of Fargo—feels in her space now is a pleasant respite from the drama that came with moving into the two-bedroom, two-story condo with her husband, Rishi, and…2 min
People|June 17, 2024She’s So ‘High School’Across1 Antiques Roadshow network4 Introduced7 Smoochy letters on an envelope (inits.)11 Bird that follows “Crazy as a …”12 Grow old13 Jennifer of the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice14 Ending for buck or switch15 Actor Chaney16 Money for a mortgage17 Not more than (2 wds.)19 Pacific and Arctic21 Kravitz or Saldana22 Happy Days star ___ Howard23 With 38 Across, The Masked Singer season 11 winner27 23 Across was a judge on the 14th and 15th seasons of So You Think You Can ___31 “Evil Woman” band, for short32 Superlative suffix34 “___-hoo!”35 23 Across’s High School Musical costar Zac ___38 See 23 Across41 Female sib43 Cow’s call44 Gotham City hero47 23 Across starred in Netflix’s The Knight ___ Christmas51 Questlove’s hairstyle52 Not just some54 Apple MP3 player55 Umbrella weather56 Letter after bee57 Virtual…2 min
People|June 17, 2024Shiloh Jolie: Angelina & Brad’s Daughter Files to Drop ‘Pitt’ From SurnameAngelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s daughter Shiloh made a big move on her 18th birthday on May 27: She filed court documents to drop Pitt from her last name and requested her new legal name to be Shiloh Jolie. “Shiloh hired her own lawyer and paid for it herself,” says a source close to the matter, pointing to Jolie’s allegations of Pitt’s “abuse history” as part of the reason. Shiloh’s siblings Vivienne, 15, and Zahara, 19, previously stopped using Pitt in their last name. (Jolie, 49, and Pitt, 60, also share Knox, 15, Pax, 20, and Maddox, 22.) As for Pitt, “he’s aware and upset that Shiloh dropped his last name,” says a friend of the actor’s.ANDREA STACCIOLI/INSIDEFOTO/MONDADORI PORTFOLIO/GETTY IMAGES; MONICA SCHIPPER/GETTY IMAGES; EMMA MCINTYRE/WIREIMAGE…1 min
People|June 17, 2024Idris Elba: Putting the Spotlight on WWII Heroes of ColorThe actor, 51, executive-produced and narrates National Geographic’s new docuseries Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color, which spotlights the untold stories of soldiers of color who fought in World War II. His American-born grandfather was one of them.Were any moments of this series particularly emotional for you? Each time we showed restored pictures or footage of soldiers, it struck a heartstring for me, because my mom doesn’t have a single picture of her dad, whether in uniform or not. I have never seen an image of my granddad. I was like, “I dunno, that could be my granddad in the back there.” He was 6'7", so I was scanning for the tall guys.Was that a big part of why you wanted to do this? It was a big component. My mom’s…1 min
People|June 17, 2024Smile!Cat Owner Creates Purr-fect Taylor Swift Eras Tour CostumesPortland, Ore.Cindy Park and her cat Badger are both Swifties. “As soon as he hears Taylor Swift songs, he gets all excited,” Park, 53, says of her 9-year-old rescue. Watching videos of the superstar’s blockbuster Eras tour, Park loved Swift’s costumes. “I thought, ‘Badger could rock those,’” she says. So she re-created several of them for her fashionable feline and shares the looks on Instagram @badger.dot. Badger often brings her the costumes and even “helps” put them on. (Yes, treats are involved.) “You can’t force cats to do anything they don’t want to do,” says Park. “But Badger, he poses. He starts purring and drooling!”Have a story that makes you smile?Send suggestions to storiestomakeyousmile@people.com(CAT) @BADGER.DOT(5); (SWIFT) KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES; KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES;…1 min
People|June 17, 2024‘I Didn’t Just Survive—I Thrived’From her hospital bed in Atlanta in the months after a ferocious flesh-eating bacteria destroyed her limbs in 2012, Aimee Copeland began to dream of a way to support patients like her, stuck inside watching soaps as they worked to rehab their bodies and spirits. “I could feel the impact that was having on my psyche and was like—we need to get outside,” says the Georgia native, whose plans of becoming a wilderness therapist were derailed when she contracted rare necrotizing fasciitis from a deep gash after a zip-lining accident plunged her into the water. She needed four lifesaving amputations—one each on both arms and both legs. As she recovered, Copeland, then 24, thought of the hovercraft technology teased in Back to the Future Part II. “My wheels started turning,”…4 min
