missing

BRIDESMAIDS star Wendi McClendon-Covey has revealed why she was missing from the cast reunion at the Oscars saying “I look like a melted candle.”

Fifteen years after its debut, the film‘s main stars gathered onstage at the 2026 awards ceremony for a hilarious reunion.

Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Maya Rudolph, and Ellie Kemper reunited at the Oscars much to fans delight.

However, some of them wondered why Wendy, who played Rita in Bridesmaids, hadn’t joined them.

After the show, Wendy posted on Instagram to clear up the confusion.

She said: “I had a neck lift last week because I’m tired of looking like a melting candle.

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“So I had to skip the Academy Awards. No drama. Everything is fine.”

A snap showed her lying down with a bandage wrapped around her head.

Fans flocked to comment and one wrote: “Sending some healing energy your way!”

Another added: “Gorgeous before and after.”

A third said: “Love your transparency. F-yeah! Some people can embrace that candle look but others…h*** no. Either way is right as long as it makes you happy. Big healing love!”

While a fourth wrote: “You’re such a sweet, kind, hilarious legend, shine on my friend.”

During the Oscars reunion Kirsten joked: “I cannot believe that it’s been 15 years. Now we are not good with numbers, but we figured out backstage that means we shot this movie in 1883.”

Each of them was then handed a note and claimed it was signed by A-list audience members like Leonardo DiCaprio or Stellan Skarsgard, who spoke about their good looks.

Maya opened hers and said: “Oh, this is strange. Well, mine says, ‘First of all, you ladies look extremely beautiful tonight.’ Thank you. ‘You’re aging well.’ Signed, Stellan Skarsgård.”

Kirsten read a fake note from Benicio Del Toro which said “You guys have been talking for a long time. This bit could have been a lot shorter.

Who won on Hollywood’s biggest night?

One Battle After Another ran away with the night with six Oscars, while Sinners, which was nominated for a record-breaking 16 awards, came away with four. See the full winners list below:

Best Picture: One Battle After Another

Best Actress: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet

Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan, Sinners

Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan, Weapons

Supporting Actor: Sean Penn, One Battle After Another

Directing: One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson

Adapted Screenplay: One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson

Original Screenplay: Sinners, Ryan Coogler

Documentary Feature: Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Documentary Short: All the Empty Rooms

Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters

Animated Short: The Girl Who Cried Pearls

Cinematography: Sinners, Autumn Durald Arkapaw

Costume Design: Frankenstein, Kate Hawley

Film Editing: One Battle After Another, Andy Jurgensen

International Feature: Sentimental Value – Norway

Life Action Short: 

The Singers (TIED)

Two People Exchanging Saliva (TIED)

Makeup and Hairstyling: Frankenstein, Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey

Original Score: Sinners, Ludwig Goransson

Original Song: Golden, KPop Demon Hunters

Production Design: Frankenstein, Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau

Sound: F1, Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo and Juan Peralta

Visual Effects: Avatar: Fire and Ash, Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett

Casting: One Battle After Another, Cassandra Kulukundis

“This is really going on and on. You aren’t even talking about score. That’s all. Love ya lots, Benicio Del Toro. Or for those of you who refuse to learn Spanish, it’s Benedict of the Bull.”

Directed by Paul Feig, Bridesmaids was written by Kirsten Wiig and Annie Mumolo, who were nominated for Best Original Screenplay when the film was released in 2011.

Melissa also earned her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

The film gained cult status and went on to gross over $300 million worldwide.

March 12 (UPI) — Law enforcement officials in New Mexico said they’ve been searching for a 68-year-old retired U.S. Air Force major general who was reported missing last month.

William “Neil” McCasland was last seen at his Albuquerque home Feb. 27, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on Facebook. The department issued a silver alert searching for the man, saying it wasn’t clear what kind of clothing he was wearing nor what direction he might have traveled.

“Due to his medical issues law enforcement is concerned for his safety,” the sheriff’s office said.

The FBI’s Albuquerque field office said it was unusual for McCasland to be out of touch from his family for this length of time. The FBI said it believes he left his home on foot and doesn’t expect foul play.

“We are, however, utilizing all possible resources including advanced technologies, and still considering all possible scenarios as we follow up on leads towards locating Neil,” the FBI said in a Facebook post on March 6.

The sheriff’s office said it had searched McCasland’s neighborhood, speaking to more than 600 homeowners in the area.

