Josh Peck says it was an ‘honor' to appear on ‘The Last of Us' in surprise cameo
Peck's cameo on the HBO drama came at the very start of the fourth episode of Season 2 and even though his character died just moments into the episode, Peck wrote on his Instagram page Sunday that it was 'a tough secret to keep.'
'It was an honor to play a small part in one of my favorite shows, with one of my favorite actors ever,' he added.
The 'Drake and Josh' star also posted a carousel of photos from set, including a shot posing with actor Jeffrey Wright while the two are in costume.
Peck played a FEDRA soldier who told an inappropriate story to his fellow soldiers in a flashback scene before he and his crew are killed when their tank explodes.
The episode also marked the first time that Wright – who voiced the character of Isaac in the video game on which the series is based, a role he is reprising on screen – appeared this season. Isaac is the quietly powerful leader of a large militia group.
Kate Herron, who directed the episode, told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published Monday that it was 'so fun' to secretly cast Peck for the part.
'We had people read [for the part], obviously. Josh's read came in, and Josh is fantastic. We were like, 'We need to get Josh,'' she said. 'I love the idea we get to Drew Barrymore him in 'Scream.' People just wouldn't see it coming.'
The fifth episode of 'The Last of Us' will air on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, with the episode available to stream on Max.
(HBO and Max, like CNN, are owned by the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.)
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Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The catfishing scam putting fans and female golfers in danger
Meet Rodney Raclette. Indiana native. 62 years old. Big golfer. A huge fan of the LPGA. On Aug. 4, Rodney opened an Instagram account with the handle @lpgafanatic6512, and he quickly followed some verified accounts for female golfers and a few other accounts that looked official. Within 20 minutes of creating his account and with zero posts to his name, Rodney received a message from what at first glance appeared to be the world's No. 2-ranked female golfer, Nelly Korda. 'Hi, handsomeface, i know this is like a dream to you. Thank you for being a fan,' read a direct message from @nellykordaofficialfanspage2. The real Nelly Korda was certainly not messaging Rodney — and Rodney doesn't actually exist. The Athletic created the Instagram account of the fictitious middle-aged man to test the veracity and speed of an ever-increasing social media scam pervading the LPGA. The gist of the con goes like this: Social media user is a fan of a specific golfer; scam account impersonating that athlete reaches out and quickly moves the conversation to another platform like Telegram or WhatsApp to evade social media moderation tools; scammer offers a desirable object or experience — a private dinner, VIP access to a tournament, an investment opportunity — for a fee; untraceable payments are made via cryptocurrency or gift cards. Then, once the spigot of cash is turned off, the scammer disappears. While this particular con is not limited to golf, player agents, security experts and golfers say it has taken off within the LPGA in the last five years. Charley Hull, Lexi Thompson, Michelle Wie West, Morgan Pressel, Jennifer Kupcho, Hannah Gregg and Korda all have publicly posted warnings about the scams to their followers. Golf influencers Paige Spiranac and Hailey Ostrom also have spoken out. 'It's been taken out of my hands being able to communicate freely with fans,' Korda, who has a warning statement pinned to the top of her Instagram profile, told The Athletic. 'Because I don't really know their intentions.' On a handful of occasions, the victims of the scams have continued to blame the golfer for their financial losses even after being confronted with the truth, and some simply refuse to believe they have not been interacting with the real athlete, tipping into fixated behavior that concerns golfers and security officials. 'We've definitely had people show up at tournaments who thought they had sent money to have a private dinner with the person,' said Scott Stewart, who works for TorchStone Global, a security firm used by the LPGA. 