Disney

Something about the new live-action version of "The Little Mermaid" isn't sitting right with singer Paloma Faith ... who says the movie's plot is a really hard one to explain to her kiddos.

Paloma took to social media over the weekend, first congratulating Halle Bailey for her performance in the new Disney flick -- before dragging the story's main focus, saying "I don’t want my kids to think it’s ok to give up your entire voice and your powers to love a man."

She added, "Wtf is this s***?! Not what I want to be teaching next gen women at all.” Of course, she's referring to Ariel giving up her own voice to become a human to be with her love interest, Prince Eric.

For those unaware, it's the same trope that was used in the original 1989 version, so it seems Paloma might've forgotten the story before watching this new adaptation.

However, Halle told Edition earlier this year that her new version "definitely changed that perspective of just her wanting to leave the ocean for a boy ... It’s way bigger than that. It’s about herself, her purpose, her freedom, her life and what she wants.”

Looks like Jennifer Garner is mixin’ pretty well with her ex Ben Affleck and his new boo Jennifer Lopez -- because she took to the happiest place on Earth over the weekend with not only her daughter, but J-Lo’s kid, too.

The actress was in full chaperone mode at Disneyland Sunday, wrangling a group of teens at the beloved theme park ... having some fun with her youngest daughter, Seraphina, and some of her pals -- as well as Lopez's 15-year-old kid, Emme, whom the singer shares with Marc Anthony.

Seems to be no issues over here with the new family dynamic ... JG even got them all to snap some pics in front of the castle -- with Emme and Seraphina cheesing right next to each other!

As you know, Affleck and Garner pulled the plug on their decade-long marriage back in 2015, with Ben and J-Lo tying the knot last year.

The makeup artist who gave Ursula her look in "The Little Mermaid" says the blowback he's gotten from members of the LGBTQ community is ridiculous ... that only someone from that community should have been tapped for the job.

Peter King, a seasoned makeup artist, has been under fire from some LGBTQ members, who groused Melissa McCarthy's sea witch character -- inspired by drag queen Divine -- should not have been done up at the hands of anyone outside the community.

King went on the offensive, saying, "I find that very offensive. Why can't I do as good a job as a queer makeup artist?"

Mr. King is seasoned at his craft, doing makeup for "The Lord of the Rings," "Star Wars: Episode VIII -- The Last Jedi, and "Spider-Man." He said, "I personally don't get it. Yes, I'm very old now, so that's fine, I get that too, but you know, a makeup artist or makeup designer could design makeup, they don't have to have an attachment to the nature of what they're doing."

Meanwhile, the #1 film this weekend -- expected to top $120M -- had a famous guest in one of the theaters ... Halle Bailey, who posted video of herself in disguise taking in the action.

And, speaking of action, a fight broke out at one theater ... unsure what it was about, but fists were flying -- adult fists -- which is crazy, right?

A sign of the times.

Jodi Benson's looks over the years are out of this world!

Watch and you'll see ... a 38-year-old version of the first 'Little Mermaid' looking absolutely fin-tastic at the premiere of "The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea" in Hollywood, California back in 2000 (left). This was over a decade after the release of the original Disney classic film.

And, 23 years later, the stunning actress recently ran a dinglehopper through her hair and hit the premiere for the live-action, "The Little Mermaid," where she looked like no time had gone by (right).

Jodi has shined like a trove full of whozits and whatzits for decades, but the question is ...

Underneath this mashed-up photo is a comedian and actress who's all about the "girl code," and back in 2018 ... you may have seen her hosting an 'SNL' episode! Grab your shiniest snarfblatt and see if you can play with this unknown star!

Somewhere above the sea, this girl has cracked many knee-slappers in her day like playing Rachel Chu's bestie, and while she may not be the tallest gal on the block, she sure is mighty ... just ask her 'Jumanji' costar Dwayne Johnson.

Can you say "farewell" to this scrambled face before they go after the sea witch?

Halle Bailey's 'Little Mermaid' got tons of backlash when it was first announced, but now that it's out -- it seems folks are more curious than angry ... 'cause they're flocking to see it.

Disney's latest live-action adaptation hit theaters this weekend -- a 4-day one at that -- and so far, 'TLM' is cleaning up in ticket sales ... projected to land on a record-setting box office haul, with an estimated $120 mil-$130 mil to its name by the time Monday rolls around.

Some analysts have the film pegged to make more than $130MM -- but Disney's hedging their bets, saying it'll probably be closer to $125 MM domestically. Overseas, the movie is said to likely draw an additional $80 mil ... so it could hit around $200 mil soon enough.

That's great for the Mouse House, as this movie reportedly had a budget of about $250 million -- so they need this one to continue doing numbers for a bit to turn a profit.

