In a triumphant return to form, audiences have flocked back to cinemas this summer, erasing the uncertainty lingering over the film industry in recent years. With this resurgence, moviegoers might find themselves experiencing an unexpected yet familiar feeling.

No, it’s not shock over a $10 soda!

Instead, it’s the recognition of familiar faces gracing the silver screen time and again—an exclamation of, “You again?”

It seems film enthusiasts have rekindled their love affair with repeatedly seeing their favorite stars, thanks to an intriguing blend of circumstances. This year, the cinematic landscape has been dominated by a select group of actors who seem to be everywhere you look.

Boiling it down, we have what could be termed the ‘fantastic five’: Zendaya, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, and Pedro Pascal.

These guys are everywhere.

This quintet has practically turned Hollywood into a repertory company, a theater in which one group of performers appear in all the shows.

The shared cinematic DNA is dizzying. 

Hathaway, Holland, Pattinson and Zendaya all memorably acted in Christopher Nolan’s blazing July blockbuster “The Odyssey,” which has surpassed $1 billion at the worldwide box office.

The web expanded last weekend with just-married Holland and Zendaya in Sony and Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” ($1.3 billion already). 

Months ago in April, Zendaya and Pattinson dropped jaws with A24’s hot “The Drama” ($132 million) and in December they’ll slap on the sunscreen for “Dune: Part 3” with Timothée “One Flick Per Year” Chalamet — a sure-thing winner.

Separately they’re all just as dominant. 

One of Hathaway’s five movies in 2026 was the biggest comedy of the year, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” ($691 million).

Brilliant Pattinson — who could have been a cartoon voice actor had it not been for, well, his jawline — has been on the lips of Oscar pundits as a best actor contender since the trailer dropped this week for his new drama “Primetime,” in which he transforms into “To Catch A Predator” host Chris Hansen. He’s got an impressive four films this year.

And while Pascal doesn’t have 2026 IMDB overlap with the others, he carried Baby Yoda and the “Star Wars” franchise on his shoulders in “The Mandalorian and Grogu” (a flop, I know). And in December he’ll play Reed Richards in “Avengers: Doomsday.” If that one flops, I’ll quit and give my job to Cindy Adams!

Plus, Pascal’s “Tar”-y fall movie “Behemoth!” plans to open the New York Film Festival, and many suspect that could land him his first Oscar nomination.

Of course, you could chalk up this pileup to coincidence. It’s not as if all the above represented studios — Universal, Warner Bros., Disney, Sony and A24 — met in a secret lair and decided to anoint these actors as the future of cinema. Though some 4Chan board probably thinks they did.

But there’s more to their noticeably frequent casting than pure timing. It shows that Hollywood, which is finally on the rise again after strikes and stagnation, is opening its eyes and recognizing who and what young audiences demonstrably want to see instead of hopelessly praying that the aging stars of yore will enjoy a surprise resurgence. 

The moviegoing public has rapidly changed. Gen. Z, today’s leading ticket-buyers, loves Zendaya and Holland. The No. 2 attendees, Millennials, going back to “The Princess Diaries” and “Game of Thrones,” revere Hathaway and Pascal. Pattison shrewdly straddles both.

These folks, if you can believe it, mean far more to the paying masses than Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio do now. 

The relative newbies regularly choose adventurous projects, hopping from edgy arthouse to better-than-average action-adventure films. They work with cool directors: Christopher Nolan, Yorgos Lanthimos and Luca Guadagnino, among others. Their names above the title are a marker of quality.

Another thing — and this is important for new generations who have a stronger connection to Letterboxd than People magazine — is that their fanbases admire them more for their acting ability than their celebrity status.

Meanwhile, the dorm-room-poster megastars of yesteryear don’t pack ‘em in like they used to. 

A best picture win doesn’t change the fact that DiCaprio’s “One Battle After Another” lost money. I’m expecting the same fate for Cruise’s “Digger” and Pitt’s “The Adventures of Cliff Booth” in the fall. Cruise couldn’t even sell the very good “Mission: Impossible 8.”

Many pieces have been written about the death of the traditional movie star and how that demise would portend a cataclysmic disaster for the industry. Eh, not really.

Everybody just misread the forecast. The sun’s out, and Anne Hathaway’s in five movies. 

