Entertainment
‘The White Lotus’ Star Sam Nivola Addresses Nepo Baby Label
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NEED TO KNOW
- Sam Nivola addressed the nepo baby label in a new interview and said his success is “sometimes in spite” of his parents, Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola
- “Other than my genes, I don’t think I can attribute much of my success to my parents,” the actor said
- Sam also discussed why he took offense to the criticism of his White Lotus character, Lochlan Ratliff
Sam Nivola is getting candid about the nepo baby label.
The White Lotus star, 21, addressed finding success in the entertainment industry as the son of actors Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola.
“Other than my genes, I don’t think I can attribute much of my success to my parents,” he told Variety. “I feel proud that I’ve done it for myself, and sometimes in spite of them.”
Emily Mortimer/Instagram
Sam landed his first role in the 2022 film White Noise, playing the on-screen son of Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig’s characters, after his high school drama teacher helped him get an audition.
“I didn’t get my dad’s agent to call up so-and-so,” he said of the role. “I did it by myself. I didn’t want to give anyone an excuse to be able to say that anything I’ve achieved has been because of anyone other than me. And I’m proud of that.”
Despite pride in his work, Sam knows the recent attention he has received from playing Lochlan Ratliff on The White Lotus season 3 has little to do with his talent.
“But that just goes to show the trappings of fame because I’m not half as talented as my father or my mother,” he said of getting asked to take selfies while taking walks with family.
Sam also addressed the criticism of his White Lotus character and his incestuous storyline with his brother Saxon Ratliff (Patrick Schwarzenegger).
“It was at times painful. It’s hard when people view your character as a monster or pervert or freak,” he admitted of the online chatter about the character.
“It was hard feeling like people had lost sympathy for this guy that I lived inside. I got a little defensive,” he added. “You have to love your character, otherwise you’re f—–. My character jerked off Patrick. I don’t like that. It’s a bad thing he did. But I try not to pass judgment.”
Sam admitted that following the release of White Lotus, he was offered roles that were “socially awkward, virginal kids who are a little weird.”
However, things are slowly changing.
“I’m starting to feel a little boxed in by the characters I’ve played in my career,” he said. “But I’m also finally getting offers to do things where I’m a little more grown up. Hopefully the next one will be something a little different.”
Stefano Delia/HBO
He previously revealed during a conversation with Cooper Koch for Variety‘s Actors on Actors that both his parents actually advised him against following in their footsteps.
“My whole thing was that my parents really didn’t want me to be an actor, which I totally get — I don’t know if I’d want my kid to be an actor,” he admitted to Variety. “It’s a really mentally tough career to be in.”
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He continued, “Even if I had no success, I would want to be doing it. But they really didn’t want me to do it.”
Entertainment
Hollywood icon Sally Field reminds a fractured nation of the brilliance of the Constitution
Actress Sally Field used a recent television appearance to praise the First Amendment, reflecting on the importance of free speech in an era of intense political division.
“When I was in the seventh grade, I was asked to memorize something that I never forgot. ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people peacefully to assemble,’” Field said during on CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
The two-time Academy Award winner shared what freedom of speech in the US Constitution means to her on a deeply personal level.
“It’s the First Amendment to the US Constitution. I barely knew what it meant at the time. I certainly didn’t know the importance of it. And now, almost 67 years later, I understand it like never before,” she said.
Field’s defense of the Constitution comes at a time when many of her Hollywood counterparts frequently utilize their massive platforms to express harsh dissatisfaction with American domestic policies and immigration enforcement.

Most recently, the entertainment industry mobilized following the fatal January 2026 shooting of Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother who was killed by a federal immigration agent during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis. The incident sparked national outrage and reignited a fierce debate over immigration enforcement tactics.
At the Golden Globes, prominent stars—including Mark Ruffalo, Wanda Sykes, Natasha Lyonne, and Jean Smart—wore black-and-white protest pins on the red carpet reading “Be Good” and “ICE Out” in tribute to Good and to speak out against the agency.
Field emphasized that she respects the right of all citizens—including her activist peers—to voice their opinions, noting that the First Amendment exists precisely to protect those actions.

“I have the right to speak out, make a sign, and peacefully join a protest without fear of punishment or retribution, or worse,” Field said. “I have learned that this fragile thing called democracy needs to be protected, that the brilliance of our Constitution begins with the words, ‘We the People.’ I believe in the resilience of our Constitution, and I believe in the goodness and strength of the people.”
Field is best known for a versatile, powerhouse career spanning six decades. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, for Norma Rae (1979) and Places in the Heart (1984).
Her other iconic film credits include Forrest Gump, Mrs. Doubtfire, and an Oscar-nominated performance in Spielberg’s Lincoln.
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Field for further comment.
Entertainment
Jennifer Lopez busts a move in lace-up jeans from 2001 ‘Ain’t It Funny’ music video