While there's certainly excitement for the debut weekend, time will tell if Ariel has legs to go the distance in the weeks thereafter. As we reported, "Aladdin" star Mena Massoud recently opined he didn't think it'd hit a billion like his movie did ... which came out pre-pandemic.

Funny enough, with these estimated figures, 'Mermaid' is actually on pace to overtake what "Aladdin" achieved in 2019 -- and it's on a new list of Memorial Day weekend titans. If all goes according to plan, 'TLM' should sit at fourth behind "Top Gun: Maverick," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End," and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

Ariel the mermaid just pounded real-life Aladdin into submission -- or, more accurately, her fans did ... this after the dude juxtaposed his flick with hers, which pissed a lot of people off.

Mena Massoud -- who played everyone's favorite street rat in the 2019 live-action adaptation -- just scrubbed his Twitter account due to a mountain of backlash he received Saturday for chiming in on the future box office prospects of Halle Bailey's new 'Little Mermaid' movie.

He was responding to an account that was reporting on how much 'TLM' was slated to make in its opening weekend -- about $115M, which it then compared to the $112M 'Aladdin' made in its opening weekend run. Mena had some thoughts on that ... some took it as shade.

MM wrote, "Our film was unique in that audiences went to watch it multiple times. It's the only way we reached the billion dollar mark with our opening." "Aladdin" went on to make $1.054 bil internationally ... and its initial box office numbers were considered a big win.

Then came a remark that got Mena attacked. He followed up and said, "My guess is TLM doesn't cross the billion mark but will undoubtedly get a sequel." Unclear if he followed that up with any clarification on what he meant -- but this alone got Halle fans up in arms.

You can hop into the "Aladdin" trend yourself and see what they're saying ... but basically, the reaction wasn't good. Some felt Mena's comment here was a cheap shot and suggesting 'Little Mermaid' wasn't actually worthy of any future success, including a possible sequel.

Others are also saying that Mena sounds a little salty over the fact that he hasn't been cast in much post-"Aladdin" -- and that he's still hung up on the criticism that movie received ... and there was a lot. Bottom line ... he was getting dragged through the coals over this.

As a result, Mena appears to have deleted his account. The OG Twitter comment is gone, and his page is inaccessible now ... so it seems the discourse may have gotten to him.

Part of the reason for this fierce response to his apparent slight might have to do with the fact that 'TLM' has been in the crosshairs of haters from day one ... ever since they announced Halle, a Black woman, would be cast -- which got a ton of flak in and of itself.

People are coalescing around this movie and hoping it does numbers, because of the larger implications -- namely, more POC getting cast in iconic roles ... and a shift in Hollywood.

Offset was on dad duty Monday with his 2 little girls -- he took them to the world premiere of the live-action 'Little Mermaid' movie ... and everyone was looking like Disney royalty.

The ex-Migos rapper made it to the debut screening of the highly-anticipated flick -- which stars Halle Bailey as Ariel -- in Los Angeles ... where he and his daughter -- 8-year-old Kalea and 4-year-old Kulture -- walked the blue carpet as they were headed into the theater.

Their outfits were on point/on theme ... Offset was dressed to the nines, wearing an ensemble that strongly resembled what Prince Eric wears in the animated flick -- complete with a white jacket, black pants and shiny matching boots. His kids were even cuter.

Kalea and Kulture each donned gorgeous mini gowns and tiaras, looking like they were being taken to the ball that Cinderella went to in the fairy tale. Kalea even had her hair dyed red, just like Ariel does in the cartoon and just like Halle in the live-action film. It's clear the family was excited to see this one on the big screen -- and probably for good reason too.

As you may know ... Halle being cast as Ariel -- who's portrayed as white in the OG -- was a big deal in the African-American community ... serving as a crucial point of representation that hadn't really been seen before. Little Black girls everywhere reacted to the trailer when it came out ... and they all pretty much seemed to be in awe that Ariel looked like them.

Of course, there's been some backlash as well ... some of which, you could argue, is steeped in racism. No matter though -- the film's still coming out ... and it's a big deal.

No sign of Cardi here, which is fine. Looks like this was a dad-daughter date that Offset was more than happy to handle on his own -- and he certainly stepped up to the plate.

As Jonathan Majors continues to fight his DV case, it appears the internet has already settled on a possible replacement in the MCU ... another bad guy in a new superhero movie.

We're talking about Chukwudi Iwuji -- who made a splash this weekend in the third 'Guardians of the Galaxy' flick as the big bad, the High Evolutionary ... and who left audiences and comic book fans more than impressed with his epic performance.

While HE meets his grisly demise in the end (spoiler) ... a lot of folks on the bird app are nominating Iwuji as the next would-be Kang the Conqueror if things go south for JM.

