Lea Michele wants to carry Jonathan Groff’s baby.

The 35-year-old actress – who has 20-month-old son Ever with husband Zandy Reich – reunited with her former ‘Glee’ co-star and offered to carry his baby because she “loves being pregnant.”

She said: “I’ll carry your baby. I will!”

He asked “You will?” to which she clarified: “Hell yeah! I love being pregnant. It’s so much fun!”

In a joint interview with PEOPLE, Jonathan – who has no children but has been dating choreographer Corey Baker since 2018 – quipped: “Good to know!”

However, the ‘Frozen’ star – who rose to fame alongside Lea when the pair starred in Tony Award winning musical ‘Spring Awakening’ back in 2006 before going on to further success as rivals on the musical comedy series ‘Glee’ – joked that he has a “weird quirk” with children that often scares them but has an “in” with Lea’s son because he loves Broadway musical ‘Hamilton’, which Jonathan starred in back in 2015.

He said: “I have this weird quirk where I scare small children because — this was with my two nieces as well, between the ages of 0 and 2 — I come in hot with the enthusiasm, and it freaks them out! This is the case with Ever as well. So I’m slowly trying to play it cool to gain his love and affection back. My one in with him is that he likes ‘You’ll Be Back’ from ‘Hamilton’ Whenever we FaceTime and Ever’s there, I’ll be like, ‘Da, da, da, da, da!’ [I’m] waiting [for] the age when he’s going to be able to watch ‘Frozen,’ and then maybe I’ll have another in, but I’m working on it!”

By Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld

(Reuters) – A New York judge on Monday held former President Donald Trump in contempt of court for not producing documents subpoenaed in the state attorney general’s civil probe of his business practices, and ordered Trump to be fined $10,000 per day until he complies.

Trump lost a bid to quash a subpoena from state Attorney General Letitia James, then failed to produce all the documents by a court-ordered March 3 deadline, later extended to March 31 at his lawyers’ request.

Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that a contempt finding was appropriate because of what the judge called “repeated failures” to hand over materials and that it was not clear Trump had conducted a complete search for responsive documents.

“Mr. Trump … I know you take your business seriously, and I take mine seriously. I hereby hold you in civil contempt,” the judge said, although Trump himself was not in the courtroom.

James is investigating whether the Trump Organization, the former president’s New York City-based family company, misstated the values of its real estate properties to obtain favorable loans and tax deductions.

James has said her probe had found “significant evidence” suggesting that for more than a decade the company’s financial statements “relied on misleading asset valuations and other misrepresentations to secure economic benefits.”

The attorney general has questioned how the Trump Organization valued the Trump brand, as well as properties including golf clubs in New York and Scotland and Trump’s own penthouse apartment in Midtown Manhattan’s Trump Tower.

Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump and the company, said at the hearing that James’ investigation was a “fishing expedition” and that the Trump Organization was “right on schedule” with its production of documents.

“This is a political crusade,” Habba said. “The attorney general’s investigation has seemingly become aimless.”

Trump, a Republican, denies wrongdoing and has called the investigation politically motivated. James is a Democrat.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller)

The world of wine has moved beyond binary thinking – just think about all those shades of rosé out there.

But viticulturists in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate have also called on all the non-binary people in the industry and all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex vintners to each send in two wines, for a selection of two “Queer Wines.”

Those joining the campaign include Robert Boudier and his husband Elmar Koeller of Stetten in the Donnersberg district, where vineyards reach as far as the eye can see. It’s the place where two regions meet: the Palatinate and Rheinhessen and locals embrace the diverse traditions.

Elmar Koeller and his husband both have different professional backgrounds but they bought a historic winery 11 years ago.

Koeller points out that they are not bound to tradition and don’t rely on the winery directly for their survival.

When they first moved to the small village, it took a little while for people to get used to them, says Koeller. “I didn’t come into the world as a missionary – but I do go by the principle that I’ll show people who and what I am.”

The couple are now hoisting the rainbow flag in the village to show their support for diverse ways of living and their desire for peace.

They also like to show off their winery’s pink tractor, which has become their personal trademark, says Koeller. He says he perfectly fits gay male stereotypes as he doesn’t even drive the tractor, and laughs.

