Microsoft wins court battle allowing Activision Blizzard deal to proceed in U.S.

Welcome back, Insider. It’s been another breakneck week in entertainment. Jesse Whittock here guiding you through the most important TV and film stories.

Monica Lewinsky is celebrating a new decade! The activist and public figure turned 50 over the weekend, taking the opportunity to share an Instagram reel and to publish an emotive post where she celebrated her life and achievements. Lea Michele congratulates Beanie Feldstein for ‘Funny Girl’ role: ‘YOU are the greatest star!’Monica Lewinsky asks Beyoncé to consider removing her name from her 2013 song ‘Partition’A post shared by Monica Lewinsky (@monica_lewinsky)The post shows multiple adorable photos of herself when she was a baby, organized in chronological order, until she reaches the age of a young girl. “HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY TO ME!” she wrote in the caption.

Stephen Curry is still feeling the glow of winning the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament last weekend. 

A family in Florida won $800,000 in a civil judgment against fast food giant McDonald’s after one of its franchises served a hot chicken nugget that burned a girl several years ago.

Robert Downey Jr. has revealed that Kate Winslet once roasted him for having the “worst British accent” ever.The American actor, who stars in Oppenheimer which is released this Friday (July 21), said in a new interview that the British actress roasted him for his accent efforts.He recalled the time when he was auditioning for The Holiday (2006) opposite the actress years ago.“We both got called in just as seat fillers… [director Nancy Meyers] needed someone to read with the gals and we’re sitting there going, ‘It’s about to happen for us,’” Downey told SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show recently.

The only thing worse than a bad ruling at the U.S. Supreme Court is a bad ruling that sets up the prospect that the worst is yet to come.

Kevin Spacey was “like another son” to late Glengarry Glen Ross co-star Jack Lemmon, a court heard today at the American Beauty actor’s UK sex offenses trial.

Kevin Spacey has begun taking to the stand and defending himself against the numerous sexual assault allegations during his U.K. trial this week.

Angelina Jolie‘s wine biz just filed new court documents in their ongoing battle against her ex-husband Brad Pitt — and the lawyers who wrote this filing deserve a PhD in shade!!

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A federal court nixed the FTC’s request to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which could pave the way for the $69 billion deal to close as soon as this month. The U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California on Tuesday issued a ruling denying the Federal Trade Commission’s request for a preliminary injunction in its case regarding Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Microsoft has signaled it intends to close the takeover of Activision Blizzard — which would be the biggest ever in the gaming sector — by the July 18 deal termination date. In the ruling (available at this link), District Court Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley cited in part Microsoft’s commitment to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 years, on parity with Xbox, and that Microsoft inked an agreement with Nintendo to bring the game to Nintendo Switch. The judge found that “the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail” on its claim that the merger “may substantially lessen competition,” she wrote. “To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content.”

An ongoing termination rights dispute between Lil Joe Records and the 2 Live Crew got a hearing in the American courts last week. A key part of the dispute centres on whether or not bankruptcy proceedings that took place in the mid-1990s impact the rights of each 2 Live Crew member to reclaim copyrights in their old recordings.

An aspiring actor woke up to find Kevin Spacey performing a sex act on him after falling asleep at the two-time Oscar winner’s London flat, a court has heard.

An alleged victim of Kevin Spacey has said he put his allegations “in a box” initially because the Oscar-winning actor was seen as a “golden boy.”

Selome Hailu “The Bear” became an overnight sensation when its first season debuted in 2022 because of its visceral honesty about how it looks and feels to work in a restaurant. Much of the credit for that belongs to Courtney Storer. Storer, sister of series creator Chris Storer, has worked in high-profile kitchens from Verjus in Paris to Jon & Vinny’s in L.A., but her most recent job has been to serve as “The Bear’s” culinary producer, getting the writers, cast and crew acclimated to the world the series takes place in. “In Season 1, it was it was a lot of storytelling with the writers, but also providing my journals and different training guides to give insight into the ethos of restaurants,” Storer says. “It’s bigger than the conflicts: It’s the decision-making, the structure, the procedures, the recipes.”

Michael Imperioli is reacting to the Supreme Court ruling that made it legal for a web designer to refuse to work with a same-sex couple.

Michael Imperioli is taking a stance against the recent Supreme Court ruling in the United States earlier this week.

J. Kim Murphy Michael Imperioli is among many actors in Hollywood speaking out against the Supreme Court, with the “Sopranos” star making a statement against the group’s ruling in favor of a Christian web designer who sought legal protection to discriminate against same-sex marriages due to her religious beliefs. Imperioli shared a screenshot of a news story about the ruling on Instagram, with the headline “Supreme Court protects web designer who won’t do gay wedding websites,” along with a caption railing against the decision. “I’ve decided to forbid bigots and homophobes from watching ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘The White Lotus,’ ‘Goodfellas’ or any movie or TV show I’ve been in,” Imperioli wrote Saturday morning. “Thank you Supreme Court for allowing me to discriminate and exclude those who I don’t agree with and am opposed to. USA! USA!”

LGBTQ advocates and allies are lamenting the Supreme Court’s recent decision in favor of a website designer who sought an exemption from her state’s nondiscrimination law to allow her to refuse to create wedding websites for same-sex couples.Despite one of the alleged requests for service from a gay couple allegedly being fabricated or submitted under false pretenses, as reported by The New Republic, the high court ultimately decided in favor of Lorie Smith, the owner of 303 Creative, LLC, finding that Colorado’s law infringes on her free speech rights.The court further found that, because Smith creates “custom” websites that contain “expressive content,” she should have been granted a “free speech” exemption to the Coloraod Anti-Discrimination Act allowing her to not only refuse service to same-sex couples, but to post a notice that she will refuse to create websites celebrating same-sex marriages.Many allies of the LGBTQ community noted that while the decision is not as broad as to overturn nullify laws prohibiting LGBTQ discrimination, it does create a massive carve-out for businesses providing “custom-made” goods or services, allowing them to discriminate against prospective customers — in this particular case, LGBTQ individuals, but potentially members of other groups in the future — on free speech grounds. “The Supreme Court just gave businesses a license to discriminate,” Ben Olinsky, the senior vice president of Structural Reform and Governance at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, said in a statement.

landed serious blows to the American education system this week.First, on June 29, the Court struck down at the University of North Carolina and Harvard before President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness program, which offered up to $20,000 of debt relief to millions of Americans, just a day later. Each of these decisions is considered a major victory for the conservative faction.Regarding the rulings against affirmative action, here's everything you need to know.Affirmative action programs and policies are aimed toward the inclusion of underrepresented groups, based on race, gender, sexuality, etc.

An evangelical Christian web designer can refuse services to same-sex wedding websites, the Supreme Court ruled Friday. Photo: Queerency