GRIF MAG

LAS VEGAS – Pop music is ephemeral by nature.

So when the rare welcome – and successful – resurrection occurs, it's all the more reason to celebrate.

Hilary Duffis having one of those moments when everything clicks.

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Her primarily millennial fans are rabid to see her in concert. Her first album in more than a decade, "Luck … or Something,"releases Feb. 20. And after this weekend of sold-out shows at Voltaire at The Venetian and areturn May 22-24,Duff will hit amphitheaters and arenas in June for The Lucky Me Tour,her first world outingin nearly 20 years.

Duff's performance Friday, Feb. 13 at the 1,000-capacity opulent venue-lounge was part of her Small Rooms, Big Nerves Tour, which hit four major cities, including London and New York, before landing for this trio of shows in Vegas.

Even with an extensive acting background, the nerves mentioned in her tour name are understandable. It's one thing to be revered as an early aughts Disney Channel breakout on "Lizzy McGuire" and continue a notable acting career with star turns in"Younger"and "How I Met Your Father."

It's an entirely different set of neurons to command a stage with assurance and scamper down a catwalk, interact with fans a few inches away and remind people that you can sing.

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NEED TO KNOW

• On Feb. 10, 2026, Rosanna Arquette joined Sirius XM's Andy Cohen Live to discuss her breakout film, Desperately Seeking Susan

• During the podcast, the 66-year-old actress revealed that, at the time, she had not been invited to the Hollywood movie premiere

• Since then, Arquette has found her way back to the big screen as part of Charli xcx's mockumentary movie, The Moment

Rosanna Arquetterecently reflected on a "strange" moment from one of the biggest films of her career.

During a Feb. 10 appearance onSirius XM'sAndy Cohen Live, the actress shared that she was not invited to the Hollywood premiere of her breakout movie,Desperately Seeking Susan.

"While [Madonna] became so huge, they decided to make the movie around her. Which of course, made sense to make money, right?" the 66-year-old actress told Cohen. "But, they didn't invite me to the Hollywood premiere ofDesperately Seeking Susan."

Mondadori via Getty

The 1985 comedy followed a bored New Jersey housewife who becomes fascinated with a free-spirited woman named Susan after reading personal ads. Arquette played Roberta, whose obsession leads her into a case of mistaken identity and a whirlwind adventure through New York City.

Madonna, then on the brink of global superstardom, portrayedthe magnetic and mysterious Susan. As the singer's reputation exploded, the film's marketing increasingly centered around her.

Arquette recalled that she was in New York at the time, handling promotional duties, when she realized she hadn't been invited to the premiere of her own movie.

"I was here in New York doing this. Like, press... And so I was like 'what?' " the actress recalled on the podcast. "That was weird... It was very strange. But then you find out why that happened, the management... they made a thing about it because it ended up being [her movie]."

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Despite the awkward moment, Arquette's performance earned critical acclaim, including a British Academy Film Award for best actress in a supporting role.

Gary Gershoff/Getty

Now, decades later, Arquette finds herself in a new chapter. Known as the eldest member of the famous Arquette family – she is known for memorable roles in films likePulp Fictionand for inspiring the title ofToto's hit song, "Rosanna."

At 66, however, Arquette says her focus has shifted toward personal growth. After a challenging few years that includeda divorceand a move to the East Coast, Arquette recently described this period in her life as one of renewal.

"It almost feels likeI was released from prison," she told PEOPLE exclusively. "I'm alone but not lonely."

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

In January 2026, Arquette returned to screens in a new way by starring inThe Moment– a mockumentary from Charli xcx that draws partial inspiration from 1984'sThis Is Spinal Tap.

"Charli wrote me the loveliest letter telling me she was a fan and it would mean the world to her if I came and played this part," she recalled. "I told my daughter [actress Zoë Bleu, 31, with ex-husband John Sidel], and she was like, 'Oh my God!' It definitely got me some cool points with her."

Read the original article onPeople

Casey Wasserman, a prominent entertainment and sports agent and the chair of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, is putting his eponymous talent agency up for sale after facing backlash over his appearance in files the US Justice Departmentreleasedlast month related to its investigations into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In an internal memo sent to agency staff on Friday, which was obtained by CNN,Wassermansaid he has "become a distraction" to the company's "efforts."

"That is why I have begun the process of selling the company, an effort that is already underway," Wasserman wrote.