'But then also, we've had people show up who were aggrieved because they had been ripped off, there's a tournament nearby, and they wanted to kind of confront the athlete over the theft.' Last May, a Pennsylvania man in his 60s drove four hours to Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J., for the Mizuho Americas Open. He was there to meet 22-year-old American golfer Rose Zhang. He told tournament staff that she had left a VIP package for him and even booked him a hotel room. He said they had been communicating on social media for over a year, during which he had sent her around $70,000. Zhang's agent confronted the man, breaking the news that he was not communicating with Zhang. Another man traveled from Asia to a tournament in the United States, believing he was married to one of the players. A 68-year-old man from California attended several tournaments to see South Korean golfer In Gee Chun after being duped out of $50,000. England's Charley Hull warned her followers on Instagram about the scam after 'an incident' at a tournament in 2024. And in January, a man showed up at the home of golf influencer Hailey Ostrom after losing $50,000 to an account impersonating her. Spiranac said the reaction from some of the scam victims has forced her to change the way she works and lives. She now has security at every event, has an active restraining order against one of the scammed individuals, and when fan behavior escalates because of a scam — 'flare-ups' as she calls them — she has chosen to skip some events for her safety. 'I've had people come up to me at events, at outings, and say that they're in a relationship with me, or they come up quite angry because 'fake me' has scammed them out of money or has ghosted them,' Spiranac said. 'Those experiences are quite scary, but it's also very invasive.' Added Stewart: 'There's really two victims. You have the person that's been scammed, but really, the athlete is a victim, too, since they get blamed for it.' Not too long after joining a Nelly Korda fan page on Facebook in June 2024, a 72-year-old man from South Carolina, whose name is being withheld at the request of his family, received an email from someone claiming to be the real Nelly Korda. Email quickly turned to texting, texting morphed into phone calls, and within days, he told his daughter that they were in love. 'He was convinced he was speaking to Nelly Korda, convinced she was going to live with him, and they were going to get married,' his daughter, Shannon, said. 'But it was a cycle of different ways to get money from him.' She estimates he sent over $15,000. Shannon and her brother tried to convince him it was a scam. They also reached out to law enforcement, explored intervention services, attempted to catfish the catfisher, and even sent a plea via a direct message on Instagram to the real Nelly Korda to set the record straight. When the father confronted 'Nelly,' she had an excuse for everything: She had no access to her money due to a controlling manager and family. Her flight got canceled. The scam warning on Korda's verified Instagram account was a note for everyone else, not him. In March, as her father began drafting plans to sell his house at Nelly's request, one of Nelly's made-up excuses finally exposed her. She told him she had broken a bone in a car accident, but there was no evidence of a broken bone on Korda's verified Instagram account. Finally, the man realized he was not in a relationship with Nelly Korda. But his retirement fund was gone. Rodney Raclette, if he really existed, might have been similarly duped. When he commented on a video posted by the verified Nelly Korda Instagram account, people responded to his comments, directing him to other fan pages that the poster claimed were created by Korda to interact with fans. Another person claiming to be Korda sent him an Instagram direct message. After Rodney and that fake Korda exchanged niceties, she insisted the conversation move off of Instagram to email. She urged Rodney not to share her email with anyone, and wrote — in broken English — that he not 'take this opportunity talking to me for granted because not all celebrities come online to talk to their fans like am doing presently.' Next, she said she needed to see Rodney's ID for her 'safety and career,' but when Rodney made excuses as to why he could not provide any identification, the fake Nelly impatiently moved to the next question: 'Do you have a Fan Membership Card?' She told Rodney, 'if you're my biggest fan,' for just $700, he would receive access to all of her 'games,' her autograph, and new, customized golf shirts. Anytime Rodney questioned the price or authenticity of the card, Nelly threatened to leave the conversation. She would only continue if he purchased the card. Rodney became more skeptical and urged Nelly to prove it was really her. Within minutes, he received an AI-altered video of the real Nelly Korda speaking directly to him by name. It's nearly impossible to trace the source of most of these scams, and they're even harder to prosecute. Old accounts disappear and new accounts reappear by the hour. Patrick Chase, a private investigator and former LPGA security consultant, says the majority of catfishers are typically based outside of the U.S. The FBI is overwhelmed with identity theft cases and, according to Chase, it oftentimes won't address incidents unless losses exceed a certain dollar amount. Golf influencer Hannah Gregg has been communicating with several scam victims to collect evidence she can bring to law enforcement but to no avail. 