STX Films/Graham Bartholomew(NEW YORK) — Last week, The Mauritanian scored two Golden Globe nominations for its stars: Jodie Foster for Best Supporting Actress and Tahar Rahim for Best Actor in a Drama.
The film, out Friday, takes place post-9/11 and follows the true story of Mohamedou Ould Salahi, played by Rahim, a man held without charges in Guantanamo Bay who fights for his freedom with the help of his dedicated lawyer, Nancy Hollander, played by Foster.
Rahim, who delivers a powerful performance as Mohamedou, tells ABC Audio that while all the awards buzz is welcome, he doesn’t want to get too caught up in it.
“It feels good, of course, I’m still an actor,” Rahim smiles. “It feels good, but, you know, I’m trying to not make a big deal out of it because at some point I know it could become too important and then you can miss what you’re living because it’s just extraordinary what I’m living at the moment.”
The French actor was previously part of the awards circuit for 2009’s A Prophet, which was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
“I don’t want to miss [the moment], I missed it the first time when I did my first movie, A Prophet,” Rahim says. “I was so scared and it was so brand new to me. So I didn’t take advantage as I should have done. I lost time. And I don’t want to lose this time.”
The Mauritanian, also starring Shailene Woodley and Benedict Cumberbatch, hits theaters Friday, February 12.
Photo by: Bravo(LOS ANGELES) — A thirsty tweet to embattled actor Armie Hammer has Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville in hot water.
Glanville had posted a now-deleted thirsty tweet to Hammer, claiming, “Dear @armiehammer. You can have my rib cage [heart emoji] how do you just keep getting hotter and hotter,” following it with the hashtag “#letsbbq,” according to Page Six.
Hammer, 34, has been accused of harboring fantasies involving cannibalism, a charge stemming from leaked and unverified DMs allegedly from him, and which he’s denied. Hammer’s 22-year-old ex-girlfriend, Paige Lorezne, also told the Daily Mailthat the former Lone Ranger actor was “obsessed” with the idea of “taking a piece of me…and consuming it.” In a statement to DailyMail.com, Hammer’s lawyer called those claims “patently untrue.”
Glanville got flamed online after her tweet and quickly backpedaled. “Guys I DID NOT KNOW the extent of what’s being alleged against AH,” she tweeted after deleting the initial post. “I just read he was getting divorced and thought he was hot. No more headline porn for me! I have learned my lesson.”
Although Hammer’s attorney denied the mounting accusations, the actor has been dropped by his talent agency and his personal publicist quit, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The negative headlines caused the actor to step away from two projects: Shotgun Wedding, with Jennifer Lopez, and a series called The Offer, about the making of The Godfather.
Ovidiu Dugulan/iStockBy JON HAWORTH, ERIN SCHUMAKER and IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 106.5 million people worldwide and killed over 2.3 million, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Here’s how the news is developing Tuesday. All times Eastern:
Feb 09, 9:52 am ‘Extremely unlikely’ virus came from Chinese lab, WHO experts say
An international team of World Health Organization experts investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic said Tuesday it’s “extremely unlikely” that the virus was leaked from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is affiliated with the government-run Chinese Academy of Sciences, has collected extensive virus samples, sparking speculations that it may have caused the original outbreak by leaking the novel coronavirus into the surrounding community. The institute has strongly rejected that possibility.
“The findings suggest that the laboratory incident hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus into the human population,” WHO food safety and animal diseases expert Peter Ben Embarek said at a joint press conference with Chinese counterparts on Tuesday. “Therefore, [it] is not in the hypotheses that we will suggest for future studies.”
The WHO team, which includes experts from 10 countries, is considering several possible scenarios for how the disease was transmitted to humans, leading to a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 2.3 million people worldwide. Embarek said it’s more likely that the virus jumped to humans from an animal.
“Our initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway and one that will require more studies and more specific targeted research,” he said.
Transmission through the trade of frozen products was also likely, Embarek added.
As part of their investigation, the WHO team has visited key locations in Wuhan, where the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in December 2019.
A cluster of initial cases has been linked to a now-closed wet market in Wuhan. But Liang Wannian, the lead Chinese envoy who is working on the probe, said the market may not be the first location of the outbreak since transmission was also happening in other areas of the city at the time.
A review of mortality data, antibody tests of blood in blood banks in Wuhan and genome sequences showed there was “no indication of the transmission of the Sars-Cov-2 in the population” prior to December 2019, according to Liang.
There was also no evidence of “large outbreaks” in Wuhan or elsewhere before December 2019, according to Embarek.
Feb 09, 8:24 am Major US pharmacies start accepting COVID-19 vaccine appointments
Major U.S. pharmacy chains are rolling out their COVID-19 vaccination programs this week, as part of the first phase of the Biden administration’s Federal Retail Pharmacy Program for COVID-19 Vaccination.
The program is a collaboration between the federal government, states and territories, and 21 national pharmacy partners and independent pharmacy networks to increase access to COVID-19 vaccinations across the country. The federal government will send an initial shipment of one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 6,500 locations across the country on Feb. 11.
