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Monday July 24, 2017 16 ENtertainment

Linkin Park cancels tour after

Bennington’s death

LINKIN Park has canceled the rest of its One More Light North American tour.

The news comes a day after frontman Chester Bennington was found dead at the age of 41 in Los Angeles.

“We are incredibly saddened to hear about the passing of Ches-ter Bennington. The Linkin Park One More Light North Ameri-can Tour has been canceled and refunds are available at point of purchase. Our thoughts go out to all those affected,” said Live Nation in a statement.

On Friday, it was revealed that the singer’s death was reported as a suicide by hang-ing. The fi nal cause of death is pending following an autopsy. ET learned that there was no evidence of drugs at the scene, but there was a partially emptied bottle of alcohol in the room where his body was found.

Linkin Park members Mike Shinoda and Dave Farrell also took to Twitter on Thursday to express their sadness.

Bennington, whose screech-ing vocals helped the rock-rap band become one of the most commercially successful acts in the 2000s, was found dead in his home near Los Angeles on Thursday, the Los Angeles County coroner said.

The Grammy Award-winning group sold more than 10 mil-lion copies of their 2000 debut, “Hybrid Theory,” which featured the megahit and anthem, “In the End.” They sold another 6 mil-lion with 2003’s multiplatinum “Meteora.” Both albums explored feelings of frustration and fury.

The success helped Linkin Park become Billboard’s No. 1 act of the decade for rock songs and alternative songs.

Bennington struggled with drug and alcohol addictions at various times during his life. He said he had been sexu-ally abused as a child and was homeless for months before the band found fame.

Bennington was close friends with Chris Cornell, who died by hanging earlier this year, and performed Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” at the Soundgar-den singer’s memorial in late May. Cornell’s 53rd birthday would have been Thursday.

(SD-Agencies)

(From L) Cast members Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hid-dleston, Mark Ruffalo and Cate Blanchett at a panel for “Thor: Ragnarok.” SD-Agencies

Comic-Con goes wild for ‘Black Panther’

“BLACK Panther” stole the show Saturday night at Marvel Studios’ Comic-Con presen-tation, outshining the “Ant-Man,” “Thor” and even the ultimate Avengers team-up, “Infi nity War.”

Fans went wild for the exclusive sneak peek at the upcoming superhero pic, fea-turing star Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa intercepting a sketchy vibranium trade between Andy Serkis’ Klaw and Martin Freeman’s Everett. Set in an elegant, Japa-nese-inspired casino, the deal goes haywire and T’Challa and his security detail (Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira) jump to action in their evening gowns to retrieve the pre-cious goods.

The clip was followed by the trailer for the fi lm from “Creed” director Ryan Coogler and the 6,500 souls in the audience erupted into deafening cheers at the sight of T’Challa morphing into the Black Panther suit.

The fi lm fi nds T’Challa returning to his

home of Wakanda after the death of his father, the king.

Coogler, Boseman, Nyong’o, Gurira, Serkis and more of the cast were on hand in San Diego to talk about the fi lm, out Feb. 16, 2019.

Marvel Studios also teased its third “Thor” fi lm, “Thor: Ragnarok ,” which has quite a different and more irreverent tone from previous installments, and hits the-aters in November.

“I’ve played this character fi ve times,” Chris Hemsworth told the audience. “Me, personally, I got a little bored and thought we’ve got to try something a little different ... Push the envelope, take it to another level.”

So, they cut his hair, take his hammer

away and pit him against Jeff Goldblum and Cate Blanchett. When Blanchett’s Hela, the goddess of death, invades Asgard, Thor fi nds himself on the run and under the control of Goldblum’s Grandmaster on Sakaar where he is pitted against the Hulk in a Gladiator tournament.

Marvel also unveiled the “Avengers: Infi nity War” footage that the studio had previously shown to audiences at the Disney fan convention, D23, and made a few announcements regarding upcoming fi lms: Michelle Pfeiffer will play Evangeline Lilly’s character’s mom Janet van Dyne in the “Ant-Man” sequel “Ant Man and the Wasp” and “Captain Marvel,” Marvel’s fi rst female-driven superhero movie, will be set in the 1990s. (SD-Agencies)

BEN AFFLECK shot down rumors that he would be hang-ing up his cape for the stand-alone Batman fi lm, even though he recently ceded directing responsibilities.

Speaking to a crowd of about 6,500 fans at San Diego Comic-Con, Affl eck unequivocally assured the crowd Saturday that he is still starring in “The Batman.”

“Let me be very clear. I am the luckiest guy in the world. Batman is the coolest part in any universe, DC or Marvel,” Affl eck said. He wanted to

knock down the idea that he wasn’t committed to the char-acter, even though he won’t be directing.

Affl eck praised director Matt Reeves’ vision and said he would “be an ape on the ground for Matt Reeves.” Reeves recently directed “War for the Planet of the Apes.”

With the cloud lifted, Affl eck and his fellow “Justice League “ stars Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller and Ray Fisher were left to talk about the upcoming fi lm, which has had its own fair share of upheaval recently

when director Zack Snyder exited for personal reasons and Joss Whedon took over the reshoots and completion of the fi lm. The fi lm will hit theaters in November.

Neither Snyder nor Whedon were at Comic-Con, although Snyder tweeted Friday that he was sending his best to the “Justice League” team.

Warner Bros. also teased a bit of “Aquaman,” out Dec, 2018, starring Momoa in the title role. The studio didn’t go past the 2018 slate of fi lms, however.

(SD-Agencies)

Ben affleck assures fans he is still Batman

ACTOR John Heard, whose many roles included the father in the “Home Alone” series and a corrupt detective in “The Sopranos,” has died. He was 71.

Heard was found dead Friday in a hotel in Palo Alto, Califor-nia, the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner’s offi ce said Saturday.

An investigation which includes a toxicology test is underway to determine the cause of death, but so far there is no evidence of foul play, the offi ce said.

TMZ reported that a repre-sentative for Heard said he was staying in the hotel while he recovered from back surgery at Stanford University Medi-cal Center. Heard played Peter McCallister, the father of Kevin, played by Macaulay Culkin, in “Home Alone” and “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.” He was born March 7, 1946, in Washington, D.C., and grew up performing in local theater.

He earned an Emmy nomina-tion for playing Vin Makazian in “The Sopranos.”

(SD-Agencies)

John Heard of ‘Home Alone’

movies dies at 71

A scene from “Black Panther.” SD-Agencies

Chester Bennington