Clarence Gilyard, the veteran actor who had roles in Die Hard, Matlock and Walker, Texas Ranger before becoming a theater professor and author, has died.  The University of Nevada Las Vegas College of Fine Arts, where Gilyard taught, announced his death Monday afternoon.  He had been suffering from a long illness. No further details were released. Gilyard achieved success in film, television and on stage. For film fans, he is perhaps best known for playing Theo, Hans Gruber’s cocky computer hacker in 1988’s Die Hard. In the 1990s, he was a familiar face on primetime television, first for playing private investigator Conrad McMasters on Matlock and then, in a career-defining role, as Ranger James Trivette on the long-running Walker, Texas Ranger. He was 66.

Some films need to be experienced with movie theater popcorn and surround sound! Top Gun: Maverick is flying back into theaters for two weeks just in time for the holidays. Paramount is re-releasing the blockbuster sequel on the big screen, including select premium large formats and Imax, from Dec. 2 through Dec. 15. The Tom Cruise sequel has already become a monster success earning $1.48 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing movie of the year Top Gun: Maverick also gave Tom several records including marking his first movie to surpass $100 million in a single weekend, as well as his first to cross $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales.

Will Smith finally gave us an account of what happened at the Oscars when he slapped Chris Rock.  Appearing on Monday’s edition of The Daily Show, Smith told Trevor Noah. As you recall, Rock made a joke about Will’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith and the confrontation happened right after.  He went on to say….

Tom Hanks just launched a packaged goods company called Hanx for Our Troops.  And he’s giving 100% of its profits to organizations that provide aid to U.S. military veterans and their families. Their first product is coffee.  It comes in three different flavors:  Tom’s Morning Magic Blend, First Class Joe, and Sergeant Peppermint.  You can buy all three flavors in pods, while First Class Joe is available in grounds, and Joe and Morning Magic Blend are available as coffee sticks. Tom said, quote, “By choosing our coffee, you help support those who chose to commit their time and efforts in defense of our liberties for the good cause that is the American Way . . . “Every penny of profit says ‘thank you’ to them.  We owe them our gratitude, eh?”

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have settled their divorce.  They’re sharing joint custody of the kids, and will have “equal access” to them.  But it’s likely they’ll spend most of their time with Kim, like they already do. Also, Kanye will fork over $200,000 in child support.  And he’s responsible for half of their security and educational needs.  Neither of them will receive spousal support.  The division of their assets was already agreed to in their prenup. Kim and Kanye started dating in 2012 and got married in 2014.  Kim filed for divorce in February of 2021.

The Addams Family spinoff series, Wednesday, has broken a record, generating the most views in a single week for any English-language series in Netflix history. The series, which stars Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams during her time at the fictional Nevermore Academy, debuted at No. 1, raking in 341.23 million hours viewed during its first week. It surpasses previous record holder Stranger Things 4.

Hollywood will make a sequel, a reboot, or a remake of ANYTHING these days.  And this proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt: They’re rebooting “Easy Rider“. . . the 1969 flick featuring Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholson taking a motorcycle ride through the Southwest to New Orleans, funded by money from a cocaine deal and aided by various “substances”. The reboot will be updated for modern times.  One of the producers says, quote, “Our goal is to build upon the counterculture and freedom narrative the original left us with . . .And give the youth of today a film that pays serious attention to their own countercultures and challenges.”

When “American Idol” debuted in 2002, Simon Cowell was immediately branded the MEAN judge.  But Mike Darnell . . . the former head of Fox’s reality TV division . . . says it was all an ACT. Quote, “In all the other shows before him, everyone was polite and nice, and I knew that [being mean] was going to be [his] thing.  Simon, to his credit, was willing to do anything.” He added, quote, “Underneath, he’s a different character.  Watch ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ or ‘America’s Got Talent’ now and he’s a much softer version now.”

Saturday Night Live is closing out 2022 with some star-studded shows. NBC has revealed the lineup for its final episodes of the year, featuring some familiar faces and one first-timer. Only Murders in the Building costars (and longtime SNL staples) Steve Martin and Martin Short will co-host the Dec. 10 show with musical guest Brandi Carlile, while Elvis star Austin Butler will host the Dec. 17 show with musical guest Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Double hosts are rare but not unheard of on SNL: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler co-hosted the Christmas episode in 2015, and past pairings also include Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman, Mr. T and Hulk Hogan, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

The first trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie (LINK) was better than it had any right to be, give or take how you felt about Chris Pratt’s Mario voice, and now Nintendo has already released a second trailer. This new trailer features the debut of Princess Peach, Luigi, and Donkey Kong. But, there are two bigger things in this trailer beyond appearances from more members of the Mario Bros. family: First of all, Chris Pratt barely says anything other than classic Mario lines (“Let’s-a go!” and “Wahoo!”), which is good, but also they drive Mario Karts! 

