OC Bobby Petrino officially hired at North Carolina

North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick made the hiring of veteran coach Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator official on Friday.

News began to spread before Christmas that Petrino was headed for Chapel Hill, where he will be charged with revamping an offense that averaged only 19.3 points and 288.8 yards of total offense per game. Their scoring average was 16th in the 17-team Atlantic Coast Conference, and the Tar Heels finished last in total offense.

Belichick fired offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens after North Carolina finished 4-8 (2-6) in 2025.

"I'm extremely excited to join Coach Belichick and the Carolina football program," Petrino, 64, said Friday in a school news release. "This is an incredible opportunity to work with one of the best at a storied institution. I cannot wait to get started in Chapel Hill alongside this coaching staff and student-athletes."

Belichick cited Petrino's "proven record" in announcing the addition.

"We are fortunate to add an elite coaching talent in Bobby to our staff," Belichick said. "He brings an extensive background and a proven record of success on offense at every level of football. Bobby has consistently built great offenses everywhere he has been, and we look forward to having him work with our program."

Petrino held numerous college and NFL roles before serving as the Louisville head coach in 2003-06.

After resigning from the Atlanta Falcons 13 games into his lone season coaching them in 2007, Petrino served as the head coach at Arkansas (2008-11), Western Kentucky (2013), Louisville again (2014-18) and Missouri State (2020-22). He had an unceremonious departure from Arkansas after a motorcycle accident and an inappropriate relationship with an assistant.

That did not stop Arkansas from bringing him back as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach ahead of the 2024 season. When the Razorbacks fired head coach Sam Pittman on Sept. 28, 2025, Petrino became the interim coach and was considered a candidate for the full-time job.

Petrino has an overall record of 119-63 as a head coach.

Arkansas instead hired away Ryan Silverfield from Memphis and did not retain Petrino, who lost all seven games he coached.

Still, the problem at Arkansas was not its offense. The Razorbacks were 15th in the nation in total offense (454.8 yards) and 23rd in scoring offense (32.9 points).

--Field Level Media

byDonna Devi

in

January 09, 2026

OC Bobby Petrino officially hired at North Carolina

North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick made the hiring of veteran coach Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator offic...

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MLB suspends free-agent OF Max Kepler 80 games after positive PED test

Outfielder Max Kepler has been suspended 80 games after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug Epitrenbolone,MLB announced Friday.

The 32-year-old Kepler is currently a free agent after spending last season with the Philadelphia Phillies. He played 127 games in 2025, slashing .216/.300/.391 with 18 home runs and 52 RBI. He's ranked No. 41 onYahoo Sports' list of this winter's top free agents.

The clock on Kepler's 80-game suspension will begin if he signs a major-league contract for the upcoming season. He is automatically ineligible for the 2026 postseason due to the ban.

According to theU.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Epitrenbolone is a metabolite of trenbolone, an anabolic steroid.

Kepler has played 11 MLB seasons, his first 10 with the Minnesota Twins before he signed a one-year, $10 million deal to join the Phillies in December 2024.

byDonna Devi

in

January 09, 2026

MLB suspends free-agent OF Max Kepler 80 games after positive PED test

Outfielder Max Kepler has been suspended 80 games after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug Epitrenbol...

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Brooks Koepka reportedly applies for PGA Tour reinstatement after LIV Golf split

Brooks Koepka's journey back to the PGA Tour has officially begun.

The five-time major winner applied for reinstatement of his PGA Tour membership on Friday,according to ESPN's Mark Schlabach,three weeks after his high-profile split from LIV Golf. Koepka left the PGA Tour in 2022, becoming one of the biggest, and highest-paid, names for LIV's breakaway tour.

The path forward for Koepka and the PGA Tour is unclear. The organization has indicated in the past that a return from LIV would require a player to sit out at least a year after his last non-sanctioned event. Because LIV's final 2025 event ended on Aug. 25, that would mean Koepka would be effectively banned from the tour until this September.

However, that might not be set in stone. ESPN reports the tour will start its reinstatement and disciplinary process, which will include "thoughtful input from the board, including player directors."

Rory McIlroy, a former PGA Tour player director and one of the loudest anti-LIV voices during golf's great schism,suggested last week that players in Koepka's position shouldn't face punishment upon returning to the tour:

"They've made the money but they've paid their consequence when you talk about their reputation and some of the things that they've lost by going over there," McIlroy said. "If it made the overall tour stronger to have Bryson DeChambeau back and whoever else, I would be OK with it. But, it's not just me, and I recognize that not everyone's in my position. It would be up to the collective group of PGA Tour members to make that decision."

Whatever decision is made, Koepka remains eligible to play in the four majors this year by virtue of his 2023 PGA Championship. He can also play in the DP World Tour.