'They won't do anything for me basically until something bad happens to me,' she said. Korda said she once reported about 20 spam accounts per day, but they are now materializing so quickly she can't keep up. 'You're just put into a situation you really don't want to be in. You feel bad, you feel guilty for people going through this. It's the last thing you want,' she said. 'It's not only putting the players in danger, in a sense, but it's putting all the fans in danger.' The day after creating the Rodney account, the fan page that had reached out to him — @nellykordaofficialfanspage21 — had been deleted. Rodney emailed the fake Nelly Korda to ask what happened. She replied: 'I deactivated the account because of imposters, and the FBI are working on catching them.' This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Golf, Culture, A1: Must-Read Stories, Women's Golf, women's sports 2025 The Athletic Media Company
Cosmopolitan
39 minutes ago
- Cosmopolitan
Backlash over Thomas Skinner's upcoming Strictly appearance explained, along with his politics
Typically, announcing a new batch of Strictly Come Dancing contestants is drama-free, but this time around former The Apprentice contestant, Thomas Skinner, has sparked a fair bit of backlash – so much so, he's actively spoken out against the 'hate'. "They say don't read the comments on social media. But I couldn't help myself. I've had absolute pellets all day on my Instagram lost about going on Strictly," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "Why are some people so angry that don't even know me? Not Bosh." Previously, Skinner also said, "Well the news is out about me going on Strictly. Never in a million years did I think I would receive the amount of messages of support (and also amount of hate). "But thank you to everyone. You're absolutely legends. I'm gonna sit and have a few cold ones and take in what's actually going on." For those not up to speed on Skinner's recent rage-baiting allegations drama, let's take a deep-dive... Skinner is a businessman and former contestant on The Apprentice, who appeared on the fifteenth series, and who went on to become known for his catchphrase 'bosh!'. Following the show, Skinner gained a following on social media, sharing daily snippets of his life and his love of a fry-up in his local café, and for his seemingly 'cheeky chappy' Essex boy/London border persona – something that he very much leans into. So far, so harmless. He has also appeared on 8 out of 10 Cats and Celebrity Masterchef. However, in more recent weeks, his political affiliations with the likes of Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, and a now-deleted rage-baiting post have been getting him into a spot of bother. Recently, a now-deleted tweet from Skinner went viral and sparked a lot of pretty funny responses. In said tweet, Skinner seemed to imply he was being targeted or cancelled by the 'tofu-munching woke brigade' who are 'offended by a full English' and who think having a 'pint on a Friday is a hate crime', despite providing no evidence that this was actually happening (or that these people even exist). Seriously, who on earth has ever called a Friday pint a hate crime? Other than Skinner. While seemingly trying to stir the pot for clout. "I'll say this once, and I'll say it straight. Stop bending over backwards for the woke brigade. Who gives a toss!? Half of 'em get offended by a full English and the other half think a pint on a Friday is a hate crime," his now deleted post began. "If you're a normal person and you get up early, graft all day, feed ya kids, love your country, and have a cheeky cuddle with the missus twice a week… Then you're winning at life. I couldn't care less if some tofu-munching helmet gets upset because I like red meat, a fry-up, and a cold Stella. Get a grip. That's living, mate." Skinner went on to say "if someone's offended by you being normal then tell em to jog on, go knit a protest sign or hug a tree or whatever it is they do. We ain't got time for that nonsense. We're too busy earning a crust, raising our kids, and keeping the heating on". One reply to said post, which amassed over 1,800 likes in support, simply read: "No one's cancelling your bacon. No one's calling your pint a hate crime. You've invented a culture war in your head and now you're acting like you're Churchill for surviving a Wetherspoons breakfast. You think people campaigning for a fairer country are the enemy? That wanting a clean planet, workers' rights, or basic decency makes someone less 'proper'? Grow up." Ahem. Skinner has also been accused of exaggerating his working class roots, with the Daily Mail recently reporting that he grew up in a home worth over £2.5 million and that he