Tom Cruise returns to Cannes with 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning'

CANNES, France (AP) — Three years after Tom Cruise and “Top Gun: Maverick” flew into the Cannes Film Festival, the star has come back to the Croisette with “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.” Christopher McQuarrie’s latest “Mission: Impossible” installment is the biggest Hollywood tentpole wading ashore in Cannes this year. In 2022, Cruise received an honorary Palme d’Or from the festival and the “Top Gun: Maverick” premiere included an impressively timed jet flyover. Whether the 62-year-old Cruise has anything up his sleeve this time will be much anticipated at Cannes. On Sunday, Cruise climbed atop the roof of the British Film Institute in London.

'Beyond the Gates' is renewed as veteran Black soap actors cheer its success

CBS' new soap opera “Beyond the Gates” has been renewed for a second season. Some of daytime’s beloved Black actors like Victoria Rowell, Darnell Williams and Veronica Redd see it as a win for both Black history and Black culture. So do viewers. It's the first soap show with a majority Black cast. Nielsen says about half the “Beyond the Gates” audience comes from non-Black viewers, showing that there's an appetite for daytime drama in a genre that has struggled as broadcast ratings have declined in recent years overall.

Actor Halle Bailey gets restraining order against rapper DDG alleging violence, fear for their baby

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles judge has granted a restraining order to “The Little Mermaid” actor and singer Halle Bailey, who says her ex-boyfriend, rapper DDG, has been violent toward her and she fears for herself and the baby they have together. The judge ordered DDG, whose legal name is Darryl Dwayne Granberry Jr., to stay away from Bailey and their 17-month-old son until a June 6 hearing on the matter. Bailey says that in January when she was putting the baby in Granberry's car for a visit, there was a physical struggle that left her with bruises and a chipped tooth.

Rare Ian Fleming story features a Londoner named Bone, Caffery Bone

NEW YORK (AP) — Before there was Bond, James Bond, there was Bone, Caffery Bone. Ian Fleming's “The Shameful Dream” is a rare short story published this week in Strand Magazine. Caffery Bone is the protagonist, a London literary editor who has been summoned to meet with his formidable boss, Lord Ower. “The Shameful Dream” appears along with another rarity from a master of thrillers, Graham Greene’s “Reading at Night.” It's a brief ghost story in which the contents of a paperback anthology become frighteningly real.

Rapper Tory Lanez's alleged prison attacker is man with previous conviction for assault on inmate

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities say a man who attacked rapper Tory Lanez in a California prison is an inmate serving a life sentence for second-degree murder who was previously convicted for an in-prison assault with a deadly weapon. Lanez was in fair condition Tuesday, a day after the attack in a housing unit at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, where he’s serving a 10-year sentence for shooting hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion in the feet. Prison officials identified the alleged attacker as 42-year-old Santino Casio. Casio is serving time for convictions of second-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder. In 2008, he was sentenced to six more years for assault by a prisoner with a deadly weapon.

Cassie details her hotel hallway beating by Sean 'Diddy' Combs' at his trial

NEW YORK (AP) — The R&B singer Cassie is back on the witness stand in her ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs' sex trafficking trial. She resumed testifying Wednesday about Combs beating her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016 — an attack caught on surveillance video. On Tuesday, she described what she said were years of sexual and physical abuse by the music mogul. Combs is accused of exploiting his status as a powerful music executive to coerce women including Cassie into drugged-up sex parties. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers say all sexual acts were consensual. The 55-year-old Combs faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

10 acts win a place in the Eurovision final but 5 are sent home as the music contest heats up

BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — Competition in the Eurovision Song Contest has kicked off with the first of two semifinals. Ten acts from among 15 countries that performed were voted through by voters to the final of the pan-continental music extravaganza. They include bookies’ favorite KAJ, a trio of Swedish-speaking Finns representing Sweden with sauna serenade “Bara Bada Bastu.” Also securing a place is Dutch singer Claude, whose ballad “C’est La Vie” is another favorite with oddsmakers. Iceland, Norway, San Marino, Estonia, Ukraine, Portugal, Poland and Albania also made the final. Azerbaijan, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus and Slovenia were eliminated. A second semifinal on Thursday will narrow the original field of 37 nations down to 26 who will compete in Saturday’s grand final.

At Cannes opening, Robert De Niro calls Trump 'America's philistine president'

CANNES, France (AP) — Much of the cinema world, including Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Quentin Tarantino, descended on the Cannes Film Festival as the French Riviera extravaganza got its 78th edition underway Tuesday. In the opening ceremony, DiCaprio presented De Niro with an honorary Palme d’Or. In his speech, De Niro spoke out against U.S. President Donald Trump, calling him “America's philistine president” and spoke forcefully against Trump's plans to enact tariffs on films produced internationally. Tarantino officially declared the festival open and then dropped the mic.

The Menendez brothers had their sentences reduced. What's next?

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 1989 shotgun murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez in Los Angeles gripped the nation. It was committed by their sons Erik and Lyle Menendez, who on Tuesday were granted their first chance at freedom in decades. A Los Angeles judge reduced the brothers’ sentences from life in prison without parole to 50 years to life, making them immediately eligible for parole. The case came on the heels of the O.J. Simpson trial as the nation was hungry for true crime TV. The Menendez brothers have also asked California Gov. Gavin Newsom to grant their release through clemency.