You don’t have time for three hours of doomscrolling, twenty half-baked takes, and some guy online screaming READ THE THREAD. We are Front Page Detectives, this is your morning Drive-By, and here is what is real.
Almost two years after Brian Thompson was shot dead in Manhattan, support for Luigi Mangione’s actions among voters under 30 has barely moved.
Nearly four in 10 young voters still regard the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as acceptable, suggesting the public fury that transformed Luigi Mangione into an anti-corporate folk hero has proved remarkably durable.
An Emerson College poll conducted August 16 and 17 found 39 percent of likely voters ages 18 to 29 considered the killing acceptable, barely below the 41 percent recorded shortly after Thompson was shot outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024. Across all age groups, support was much lower, with 17 percent calling the killing acceptable and 72 percent rejecting it. The under-30 finding came from 141 respondents, giving that subgroup a wider margin of error.
Mangione, 28, pleaded guilty last month to two federal stalking charges resulting in Thompson’s death and faces up to life imprisonment when sentenced December 18. A separate New York murder prosecution remains pending.
Researchers examining the response have linked Mangione’s enduring appeal to anger over denied insurance claims, medical debt and a healthcare system many Americans believe treats human suffering as a balance-sheet calculation.
Hot Take: Murder is still murder. But anyone pretending 39 percent of young people woke up one morning and spontaneously developed a taste for assassination is deliberately missing the story. When an entire generation looks at a healthcare executive’s killing and struggles to summon sympathy, the warning light is not flashing over Luigi Mangione. It is flashing over the system that made him a symbol.
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The filmmaker received a standing ovation after winning for The Bear, setting a remarkable record nearly half a century after his previous acting Emmy.
Rob Reiner has been awarded a posthumous Emmy nine months after he and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were killed at their Los Angeles home.
Reiner won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy for his appearance in The Bear during the September 7 Creative Arts Emmy ceremony, beating a field that included Michael J. Fox, Brett Goldstein, Hamish Linklater, Christopher McDonald and Connor Storrie. The audience rose for an extended standing ovation, with longtime friend Jamie Lee Curtis among those watching.
The victory was Reiner’s first acting Emmy since All in the Family in 1978, producing a record 48-year gap between acting wins. The previous record-holder was his father, Carl Reiner. The ceremony came as the family continues living with the criminal case against Reiner’s son Nick, who has pleaded not guilty to murdering his parents and faces a pretrial hearing September 15.
Hot Take: There was something cruelly beautiful about the room standing for Reiner while the case over his death continues outside it. Hollywood spends plenty of nights applauding itself. This one felt like it was applauding a ghost.
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The Netflix series about Sean Combs collected its first Emmy, although the trophy technically belongs to the documentary’s editing team.
50 Cent wasted little time celebrating after the Netflix documentary series he executive produced about longtime rival Sean “Diddy” Combs picked up an Emmy.
Sean Combs: The Reckoning won Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program for the episode “Blink Again” at the Creative Arts Emmys. Supervising editors Charles Divak and Evan Wise, lead editor Jack Gravina and editors Benji Kast, Adam Goldstein, Jonathan Miller and Jeremy Siefer officially received the award rather than Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson himself.
The four-part series earned three Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series and Outstanding Directing. Released in December 2025, it examines Combs’ career, influence, allegations against him and the events preceding his arrest and federal trial. Jackson has repeatedly rejected accusations that the production was simply an elaborate attack on his longtime enemy, arguing that it tackled stories the entertainment industry had avoided.
Hot Take: Technically, 50 Cent did not win the Emmy. Realistically, good luck explaining that distinction to 50 Cent. A man who has turned trolling Diddy into a secondary career now has an Emmy-winning documentary to point at while doing it.
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The slain girl’s relatives are also challenging claims that the multimillion-streaming singer is too poor to pay for his own defense.
The family of Celeste Rivas Hernandez says singer D4vd should face the death penalty if convicted of murdering the teenager, issuing an emotional statement on what would have been her 16th birthday.
David Anthony Burke, 21, who performs as D4vd, has pleaded not guilty to three charges connected to Rivas Hernandez’s death and is awaiting trial. Her family described him as devoid of conscience and said capital punishment would be appropriate if available in his case. They marked Celeste’s birthday by remembering their life with her and saying they continue to relive happier moments.
Their attorneys are separately challenging Burke’s claim that he is indigent and entitled to a public defender. They argue that an artist with billions of streams, millions of monthly listeners and control of several corporations should not have his defense funded by Los Angeles County taxpayers. Burke’s previous private attorneys withdrew before Deputy Public Defender Walid Kandeel took over his representation.
Hot Take: Whatever happens at trial, the indigency fight is going to be ugly. When the defendant has billions of streams and prosecutors say a child was murdered, taxpayers being handed the legal bill was always going to land badly.
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Erik and Lyle Menendez had been expected to wait until August 2028, but California officials have moved their next appearance before the parole board forward by 17 months.
Erik and Lyle Menendez will return before the California Board of Parole Hearings in March 2027 after officials dramatically accelerated a process that had originally been scheduled for August 2028.
The brothers were resentenced last year from life without parole to 50 years to life for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, inside the family’s Beverly Hills mansion. That change made both men eligible to seek release after more than three decades in prison.
Their family welcomed Monday’s decision, saying the brothers have spent nearly four decades accepting responsibility, addressing the abuse and trauma they say preceded the killings and contributing to prison programs including hospice work and Green Space. Relatives also emphasized the advancing age and health problems of several elderly family members. The accelerated hearing does not guarantee release, but it moves a decision that once appeared years away considerably closer.
Hot Take: For decades, freedom was not even theoretically on the board for Erik and Lyle Menendez. Now the calendar keeps moving in their direction. March 2027 could finally answer whether California believes 36 years is punishment enough.
