USA News

Beck Bennett, the versatile “Saturday Night Live” player who has won notice for his impressions of Russian President Vladimir Putin and former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence over eight seasons at the show, will leave the venerable NBC late-night series even as it welcomes back a number of senior cast members hey dude who hinted they might be ready to depart.

Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, Colin Jost, Michael Che and Kenan Thompson will all return for the show’s 47th season, along with Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner, Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Ego Nwodim, Chris Redd, and Melissa Villaseñor. Two featured players from last season, Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang, have been promoted to be members of the regular cast, while another, Lauren Holt, will not return to the program. Andrew Dismukes and Punkie Johnson will return in their featured role. And the show will welcome three new featured players: Aristotle Athari, James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman.

The three new featured players hail from a broad range of projects. Sherman has been known for eyebrow-raising live shows that use costumes and special effects. Johnson has developed a reputation for impressions. And Athari was once part of the sketch-comedy group “Goatface.”

In decades past, “SNL” executive producer Lorne Michaels insisted that cast members make the program their primary focus. But last year, the rules began to change, and they will continue to do so this year. Some veteran members of the cast are likely to appear less frequently than usual, according to a person familiar with the program, and will have some leeway to pursue projects outside the show.hoka shoes The large cast should give “SNL” a chance to fill absences with contributions from some of the show’s up and coming staff.

“Thank you for 8 years of remarkable people and incredible experiences that completely changed my life,” Bennett posted via Instagram. “I had so much fun.”

“SNL” demonstrated some of its new elasticity last season, when both Strong and Bryant were able to commit to outside projects like Apple’s “Schmigadoon” and Hulu’s “Shrill” while missing multiple episodes of “SNL.” Michaels has also worked to find ways for Kenan Thompson and Chris Redd to take part in the NBC sitcom “Kenan” without missing much of “Saturday Night Live.” It helps that all of these series are produced under the auspices of Michaels’ own Broadway Video.

But the show also set off swirls of speculation about the state of its cast during last season’s finale. McKinnon, Bryant, Thompson and Strong appeared in a segment in which they discussed the challenges of producing the show during the pandemic and the 2020 election, and some of their on-camera emotion spurred conjecture they may have been hinting at a farewell. Davidson did the same with a “Weekend Update” segment that nodded to how being on the program had helped him mature. Strong added to the feeling with a show-stopping turn as Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro singing “My Way” in a giant wine box.

As more TV viewers migrate to streaming services to watch their favorite scripted dramas and comedies on demand, “SNL” has taken on new importance for NBC. Once relegated to airing after the late local news in a time slot network executives didn’t consider paramount, hey dude shoes the program now runs live across the U.S. all at once, meaning that it runs in primetime in certain parts of the country. The show in the 2020-2021 season was the most-watched entertainment program on TV among viewers between 18 and 49, the demographic most preferred by advertisers.

The value of “SNL” has increased steadily in recent years. A 30-second spot on “SNL” this season and last cost around $180,000, according to Standard Media Index, a tracker of ad spending. The average cost of a 30-second perch in the show’s 2015-2016 season totaled around $89,500. NBC generated approximately $123 million in ad revenue off the program in 2020, according to ad-tracker Kantar, compared with $114.7 million in 2019. Top sponsors in recent years have included Apple, AbbVie, Progressive, T-Mobile and Discover.

Along with Denzel Washington, Will Smith is one of the most famous movie cops in Hollywood thanks to his blockbuster Bad Boys franchise. In a wide-ranging new interview with GQ, the star of the upcoming Oscar hopeful King Richard touches on the complicated subject of real-world policing. Specifically, Smith addresses the “Defund the police” movement that gained traction after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May 2020, four months after the third Bad Boys installment, Bad Boys for Life, racked up $200 million at the U.S. box office. And much like Washington — who recently told Yahoo Entertainment that he nike store has the “utmost respect” for real-life cops — Smith sounds a more cautious note about the movement’s goals.

