Warner Bros. Pictures(LOS ANGELES) — Amid the hype of director Matt Reeves’ reveal of The Batmantrailer during the DC Fandome event over the weekend, it was easy to overlook actor Colin Farrell hiding in plain sight as the Penguin.
That’s right: among the buzz-worthy first footage of Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight, and Zoe Kravitz as Selena Kyle/Catwoman, there appeared a gruff, balding, burly dude, who exclaims, mid-chase of Batman, “This guy is crazy!”
You’d be perfectly justified in not noticing, but that guy was Farrell, in heavy makeup.
So unrecognizable was the handsome Irish star of the Fantastic Beasts sequel and the recent Artemis Fowl, that the Internet mistook him for who his character actually looks like: character actor Richard Kind.
Twitter has gone a-twitter with people pointing out the similarities between the movie’s Oswald Cobblepot — that’s the Penguin’s actual name — and Kind, the affable Mad About You and Curb Your Enthusiasm player, with one user posting, “Richard Kind watching The Batman trailer, following it with a modified meme of Dwight from The Office declaring “Identity theft is not a joke, Colin.”
Another declared, “Colin Farrell’s got a career as a Richard Kind impersonator if ‘The Batman’ ends up bombing.”
Certainly, Reeves’ Penguin is a more subtle take on the usually umbrella-wielding baddie that fans are used to. The last time he was portrayed on the big screen was by a scenery-and-fish-chewing Danny DeVito, also heavily made-up and in a waddling fat suit, in Tim Burton’s 1992’s Batman Returns. More recently, Robin Lord Taylor played the character for five seasons on TV’s Gotham.
Ben Mark Holzberg/CBS(LOS ANGELES) — Showtime has revealed the first full-length trailer for The Comey Rule, a two-part thriller based on controversial former FBI director James Comey’s book A Higher Loyalty.
However, it’s Scottish actor Brendan Gleeson’s transformation into President Donald Trump that arguably steals the show. Thanks to a perfectly styled wispy blonde wig, and an impressive vocal imitation of the reality show star-turned commander-in-chief, Gleeson hits all the right notes.
The film traces Comey’s involvement in Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s email scandal, and later, after her defeat in the presidential election, it addresses President Trump’s alleged involvement in what became known as the Russiagate scandal.
Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017, was investigated and found to have violated Justice Department and FBI policies in his handling of memos he said detailed conversations with the president — memos he’s shown scribbling in the trailer for the film, which also stars Jeff Daniels as Comey, Oscar-winner Holly Hunter as former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, and Kingsley Ben-Adir as President Obama.
The Comey Rule debuts on Showtime on September 27.
Sony Music NashvilleKane Brown is racking up the numbers with his new EP, Mixtape Vol. 1.
The platinum-selling singer’s latest project has debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, marking the highest-selling country EP debut so far this year, with 22,000 units.
On the streaming front, it’s bested only by Sam Hunt‘s sophomore album, Southside, which achieved 36.8 million on-demand streams in its first week following its April release.
Additionally, Kane’s other two albums — 2018’s sophomore album Experiment and his 2016 self-titled debut — also appear on the Top Country Albums chart, joining the ranks of Garth Brooks, Chris Stapleton, Florida Georgia Line and Kacey Musgraves to have three albums simultaneously in the top 20 since 2017, when Billboard began accounting for total consumption that includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums and streaming equivalent albums.
Mixtape‘slead single, “Cool Again,” is currently in the top 10 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.
Cody VillalobosJustin Moore has a reason to raise a glass.
The singer has scored his ninth number-one single with “Why We Drink.” It’s the second chart-topper off his latest album, Late Nights and Long Necks, following “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home.”
Justin co-wrote the song with “Dust on the Bottle” singer David Lee Murphy, along with Casey Beathard and Jeremy Stover. He also served as its producer.
Justin’s mom, Charlene Moore, who inspired the song, also makes an appearance in the music video.
Other #1 hits for Justin include “Small Town USA,” “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away” and “Til My Last Day.”
The hitmaker is slated to release his Live at the Ryman album on September 25. Recorded during his headlining 2018 show at the venue, it features duets with the likes of David Lee, Chris Janson and bluegrass star Ricky Skaggs.
(NEW YORK) — The global coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 806,000 people worldwide, nearly a quarter of those in the U.S.
More 23.2 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks.
The United States is the worst-affected country, with more than 5.6 million diagnosed cases and at least 176,659 deaths.
Here’s how the news developed today. All times Eastern. Aug 24, 1:12 pm Tuscaloosa closes bars until September after cases rise at University of Alabama
The city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will close its bars starting at 6 p.m. on Monday after the University of Alabama reported a rise in COVID-19 cases.
Mayor Walter Maddox signed an executive order restricting all bars from serving alcohol until Sept. 8 — anyone who violates the order could be fined or sentenced to a maximum of 180 days in the municipal jail.
