Patricia Clarkson on playing her icon Lilly Ledbetter and the political moment greeting the movie
Most are gone or out of power, their hopes of building on Ledbetter's legacy interrupted by a more fundamental fight over President Donald Trump's shake-up of civil rights institutions .
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USA Today
30-06-2025
- USA Today
‘Is this real?' How Disney makes wishes come true for critically ill kids
Jamie Martinez didn't imagine her family on a Disney vacation in Hawaii. 'I didn't picture my daughter going to the beach again, swimming again,' the Los Angeles mom said. Her 6-year-old, Luciana, was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor, medulloblastoma, in January of last year. 'When something like that hits your life out of nowhere, the last thing you're thinking about is doing something like this,' Jamie said. 'We were just thinking about that specific moment and how to bring her out of that.' Each day, families with critically ill children face hardships most people can't imagine, but Make-A-Wish can. For more than 40 years, the nonprofit has been granting their kids life-changing wishes through partners like Disney. 'They were the only ones thinking about the future,' Jamie said. 'They were able to picture that for us.' Disney is Make-A-Wish's largest wish grantor, fulfilling more than 165,000 wishes since the first official wish for then 7-year-old Frank "Bopsy" Salazar at Disneyland in 1981. Most of those are park-related. Disney Experiences Chairman D'Amaro serves on Make-A-Wish America's national board of directors and his niece is a Wish alum. At a Star Wars-themed Wish event at Disneyland last year, he told USA TODAY, 'We've been thinking about how can we continue to make these experiences even more immersive, even richer, even more memorable for these Make-A-Wish kids.' This spring, Disney properties around the world did just that for scores of families like Luciana's during Disney Week of Wishes and Aulani Wish Week. The royal treatment Nearly 50 Wish families were treated to a two-day Once Upon a Wish Party at Walt Disney World in Florida. Lilly Fernandez of Chester, New York, chose Disney World 'because I wanted to see the castle and the other Disney princesses. And I got crowned princess, so now I'm not just Lilly. I'm Princess Lilly!' The 6-year-old has been battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia since March of last year. Her mom, Heydi, said Lilly takes her chemotherapy 'like a champ,' but it's been tough. 'We have some good days and some bad days." The Disney days were good ones. 'It was so magical, and I was like, 'Is this real or am I like just asleep?'' Lilly said. 'I danced, and I was playing with Pluto. And I was pretending to be a squirrel, so he was chasing me.' The kids were treated to a royal ball, a pajama party and other special surprises. 'Just seeing Lilly happy and just for that moment, it just felt like we were in a dream,' Heydi said. 'I'm sure that a lot of parents felt the same, where they saw their kids happy, being that they have gone through maybe months, maybe years of going through what they're going through with their health.' Give Kids the World: This Florida resort gives critically ill children the chance to just be kids A hard journey A post shared by Make-A-Wish Oregon (@makeawishoregon) 'This journey, honestly, in day-to-day life, it is hard,' said Linda Pham of Beaverton, Oregon. 'My son can be fine right now. The next day he can be in the ER fighting for his life.' Her 5-year-old Raiden has UBA5, which UMass Chan Medical School describes as an ultra-rare neurodegenerative disease. 'Think of cerebral palsy that can get worse over time and causes epilepsy, as well,' said Raiden's dad, Tommy. 'And his brain ... it's kind of like frozen in time. Maybe it's like a five, six-month-old.' Raiden also can't control his body and is non-speaking, but his dad says they're closer to getting gene therapy. At home, Raiden's parents take turns caring for him around-the-clock, with help from their 7-year-old, Jordyn. Linda and Tommy also juggle full-time jobs and work on the Raiden Science Foundation, which they started to raise awareness and funds for rare disease research for kids. 'We never really have a moment together as a family, so this week has been incredible,' Tommy said. They chose Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa in Hawaii for Raiden's wish because he loves the water, and Linda said he giggles like a baby whenever anything Disney is on TV. The Phams shared laughs and reconnected on the trip. They also connected with other Wish families. 'Having a family that understands and to be able to relate to when they're there, it just makes you part of a community, too,' Linda said. Full of hope Luciana's family knows the importance of community. 'That reminder that there's someone else looking after you, that you're not alone, that is huge,' Jamie said. Make-A-Wish gave them something to look forward to, at Aulani. "It brought us out of all that routine of going to the hospitals, going to every appointment,' Jamie said. 'Like you're able to picture again how your life was, but now with a different sense of view that's full of hope.' What she didn't imagine was that Luciana would be done with cancer treatment and in remission by the trip. 'I go to the pool and dance, said hi to Moana and Stitch,' Luciana said. 'And then I went to a luau. I went to see the sunset.' The pool was her favorite, but she called the whole experience exciting. "That filled our hearts so much,' Jamie said. Make-A-Wish America says 87% of alumni consider their wishes a turning point in their treatment and 99% of doctors say wishes help ease the family's traumatic stress. Any child being treated for a critical illness may be referred to Make-A-Wish by their parents, legal guardians, family members with detailed knowledge of their current medical condition, medical professionals, social worker or child-life specialists.