The couple submitted a wine named Rosa Traktor, which translates as “Pink Tractor,” in response for the call for wines to be considered for the state Family Ministry’s selection. It’s a rosé, a cuvée of Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The other wine they put forward for consideration is a Sauvignon Blanc.

Not everyone embraced the QueerWein initiative right away. Referring to the catastrophic floods that hit the region last summer causing deadly destruction, former federal agricultural minister Julia Klöckner seemed to pour cold water on the campaign.

“Our vintners in the Ahr region have wholly different concerns,” conservative Klöckner told dpa. After all, in the Ahr region, people’s cellars were completely washed away by the floods, whole harvests lost.

While the queer scene has legitimate concerns, she says, the QueerWein campaign was not addressing the most pressing issues right now.

State representatives beg to differ.

The campaign can raise awareness of the diversity of the region’s vintners, says David Profit, a lawmaker who represents the concerns of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, trans, intersex and queer people. “Today, diverse lifestyles are of course also part of the wine world, but currently they are not very visible,” says Profit.

“The new QueerWein Rhineland-Palatinate campaign can make this diversity more visible in the state.”

Profit wants to select two wines from all those submitted and host a tasting with wine experts, and then present the Queer Wines to the public.

The family ministry is planning to purchase them and offer them on special occasions, as well as sending them around the nation.

A further lawmaker has joined the campaign from the state viticulture ministry.

“With the diversity of its grape varieties and flavours, wine also shapes the country’s culture and attitude to life,” says state secretary Andy Becht.

Wine contributes to the country’s special welcoming culture and hospitality, he adds. “Values such as respect, freedom, acceptance and good and understanding togetherness need to be emphasized all the more again these days – and absolutely through unconventional approaches.”

Misha Collins has come out as bisexual.

The 47-year-old actor – who is known for his role as angel Castiel on the CW drama series ‘Supernatural’ – made an appearance at Creation Entertainment’s Supernatural Official Convention on Saturday (24.04.22) where he revealed his sexual orientation to the audience.

Speaking in a video shared on Twitter, he said: “How many of you would consider yourself introverts? And how many bisexuals? I’m all three.”

However, while former ‘Roadfood’ presenter – who has been married to Victoria Vantoch since 2001 and has son West , 11, and nine-year-old daughter Maison Marie with her – was met with applause upon the announcement, he didn’t elaborate much further and simply joked that it would have been “weird” if he had just asked the audience his last question without the other two.

He added: “See, it would have been weird if I just said: ‘By a show of hands, how many bisexuals are in the audience?’ But I’d rather do it as a questionnaire, that’s more socially acceptable.”

Misha – whose ‘Supernatural’ came out as gay moments before he died in the show’s final season back in 2020 – noted at the time that he was “really happy” with how his long-running character came to an end.

He said: “I think Castiel’s ending on the show is really just what I would have wanted. I knew the ending that he was going to meet with for about a year, and I was really happy about it. And I’m still happy about it. “I’m really curious to see how the audience responds to the end for Cas. But it feels important. It feels like it makes his arc on the show meaningful, not just in terms of the mythology of the show, but in terms of a message for the greater world and our particular moment in history. I’m very happy with it.”

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, came under fire from some of his fellow party members, after an audio recording showed him saying that then-President Donald Trump should resign over the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.

The comments, which McCarthy had denied hours before the recording emerged, could undermine his widely known ambition to become House speaker next year if Republicans take control of the chamber in November’s midterm elections, as expected.

But as criticism of the House minority leader mounted on Twitter, the Washington Post reported that he and Trump had spoken by phone and that the Republican former president was not upset about McCarthy’s remarks. That could significantly mute the rank-and-file reaction among Trump supporters.

The audio – recorded days after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, delaying certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory – depicts a conversation between McCarthy and Representative Liz Cheney, who was ousted from party leadership weeks later over her opposition to Trump.

McCarthy told Cheney he planned to call Trump to discuss a mechanism for invoking the 25th Amendment, under which then-Vice President Mike Pence and Cabinet members could have removed the president from office.

“The only discussion I would have with him is that I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign,” McCarthy says in the recording, released on cable news channel MSNBC late on Thursday.

In another audio tape, McCarthy told Republican lawmakers that Trump had admitted bearing some responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack, according to CNN.

