The News

 More than 20 years after originating the onstage role of Glinda in Wicked, Kristin Chenoweth is praising her big-screen successors.

After noting she “cannot confirm or deny” a cameo in the long-awaited feature adaptation, which premieres Nov. 22 in theaters, the Tony winner shared a rave review for director Jon M. Chu‘s feature adaptation of the Broadway musical.

Speaking for herself and OG co-star Idina Menzel, Chenowth told Us Weekly they’re “both really happy for the girls [Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo]. We can’t wait to see them take on these characters.”

Chenoweth raved in the video, “Oh my gosh I just saw the movie and I’m dying. I’m deceased, I’m actually dead, I’m not here. People are not going to be well when they see this film. It is so good, it is so special.

“The story is so wonderful, and Cynthia and Ariana are amazing. The whole cast is amazing. Jon Chu nailed it. I was so moved, emotional, happy, filled with joy. Please everybody go see Wicked, you’ll be blessed,” she added.

Chenoweth and Menzel played Glinda, the Good Witch, and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in the 2003 Broadway musical — which was based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel and L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz books — earning Menzel the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical, for which her co-star was also nominated.

The film follows Elphaba (Erivo) and Glinda (Grande) as they first meet at Shiz University and share a life-changing encounter with the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum).

Chu was tapped to direct the Universal adaptation back in 2021. The first Wicked installment premieres Nov. 22, 2024, with the second following on Nov. 21, 2025.

 A pregnant Texas teenager died after three separate visits to an emergency room in attempts to get care in another incident that has highlighted the medical impact of the loss of abortion rights in the US.

On her third trip to the hospital, Crain was finally moved to intensive care after an obstetrician insisted on two ultrasounds to “confirm fetal demise”, reported ProPublica.

She died hours later after suffering organ failure. A nurse noted that her lips had turned “blue and dusky”, ProPublica said. The teen would have turned 20 this Friday.

Though Texas retains exceptions for life-threatening conditions, the fear and uncertainty instilled in doctors over which treatments may or may not be considered a crime has had devastating effects on women in need of healthcare.

The result is that in states with abortion bans, patients are often traded between hospitals in order to shirk responsibility and argue about legalities, an act which wastes precious and potentially life-saving time.

“Pregnant women have become essentially untouchables,” Sara Rosenbaum, a health law and policy professor emerita at George Washington University, told ProPublica.

The president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, Mini Timmaraju, said Crain’s death underscored the deadly threat posed by abortion bans.

“Pregnancy should not be a death sentence,” Timmaraju said in a statement.

Timmaraju placed the blame for abortion bans on the shoulders of Republican politicians such as Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, the incumbent Texas senator who is facing a tough re-election fight against the Democrat Collin Allred.

“This has to stop,” she said. “And our best chance to do that is to vote for reproductive freedom,” including by supporting Allred and Kamala Harris against Trump in the 5 November election.

By doing so, “we can restore the right to abortion and these bans,” Timmaraju said.

Nevaeh Crain, 18, had gone to two different emergency rooms within 12 hours in October 2023, each time returning home feeling worse than before. Crain was only diagnosed with strep throat upon her first visit. The hospital did not investigate her sharp abdominal cramps, according to reporting by ProPublica.

Crain is one of at least two Texas women who died under the state’s abortion ban brought in after the US supreme court overturned the federal right to abortion. Josseli Barnica, 28, died after a miscarriage in 2021.

These incidents are seen as evidence of a new reality in which US healthcare professionals in states with new tough abortion restrictions are hesitant or even afraid to give care to pregnant mothers over fear of legal repercussions. Texas’s abortion ban threatens prison time for interventions that end a fetal heartbeat, regardless of whether the pregnancy is wanted or not.

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Medical records indicate Crain tested positive for sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition, on her second visit. But doctors still cleared her to leave after apparently confirming that her six-month-old fetus still had a heartbeat.

On her third trip to the hospital, Crain was finally moved to intensive care after an obstetrician insisted on two ultrasounds to “confirm fetal demise”, reported ProPublica.

She died hours later after suffering organ failure. A nurse noted that her lips had turned “blue and dusky”, ProPublica said. The teen would have turned 20 this Friday.

Though Texas retains exceptions for life-threatening conditions, the fear and uncertainty instilled in doctors over which treatments may or may not be considered a crime has had devastating effects on women in need of healthcare.

The result is that in states with abortion bans, patients are often traded between hospitals in order to shirk responsibility and argue about legalities, an act which wastes precious and potentially life-saving time.

“Pregnant women have become essentially untouchables,” Sara Rosenbaum, a health law and policy professor emerita at George Washington University, told ProPublica.

The president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, Mini Timmaraju, said Crain’s death underscored the deadly threat posed by abortion bans.

“Pregnancy should not be a death sentence,” Timmaraju said in a statement.

Timmaraju placed the blame for abortion bans on the shoulders of Republican politicians such as Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, the incumbent Texas senator who is facing a tough re-election fight against the Democrat Collin Allred.

“This has to stop,” she said. “And our best chance to do that is to vote for reproductive freedom,” including by supporting Allred and Kamala Harris against Trump in the 5 November election.

By doing so, “we can restore the right to abortion and these bans,” Timmaraju said.

 Penn State football finds itself with its biggest home game of the 2024 college football regular season in Week 10.

The opponent is none other than the Nittany Lions Big Ten conference rival No. 4 Ohio State — a game that has significant implications surrounding the Big Ten championship game and College Football Playoffs.

It's a game where both teams are ranked in the top five of the US LBM Coaches Poll, and has all the makings of being Penn State's annual White Out game. In fact, Penn State has hosted Ohio State for its White Out game five times in the history of its overall White Outs.

But that isn't the case in 2024, as the Nittany Lions look to keep their undefeated season alive as the Buckeyes travel to Happy Valley and Beaver Stadium.

Here's what you need to know on why Penn State-Ohio State is not a "White Out," including when the Nittany Lions will hold their "White Out" this season:

Is Penn State-Ohio State a White Out?

No, Penn State vs. Ohio State is not the Nittany Lions' White Out game for the 2024 college football season — even though Saturday's game will have the game atmosphere of one.

In fact, Penn State fans have not been afraid to throw their two cents in on the fact Saturday's game isn't a White Out or being played at night.

Why isn't Penn State-Ohio State a White Out?

The reason Saturday's Big Ten heavyweight showdown between Penn State and Ohio State isn't the Nittany Lions' White Out game seems to be due to TV rights.

Though it wasn't announced until last week, the Nittany Lions-Buckeyes game was the likely choice for Fox's "Big Noon Kickoff" in Week 10, compared to the Big Ten's 3:30 p.m. ET game on CBS or 7:30 p.m. ET game on NBC. At this point of the college football regular season, start time and TV channel information are not released until the week before.

According to The Athletic's Audrey Snyder, Saturday's game was not selected within the top four picks from the networks in their quote on quote "Network College Football Draft."

"This game was on the board for us at No. 5 when we have three consecutive picks and there’s just no way that I can allow this game to fall to the eighth pick," Fox's president of insight and analytics Mike Mulvihill told The Athletic. "That would almost be malpractice on my part. … Given the draft played out the way it did, it was just obvious that we had to take it."