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WAIT, WHAT? Baldwin film crew had been target shooting with “prop gun” before incident. “The source went on to state that following the target practice sessions, the police found live ammo alongside blank rounds stored in the same area. Like so many other failures by the crew, that should have been a violation of the most basic safety rules and could have contributed to how Baldwin wound up with a hot gun in his hands.”

NUTS TO YOU: Health benefits of nuts may boost survival, limit recurrence in breast cancer.

TOTAL DISASTER: We Know What Happened Prior to Alec Baldwin’s Accidental Shooting of Cinematographer.

Late Friday, the Associated Press reported that Baldwin was handed a loaded weapon by an assistant director who indicated it was safe to use in the moments before the actor fired it, according to court records. The assistant director did not know the prop gun was loaded with live rounds, according to a search warrant filed in a Santa Fe County court.

The person in charge of overseeing the gun props, known as the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, could not be reached for comment. The 24-year-old is the daughter of veteran armorer Thell Reed and had recently completed her first film as the head armorer for the movie “The Old Way,” with Clint Howard and Nicolas Cage.

More here: Baldwin film crew had been target shooting with “prop gun” before incident: And note this report:

The “inexperienced” armorer in charge of weapons on set of Alec Baldwin’s movie “Rust” had given a gun to an 11-year-old actress without checking properly for safety, a report said…

Gutierrez-Reed’s alleged misstep happened on the set of the upcoming Nicholas Cage film, “The Old Way” and temporarily halted filming, sources told The Daily Beast.

“She was reloading the gun on the ground, where there were pebbles and stuff,” one source told the outlet. “We didn’t see her check it, we didn’t know if something got in the barrel or not.”

Gutierrez-Reed reportedly handed the gun to child actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong, forcing concerned crew members to intervene, the report said. The gun was then checked for barrel obstruction, according to the sources.

Not surprisingly, with a huge story involving a Hollywood superstar brewing, CNN’s Jake Tapper swings into action — tone policing the GOP:

SCIENCE: A new study led by researchers at UCLA Health has found that women over the age of 50 who had breastfed their babies performed better on cognitive tests compared to women who had never breastfed.

RIP: Leslie Bricusse, Oscar-winning composer and lyricist. “Songs for [artistic partner Anthony Newley] included ‘What Kind of Fool Am I?’, which became a hit for Sammy Davis Jr. The latter featured ‘Feeling Good,’ which was recorded by Nina Simone for her 1965 album, I Put a Spell on You. Also with Newley, Bricusse penned the lyrics to ‘Goldfinger’ (1964), composed by John Barry, and sung by Shirley Bassey as the melodramatic theme song for the third James Bond film of the same name. Three years later, he wrote the words for another Barry-composed Bond theme, ‘You Only Live Twice,’ sung by Nancy Sinatra. Bricusse and Newley wrote the soundtrack to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), Mel Stuart’s big-screen adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Songs included ‘The Candy Man,’ and ‘Pure Imagination,’ with the latter becoming the title of Bricusse’s ‘sorta-biography’ (2005).”

PROGRESS: Nominees for a Science Award Were All White Men—Nobody Won.

MATT TAIBBI: Cancel Culture Takes a Big “L.”

How many employees walked out? Not one news organization put the real number in a headline, and only a few had the guts to even tweet that the actual protest was reduced in the end to the famed Arrested Development meme:

Even the op-ed wrapups couldn’t avoid sounding like parodies, with the Washington Post talking about the “crowd of dozens” gathered outside the company’s West Hollywood offices being evidence that the popularity of a comedian whose show already gained over 10 million views was colliding with a “growing movement to protect the rights of transgender people” (how a comedy set could be a violation of “the rights of transgender people” was not explained, of course).

Since they could only gin-up a tiny protest, the L.A. Times is working hard to cancel Vito Gesualdi, the Chappelle-supporting comedian whose “We Like Dave/Jokes Are Funny” sign was smashed by the protestors in front of Netflix HQ: Chappelle supporter ‘bristled at the idea of sharing his pronouns,’ Los Angeles Times reports.

He’s already pushed back against the Associated Press, which took a photo of a protester shaking a tambourine in his face and captioning it, “Comedian and videographer Vito Gesualdi screams profanities as he engages with peaceful protesters begging him to leave.” He wasn’t screaming profanities — the protesters were — and the AP finally issued a corrected caption, removing “profanities” (as well as “peaceful” from its description of the protesters).

Gesualdi has another story, this one about the Los Angeles Times’ coverage of the walkout. In this version, the reporter writes that Gesualdi “bristled at the idea of sharing his pronouns.” Get this:

As our sister-site Twitchy asks, “Are L.A. Times reporters really compelled now to ask everyone they interview their pronouns, or as people have said above, was this just a trap to make Gesualdi sound transphobic?”

My money’s on the latter, but forget pronouns: NPR goes full Blue-Anon on Chappelle: ‘Wait, Dave Chappelle Can Have White Privilege?’ Bill Maher Mocks ‘Woke’ Outrage Over Comic’s ‘Anti-Trans’ Netflix Show. “Maher eventually brought up an article from NPR about Chappelle that accused him of ‘using white privilege to excuse his homophobia and transphobia.’ ‘Wait, now Dave Chappelle can have white privilege?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘I’m really confused now.’ Join the club.”

UPDATE: Revealed: Activist who led Dave Chappelle/Netflix protest has history of racist tweets. A look into Ashlee Marie Preston’s “Twitter archives show that this advocacy does not appear to extend to all minorities, as Preston has had harsh words for those in the Asian and Latino/a communities over their appearance and behavior. Preston appears to take behavior from individual encounters with people who are Asian and use that to find reason to be prejudiced against the entire race. She wrote that ‘Asian hoes act like they wont get karate chopped in they muthaf*kn throat. What is this hoe staring at? Mind ya beeswax #B*tch.’”

(Updated and bumped.)

MLB NIGHTMARE: It’s Georgia and Texas in the World Series.

Sports writers, MLB staffers and the commissioner of baseball, in particular, must still be clutching their pearls. Last night, 41,000 unmasked Braves fans screamed their un-masked and un-mandated lungs out, all while tomahawk-chopping their Atlanta Braves to victory. Atlanta was denied this year’s All Star Game because Commissioner Manfred caved to craven, political actors. Baseball, he said, can’t have a featured event in Georgia after it passed a voter ID law. Baseball moved the event to Colorado. Colorado already had similar voter law but no matter; its all about optics, not facts.

In July, Texas Democrats slinked away to avoid a quorum on a Texas voter law. They took a private plane, took lots of selfies and lots of beer. They came back with their tails between their legs, empty cases of beer, and a couple of cases of COVID. The new voter law requiring ID passed last month. It was all about optics, not facts.

This year’s World Series is Braves versus Astros.

Sports announcers are really going to earn their pay explaining away the many “Let’s Go Brandon” chants likely to come.

HMM: Study: Newborns who sleep better are less likely to be overweight.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Wife Throws Away Incredibly Specific Adapter Cable You’ve Held On To For Seven Years Right Before You Suddenly Find A Use For It.

THE BANNINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES: Twitter Suspends GOP Congressman for Saying Rachel Levine Is a Man.

Related: Biological man scores historic first for women. “Cockburn imagines that women everywhere are saluting their new feminist hero. They should also be saying a big ‘thank you’ to the Biden administration for recognizing that smashing the patriarchy sometimes requires a heavy dose of testosterone.”

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