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J.K. Rowlingtook to social media on Monday todefend herself against criticsalleging she invited Jeffrey Epstein to a 2018 event.

"This is beyond silly. Neither I, nor anybody on my team, ever met, communicated with or invited Jeffrey Epstein to anything," Rowling wrote on X,responding to a commentclaiming the author was "sending invitations to Epstein 10 years after he was convicted."

Speculation began circulating online after Rowling's name appeared in the latest batch of the Epstein files released by the DoJ. The controversialHarry Pottercreator was mentionedin a correspondence between Peggy Siegal— publicist and Epstein's longtime associate — and Colin Callender — boss of theatre production company Playground Entertainment. In the conversation, Siegal was aiming to score an invitation for Epstein toHarry Potter and the Cursed Child's official Broadway opening in New York City on April 22, 2018.

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Siegal reached out to Callender, saying a "very important friend" wanted to "come see the spectacle," though she did not name the disgraced financier and convicted child sex offender in her message.

Callender told Siegal he would "get him in," but toldDeadlinethat he was "never made aware of Epstein's identity," since Siegal never named Epstein in her messages before he sent her over to a member of his team.

Asthe email chain reveals, while Epstein was sent the tickets, he claimed he "could't get in" as his name was not on the guest list. "No biggy but thought you should know," he added.

Siegal emailed Playground to complain that the incident was "terribly upsetting" and she was "incredibly embarrassed." She demanded an "apology note," though Callender toldDeadlinethat no one at Playground said sorry.

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Theslow release of millions of documentsrelated to convicted child sex offender Epstein has sparked a wave of commentary from the public and celebrities alike. Numerous public figures have been named in the files connected to the financier who died in prison in 2019 while serving time for his crimes.

On Wednesday,The Viewcohostscalled out the powerful people named in the documentswhom they alleged protected other powerful people from being exposed before the release of the files.

"Not only did they protect each other, but we were complicit in all of this. We are complicit,"Whoopi Goldbergasserted. "Women didn't say, 'Hey, don't do that. Don't stand up for that.' Women did not stand up for other women. Women saw what was going on and didn't say, 'Stop this.' They didn't come out and say this was going on."

Sunny Hostin pointed to Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell — also currently in prison over her role in Epstein's dealings — as an example of a woman whose actions support Goldberg's point.

But the hosts also praised the women leading the charge for justice for Epstein's multiple victims, including Bill Gates' ex-wife, Melinda Gates.

"They're standing up where other women are not, and that's the point here. Everybody has to take some responsibility for this, because unless you recognize what it meant, what they did to these girls, you're not going to care," Goldberg stressed. "It's important that you recognize what's going on here."

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

If ever there was a lull in the typical chaos of an emergency room that could qualify as the calm before the storm, it would be the 10 o'clock hour atPittsburgh Trauma Medical Centeron July 4.

On"The Pitt"Season 2,Episode 4, the doctors and nurses are still unwavering in their care — detecting a heart attack, treating diabetes complications and stopping arterial bleeding. But they have enough of a handle on the typical madness to shift their focus elsewhere: flirting, charting and placing bets.

It's all happening as the staff is anticipating a rush of patients from a nearby hospital forced to close down. Whether that seemingly imminent storm is about to hit, viewers will have to tune intothis week's episodeto find out.

Here's what to know about"The Pitt"Season 2, Episode 5.

Sepideh Moafi steps into "The Pitt" Season 2 as the new attending physician, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi. Who else is new for Season 2 of HBO Max's Emmy-winning drama? And why are they at the Pittsburgh ER? Find out on January 8.

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Who's new on 'The Pitt' Season 2? Meet Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi and more

Sepideh Moafi steps into "The Pitt" Season 2 as the new attending physician, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi. Who else is new for Season 2 of HBO Max's Emmy-winning drama? And why are they at the Pittsburgh ER? Find out on January 8.

