Entertainment
Jason Momoa Calls His Dad’s Cameo in ‘Chief of War’ a ‘Pretty Beautiful Moment’
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NEED TO KNOW
- Jason Momoa’s dad plays a special role in his life and in his upcoming AppleTV+ series
- The movie star revealed that his father makes an important cameo in the historic drama, Chief of War
- Chief of War premieres with two episodes on Friday, Aug. 1
Jason Momoa cast a special star in his new project — his dad!
Speaking to NBC News in a segment that aired on the Today show on Thursday, July 31, the 45-year-old actor revealed that his father makes a cameo in the Apple TV+ historical drama, Chief of War.
“Pops is in it, yeah,” he told the outlet of Joseph Momoa. “He’s blowing the conch shell.”
Eric Charbonneau/Apple TV+ via Getty
The Baywatch alum added that the conch shell wasn’t just a made-up role for the series, but something that his father has always taken pride in.
“Any special gathering whatsoever, my dad was always doing that,” he said, adding, “To see him all in the in wardrobe was a pretty beautiful moment.”
The Game of Thrones alum was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and his father is Hawaiian, hailing from Nanakuli.
“This is everything I’ve ever wanted to do, to do something for my culture and my heritage,” Jason said of why the series is a passion project. “To be honest, guys, I’ve never seen anything quite like this show.”
Jason co-created and executive-produced the nine-episode series, which is based on true events surrounding the unification of the Hawaiian islands as they face colonization in the late 1700s.
“I feel like this whole thing has chosen me in a way, like this is my destiny,” Jason told PEOPLE at the premiere Wednesday, July 30, which was in Hawaii, not far from where he was born — and two miles from where he’d spend summers with his father. “I have no idea how I got to all this, but we’re here, and I’m very grateful. I’m living my dream doing what I love to do. To play my ancestors is such a responsibility. It’s scary and exciting.”
Apple TV+
His children, Lola, 18, and Nakoa-Wolf, 16, whom he shares with ex-wife Lisa Bonet, were also nearby for the event.
The Aquaman star also shared how his father’s presence continues to play a crucial role in his life.
“My dad is a coach at an outrigger canoe club, which is where I learned how to surf,” Jason said. “Just this morning, the sand pulled back and revealed massive petroglyphs [ancient sandstone carvings] right in the place where I grew up. It’s kind of insane. I’ve never experienced that before.”
Jason Momoa/Instagram
As for Jason’s mother, Coni Momoa is from Norwalk, Iowa. But like his father, Coni has also made a special cameo before.
Ahead of St. Patrick’s Day 2024, the mother-son duo starred in a Guinness commercial together.
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“[My mom] is the one that introduced Guinness to me. It only made sense for us to be together,” Jason told PEOPLE, adding that Coni was “so nervous” on set. “She did a great job, but it was really cute to see my mom kind of panicked on the lines.”
Chief of War premieres with two episodes on Aug. 1, with new episodes debuting weekly on Fridays on Apple TV+.
Entertainment
Savannah Guthrie vows not to ‘fall apart’ for kids’ sake amid mom Nancy’s disappearance

Savannah Guthrie promised not to “fall apart” for the sake of her two children during her “Today” show interview on the disappearance of mom Nancy Guthrie.
“I will do it for my kids,” the journalist told Hoda Kotb during the emotional sitdown Friday, referencing daughter Vale, 11, and son Charles, 9.
Savannah, who shares the little ones with husband Michael Feldman, added, “I will not let whoever did this take my children’s mom away.”
The 54-year-old went on to say Nancy modeled the same strength when Savannah’s dad, Charles, died when the NBC personality was a teenager.
“She taught me,” Savannah explained. “I saw her grief, I saw her world shatter — but I saw her get up, saw her love, saw her faith.
“She taught all of us,” the “crushed” and “heartbroken” former attorney continued, referencing brother Camron Guthrie and sister Annie Guthrie. “I may not do it as well as her, but will do it.”
Savannah’s conversation with Kotb comes nearly two months after her 84-year-old mom was kidnapped from her Arizona home on Jan. 31.
The TV personality, who discussed her April 6 “Today” show return elsewhere in the interview, sobbed while sharing how she was in “agony” over Nancy’s disappearance in the portion that aired Thursday.
“I wake up every night in the middle of the night, every night, and in the darkness, I imagine her terror, and it is unthinkable,” Savannah said. “But those thoughts demand to be thought, and I will not hide my face.”
She learned on Feb. 1 that Nancy was missing when she received a call from Annie.
“I said, ‘Is everything OK?’ And she said, ‘No.’ She said, ‘Mom’s missing,’” Savannah recalled. “And I said, ‘What? What are you talking about?’ She said, ‘She’s gone.’”
The NBC personality explained that she and Annie thought their mom may have had “some kind of medical episode in the night,” describing how the “back doors were propped open.”
However, the matriarch’s cell phone and purse remained in the home.
Savannah, additionally, called out the “cruel” allegations that her family was involved in Nancy’s disappearance.
She will “never understand” the speculation, adding that it “piles pain upon pain” as she fiercely defended Camron and Annie’s husband, Tommaso Cioni.
Nancy was reported missing after she didn’t attend church service on Feb. 1.
Surveillance footage of a masked and armed person outside of Nancy’s front door the night she was abducted was later released by the FBI.
Savannah and her siblings have accepted the possibility that their mom might be dead, but have offered $1 million for her return.
Entertainment
Antonio Banderas reveals why he fled Hollywood after major health scare

