“They were each other’s whole world.”

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These are some pretty ~neat~ products if I do say so myself.

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“I’m a mess, basically. A tired, nauseous, anxious, pregnant mess.”

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Exhale.

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In a wide-ranging interview covering his most memorable roles, actor Don Cheadle has revealed the unusual circumstances that led to him being cast as War Machine, starting with Marvel’s Iron Man 2.

As most MCU fans know, James “Rhodey” Rhodes was originally played by Terrence Howard in the first Iron Man film, but he was jettisoned from the franchise after reportedly being asked to take a pay cut, which left Marvel Studios scrambling to find a replacement for the sequel. What fans might not know is that Cheadle had narrowly lost the role to Howard, so it was definitely an interesting moment to have the studio call him up and ask him if he was still interested in the part. Although, according to The AV Club, Marvel didn’t exactly give Cheadle a whole lot of time to decide.

“I don’t think it was [Kevin] Feige. I don’t know who was on the phone. But they said, “Hey, this is the role. We want you to do this. It’s a six-picture deal.” I was like, “What?! Oh, uh, okay…” And I’m trying to do the math. I’m like, “That’s 11 or 12 years. I’m not sure.” And they’re like, “Well, we need to know, because if you’re not saying yes, then we’re gonna move on to the next person. So you’ve got an hour.”

An hour to decide 12 years, and a role and parts that I don’t even know, in movies that are coming down that I have no idea what they’ll be. I said, “I’m at my kid’s laser tag party right now.” They said, “Oh! Oh, take two hours.” So generous!”

While ducking laser tag bolts, Cheadle let his wife know about the offer and asked her what he should do because, again, this was a pretty big decision. Obviously, she was on board. Cheadle took the part, and his interpretation of the classic Iron Man character became a fan favorite for a solid decade, which means his math was pretty spot-on.

(Via The AV Club)

When COVID-19 has forced most of the pro wrestling industry to go on hiatus, WWE was somehow able to resume running live television shows multiple times a week, event after someone in the company had been diagnosed with the coronavirus. How exactly is the promotion able to do this, with the number of people needed to produce live television and the amount of physical contact involved in professional wrestling? According to Jerry Demings, the Mayor of Orange County, Florida, it’s because WWE has been deemed an “essential business.”

The Orange County government provided updates on the coronavirus situation in its area today and Demings was asked (about thirty minutes into the video of the press conference on Facebook) if WWE was deemed an essential business, or if they got a special permit to stay open. Demings replied that “They were not initially deemed an essential business. With some conversation with the governor’s office regarding the governor’s order, they were deemed an essential business, so, therefore, they were allowed to remain open.” The mayor did not explain why WWE’s classification was changed.

In regards to the coronavirus case on the roster, Demings said that “I don’t know any of the details of that, obviously, because of HIPAA laws,” but stated that he believed the billion-dollar, publicly-traded corporation would treat its roster like a family. “That’s like a little family,” he said of WWE and its independent contractors. “A small family of professional athletes that wrestle. And if one of my family members tested positive in my house, that would be concerning to me. We would have to make some provisions in my house to make sure that the rest of us not get infected, and so I would assume that, from a business perspective, the WWE is doing that type of analysis of its own family.”

Noted Red Sox fan and paper salesman John Krasinski isn’t having the best spring, as his baseball team isn’t playing and his movie, A Quiet Place Part II, is delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The early returns on the movie were quite good, so even if he’s not happy about the Sox trading Mookie Betts he’ll still have something to look forward to later this year.

He’s also doing his part to honor medical workers and their heroic efforts to help patients suffering COVID-19 battle the virus. Krasinski started Some Good News during the pandemic, a show that highlights good things happening despite all of the bad things happening. In the third episode of the show, which you can view above, Krasinski spoke to the COVID-19 unit at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He then virtually introduced them to someone who needs no introduction in Boston: David Ortiz.

Krasinski wanted to bring baseball to the staff, and he did it in a big way with the help of Big Papi. The retired Red Sox star, hilariously wearing a Red Sox jersey, spoke fondly of the staff and praised their work during a health crisis.

“I gotta tell you guys from the very bottom of my heart how much I love and respect you guys for what you are doing,” Ortiz said. He then announced that the staff at Beth Israel Deaconess would get four Red Sox tickets for life to games at Fenway Park, for the hospital to use as they see fit. Krasinski said he’s waited 16 years for season tickets and hasn’t heard back, so he’s admittedly a little jealous.

The episode also featured a special surprise for just the COVID-19 unit, which got a socially distant Duck Boat Tour of Boston and got a special look at Fenway Park. Krasinski called it “the most sanitized Duck Boat in America,” so it’s nice that they were keeping everyone safe. The video features some excellent Boston accents, as well as a bit of mask-wearing levity, which was nice. There was a nice moment of applause from Boston’s mayor, the governor of Massachusetts, and even a number of players on the Red Sox themselves. The workers even got to throw out the “first pitch” of the baseball season, which hasn’t officially started due to COVID-19.

Ortiz also has a special tie to the city, as he played most of his career with the Red Sox and also recovered at a Boston hospital — Mass General — following his gunshot wound suffered last year. And in a world without sports, it was a nice gesture by everyone involved to give some very important medical workers the star treatment amid a terrible situation.