In an intriguing twist on ancient theology, a former Bible translator posits that the original Hebrew Bible might be referencing alien entities rather than a singular deity. This bold theory has reportedly caught the attention of the Vatican.

Mauro Biglino, an Italian scholar known for translating biblical texts for Edizioni San Paolo—a prominent Catholic publisher affiliated with the Vatican—has extensively studied Hebrew scriptures. He argues that certain Hebrew words describe not just supernatural beings but potentially spacecraft, implying encounters in biblical times.

In a conversation with the Daily Mail, Biglino indicated that trustworthy sources have informed him that some individuals within the Vatican are not only aware of his controversial work but are also engaging in theological discussions about its potential ramifications.

Nevertheless, Biglino has yet to offer concrete evidence to substantiate claims that the Vatican is actively monitoring him or considering any measures against his research. “Given the impact of my publications, I suspect it’s only a matter of time before [the Vatican] reacts in some capacity,” he suggested.

Biglino is an advocate for the ‘ancient alien’ hypothesis. This theory proposes that technologically advanced extraterrestrial beings visited Earth in antiquity and were misidentified by early civilizations as deities, angels, or demons.

In particular, he argues that the Hebrew word ‘Elohim’ refers to multiple beings rather than one God and that passages in Ezekiel describe advanced technology, including flying vehicles.

Biglino further alleged that factions within the Vatican, including historians, archaeologists and scientists, are ‘fully aware’ that the Bible may contain a radically different story from the one taught by religious leaders.

‘Many of them are fully aware that the Hebrew Bible presents a much more complex picture than the simplified version generally offered in religious teaching,’ he said.

However, Biglino’s interpretation is rejected by mainstream biblical scholars, who explain that Elohim can be grammatically plural while referring to the singular God of Israel, depending on the surrounding language.

Scholars also generally interpret Ezekiel’s extraordinary vision as symbolic religious imagery – not a literal description of spacecraft or extraterrestrial visitors.

Biglino’s argument begins with the Hebrew word Elohim, which is plural in form, and biblical passages that describe ‘assemblies’ or ‘councils’ of divine beings.

He also pointed to figures including Yahweh, Elyon and Shaddai, names or titles traditionally understood as referring to the same God, as possible evidence of multiple powerful beings.

Biglino told the Daily Mail that mainstream theology tends to interpret such figures as ‘spiritual beings, angels, symbolic expressions or manifestations of the one transcendent God.’

‘My approach is different because I begin with the Hebrew words, their grammar and the concrete actions attributed to the biblical protagonists,’ he explained.

Biglino argued that the Elohim behave more like physical rulers than an all-knowing, eternal God, traveling between locations, holding councils, dividing territory, forging alliances, fighting wars and governing different populations. 

‘They eat, drink, rest and experience emotions such as anger, jealousy and fear. Above all, they are not described as immortal,’ he continued.

Biglino highlighted Psalm 82, which describes God presiding over an assembly of divine beings and warning that they will ‘die like mortals.’

He also cited Deuteronomy 32, which describes nations being divided among higher powers, as evidence of multiple powerful beings rather than one immortal God.

However, neither passage mentions aliens or extraterrestrial technology. Scholars generally interpret the other figures as spiritual beings subordinate to the God of Israel.

Although Elohim is plural in form, it is frequently paired with singular verbs when referring to Israel’s God, a grammatical detail supporting a singular meaning in those passages.

Nevertheless, Biglino argued that Vatican specialists must have considered whether the texts preserve accounts of contact with nonhuman intelligences.

He believes his theory poses a far greater challenge to Catholic teaching than the possibility that life exists elsewhere in the universe.

The Vatican Observatory has publicly discussed extraterrestrial life, but Biglino predicted that the Church would regard any aliens as creations of the same universal God.

‘Asking whether microbial or intelligent life may exist on another planet is relatively unproblematic for theology. 

‘Asking whether non-human beings came to Earth in the past, interacted with our ancestors and were subsequently identified as “gods” is far more challenging,’ he said.

Biglino said his interpretation emerged while translating 17 books of the Old Testament for a Catholic publisher.

He pointed to the Hebrew word kavod, traditionally translated as the ‘glory’ of God, which he said is also associated with weight, heaviness and physical substance.

