PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
Russia’s Navalny penned secret memoir before death, widow says
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny wrote an autobiography before he died which will be published this year, his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said Thursday, revealing the existence of a text his inner circle had kept secret for years.
Navalny, who died at 47 in an Arctic prison in February, had wanted to become president of Russia and was Vladimir Putin's fiercest domestic critic. His allies, branded extremists by the authorities, accused Putin of having him murdered.
The Kremlin has denied any state involvement in his death and, when he was alive, dismissed Navalny, a former lawyer who oversaw corruption investigations into Russia's political elite, as a marginal U.S.-backed troublemaker out to destabilize Russia.
Navalnaya said in a post on X from outside Russia that her husband had started to write the memoir – titled “Patriot”
– in 2020 after he had been poisoned by what Western doctors said was a nerve agent and had been flown to Germany for medical treatment.
She said the book would be released simultaneously in at least 11 languages on Oct. 22 and appear in Navalny's native Russian.
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ makes splash with cheeky new footage
It's hard to fathom what's more exciting, Deadpool finally diving headfirst into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or Ryan Reynolds' beloved wisecracking oddball getting his own popcorn bucket.
The good news from CinemaCon is that superhero fans are getting both. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige teased at the convention of theater owners that Deadpool is “designing” a collectible container to sell at concession stands − and director Shawn Levy introduced nine minutes of new footage from “Deadpool & Wolverine” (in theaters July 27).
Fans wondering if it'd be the same cursing, fourth wall-breaking Deadpool from the previous Fox films got their answer with a whole bunch of fbombs. In the sneak peek, Wade Wilson (Reynolds) has literally hung up his tights and is now selling cars. His friends throw him a birthday party – complete with cocaine riffs and “Frozen” jokes – but Wade gets nabbed by a goon squad from the Time Variance Authority (see: “Loki” Seasons 1 and 2).
He's taken to see Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen of “Succession” fame), and this cryptic guy shows him scenes from Marvel movies and tells Wade he can finally be the hero he's always wanted to be. So Deadpool gets a new costume and, in meta fashion, agrees to leave his timeline for the MCU. “Suck it, Fox! I'm going to Disneyland,” Deadpool says into the camera before busting it.
Marvel showed some of the chemistry between Reynolds' Deadpool and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, who's also making his MCU debut in the new film.