Entertainment
Meta, TikTok, Google Must Face 3,000+ Addiction Lawsuits
Meta, TikTok, Google and Snap will have to face more than 3,000 lawsuits accusing the tech giants of designing their social media platforms to addict young users after a federal appeals court rejected their bid to immediately appeal the litigation Monday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the companies’ attempt to immediately appeal an earlier ruling allowing the cases to proceed, concluding that the appeal came too early in the litigation, according to Reuters.
At the center of the dispute is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the decades-old federal law that generally protects online platforms from liability over content posted by their users. The companies argued that Section 230 provided broad immunity that entitled them to immediately appeal the lower court’s decision.
The appeals court concluded that Section 230 provides a defense against liability rather than immunity from being sued, meaning the companies could not appeal at this stage.
The decision allows more than 3,000 federal lawsuits filed by states, municipalities, school districts and individuals to move forward. The plaintiffs allege the companies deliberately designed features to keep young users hooked on their platforms, contributing to depression, anxiety, body-image issues and other harms.
Meta suffered another setback Monday when the appeals court declined to postpone a separate trial scheduled to begin Wednesday. The lawsuit, brought by 29 state attorneys general, alleges the company illegally collected and used children’s data, designed its social media platforms to keep young users engaged and misled consumers about their safety.
The companies are also facing hundreds of similar lawsuits in state court.
In March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google negligent in the first case to reach trial in consolidated California social media addiction litigation. The jury awarded $6 million to a woman who said she became addicted to Instagram and YouTube as a child.
Meta has also suffered recent legal losses in New Mexico. A jury ordered the company to pay $375 million in March, and a judge last week ordered it to pay another $567 million and implement youth-safety measures after finding the company had created a public nuisance.
Meta and Google have denied wrongdoing in those cases and said they would appeal.
Meta did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
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Entertainment
‘Roseanne’ Alum Slams Fans Who Still Complain About Revival Cancellation
“Roseanne” alum Michael Fishman didn’t mince words when responding to a fan’s complaint about the revival’s cancellation eight years later, calling the comment “ignorant and inaccurate.”
The actor, who starred on the ABC sitcom for nine seasons between 1988 and 1997, before rejoining the cast for its revival in 2018, issued the candid take on his Instagram Monday after receiving a fan comment defending Roseanne Barr.
“The reboot got canceled because Roseanne made the usual jokes a comedian makes but America decided to backstab Roseanne,” the fan comment read. “At the time the LGBTQ and woke crap took over and started destroying anything it could. Roseanne was one of the people that all of a sudden got flack for remaining to be a edgy comedian. Funny thing is even if she was racist, she had already said more egregious jokes and nobody batted an eye before.”
Fishman did not take kindly to this account of Barr’s firing and the subsequent cancellation of the “Roseanne” revival, which came after Barr compared former President Barack Obama’s advisor Valerie Jarrett to an “ape,” invoking a harmful racist trope.
In his video message, where he shared a screenshot of the comment in-question, Fishman bemoaned the fact that he gets “these kinds of ignorant and inaccurate comments daily.”
“Mostly, I try to ignore them,” he said. “For over eight years, I’ve been dealing with it quietly. Usually, I don’t respond.”
He added: “After eight years, turning the other cheek is really not helping. So, I guess the world failed to learn the lesson, so I’m going to point out — we are perpetuating a lie and people are using a political smoke screen to justify the indefensible.”
As Fishman went on, he highlighted that even Barr herself called her comment about Jarrett “indefensible,” adding, “Those justifications, they’re leading to real consequences. Real crimes situations like Trey Reed and Tasia Fortune, because dehumanizing people is never a joke.”
While Fishman acknowledged that performers are protected under the First Amendment, he defended that “doesn’t mean there’s no responsibility and no consequences.”
“The brilliant comedians help us laugh at the darkest, darkest topics. Sadly, in this case, there was no joke,” he said. “And the show was rightfully canceled. It’s the last time I’m really [going to] go into this.”