Jennifer Lopez is giving us nostalgia served hot!
The pop star, 56, slipped into the exact same jeans she wore in her 2001 “Ain’t It Funny” music video to re-create an “Off Campus” scene with actress Mika Abdalla.
For the cheeky clip — which Lopez posted on social media — she paired the ultra-low-slung lace-up denim with a white cropped turtleneck that made the most of her impressive abs.
“It’s a new Jeneration of party people…🎶,” she captioned the video, giving a nod to lyrics from her 2011 collaboration with Pitbull, “On the Floor.”
One observant X user commented on the singer’s “INSANE” pants and shared a snippet from the “Ain’t It Funny” video.
Lopez confirmed the fan’s suspicions by replying, “They’re the same ones from that video 😀.”
As for Abdalla, she went with her own throwback-inspired look by pairing a brown backless halter top with baggy jeans and a vintage belt.
The clip began with the 26-year-old standing outside Lopez’s dance studio while mouthing her “Off Campus” co-star Khobe Clarke’s line, “I don’t know her personally, but I’m pretty sure that’s J.Lo.”
Abdalla then made her way inside to find the Grammy nominee rehearsing with her crew.
Lopez turned around and mouthed back, “Oh, my God. Wait. This is me! Now!” which Abdalla’s character, Allie Hayes, squealed in a now-viral scene from Prime Video’s new romantic drama series — while wearing a replica of J.Lo’s iconic 2000 Grammys Versace jungle dress.
“Love this shooooww,” the songstress — who gave the plunging gown a second lap while closing Versace’s spring 2020 runway show in Milan — gushed alongside a clip of the aforementioned scene.
Meanwhile, Abdalla recently described just how much work went into creating the “unreal” garment, telling Betches UK that “five fittings” were involved.
Entertainment
‘Euphoria’ kills off Jacob Elordi’s Nate Jacobs

He’s not feeling euphoric.
Warning: Spoilers ahead! Do not proceed unless you’ve watched “Euphoria’s” seventh episode of Season 3.
“Euphoria” catapulted Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney and Zendaya into their current status as A-listers, and now, one has been axed from the show.
Season 3 killed Elordi’s controversial character, Nate Jacobs.
He was buried alive in a coffin, with a pipe leading to the surface so that he could breathe. A rattlesnake slithered down the pipe and bit him.
He had been placed there by Naz (Jack Topalian), the gangster he owes about a million dollars to.
Naz’s plan was to leave Nate down there (with a pipe to breathe) for 72 hours while his wife, Cassie (Sweeney) could get the money together.
Unfortunately for Nate, before 72 hours was up, a snake got him. Naz also didn’t make it out alive, as he was fatally shot by Season 3’s other gangster, Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). Cassie and Maddy (Alexa Demie) scrambled to get the money together as Nate got dug up, but they got a nasty surprise, as they were met with his dead body.
In the “inside the episode” segment at the end, Elordi said in his post-mortem interview, “It was a cool way to go, Nate is somebody who’s made so many mistakes and so many dark choices.”
First premiering in 2019, the Sam Levinson-created drama initially followed its characters in high school. Elordi, Zendaya and Sweeney were lesser known at the time.
“Euphoria changed my life,” Elordi, 28, told Variety in 2023.
“Saltburn” was the Australian star’s big-screen breakout that same year. Per Vogue Australia, his “Wuthering Heights” co-star Margot Robbie (who produced “Saltburn”) suggested him for the role at the time after watching him in “Euphoria.”
The “Frankenstein” star told GQ UK in 2023 that before landing on the HBO show, “I wasn’t booking jobs. I think I had – I don’t know, $400 or $800 left in my bank account – and ‘Euphoria’ was my last audition before I went home for a little while to make some money and recuperate.”
In the first two seasons, Nate was the show’s villain. He was a high school jock with anger issues – he manipulated, threatened and blackmailed everyone around him, choked his then-girlfriend, Maddy (Alexa Demi), and struck up a relationship with her best friend, Cassie (Sweeney).
Nate’s issues stemmed from finding his father Cal’s (Eric Dane) sex tapes at a young age.
In Season 3, which is set five years after high school, Nate had a dramatically different personality.
His rage issues inexplicably seemed vanished, his demeanor was softer and nicer and he appeared to genuinely love Cassie (instead of using her, like he was in Season 2).
Instead of being menacing, he did a goofy dance at his wedding. After he didn’t get his way in front of a board of bureucrats, rather than blackmail or threaten them, he just pathetically cried and begged.
Outraged fans criticized “Euphoria” for Nate’s inexplicable personality change and slammed it for giving the character a “lobotomy.”
Season 3 saw Nate take over his dad’s construction business, but he ran into issues when he had to stop his build because of an endangered flower – the white fritillary.
The show also revealed that he conned people into giving him money for his construction projects, including the gangster Naz.
In the third episode of Season 3, when Nate didn’t pay Naz the half a million dollars he owed him, Naz interrupted Nate and Cassie’s wedding and had him brutally beaten on his wedding night. It all culminated in Naz cutting off Nate’s toe. However, Nate later got it sewn back on.
Topalian exclusively told Page Six that Elordi did most of his own stunts during the scene where Naz’s henchmen threw Nate around.
“That’s [Elordi] really doing the struggling and the fighting and the falling and all of that,” he told us.
He called Elordi “committed,” “giving,” and “prepared,” but “between scenes, he’s back to being Jacob.”
“Obviously, he gets back into character really quickly,” he went on. “But once [the director calls ‘cut’] even though he’s been beaten and abused, he’s still having a lot of fun. He’s still cracking jokes and doing things like that.”
Elordi told Entertainment Weekly in November that his acting process was different in Season 3. He noted that he likes to “obsess over” his work, and take the time to prepare by going through “every element and construct it and put it together.”
The booked and busy actor – who was in “Frankenstein” and “Wuthering Heights” back to back – noted that he had “no time” to prepare for Season 3.
“And I didn’t have scripts in any kind of full sense. I sort of just had creative conversations with Sam, so I had no choice.”
The “Priscilla” actor also noted that he “loves” Nate, even though most fans hate him.
“I act to understand a different experience, to express an experience that’s different to my own,” said Elordi. “Playing him taught me a lot about empathy and patience, which is strange with a character like that.”
Elordi also told the outlet that Nate’s dark deeds didn’t bother him.
“It’s a real treat to be a part of that show, and to play the quote-unquote bad guy,” he said. “It’s always more fun. You don’t wanna play some morally superior, world-saving loser.”
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