In Exodus and Ezekiel, Biglino claimed, the kavod arrives, departs, moves through space and produces noise, fire and light. It can also be dangerous to people nearby.

‘In these contexts, it behaves like something physically present,’ he said.

‘It appeared to contain the memories of different peoples who had relationships with powerful beings possessing superior knowledge, longer lifespans and technologies that the ancient writers could describe only through the vocabulary available to them.’

Biglino predicted that the Church would gradually adapt its teachings if governments eventually confirmed the existence of technologically advanced nonhuman beings.

‘It could simply say that these beings, like humanity, are creatures of the one universal God,’ he said.

However, while scholars acknowledge that ancient Hebrew words can carry several meanings, linguistic ambiguity alone does not establish that the Bible describes aliens or advanced machinery.

Cornell University recently implemented a new directive explicitly forbidding the processing of wild game in its kitchen facilities. This policy change came on the heels of a media buzz triggered by two students who famously decided to butcher a bear within the confines of a dorm kitchen.

The university’s updated regulations now clearly state, “Handling wild or game animals for processing is absolutely banned in communal kitchens.”

The revelation of the rule came after the university acknowledged to a student newspaper that it stemmed directly from a 2025 scenario where two individuals brought a bear carcass they had hunted into Ganędagǫ Hall, a campus dorm, to prepare it.

Aaron Chin, one of the involved students, openly identified himself as part of the bear incident duo on a podcast released several months post the event.

Chin explained that he and his hunting partner, a fellow Cornell student, had planned on bringing the bear from the hunting grounds located roughly two hours from the school to a friend’s house to prepare it, but claimed the friend had an emergency that left them unable to use his home.

Chin also said that before bringing the bear meat on campus, he and his partner ensured they weren’t breaking any campus rules.

“We were really diligent in reading all of the rules [and] regulations,” Chin told the MeatEater podcast in September. “We made sure we did everything by the book because we knew we were going to be under scrutiny.”

The incident incurred swift social media and on-campus backlash, prompting state regulators to investigate.

However, after an inspector from New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation visited the kitchen where the carving took place, the agency found no code violations, according to an NBC report.

News Media contacted Cornell and Chin for further comment.

Alberto Carvalho, the former Los Angeles superintendent now embroiled in controversy, reportedly went to great lengths to conceal his activities. According to a shocking internal letter, Carvalho removed a GPS tracker from his district-provided SUV and arranged for the messaging app Telegram to be unblocked on his work computer.

These revelations are part of a series of serious allegations brought forward by the Los Angeles Unified School District board. The board is considering whether to dismiss Carvalho or pressure him to resign in the wake of FBI raids conducted in February at his home and office.

The superintendent, who was earning an impressive $440,000 annually, is accused in a letter dated June 8 of engaging in unprofessional behavior, underperforming, and breaking state laws or district regulations. The letter outlines various alleged attempts by Carvalho to act outside the oversight of the school district.

Board President Scott Schmerelson claims that Carvalho instructed staff to remove a GPS device from his official vehicle, effectively preventing the school district from monitoring his whereabouts.

Carvalho is also accused of misusing district resources, allegedly instructing his district-funded driver to perform personal tasks. These included chauffeuring his wife to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and driving him, along with a female district employee, to various restaurants and social events.

And when it came to communications, Carvalho allegedly had staff unblock Telegram on his LAUSD computer despite the messaging platform being deemed a high cyber risk, according to the letter.

Carvalho’s attorneys pushed back, saying he believed his use of the district vehicle and driver was authorized and that LAUSD officials knew he used secure messaging applications.

“Based on his contract and guidance from the LAUSD General Counsel – and in a heightened threat environment facing public officials like Mr. Carvalho – he understood that he was authorized to use the automobile and driver after work hours,” the lawyers wrote.

The LAUSD board president in his letter also said Carvalho used a secret-messaging service for his LAUSD computers, in violation of policy.  

“You directed staff to unblock the District’s firewall to allow access to Telegram, a known website used commonly by threat actors to send anonymous messages and considered to be a high cyber risk,” the letter says.

The letter does not say why Carvalho needed a secure messaging app.

The supe’s lawyers in their in their response to the letter said LAUSD officials knew that he used a secret messaging platform.  

“Like many other public officials in sensitive positions, Mr. Carvalho occasionally used secure messaging applications,” Carvalho’s attorneys wrote.

