Entertainment
Jon Stewart Roasts Hantavirus Coverage for ‘Treating It Like the OJ Chase’
Jon Stewart laid into the media coverage of the hantavirus outbreak, accusing reporters of “treating it like the O.J. [Simpson] chase.”
The comedian weighed in on the recent hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius during Monday’s monologue for “The Daily Show,” where he emphasized that the illness was not set to start another global pandemic — despite certain sensationalized reports suggesting otherwise.
“I know we don’t have to be hysterical about it. It’s a choice. But you know what? It’s a relief. I’m glad we don’t have to be hysterical about it,” Stewart noted after playing the first initial reports about the hantavirus, explaining how the disease wasn’t like COVID-19. “COVID was a respiratory virus, passes easily, often when the person isn’t symptomatic. It was a brand new virus we had never seen before, and we weren’t allowed to know where it came from. I mean, we didn’t know. We were obviously allowed to know. We just didn’t know. Wink.”
He continued: “While the hantavirus is a known virus, it’s difficult to transmit. It’s mostly spread by rat infestation, which does raise the question. How did a cruise ship end up with hantavirus on it?”
After poking fun at the origins of the outbreak, which stemmed from a couple who went bird watching at a rat-infested landfill, Stewart declared: “The point is, some people may get pretty sick, but forget COVID. This ain’t no pandemic. Hell, this hantavirus ain’t even in monkeypox territory.”
Yet, Stewart bemoaned that “reality don’t sell papers,” noting that despite learning the truth on Tuesday, media coverage continued to sound the alarm over the illness.
“You gotta fight for your right to be nervous,” Stewart said. “Yes, we might have a right to be nervous, but I guess the question the news might want to ask is, do we have a reason? And your assignment, news, should you choose to accept it, is to help the public discern the difference. So may we hear from the experts again?”
He added: “Sunday we found out hantavirus had been on a cruise ship. Monday through Thursday, expert upon expert, scientist upon scientist, very transparently explained why this illness, while a serious illness, is a low-level public health threat. Their words went a long way to easing the concerns of a curious public. And Lord knows the news can’t let that happen.”
At this point, Stewart played footage from “Nightline,” which presented the hantavirus outbreak as “a floating nightmare” and posed the question: “Could this become the next pandemic?”
“The question of whether it was going to be the next pandemic had been asked and answered for three days,” Stewart noted. “But apparently, that was before the authorities decided not to fire a torpedo and sink the cruise ship, burying its diseased passengers and cruise entertainers in a watery grave befitting their disease. That’s right, folks. These people from this ship were going to be allowed to disembark.”
The late night host then ripped into the play-by-play coverage that followed the disembarkment, noting, “They were treating it like the O.J. chase … That’s the logistics of how you get from a boat to the f–king shore.”
“Drone video?! Spectacular! Such good use of drones,” he went on. “Ukraine uses theirs to defeat Russia, but good on you. I still have not learned enough. I mean, I know they’ve gone from a boat to a smaller boat to a tent to a bus, but at this point, I’ve somewhat lost the trail. Where will it end?”
Stewart then roasted a NewsNation reporter for asking the same question over and over again regarding the Hantavirus, despite getting the same answer every time.
“No matter how many times the question can be asked and answered, it doesn’t f–king matter for some people. And sometimes, it’s the same person,” he said. “Jesus, lady. How badly do you just want to work from home? Just work from home. We’re not all going to die. That’s a good thing.”
Watch the full monologue above.
“The Daily Show” airs weeknights at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.
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movies
Jennifer Lawrence Boards Zach Cregger’s New Line Pic ‘The Flood’
What has been buzzed about is becoming a reality: Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence is starring in Zach Cregger‘s next movie, The Flood at Warner Bros’ New Line Cinema. The pic has a release date of August. 11, 2028.
The sci-fi thriller project brings the Weapons filmmaker back to New Line on which he’ll direct, produce and write based on his original idea. The news comes just as Cregger’s Resident Evil for Sony/Constantin has just crossed the two century mark at the global box office.
Said Cregger, “Mike, Pam and the whole Warner Bros./New Line team were an absolute dream to collaborate with on Weapons, and I couldn’t be happier to dive in with them again. Jennifer is one of a kind, and I’m beyond excited to see her in this role.”
“Jennifer Lawrence is one of the most gifted and compelling actors working today, and we are thrilled to have her at the center of Zach’s bold and wholly original vision for The Flood. Following our extraordinary experience together on Weapons, we could not be more excited to reunite with Zach and the team at Vertigo, as well as Amblin to bring this ambitious film to audiences around the world,” said Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy.
Amblin Entertainment is producing alongside Roy Lee and Miri Yoon of Vertigo Entertainment. Plot details are being kept under wraps.
Weapons led the domestic box office for four consecutive weeks and earned $270 million worldwide last year, ranking among 2025’s highest-grossing horror films. Amy Madigan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Aunt Gladys, a character whose story will continue in the upcoming film Gladys.
Lawrence received the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook and has also starred in American Hustle, Joy, Don’t Look Up, and The Hunger Games franchise. Through her production company, Excellent Cadaver, she has produced acclaimed films including Causeway, No Hard Feelings, and Die My Love, as well as the documentaries Zurawski v Texas and the Peabody Award-winning Bread and Roses. Most recently, Lawrence earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in Die My Love. Up next, Excellent Cadaver will produce the highly anticipated What Happens at Night, starring Lawrence alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese.
Lawrence is represented by LBI Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller & Gellman.
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Entertainment
Sarah Paulson Blasts Critics Calling Out Aileen Wuornos Performance In ‘Monster’
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movies
Trump Looks To Rebrand AI As “Super Intelligence”
Amid a backlash against data centers, worries of massive job loss and doomsday warnings from the industry itself, Donald Trump stood with top tech CEOs and pitched a rebrand.
“We’ve changed the name officially to SI,” Trump told reporters gathered just outside the West Wing, referring to the switch from “artificial intelligence” to “super intelligence.”
The president planned to sign an executive order as such on Tuesday afternoon, but it remains to be seen whether it actually will take hold when AI has become so ubiquitous.
Standing with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, among others, Trump also said that the White House meeting between the top executives produced a “self-policing” agreement and one that would be “morally binding.”
Three years ago, when Joe Biden was president, many of the same CEOs gathered on Capitol Hill for a forum on AI led by then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. But that meeting, along with others he held to address concerns over the technology, produced no new regulation.
Trump has continued to dismiss calls for greater regulation, warning of a race with China to dominate the technology. And he’s also expressed continued support for data centers even amid a backlash in local communities that has drawn opposition from lawmakers in both parties.
“The data centers are incredible,” Trump said. “And by the way I am very good at real estate. Some of those buildings are absolutely beautiful. They are big strong powerful buildings but they are beautiful.”
Zuckerberg said, “I think what we can all agree on is that the American public and our customers want to know that what we are building is working the way we intended. We drafted a set of principles and commitments around building robust internal controls and detecting any issues with the technology, coupled with multiple layers of auditing and controls, starting with internal risk review, external auditors and evaluators, and agreeing that we are going to have all of our board of directors independently review the reports that come from the auditors.”
He added, “The idea isn’t that this is the only thing we will ever do, it is that this is a start and an accord that the whole industry can come to.”
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