McCarthy’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. A Trump spokesman also was not immediately available.

Biden referenced the audio in remarks on Friday, saying the Republicans were “a MAGA party now,” referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. Republicans who oppose Trump privately are scared to do so publicly, he said.

The first reference to McCarthy’s comments appeared on Thursday in a New York Times article published as part of a forthcoming book by two Times reporters.

The newspaper also reported that McCarthy told other Republican leaders he wished big tech companies would strip social media accounts from party lawmakers who supported Trump’s false claims of a rigged 2020 election.

McCarthy initially denied the Times account in a statement that called the reporting “totally false and wrong.”

U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of the few Republican politicians openly critical of Trump, blasted McCarthy on Twitter on Thursday night over his denial.

“Question for Kevin McCarthy … how can you honestly feel ok with the lies? Yes, other people lie too, but you have claimed to fight for a higher purpose,” Kinzinger asked. “Honestly Kevin, is it worth it?”

McCarthy, who has also faced criticism from hard-line conservatives within his caucus, publicly zigzagged on Trump’s culpability for the Jan. 6 riot by first saying the former president bore some responsibility for the violence – but finally visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort home in Florida and posed for a photograph with him.

McCarthy’s political fate will depend largely on Trump, who remains the most powerful figure in the Republican Party more than a year after he left office.

The Post cited two unnamed sources as saying that McCarthy and Trump spoke on Thursday night and that the former president was glad the Republican leader did not follow through with his plan to ask him to resign, seeing it as a sign of his continued grip on the Republican Party.

(Reporting by David Morgan in Washington, Additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in San FranciscoEditing by Scott Malone, Jonathan Oatis and Matthew Lewis)

‘E.T.’ was inspired by the divorce of Steven Spielberg’s parents.

The 75-year-old director was at the helm of the 1982 sci-fi fantasy film – which told the story of a boy and his siblings who befriend an extraterrestrial dubbed E.T who has been left behind on Earth – and claimed that the end scene made him think of his parents Arnold and Leah, who divorced in 1966, and had been working on a script about it when he decided to make it into a story about children.

He said: “What if that little creature never went back to the ship? What if the creature was part of a foreign-exchange program? What if I turn my story about divorce into a story about children, a family, trying to fill the great need and creating such responsibility?”

The veteran director – who was married to actress Amy Irving from 1985 until 1989 and has son Max with her but is currently married to Kate Capshaw and has Mikaela, 26, with her – went on to explain that divorce creates “great responsibility” and was inspired to use his experiences of divorce with his siblings Anne, Sue and Nancy in the script for his multi-Academy Award winning film.

Speaking at at a special 40th anniversary celebration during the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival’s opening night, he said: “”A divorce creates great responsibility, especially if you have siblings; we all take care of each other What if Elliott, or the kid – I hadn’t dreamed up his name yet – needed to, for the first time in his life, become responsible for a life form to fill the gap in his heart? I had been working on an actual literal script about my parents’ separation and divorce and I had been working on ideas about that and what it did to my sisters and myself.”

Sam Asghari has said that he is “10 times better than Brad Pitt.”

The 28-year-old fitness instructor is engaged to pop superstar Britney Spears, 40, and took to Instagram to alert his followers to a “huge problem” after he found a picture of the Hollywood A-Lister posing shirtless in his breakthrough role in 1991 film ‘Thelma and Louise’ in her closet.

In the video, he said: “Alright, so we got a huge problem. My girl got a picture of… Who’s this? Brad Pitt!”

Britney chimed in: “The one and only!”

Sam added: “Yeah, the one and only Brad Pitt in her closet. You don’t think I can do this?!”

Sam – who is expecting his first child with the ‘…Baby One More Time’ hitmaker, who is already mother to Sean, 16, and Jayden, 15, with ex-husband Kevin Federline – went on to hold up a pink hairdryer and recite some of Brad’s most famous lines from the movie and joked that he is “ten times” better than the Oscar-winning actor.

He said: “Now, Simon says everybody down on the floor. If you don’t lose your head, you ain’t gonna lose your head! I’m 10 times better than that guy!”

Britney – who could be heard giggling in the background – chimed in with “That’s good, baby!” as Sam finished off his performance by knocking over the framed photo of Brad.