Carvalho also sought unrestricted access to the internet for his office, in violation of policy, Schmerelson’s letter says.

“You directed staff that your workspace be allowed to bypass the District’s firewall,” states the letter. “As a result, a separate unfiltered network was installed in your office.”

In their response, Carvalho’s attorneys said Carvalho needed to access “certain websites critical to the performance of his duties” that were blocked by the district.

“These IT matters were known to you and the Board,” says the letter from Calvalho’s lawyers.

Previously reported aspects of Schmerelson’s letter charged Carvalho with taking unreported gifts, outside income and donor-funded travel. 

In addition, Carvalho received “gifts from contractors and lobbyists beyond the limits permitted by law,” the letter states.

Carvalho was placed on leave two days after the feds searched his properties. He resigned from his post in June.

Carvalho served as LAUSD superintendent for more than four years. He was regarded as one of the top educators in the country until the FBI raids.

Problems with Carvalho’s tenure keep appearing as fresh scrutiny is applied to his record.

Allegations charging Carvalho with violating laws that may have required the leader of the $20.6 billion school district to disclose extra income surfaced in June.

The veteran schools boss failed to report at least $107,000 he was paid for coaching the superintendent of Denver Public Schools.

Carvalho drew the hefty sum beginning in mid-2022, for “executive coaching” services he provided to DPS superintendent Alex Marrero, charging the DPS at least $107,000 in invoices he submitted between November 2022 and January of this year.

Marrero “ended his formal coaching relationship” with Carvalho in February, DPS spokesman Bill Good told The Denver Post, after LAUSD put Carvalho on leave.

Federal officials have said little about the possible criminal charges the former superintendent may be facing.

Charges may be brought over nondisclosure of financial payments made to public officials such as Carvalho but they most often overlap with other charges such as fraud, tax evasion or making false statements.

FBI agents in February searched Carvalho’s San Pedro residence, LAUSD headquarters in downtown Los Angeles and the Miami home of Debra Kerr, a former consultant with the tech firm AllHere who is tied to the investigation.

AllHere’s payment for a 2023 trip to the White House taken by Carvalho was identified as an undisclosed financial benefit received by the former superintendent in the Board’s letter warning him of his potential termination for just cause.

The now-defunct artificial intelligence company developed a chatbot for the district that collapsed just weeks after its release. The company’s founder, Joanna Smith-Griffin, was charged with fraud in 2024.

The LAUSD board on June 24 replaced Carvalho with Andres Chait.

Carvalho has denied any wrongdoing. He was spotted in May on shopping trip at his local Vons supermarket with his wife.

In July he placed his Palos Verdes home up for sale, asking $1,899,000 for the 2,000-square-foot house that commands sweeping backyard views of the Pacific Ocean.  

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A primary school in North Carolina is at the center of a heated controversy as parents express outrage over a transgender music teacher teaching while wearing a dress, creating a sharp community divide.

When Middle Creek Elementary in Apex, close to Raleigh, resumed classes on July 30, students were introduced to their new music teacher, described by State Representative Erin Paré as a “transgender biological male who dresses as a woman.”

During a school board meeting held on Tuesday, numerous parents voiced surprise at not being informed about the new staff member, learning instead through social media after figures like Libs of TikTok publicly highlighted the teacher.

The revelation sparked a divisive debate among parents concerning the appropriateness of the teacher wearing dresses and skirts during school time.

State Representative Paré is advocating for a mandatory dress code for educators in public schools, proposing that it include a stipulation for “gender-appropriate professional attire,” as she explained in her statement.

However, the Wake County School Board said implementing a new dress code would be unconstitutional and discriminatory. 

‘Enforcing gender-differentiated clothing requirements based on traditional gender roles constitutes impermissible sex stereotyping under the Constitution,’ Board Member Chris Heagarty told parents. 

‘So can we all come together, respect the law, and work on how we can all come together and fund our kids’ education?’ 

Heagarty said the district is ‘following the guidance of the United States Constitution and our US courts system,’ which dictated that school dress codes ‘must be gender neutral and non-discriminatory.’ 

Many parents and board members spoke in support of the teacher, including board member Jennifer Job, who accused parents of using the educator to propel their political agenda. 

