What's news: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announced $26m in charitable donations. Ashley Tisdale is developing a Toxic Moms comedy at Netflix. USMNT's win over Bosnia averaged 24.43m viewers. Disney has renewed Dragon Striker for a second season. And Jodie Foster set off a firestorm over comments about F1: The Movie and AI use. — Abid Rahman
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ABC News' July 4 Plan: "The Longest Commercial Broadcast in the History of TV"
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►"We just wanted to make a statement with our storytelling and make it big." From a light show and Brandi Carlile performance at the Statue of Liberty to a July 4 bash in Nashville, and visits to all 50 states and the seven natural wonders of America in between, ABC is going big for America's 250th. THR's Alex Weprin talks to ABC News president Almin Karamehmedovic and executive producer John R. Green about the network's massive plans. The story.
—Don't sleep on NBC. THR's Tony Maglio runs through the other July 4 offerings across rival networks and streamers on this very special 250th anniversary. Tony recommends America’s 250 (7 a.m. ET to 1 p.m. ET), which is NBC’s broadcast of the Sail 4th 250, that will be covered by 23 of the network’s anchors, reporters and correspondents positioned all over New York and New Jersey. The story.
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Swift-Kelce Wedding Details Revealed
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►Police leak. A New York Police Department memo is revealing some of Taylor Swift‘s top-secret wedding plans. The memo is titled, simply: “Taylor Swift wedding at Madison Square Garden,” The memo gives some insight into the expected run of show for Swift and Travis Kelce‘s upcoming celebration, though nothing has been publicly confirmed by the couple. The story.
—What's in a name? When Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates divorced in 2021, they didn’t have a prenuptial agreement to govern the division of their massive estate. The split ended up with French Gates receiving $12.5b. She also walked away with something else: Bill's last name, an asset in the world of charitable giving. Now, as Taylor Swift prepares to marry Travis Kelce, THR's Winston Cho writes that speculation swirls around not only what their prenup looks like but whether he’ll swap (hyphenate?) names. The story.
—Spreading the wealth. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announced $26m in charitable donations to over a dozen organizations across the country ahead of their wedding. Among the organizations the couple donated to are the Food Bank for NYC, the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, ASPCA, After-School All-Stars and the Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. The story.
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The Top-Grossing Movie on July 4 Is… |
►Bayhem at its best. Spider-Man. Jurassic Park. Despicable Me. Moviegoers heading to air-conditioned theaters during the Fourth of July holiday can rely on seeing one of those Sony, Universal or Illumination franchises on the marquee over the past 25 years. But when zeroing in on the question of single-day grosses (i.e. receipts from the July 4 day itself) there’s a leader that happens to be none of the above. As per Rentrak figures prepared for THR, click away to see the other top titles. The story.
—"F1 was made by AI, wasn’t it?" Jodie Foster set off something of a firestorm online after making some candid remarks about F1: The Movie and artificial intelligence use in Hollywood at the Aspen Ideas Festival. The Oscar-winner sat down with former Sony chief Michael Lynton for a session titled “Who Owns the Future of Hollywood.” Naturally, the conversation covered AI, and Foster gave her take on how it’s being used. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 GKids has acquired the Studio Ghibli library for the U.K. and Ireland, picking up rights across theatrical, home video, TV and digital for the Japanese animation studio’s entire 23-film back catalog. GKids will kick off the new deal with a theatrical Imax release of Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) on Aug. 21. Future Ghibli titles slated for the Imax treatment include Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s The Secret World of Arrietty (2010) and Yoshifumi Kondō’s Whisper of the Heart (1995). The story.
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Ashley Tisdale Developing 'Toxic Moms' Comedy at Netflix |
►Breaking the first rule of Mom Club. Ashley Tisdale lit a corner of the internet on fire in January when she published a personal essay in The Cut about “breaking up” with a toxic mom group. The piece, which cast a collective of new moms as a kind of petty high school clique, quickly led Internet detectives to try to determine which famous figures were members, with speculation around Hilary Duff, Mandy Moore and Meghan Trainor. Now, Tisdale is executive producing a half-hour dark comedy for Netflix called Toxic Moms. Ali Wong and Sabrina Jalees are also producing, with the latter writing the show. The story.