The pop princess previously spoke out about her love for the ‘Fight Club’ star and had met him early on in her career but acted like a “goofball” around him.

Ashed who she would want to spend the day with, she said: “Brad Pitt. Definitely. I’ve met him briefly… I was a little goofball. I didn’t know what to say.”

‘Express Yourself’ was inspired by Jennifer Grey.

The 62-year-old actress – who is best known for playing the role of Baby opposite Patrick Swayze in 1987 musical movie ‘Dirty Dancing’ – alleged that pop superstar Madonna was inspired to write her 1989 hit ‘Express Yourself’ about her breakup with Matthew Broderick.

Jennifer said: “Madonna and I did [1989 film] ‘Bloodhounds of Broadway’ together. She told me she wrote ‘Express Yourself’ about me breaking up with Matthew.”

The ‘Red Dawn’ star – who by then was dating Johnny Depp – went on to claim that Madonna asked her to get into her Mercedes car where she played her the record.

She told PEOPLE: “She played it for me in her car. I was in my log cabin with Johnny and she said, ‘Come into my car.’ And I got in her Mercedes where she had a really good sound system and she was like, ‘Listen to this song I just did. It’s about you!”

However, Jennifer went on to reveal that – without confirming whether she had received a reply – she has recently written Madonna an email as to whether she really meant it.

She said: “I wrote her an email where I asked, ‘Did you just tell that to everyone?!”

The star – who has 20-year-old daughter Stella with ex-husband Clark Gregg – “learned so many things” about life during her relationship with Matthew, who is now married to ‘Sex and the City’ star Sarah Jessica Parker.

Jennifer said: “I learned so many things about myself from my relationship with Matthew. First of all, we were really young. We were in our mid-twenties when we got together. And from where I sit now, that’s pretty young. And we were, I don’t know, I can only speak for myself. I was really in love with him.”

Madonna is selling her Los Angeles mansion for $26 million.

The ‘Material Girl’ hitmaker has put her Hidden Hills pad on the market after purchasing it from The Weeknd in April 2021 for $19.1 million.

According to the Multiple Listing Service, the property – which has a guide price of $25.995 million – sits on three acres and includes a barn that hosts a freshly built gym complete with a dance and Pilates studio and a two bedroom guest house.

The main house – which boasts 12,500 square feet and 11 bedrooms – includes a number of amenities, such as a cinema, music room and an indoor/outdoor bar.

Seven of the bedrooms are ensuite and the primary bedchamber includes two closets, a steam shower and a stone bath.

The Outside of Madonna’s home includes a driveway surrounded by olive trees, a regulation basketball court, an al fresco kitchen and a zero-edge salt water pool, complete with a 10-person hot tub.

Before the 63-year-old pop legend – who is mother to Lourdes, 25, Rocco, 21, David, 16, Mercy, 16, and nine-year-old twins Estere and Stella – became the deed holder, the ‘Blinding Lights’ hitmaker lived there for four years before listing it for $25 million in 2020.

Madonna is working with Trevor Wright of the Beverly Hills Estates, who she worked to buy the mega mansion.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, Jennifer Grey revealed that the ‘Like A Prayer’ hitmaker was inspired to pen of her greatest hits – the female empowerment anthem ‘Express Yourself’ – on the ‘Dirty Dancing’ star’s break-up with 80s heartthrob Matthew Broderick.

The 62-year-old actress said: “Madonna and I did [1989 film] ‘Bloodhounds of Broadway’ together. She told me she wrote ‘Express Yourself’ about me breaking up with Matthew.”

Higher Ground, the Obamas’ production company, and Spotify will not renew their exclusive partnership, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Higher Ground has produced a number of exclusive shows distributed on the streaming platform since it partnered with Spotify in 2019.

Those include “The Michelle Obama Podcast” and “Renegades: Born in the USA,” featuring discussion between former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen. “The Michelle Obama Podcast” was the fourth-most popular podcast globally on Spotify in 2020.

But Spotify opted to not make an offer to renew the deal, which extends through October, said sources familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment.

The Obamas were seeking a deal in which Higher Ground’s podcasts would be widely available and not exclusive to one platform, the sources said.

Higher Ground has held conversations with other rival podcast companies, including Amazon’s Audible and iHeartMedia, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news.