Koepka was among the several big names to leave the PGA Tour for LIV Golf three years ago, including Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson. Among that group,he was clearly the one most regretting his lucrative decision.

Going back to the 2023 Masters, he was lamenting losing the ability to regularly compete with golf's top competitors and dropping lines like, "It is what it is. It's the situation we've got right now, so I can't do anything about it. I just go play." Last year, he responded to Fred Couples reporting his interest in a PGA Tour return by saying, "I've got a contract obligation out here to fulfill, and then we'll see what happens."

Koepka's time with LIV has caused him to drop to 244th in the Official World Golf Ranking and his performance in majors, once his calling card, has dropped off as well. He won the PGA Championship in 2023, but hasn't finished in the top 10 in the 10 majors since then. In 2025, he missed the cut at three of the four majors.

Koepka officially left LIV in December, which the league described as an amicable split and him "prioritizing the needs of his family and staying closer to home."

byDonna Devi

in

January 09, 2026

Brooks Koepka reportedly applies for PGA Tour reinstatement after LIV Golf split

Brooks Koepka's journey back to the PGA Tour has officially begun. The five-time major winner applied for re...

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Emma Thompson Says Alan Rickman Was ‘So Happy’ to Finally Play Someone ‘Heroic and Nice’ in “Sense and Sensibility ”

Moviestore/Shutterstock; Clive Coote/Columbia Pictures

NEED TO KNOW

• Emma Thompson opened up about her 1995 film Sense and Sensibility

• She said Alan Rickman was so excited to play a 'heroic' character for once

• Rickman had already played movie villains in Die Hard and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

Emma Thompsonwas glad to help audiences seeAlan Rickmanin a different way.

Thompson, 66, opened up about some of her movies in a video forGQ. In it, she looked back at1995'sSense and Sensibility, which recently turned 30. In the movie, an adaptation of theJane Austennovel of the same name, she starred as Elinor Dashwood, a level-headed young woman who tries to lead her family after her father's death.Hugh Grantplayed her love interest Edward Ferrars and Kate Winslet played her sister Marianne. Rickman, whodied in 2016 at the age of 69, played Colonel Brandon, who befriends the Dashwoods and falls for Marianne. Marianne's other love interest, John Willoughby, was played byGreg Wise; he and Thompsonmet on the film and married in 2003.

"It was a very happy film," Thompson said in the video. "But in terms of the cast, we were so lucky because they were all, in a way, theater people." She called Winslet, who was then 19, "untried," adding, "I mean, she'd doneHeavenly Creatures, but that was it." She continued, "And she was heaven on earth and still is, you know, just completely normal person."

Moviestore/Shutterstock

As for Grant — who Thompson said she thinks she's worked with more than any other actor — she said, "I kept on saying, 'God, Hugh, you're so grumpy. You've got the energy of a welk.' And he would respond quite well to that. But actually, I think it was nice for him to do something like that at that point."Sense and Sensibilitycame right after Grant, now 65, broke out inFour Weddings and a Funeral.

Then there was Rickman. Thompson said, "Alan Rickman, God rest him, he was so happy to be playing someone heroic and nice 'cause he'd been he was so fed up with people wanting him to be the Sheriff of Nottingham."

Rickman has received a BAFTA nomination for playing the Sheriff of Nottingham inRobin Hood: Prince of Thieves, released in 1991. His film debut came in 1988'sDie Hard, in which he played thenow-iconic villain Hans Gruber. Thompson and Rickman (and Grant) later starred together inLove, Actually, whereRickman played a cheating husbandto Thompson's Joni Mitchell-loving character. Thompson and Rickman both also appeared in theHarry Potterfilms, wherehe famously played Professor Snapeand she played Professor Trelawney.Rickman and Thompson remained close friendsthroughout his life.

Moviestore/Shutterstock

Of theSense and Sensibilitycast, Thompson said, "They just came on and were those people and it was as though they knew Austin personally, you know, she'd drawn from them rather the other way round. So it was a group of actors who understood one another, you know, and there were no egos to speak of. So there was no one to navigate. So we could just be."

Thompson also reflected on director Ang Lee, who was making his English-language debut for the film. "He was just extraordinary," she said.

"On the first day when we were shooting, me and Hugh Grant were shooting something. At the end of it, we said, 'Oh, actually, Ang, you know, can we do that again? Can we just walk we just want to walk this direction? Can we just try it a slightly different way?' And he reacted very well and quietly," she remembered.

She later "discovered" that a big deal that was because he told them that in Taiwan, "The director is God" and just moves around the actors. "They're just pieces," she remembered him saying. "He said it's absolutely not collaborative. And actually, he loved it. He loved the collaboration."

Thompson won an Oscar for her adapted screenplay, becoming the first (and still only) person to win Oscars for acting and writing. She and Winslet were also both nominated for their performances in the film.