Review:'The Pitt' is still the absolute best show on television

'The Pitt' Season 2, Episode 4 recap

Potentially thegoriest moment of "The Pitt" Season 2, Episode 4comes when the cocky fourth-year medical student James Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson) gets a humbling lesson about handling foreign objects stuck in the body.

When an unconscious parkour influencer arrives in the ER after falling through a skylight, he appears mostly stable, with no broken bones. But when he begins bleeding from the back, the doctors notice a laceration caused by a piece of glass deep in his skin.

Ogilvie naively attempts to pull it out, causing the artery it was pressuring to gush. His veteran colleagues, including Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) and Dr. Cassie McKay (Fiona Dourif), step in to save the day and contain the bleeding.

Elsewhere in the ER:

• Robby's soon-to-be replacement Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi) lectures Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones) about her backlog of charts.

• A patient starstruck by the medical influencer "Dr. J," better known as medical student Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez), gets relief for her glued-shut eye, losing her eyelashes in the process.

• And Dr. Samira Mohan (Supriya Ganesh) tries to figure out a solution for a middle-aged patient with diabetes complications and no insurance to pay for his visit.

When does new the episode of 'The Pitt' come out?

The new episode of "The Pitt" will air on Thursday, Feb. 5 at 9 p.m. ET.

New episodes are released on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO Max.

How to watch 'The Pitt'

"The Pitt" is available to watch on HBO Max, which offers severalsubscription plans, including basic with ads for $10.99/month or $109.99/year.

'The Pitt' episode release schedule

New episodes of "The Pitt" will drop weekly leading up to the season finale on Thursday, April 16. Here's the remaining release schedule for "The Pitt" Season 2:

• Feb. 5: Episode 5

• Feb. 12: Episode 6

• Feb. 19: Episode 7

• Feb. 26: Episode 8

• March 5: Episode 9

• March 12: Episode 10

• March 19: Episode 11

• March 26: Episode 12

• April 2: Episode 13

• April 9: Episode 14

• April 16: Episode 15 (finale)

Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached atmelina.khan@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:When does 'The Pitt' come out? How to watch Season 2 new episode

What's even weirder is the fact that "Lush Life" was first a hit in 2016, and it's not the first of Larsson's decade-old songs to make a comeback. What's going on here?

The pop singer's career renaissance, which now includes a Grammy nod and amuch-lauded performanceat the ceremony's pre-show, is largely thanks to TikTok. The app's ability to turn a song into a smash hit iswell-documented, but the pop stars randomly selected by the algorithm to have this kind of resurgence are rarely able to capitalize on their 15 minutes of fame. Larson, however, is determined to turn her viral luck into something more enduring.

Who is this person and why are her older songs trending?

Larsson belongs to the class of mid-tier pop star whose songs you definitely recognize, although her face and name may escape you — she's more than a one-hit wonder, but far from a household name. Her big break came in 2008, when, at 10 years old, shewon Sweden's version ofGot Talent.She immediately got a record deal, and as she entered her teenage years, put out a number of hits, including "Ruin My Life" and "Never Forget You."

"I had amazing people who were helping me and have always listened to me, but being 14 in a room full of 40-year-olds, it's kind of impossible to experiment and find out who you are,"she told i-D in 2026.Unsure of what she really wanted her identity and career to look like, Larsson fizzled out, until — completely randomly — a TikTok meme made her relevant again.

In August 2024, a TikToker posted a video of several Lisa Frank-style dolphin images set to Larsson's song with Clean Bandit, "Symphony," with the caption "I'm depressed." The irony of the upbeat visuals and song and the downbeat messagingbecame a meme, and other users began sharing similar posts set to "Symphony" with captions like "I have social anxiety" and "I want to give up with my whole life."

Instead of ignoring the trend's absurdity, Larsson embraced it byposting her own versionwith the caption "What the f*** is happening." Her video's popularity transcended that of the original, and she beganusing dolphin imagery at her concertsand embracing a more beachy style, to better match the meme. She released a new song with this aesthetic, "Midnight Sun," in June 2025, which earned her enough buzz to open for Tate McRae on her Miss Possessive tour, sparking a full resurgence in the U.S. Larsson then embarked on her own tour for her newMidnight Sunalbum. The single earned her adedicated cult following of superfansand is nowat its highest position ever on the Billboard Hot 100.