Other podcasts that have had exclusive deals with Spotify have gone on to make their podcasts widely available later. For example, “Last Podcast on the Left” is no longer exclusive to Spotify, but it is still available on the platform.

More podcasters want to be widely available on multiple platforms “because the distribution network is much bigger and they want to get beyond Spotify’s audience,” said Ray Wang, principal analyst of Palo Alto-based Constellation Research.

Representatives for Spotify and Higher Ground declined to comment.

Spotify signed a deal with the Obamas as part of the company’s ambitious foray into podcasting. The Swedish music streaming giant also has exclusive deals with other high-profile figures such as as Joe Rogan and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell.

When the Higher Ground-Spotify deal was announced, Michelle Obama said she was thrilled to “have the opportunity to amplify voices that are too often ignored or silenced altogether, and through Spotify, we can share those stories with the world.”

But there were some creative tensions with Spotify over how prominent the Obamas would be in the podcasts, compared with other voices that are not as well-known, sources said.

Rob Enderle, a principal analyst with advisory services firm Enderle Group, said he believes the Obamas will be able to garner a lot of demand for their podcasts.

“They are incredibly savvy with regard to their social media presence, and wherever they go, they will undoubtedly be a king maker for whatever service picks them up,” Enderle said.

Spotify has quickly grown to be a major podcast hub, but not without some controversy.

Earlier this year, some musicians, including rocker Neil Young, boycotted the streaming service due to concerns about misinformation and racially insensitive language on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” a popular exclusive podcast on Spotify.

The protest pushed Spotify to publish its content moderation policies and to address what Rogan said on his podcast. Rogan apologized for using the N-word.

By Jeff Mason and Nandita Bose

PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) -President Joe Biden on Thursday predicted that his fellow Democrats could win two more U.S. Senate seats in November’s midterms, strengthening the party’s majority to pass his agenda despite sagging approval ratings.

Speaking at a political fundraiser in Portland during his first trip to the Pacific Northwest since taking office, Biden said he was increasing his travel schedule to make the case around the country about his administration’s accomplishments.

“I’m determined to make sure we keep the House and the Senate,” Biden told the donors. He offered no prediction for the party’s prospects in the House.

High inflation and the ongoing pandemic have contributed to low poll numbers for Biden and sparked concerns that Democrats may lose control of the House of Representatives and the Senate to Republicans after the November election.

Addressing an evening fundraiser hosted in Seattle by Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft Corp, Biden weighed in on the clash between Republican state lawmakers in Florida and the Walt Disney Co. over legislation to limit the teaching of LGBTQ issues in schools.

The state’s Republican-controlled legislature on Thursday voted to strip Disney of its self-governing authority on lands occupied by its Orlando theme parks in retaliation for Disney’s opposition to the school restrictions, derided by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican presidential nominee who fiercely backs the ban on classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for children under age 9, is expected to sign the bill into law.

Biden said Republican-led efforts to impose such constraints “have nothing to do with traditional conservative doctrine.”

“I respect conservatives. There’s nothing conservative about deciding you’re going to throw Disney out of its present posture because Mickey Mouse … should … not be able to say, you know, gay.”

Earlier on Thursday, Biden touted his administration’s progress on infrastructure, including new spending made possible by the passage of the roughly $1 trillion infrastructure law that includes investments in highways and broadband. The bill allocates $1.2 billion for Oregon and $8.6 billion for the state of Washington.

Biden visited Portland’s airport to talk about investing in a runway that can withstand earthquakes.

He was scheduled to spend Thursday night and Friday in Seattle, where he will observe Earth Day and talk about his administration’s plans to tame inflation.

“We’re here today to talk about investments we’re making to modernize this airport,” Biden said in his earlier address. “So through the bipartisan infrastructure law, we’re investing $25 billion to upgrade and modernize American airports.”

White House officials have said in recent weeks that they hope to shift their outreach strategy to voters by visiting more states to talk about the administration’s accomplishments rather than describing the need for legislation that remains stalled.