attended a fee-paying school in Brentwood, with rates today starting at £6,500 per term. He has previously said he won a scholarship to the school. "I got a sports scholarship to a fantastic sports academy school, that I later got expelled for (for selling porno DVDs my dad got from me off his mate in the pub) and I was an idiot when I was younger," Skinner once tweeted when called out on his alleged faux Del Boy persona. "I grew up miles away from here and had to get buses there every day. "I'm dyslexic and struggled with school, I was an extremely lucky child who got given the opportunity to go there, what's wrong with that? But I worked extremely hard to get myself there and I proud of that." He was also convicted of handling £40,000 worth of stolen goods back in 2011. Despite calling himself "non-political", Skinner has been spotted wearing a MAGA hat and was recently pictured with divisive US Vice President, JD Vance, who despite repeatedly making disparaging comments about the UK, once calling it "the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon", seems happy enough to holiday here. He is currently on his way up to Scotland after spending some time in the Cotswolds. When Trump was re-elected at the end of last year, Skinner also expressed his delight and described the President, who has been accused of sexual assault by numerous women (something he has strongly denied), including one who alleged she was underage at the time, as "brilliant". Skinner also said he predicted Trump's return would benefit the UK's economy. In reality, the US has just slapped 10% tariffs on the country, which could make it harder for British businesses to ship and sell goods across the pond. Trump's administration have also laid in to Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government for (outrageously!) asking big US tech firms, like Apple, Google and Apple, to pay tax in the country via the Digital Services Tax scheme, which could benefit the economy. Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC's Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women's Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.
USA Today
39 minutes ago
- USA Today
When will the 'Love Island USA' Season 7 reunion premiere? Here's what we know
The juicy drama from Fiji has made its way to the Big Apple. The "Love Island USA" Season 7 reunion was filmed on Tuesday, Aug. 12, in New York City, growing the anticipation for fans who are excited to see what their favorite islanders have been up to since the show wrapped. The special episode will be released later this month. Here's the latest on the upcoming reunion. When is the 'Love Island USA' reunion? The "Love Island USA" Season 7 reunion is scheduled for Aug. 25 at 9 p.m. ET on Peacock. It's hosted by Ariana Madix, who will be joined by reality television host Andy Cohen. More news: The 'Love Island' drama, allegations and when a friend group implodes Which contestants are going to the reunion? Days ahead of the reunion, there was online speculation that certain former islanders would not be in attendance. However, in an Instagram story shared on Aug. 12 around 9:45 p.m., Cohen teased that "everybody" was there. 'Guys, 'Love Island' reunions are no joke," he stated. "This reunion? It's good and everybody's here. I'm having so much fun with Ariana. She's amazing, and you know what...I like hosting a reunion with her. It's really fun." Multiple videos on social media show glimpses of couples, Ace and Chelley, Nic and Olandria, Taylor and Clarke, and Iris and Pepe entering the building. TMZ also captured other Season 7 contestants, including Charlie, Jeremiah, and Austin. During Bravo's late-night program "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" on Aug. 13, the television host said that the extended version of the controversial heart rate challenge will be shown at the reunion. Will Cierra attend the reunion? Last month, Cierra announced that she would not be attending the reunion. "At this point in time, I will not be at the reunion," she said in a nearly 10-minute TikTok video posted on July 27. "So I feel lighter knowing that my perspective, my thoughts, my feelings and my emotions is out there." The 25-year-old left the villa during the July 6 episode after past social media posts resurfaced showing her using a racist slur against people of Asian descent. On the show, her exit was attributed to a "personal" situation. She later apologized and confirmed that her exit stemmed from posts "where I was very naively using an incredibly offensive and derogatory term," she said in a social media video. "I had no idea that the word held as much pain, as much harm, and came with the history that it did, or I never would have used it," she said at the time. Contributing: Melina Khan, USA TODAY Taylor Ardrey is a news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at tardrey@
