WDNY Radio

After being awarded $4 million in her defamation lawsuit against YouTube blogger Tasha K, Cardi B hopes her victory will help bring an end to lies about celebrities on social media.

After a jury ordered the blogger, born Tasha Kebe, to pay $1.25 million on Monday to Cardi for posting false rumors, $1.5 million more in punitive damages was added Tuesday. Plus, she was ordered to pay the “I Like It” rapper’s $1.3 million legal bill.

The Grammy winner accused Kebe of making false claims that she was a prostitute, had contracted herpes, used drugs, and performed a sex act with a beer bottle, among other accusations.

In responding to the verdict, Cardi said in a statement to People, “We can no longer be a society that turns a blind eye to blatant lies. The unchecked behavior and provably false content on platforms like YouTube have to be addressed and removed.”

“The constant harassment and lies that are reported as factual from journalists and bloggers have to end.” She added, “We’ve also seen countless stories of children and adults deciding to take their own lives due to cyberbullying and intentional attacks.”

During the trial, the Hustlers star testified that Kebe’s remarks caused her to be “extremely suicidal.”

Cardi said in her statement that fans have “learned about the darkest time in my life,” writing that it was “fueled by the vile, disgusting, and completely false narratives that were repeatedly and relentlessly being shared online.”

“I thought I would never be heard or vindicated and I felt completely helpless and vulnerable,” Cardi continued.

The 29-year-old entertainer shared that she didn’t want “justice” solely for herself, noting that “the intentional harm that was done to me, is done to countless others every day.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Kelly Clarkson is not backing down in her ongoing divorce battle with ex Brandon Blackstock and is pouring all of her spare time into making sure she comes out on top.

A source spoke with US Weekly about Kelly’s legal drama and they dished, “She is devoting 100 percent of any free time she has preparing for the trial.  When not filming her talk show, she is hunkered down with [attorney] Laura Wasser.”  They continued, “She will not even entertain the idea of settling with Brandon.”

Kelly filed for divorce in 2020, citing “irreconcilable differences” and she was declared legally single in 2021.  Since then, the two have been locked in an intense legal battle over finances.  Most recently, she surrendered about five percent of their hotly contested ranch in Montana to her ex-spouse after failing to legally evict him from the property.

But, that appears to be all the “Piece by Piece” singer is willing to part with, as the spy continued, “He will not get one penny from her that isn’t ordered by the judge. It’s going to be nasty.”

Kelly and Brandon wed in 2013 and share two children, seven-year-old River and five-year-old Remington.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Post Malone made waves in the music scene thanks to his singles “Sunflower” and “Circles.”  But, in an intimate new interview, the hitmaker admits he had been quietly struggling against burnout.

Speaking to Billboard, Posty revealed he almost crashed and burned at the start of the pandemic.  The singer says he threw himself into his work following the release of his debut single, “White Iverson,” in 2015 and spent the next four years racing to get a song to top the Hot 100. 

“You think about everything at the same time, and it’s f***ing overload,” he recalled. “There’s a lot riding on the music. There’s a lot riding on just being able to keep making songs. And that’s hard to do because you’re like, ‘F*** — I already talked about everything.’ And you kind of run out of ideas, and that’s scary s***.”

Posty says that anxiety ballooned at the start of the pandemic and he fell into a creative slump.  “I used to love playing the guitar — I hardly play the guitar anymore. I used to love making beats… I lost that, and the hardest part is getting it back,” he said, adding that he retreated to Utah to reignite his spark. 

Finding solitude in the Beehive State worked like a charm, he says, and he began working on the followup to his third studio album, Hollywood’s Bleeding. He has since released two singles off his forthcoming effort, twelve carat toothache — “One Right Now,” a collab with The Weeknd, and “Motley Crew.”

Posty says the goal of his new music is to “speak more to how I’m feeling at the moment: the ups and downs and the disarray and the bipolar aspect of being an artist in the mainstream.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

After a tumultuous couple of years of pandemic-related shutdowns and uncertain touring conditions, Miranda Lambert is getting back into the swing of her live show with the return of The Bandwagon Tour, a co-headlining run with Little Big Town.

The singer knows that another COVID-19 surge could affect those plans, but she’s ready to get back to doing what she does best, she explains in an interview with Rolling Stone.

“There’s constant changes. I’m constantly Googling things,” Miranda notes. “…The biggest point is, we’re in control of nothing. For all those people who are planners like me, I have to really find my inner Zen.”

She’s not downplaying the severity of the pandemic. In fact, the singer reveals, she’s had a bout with the virus herself. “I know [COVID is] a real thing; I’ve had it,” she explains. Still, she adds, she’s “ready to move ahead.”

“All the conversations and all the battles and all of that, it comes down to I want to do my job and I want to just live my life,” Miranda goes on to say. “I’m proceeding as if that’s happening.”

The Bandwagon Tour will launch in early May.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Shinedown has announced a new album called Planet Zero.

The seventh studio effort from Brent Smith and company will arrive April 22. You can listen to its lead single and title track now via digital outlets.

“If we shut each other down and allow ourselves to be divided by the information we consume and the way we talk to each other, we lose our humanity,” Smith says. “When you look outside of your phone, you’ll see there are so many people doing good things and trying to take care of each other. But we’re starting to see parts of society slip into an unknown.”

“Planet Zero was written for all of us,” he adds. “The fact is that we’re all here on this planet no matter what, so it’s time to actually move forward together with empathy, perseverance and strength. With that said…welcome to PLANET ZERO.”

Planet Zero follows Shinedown’s 2018 album ATTENTION ATTENTION, which spawned the singles “DEVIL,” “GET UP” and “MONSTERS.”

Shinedown launches a U.S. tour with support from Ayron Jones Wednesday night in San Francisco. They’ll hit the road with The Pretty Reckless and Diamante in April.

Here’s the Planet Zero track list:

“2184”
“No Sleep Tonight”
“Planet Zero”
“Welcome”
“Dysfunctional You”
“Dead Don’t Die”
“Standardized Experiences”
“America Burning”
“Do Not Panic”
“A Symptom of Being Human”
“Hope”
“A More Utopian Future”
“Clueless and Dramatic”
“Sure Is Fun”
“Daylight”
“This Is a Warning”
“The Saints of Violence and Innuendo”
“Army of the Underappreciated”
“Delete”
“What You Wanted”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Janet Jackson‘s two-part Lifetime/A&E documentary is coming out on Friday, and the second half of it reportedly contains an unexpected guest: Justin Timberlake.

“Justin is in it. I was told he is going to be in the documentary. It’s like this big secret. He’s the surprise, just like the Super Bowl,” a source familiar with the production told Page Six.

In 2004, Justin and Janet shocked the world when they performed JT’s song “Rock Your Body” at the Super Bowl and Justin tore off part of Janet’s costume, exposing her breast.  Janet’s career suffered, while Justin emerged unscathed: He was even invited back to headline the Super Bowl in 2018.

In recent years, the entire incident has now been re-examined as an example of white privilege and systemic racism. Justin apologized to Janet last year via social media.

The Lifetime doc is four hours long, but insiders tell Page Six that only three hours have been provided to reviewers in advance. One claimed that Janet is being so secretive about the film that “Lifetime hasn’t even seen [it] yet.”

A trailer for the doc features Janet’s brother Randy telling Janet, “Justin and his team have been trying to contact us about you doing the Super Bowl,” but that’s the extent of any mention of JT.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.