Biden’s public approval rating stands at 43%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday. The two-day national poll found 51% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s job performance as the country struggles with high inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

That compares with approval ratings hovering above 50% at the start of his term.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason in Portland and Nandita Bose, Trevor Hunnicutt and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Stephen Coates and Bradley Perrett)

By Maria Caspani and Dawn Chmielewski

(Reuters) -Florida lawmakers on Thursday gave their final approval to a bill ending Walt Disney Co’s designation as a self-governing entity in an apparent response to its opposition to a new state law limiting the teaching of LGBTQ issues in schools.

Losing the designation may represent a big blow to Disney’s sprawling Orlando theme parks, which for over half a century have managed to operate with a high degree of autonomy, with the freedom to control everything from road maintenance to building projects.

Even so, experts say the financial impact of the legislation on the company and the state is still unclear.

Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican presidential nominee who fiercely backs the ban on classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for children under age 9, is expected to sign the bill into law.

The bill would effectively strip Disney of a status that allowed the company to self-govern an area of roughly 25,000-acres in Central Florida where Walt Disney World resort is located.

The area called the Reedy Creek Improvement District https://www.rcid.org encompasses four Disney theme parks, two water parks and 175 miles of roadway, and functions like a county government, providing services such as fire-fighting, power, water and roads within the Orange and Osceola counties.

Disney, whose Florida resort is known the world over for its pristine streets, colorful rides and family-friendly image, in turn gets relief from taxes and fees.

The special status also allows the district to issue bonds with tax advantages to pay for improvements and for Disney to avoid the process of obtaining building permits for some projects.

The Florida Parental Rights in Education legislation is one of a series of moves by Republican-controlled states to enact new restrictions on public education in the run-up to the midterm elections later this year.

Supporters say such measures give parents more control over their children’s education, but opponents say they mostly unfairly infringe the rights of transgender and other marginalized students.

Disney initially failed to publicly oppose the legislation, prompting criticism last month by many in the LGBTQ community and some employees. Later Disney condemned the law and said it would suspend political donations in Florida pending a review.

In a surprise move, DeSantis asked the legislature to consider the bill to strip Disney of its status during a special session he called this week. It was filed and passed within just three days. The change would go into effect in June 2023.

“By trying to bring California values to Florida, Floridians have said, ‘All right, you’re a guest in our state. Maybe you don’t deserve special privileges anymore,'” state Representative Randy Fine, a Republican who is lead sponsor of the bill, told CNBC.

On Thursday, the Florida House of Representatives voted 70-38 to do away with the special tax district created by a 1967 law that allows Disney to self-govern the Orlando area. On Wednesday, the state Senate approved the measure by a 23-16 vote.

DeSantis, an ally of former President Donald Trump who has also courted conservative voters on issues such as immigration and abortion, did not immediately comment on the bill’s passage, nor did Disney.

WHOM WILL IT HARM MOST?

Disney is historically a major political contributor in the state. In the 2020 election cycle, the company donated $4.8 million in total, including campaign funds to more than 100 individual Florida legislative members, some of whom sponsored Thursday’s legislation, state records show.

The company also gave more than $900,000 to the state Republican party and more than $550,000 to the Republican senatorial campaign committee, along with $300,000 to the state Democratic party and $50,000 to DeSantis.

But its opposition to the new law, dubbed “don’t say gay” by opponents, set off a storm of condemnation against the company by many Republicans. It takes effect on July 1 and also prohibits such teaching that “is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate” for older students. It is being challenged in court.

It is unclear if the state or the company will be harmed most by Thursday’s move, as Disney is a major local employer and contributor to the state’s coffers, with around 70,000 staff.

The Walt Disney Resort paid $780.3 million in state and local taxes in 2021, according to a fact sheet commemorating the 50th anniversary of the theme park.

Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph said that legislation will punish local taxpayers more than Disney.

“Yes, Disney pays a lot in taxes, but when you add up the numbers, it pushes a lot of the tax burden onto local taxpayers,” he said of the bill.

Disney already received many of the benefits from the special district in getting the park built and could come out ahead financially by shifting the cost of maintenance and services to the local jurisdictions, said David Ramba, executive director of the Florida Association of Special Districts.

“They get to control the level of service versus leaving it to a county government,” Ramba said.

(Reporting by Maria Caspani in New York, Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles, Joseph Ax in Princeton, N.J., Rich McKay and Dan Trotta in Carlsbad, Calif.Writing by Costas PitasEditing by Leslie Adler, Matthew Lewis and Bernard Orr)