March 12 (UPI) — Police divers in Australia’s Greater Sunshine Coast region on Thursday recovered the bodies of two missing Chinese backpackers after they were found dead inside their SUV vehicle beneath floodwaters.

The 26-year-old man and 23-year-old woman were found near Kilkivan, 100 miles northwest of Brisbane, after a major search operation by police and the State Emergency Service using helicopters and drones when the pair failed to arrive at their destination.

“Dive squad officers from the state dive unit arrived and retrieved two deceased persons from a car that had been washed off the road at Kilkivan. The formal identification process is still underway but it is believed that the two, as reported, are a 26-year-old male and a 23-year-old female who are international tourists,” said Queensland Police Minister Dan Purdie.

Purdie said their families had been notified and authorities were working with the Chinese Consulate in Brisbane.

Bundaberg Police Chief Inspector Grantley Marcus said the pair were driving from Brisbane to Mundubbera, where they were due to begin jobs picking fruit.

“They didn’t arrive and a friend of theirs from Australia contacted police on Tuesday and reported them as missing.”

Marcus said the families of the deceased were en route to Australia and pledged police would do everything they could to assist them when they arrived.

The couple was named by 7News as Yuchen Guo, 23, from Shandong Province in eastern China, and Qingwei Qiu, 26, from Fujian Province in the southeast of the country.

Extreme rainfall has seen large areas of Queensland hit with severe flooding in recent days, with some river levels still rising. Parts of the state recorded their highest three-day rainfall totals Sunday through Tuesday.

Glen Hartwig, mayor of nearby Gympie, said the deaths of the pair were “an absolute tragedy” and called for more to be done to make tourists aware of the danger from flooding.

“These people have come to Australia to see our beautiful country and tragically they’ve ended up losing their lives. We warn people about biosecurity when they come into the country, but I also think we need to warn them about the dangers of floodwaters,” he said.

“We’re very grateful that they chose to come and see our country and we’re so sorry for their loss and the pain that [family members] are now feeling,” added Hartwig.

Authorities have said most of those who died were found buried in mud.

The death toll from landslides and flooding in the Gamo Zone of southern Ethiopia has risen to at least 64, with dozens more people missing, police have said.

“The number of people missing due to the recent flood in Gamo zone has reached 128, and according to the latest information, 64 bodies have been found,” said the South Ethiopia Regional State Police Commission in a statement on Facebook on Thursday.

The Gacho Baba district communication chief, Abebe Agena, said most of those who died were found buried in mud. It is not yet clear how many households were affected.

Gamo Zone director of disaster response Mesfin Manuqa said that one person was pulled out of mud alive during rescue operations.

Tilahun Kebede, president of the South Ethiopia Regional State, expressed his sorrow over the disaster and urged residents to move to higher ground as rains continue.

“Given that it is the rainy season and these types of disasters could happen again, I am calling on communities living in the highlands and flood-prone areas to take the necessary precautions,” he said.

Flooding caused by heavy rains has led to the deaths, with most of East Africa seeing heavy flooding in recent days.

Dozens were killed in neighbouring Kenya after torrential rain hit the capital, Nairobi, and other areas on Friday.

Mudslides and floods caused by heavy rainfall are common in Ethiopia, especially during the rainy season.

In July 2024, a deadly mudslide caused by heavy rain killed more than 250 people in southern Ethiopia.

Multiple studies have tracked the increasing frequency of extreme wet and dry periods in East Africa in the last 20 years.

Scientists have long warned that human-driven climate change is increasing the likelihood, length and severity of severe weather events such as torrential downpours.

Joel Hofer made 22 saves for his fifth shutout of the season, Jonathan Drouin scored in his Blues debut and St. Louis beat the Ducks 4-0 on Sunday night to sweep a four-game trip.

Jordan Kyrou, Jimmy Snuggerud and Pius Suter also scored to help St. Louis win for the fifth time in six games since the Olympic break.

Drouin was acquired from the Islanders on Friday at the trade deadline in the deal that sent Blues captain Brayden Schenn to New York. The left wing scored the second of three second-period goals, firing a slap shot past Ville Husso on a power play with 9:53 left.

Kyrou opened the scoring at 4:22, snapping a shot from the right side to the far post on a 3-on-1 break. After helping set up Drouin’s goal, Snuggerud added one of his own on a one-timer with 7:49 to go.

St. Louis failed to add to the lead on an extended power play that spilled into the third when Ross Johnston received a major penalty for boarding Justin Holl, the defenseman who also made his Blues debut after coming over from Detroit.