Larsson's song "Lush Life," similarly, first came out in 2015, and spent weeks slowly rising to its peak at No. 75 on the charts in August 2016. Nearly a decade later, in November 2025, avideo of a teenage fan enthusiastically performingthe song's choreography on stage with Larsson went viral, launching it back into the zeitgeist, where it has once again begun to climb the charts. The dance is now a TikTok trend, and it's at No. 40 on the Hot 100,a new peak position. According to data that TikTok shared with Yahoo, posts using "Lush Life" have exceeded 14.5 billion total views. Following in the path of other pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter and Role Model,who have honed the art of the viral concert stunt, Larsson too brings a fan on stage with her at every show, driving tons of views and chatter on social media.

Larsson is now working on a deluxe edition of her albumMidnight Sunthat's due out in March, and in October, released her biggest hit yet — a collaboration with the internet darling PinkPanthress called "Stateside."In the music video,Larsson acknowledges the popularity of her colorful Y2K aesthetic by swapping it with PinkPanthress' plaid-infused, British one. Her initial nostalgia-driven resurgence might have been a fluke, but her comeback is real.

What does this mean for pop music?

Larsson has recovered from herflop era, a term used to describe the dreaded experience of trying but failing to reclaim your glory days. Dozens of other once-famous pop stars could only dream of the kind of renaissance Larsson has mounted. Working so hard to break out can be seen as cringe, but since Larsson's entire resurgence was absurd, audiences don't see her as a try-hard.

"I've already had success and then my 'flop era.' And then it's like, 'ok, I flopped.' So, it doesn't scare me anymore," Larssontold ABC Newsin December.

Chimene Mantori, the founder of amusic influencer talent agency, tells Yahoo that Larsson didn't exactly fail — she plateaued. But the way the singer handled it could be a blueprint for other artists hoping to finally break out.

"I think audiences are quick to label quiet periods in artists' careers as 'flops,' but music careers aren't linear — they're cyclical, especially in the modern day, where a TikTok trend can suddenly revive a dormant song," Mantori explains. "She's let the audience dictate her direction rather than self-rebranding. She didn't overexplain, she didn't distance herself from memes — she took the moment and ran with it."

A number of singers have broken out of the so-called "Khia Asylum" — that's internet parlance for a lower tier of pop stardom where celebrities are seen as desperately striving for cultural relevance. They toil away putting out music and performing until they find the right combination of good music, iconic style and algorithmic luck to catapult them to stardom. Sabrina Carpenter did it with her bombshell rebrand onShort n' Sweet, Chappell Roan managed it with her embrace of drag aesthetics and undeniable musical prowess with "Good Luck Babe," and Charli xcx had a monumental career breakthrough with her balance of hard-partying and vulnerability onBrat.

They can now welcome Larsson into their ranks. She's now surpassed 50 million monthly Spotify listeners, and she's not losing momentum. Imagine what she could do when her music and aesthetics actually match the weather outside.

Attia, a recent addition toCBS News' contributors, first appeared in the interview segment with correspondent Norah O'Donnell in October. The interview will no longer be aired in a rerun as counterprogramming on Super Bowl Sunday, according toThe Guardian's Jeremy Barr,VarietyandThe Independent.

Attia reportedly came up over 1,700 times in thelatest batch of Epstein filesreleased Friday, Jan. 30, according toVariety,The New York Timesand other news outlets. The Epstein file mentions include crude exchanges between Attia and theconvicted sex offenderabout female genitalia and emails that suggest the self-proclaimed longevity expert may have been with Epstein while his wife was alone with their son in the hospital after a near-fatal incident. Other emails suggest the doctor discussed longevity with the financier.

USA TODAY has reached out to CBS and Attia's rep for comment.