Starting Tuesday, Walgreens will begin accepting appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations as early as Friday, the company told ABC News in an exclusive announcement on Good Morning America. Health care workers, people over the age of 65 and individuals with preexisting conditions will be prioritized.
“We’re just very excited to transition from Phase 1A to this next population and offer the vaccination to the communities we serve every single day,” Rina Shah, vice president of pharmacy operations at Walgreens, told ABC News.
However, the Walgreens rollout will be slow, starting in just 15 U.S. states and jurisdictions with limited vaccine doses and appointments available.
Meanwhile, CVS Pharmacy said it will begin accepting appointments on Thursday, with shots going into arms as early as Friday.
Feb 09, 6:58 am US reports under 100,000 new cases for second straight day
There were 89,727 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Monday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
It’s the second straight day that the U.S. has reported under 100,000 newly confirmed infections. Monday’s case count is also far less than the country’s all-time high of 300,282 new cases on Jan. 2. Meanwhile, Sunday’s case count of 89,581 was the lowest the U.S. has reported since Nov. 2, Johns Hopkins data shows.
An additional 1,596 fatalities from COVID-19 were registered nationwide on Monday, down from a peak of 5,085 new deaths on Feb. 4, according to Johns Hopkins data.
COVID-19 data may be skewed due to possible lags in reporting over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend last month as well as during storm-related closures in some northeastern states last week.
A total of 27,097,346 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 465,083 have died, according to Johns Hopkins data. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
Much of the country was under lockdown by the end of March as the first wave of the pandemic hit. By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country’s cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up over the summer.
The numbers lingered around 40,000 to 50,000 from mid-August through early October before surging again to record levels, crossing 100,000 for the first time on Nov. 4, then reaching 200,000 on Nov. 27 before topping 300,000 on Jan. 2.
So far, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized two COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use — one developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, and another developed by American biotechnology company Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. More than 42 million vaccine doses have been administered nationwide, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Chrissy Teigen, who opened up about her devastating pregnancy loss in September, credits the heartbreak for inspiring her to take her health seriously.
Appearing Monday onThe Ellen DeGeneres Show, Teigen didn’t shy away from describing what kind of impact the pregnancy loss had on her life.
The Cravings author remarked that her unborn son, whom she had named Jack, would have been born “this week.”
“I go through my closet, and there are maternity clothes, things that I bought for my eighth month and my ninth month,” she explained. “So it’s just hard because he would’ve been born this week, so you look at those things, and you have these constant reminders.”
Teigen then explained how the heartbreak has been a “transformative” experience.
Admitting that she is in therapy to cope with the loss, the former model revealed, “It really saved me, because I don’t think that I would’ve discovered therapy and then sobriety and this path of feeling good about myself and feeling like a new person.”
Teigen added that her children — two-year-old Miles and four-year-old Luna — continue to honor their little brother, which has also helped the family go through the grieving process.
“It’s been so beautiful to see my kids, the way they talk about him. We’ll be going to the beach or something and they’ll say, ‘Is baby Jack with us right now? Do you think he’s up in the clouds,'” she revealed. “It’s just so beautiful and so sweet.”
Teigen also explained why she’s been so open about losing her pregnancy, saying, “You think about all the people that go through it in silence and you get really sad for them… You really don’t know the meaning of the word ‘unimaginable’ until something like that happens to you.”
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic(LOS ANGELES) — Jessica Alba is remaining optimistic after her father, Mark Alba, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
The Fantastic Four alum teamed up with her dad to break the news to her 18.8 million followers. However, instead of issuing a serious statement, the two broke the news in a lighthearted TikTok video that she posted Monday.
Dancing to Obzesion’s “Mi Trokita Cumbia,” Alba and her dad radiated positivity as they grinned throughout their zany performance. The positive vibes continued in the caption, with the 39-year-old actress announcing, “My #papasito is about to SLAY #thyroidcancer.”
Alba revealed that her father is about to undergo his first round of radiation therapy and, using hashtags, cheered him on by writing “#LetGo” and “#YouGotThis.”
Many of the Golden Globe nominee’s friends rallied behind Mark and cheered him on in the comment section.
Kerry Washington remarked, “This is ADORABLE!!! Sending you and your dad hugs and prayers!!!” Gabrielle Union expressed support by tagging Mark and telling him, “You got this.”
Others, such as Vanessa Bryant, January Jones and Mindy Kaling further encouraged Mark by spamming heart emojis.
Mark’s real estate company, The Alba Team, spoke further of his diagnosis in a separate Instagram post and shared a video where he’s showing off his surgery scar.
“It’s about to get real personal,” the statement began, revealing that several team members recently battled COVID-19. “Mark in particular has battled Covid-19 and thyroid cancer.”
“He’s positive and feeling great right now. It takes a lot to keep Mark down,” the team promised.
STX Films/Graham Bartholomew(NEW YORK) — Last week, The Mauritanian scored two Golden Globe nominations for its stars: Jodie Foster for Best Supporting Actress and Tahar Rahim for Best Actor in a Drama.