After the Ducks successfully challenged Snuggerud’s apparent goal midway through the third for offsides, Suter scored into an empty net with 4:02 to go.

Husso stopped 31 shots. The Ducks completed a nine-game homestand, splitting the last four after winning the first five. They were 0 for 6 on the power play against the Blues.

John Carlson, the defenseman acquired from Washington on Thursday, missed his fifth straight game because of lower-body injury. Ducks center Mikael Granlund returned after missing six games because of an upper-body injury sustained playing for Finland in the Olympic bronze-medal game.

Up next for the Ducks: at Winnipeg on Tuesday night.

Israeli forces dug up graves during an airborne operation in eastern Lebanon, in search of the remains of a pilot who went missing nearly 40 years ago.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Thursday released additional Jeffrey Epstein files involving uncorroborated accusations made by a woman against President Trump that the department said had been mistakenly withheld during an earlier review.

The department said last week that it was working to determine if any records were improperly withheld after several news organizations reported that the massive tranche of records that had been made public didn’t include some files documenting a series of interviews conducted in 2019 with a woman who made an allegation against Trump.

The accuser was interviewed by the FBI four times as it sought to assess her account but a summary of only one of those interviews had been included in the publicly released files.

On Thursday, the department said those files had been “incorrectly coded as duplicative,” and therefore were inadvertently not published along with other investigative documents related to the disgraced financier, who killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.

“As we have consistently done, if any member of the public reported concerns with information in the library, the Department would review, make any corrections, and republish online,” the department said in a post on X.

Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. The department noted in January that some of the documents contain “untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election.”

The new disclosures come as Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi faces continued turmoil over the department’s handling of the files released under a law passed by Congress after months of public and political pressure. Five Republicans on the House Oversight Committee joined Democrats in voting Wednesday to subpoena Bondi, demanding that she answer questions under oath in a sign of mounting frustration among members of the president’s own party.

The Trump administration has faced constant political headaches since the rollout of the files began in December, with critics accusing the department of hiding certain documents or over-redacting files, or in some cases, not redacting enough. In some cases, the department inadvertently released nude photos showing the faces of potential victims as well as names, email addresses and other identifying information that was either unredacted or not fully obscured.

Department officials have defended their handling of the files, saying they took pains to release the files as quickly as possible under the law while also protecting victims. Department officials have said errors were inevitable given the volume of the materials, the number of lawyers viewing the files and the speed at which the department had to release them. The department has said it’s entitled to withhold records that exposed potential abuse victims, were duplicates or protected by legal privileges, or related to an ongoing criminal investigation.

Some of the new records published Thursday pertained to a woman who contacted the FBI shortly after Epstein’s 2019 arrest and claimed that a man named “Jeff” living in Hilton Head, South Carolina, had raped her there in the 1980s when she was around 13 years old. The woman told the agents she didn’t know the man’s identity at the time, but decades later concluded he was Jeffrey Epstein when a friend texted her his photo from a news story.

In a follow-up interview a month later, the woman added a host of other claims, including that Epstein had schemed to have her mother sent to prison, beaten her, arranged sexual encounters with other men and once flew her to either New Jersey or New York, where she claimed to have bitten Trump after he tried to sexually assault her.

Agents spoke with the woman two more times, at one point asking her to provide more detail on her supposed interactions with Trump, but reported that she declined to answer additional questions and broke off contact. There’s no indication that Epstein ever lived in South Carolina and it was unclear whether Trump and Epstein knew each other during the time period involved.

The woman’s report was one of a number of uncorroborated, sometimes fantastical, reports that federal agents received from members of the public alleging misconduct by Trump and other famous people in the months and years after Epstein’s arrest.

Richer writes for the Associated Press.

A Palestinian mother from Gaza says she recognised her missing son, Mohammed Sharab, when he was shown shackled, blindfolded and listed as ‘for sale’ in a post shared by Israeli soldiers.

THE daughter of a 63-year-old grandmother who was kidnapped from her home and held for ransom three years before Nancy Guthrie was snatched has branded the investigation a “circus.”

Zoe Lopez, whose mother Maria was taken in 2023 and never returned, has also offered advice to heartbroken Today Show host Savannah Guthrie and her family.

It’s been three weeks since Savannah’s mom was snatched from her home in Arizona, and police are begging the public for help after releasing disturbing doorbell footage of an armed, masked man at the front door minutes before the kidnapping.