You may already have spent some time exploring the exquisite, intricate video walkthroughs of Disney theme parks, but be sure you’re sitting down for this bit of news – and that you keep your arms, hands, legs and feet inside the vehicle at all times.

Your mobile device, a set of ear buds for some extra you-are-there-ness and just a little bit of imagination make it possible to take 360-degree, immersive rides on some of your favorite attractions; if you’ve got a portable VR viewer for your device, you can even go on incredible virtual-reality rides. (Should you choose to remain seated at all times, you can even watch them on your laptop, using your mouse or trackpad to control the view.)

It’s all possible thanks to YouTube channel Virtual Disney World – plus, of course, some Disney Imagineering. The creators of Virtual Disney World have been astonishingly thorough and up-to-date – not to mention bi-coastal – so even if you weren’t able to get a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance before Disney theme parks worldwide were forced to close, or to ride Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway in the mere 11 days it operated before the shutdown, here’s your chance.

360º Tour of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

www.youtube.com

Prefer something a little more classic? You can choose from The Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World or Disneyland and compare the not-insignificant differences – or even check out the ever-controversial Haunted Mansion Holiday from Disneyland, which re-themes the dark ride to The Nightmare Before Christmas for four months each year. There are even some 360° walkthroughs of Disney resorts, and a couple of the most popular rides at Universal Orlando – if you didn’t want to wait in line 10 hours for Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventures, here’s your chance to see what all the fuss was about.

360º Ride on Haunted Mansion Holiday

www.youtube.com

Even better, if you’ve got back or neck problems, high blood pressure, are prone to motion sickness or you’re an expectant mother … it’s not a problem at all!

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the best of the 360° videos from Disney theme parks.

* Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – Few people have had a chance to experience this centerpiece attraction of the Disney Hollywood Studios: Disney’s parks closed a week and a half after it debuted. Now you can see the frenetic, cartoon-themed wackiness for yourself. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jaf4Vbj4ClA)

* The Great Movie Ride – Here’s the super-elaborate, Audio Animatronics-filled dark ride that called the Chinese Theater at Disney Hollywood Studios home from 1989 to 2017. Pay special attention to the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz sequence; for years, she was the most advanced animatronics figure Disney ever created. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jaf4Vbj4ClA)

* Mad Tea Party – Here’s an extra dose of 360° craziness: spin while you spin and get yourself extra dizzy on the Magic Kingdom version of the “tea cups.” The original ride at Disneyland was one of the opening-day attractions on July 17, 1955. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ouofPAuSxI)

* Spaceship Earth – The iconic geodesic sphere of EPCOT houses this 15-minute ride (about 10 minutes are included in this ridethrough, not including the personalized, interactive descent). The slow-moving dark ride through human history and the evolution of communications has been reworked three times in EPCOT’s 38-year history and is about to undergo another big, as-yet-unrevealed change. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSIs3cCdlhc)

But Virtual Disney World isn’t the only 360° game in Disney’s town. The YouTube channel ResortTV1 also offers 360 videos of attractions, including the incomparable Kilimanjaro Safari at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. By far the largest single Disney attraction at more than 110 acres (35 acres more than Disneyland itself), it’s also one of the most stunning.

Disneyland fans won’t be left out, because Dream Disney 360 offers this wraparound ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which opened in California in September 1979 (more than a year before the Walt Disney World version), so hang on to your hats and glasses, ’cause this here’s the wildest ride on the Internet!

John Singh is a writer and entertainment-industry veteran who began his career as a newspaper journalist and has also worked at Disney, Lucasfilm Ltd., DreamWorks Animation and on a variety of films and TV series.

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There is a good chance that you’ve seen chatter across social media that the first coronavirus stimulus checks have been distributed today, and an even higher chance that you’re now one of the people wondering, “Hey…where is MY money?” We feel that — we’re in the same boat — but don’t start freaking out and calling/emailing/@-ing the IRS just yet. The money is coming, and we don’t mean in the Uncut Gems, Howard Ratner kind of way. In fact, according to the House Committee On Ways & Means, 60 million Americans will see their stimulus checks deposited in their account sometime this week, or the next… or the next. After what the IRS hopes is a 10-day process, a second round of payments will be doled out to Social Security beneficiaries.

Not having a clear answer is frustrating, which is why the IRS is planning on launching a tracking tool similar to its “Where’s My Refund?” tax-refund feature called “Get My Payment,” which should be operational by April 17th. So if you don’t get paid by this week, you’ll at least know when you’ll get paid. But let’s be real — if the tracking tool is anything like “Where’s My Refund?” at the most you’ll get is a notification that your payment is “processing.”

If you filed for your 2018 or 2019 taxes and authorized for direct deposit, it’s pretty safe to assume you’re going to see that $1,200 deposited this month. It could be today, tomorrow, anytime this month really. If your direct deposit information has changed since filing, the Get My Payment portal will allow you to update your information so that you don’t have to wait for a paper check, which won’t be sent out until the beginning of May. Non-filers and other low-income individuals will also be able to enter banking information to receive a payment through the portal — a remedied area of criticism from when the relief bill was first announced.

According to the House Committee On Ways & Means, paper checks will be issued by the week of May 4th and can take up to 20 weeks to fully be distributed. Luckily, low income Americans can expect their checks to arrive more quickly, as they’ll be issued in “reverse adjusted gross income,” with the first checks going out to the people with the lowest income.