—Running it back. Disney has renewed its anime-inspired series Dragon Striker for a second season. The news is being shared Thursday at Anime Expo in Los Angeles during the sports fantasy series’ panel. Season 2 of the sports fantasy show will debut in early 2027 across Disney+ and Disney XD. Dragon Striker features a voice cast including Akshay Kumar as Key, Rebecca LaChance as Ssyelle, Yeukayi Ushe as Milo, Waylon Jacobs as Odward and Evanna Lynch as Ameline. The story.
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U.S. v. Bosnia Hits All-Time TV High for Soccer in America
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►Woof! The U.S. men’s first knockout stage victory at a World Cup in 24 years set a ratings record for soccer in America. The U.S. win over Bosnia and Herzegovina Wednesday averaged 24.43m viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen numbers. That number could rise a little in the final ratings, but either way, it’s the biggest English-language TV audience ever for any soccer match in the U.S. The 24.43m viewers includes pre-match coverage, which puts it ahead of the previous record of 22.32m for the 2015 Women’s World Cup final between the U.S. and Japan, also on Fox. The ratings.
—"It’s a surprise in some sense, but then you sit back and say, well, actually, we planned for this." TV ratings for the FIFA men’s World Cup have shot up compared to the 2022 event — which is not a huge surprise, given that soccer’s biggest prize is being played in North America this time. Doubling the audience from the last World Cup, though? Even optimistic projections from Fox Sports and Telemundo might not have anticipated that. THR's Alex Weprin spoke to Telemundo's Joaquin Duro about the phenomenal ratings. The interview.
—Peacocking. The first week of Love Island USA’s eighth season shot to the top of the Nielsen streaming charts, recording its biggest premiere numbers to date. The unscripted series, which streams new episodes six days a week, had 1.31b minutes of viewing time for the week of June 1-7, finishing first overall for the week. Love Island was also way up over its 2025 premiere week (772m minutes), rising by 69 percent year to year. Nielsen also says a majority of viewing — 59 percent — came from adults 18-34. The final figures from Nielsen track with an earlier figure from Peacock of 824m viewing minutes over the first three days of Love Island USA. The streaming rankings.
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'Off Campus' Oral History
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►"We’ve been getting DMs and messages from parents that have been like, ‘I’m going to show my children this is the way that we talk about these issues.'" Since its release, the fervor around Off Campus, Prime Video’s hit sports romance drama based on Elle Kennedy’s book series, shows no signs of letting up. The season’s fourth episode, which deals with issues of consent and intimacy, has made particular waves. For THR, Abbey White talks to the key creatives behind the episode, including co-showrunners Louisa Levy and Gina Fattore, along with independent rape awareness advocates, go behind and break down the game-changing storyline. The oral history.
—"Sugar... is so gentle, optimistic and so fundamentally decent. It’s a lovely moral palate cleanser." THR's Brian Davids spoke to Colin Farrell about the new season of his Apple TV crime drama Sugar. The Irish actor discusses how season one’s extraterrestrial twist is expanded on in season two, and whether Sugar is a human story or an immigrant story. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
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Next Big Thing: 'Elle' Star Lexi Minetree
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►"[It’s] 25 years later and people are still talking about Elle Woods, quoting Elle Woods, going to law school because of Elle Woods. That’s crazy power for one character to have." THR's Nicole Fell spoke to Lexi Minetree, the star of Prime Video's Legally Blonde prequel series, Elle. The 25-year-old tackles one of modern pop culture’s most beloved characters in the show, stepping into the shoes of Reese Witherspoon. With the approval of the original star, a slew of hot pink looks and the character’s signature optimism, Minetree proves she was born for the world of Legally Blonde. The profile.
—"I’m used to having a moment to breathe when I put something out." Nicole spoke to Ella Hunt about her Hulu show Not Suitable For Work as well as her litany of recent projects. The in-demand British actress discusses her role in Mindy Kaling's Friends-esque comedy as well as the release of her debut album, Blindspot, this summer. The interview.