Wasserman faced pressure from his talent to step aside in recent weeks, as well as calls to step down from the Olympics coordinating committee, after the files showed he held a deeper and more intimate relationship with Esptein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, than had been previously known.

Wasserman has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. CNN has reached out to a crisis communications firm representing him.

Wasserman rode on Epstein's plane and exchanged suggestivemessageswith Maxwell, the files the DOJ released show.

Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend, was convicted of sex trafficking and other crimes in 2021 and is serving a 20-year sentence. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

In Friday's memo, Wasserman said he only had "limited interactions with those two individuals," referring to Epstein and Maxwell.

"It was years before their criminal conduct came to light, and, in its entirety, consisted of one humanitarian trip to Africa and a handful of emails that I deeply regret sending," Wasserman said. "And I'm heartbroken that my brief contact with them 23 years ago has caused you, this company, and its clients so much hardship over the past days and weeks."

Sources close to the business told CNN that Wasserman's investors were upset over the situation and pushed him to make this move.

In an earlier statementreported by the Associated Presslast month, Wasserman clarified that his exchange with Maxwell "took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light."

"I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane. I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them," his statement read.

Details of Epstein's alleged secret lifefirst emerged in 2005when several underage girls accused him of offering to pay for massages or sex acts at his Palm Beach mansion. Epstein pleaded guilty to two state prostitutioncharges in 2008and served 13 months in prison.

Since the release of the latest files, singerChappell Roanannounced she was leaving Wasserman's agency. Singer Orville Peck quickly followed, and then singer-songwriter Weyes Blood, among others.

CNN's Michael Williams, Alli Rosenbloom and Lisa Respers France contributed to this report.

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Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser to US President Donald Trump, discussed opposition strategies with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein against Pope Francis, with Bannon saying he hoped to "take down" the pontiff, according to newly released files from the US Department of Justice.

Messages sent between the pair in 2019, released in the massive document dump last month, reveal Bannon courted the late financier in his attempts to undermine the former pontiff after leaving the first Trump administration.

Bannon had been highly critical of Francis whom he saw as an opponent to his "sovereigntist" vision, a brand of nationalist populism which swept through Europe in 2018 and 2019. The released documents from the DOJ appear to show that Epstein had been helpingBannon to build his movement.

"Will take down (Pope) Francis," Bannon wrote to Epstein in June 2019. "The Clintons, Xi, Francis, EU – come on brother."

Pope Francis was a significant obstacle to Bannon's brand of nationalist populism. In 2018, the former Trump aide described Francis to The Spectator as"beneath contempt,"accusing him of siding with "globalist elites" and, according to "SourceMaterial," urged Matteo Salvini, now Italy's deputy prime minister, to"attack" the pontiff.For his part, Salvini has used Christian iconography and language when pursuing his anti-immigrant agenda.

Rome and the Vatican have been important for Bannon. He set up a Rome bureau when he ran Breitbart News and has been involved in trying to establish a political training "gladiator school" to defend Judaeo-Christian values not far from the Eternal City.

Francis, meanwhile, was a counterweight to the Trumpian worldview, strongly critiquing nationalism and making advocacy for migrants a hallmark of his pontificate.

The recently released DOJ files reveal Bannon messaged Epstein on several occasions in his efforts to undermine the late pope.

In his messages with Epstein, Bannon references "In the Closet of the Vatican," a 2019 book by French journalist Frédéric Martel that lifted a lid on secrecy and hypocrisy at high levels of the church. Martel created a storm with his book by claiming 80% of the clergy working in the Vatican are gay, while exploring how they keep their sexuality secret.

The whole question of homosexuality in the church has been a lightning rod for some conservatives, who see it as evidence of a deeper, systemic crisis in the church, with some linking it to the wider sexual abuse scandals. Most experts and researchers view any conflating of sexual orientation with abuse as scientifically inaccurate.

Bannon showed an interest in turning Martel's book into a film after meeting the author in Paris at a five-star hotel. In the messages, Bannon appears to suggest that Epstein could be the film's executive producer. "You are now exec producer of 'ITCOTV' (In the closet of the Vatican)," Bannon wrote.