Newsweek
30-06-2025
- Newsweek
Marvel Star Teases A Surprise Return in 'Avengers: Secret Wars'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors Last year, Evangeline Lilly announced she was retiring from acting, but a response the "Lost" star made in a recent social media post has fans wondering if she's hinting at coming back as Hope van Dyne/The Wasp in "Avengers: Secret Wars". Lilly posted an image of herself to Instagram posing with a fan cosplaying as Wolverine at the Australian convention Supanova Expo. When another fan named "sm_himself" responded to the post with "Very subtle way to say that Hope & Logan will have some screen time together in Secret Wars", Lilly responded with a winking smiley emoji. Read More: 'Spider-Man' Director Reveals Why He Quit 'Fantastic Four' A winking emoji is far from a confirmation, but at the very least, it's a surprising tease, particularly from someone retired from acting. Promotional material for "Avengers: Endgame." Promotional material for "Avengers: Endgame." DISNEY Lilly first played Hope van Dyne in 2015's "Ant-Man", though she didn't get to suit up as her heroic alter-ego, The Wasp, until 2018's "Ant-Man & The Wasp". She went on to reprise her role both in 2023's "Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania" and in 2019's "Avengers: Endgame". Neither Lilly's name nor Hugh Jackman's appeared on any of the chairs announcing the cast of next year's "Avengers: Doomsday", but if Anthony and Joe Russo plan to do something similar to what they did in "Avengers: Infinity War" and its follow-up "Endgame", then it would make sense for the cast of "Secret Wars" to be much larger even than the already massive cast for "Doomsday". In the "Secret Wars" comic book series, the entire Marvel multiverse is destroyed but then remade by Doctor Doom. Instead of a multiverse, all of existence is whittled down to a single planet: Battleworld. Battleworld is made up of different nations based on Marvel Comics events (e.g. the savage Greenland is based on "Planet Hulk" and the Monarchy of M is based on "House of M"). The world is populated with multiple variants of each Marvel Comics hero and villain. For example, Doom's army is the Thor Corps, made up of hundreds of variant Thors. There's no telling how closely Anthony and Joe Russo plan to stick to the source material, but if it's anything at all like the comics, they're going to need a huge cast to populate Battleworld. It's not out of the realm of possibility that they would ask Lilly to step out of retirement to help them out. "Avengers: Doomsday" releases December 18, 2026, while the follow-up "Avengers: Secret Wars" is scheduled to hit theaters December 17, 2027. More Comics: Tobey Maguire 'Spider-Man' Trilogy Re-Releasing in Theaters 'Fantastic Four' Final Trailer Teases Epic Showdown With Galactus
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Yahoo
Pit Bull's Heartfelt Concern Over Crying Baby Is Full of the Purest Love
Pit Bull's Heartfelt Concern Over Crying Baby Is Full of the Purest Love originally appeared on Parade Pets. The first few days of bringing home a new baby are filled with love, excitement, plenty of adjustments, and unfortunately, to everyone with ears, all the crying. Sure, it'll get sorted at some point, but that's not exactly something you can explain to the resident house dog. Lilly, a very concerned Pit Bull, should know. Her parents just brought home Lilly's newborn human sibling, and already, the crying is a bit too much for the sweet pup to take. Sweet Lilly was so excited to greet her newborn sibling, but she doesn't understand what the baby is so sad about. She wants to help make it better. By the sheer panic on her face, she's probably wondering what she can do, and it's both heartbreaking and heartwarming because you know she'd give all the kisses to make sure the baby's taken care of. Dogs are pretty fantastic in general, but you can tell already that this precious Pit Bull is going to take care of her human sibling no matter what. She doesn't want the baby to have a tough morning — she wants to heal her. This is one adored pup whose heart is bursting at the seams to love on that baby. Pit Bulls have widely been regarded as the ultimate "nanny dog" because of their devotion, loyalty, and ability to feel empathy and want to comfort us when we're the baby's arrival made you feel as uncomfortable as Lilly felt, rest assured — the baby eventually calmed (as they tend to do... eventually), and the sweet dog wasted no time tending to *her* child. During a quieter moment, Lilly took the opportunity to observe the new family member, studying how she works to better shape the right doggy care. It's a very important job she plans to take seriously. Already, she's doing amazing as the self-appointed caregiver/bestie/big sister. One day soon, they'll probably even have their own secret language! The early days will come with challenges and triumphs for Mom, Dad, baby, and Lilly, because that's what happens with any kind of big change (and a baby is huge!). But over time, everyone will adjust like it's no biggie. Before they know it, everyone will be settled and just enjoying life as a new family of four, and I can already tell, Lilly can't wait! 🐶🐾🐾 Pit Bull's Heartfelt Concern Over Crying Baby Is Full of the Purest Love first appeared on Parade Pets on Jun 14, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade Pets on Jun 14, 2025, where it first appeared.