“Forbes” magazine released its annual 30 Under 30 list of the most influential young people.  But it’s actually a 600 Under 30 list, because they chose 30 people in each of 20 categories. At 27, Megan Thee Stallion is this year’s cover girl.

Here are some of the other names you’d recognize:

1. Art & Style:  Hailey Bieber(26).
2. Hollywood & Entertainment:  Sydney Sweeney(25) . . . Ayo Edebiri from “The Bear” (27) . . . Sadie Sink from “Stranger Things” (20) . . . Dancer Maddie Ziegler (20).

3. MUSIC: Anitta(29) . . . 24kGoldn (22) . . . Madison Beer (23).

4. Sports:  Sixers center Joel Embiid(28) . . . Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey (28) . . . New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu (24).

Not many people are brave enough to step up to Oprah . . . but Howard Stern gave it a shot on his show yesterday, by accusing her of showing off her fortune. He said, quote, “Oprah’s not embarrassed by her wealth at all . . . It’s [effing] mind-blowing you when you follow her on Instagram.  You see her estates, her gardens, the people who service her and, you know . . .She’s got servants and like people cooking and it’s [effing] wild . . . [She’s] not embarrassed by her wealth at all.” He added, quote, “You gotta be a little self-aware and know that there are people struggling out there.  You got to.  You gotta kind of think about people who don’t have [enough] to eat.  I mean, come on.  You gotta be a little bit aware of this.”

Metallica used to be snobs about letting their music be in movies and TV shows.  But drummer Lars Ulrich said the band changed their mind in recent years. Lars said, quote, “We just said, ‘You know what?  This is stupid.  Why are we hanging onto these [songs] like they’re so important, like they’re the crown jewels?’ . . .We started saying yes to everything.  Let’s share our music with the world.” He also said the band was surprised to see what a hit “Master of Puppets” was after being on “Stranger Things”. Quote, “It was such a mind[eff] to see how that became a phenomenon.  It was totally unexpected.  Who would’ve thought 40 years later that these songs could still have that impact?  We were psyched to be part of it.”

It’s been a minute since Kenny Chesney released new music, so this is promising.

He shared a photo of himself overlooking a beach, and captioned it, “California dreaming on such a winter’s day.  Out here writing songs and thinking about next year’s tour make me happy.” Kenny’s last album, “Here and Now”, came out in 2020.

Guns N’ Roses’ Thanksgiving show in Australia was infiltrated by DRONE PIRATES.  Well, that’s what Axl Rose called them.  There were drones flying above the stadium and close to the stage.  He said it was the most intrusive thing he’s experienced. After the show he tweeted, quote, “According to the police it happens more often than not lately especially with sporting events.  It’s not something we’re all that used to.  We get it can be ‘fun’ to get [your] drone bootleg vid . . . But we’d appreciate it if anyone planning to be a drone pirate took the fans [and] the band into consideration [and] played [with your] toys somewhere else.  Big thank you in advance!”

Just days after Journey guitarist Neal Schon filed a suit against his bandmate Jonathan Cain, accusing the keyboardist of restricting him from the band’s credit card account, Cain claims that Schon has misused the card. The two established an LLC in the late 90s to handle the band’s business at 50/50 ownership. According to Schon, Cain later set up an Amex card account in his name only and never told the guitarist about it. Schon’s lawyers say they don’t want to sue, but every time Cain says he’ll grant him permission to check out the card’s financial details, Amex informs him that Cain hasn’t authorized him on the account.  The keyboardist is also being accused of mismanaging business affairs. Now, Cain has shot back, saying Schon’s suit has “no merit” because Schon’s always had access to the Amex account.  He claims that what Schon actually wants is an increase in his spending limit because he’s the one who’s racked up charges on the card. A court date is set for March, a month after the two embark on a tour together!  

BuzzFeed put together a list of surprising jobs celebrities had before they were famous.  Here are 10:

1. Whoopi Goldberg:  She worked as a morgue beautician after seeing an ad in the paper.  She’s also a licensed beautician for LIVING people.

2. Taylor Swift:  Her family lived on a Christmas tree farm growing up, and her job was to pick the praying mantis pods off the trees, so they wouldn’t hatch inside people’s homes.