People|June 17, 2024Author Danielle Steele: Her Love Affair With WordsDanielle Steel’s literary output is legendary, with new books coming out as reliably as the change of seasons. But she’s also a mother of nine, a dog lover and a design enthusiast who once thought she’d grow up to work in fashion and surrounds herself with art that incorporates her own beloved words. Her mantra: “Be silly. Be honest. Be kind.” And also, “Do no harm, but take no s---.”“Being honest is crucial, and being kind is really important,” she tells People from her home in Paris, where she just finished her 212th book. “And just because you are being nice doesn’t mean people should walk all over you.” That balance is reflected in her work, which spans fiction, nonfiction, children’s books and even poetry and song lyrics.“My readers know…4 min
People|June 17, 2024Second LookSee If You Can Find the Differences in These Two PicturesKylie Minogue kept things bright and bubbly as she poured drinks at Annabel’s in London on May 28. The singer and actress—who released her 16th studio album, Tension, last year—celebrated the fourth anniversary of her wine company Kylie Minogue Wines. She also took to Instagram to celebrate her company’s big achievement, calling it a “brand new PROSECCO kind of night!!!”10 Changes to Keep Score!1. One of the engraved figures on the fireplace to the left is missing. 2. The text on Kylie Minogue’s wine bottle is now green. 3. A line engraved on the fireplace has been duplicated. 4. The wine in one of the glasses is now pink. 5. A flower has been added to the cluster above the…1 min
People|June 17, 2024StarTracksFLYING HIGH!Fort Worth, June 2Simone Biles nabbed a record ninth U.S. Gymnastics Championships title, bringing her one step closer to securing a spot at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games in July. “I use the phrase ‘Aging like fine wine,’” Biles, 27, said after the competition.The seven-time Olympic medalist and most decorated gymnast of all time had fans cheering her on in the stands at Dickies Arena, including husband Jonathan Owens and her younger sister Adria.BOY BANDERS UNITEDNiagara Falls, Ont., May 30Backstreet Boy AJ McLean (left) and *NSYNC’s Joey Fatone were tearin’ up the stage during a stop on their A Legendary Night tour.DOG DAYS OF SUMMERLos Angeles, May 30Simu Liu didn’t need his shirt for a walk with pup Chopa, who served as the actor’s plus-one at press events…3 min
People|June 17, 2024Pat Sajak Takes His Final Spin43years of hosting the show, earning him a Guinness World Record27cities Sajak has traveled to with the show5+shows taped per filming day, with Sajak and cohost Vanna White changing their wardrobes for each taping$250the cost when a contestant would tell Sajak, “I’d like to buy a vowel.” (It’s been the same since Wheel began in 1975.)$1.03 MILLIONthe largest cash prize Sajak awarded to a contestant—Autumn Erhard in 2013RICKY MIDDLESWORTH/GETTY IMAGES; RON SLENZAK; GETTY IMAGES; CAROL KAELSON; CHRISTOPHER WILLARD/GETTY IMAGES; CALIFON PRODUCTIONS…1 min
People|June 17, 2024(1937-2024) Marian Robinson Dies at 86“The White House reminds me of a museum. How do you sleep in a museum?” Marian Robinson asked People rhetorically in 2008. “[But] they’re going to need me, so I’m going to be there.” A former bank secretary who died on May 31 in Chicago, Robinson proved an indispensable presence, living with the family for most of President Barack Obama’s two terms, caring for Sasha and Malia (who were only 7 and 10 when their father took office) and providing emotional support for her daughter Michelle. “[She had] a deep understanding,” said the Obamas in a statement, “that the world’s roughest edges could always be sanded down with a little grace.”…1 min
People|June 17, 2024PicksNETFLIX | Hit ManGlen Powell pretends to be a killer, but he’s an authentic RomeoCOMEDYGiven the title, you might think this new Netflix film, starring leading-man-of-the-moment Glen Powell, wouldn’t be much different from Michael Fassbender’s well-oiled The Killer or even Jennifer Lopez’s exercise in cold, murderous fury The Mother. In fact, Hit Man is a complete original, with a magical quirkiness all its own: When a gun’s trigger is squeezed, you wouldn’t be surprised if a bouquet of paper flowers popped out of the barrel. This is another way of saying that Hit Man is directed by Richard Linklater, whose movies have included gently pointed celebrations of romance (Before Midnight), childhood and adolescence (Boyhood and Dazed and Confused). Hit Man is about a decent, confused human—just that. Like The Holdovers,…7 min
