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Forget the Season 3 Finale — Justin Hartley Just Got a Real-Life Honor That Hits Even Harder and Nobody Saw It Coming…

The Tracker star is heading back to his Illinois roots to deliver a commencement address and receive an honorary degree — less than 15 minutes from where he grew up.

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Justin Hartley to Receive Honorary Degree at Knox College — Tracker Star Returns to Illinois Roots for 2026 Commencement
Justin Hartley, star of CBS's Tracker and This Is Us, will deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois on June 7, 2026 — just miles from his hometown of Knoxville, Illinois.

Justin Hartley has tracked down a lot of things on screen. But this one is personal.

While fans of Tracker are already buzzing about the Season 3 finale landing on May 24, the bigger news about Hartley has nothing to do with CBS, Colter Shaw, or a missing persons case. It has to do with a small college in Western Illinois — and a homecoming that means everything.

On April 2, Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois announced that Hartley will serve as the official commencement speaker at their graduation ceremony on June 7, 2026. And if that wasn’t already a feel-good headline on its own, there’s more — the college will also award him an honorary degree on the same day.

“Western Illinois-born and award-winning actor, producer, and star of CBS’ Tracker Justin Hartley is the 2026 Knox College Commencement speaker,” the college’s official Instagram post read. He will share the stage with internationally respected art executive Deborah F. Rutter and award-winning investigative reporter Dorothy Tucker — but for the Galesburg crowd, the local boy will be the headline.

Justin Hartley to Receive Honorary Degree at Knox College — Tracker Star Returns to Illinois Roots for 2026 Commencement


And he really is local. Hartley hails from Knoxville, Illinois — a town sitting less than 15 minutes down the road from the Knox College campus. This isn’t a celebrity flying in for a photo op. This is someone going home.

Knox College President C. Andrew McGadney put it beautifully in the official statement: “It’s not often that Knox gets to welcome a native of the Illinois prairie as its commencement speaker, which makes awarding an honorary degree to Justin Hartley this June truly meaningful. With a career that spans more than 20 years as an actor, producer, and director, Justin’s outstanding work in television and film sets a noteworthy example of artistic achievement and personal accomplishment for the Class of 2026.”

Twenty years. From early roles that put him on the map, to the emotional weight of This Is Us — where he played the beloved Kevin Pearson — to his current run as the rugged survivalist Colter Shaw on Tracker, one of CBS‘s biggest hits, Hartley has built a career that any graduating class would be lucky to hear about.

For the Class of 2026 at Knox College, commencement day just got a whole lot more interesting. For Justin Hartley, it’s a full-circle moment that no script could have written better.

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Trick Williams Shocks Las Vegas and Steals WrestleMania 42 — ‘He Came, He Saw, He Tricked…’

In his very first WrestleMania moment, Trick Williams defeated Sami Zayn to capture the WWE United States Championship — and the crowd will be talking about it for years.

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WrestleMania 42 Results: Trick Williams Defeats Sami Zayn to Win WWE United States Championship
Trick Williams celebrates his WWE United States Championship win over Sami Zayn at WrestleMania 42 Night 2, inside Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on April 20, 2026 — his first WrestleMania, his first title.

Las Vegas has seen a lot of big moments. Sunday night at WrestleMania 42 just added another one to the list.

Trick Williams — the electric, crowd-favourite superstar who has been building toward a moment like this for years — stepped into Allegiant Stadium for the first time on WrestleMania’s grandest stage and walked out as the new WWE United States Champion. His opponent, the usually beloved Sami Zayn, never had a chance to be the good guy on this night. Las Vegas had already made up its mind.

From the moment Zayn’s entrance hit, the crowd turned on him — not out of genuine hatred, but out of pure love for Williams. That’s the strange, beautiful math of wrestling. By the time the opening bell rang, Zayn had been thrust into a heel role he didn’t ask for, and to his credit, he leaned into it completely.

Zayn came out swinging. Early offensive success had Williams on the back foot, and a thunderous Blue Thunder Bomb nearly ended the night prematurely — a two-count that sent a jolt of nerves through the pro-Williams crowd. Then things got wilder.

Rapper Lil Yachty — who had already made his presence felt during Night 1 — returned to Williams’ corner, adding celebrity chaos to an already electric atmosphere. Zayn, now fully committed to the villain role the fans had written for him, ambushed Yachty from behind and sent him crashing hard into the barricade. The crowd booed. Zayn soaked it in.

But Williams is built differently. A brutal Brainbuster on the apron followed by a clean Helluva Kick to the chin put Williams down — and the referee began his count. The stadium held its breath. Williams crawled back in at nine.

WrestleMania 42 Results: Trick Williams Defeats Sami Zayn to Win WWE United States Championship


Zayn lined up another Helluva Kick with Williams cornered and hurting. Yachty — never one to stay down — returned ringside to distract the referee at the critical moment. Williams found his footing. He loaded up the Trick Shot.

One Trick Shot. Not enough.

Zayn answered with an Exploder Suplex in the corner and hunted for one final Helluva Kick to finish the night. He never got there. Williams caught him clean with a second Trick Shot — and this time, it was over. Three seconds. New champion.

WWE has a new United States Champion, and his name is Trick Williams. His WrestleMania debut lasted one match. His WrestleMania legacy started the moment that belt went around his waist.

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‘F**k Cancer!’ — Facts of Life Star Mindy Cohn Announces Cancer Has Returned, and the Celebrity Response Said Everything…

The beloved actress, 59, who fought breast cancer for years before reaching remission in 2017, is back in the fight — and Hollywood is standing right beside her.

