Ingrid Michaelson, who recently saw the debut of her first musical, The Notebook, is now pivoting to composing for television.
She’s co-written the score for the new Hulu series Tiny Beautiful Things, based on the bestselling book by Cheryl Strayed about a woman who becomes a popular advice columnist while her own life is falling apart. The soundtrack, which is out now, includes a new original song by Ingrid called “Not Gone,” as well as her cover of the Indigo Girls song “Closer to Fine.”
“Writing the score for ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’ was one of the most fulfilling and scary experiences I’ve had,” Ingrid says of the soundtrack, adding that it “yielded such a lovely and rewarding experience.”
Ingrid had previously written an Emmy-nominated original song for the Hulu series Little Fires Everywhere, produced by the same woman who did Tiny Beautiful Things.
In addition, Ingrid is the executive producer for the Apple TV+ children’s series Slumberkins, for which she also wrote original songs.
After Star Wars left the big screen in 2019 with the finale of the divisive Star Wars “sequel trilogy,” Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, it was announced Friday one of the sequel stars will be returning.
At Star Wars Celebration in London, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced one of the first three new Star Wars films to head back to theaters will center on Daisy Ridley‘s Rey.
After years of schedule shifting, and the eventual apparent scuttling of the heavily touted Rogue Squadron from Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, Kennedy teased the trio.
The Rey project will be directed by Ms. Marvel episode director and two-time Academy Award winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. It will be set 15 years after Episode IX and will center on “the rebuilding of the new Jedi Order and the powers that rise to tear it down,” Kennedy said.
Another will be directed by Oscar-nominated Logan screenwriter and director James Mangold, who also directed Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. His as-yet untitled movie will delve “into the deep past, telling the tale of the first Jedi to wield the Force and harvest its liberating power in an era of chaos and oppression.”
Another film will be directed by Star Wars: The Clone Wars Emmy winner Dave Filoni, who first stepped behind the live-action camera in season 1 of the show he executive produces, The Mandalorian. Kennedy said the movie, on which he and Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau will collaborate, will “bring together many of the threads of our series in that cinematic event that we’ve been promising you.”
Filoni is also co-producing the Disney+ shows Ahsoka — based on the character he created for Clone Wars — and Skeleton Crew with Favreau.
Lucasfilm is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
Taraji P. Henson is set to make her Abbott Elementary debut this month. Speaking to Extra, she says, “I play Vernita, who is Janine’s mom, and she’s a mess.”
As an entertainment industry veteran, she nabbed the role thanks to her star-studded network. She explains, “I guess I’m in this place in my career where I have friends now, and I’ll tell my friends, ‘Hey, call me if you ever need me.’ But that’s what happened.”
She chose to accept the role as both a supporter and fan of the show.
“I love supporting, you know, and again, I’m such a fan, like, why wouldn’t I? That’s such a talented, amazingly talented cast. The writing is impeccable,” Taraji continues.
She also has a personal connection to the show: “I used to be a substitute teacher, so I have a really … deep love and respect for teachers and educators.”
Speaking of her experience filming, Taraji says she had “a great time” on set.
“I hope they call me back,” she adds.
Abbott Elementary‘s “Mom” episode featuring Taraji airs April 12 at 9 p.m. ET.
The wait is over, Brothers Osborne. After weeks of teasing new music, the hit country duo finally rolled out not one, not two, but three brand new songs.
Of their new releases and upcoming record, the pair’s John Osborne shares, “As musicians, we’re constantly evolving and pushing ourselves to new heights. With our fourth album, we’ve teamed up with a new producer, Mike Elizondo, and embraced his approach to our sound and story.”
“Our expectations were already high and he absolutely shattered them. It’s exciting to see where this journey will take us and we can’t wait to share this sound with everyone. Life and art are about growth and taking risks, and we’re ready to take on the challenge,” he adds.
Brothers Osborne’s latest studio album is Skeletons, which dropped in 2020 and received the deluxe treatment in 2022.
Billie Eilish is featured on a new song from musician Labrinth, who composes the music for Euphoria.