The FBI is working with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, which had been criticized for its handling of the case, and has received more than 21,000 tips.

Savannah announced the family is offering a $1million reward on Tuesday, as they are desperate to bring Nancy home.

In an emotional exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun, Zoe said her heart aches for the Guthrie family: “You kind of just go numb. You feel like, ‘This isn’t really happening.’

“My heart sank when … I believe it was her first statement, somebody had sent me.

“I was hesitant to post anything or to comment on it, but unfortunately, I do know her pain. 

“I understand the confusion, and I understand the anger, and the sadness, and the heartbreak that she has to deal with every single day, and every single minute. It’s devastating. 

“She might feel like, ‘Well, nobody understands.’ I do.

“It’s been three years, and absolutely nothing is normal about my life. You lose a part of yourself that very day.”

Zoe also slammed the Guthrie investigation and public ransom notes, saying the authorities need to get things under control and “reset” the case.

She said, “This is being handled in a very careless [way]. A circus, a complete circus. And this is something so sensitive.

“I am baffled that so much information is just being brought out in real time. 

“It’s been three weeks of chaos. There’s still time for them to get it under control. I think that they should be private about this.

“The loss of control. I can’t imagine how damaging it is to them [the family] emotionally.”

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has reportedly “locked down” the case, and there is reported tension between his team and the FBI.

They have faced backlash for many decisions made amid the search for Nancy, including sending DNA samples to be tested at a facility in Florida, instead of letting the FBI use their lab in Quantico, Virginia.

Sheriff Nanos also admitted he likely released the Guthrie home as a crime scene too early.

This allowed reporters to access the property, where they discovered and photographed blood droplets on the front steps that investigators had reportedly not yet addressed publicly.

Zoe said, “They’re missing a lot of steps, and getting to a lot of important stuff days later, [it] is extremely concerning.

“It’s scary, because it makes you think, well, ‘Who are these agents, and how much experience do they have to be handling a case of this magnitude?’ It’s a kidnapping. It’s absurd.”

Similar to her mom’s case, she believes those responsible for taking 83-year-old Nancy were not professionals or cartel-related.

She said, “They saw an opportunity. They’re driven by money.”

Pain & paranoia

Zoe’s mom, Maria, a US citizen, was kidnapped on February 9, 2023, in Pueblo Nuevo, in the Mexican state of Colima, where she had returned to retire with her husband.

She was alone at home watering her garden after shopping when she was approached by “four or five individuals” who bundled her into a white van.

An eyewitness told authorities that at one point she was seen on the ground after either being struck or fainting during a struggle.

But the kidnappers eventually got her into the vehicle and fled the scene.

Zoe and her family received multiple ransom calls demanding large amounts of money, with the first call coming within 24 hours, and setting deadlines they had to meet.

She is unable to reveal whether they paid the kidnappers amid the ongoing investigation.

Zoe, who worked in road management for professional boxers when her mom was taken, believes Savannah has a long road ahead and might end up giving up her role as a host on the Today Show.

She said, “It took me months to go get groceries, to be honest. I was so scared. And although the kidnapping happened in Mexico, I was afraid.

“I was always scared that somebody was following me. People did recognize me once it went public.

“I couldn’t be out because people [would say], ‘Oh, you’re the daughter of the lady that got kidnapped.’ So it’s just safer to be home. 

“It took about a year and a half before I decided to take a different role, still in the boxing world, but more on a quieter level, where I’m designing outfits for certain boxers.

“I’m going back into production, working with special teams and stuff, traveling.

“She [Savannah] might not be a reporter after this. She might not want to be in the public eye, or it might give her purpose and make her say, ‘I’m supposed to be here. I have to continue to advocate for my mom.’

‘Survivor’s guilt’

“My heart aches for the family. When we were going through the uncertainty daily, not knowing… and then you come to a point, at least for them, they’re weeks in now, where you just feel alone, like nobody understands how bad this aching pain is. It’s a fear.

“Your body is in shock day in and day out.

“There has to be a way I can say, ‘Hey, make yourself some tea.’ You know? ‘Hug each other. Cry.’

“I think that’s another thing, too: it’s okay to fall apart. It’s okay not to be okay. Forcing yourself to be strong for the public, or forcing yourself to be strong for others, is going to be damaging to you.

“You need to find the energy, find that strength from deep down inside, but you also need to take those small moments, even if it’s 20 or 30 minutes. It’s okay, just hold on to each other.”

