Alleged Scarlett Johansson stalker appears in court, ordered to undergo psych exam
The man accused of stalking movie star Scarlett Johansson, and threatening to blow up the 'Saturday Night Live' set where her husband Colin Jost works, appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday where he was ordered to undergo psychological testing.
Michael Joseph Branham, 48, was taken into custody in Manhattan last week after he allegedly sent text messages saying he planned to detonate a bomb in the Midtown studio where the NBC sketch program airs live on weekends.
Law enforcement said the threat was not deemed credible, according to NBC News.
Branham was arraigned on Thursday, where he pleaded not guilty to falsely reporting an incident and making a threat of mass harm. His bail was set at $100,000.
He appeared again in court on Tuesday, where a judge ordered Branham to undergo a mental examination before another court date later this month.
His public defender suggested last week that a scammer could be responsible for the bomb threat, alleging that Branham had previously been scammed by people posing as Johansson online, according to E! News.
Johansson, 40, filed a restraining order against a man fitting Branham's description in November 2023, according to The Blast. The 'Black Widow' star said he had been harassing her for more than a year at that point, repeatedly loitering outside her California home and claiming to have fathered one of her two kids.
However, five months later, Johansson's request for the restraining order was forced to be dismissed after the papers were unable to be served to her alleged stalker.
Johansson has been married to Jost since October 2020. Together they share 3-year-old son Cosmo. Johansson also has 10-year-old daughter Rose with ex-husband Romain Dauriac.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
'Cheers' star George Wendt's cause of death is released
'Cheers' star George Wendt's cause of death is released Show Caption Hide Caption 'Cheers' actor George Wendt dies at 76 George Wendt earned six consecutive best supporting actor Emmy nominations playing Norm Peterson on NBC's "Cheers." "Cheers" star George Wendt had experienced years of health issues when he died suddenly in May. According to a death certificate reviewed by USA TODAY on June 10, the 76-year-old actor was pronounced dead at his Studio City, California, home the morning of May 20. His wife of nearly 50 years, Bernadette Birkett, informed authorities of his death. Wendt's cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest, when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood. Contributing conditions were years of congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease and hypertension, also known as high blood pressure. He also had end-stage renal disease and hyperlipidemia (high blood cholesterol). 'George brought Norm to life': Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, more 'Cheers' stars pay tribute Heart failure, which can develop as a result of high blood pressure and coronary artery disease, impacts the organ's ability to pump blood effectively. Per Mayo Clinic, coronary artery disease can sometimes lead to sudden cardiac arrest – or the loss of heart activity because of the irregular rhythm of the heart – as plaque build-up causes arteries to narrow. End-stage renal disease is the last stage of long-term kidney disease and indicates the kidneys' inability to support normal bodily functions like getting rid of waste and excess water. According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, between 300,000 and 450,000 people die each year from cardiac arrest. Nine out of 10 people who experience cardiac arrest outside of a hospital will die. CPR and defibrillation can be used to treat a person in cardiac arrest while awaiting emergency services. George Wendt died on the 32nd anniversary of the 'Cheers' finale Wendt, best known for his beloved role as beer-quaffing barfly Norm Peterson for all 11 seasons of the iconic NBC comedy, earned six consecutive best supporting actor Emmy nominations playing his one line-delivering Everyman character. He also played the Norm role in the short-lived spinoff "The Tortellis," a 1990 episode of NBC's "Wings," and in an episode of the "Cheers" spinoff "Frasier," featuring psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer). His death occurred on the 32nd anniversary of the final "Cheers" episode that aired on May 20, 1993. In one of his final public appearances at the 75th Emmy Awards in 2024, Wendt reunited with his "Cheers" co-stars Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, Grammer and Ratzenberger on a recreated set of the show's iconic Boston bar. Wendt's memorable entrance brought one final "Norm!" from his assembled costars. The cast honored Wendt in individual tributes following the news of his death. Danson noted it would "take me a long time to get used to this" in a statement shared with USA TODAY. Ratzenberger said, "What you saw on screen was exactly who (Wendt) was off screen with impeccable comedic timing and a deep loyalty to those he loved." Perlman called Wendt "the sweetest, kindest man I ever met" and Grammer described him as "an extraordinary guy." Contributing: Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bryson DeChambeau returns to defend U.S. Open title as golf's YouTube king