A newSense and Sensibilityadaptationis in the works from Netflix, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones.

Read the original article onPeople

byDonna Devi

in

January 09, 2026

Emma Thompson Says Alan Rickman Was ‘So Happy’ to Finally Play Someone ‘Heroic and Nice’ in “Sense and Sensibility ”

Moviestore/Shutterstock; Clive Coote/Columbia Pictures NEED TO KNOW Emma Thompson opened up about her 1995 film Sense and Sensibility She...

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Britney Spears says she'll never perform in the U.S. again

Kevin Mazur/BCU18/Getty

Britney Spearsfans living the U.S. will have to catch a flight if they hope to ever see her perform in person again.

The 44-year-old pop star says she's ruled out any future shows in the States, although she didn't provide much explanation why, telling her followers it was "because of extremely sensitive reasons."

"Sending this piano to my son this year!!!" Spears began the caption of anInstagram post she shared on Thursdayfeaturing a photo of her performance of "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" at the 29th Annual American Music Awards in 2002.

She then explained why she posts so many videos of her dancing on Instagram. "Interestingly enough, I dance on IG to heal things in my body that people have no idea about," she wrote. "Yup, and it's embarrassing sometimes... but I walked through the fire to save my life."

Frank Micelotta/ABC/ImageDirect via Getty

Then came a reveal sure to crush her most devoted disciples. "I will never perform in the U.S. again because of extremely sensitive reasons," she wrote, "but I hope to be sitting on a stool with a red rose in my hair, in a bun, performing with my son... in the U.K. and AUSTRALIA very soon."

"He's a huge star, and I'm so humbled to be in his presence!!!" she concluded. "God speed [sic], little man!!!"

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Although the singer didn't clarify which of her sons she was referring to — she shares Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden, 19, with exKevin Federline— Spears has previously gushed about Jayden's musical abilities, especially when it comes to the piano.

Last March, she shareda video of Jayden playing the instrumentto her Instagram (reposted in April), praising his skills. "He's a genius and I'm in awe of him!!! I can't believe he's mine!!! I was honestly scared. That's not normal!!!" Spears' previous caption read,PEOPLEreported.

Britney Spears Instagram

Spears hasn't performed live in the U.S. since October 2018, when she closed out herPiece of Metour with a show at the Formula One Grand Prix in Austin. She was scheduled toreturn to Las Vegas in 2019 for a second residencyafter the success of her first,Britney Spears: Piece of Me,which concluded in 2017, but she ultimatelycanceled it and took a hiatusafter her father, Jamie Spears, suffered a severe colon rupture and required hospitalization.

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

byDonna Devi

in

January 09, 2026

Britney Spears says she'll never perform in the U.S. again

Kevin Mazur/BCU18/Getty Britney Spearsfans living the U.S. will have to catch a flight if they hope to ever see her perform in person agai...

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John Cunningham, actor who played Ethan Hawke and Matt Damon's onscreen dad, dies at 93

ABC Photo Archives/Getty

John Cunningham, the veteran Broadway actor who appeared in films likeDead Poets SocietyandMystic Pizza, has died. He was 93.

A death noticeannouncedthat the actor died at his home in Rye, N.Y., on Tuesday. A cause of death was not immediately available.

Born in Auburn, N.Y., in 1932, Cunningham graduated from Dartmouth College and joined the Army, where he first worked in battlefield communications before performing in plays for troops stationed in France and West Germany. He subsequently received his master's degree from Yale Drama School, where he studied alongside his lifelong friend Dick Cavett.

Bennett Raglin/Getty

After moving to New York, Cunningham made his big break on stage in 1960 inMy Fair Lady, in which he played Zoltan and served as the understudy for Henry Higgins in the show's national and international companies. Over the next two decades, he appeared in numerous prominent Broadway shows, includingCabaret,1776,Company,California Suite, andZorba.

The actor made his screen debut on a 1963 episode ofThe Doctors. He also appeared on shows likeAnother World,The Secret Storm,The American Parade, andSearch for Tomorrow. On the big screen, Cunningham played small roles in films likeThe Big Fixstarring Richard Dreyfuss andLost and Foundstarring George Segal and Glenda Jackson.

Brigitte LaCombe/Getty

Cunningham's most memorable screen work came in the late '80s and 1990s. He portrayed the grandfather ofMatt Damonand Adam Storke (who played Julia Roberts' love interest) in 1988'sMystic Pizza, and also portrayed Ethan Hawke's father in 1989'sDead Poets Society. He reteamed with Damon for 1992'sSchool Ties, this time playing the futureGood Will Huntingstar's father.