Heartbreakingly, Zoe says Savannah may learn that she can’t trust everyone around her, as some people who reach out to see how she is may not have good intentions.

“It’s really hard to even say this, but tune out the noise from the outside because she is a reporter and she is in the public eye,” she advised.

“But try to understand that not everybody is going to reach out to be there for you.

“They will reach out to get information, to see where you’re at, and that could be extremely damaging to you.”

She went on, “Her life is gonna change completely. And it’s probably gonna be the best thing for her to take some time just for her.

“It’s been three years for me, and I’m still learning. I feel like I’m learning how to walk again in the normal world and not feel guilty because I think that we carry that. 

“That’s where I guess they call it like survivor’s guilt, you know? Like, why do I get to go to work? Why do I get to go out and have fun? Why do I get to put it aside for a little bit when I don’t know where she is?”

Mexico rumors

Zoe said she and her family struggled to work with Mexican authorities and the FBI, as both tried to take control, mirroring the situation in Guthrie’s case.

“We reached out to the White House so many times through phone calls. She’s going to have to become relentless in pursuing other government officials as well,” she said.

“She [Nancy] is a U.S. citizen. If they did cross the border, then there should be coordinated searches, with federal agencies in Mexico working together with federal agencies here.

“You don’t know if you can fully trust the authorities there or whether they’re going to work together. Are they going to want to work with the FBI? Unfortunately for us, we learned quickly that they weren’t that open to working with them.

“They feel, ‘Well, it happened in our territory. This is our case. We will handle it.’ It’s kind of like a rivalry.

“At the end of the day, you’re looking for the same victim.

“It doesn’t matter whether it was across the border or here. The fact that you have these kinds of power struggles makes no sense.”

She explained that Mexican authorities are willing to allow families to pay a ransom, whereas the FBI tries to negotiate with kidnappers.

“We were definitely put in the middle because we didn’t know, ‘Do we follow the advice of the FBI and not pay the ransom, or do we pay the ransom and hope for the best? And how do we do that when we’re across borders?’

“It’s just constant torture — one phone call after another with different demands: ‘Do this now,’ or ‘If not…’ They set time frames, and more than anything, you need proof of life.

“You need to know, ‘Okay, you’re telling me you want this amount of money and that you have her. I need to speak to her.’ And that took a long time.”

Zoe and her family received what appeared to be a recording of Maria begging them to meet the kidnappers’ demands.

She said, “You live with the uncertainty of, ‘Where is she? How is she? What have they done to her? Is she alive? Is she dead?’

“As far as my situation, you lose everything, you really do.”

Zoe Lopez on the kidnapping of her beloved mom

“And then you have the speculations of everyone. You have the criticism on top. You have the heartache, the pain, your family, how do you wake up today and just try to be normal? You can’t, there isn’t no normal anymore. 

“As far as my situation, you lose everything, you really do.”

Zoe, 42, has been with her husband for 25 years and has two children, much like Savannah, while Maria, a mother of seven, has 21 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. 

Discussing how the kidnapping affected her personal relationships, Zoe admitted, “They are all damaged, at least with my children; they’re dealing with the pain of losing their grandmother.

“So whenever your children hurt, you hurt with them. I feel it’s been trauma over trauma and pain over pain. I’m witnessing my kids are devastated over their grandmother. 

“And in return, they’re seeing me falling apart over my mother. And having to find that strength of, ‘What would my mom do? How would my mother handle this situation with me? How do I handle the situation with my children?’

“Although it’s been 3 years, we have not given up. We hold on to hope.

“So for Nancy.. stay strong. Know that you’re loved, and that you’re being looked for, although it seems like a lot is going on, the people who matter, are hanging on to hope as well.

“For the bad guys who do have her, please give her up. She’s an elderly person. She deserves to be home.”

Two men were arrested in connection with another kidnapping in Mexico and have since been linked to Maria’s disappearance through DNA evidence from the crime scene.

However, authorities have not publicly confirmed any direct charge or prosecution in her case.

The FBI and Mexican prosecutors have been working jointly on the investigation, and the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office has offered a reward of up to $20,000 for information that leads to her physical location.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has admitted that Savannah and her family could also be waiting “years” for answers about Nancy’s whereabouts.

“It’s exhausting, these ups and downs. But we will keep moving forward,” he told The New York Times.

“Maybe it’s an hour from now. Maybe it’s weeks or months or years from now. But we won’t quit. We’re going to find Nancy. We’re going to find this guy.”