In a letter to students on Sunday, university President Stuart Bell called the rise in cases on campus to be “unacceptable” and said this is a “critical moment” for the school.
“Make no mistake, this trend is a real threat to our ability to complete the semester on campus,” Bell said, adding that “violations to our health and safety protocols” are “subject to harsh disciplinary action, up to and including suspension” from the university.
University police and the Tuscaloosa Police Department will monitor bars, restaurants and off-campus residences where guidelines are not being followed. ABC News’ Janice McDonald contributed to this report.
Aug 24, 12:09 pm New York records lowest infection rate to date
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the COVID-19 infection rate in the state was 0.66% as of Sunday, the lowest since the start of the pandemic.
“It is a great day,” Cuomo said at Monday’s press briefing, noting that the state has now had an infection rate under 1% for more than two weeks.
However, the western part of the state, including the Buffalo region, has seen an uptick in cases and the infection rate, he said.
Aug 24, 11:36 am EPA approves 1st long-lasting disinfectant against novel coronavirus
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that it has granted emergency authorization for the first antiviral surface coating approved for use to continuously protect against the virus that causes COVID-19 with a single application.
The product, SurfaceWise 2 from the Texas-based company Allied BioScience, is now approved for use by American Airlines, the Texas Methodist Health Group and at certain locations of the Texas-based clinics Total Orthopedics Sports & Spine.
“This is, I believe, a major game-changing announcement for our efforts to combat coronavirus and COVID19,” EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler said on a call with reporters Monday morning.
While the product is intended to deactivate the virus on surfaces between routine cleanings for up to seven days, Wheeler said it’s not supposed to replace frequent cleaning with disinfectants, hand washing, wearing masks or social distancing. He also said that the EPA did not find any adverse health risks from coming in contact with the product on a surface, though the National Institutes of Health has found the main ingredient, quaternary ammonium, can be an irritant and exacerbate asthma. ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs contributed to this report.
Aug 24, 10:52 am University of Hong Kong reports 1st case of human reinfection
The University of Hong Kong claims it has documented the world’s first case of COVID-19 reinfection.
The university made the announcement in a press release Monday, revealing findings from its study of an “apparently young and healthy patient” who had a second episode of COVID-19 infection which was diagnosed more than four months after the first episode. A team of researchers showed that the genome sequence of the virus strain in the first episode of COVID-19 infection is “clearly different” from that of the virus strain found during the second episode of infection, according to the press release.
Last week, the World Health Organization said there were over 75,000 COVID-19 sequences identified and that they would need to see evidence of individuals who were infected by two different sequences in order to prove reinfection.
There are dozens of studies on COVID-19 immunity being conducted around the world. So far, WHO officials say they have learned that people do develop an immune response to the virus, but it’s not completely clear yet how strong that response is and for how long it lasts.
“What we understand from the press release is that this ‘may’ be an example of reinfection,” Dr. Maria van Kerkhove, WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead and an infectious disease epidemiologist, said at Monday’s news briefing in Geneva.
“It’s very important we document this and in countries where sequencing can be done that would be very, very helpful,” she added. “But we need to not jump to any conclusions, even if this is the first documented case of reinfection.”
ABC News’ Christine Theodorou and Karson Yiu contributed to this report.
Aug 24, 9:16 am France records highest rise in cases since ending lockdown
France’s national public health agency identified 4,897 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the country’s highest day-to-day increase in infections since coming out of lockdown.
However, just one coronavirus-related fatality was recorded in the past 24 hours.
Since the start of the pandemic, France has reported 242,899 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 30,513 deaths. The country is among the hardest-hit in Europe.
The positivity rate for COVID-19 tests in France increased from 2.8% on Aug. 18 to 3.6% on Aug. 24, according to the national public health agency. ABC News’ Ibtissem Guenfoud contributed to this report. Aug 24, 8:33 am US reports under 1,000 new deaths for 1st time in almost a week
There were 34,567 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Sunday, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
It’s the first time in six days that the country’s day-to-day rise in cases is under 40,000. Sunday’s tally is also well below the national record set on July 16, when 77,255 new cases were identified in a 24-hour reporting period.
An additional 449 coronavirus-related deaths were also recorded Sunday, the first time in a six days that the daily death toll was lower than 1,000. The figure is also under the record 2,666 new deaths that were reported on April 17.
A total of 5,704,447 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 176,809 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
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 and crossing 70,000 for the first time in mid-July.
Week-over-week comparisons show that the nationwide number of new cases and new deaths has continued to decrease in recent weeks, according to an internal memo from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, obtained by ABC News on Friday night.
Warner Bros. Pictures(LOS ANGELES) — Amid the hype of director Matt Reeves’ reveal of The Batman trailer during the DC Fandome event over the weekend, it was easy to overlook actor Colin Farrell hiding in plain sight as the Penguin. 