OAKMONT, Pa. — Bryson DeChambeau returns to the 2025 U.S. Open as the defending champion and golf's YouTube king, at least among the pro ranks. From his 2 million YouTube fans watching him try to "Break 50" with the likes of Donald Trump, various influencers and athletes to joining Johnson Wagner as he tried to reproduce his remarkable bunker shot at 18 at Pinehurst No. 2 during Golf Channel's "Live From," people love DeChambeau's content creation. The latest example was on display at Oakmont, site of this week's 125th U.S. Open, when DeChambeau showed up for a practice round on May 31 and filmed every shot. It was riveting stuff that no other player had done before. 'He's done a heck of a job using social media channels to connect with viewers, connect with golfers, and show his true personality because I think he probably didn't do a great job of that early on in his career,' NBC's Kevin Kisner said. ESPN's Scott Van Pelt took his analysis of DeChambeau's reboot as a YouTube star – he's got nearly 3 million Instagram followers and another 2 million on TikTok, too – one step further. 'I think he's now kind of figured out where he wants to be. He's almost reinvented himself in some ways,' he said. 'He's grown as a human, it seems to me. Last year he came and sat down in the Butler Cabin with me on Thursday and Friday, and he's been sort of this — he's played very different characters in a movie. It's almost like he's been many different versions of himself. 'And when he sat and visited with me last year, I just remarked to a number of people, he just seems like a different guy. He seems more at ease with himself. I don't know if it's the tour he plays, I don't know if it's just part of growing up, which is part of all of our lives, but he seemed comfortable, entirely comfortable with himself.' DeChambeau, 31, finally is becoming comfortable in his own skin, and YouTube has helped him let his guard down, he said, 'showing the fans a side of me that was locked up for so long.' 'What's funny is as much as my guard has been let down, I feel like I'm more strategic in how I deliver things and how I give perspective on things. Before, I was pretty up front and would just say things the way I wanted to whenever I wanted to,' he explained. 'Now it's more strategic in the way I do it and deliver it because I think there's a lot of good that can come from that.' DeChambeau has said he's taken a page out of the playbook of MrBeast, whose viral content are the most-watched videos on YouTube. Asked whether any of his peers have turned to him for advice on how to launch a YouTube channel, DeChambeau highlighted Phil Mickelson. Lefty said he'd always seen what he called the playful, fun, intelligent and interesting side of DeChambeau. 'He's able to showcase that and not have who he is be filtered by a middle person,' Mickelson said. 'He controls what content he puts out there and what he wants to shoot and so forth. So his personality comes out. It's been remarkable to see the evolution of it and the way the public has responded to him because he's always been like that. It just hasn't been able to be noticed, I guess, properly.' In discussing the tips he has passed along to Mickelson, DeChambeau said he reads the comments section and tries to give the people what they want. 'We've grown our channel to over 2 million followers now and couldn't be more thankful, and it's literally by listening to the comments section, by looking at the comments and seeing what they want,' he said. Major champion. Long driver. YouTube star. A case could be made that the latter has become what drives DeChambeau. 'It's a new space. I'm learning how to become a little bit more entertaining,' he said. 'It's not just golf, golf, golf, trying to win every really what gets me up in the morning and gives me a lot of passion for this game." This article originally appeared on Golfweek: U.S. Open 2025: Bryson DeChambeau, the YouTube star at Oakmont
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump faces criticism of his broad mass deportation push from two different angles