‘People online and in this room are willing to sacrifice this person’s love for their job for their culture war,’ she said at the meeting. 

Many parents and community members said the addition of a transgender teacher promoted diversity, and attacking the educator was only showing children to discriminate based on appearance and identity.  

‘We have a responsibility as a county to serve students of all diverse backgrounds and their families,’ Anna Crollman, who formerly taught in the district, said at the meeting, according to The Observer. 

However, some parents have formed a coalition called Middle Creek Parental Rights, which is led by Aaron Driver and his wife. 

The group is demanding the school release the hiring records for the transgender teacher and said parents should not have found out about the educator via social media. 

He said young students have come home with ‘big questions’ about gender identity. 

‘Elementary school children are now asking questions about sex, gender identity, pronouns and gender presentation,’ he said. 

‘That creates an educational issue and therefore a parental rights issue.’ 

However, parent Stephen Stacks said it was a ‘simple’ conversation to have with children, as he had done so himself. 

‘My kids did have a question or two, and we had a good conversation about how sometimes people don’t feel at home in a box society creates,’ he said. ‘It was that simple.’ 

A transgender man, who was called up by the name Christina, also showed up to the meeting and asked parents if their feminine outfit was making anyone uncomfortable before announcing that they had transitioned from female to male. 

‘This is what you guys want,’ the bearded speaker said, arguing the parents would also be telling her to use the women’s restroom if she were an educator. 

‘I should be, based off these policies,’ they said. ‘I was born a woman, I am a trans man. So basically, I am dressed and looking exactly the way everybody that wants [Paré’s proposed] bill to pass wants me to look.

‘The problem isn’t trans people themselves. The problem isn’t trying to protect kids. It’s the adults’ discomfort with anybody who is expressing themselves femininely outside of the binary, outside of what they’re used to.’ 

In North Carolina, state law dictates that students cannot be taught about gender identity and sexuality before the fifth grade. However, students are still allowed to ask questions about the topics.    

The Daily Mail has contacted the school, district, Driver, and Paré for comment. 

After enduring six months in the grip of jihadi captors in Nigeria, victims recount their ordeal since being freed in what officials celebrate as the nation’s most significant rescue effort to date.

In a strategic operation, Nigerian forces rescued over 308 individuals this past week. The majority were abducted from two main locations, with 163 taken in a February 3rd assault on the Woro community in Kwara State, tragically resulting in the murder of 160 residents by the kidnappers.

Victims shared with the Associated Press their belief that the abductions served as retribution for their refusal to embrace the jihadi ideology imposed by their captors.

Hauwa Saliu, one of the freed captives, revealed to the press that their abductors persistently pressured them about whether they had accepted jihad.

“We prayed to God to help us go back home, but it never really crossed our minds that we were going to go back home,” she told the outlet.

Another victim, Amira Saliu, described the conditions in which the women and children were being kept, explaining that they were held in a forest near a river, and forced to put out fires and hide when they heard helicopters nearby.

Saliu, a nurse, also explained how she had to help 10 women give birth with no medical equipment or sanitary gloves.

“I had no choice but to use my bare hands,” she told the outlet.

Mary Ishaya, 44, told the outlet that the captives often went days without food and had to bury other captives who had died.

“I still cannot find the right words to describe what has happened to us. We saw death and suffering,” she said.

The governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq, told reporters during a news conference that 46 victims were being treated at a hospital.

“This is indeed, indeed a very sad situation. We’ve not yet come to terms with it. We’re still assessing the situation. As you can see, it’s just kids … children and women that are here today,” he said. “It’s truly a shame that this has happened.”

The incident highlights the ongoing tensions between Nigeria’s militant Islamic insurgency in the north and the country’s large Christian population, who make up roughly 45% of Nigeria’s citizens.

On Christmas Day, President Donald Trump, in coordination with Nigeria’s government, authorized precision missile strikes on Islamic State-affiliated groups in northern Nigeria, citing the need to protect the country’s Christians.

The U.S. followed up in May, launching coordinated joint military action that reportedly resulted in the death of senior Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Mainuk.

A newly released video captures the unsettling aftermath of a fatal crash involving a seemingly remorseful yet frustrated drunk driver. The driver, suspected of causing the tragic death of a young bride, can be seen repeatedly pleading with arresting officers, asking, “Can I just go home?”