Nonetheless, Fishman indicated that he still had love for his on-screen mom, sharing, “Good people make mistakes. And I love the one who made this mistake. I always will. I’ll always have compassion and love, and I’ve shown it continuously and she helped the world understand that good people can make mistakes.”
Still, he doubled down that there was “no joke” in this scenario, only ” damage and dehumanizing and perpetuating racial tropes.”
“And the only people who are backstabbed, we’re the people who were targeted by the statements,” he continued. “And those who became collateral damage from it.”
Before concluding his video message, Fishman suggested those still perpetuating this kind racism to “shut the hell up.”
“Be smart enough to just shut the hell up,” he noted. “Don’t finish the statement. Don’t hit send and certainly don’t rage against anybody else. Because words have real world consequences. And some of us deal with them every day. That’s freedom of speech.”
After the “Roseanne” revival was canceled in May 2018, ABC ordered a spinoff of the sitcom, titled “The Conners,” which ran for seven seasons between 2018 and 2025. Fishman appeared on four of the seasons alongside fellow “Roseanne” alums John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert and Lecy Goranson.
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movies
Chris Evans Teases Captain America Storyline in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’
There are still several months before Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters, but that didn’t stop Chris Evans from giving fans a little teaser.
During a recent Q&A at Fan Expo Boston over the weekend, the actor, who reprises his role as Steve Rogers/Captain America in the upcoming Marvel blockbuster, said that his character’s storyline is “brutal.”
“The Russos love beating up Steve Rogers,” Evans said of the Russo Brothers, who are helming Doomsday. “Their favorite thing to do is to just beat the crap out of him. To them, that’s what makes a hero, and that’s someone who gets punched so many times but still gets up. So they keep finding new ways to kick his butt. And this one was brutal.”
In addition to Evans, the upcoming film’s stacked cast includes many Marvel superheroes from the legacy Avengers and X-Men to the Thunderbolts and The Fantastic Four. They’re all expected to team up to face off against villain Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr.
While chatting with People at Comic-Con 2026 last month, directors Anthony and Joe Russo said they knew Downey Jr. was perfect for the villain role once they heard the voice the Oscar winner had crafted for the character.
“That was something that Robert surprised us with one day,” Anthony recalled. “You know, we were talking about all the details of the character — the voice, of course, is a key part of it, especially in the mask.”
“So one day I think it was in the trailer, we were just sort of talking about some ideas and he broke out into the voice. And we knew at that moment, that was it,” he added.
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movies
Reggie Bannister Dead: ‘Phantasm’ Actor Was 80
Reggie Bannister, who became a horror icon for his role as the action hero fighting the evil Tall Man in the Phantasm franchise, died Sunday morning. He was 80.
Bannister died at his home in Crestline, his wife, Gigi Bannister, told TMZ. She said the actor was exposed to Agent Orange while serving in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War and later battled Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
Born on Sept. 9, 1945, in Long Beach, California, Bannister went on to pursue a career in entertainment that spanned more than 40 years.
While he appeared in dozens of films and movies, he was most known for playing a fictionalized version of himself named Reggie in the Phantasm cult classic horror franchise, created by filmmaker Don Coscarelli. He played easygoing ice cream vendor turned shotgun-wielding action hero that took on Tall Man, the film’s main villain.
After starring in the franchise’s five movies, including Phantasm (1979), Phantasm II (1988), Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994), Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) and Phantasm: Ravager (2016), Bannister was eventually dubbed “the hardest working man in horror.”
Bannister’s other acting credits included Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation (1990), Wishmaster (1997), Bubba Ho-Tep (2002), Journeyman (2005), Cemetery Gates (2006), Fallen Angels (2006), The Rage (2007), Sigma Die! (2007), The Quiet Ones (2010), Sawblade (2010), Primitive (2011), Bloody Bloody Bible Camp (2012), Disaster Wars: Earthquake vs. Tsunami (2013) and The Obsidian Curse (2016), among others. He also served as a producer on several projects.
In addition to acting, Bannister was also a prolific musician and singer-songwriter. Throughout his career, he released six albums spanning the rock, folk and country genres.
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