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Ana de Armas calls it quits with Tom Cruise after less than a year of dating

PEOPLE
Ana de Armas

Ana de Armas has reportedly called it quits with Tom Cruise, nearly a year after the stars first sparked rumors of a May-December romance — or showmance.

The “Ballerina” star, 37, “started to get a little uncomfortable with how fast it was going” with 63-year-old Cruise, a source told Us Weekly.

“Tom and Ana are done for now,” the insider said of de Armas’ decision to “put the brakes on it” after she was first linked to the “Mission: Impossible” star in February.

The source suggested that not all hope is lost for the Oscar nominees, as de Armas “still likes him a lot, and they have a connection.”

“They want to remain friends, but she needed to take a step back,” the insider said, adding that they’ll “see how things go in the future.”

Speculation that Cruise and de Armas, who will co-star in Doug Liman’s thriller “Deeper,” had more than a working relationship began with London sightings over Valentine’s Day weekend, mid-March and just before de Armas’ birthday in April. By June, they were spotted yachting in Menorca, Spain.

But it wasn’t until July, when they were photographed holding hands in the far lower key Woodstock, Vermont, that onlookers started to believe it was more than just a PR relationship meant to boost disappointing box office numbers for Cruise’s “Missionn: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” or de Armas’ “Johnn Wick” spinoff, released in late May and June, respectively.

The Daily News has reached out to representatives for Cruise and de Armas.

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Robert De Niro

5 more arrested in overdose death of Robert De Niro’s grandson

NEW YORK — Five more people were arrested Thursday in connection with the death of Robert De Niro’s grandson from a fentanyl overdose.

Grant McIver, Bruce Epperson, Eddie Barreto, John Nicolas and Roy Nicolas were charged in Manhattan Federal Court with running a drug distribution network that led to the deaths of three 19-year-olds across two months in 2023.

Two of the victims were De Niro’s grandson, Leandro Anthony De Niro-Rodriguez, and Akira Stein, the daughter of Blondie guitarist and co-founder Chris Stein, the DEA said in a news release.

Leandro De Niro, the son of De Niro’s daughter Drena, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on July 2, 2023. He died from an overdose of “fentanyl, bromazolam, alprazolam, 7-aminoclonazepam, ketamine and cocaine,” the city medical examiner ruled.

“Someone sold him fentanyl-laced pills that they knew were laced, yet still sold them to him,” Drena De Niro wrote on social media shortly after her son’s death.

About a month later, the first suspect in the case was arrested and accused of doing exactly that. Sophia Marks, then 20, was charged with three counts of narcotics distribution in connection with Leandro De Niro’s death.

“Marks knew the pills could kill, and she continued selling them anyway,” then-Manhattan District Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

McIver, Epperson, Barreto and the two Nicolases stand accused of distributing thousands of fake pills laced with fentanyl, alprazolam and other drugs, the feds said in charging documents.

The five suspects are accused of running three overlapping distribution networks in New York City and on Long Island, the DEA said. John Nicolas, 29, and Roy Nicolas, 23, sold the pills that killed Stein; while McIver, 24, Epperson, 24, and Barreto, 22, sold the pills that killed Leandro De Niro, according to the feds.

The dealers used social media platforms to “specifically target teenagers and young adults,” investigators said.

Leandro De Niro had just moved to New York from Aspen, Colorado, after graduating from high school. He got an internship on Broadway and was in his Financial District apartment for just two days before his death.

The death of Akira Stein on May 30, 2023, was not revealed until two months later, when her father wrote about it on Facebook.

“She was wonderful and a bright place in the world. She had been struggling for a few years and addiction took her,” Chris Stein wrote. “Just remember her and be kind to each other and you young people please avoid this trap.”

Federal prosecutors said the charges involved deaths on May 30, June 13 and July 2. The second victim has only been identified as a 19-year-old male.

Throughout the city, authorities tallied 3,056 overdose deaths in 2023, a number that dropped to 2,192 such deaths in 2024.

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Justin Baldoni

Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit against Blake Lively officially thrown out

Justin Baldoni’s defamation claim against co-star Blake Lively and his libel lawsuit against The New York Times have officially been thrown out.

According to legal documents obtained by TMZ on Friday, the “It Ends With Us” director and star missed the deadline to appeal Judge Lewis Liman’s earlier dismissal of the multimillion-dollar suits.

The New York judge in June tossed Baldoni’s $400 million suit against Lively, husband Ryan Reynolds and publicist Leslie Sloane, as well as his $250 million filing against The Times for its December exposé titled, “‘We Can Bury Anyone:’ Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”

Lively at the time accused Baldoni of having sexually harassed her on the set of their film and of waging a retaliatory PR campaign. Baldoni responded by filing a countersuit alleging defamation, in addition to his suit against The Times for its coverage of Lively’s claims.

Baldoni’s filing against The Times asserted the deep-dive was “rife with inaccuracies (and) misrepresentations,” which drew significantly from Lively’s “self-serving narrative.” He accused the paper of relying on “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.”

However, Liman found that Lively was not liable for her claims because the allegations originated in a civil rights complaint. The New York Times — having based its story on the “available evidence” and Lively’s initial complaint — was also not liable, Liman ruled, saying it had “no obvious motive to favor Lively’s version of events.”

Reynolds was similarly found not liable for having dubbed Baldoni a “sexual predator,” as that statement was consistent with his wife’s account of what happened, which he’d have no reason to call into question.

Last month, in the wake of the dismissals, Lively filed a motion seeking millions of dollars in attorneys’ fees and damages to “remedy the substantial harm” that resulted from Baldoni’s “baseless” suit.

Baldoni continues to deny all of the allegations in Lively’s claim, which is still active and scheduled to go to trial in March.

From combined wire services

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