The sister of a woman allegedly murdered by six noncitizens said President Donald Trump's administration is targeting the wrong people for deportation and is not doing enough to get the worst of the worst off U.S. streets, even as authorities embark on a massive deportation effort. Tiffany Thompson, whose sister Larisha Sharrell Thompson was shot and killed in South Carolina last month, said she was angered that while deportations have played a central role in Trump's administration, more hadn't been done to target those who were charged in the killing — particularly the alleged ringleader, who faced a previous charge before her sister was killed. 'It's frustrating that they're illegal and they committed this crime. They should have been deported, maybe this wouldn't have happened,' Thompson told NBC News in an interview. She added: 'I don't know where Trump is right now.' The notion that a family member of someone allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant would call Trump to action over his signature issue comes amid broader questions about how the president is executing his mass deportation policy. Though from a different point of view, Tiffany Thompson's anger mirrors the anxiety rippling through Los Angeles over Trump's deportation efforts there, culminating in protests and some violent clashes and driven by the belief that the administration is indiscriminately removing noncitizens instead of targeting removal of criminals in an attempt to laud a high number of arrests. Polling shows immigration remains Trump's strongest issue, though the most recent CBS News/YouGov poll conducted last week illustrated a gap: A 55% majority said they like the goals of Trump's deportation program, while 44% said they like how 'he is going about it.' Americans narrowly said they believe Trump is prioritizing dangerous criminals (53%) versus prioritizing nondangerous people (47%) for deportation. And to the extent there is sharp division over Trump's immigration policy, it's not over efforts to deport convicted criminals. More than 80% of Americans support deporting those who have committed violent crimes, according to the Pew Research Center data from late February and early March. 'What this administration is doing is going after low-hanging fruit: collateral arrests, stripping protections,' said Beatriz Lopez, co-executive director of Immigration Hub, a national immigration policy group. Lopez derided Trump administration tactics, including stripping Temporary Protected Status from Venezuelans and agents making arrests outside immigration courthouse hearings. 'They are creating the chaos,' she added. 'They aren't going after violent criminals. They are creating undocumented people.' Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, pushed back on that characterization on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' on Monday, saying that the enforcement actions in Los Angeles last week stemmed from a criminal investigation targeting specific people as part of a larger alleged conspiracy. They were not, Homan said, a random immigration raid. 'I said from day one, Jan. 20, we will prioritize public safety threats and national security threats. However, we will enforce law, particularly — I may prioritize my family life over my work, doesn't mean I ignore my work,' Homan said. 'We're going to enforce immigration law. We've been honest about that from day one, especially in sanctuary cities. When we can't get the bad guy in the safety and security of a jail, they release them to the street. Well, we got to go to the street and find them.' Data shows that violent crimes committed by immigrants are rare when compared with the general population. 'We often will hear about a very high-profile event, and not to reduce the tragedy of it — obviously, a crime is still a crime, and it's incredibly painful when you know when people are affected by those sorts of things — but looking at numbers and statistically speaking, it's not as though a higher presence of immigrants creates a higher presence of crime,' said Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, associate policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration policy think tank. 'That's been pretty proven through various studies over the years.' But as the Trump administration has pointed to arrestees as 'rapists' and 'killers,' competing narratives have stacked up with examples like a child suffering from cancer ordered to self-deport, university students targeted for removal and advocacy groups sounding alarms over violations of human rights and due process. Some Trump supporters have spoken out about the impact of a dragnet detaining those here legally. An Argentinian couple from North Carolina, who said they had backed Trump, were apoplectic after their 31-year-old son, a green-card holder in the country since he was a toddler, was arrested and detained in Georgia. 'He didn't say he was going to do this, that he was going to go after people who have been here for a long time,' the mother, Debora Rey, said of Trump in an interview with The Atlanta Journal Constitution. 'He said he was going to go after all the criminals who came illegally. ... We feel betrayed, tricked.' At the same time, noncitizens charged with violent crimes are still making headlines. Under President Joe Biden, Trump attacked such crimes as evidence of a broken system that required his election to fix. Now, he and Republicans hold up those incidents — including the recent attack in Boulder, Colorado — as evidence that deportations should be more widespread. Authorities announced they elevated their deportation efforts and lauded a record-breaking day of arrests last week. 