In a lengthy apology onX, addressing his communications with Epstein, Attia said he was not "involved in any criminal activity" and had nothing to do with" the convicted predator's "sexual abuse or exploitation of anyone." He said he met Epstein, who at the time was "widely known in academic and philanthropic circles as a funder of science" in 2014 through "a prominent female healthcare leader while I was raising funds for scientific research."

Attia added that the pair met up seven to eight times at Epstein's New York City home to discuss research studies and network. Still, he said, "I apologize and regret putting myself in a position where emails, some of them embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible, are now public, and that is on me."

Peter Attia's emails with Epstein

In one particularly crass email to the convicted sexual predator from 2016, Attia joked that female genitalia is "indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten content, though."

Other emails note an appointment between Attia and an unknown associate on July 13, 2017, while emails between Epstein and his longtime assistant and planner Leslie Groff confirm a meeting with Attia for the same afternoon.

What do the Epstein files show? See photos released by DOJ

The dates would have been around the time of an incident the wellness coach wrote about in his 2022 book "Outlive," in which he admonishes himself for not being by his wife and son's side after the month-old baby suddenly stopped breathing.

"In reality, I was out of control. I wasn't just some garden variety road raging maniac either. A few months earlier, on Tuesday, July 11, 2017, at 5:45 to be exact, I had received a call from Jill, my wife. She was in an ambulance with our infant son … on the way to the hospital," Attia wrote. "For some reason, he had suddenly stopped breathing and fallen unconscious. His eyes were completely rolled back in their sockets, and he was lifeless and blue, with no heartbeat."

His son had begun breathing a short time later, but was still being held in the hospital for four days, all the while his wife "pleaded with me to come home. I called in daily to talk to the doctors and discuss each day's test results, but I stayed in New York, busy with my, quote, important work."

He added: "I feel nauseous about my behavior. I can't believe I did that to my family. I can't believe what a blind, selfish, checked out husband and father I was."

Contributing: Pamela Avila, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Peter Attia '60 Minutes' episode pulled from CBS after Epstein files

NEED TO KNOW

• Director Ron Howard once accidentally got high while filming the 1995 movie Apollo 13

• The event occurred when Howard took a cocktail of medication meant to help the body in zero-gravity environments

• But when a flight utilizing zero gravity was scrapped, Howard became a bit loopy as a result of the medication
  

Ron Howardaccidentally got high while filming the 1995 movieApollo 13.

Far Out Magazineresurfaced Howard's remarks on the incident, which came as he and the crew were filming in a zero-G plane, in order to make the scenes meant to be in space look believable.

The Academy Award-winning film tells the true story of NASA's aborted mission to the Moon in 1970.

Speaking toBAFTAin 2013, the now 71-year-old director said, "We would up using this zero-G aeroplane that does parabolas in order to recreate weightlessness and do scientific testing and training of astronauts."

Howard added that he and the crew wound up doing "13 days" of shots in the vessel, saying, "We took a little cocktail called Scopedex, which is half scopolamine and half Dexedrine."

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"Scopolamine evens out your stomach, but wants to put you to sleep, and the Dexedrine keeps you working," he added. "One time we were getting ready to go, and we took our Scopedex – or at least I did – we were all planned out, and then there was some engine failure, and we couldn't go."

But what Howard didn't realize at the time is that, when taken and not used in a zero-gravity environment, the Scopodex has an unintended consequence.

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"Everybody was laughing their heads off at me, because I was on the stuff and when you're up there, with the adrenaline, you really don't feel anything, you don't feel any buzz, but apparently I was running around [hyperactively] saying 'okay, so we can't but you can bring a camera over here, we have the set, we'll use the mock up, it's okay, you can light it – Tom come on!'. They were all just looking like 'somebody just hit this guy with a hammer, please,'" Howard said.

The film would go on to be nominated for nine Academy Awards.

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In a 2025 appearance onThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Howard revealed that heaccidentally peed himselfduring the physical required to see if he and the other cast members would be

"I'm in there getting my physical with Kevin Bacon. It's everything — it's the treadmill, urine, blood works, heart monitor the whole thing," recalled Howard, who has a condition called vagovasal syncope. "I'm a little more prone to shock and I can get lightheaded. And at times, I can even faint."