“I would love if we would just say ‘Defund the bad police,'” he remarks, likening it to the conflicting messaging over critical race theory. “It’s almost like I want, as Black Americans, for us to change our marketing for the new position we’re in. So ‘critical race theory,’ just call it ‘truth theory.’ The pendulum is swinging in our direction beautifully.”

“This is a difficult area to discuss, but I feel like the simplicity of Black Lives Matter was perfect,” Smith continues. “Anybody who tries to debate Black Lives Matter looks ridiculous. So when I talk about the marketing of our ideas, Black Lives Matter was perfection. From a standpoint of getting it done, Black Lives Matter gets it done. ‘Defund the police’ doesn’t get it done, no matter how good the ideas are. I’m not saying we shouldn’t defund the police. I’m saying, just don’t say that, because then people who would help you won’t.”

Amid the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, Smith spoke up about his own interactions with police officers as a young man in Philadelphia, indicating that he was called the “N” word on multiple occasions. “I got stopped frequently,” he remarked on the podcast, On 1 With Angela Rye. “So I understand what it’s like to be in those circumstances with the police.”

Speaking with GQ, Smith explains that for much of his career he placed being an entertainer over being a spokesperson for any particular cause. “In the early part of my career….I wanted to be a superhero. So I wanted to depict Black excellence alongside my white counterparts. nike sneakers I wanted to play roles that you would give to Tom Cruise.” Now that he’s in his so-called “f***-it 50s,” though, he’s ready to incorporate politics into his art. That includes his upcoming Apple TV+ movie, Emancipation, which is based on the true story of “Whipped Peter,” an escaped slave and subject of a famous 19th century photo that captured the horrors of slavery in a single image.

Previously, Smith says he deliberately “avoided” appearing in movies about slavery — including Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, where he was offered the title role that eventually went to Jamie Foxx — but feels that Emancipation offers something different. “This was one that was about love and the power of Black love,” Smith says of the Antoine Fuqua directed movie. “And that was something that I could rock with. We were going to make a story about how Black love makes us invincible.”

Speaking of love, Smith’s GQ interview also touches on the rumors surrounding his marriage to Jada Pinkett Smith, which is addressed in the actor’s upcoming memoir, Will, due in bookstores in November. “Jada never believed in conventional marriage,” ecco shoes the actor says, tacitly confirming that he and Pinkett Smith have a non-traditional union. “We have given each other trust and freedom, with the belief that everybody has to find their own way. And marriage for us can’t be a prison. And I don’t suggest our road for anybody. But the experiences that the freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love.”

The manhunt for Brian Laundrie in a Florida nature reserve will be scaled back this week, days after a county coroner said Laundrie’s fiancee, Gabby Petito, died by homicide.

The FBI is now leading the search that will be “targeted based on intelligence,” North Port Police spokesperson Josh Taylor said Monday.

More than 75 law enforcement personnel from 16 agencies nike sneakers joined the search last week in the 24,000-acre Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County after the FBI issued a federal arrest warrant over events after Petito’s death. Authorities used a diver unit, dogs, drones and ATV vehicles to search the wetlands.

“I don’t think you’re going to see those large-scale types of efforts this week,” Taylor told USA TODAY. “Hopefully, water will lower in areas hard to currently access.”

The park includes thousands of acres of swampy, subtropical terrain and wildlife including alligators, snakes, bobcats and coyotes. There’s more than 100 miles of hiking, biking and horseback riding trails, along with camping areas and rivers.

On Sunday, FBI agents visited Laundrie’s home and asked his parents for some of their son’s personal items to help with “DNA matching,” the family’s lawyer told NBC News and Fox News. The lawyer did not immediately confirm the visit to USA TODAY. The FBI field office in Denver, which is leading the investigation, would not comment on the case.

Laundrie was last seen nearly two weeks ago when he told his parents he was going hiking in Carlton Reserve after returning home on Sept. 1 without Petito from a cross-country trip to national parks.

