‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ starts filming, adds stars

‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ starts filming, adds stars

NEW YORK

“Star Wars: Episode VIII” has begun filming and has added Benicio del Toro and Laura Dern to its cast.

The Walt Disney Co. announced that “Episode VIII” started principal photography at London’s Pinewood Studios on Monday. Written and directed by Rian Johnson, the “Star Wars” sequel will follow J.J. Abrams’ box-office smash “The Force Awakens.” It’s set for release in December 2017.

‘Big Ang’ of ‘Mob Wives’ faces cancer with hope

LOS ANGELES

Reality-TV star Angela “Big Ang” Raiola says she veers between hope and depression as she fights stage-four brain and lung cancer.

Angela Raiola, part of the VH1 series “Mob Wives” and its spinoffs, said in a tearful interview airing today on “The Dr. Oz Show” that her family is her support and her reason to keep going.

“I look at my kids and my grandchildren and I know how much they need me,” Raiola told Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of the syndicated TV series.

The mother of two and grandmother of six has undergone several surgeries since she was diagnosed last year with throat and lung cancer.

After gaining celebrity on “Mob Wives,” Raiola got her own spinoff series, “Big Ang” and “Miami Monkey.”

A cigarette smoker for 40 years, she said she stopped immediately after her first cancer diagnosis last March.

Her doctors told her the disease was “positively” caused by smoking, she said.

Associated Press