—"When it came time to talk to producers and streamers about adapting it, it felt very farfetched." Nicole also spoke to Carley Fortune, the best-selling author behind Every Summer After which was just adapted into a hit Prime Video series. Fortune, Canada's summer romance darling, dishes on the prep for season two of ESA and heading to Prince Edward Island for the Netflix adaptation of her novel This Summer Will Be Different. The interview.
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'The Bear' Lead Trio On Saying Goodbye
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►"It was time for the show to end." THR's Lexi Carson spoke to Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach about the final season of their FX series, The Bear. The trio of Emmy-winning actors share their thoughts and feelings on saying goodbye to their characters and why the show had to come to a conclusion. The interview.
—"I hadn’t seen a show like this since Gilmore Girls." THR's Seija Rankin spoke to June Diane Raphael about her new show, Elle. The actress, who plays Eva Woods, mother to the titular Elle Woods, in the Prime Video series, also discusses her comedy cohort, being typecast and a new pilot she's developing that promises to be an antidote to AI. The interview.
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Film Review: 'Young Washington' |
►"Like a Classics Illustrated comic book come to very stiff life." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Jon Erwin's Young Washington. Featuring Ben Kingsley, Andy Serkis, Mary-Louise Parker and Kelsey Grammer in supporting roles, this feature drama depicts the founding father's early days in the military. Also starring William Franklyn-Miller, Joel Smallbone, John Foss and Mia Rodgers. Written by Jon Erwin, Tom Provost and Diederik Hoogstraten. The review.
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►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.
—It Happened in Hollywood. THR senior writer Seth Abramovitch goes behind the scenes of the pop culture moments that shaped Hollywood history. In this episode, Seth spoke to Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin, who discusses memory, mythmaking, hometowns and turning personal history into cinematic gold with his 2007 "docu-fantasia" My Winnipeg. The podcast.
In other news...
—TV premiere dates 2026: The complete guide
—Spotify pulls streams on song over alleged fraud tied to Kalshi betting
—Venice Classics lineup includes Cassavetes, Buñuel, Rossellini and Corman
—Rosalía brings her breathtaking and cinematic Lux Tour to L.A.
What else we're reading...
—Jessica Toonkel goes indepth on Comcast's Brian Roberts breaking up his family's company with the NBCU spinoff [WSJ]
—Dana Mattioli, Josh Dawsey and Shane Shifflett report on how Jeff Bezos' love-bombing campaign worked, with new contracts for the oligarch's space company [WSJ]
—Jason Horowitz reports that Trump’s obscene earnings in office "are at a level once unimaginable for any leader of a liberal democracy" [NYT]
—Despite it being remembered as rather wholesome, Laura Martin revisits some of the traumatic storylines featured in the original Little House on the Prairie TV series that suggest it was much darker than commonly thought [BBC]
—Here's your Friday list: If the 2026 World Cup teams were movies [THR]
Today...
...in 1996, Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum saved the world in Independence Day when it hit theaters. The original review.
Today's birthdays...
Tom Cruise (64), Audra McDonald (56), Olivia Munn (46), Connie Nielsen (61), Patrick Wilson (53), Tommy Flanagan (61), Yeardley Smith (62), Ludivine Sagnier (47), David Shore (67), Peyton Reed (62), Aleksey Serebryakov (62), Hunter Tylo (64), Sara Waisglass (28), Shawnee Smith (57), Thomas Gibson (64), Corey Reynolds (52), Kurtwood Smith (83), Jesse Corti (71), Bolo Yeung (80), Matt Schulze (54), Bruce Altman (71), Ian Anthony Dale (48), Betty Buckley (79), Jan Smithers (77), Ryan McPartlin (51), Diana Bang (45), Noemi Gonzalez (38), Corey Sevier (42), Jeff Sanca (52), Emma Cunniffe (53), Shoshannah Stern (46), Andrea Barber (50), Susan Penhaligon (77), Andreas Wisniewski (67), Alyah Chanelle Scott (29), Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin (45)
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Moritz Borman, the movie producer who often worked Oliver Stone and also on two Terminator films, has died. He was 71. The obituary.
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