"In this particular case, we're going along doing the physical and they're doing the blood test and I start to get woozy. In this case, the vasovagal syncope led to — I've never told this story by the way, for this reason," he said.

Howard added: "It led to Ron blacks out and Ron makes wee wee because I hadn't done the urine test yet."

"I come to and I wake up and Kevin Bacon is looking at me. He's looking down, he's looking up. I'm one degree from Kevin Bacon and I just take a beat and I just go, 'Ten extra closeups in this movie, buddy, if you don't say a word.' He said, 'I'm with ya, boss,'" Howard said.

Read the original article onPeople

Italy Meloni Painting

A painting of a cherub with a face bearing a remarkable resemblance to Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni had attracted large crowds to the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, one of the oldest basilicas in Rome. That angel's face was gone when the church opened its doors Wednesday: the cherub's body remains, but the face was erased with a sloppy slab of paint or plaster.

La Repubblica newspaper, which broke the story Saturday when it published the Meloni-esque angel on its front page, said the restorer responsible for making the Meloni cherub had covered it up overnight at the request of church authorities.

Restorer Bruno Valentinetti admitted to the paper that he had styled the angel on Meloni, but didn't say why.

The diocese of Rome and the Italian Culture Ministry had both launched investigations after the image of the cherub was first published.

The original painting only dated from 2000, so it wasn't a matter of damage to the church's historic patrimony. But Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the pope's vicar for Rome, insisted that a political figure had no place in church art.

The ruckus gave the basilica newfound celebrity status, with curious locals and tourists lining up to photograph the Meloni cherub, at times disrupting Mass.

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In a statement Wednesday, the Culture Ministry set down the rules going forward: If the basilica plans to repaint the angel face, it needs prior authorization from the government which owns the church, the diocese of Rome which operates it and the culture ministry's special superintendency for Rome.

Lest there be any question, the Culture Ministry said that the request for permission must be "accompanied by a sketch of the image."

Valentinetti had first made the cherub in 2000, when one of the basilica's front chapels was renovated to include a bust of the last king of Italy, Umberto II. Included in the decoration was a cherub holding a map of Italy, seemingly kneeling down before the king.

The cherub was restored after water leaks damaged the basilica starting in 2023, and emerged with the face of Meloni.

The investigations that were launched were to identify how the original 2000 cherub looked, with the aim of restoring the painting to that image. The faceless cherub seen Wednesday appeared a temporary fix to erase Meloni's likeness from the work.

The Italian premier had made light of the whole thing. "No, I definitely don't look like an angel," Meloni wrote on social media on the weekend with a laughing/crying emoji alongside a photo of the work.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP'scollaborationwith The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Russian comedian Ostanin accused of mocking war invalids appears in Moscow court

A Reuters reporter in court said that the comedian, Artemy Ostanin, had been handed a sentence of five years and nine months and a fine of ⁠300,000 roubles ($3,908).

It was ‌the latest in a series of rulings which have harshly punished people judged by the ‍authorities to have spoken rudely or falsely about the Russian army at a time when it is fighting in Ukraine.

Ostanin ​was also convicted of offending the feelings of Christians ‌with another off-colour joke he made about Jesus, which angered Orthodox nationalists.

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Ostanin, who had apologised to anyone whose feelings he had hurt, denied wrongdoing and said that the joke he made about the war veteran had made ⁠no mention of the conflict ​in Ukraine.

His arrest and treatment were ​punishment enough for any offence he had caused, Ostanin said during his trial.

Russia passed sweeping ‍censorship laws in ⁠2022 shortly after it went to war in Ukraine. Pro-Kremlin figures and organisations have since publicly ⁠denounced people they deem to have broken those laws, and have ‌reported them to the authorities.

($1 = 76.7500 roubles)

(Reporting by ‌Andrew OsbornEditing by Mark Trevelyan)