'President Trump is working at record speed to clean up Joe Biden's Open Border Disaster that let countless unvetted illegal aliens pour into the United States and threaten the safety of American citizens,' White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a written statement. 'The President has closed the border and now he's deporting illegal aliens, especially violent criminals. The recent attack in Boulder just underscores why the President's work is so important. 'We're grateful the media is now admitting that illegal aliens pose a risk to the safety of the American people and look forward to the stories about why Joe Biden let so many violent criminals into the country in the first place,' Jackson continued. In the Larisha Thompson case, six people who do not have legal status, according to the Department of Homeland Security, were charged. They include 21-year-old Asael Aminadas Torres-Chirinos, who faces three firearms charges and, according to DHS, had previously been arrested on a domestic violence allegation. Lancaster County lawyer Doug Barfield said Chirinos' 2022 charge was still pending. He added that immigration authorities had placed detainers on all six people, which would prevent them from going free even if they posted bond. Tiffany Thompson said she 'wished they would have seen that,' referencing Chirinos' previous arrest and the fact that he was still in the country. She didn't specifically cast blame on any administration but remained angry that the suspects — including teens who were 13, 14 and 15 years old — were attempting to be released on bond. 'Would I like for Trump to get ahead of this? Yes,' she added. The pace of deportations has bothered the White House, and NBC News reported top Trump aide Stephen Miller berated and threatened to fire senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in May if they did not begin detaining 3,000 migrants a day. Miller also threatened to fire leaders of field offices posting the bottom 10% of arrest numbers monthly, NBC News reported. Yet, that's exactly the tactic that immigration experts say will do little to protect against national security. 'There's really no incentive for ICE to spend a bunch of resources investigating and tracking down people in the field. It's about convenience primarily, and public safety is a distant second,' said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian-aligned public policy think tank. 'The Laken Riley Act specifically says you should be prioritizing resources to go after people who have been arrested on violent or property offenses. So they supported that bill,' Bier said, referencing the law Trump signed in January, which requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants who are arrested or face charges, or who have been convicted of 'burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.' After signing the law, Trump said, 'That's why I'm here instead of somebody else. Actually, it's the biggest reason.' Bier said the argument after signing the law was, 'They said: 'This is going to prevent more Laken Rileys.' And then they have done nothing to implement it.' The administration and allies reject that assertion, saying they are arresting criminal noncitizens and are moving as quickly as possible to reverse the impacts of lax border policies under Biden. In March, DHS touted its success in deporting convicted criminals and those who had pending criminal charges. 'He is dealing with what Biden and Kamala Harris facilitated. ... He keeps going as fast as he can, trying to fix a million different issues,' said Nicole Kiprilov, the executive director of The American Border Story, a group that elevates 'the human stories of American citizens impacted by the border crisis.' 'These people now who are committing crimes under the Trump administration are people who were brought in by Biden,' Kiprilov said. 'They were not brought in by Trump.' Kiprilov noted that Trump has turned off the flow of illegal immigration by shutting down the southern border. In a written statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: 'Under Secretary Noem, we are delivering on President Trump's and the American people's mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens to make America safe. In the first 100 days, 75% of ICE arrests were criminal illegal aliens with convictions or pending charges. The shocking story here is that instead of deporting many heinous criminals, the Biden Administration chose to RELEASE these known public safety threats into our communities instead of deporting them.' Currently, 56% of those in ICE detention have either been convicted of a crime or have pending criminal charges, according to ICE data. The remainder do not have criminal histories. This article was originally published on