The track is called “Never Felt So Alone” and finds the “bad guy” artist singing lyrics including “I thought you were my new best friend/ Wish I knew better then.” Eilish and Labrinth previously performed the tune during one of her Los Angeles shows last December.
Eilish also appears in the “Never Felt So Alone” video, which is streaming now on YouTube.
“Never Felt So Alone” will appear on Labrinth’s upcoming album, Ends and Begins, due out April 28.
(NOTE LANGUAGE) The trailer for Apple TV+’s STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie dropped Thursday, and it’s a can’t-miss documentary for fans of the beloved actor.
Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim helms the film, which takes a deep dive into Fox’s incredible acting career and his battle with Parkinson’s disease.
“What did it mean to be still?” an off-screen voice asks Fox at the beginning of the trailer, likely a reference to the doc’s title.
“I wouldn’t know,” Fox replies. “I was never still.”
The trailer whizzes through Fox’s many iconic film and TV roles that shot him to fame. As the Back to the Future star says, “I was bigger than bubblegum.”
Soon enough, it arrives at Fox’s diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease at 29 years old. Fox recalls his wife Tracy Pollan whispering to him at the time, “In sickness and in health.”
“I’m a tough, uh, son of a b****,” the actor says, highlighting his refusal to let the disease take over his life and his advocacy for continued research for a cure.
The off-screen voice returns once again at the end of the trailer, saying, “The sad-sack story is … Michael J. Fox gets this debilitating disease and it crushes him.”
Fox replies, “Yeah, that’s boring.”
STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie releases May 12 on Apple TV+.
“Nas always been my favorite rapper. I used to dream about being in the studio with Nas as a youngin’ coming up,” R-Mean began. “But then I would wake up and be disappointed when I realized it wasn’t real. It happened many times….until one day I woke up and it wasn’t a dream.”
R-Mean says he paid homage to Nas on his 2017 song “Letter to the King,” which at the time “got a lot of love from my fans and online but that was pretty much it.” Years later he received a phone call from Nas, who’d finally gotten wind of the song.
“Nas told me ‘that s*** did something to me right now’ as he pointed to his chest,” the post read. “Three days later we were in the studio at @scottstorchofficial’s house and we created this masterpiece together on the spot!”
R-Mean says the song is “exactly what I always imagined I would create with Nas if I was given the opportunity.”
Global country megastar Luke Combs has added a surprise second show to his upcoming stop in Nashville.
In addition to the sold-out Nissan Stadium concert on Saturday, April 15, Luke will now perform on Friday, April 14, at the same venue. Riley Green, Mitchell Tenpenny and Brent Cobb will serve as openers.
“Been seeing a lot of people trying to find tickets for the show in Nashville next Saturday,” Luke says. “So my team and I were working to open up as many additional tickets as possible, then I figured let’s just go ahead and play another show, so I’m excited to announce tickets for a show next Friday are on sale now!”
On the music front, Luke dropped his latest album, Gettin’ Old, in March. The 18-song set also includes a cover of Tracy Chapman‘s “Fast Car.”
Tickets to the newly added April 14 leg of the Luke Combs World Tour are available now on Ticketmaster. Grab yours before they sell out.
Duran Duran has added two new shows to their 2023 North American Future Past tour, which is set to kick off May 28 in San Jose, California, following their May 27 appearance at the BottleRock Festival in Napa Valley, California.
The two new dates are an August 22 show in San Diego, California, and a tour-ending stop in Forest Hills, New York, on September 22.
The tour features special guests Nile Rodgers & Chic, as well as Bastille, with Grace Jones added to the Forest Hills stop.
Tickets for the two new shows go on sale Friday, April 14, at 10 a.m. local time. A complete list of dates can be found at DuranDuran.com.
(NEW YORK) — As Congress considers banning TikTok amid growing fears over potential data privacy issues and Chinese government intrusion, some states are taking matters into their own hands to regulate social media access.