‘She touched the world’: Family, friends pay tribute to Gabby Petito at New York funeral

The couple’s trip, which was documented on social media as a romantic adventure, began in July and was set to end in Oregon next month. After Laundrie returned home alone, investigators say he refused to share crucial information with them.

Petito’s body was then found at a campground near Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. Laundrie is considered a person of interest in Petito’s homicide but has not been charged.

Laundrie has been indicted on charges of unauthorized use of a Capital One debit card and several accounts involving more than $1,000, nike store according to documents released Thursday by the U.S. District of Wyoming. The indictment also charges Laundrie with unauthorized access of a device and says he used the bank accounts without permission from about Aug. 30 through Sept. 1.

‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’: Indigenous people left to wonder how to ‘qualify’ for same attention as Gabby Petito

Meanwhile, TV personality Duane Lee Chapman, also known as “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” joined the search and promised to find Laundrie before his 24th birthday on Nov. 18. A law firm has offered a $20,000 reward for information that leads directly to Laundrie.

John Walsh, a victims’ advocate and the former host of the TV show “America’s Most Wanted,” is also searching for Laundrie and soliciting tips from the public.

As investigators searched for Laundrie, mourners gathered Sunday in New York to celebrate Petito’s life.asics shoes Her funeral was in Holbrook, New York, near the Bayport-Blue Point community where Petito grew up.

Petito’s father, Joseph, told the crowd at the funeral home that the day was about remembering his daughter, not the sadness of her death, NBC New York reported.

“When you leave here today, be inspired by what she brought to the table, because the entire planet knows this woman’s name now. And she’s inspired a lot of women and a lot of men to do what’s best for them first,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud as a father.”

• Brian Laundrie’s parents called the police on Dog the Bounty Hunter over the weekend.
• He has joined the search to find Laundrie and showed up at the family’s Florida home Saturday.
• The North Port Police Department responded to a 911 call from the family on the matter, police said.
• Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Brian Laundrie’s parents called the police on Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman after he showed up at their Florida home over the weekend, police confirmed to Insider Monday.

The North Port Police Department responded to a 911 call from Laundrie’s family on Saturday. The family said Chapman was on the property of their North Port home, hey dude Josh Taylor, a spokesman for the police department, said.

The reality-TV star, who has joined the search to find Laundrie, the fiancé of Gabby Petito, was seen knocking on the door of the Laundrie family home on Saturday.

“We did not tell him to leave,” Taylor told Insider in reference to Chapman. “He left on his own.”

In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Chapman said “it’s a shame” that Laundrie’s family “wouldn’t speak with us.”

“The police said we were welcome to knock on the door so we did,” Chapman said. “I wanted to tell the Laundries that our goal is to find Brian and bring him in alive.”

Laundrie, 23, has been the subject of a massive search since his parents reported him missing to police on September 17 – just two days after he was named a person of interest in the disappearance of the 22-year-old Petito.

His parents told police that Laundrie went out for a hike at Sarasota County’s Carlton Reserve with only a backpack three days earlier and never returned to their North Port home.

Authorities have been searching the 25,000-acre nature preserve for more than a week for Laundrie. But Taylor told Insider on Monday that search efforts there would be “scaled back” this week.

Petito’s body was found at a remote campsite in Wyoming on September 19, and her death was later ruled a homicide, according to a coroner’s initial findings.

Last week, a federal court in Wyoming issued an arrest warrant for Laundrie in connection with the case.

Chapman said in a “Fox & Friends” interview hoka shoes on Monday that he had gotten more than 1,000 tips since he joined the search for Laundrie.

“We’re going through all those leads right now,” Chapman said. “I would say within 48 hours, we probably will have a location where we start the tracking at.”

Laundrie and Petito set out on a cross-country road trip from New York on July 2, and Laundrie returned to Florida on September 1 with the van the couple was traveling in but without Petito.