Antonio Banderas gave up his ritzy Hollywood lifestyle and has zero regrets almost 10 years later.
The actor, 65, moved back to his home town — Málaga, Spain — back in 2017. Banderas said it was his near-fatal heart attack that triggered his big move.
“Mine was a really serious warning,” he said of the heart attack in an interview with the Times published Wednesday. “It changed the way I look at life.”
The outlet noted that prior to his major health scare, Banderas was living between the US and the UK, and had a mansion in Cobham, Surrey.
The “Desperado” star then immediately quit smoking, sold his private jet, returned to Málaga and bought a theatre.
“Faced with death, it made me look back and realize that I am, in fact, a theatre actor,” he explained.
Banderas now lives in a flat with his longtime girlfriend, Nicole Kimpel, and owns multiple restaurants. But his not-for-profit theatre, Teatro del Soho, is his greatest passion.
“I have never been so happy,” he noted.
Banderas also reflected on how he became a superstar in Hollywood, sharing that his insecurities about English not being his first language went away after he married his now ex-wife, Melanie Griffith. The two divorced in 2015 after 18 years of marriage.
He shared that while he was originally told that as a Spaniard, he could only play “the bad guys” in films, he proved them wrong with 1998’s “The Mask of Zorro.”
“The problem was a few years later I had a mask, hat, sword and cape and the bad guy was Captain Love, who was blond and had blue eyes,” he said.
He continued, “Even more important is [his 2011 film] ‘Puss in Boots,’ because it’s for young kids. They see a cat that has a Spanish, even an Andalusian accent and he’s a good guy.”
Banderas spoke to Page Six in December 2022, and said his heart attack was “one of the best things” that ever happened to him.
“I realized that it probably was one of the best things that ever happened in my life because the things that were not important and I was worried every day about them, meaningless,” he explained.
He told us that after his near-death experience, he began to detach from “things that I thought were important before but weren’t really.”
“I was like, why am I worried about that if I’m going to die?” he recalled. “I knew always [that I was going to die], but now I know. I’ve seen it right here.”
Entertainment
Pussycat Dolls’ Jessica Sutta claims her MAGA politics cost her a reunion tour

Former Pussycat Dolls member Jessica Sutta is speaking out after being excluded from the girl group’s upcoming reunion tour, saying she believes her political views, including her support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., made her a “liability.”
On March 12, the Pussycat Dolls announced their PCD Forever Tour, featuring only three members — Nicole Scherzinger, Kimberly Wyatt and Ashley Roberts — while other original members, including Sutta, Carmit Bachar and Melody Thornton, were left out.
During a March 22 appearance on “The Maverick Approach” podcast, Sutta, 43, claimed that she, Bachar and Thornton were not told about the reunion in advance.
“None of us were called. None of us were told about anything,” Sutta said. “In fact, we were blindsided.”
The singer explained that she heard rumors about a potential reunion and claimed she repeatedly tried to contact Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin, 64, but could not reach the choreographer until the night that the news leaked.
“She didn’t give me all the details, but I just — I started just to cry. I was like, ‘How dare you?’ Like you had no respect at all,” Sutta said.
Sutta said Scherzinger, 47, called her the following day when the tour was announced, but Sutta was too hurt to answer.
“I don’t plan to call her back,” Sutta said. “I love Nicole. This is very bittersweet for me. I respect her as an artist. I even cried with joy when she won her Tony just recently.”
In June 2025, Scherzinger won her first Tony Award, taking home the best leading actress trophy for her role as Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard.”
“I definitely was rooting for her, but the way they did this just showed me exactly why I’m not in the group,” Sutta said. “And they showed exactly, to me, who they are.”
In recent years, the singer has been outspoken about experiencing serious, ongoing health issues that she said began after she received a COVID-19 vaccine in 2021. Sutta, who said she is also dealing with a neurological condition, shared her opinion that she was sidelined from the reunion tour due to her support for RFK Jr.
Sutta publicly backed RFK Jr. during his 2024 presidential run, attending campaign events, posting about him on social media and speaking at rallies, citing shared views on health and vaccines following her own medical struggles.
“It’s a cash grab. I mean, come on. Let’s keep it real, right?” Sutta said of the reunion tour. “And I was a liability.
“I align with Bobby Kennedy, which is aligning with MAGA,” she continued. “Do I love what [President Donald] Trump is doing? Absolutely not. I do not believe in war. [But] we didn’t have a chance for the [vaccine]-injured community to get help without him.
“People are screaming at me, ‘You’re MAGA, you’re MAGA.’ Yeah, I am. I triple down on it because I’m like, I’m so sick of people telling me who I should be.
“So, it’s unfortunate,” Sutta said. “I was never political, but I had to because my life depends on it.”
Sutta described helping RFK Jr. with his presidential campaign as “incredible” and admitted it was “a little bittersweet” when he dropped out and endorsed Trump.
“I wanted to see him as president,” she said. “I think he’s an amazing human. I think he’s too good to be president though. Like he has too big of a heart.”
Sutta was a member of the Pussycat Dolls from 2003 to 2010, joining as the group transitioned from a burlesque dance troupe into a recording act and remaining through its peak success.
After her departure, Sutta launched a solo career, releasing two studio albums, including “Feline Resurrection” (2016) and “I Say Yes” (2017) and scoring four No. 1 singles on Billboard’s US Dance Club Songs chart.
Sutta previously reunited with the Pussycat Dolls for a planned 2019 reunion before it ultimately fell apart in 2020.
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