People|June 17, 2024Ariana DeBose: ‘I Take Bold Risks!’After winning an Oscar in 2022 for playing Anita in West Side Story, Ariana DeBose recalls getting an important phone call. “Jamie Lee Curtis called to see how I was doing and said, ‘Where are your feet? Tell me where your feet are.’ And that has stuck with me ever since, because it reminds me to be in the moment that I’m in and to not take anything for granted.”It’s advice the North Carolina native, 33, continues to follow as she balances her busy life. On June 16 she returns to host the Tony Awards in New York City, and later this year she’ll star in her first Marvel film, Kraven the Hunter. As she navigates Hollywood, she feels ready for whatever comes. “Prioritizing my own mental health and peace…3 min
People|June 17, 2024Carrie-Anne Moss: ‘I Don’t Think About Age’Carrie-Anne Moss doesn’t view age the way many people do. Last August, when the actress, 56, and her family celebrated her birthday, they rang in the wrong age. “My daughter had to look it up for me. I thought I was a year older,” she admits. “I honestly forget how old I am all the time. I don’t think about age. I feel like everyone’s sort of my age, then they’re 35, or they’re 75. I look at it more from the perspective of how vital and healthy can I be?”Pretty vital and healthy, it turns out, as Moss pushed herself through rigorous training repeatedly to reach peak physical condition for demanding roles, including her latest, Disney+’s new Star Wars series The Acolyte. For an action-packed scene with costar Amandla…4 min
People|June 17, 2024Father-Daughter Comic Creators: Drawing Strength TogetherEthan Sacks was sitting in the cafeteria at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital in March 2019, overwhelmed with guilt and fear. His 15-year-old daughter Naomi was upstairs in the children’s psychiatric ward, hospitalized for major depression and suicidal ideation, and he was spiraling into self-blame. “Maybe if I had been a better parent, I would’ve caught this earlier and helped her,” Sacks remembers thinking. He and his wife, Masako, a bank manager, “were completely unmoored,” he says. “We thought, ‘Where do we go from here?’”As he waited for visiting hours to see his daughter, the comic book writer and former Daily News journalist pulled out an old reporter’s notebook and stared at the blank page. “I wanted to come up with a story that would inspire Naomi to want to…5 min
People|June 17, 2024What’s Hot in Hair!1 BROOKE SHIELDS’ NEW BRANDThe star’s line Commence was inspired by the content platform she created to connect with women in their 40s and beyond. “Women [in this age group] go through a myriad of changes, but there is a white space for problem-solving,” she says. Her products contain ingredients that nourish and strengthen hair to promote growth—and self-confidence. Says Shields: “When my hair looks good, it changes my whole day.”2 HAIR COLOR GAME CHANGERL’Oréal Paris Colorsonic took 10 years to develop, and it was worth the wait, since the device makes it nearly foolproof to color your own hair. First, pick one of the 20 ammonia-free shades (cartridges, which are sold separately, can either color your hair once or touch up your roots three times). Next, pop in the…2 min
People|June 17, 2024Glen PowellLast ObsessionWhen I was on Top Gun and Devotion and [producing the documentary] The Blue Angels, around the best pilots in the world, who work on the coolest planes in the world—you become obsessed with aviation. It becomes infectious.Last Thing I Took From a SetOn Twisters, I took the grille from my truck, the “Tornado Wrangler.” It’s going to be my coffee table.Last Gift I GaveMy agent, last week, had a pretty intense week. He didn’t have time to leave the office until 10 every night. So I got a mobile bartender to go to his office and make him a martini.Last Moment of Self-careI invite a bunch of my friends to a sauna or cold-plunge place, and we’ll just spend a few hours in there catching up. It becomes…1 min
