Entertainment
Bob Weir, founding member of the Grateful Dead, dies at 78
Bob Weir, a founding member of the legendary rock band the Grateful Dead, has died at the age of 78, his family announced Saturday.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,” his family wrote in a post to his Instagram page. “He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could. Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues.”
In the statement, the family disclosed that Weir had been diagnosed with cancer in July.
“As we remember Bobby, it’s hard not to feel the echo of the way he lived,” his family wrote. “A man driftin’ and dreamin’, never worrying if the road would lead him home. A child of countless trees. A child of boundless seas.”
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
Weir formed the Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia after the two met in 1963 as teens in Palo Alto, California. The band, with its unique mix of blues, folk and jazz, became a touring powerhouse for decades until Garcia’s death in 1995.
Weir wrote or co-wrote and sang lead vocals on Dead classics including “Sugar Magnolia,” “One More Saturday Night” and “Mexicali Blues.”
The group eventually reformed a few years after Garcia’s death and took many iterations over the years, the latest as Dead & Company.
AP 
“For over sixty years, Bobby took to the road,” his family’s statement said. “A guitarist, vocalist, storyteller, and founding member of the Grateful Dead. Bobby will forever be a guiding force whose unique artistry reshaped American music. His work did more than fill rooms with music; it was warm sunlight that filled the soul, building a community, a language, and a feeling of family that generations of fans carry with them.”
Weir’s death leaves drummer Bill Kreutzmann as the only surviving original member. Founding bassist Phil Lesh died in 2024.
Dead and Company played a series of concert’s for the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary in July at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
Born in San Francisco and raised in nearby Atherton, Weir was the Dead’s youngest member and looked like a fresh-faced high-schooler in its early years. He was generally less shaggy than the rest of the band, but had a long beard like Garcia’s in later years.
The band would survive long past the hippie moment of its birth, with its fans known as Deadheads often following them on the road in a virtually non-stop tour.
“Longevity was never a major concern of ours,” Weir said when the Dead got the Grammys’ Musicares Person of the Year honor last year. “Spreading joy through the music was all we ever really had in mind and we got plenty of that done.”
Mariska Hargitay has revealed she was moved to tears after seeing Christopher Meloni’s emotional response to the cancellation of Law & Order: Organized Crime, describing it as the closing of a significant chapter for her longtime co-star and friend.
Speaking to Extra, Hargitay said she watched Meloni’s Instagram video about the show ending and was immediately overcome.
“I saw it and burst out in tears, first of all,” she said.
“I immediately burst out in tears because it has, just like [Meloni] said, and he was so beautiful and open, because it has been a great ride. And it has been so beautiful and intimate and such a huge part of his life and was life-changing for him.”
She also said the news had come as a genuine shock.
“Chris is working and in demand and such a magnificent actor. But it’s, in a way, closing a chapter. So when that happens, one needs to take inventory. It’s a real marker in your life.”
Law & Order: Organized Crime was officially cancelled after five seasons earlier this month.
Meloni marked the occasion with a heartfelt video on Instagram.
“I wanted to take this moment to say thank you to the fans who not only helped give the character of Elliot Stabler life and longevity, but for sticking with him and welcoming him back. It was a good ride,” he said.
The series, which premiered in 2021, followed Stabler, the character Meloni first played on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as he returned to New York after a decade away to rebuild his life and take on organised crime.
It aired on NBC for its first four seasons before moving to Peacock for its fifth and final season, which concluded in June 2025.
The cast also included Danielle Moné Truitt, Rick Gonzalez, Ainsley Seiger and Dean Norris.
Luke Grimes has been playing cowboy Kayce Dutton on Yellowstone since 2018, but some fans are still coming to terms with a fundamental truth: he is an actor, not an actual cowboy.
The 42-year-old, who now continues the character’s story in the CBS spinoff Marshals, told Toronto radio station CHUM 104.5 that the strangest fan encounters often involve a version of the same realisation.
Some viewers, he said, “loved that show so much that they were, on a certain level, upset that it wasn’t real.”
The most common version of this comes in the form of a complaint. “A lot of times you’ll get the, ‘You’re not a real cowboy.'”
His response is straightforward.
“Well, of course I’m not, I’m an actor. That’s why I’m able to do this. If I was a real cowboy, I’d be, like, herding cattle right now. I wouldn’t be on this show.”
Even his one-year-old son, whom he shares with wife Bianca Rodrigues Grimes, has his own take on the cowboy persona.
“My son thinks my cowboy hat is really funny,” Grimes told PEOPLE at the Marshals LA premiere.
“He doesn’t understand why I have that big thing on my head.” That said, the baby loves visiting the set and got excited when he was brought along.
New episodes of Marshals air Sundays at 8pm ET on CBS.
The Italian government has slammed a proposal by a U.S. government official to replace the Iranian team with Italy in the FIFA World Cup 2026. The Italian football team was not able to qualify for the World Cup for the third consecutive tournament, despite being a four-time champion.
Iran’s participation in the mega event is in serious doubt amid the ongoing U.S.-Israel war against Iran. All the group matches of the Persian team are scheduled to take place in the United States.
Iranian officials have requested FIFA to reschedule Iranian matches in Canada or Mexico, the co-hosts for 2026 sporting showpiece.
The Iranian Ministry of Sports and Youth has clarified that all the necessary arrangements have already been made for the team’s effective participation in the tournament.
Despite the assurance, Paolo Zampolli, a U.S. envoy for global relations, presented the idea to replace Iran with Italy, saying, “With four titles, they have the pedigree to justify inclusion.”
Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abodi rejected the proposal, saying, “You qualify on the pitch.” Italian Minister of Economy and Finance Giancarlo Giorgetti also rebuked the suggestion, describing it as “shameful.”
Italian Olympic Committee President Luciano Buonfiglio was the third high-ranking official to say no to the idea, adding, “It’s not possible. In order to go to the World Cup, you have to earn it.”
FIFA responded by reiterating the Infantino’s statement, “The Iranian team is coming here, for sure.”
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