It is not clear how serious the proposal from Bannon to Epstein was, and, in the exchange, Epstein doesn't mention the offer and asks about Bannon filming Noam Chomsky, the philosopher and public intellectual. Martel said when he met Bannon at the Hotel Le Bristol he told him that he could not agree to any film deal as his publishers controlled the film rights and had already signed a deal with another corporation. He told CNN that he thinks Bannon wanted to "instrumentalize" the book in his efforts against Pope Francis.

The Epstein files show Epstein, on April 1, 2019, emailed himself "in the closet of the vatican," and later sent Bannon an article titled "Pope Francis or Steve Bannon? Catholics must choose" to which Bannon replies "easy choice."

Austen Ivereigh, a biographer of the late pope, said Bannon thought he could use Martel's book to embarrass and damage Pope Francis, while claiming to "purify" the church. "I think he badly misjudged the nature of the book – and Pope Francis," Ivereigh told CNN.

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Yet, as it now turns out, it appears that Bannon was messaging Epstein several years after his 2008 conviction for child sex offenses and just before he was arrested for the sex trafficking of minors.

Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official who collaborated closely with Pope Francis, told CNN Bannon's messages show a desire to fuse "spiritual authority with political power for strategic ends."

The late pope, Spadaro explains, resisted such a link: "What those messages reveal is not merely hostility toward a pontiff, but a deeper attempt to instrumentalize faith as a weapon – precisely the temptation he sought to disarm."

The period of 2018 to 2019 saw intense opposition to Francis, which culminated in an August 2018 dossier released by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former papal ambassador to the US, accusing him of failing to deal with abuse committed by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.A Vatican inquiry later cleared Francis.

But Bannon's desire to make a film out of Martel's book saw him lose an ally in the Vatican. Cardinal Raymond Burke, a prominent conservative critic of Francis, said: "I am not at all of the mind that the book should be made into a film."

Burke was also portrayed in an unflattering way in Martel's book. Burke's split with Bannon came when he cut ties with Dignitatis Humanae, a conservative institute founded by Benjamin Harnwell, a British political adviser and a close associate of Bannon's based in Italy.

Harnwell had been working with Bannon to set up an academy to train nationalist-populist leaders in an 800-year-old former monastery called "Certosa di Trisulti" in the province of Frosinone, 47 miles south-east of Rome. Harnwell is engaged in an ongoing legal battle with Italy's culture ministry over the monastery's conversion, with a hearing taking place on February 11.

In 2019, the Italian government revoked a lease given to Harnwell's institute for the monastery, stating irregularities, non-payments and misrepresentations by Harnwell. In 2024, however, a Roman court cleared him, and he is seeking to win back the lease.

The Epstein files also reveal that Bannon forwarded an email to Epstein in July 2018 with an article from Italian newspaper "La Repubblica" headlined "Bannon the European: He's opening the populist fort in Brussels." Bannon was forwarding an English translation of the article, which had originally been sent by Harnwell.

Harnwell told CNN that Epstein was "not involved in Trisulti."

Elsewhere in the files, Epstein jokes with his brother, Mark, about inviting Pope Francis to his residence for a "massage" during the US papal visit in 2015. Three years later, he messages Bannon to say he's trying to "organize a trip for the pope to the Midde East," adding "headline – tolerance."

When Bannon shares with Epstein an article about the Vatican condemning "populist nationalism," Epstein quotes John Milton's biblical poem "Paradise Lost," when Satan has been cast out of heaven.

"Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven," Epstein tells Bannon.

CNN has contacted a representative of Bannon for comment. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein or any allegation of sexual misconduct.

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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died after being poisoned with a rare "dart frog toxin," the United Kingdom's Foreign Office said in a statement released Feb. 14.

The announcement comes two years after Navalny died in a Siberian penal colony. The UK and several other European countries including France, Sweden and Germany accused Russia of orchestrating the poisoning.

"Only the Russian government had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin against Alexei Navalny during his imprisonment in Russia," UK Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper said. She was speaking during an appearance at the Munich Security Conference, which runs through Feb. 15.

"Russia saw Navalny as a threat," Cooper said in Germany, where she met with Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya. The Russian government has not sent a delegation to Munich for the annual security and defense forum. Russia's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a comment on the poisoning allegation.

The Foreign Office said lab tests of Navalny's body was "consistent" with a deadly toxin found in the skin of Ecuador dart frogs, named epibatidine. It said the samples found in his body "highly likely resulted in his death."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Alexei Navalny died from 'dart frog toxin,' UK accuses Russia