Hollywood

Nearly half of all U.S. moviegoers are no longer going to cinemas in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, signaling a longer-than-expected road to recovery for the exhibition industry. A new study shows that many Americans are still too scared of the coronavirus to step foot in a movie theater, while other factors like pricing continue to keep people away.

The Streaming genie has been out of the bottle for awhile now and the pandemic just hastened the shift in viewing habits and the profusion of woke crap content won’t win anyone back anyhow.

China’s Global Times, a state-controlled publication, asserted this week that Hollywood will destroy itself as it continues to embrace “political correctness” with an increasingly lunatic fervor.

The state-run media outlet cited the recent decision to exclude author J.K. Rowling from the Harry Potter movie anniversary celebration due to her comments on transgender individuals, as well as the Academy Awards’ new diversity quotas, which require ethnic minority representation for best picture consideration.

Pretty sad when even the ChiComs call you out.

Authorities are pursuing new leads on possible sources of live ammunition involved in actor Alec Baldwin’s fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the New Mexico set of a western, as they searched the premises of an Albuquerque-based firearms and ammunition supplier.

The search took place after a provider of firearms and ammunition to the ill-fated movie production Rust told investigators that he “may know” where live rounds came from, describing ammunition he received from a friend in the past that had been “reloaded” by assembly from parts.

Alec Baldwin has hired attorney Aaron S. Dyer of New York-based law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman after being targeted by multiple lawsuits for his involvement in the “Rust” set shooting, Fox News Digital has confirmed.

The news comes after Baldwin was targeted by lawsuits filed by script supervisor Mamie Mitchell and gaffer Serge Svetnoy.

More than 100 celebrities, including Richard Gere, Claire Foy, Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo, and Peter Gabriel, signed onto an Artists for Palestine statement released Wednesday in support of Palestinian organizations designated as terrorist groups by the Israeli government.

The statement accuses Israel of launching “an unprecedented and blanket attack on Palestinian human rights defenders.”

An attorney for the armorer on the set of “Rust” said that his client is being “framed” for the tragic death that occurred when Alec Baldwin shot the film’s cinematographer.

The lawyer for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed insisted on Wednesday that “sabotage” and a “tampered” crime scene were evidence of the frame job for the shooting last month on the New Mexico film set.

The statement came a day after Gutierrez-Reed met with Santa Fe County Deputy Sheriffs about the double shooting. The cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, was killed and director Joel Souza injured when Baldwin fired a “hot” prop gun that was supposed to be loaded with blanks.

The district attorney probing the “Rust” film set shooting says she knows who loaded the gun Alec Baldwin used to accidentally shoot dead cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Santa Fe DA Mary Carmack-Altwies declined to name the person in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, as she weighs whether to bring criminal charges over the Oct. 21 fatal shooting.

Asked if she was aware who loaded the fatal live round, Carmack-Altwies said: “We do, yes.”

The rookie armorer on “Rust” reportedly had a mysterious “mentor” on set — who supplied the gun Alec Baldwin used when he accidentally shot dead his cinematographer.

Seth Kenney, who owns an Arizona weapons and props rental company, was hired in late September to be an “armorer mentor” for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, according to an internal crew list obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Kenney, 51, had even suggested Gutierrez-Reed, 24, for the key armorer gig, despite her having only been in charge of weapons in one other movie, a source told the paper.

Actor and left-wing activist Alec Baldwin “protected” his Twitter account on Tuesday — effectively controlling which users can view the star’s tweets and which tweets can be retweeted — after much scrutiny over previous posts of his, including a recent one attacking his film crew over safety complaints.