There's chatter about how Iwuji's take on his supervillain is how Kang should've been portrayed in the 'Ant-Man' film that recently featured him ... namely, over the top and downright ruthless -- which is certainly how Iwuji's High Evolutionary comes across.

As the comparisons continue to fly ... a good handful of Twitter users are also straight-up saying Iwuji should be considered to step in as Kang if Disney decides to ultimately drop Majors -- which they have not done yet, and which may be premature at this point.

This "what if" speculation seems to be a mix of praise for Iwuji and jumping the gun on Majors' MCU future. Frankly, ever since he was arrested -- a lot of names have been floated as possible stand-ins ... but now, it would seem Iwuji's at the front of the line in fans' eyes.

Again ... there's been no indication from Disney that they're considering cutting Majors loose just yet -- despite the fact that he's been dropped from other projects and organizations.

As we've reported ... his team has repeatedly denied he did anything wrong from the beginning and has even suggested he was the victim here -- while also claiming to have evidence that they say will exonerate him. We've seen surveillance footage of the woman in question out partying after the alleged incident ... and she appears to be fine/uninjured.

Of course, he'll have his day in court soon enough. The guy's scheduled to appear before a judge on Tuesday -- where his team will undoubtedly push for the charges to be dropped.

Like everyone else, we're sure Disney will be monitoring ... as Majors is a key figure in their Marvel plans, with scheduled appearances in several more films and TV shows as Kang.

Da Brat's wife Jesseca Dupart is attacking the notion they intentionally chose a non-Black sperm donor for their upcoming baby ... and her explanation is pretty in-depth.

On Wednesday, Jesseca came through with a boatload of receipts and broke the whole thing down. The couple recently conducted an interview where they openly admitted their baby's donor wasn't Black after realizing they had limited choices in the gene pool.

Brat also quipped one of the donors looked like Pinocchio's pal Jiminy Cricket.

So, yeah ... you can see how that got lumped into all the donors being cricket-faced killas!!!

Jesseca revealed her existing medical conditions also cut down her chances of carrying a healthy baby, and noted the lack of Black donors in general.

She even cited a Fox5 NY article from March that reports Black men make up less than 2% of sperm donors nationwide!!!

After weighing their options, Jesseca says she and Brat went with the best match, regardless of race.

A woman got so turned on by a performance from the Los Angeles Philharmonic that she had a "loud and full body orgasm" right there in her seat ... at least according to a new report.

The L.A. Times reported what went down during Friday's X-rated show! The concertgoer was watching the Philharmonic crank out Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, when she apparently became sexually aroused.

One witness seated near the woman told The Times ..."I saw the girl after it had happened, and I assume that she ... had an orgasm because she was heavily breathing, and her partner was smiling and looking at her — like in an effort to not shame her. It was quite beautiful.”

Another attendee tweeted the woman was having a “loud and full body orgasm" to the sounds of the music, and the band carried on.

A third person said the woman's apparent moment of pleasure was “wonderfully timed” to a “romantic swell” in the melodies. He added, “One can’t know exactly what happened, but it seemed very clear from the sound that it was an expression of pure physical joy."

More evidence of the climactic moment surfaced online in an audio clip. You hear someone in the throes of a loud orgasm as the symphony plays the 5th's second movement.

But, one concertgoer poured cold water on the orgasm theory. The witness took to Twitter, claiming that the woman had a "breakdown of some sort" and everyone in the packed crowd was "worried it was a medical emergency."

The Times was unable to ID or locate the woman in question to get her side of the story and the L.A. Philharmonic has yet to comment on the incident.

Disney is escalating its beef with Ron DeSantis ... it's now suing Florida's Governor for what Disney claims is a targeted campaign of retaliation, and one that's hurting the company's bottom line.

The Walt Disney Co. filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against DeSantis, ripping the Republican presidential hopeful as being "patently retaliatory, anti-business, and patently unconstitutional."

In the suit, Disney claims DeSantis is waging a "relentless campaign to weaponize government power" to punish Disney's political views ... with Disney saying the Governor's actions are now threatening its business, jeopardizing its economic future in Florida and violating its constitutional rights.

Disney says it regrets having to sue DeSantis, but the company says he gave them no choice ... pointing out DeSantis recently talked publicly about wanting to tax the hell out of Disney and build a state prison next to Walt Disney World.

In the suit, Disney says it's being "forced to defend itself against a State weaponizing its power to inflict political punishment" ... with Disney claiming DeSantis is orchestrating a retaliation campaign against the company simply because Disney "expressed an opinion with which the government disagreed."

Although the suit references the "government" in several places, Disney is not suing the state of Florida.

