The firefighter who initially resuscitated Princess Diana after her 1997 Paris car crash was certain she would live through it.

Sgt. Xavier Gourmelon, who led the response team exactly 20 years ago Thursday and administered CPR to the British royal, said in a Sun interview published Tuesday that he was convinced the Princess of Wales would make it when her heart started beating again and her breathing resumed.

Gourmelon was unaware that he was treating the so-called "People's Princess" when he arrived at the scene of the accident in a Paris tunnel. He resuscitated her and she was conscious and her eyes were open when he pulled her from the wrecked Mercedes she was riding in with Harrods heir Dodi al Fayed and driver Henri Paul.

With the country still reeling from the harrowing impact of Hurricane Harvey in Texas, Wednesday night's "Daily Show" looked at one of the summer's ongoing controversies: Confederate monuments.

Occasionally setting aside the show's usual comedic tone, Trevor Noah enlisted correspondent Roy Wood Jr. to consider whether these statues honor Southern heritage, as their supporters claim, or the nation's history and lingering problem with racism.

After showing a montage of guests on network news shows who reminded viewers that  these statues were erected during the Jim Crow era, decades after the Civil War, Wood equated slavery to another tragedy.

The Hollywood recycle, reduce and reuse strategy of content creation has reached a new level of ridiculousness. Deadline reported Wednesday that Warner Bros. is creating an all-girl film adaptation of William Golding's classic novel "Lord of the Flies."

Twitter is not amused.

But instead of the typical "childhood-ruining" complaints levied against gender-swapped reboots, such as last year's "Ghostbusters," the Internet is angry that recasting the story with women fundamentally misses the entire point of the novel.

Gloria Gaynor wants people affected by Harvey to know they will survive, and she's communicating that message through a new version of the song that has defined her career.

Gaynor, whose "I Will Survive" became an anthem over the years, rewrote the 1978 disco hit to reach out to victims in Texas and posted her rendition on social media Wednesday.

"Hi, my neighbors in Texas," she said in a video shot while she sat at a piano she was about to play. "This is Gloria Gaynor with a song that hopefully will cheer you up just a little bit." 

Leonardo DiCaprio has stepped up with a $1-million donation to aid the victims of Hurricane Harvey, now a tropical storm, which has dumped historic levels of rain on the Gulf Coast over the last several days. 

United Way Worldwide announced Wednesday that it has started the United Way Harvey Recovery Fund with a seven-figure donation from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.

The money — 100% of it, according to the charity — will go to help victims of flooding with mid- and long-term recovery over the coming years. There are 23 United Ways that operate in the path of the storm, which made landfall Aug. 24.

I had a dream as a kid: I wanted to be big, big like Richard [Pryor] and Eddie [Murphy]. I imagined it. I studied it. I had a passion.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: In a Big Rush

Good news for Bruce Springsteen fans who were locked out of purchasing tickets Wednesday morning for his upcoming run of shows on Broadway. 

Ticketmaster announced  that "Springsteen on Broadway," an intimate stage experience that launches in October and features the rock legend performing solo, will be extending for 10 additional weeks. 

Originally scheduled to close in November, the show was extended through February after the original block of tickets sold out in a matter of minutes Wednesday.

Hollywood legend Olivia de Havilland has strengthened her resolve in her court battle with FX and "Feud" showrunner Ryan Murphy.

The 101-year-old, two-time Oscar winner regarded the network's "weak" move on Tuesday to dismiss her latest complaint as a sign of "their continuing disrespect for her and for California law," her attorney Suzelle M. Smith said in a statement to The Times on Wednesday.

It’s the latest development in the "Gone With the Wind" star’s lawsuit against FX and Murphy, which she filed in June over her depiction in “Feud: Bette and Joan,” the miniseries about rival actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.

With the Gulf Coast still battling the aftereffects of Tropical Storm Harvey, celebrities continue to come forward to help with relief efforts for the humanitarian crisis.

Sandra Bullock, who has a home in Texas, donated $1 million to the American Red Cross' emergency efforts, the organization confirmed to The Times on Wednesday.

"We are so thankful for the overwhelming and generous response from those who want to help those affected by this devastating storm," Elizabeth Penniman, vice president of communications for American Red Cross national headquarters, said in an email.

Corinne Olympios doesn't have any hard feelings toward DeMario Jackson, the fellow "Bachelor in Paradise" cast member who was with her at the center of a scandal that shut down production on the reality TV series in June. 

"I don't blame DeMario. I never pointed fingers at DeMario. I never said a bad word about DeMario," the 25-year-old told host Chris Harrison in an early-August taped interview that aired Tuesday night on ABC. 

She and Jackson haven't spoken since production was halted after allegations of misconduct were made by a producer, leading to an investigation of what happened during a period when, Olympios now says, she was blacked out.