3. Gabourey Sidibe:  She was a phone sex operator for three years before landing the lead in “Precious”.

4. Megan Fox:  She worked at a smoothie shop in Florida, which included dressing up as a giant banana.

5. Tom Hanks:  He sold peanuts and soda at a baseball stadium when he was 14 years old.

6. Christopher Walken:  He was a lion tamer trainee when he was 16.

7. Ashton Kutcher:  He worked in a cereal factory sweeping Cheerio dust.  He also skinned deer in a butcher shop.

8.  Matthew McConaughey:  He spent a year in Australia as an exchange student where he would clean out chicken coops.

9. Simu Liu:  He would dress up as Spider-Man for kids’ birthday parties.

10. Lucy Liu:  She worked as an aerobics instructor, a secretary, and a hostess.

CELEBRITIES CELEBRATING A BIRTHDAY 

The Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion, one of the greatest chess players of all-time, Magnus Carlsen is 32. He’s the one who lost here in the St. Louis tournament and accused his opponent of having something up his butt helping him. The guy snapped his 53 game winning streak.

Big Bang Theory actress Kaley Cuoco is 37.

The bravest person in the world, Chrissy Teigen is 37.

Best known as Kim Bauer from “24”, Darcie Goldberg from “Old School”, and Danielle from “The Girl Next Door”, Elisha Cuthbert is 40.

Clay Aiken is 44.

Ben Stiller is 57.

Bo Jackson is 60.

Billy Idol is 67.

Inigo Montoya in “The Princess Bride” and Saul on the show “Homeland”, Mandy Patinkin is 70.

Director Woody Allen is 87

Shannon Kelly

Today’s birthday girl has been in 189 fine films, including:

– Attack That Ass

– Casting Couch Cougars

– Elegant And Nasty

– Mandingo’s Rampage

– Mini Van Moms 2

– The Sexual Exploits of Jean Val Jean

– And who can forget her role in 2006’s Your Mom’s a Slut She Takes It in the… yep. 2

Shannon Kelly is 42 years old.

Most of us now have or have more of some solid gray hairs after watching the US take on Iran in the final group stage match in the World Cup yesterday. Iran threatened several times, especially near the end of the game, but the U.S. team held on to their 1 goal lead to win yesterday.  Here’s the final call.

Christian Pulisic turned in Sergino Dest’s headed cross in the 38th minute to get the crucial goal, putting his body on the line and suffering an abdominal injury when he collided with Iran’s goalkeeper. Here’s the goal and them commenting on Pulisic being down and hurt. By night’s end, he’d been in and out of a hospital and diagnosed with a pelvic contusion (LINK), his status uncertain for Saturday’s knockout-round game against the Netherlands. The U.S. will play the Netherlands on Saturday at 9am. England will face Senegal at 1 p.m.

The Adam Wainwright’s career finale year will begin with a little international ball! Wainwright joined teammates Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt as Cardinals on Team USA for the upcoming World Baseball Classic. The MLB made the official announcement yesterday. They willl be managed by former Cardinals infielder Mark DeRosa. Wainwright’s longtime and record-setting batterymate Yadier Molina has been named manager of Puerto Rico’s team for the WBC. Members of Team USA will have a brief training camp in Arizona before opening pool play March 11. The championship of the WBC will be played March 21 in Miami. In 2017, Team USA defeated Puerto Rico’s team in the championship at Dodger Stadium (LINK)

• Jim Harbaugh is riding the high of beating Ohio State right into being named the 2022 Big Ten Coach of the Year.
• The Big Ten announced its annual awards on Tuesday afternoon. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh was named the Big Ten Conference’s Coach of the Year, as selected by the coaches and the media.
• “There was no question to me who the coach of the year in this conference was,” BTN analyst Joshua Perry said on the awards show.
• Even after losing 12 of 22 starters, and both his offensive and defensive coordinators from last year’s Big Ten championship team, Harbaugh had the best year of his career and is on pace for a historic year at Michigan.
• Michigan edge rusher Mike Morris won the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and kicker Jake Moody was voted Big Ten Kicker of the Year for the second straight year.
• The Wolverines are heading back to Indianapolis for a second-straight Big Ten Championship Game. Michigan is 12-0 for just the fourth time in program history and has a chance to win its 13th game for the first time ever when it meets Purdue in the conference title game.

Deion Sanders, The head coach of Jackson State football confirmed that the Colorado Buffaloes have offered him the head coaching position in Boulder, as the program looks to rebuild following a 1-11 season. Sanders said “Yeah it’s true” and  that Colorado was not the only program that has shown interest (LINK) in his services, adding that it would not become a distraction. “To someone else that hasn’t been that dude, it’s intoxicating. I’ve been ‘Prime’ for a long time, dawg,” Sanders said with a laugh, according to ESPN. “Attention ain’t nothing new to me. Like, come on. I’m not being braggadocious – that’s a wonderful word, isn’t it? I just came up with that – but this isn’t new to me. Being in the spotlight isn’t new to me.” Sanders will lead his Tigers into the SWAC Championship Game against Southern on Saturday