Remember ... the beef started when Disney came out in opposition to Florida's "Don't Say Gay" legislation, which DeSantis has championed. DeSantis then started targeting Disney's special tax district, which has essentially allowed Disney to self-govern in Florida since the 1960s.

Disney says the lawsuit is a response to DeSantis' hand-picked board of supervisors moving to undo a recent development deal Disney struck to strip the board's power over WDW.

Casey Anthony hanging out in the kids' toy section at Disney World sure is a strange sight to see -- but that's exactly what you got here as she continues her trip at the house of mouse.

The formerly acquitted defendant -- who was on trial in Florida over a decade ago for the murder of her daughter -- was spotted again Friday at the Happiest Place on Earth ... only this time, she seemed interested in the plush doll options that the Mouse House had to offer.

We're told these photos were taken inside one of the general merchandise stores within Downtown Disney Springs ... and, as you can see, she's perusing and browsing the toys.

Granted, just about everything inside this store is child-friendly -- but still ... it's a little jarring considering her history with her own late daughter, Caylee -- who was found dead in 2008 not far from here, which became the center of a massively publicized trial against her mom.

Like we said ... Casey was found not guilty of any of the serious charges pertaining to Caylee's death. She was only found guilty of lying to the police at the time -- and got off on everything else. And yet, she still has that stench hovering around here ... just like O.J.

Anyhoo ... Casey ventured elsewhere at Disney World this weekend, including to the Epcot Center where eyewitnesses saw her in the Japan area. Epcot breaks up its sections into worldly corners, and this photo of Casey suggests she knew people recognized her.

As we reported ... Casey appears to be there with at least two other women who are tagging along, and there's been no indication she's trying to maintain a low profile whatsoever.

Of course, that's her prerogative ... but she's also gotta realize people are probably going to do double takes if they notice her, and Disney-goers undoubtedly have. Nevertheless, CA seems to be relatively unbothered and is carrying on with her business like nothing happened.

Folks at Disneyland got extra Saturday night, as they watched parts of Tom Sawyer Island go up in flames.

It went down as park-goers were enjoying the Fantasmic light show on Tom Sawyer Island  ... suddenly, the head of the 45-foot-tall animatronic dragon erupted into a fireball and the flames began to spread.

Cast members were at the ready and quickly evacuated around 1,000 people from the area around Frontierland. No one was hurt, but there was clearly extensive property damage.

The fire started toward the end of the show, when Mickey Mouse was fighting the fire-breathing dragon, Maleficent. The fire breath engulfed the dragon's head and then spread to the rest of its body.

And this is interesting -- the way it was extinguished. The staff turned on a water feature that was part of the show and it doused the flames, and the crowd cheered.

Casey Anthony is feeling the magic at Mickey's kingdom, which just so happens to be down the street from where she was once accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter.

The formerly accused, but acquitted defendant was spotted Friday in Orlando ... as she checked in to one of the Walt Disney World hotels.

It looks like Casey's going to spend the weekend enjoying all WDW has to offer ... and she doesn't have to worry about pushing strollers or keeping kids entertained at the Mouse House, because "Tot Mom" is rolling with an adult friend.

Hotel guests tell TMZ ... Casey checked in with a blonde woman and didn't seem to be trying to keep a low profile, openly walking around the lobby with her luggage in tow.

We haven't seen Casey since she was back in the spotlight at the end of 2022, when her controversial documentary, "Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies" was released.

You won't find that doc on Disney+, though ... it's a Peacock production.

Of course, Casey's got deep ties to Orlando ... that's where she lived in June 2008, when her 2-year-old daughter Caylee was reported missing.

Caylee's skeletal remains were ultimately found a few months later in a wooded area near the Anthony family's, and Casey was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

She pleaded not guilty and stood trial in 2011, with the jury acquitting her of murder, manslaughter and child abuse. She was only found guilty of lying to cops.

Simone Joy Jones has her eye on the lead in Disney's live-action version of "The Princess and the Frog," and while she's hoping she scores the role ... she also says any Black woman would be iconic.

We caught up with the "Bel-Air" star and had to ask about her hopes for the remake ... after she posted her very own submission for the highly sought-after role of Princess Tiana.

Simone acknowledged she's up against many talented actresses -- including some of her "Bel-Air" costars -- and says every person auditioning for the role would bring something different. A diplomatic response, for sure, but don't get it twisted ... she's totally confident she'd be a fun fit.

Either way, Simone says she's going to watch the film, pointing to the impact of seeing a live-action Black Disney princess. As she put it, "It always changes the ecosystem of the culture when you see a Black girl being her everything."

BTW, she also gave her stamp of approval on a Princess Tiana-related change coming to Disneyland and Disney World!