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Mindy Cohn Reveals Cancer Has Returned: Facts of Life Star Gets Outpouring of Love from Sarah Paulson, Helen Hunt & More
Mindy Cohn, 59, shares a thumbs-up from her hospital bed on April 19, 2026, announcing her cancer has returned — and that she is already fighting back.

There are celebrity health announcements, and then there are the ones that stop you mid-scroll. Mindy Cohn‘s post on Sunday, April 19, was the latter.

The actress best known for playing the irrepressible Natalie Green on the classic sitcom The Facts of Life appeared in her Instagram post exactly as fans have always known her — thumbs up, hospital bed, zero self-pity. “Have been off social media for a while ‘cuz I had to go kick cancer’s ass,” she wrote, before thanking her medical team and the “extraordinary” staff at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica.

“Recouping for another couple of weeks and then ready for my next adventure. Onwards! F**k Cancer!” she added. Classic Mindy.

Cohn, 59, did not specify the type of cancer in her post. What she did make clear — with that thumbs-up and those two defiant words — is that she has not lost a single ounce of her fight.

This is not the first time the Palm Royale actress has faced this battle. Back in 2012, Cohn was diagnosed with breast cancer — a diagnosis she kept private for years while quietly enduring a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation. By 2017, she finally went public with her story, telling People magazine that she had reached remission. But the road had been brutal.

Mindy Cohn Reveals Cancer Has Returned: Facts of Life Star Gets Outpouring of Love from Sarah Paulson, Helen Hunt & More


“I’ve always been an optimist,” she said at the time. “But the cancer metastasized. It kept spreading and coming back. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and then it would. And then I’d wait for another shoe to drop, and it would. I was frustrated and enraged. I couldn’t control any of this. I couldn’t fix it.”

That kind of raw honesty is rare. And it’s exactly why, when Cohn posted her update this weekend, the response from fellow celebrities was immediate and deeply felt.

Jerry O’Connell — her co-host on The Talk — didn’t miss a beat. “Love you, Mindy! Here whenevs you need us!” he wrote in the comments. Sarah Paulson sent love. Helen Hunt wrote warmly: “Sending Love your way ❤️ (LOVE Dr Bilchik).” Octavia Spencer and Chelsea Handler both flooded the comments with hearts.

Sometimes a string of emojis from the right people says more than paragraphs ever could.

Cohn has spent decades being the kind of person audiences root for — funny, grounded, genuinely warm in every room she walks into. Now, as she recovers and prepares for her “next adventure,” it’s Hollywood’s turn to root for her.

She’ll be just fine. She always has been.

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Eddie Murphy Just Became a Grandfather — and the Baby’s Other Grandfather Is Martin Lawrence. Hollywood Didn’t See This One Coming…

The comedy legends who once shared the big screen in Boomerang and Life now share something far more personal — a granddaughter named Ari Skye.

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Eddie Murphy Is Now a Grandfather — and Baby Ari Skye's Other Grandad Is Martin Lawrence
Eddie Murphy speaks to E! News at the 51st AFI Achievement Award ceremony on April 18, 2026, confirming the birth of granddaughter Ari Skye — born to son Eric Murphy and daughter-in-law Jasmin Lawrence, making Martin Lawrence his unlikely co-grandfather.

If you had “Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence become co-grandparents” on your Hollywood bingo card — congratulations, you win. Because that is exactly what has happened, and it is every bit as wholesome and unexpected as it sounds.

On Saturday, April 18, Eddie Murphy, 65, stepped out at the 51st American Film Institute Achievement Award ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood — and casually dropped one of the sweetest celebrity news stories of the year. His son Eric Murphy and daughter-in-law Jasmin Lawrence — yes, daughter of comedy icon Martin Lawrence — had just welcomed a baby girl.

“They just had a baby girl,” the Nutty Professor star confirmed to E! News. “They just had her two weeks ago, or a week ago. Yeah, Ari Skye.” A name already as breezy and beautiful as a California evening.

Eric and Jasmin married in May 2025, and as of writing, have chosen to keep the birth announcement private — which, frankly, is their right. But with Dad being Eddie Murphy, keeping anything fully under wraps tends to be… complicated.

Eddie Murphy Is Now a Grandfather — and Baby Ari Skye's Other Grandad Is Martin Lawrence


When pressed for parenting wisdom to pass on to the new parents, Murphy was refreshingly real. “Oh, you don’t give advice like that,” he said. “Your kids don’t go by your advice. Your kids go by the example you set. They watch you.” He paused, then added with characteristic bluntness: “The stuff you be saying, they don’t even pay that s*** no mind. They watch and see what you do. So, I don’t give a lot of advice.”

It’s the kind of parenting philosophy you only arrive at after raising — deep breath — ten children. Murphy’s expansive family includes Bria, Zola, and Bella Murphy, and sons Myles and Shayne, with ex-wife Nicole Mitchell; son Christian with Tamara Hood; son Angel Murphy Brown with Mel B of the Spice Girls; daughter Izzy and son Max with model Paige Butcher; and Eric, with Paulette McNeely.

“I never knew I would have 10 kids, but now it’s the best thing ever,” Murphy told People magazine last November. “My children are all decent people. I don’t have one rotten one, and I would like to think that they got some of that from me.” Now make that 10 kids — and one granddaughter.

As for the other new grandfather in the picture — Martin Lawrence has not publicly commented on the arrival of little Ari Skye, but the significance isn’t lost on anyone. Two of Hollywood’s most beloved comedians, who first shared a screen in the 1992 romantic comedy Boomerang and again in the 1999 buddy comedy Life, now share a grandchild. Life really does imitate art.

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