Last week, Utah became the first state to pass a law limiting access to social media for kids under age 18. The statute will require parental consent for minors to use platforms like TikTok and Instagram, putting the onus on social media companies to verify users’ ages.
One of the bill’s sponsors, State Sen. Michael McKell, spoke to “GMA3” about the scope of the new laws, addressing concerns over privacy and how the state plans to enforce them when they go into effect next March.
EVA PILGRIM: So I just want you to break this down for us. How will these restrictions actually work?
SEN. MICHAEL MCKELL: I think that’s a great question. First and foremost, what we worry about is involving parents. So the first thing this legislation does is it requires parental consent for a child to jump on a social media site. I think that’s important. Two of the really important things: we ban data collection of our kids and we ban targeted advertisement. But more than anything else, we want parents to be involved in the process with their kids, with social media. So we want parents to consent before their kids jump on a social media site.
GIO BENITEZ: Senator, the law has passed. The restrictions, they go into effect in March of next year. But I think we need a little bit of a reality check here, because there are nearly a million minors in Utah right now. Most of them know more about tech than their parents. How do you plan to even enforce these laws every time a minor signs on to social media?
MCKELL: And that’s a great question, and that’s what parents struggle with. Oftentimes, these kids are a lot smarter than their parents when it comes to social media. So over the course of the next year, we’ve got some rulemaking. And what rulemaking means is our division of Consumer Protection is going to build the process to verify ages and do this parental consent program. As I’ve gone out in the state of Utah, parents want tools. And what we’re trying to do is empower those parents to be more involved with their kids in their social media accounts.
BENITEZ: And you say there will be four employees within the Department of Commerce handling this new law. How can they possibly keep tabs on everyone?
MCKELL: Well, the good news is we will have four employees, but they’re there to receive complaints. If there are additional problems, one of the things we built into the legislation is a private right of action. If there’s broad sweeping abuse in violation of these new rules, we’ll also have that private right of action where the public can engage in the process as well. But we’re not going to be proactive. Those complaints are going to come to the state of Utah. We’re going to look at them and address them. So there will be some complaints. We don’t know how many complaints there’ll be at this point, but we wanted to make sure that we do have some employees on the ground as this program moves forward.
PILGRIM: You’re a parent, you have four kids. What do you say to those parents who, they’re concerned about their kids on social media, but say it should be the parents’ job to regulate their kids’ use and their access, not the government’s?
MCKELL: Yeah, and I think that’s a great concern. And that’s what we’re trying to do, is have tools available to parents right now. Oftentimes, there are kids, my kids certainly understand social media better than I do. And what we want to do is empower parents. You know, mom and dad may have one or two jobs. Mom and dad are busy. We want to make sure those tools are easy to use and available for those parents. What we don’t do is, parents can, we’ve got some default settings, they can override those. They can give their kids as much access as they want. But we really and truly want to empower parents here in the state of Utah.
BENITEZ: Senator, under these laws, social media companies will be forced to verify user ages. Now, how will they do that without violating privacy laws? Because, of course, there are those who are concerned about social media companies having even more access to your sensitive data.
MCKELL: Yeah, I mean, that’s a great question. And the way we do parental consent is to verify age. Age verification is nothing new in this country. What I would point to for your viewers, online prescription, if you buy online prescriptions, you’ve got to verify your age. We have millions of people on dating sites. You’ve got to verify your age.
BENITEZ: Right, senator. But this is TikTok. This is Facebook. This is Instagram. I mean, a lot of people don’t want to give them that sensitive data.
MCKELL: Yeah, and one of the things we did is we call out our Consumer Privacy Act in the legislation. We make it clear that a form of government ID cannot be the only form of verification. As we’ve met with stakeholders in tech companies, they believe that they can do the verification without violating privacy. But that’s something that we’re going to watch and we’re going to watch it closely to make sure that doesn’t happen here in this state.
BENITEZ: Such an interesting debate. Thank you so much Utah State Sen. Mike McKell. We will be watching this. Thanks for joining us here on “GMA3.”