Around that same time, Cunningham delivered some of his most memorable work on stage. He played Flan in the original production ofSix Degrees of Separationopposite Stockard Channing, Courtney B. Vance, and Kelly Bishop beginning in 1990 (and later played the supporting role of John in the 1993 film adaptation of the play). Over the next 15 years, he also appeared in new productions ofCompany,Anna Karenina,Titanic,The Sisters Rosensweig,Design for Living,Anything Goes, andAmour.

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with ourEW Dispatch newsletter.

Cunningham provided two memorable voiceover roles in prominent '90s films: the "Be a Man" tape instructor inIn & Outand the Fed Net Announcer inStarship Troopers. His other screen credits includedTwo Weeks Notice,The Jackal,Shaft, and episodes ofLaw & Order,30 Rock,One Life to Live, andThe Good Wife.

The actor's last performance on the New York stage came in an Off Broadway production ofPainting Churchesin 2012, and his final screen performance came on a 2013 episode ofBlue Bloods.

Cunningham is survived by his wife, Carolyn; his three children, Christopher, Catherine, and Laura, his six grandchildren; and his two great-grandchildren.

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

byDonna Devi

in

January 09, 2026

John Cunningham, actor who played Ethan Hawke and Matt Damon's onscreen dad, dies at 93

ABC Photo Archives/Getty John Cunningham, the veteran Broadway actor who appeared in films likeDead Poets SocietyandMystic Pizza, has di...

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Uvalde jurors see graphic photos from classroom where students were killed

Editor's note: Some of the testimony described below is extremely graphic.

The families of some of theRobb Elementary Schoolmass shooting victims passed around tissues before graphic photos were shown in court on Friday at the trial of formerUvalde, Texas, school police officerAdrian Gonzales.

Gonzales -- who was one of nearly 400 law enforcement officers to respond to Robb -- is charged with child endangerment for allegedly ignoring his training during the botched police response. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed, and investigations have faulted the police response and suggested that a 77-minute delay in police mounting a counterassault could have contributed to the carnage.

Gonzales has pleaded not guilty and his legal team says he did all he could to help students.

Former Uvalde educator recounts asking 911, 'Where are the cops?' in emotional testimony

Judge Sid Harle issued a warning to the gallery before the jury entered on Friday.

"I want to forewarn you, these photographs are going to be shocking and gruesome, and if anybody wants to step out, you are welcome to step out, but we cannot have any displays in front of the jury," Harle said. "I'm forewarning you -- these are not going to be pleasant to look at, and I'm sorry you're going to have to look at them just like I had to."

Former Texas Ranger Juan Torrez took the stand and described in detail the crime scene photos he took inside Room 111 at Robb,where all 11 students were killed on May 24, 2022. Theteacher was the sole survivor.

"There was a lot of shell casings," said Torrez, who spent three days photographing the room. "There's a lot of blood, a lot of blood swipes, and the weapon was in the closet."

Uvalde in Their Own Words: Teacher whose students were killed shares physical, emotional scars

Using a pointer to highlight parts of the photos, Torrez testified about the location of the classroom, damage to the door and areas of the room where students didn't attempt to hide. Defense lawyers had objected to showing the more graphic images, but Harle allowed the bulk of them into evidence due to their relevance to the prosecution's case.

"Does the scene change?" prosector Bill Turner asked Torrez about some of the photos.

"As far as the presence of blood, it changes dramatically," Torrez said. "A lot of bullet holes, a lot of shell casings covered in blood, a lot of bullet defects, perforations, penetrations, and just a lot of blood."

Over the next hour, the courtroom fell almost entirely silent, other than the testimony and occasional ruffling of tissues and sniffling. Some of the jurors craned their necks to see the photos, while others covered their mouths or lifted tissues to wipe their eyes. The families of the victims sat quietly and no one left the courtroom during the testimony.

Uvalde officer was told location of gunman but he failed to act, prosecutors say

The photos did not show the bodies of students, which were removed prior to the photos being taken. But jurors did see photos showing large pools of blood and the drag marks made when the bodies were removed. Photos also showed dried bloodstains on desks, textbooks and office supplies.

Torrez testified that investigators placed rods in the cavities left by the bullets to demonstrate the direction of the gunshots. The pink and yellow rods showed that the shooter likely fired downward -- through the desks -- toward the sheltering students, Torrez said.

Torrez offered his testimony with little context other than his experience as a crime-scene photographer that day. Prosecutors did not explain how the images relate to Gonzales, other than suggesting that his alleged inaction contributed to the loss of life that day.

Defense attorneys say Gonzales is being scapegoated for a broader failure by law enforcement. In itsopening statement this week, the defense alleged that prosecutors were playing on jurors' emotions and that convicting Gonzales would be an injustice piled on top of one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.

ABC News' Juan Renteria contributed to this report.

byDonna Devi

in

January 09, 2026

Uvalde jurors see graphic photos from classroom where students were killed

Editor's note: Some of the testimony described below is extremely graphic. The families of some of theRobb E...

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