November 3, 2017

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Entertainment November 3, 2017

The Week in Movie News: 'Shazam!' and 'Lion King' Casting, Possible Marvel Spin-Offs and More

Need a quick recap on the past week in movie news? Here are the highlights:

BIG NEWS

Zachary Levi and Mark Strong to star in DC’s Shazam!: As Justice League gets ready to open, Warner Bros. announced some big news on another DC movie in the works: Shazam! will star Zachary Levi (who can be seen in the new Marvel movie Thor: Ragnarok) as the title superhero and Mark Strong as villain Doctor Sivana. Read more here and here.

TERRIFIC NEWS

Beyonce confirmed for The Lion King: Disney unveiled an official cast roster for its live-action The Lion King remake, and among the ensemble was Beyonce Knowles-Carter, confirmed to be playing Nala. Read more here.

HOPEFUL NEWS

The women of the MCU want an all-female Marvel movie: Some of the best Marvel movies are those with interesting character combinations, so the main actresses of the MCU franchise pitching a spin-off with just female characters is a very exciting prospect, as is the revelation that Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster and Benicio del Toro’s Collector will likely appear together someday. Read more here and here.

COOL CULTURE

Thor: Ragnarok Live: For The Late Late Show with James Corden, the cast of Thor: Ragnarok performed a live rendition of parts of the movie before a surprised theater audience. Watch the amazing stunt below.

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EXCLUSIVE BUZZ

Taikia Waititi on the funny DC Easter egg in Thor: Ragnarok. We talked to Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, who was also an actor in DC’s Green Lantern, which led to a funny connection between the two movies. Read what he had to say here.

MUST-WATCH TRAILERS

Downsizing looks to charm big crowds: Another trailer for Alexander Payne’s Downsizing debuted with a more comedic focus on the Matt Damon-led sci-fi movie. Watch it below.

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The Disaster Artist looks like the opposite of a disaster: The second trailer for The Disaster Artist is filled with critical praise and James Franco and Dave Franco doing incredible-looking work. Check it out below:

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi keeps the anticipation going: Another trailer arrived for the next Star Wars episode, this time for international audiences. Also this week, we got a look at the first TV spot for the movie. See them both here:

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Health November 3, 2017

Notre Dame Is Dropping Birth Control Coverage For Students, Employees

Notre Dame is the “first and most important employer publicly to take advantage” of the rollback, The Los Angeles Times says.

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Michael Conroy/AP

The University of Notre Dame will no longer provide birth control coverage to students and employees, taking advantage of the Trump administration’s decision to weaken the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate.

As Indiana Public Media notes, the Catholic university previously “made the coverage available through a third-party service separate from the rest of its health insurance and attempted to sue for the right to not offer the coverage at all.”

That lawsuit, against the Obama administration, was unsuccessful.

But last month, the Trump administration rolled back the requirement, allowing any company or nonprofit to refuse to cover contraception based on a moral or religious objection.

That policy change allowed Notre Dame to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage in any form.

Notre Dame is the “first and most important employer publicly to take advantage” of the rollback, The Los Angeles Times reports.

The policy change will kick in for faculty and staff on Dec. 31 and for students on Aug. 14.

The American Civil Liberties Union has a lawsuit pending against the Trump administration’s weakening of the contraceptive mandate. One of the plaintiffs in that case is a Notre Dame student who was anticipating the university would drop its contraceptive coverage, as Indiana Public Media reports:

” ‘The Trump Administration Policy allows Notre Dame to declare a wholesale exemption and to not even allow their insurance company to provide the coverage, so we anticipated that Notre Dame would be revoking contraception coverage if given the opportunity,’ says Brigitte Amiri, an attorney with ACLU’s reproductive freedom project.

“Amiri says even though the university will still provide contraceptives as a treatment for other medical problems, it is still an infringement on a woman’s rights.

” ‘No matter where a woman works or goes to school, she should have coverage for basic health care services like contraceptives regardless of the purpose used for the contraception,’ she says.”

In an email to faculty and staff, which the university shared with NPR, a spokesman wrote that the school “honors the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.”

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