Granger Smith and his wife, Amber, are just weeks away from welcoming a new baby boy into their family. The couple are already parents to nine-year-old London and seven-year-old Lincoln, and they lost their youngest son, River, at the age of three in a tragic drowning accident in 2019.
From the beginning, the country couple has been open with fans about their emotional journey towards deciding to have another baby. This week, however, Amber highlighted a moment of celebration. She shared a series of snapshots from her shower for the new baby, whose name will be Maverick.
“I honestly can’t believe I’m doing this all over again,” Amber wrote. “Many tears were shed, grief and joy are parallel on this journey, but Mavi is so loved and we can’t wait to hold him in about 5 weeks. God is good.”
In an hour-long documentary uploaded to their YouTube channel this spring, Granger and Amber shared their IVF journey, which included a heartbreaking miscarriage along the road to a healthy pregnancy.
The first teaser trailer to 50 Cent‘s new Starz drama BMF has been released.
Inspired by the Black Mafia Family — also known as the B.M.F. — the new series will premiere on Sunday, September 26, at 9 p.m. ET. It will then move to its regular time slot at 8 p.m. ET. on Sunday, October 3. As previously reported, BMF follows the real-life story of brothers Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and Terry “Southwest T” Flenory, who “rose from the decaying streets of southwest Detroit in the late 1980s and gave birth to one of the most influential crime families in the country.” The series stars Demetrius “Lil Meech” Flenory Jr., Russell Hornsby, Snoop Dogg, La La Anthony and Serayah, among others.
In other news, Grammy Award-winning producer and artist DJ Khaled has been tapped to join the celebrity judging panel for season two of TBS’ Go-Big Show. He joins Rosario Dawson, Jennifer Nettles and Cody Rhodes on the panel. The extreme talent-competition series, hosted by Bert Kreischer, features “some of the most extreme and death defying acts from around the country” as they battle to impress the judges and advance toward the finale’s ultimate $100,000 prize. Production on season two of Go-Big Show begins in August.
Finally, Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga has set their season-two premiere date. The new season will launch on September 8 with three new episodes, followed by an additional episode every Wednesday. Created and written by Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA, the series follows the group’s formation and examines how Bobby Diggs, better known as RZA, took his vision for the group and made it a success. Wu-Tang: An American Saga stars Shameik Moore, Ashton Sanders, Erika Alexanderand Joey Bada$$, among others.
(SPRINGFIELD, Mo.) — The Springfield, Missouri, health department is requesting funding for an alternate COVID-19 care site in response to a spike in infections and hospitalizations in recent weeks, health officials announced Wednesday.
Several local health facilities and hospitals jointly requested the alternative care site funding, which would include money for more beds, staff and antibody testing. One of those facilities was Springfield-based Mercy Hospital, which had so many hospitalized COVID patients last week that it had to call in backup ventilators from other hospitals in its network when it ran out.
The increase in severe illness is taxing the health system and sick patients are expected to outpace hospital capacity, according to the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.
Of the 231 patients currently being treated in Greene County hospitals, 104 are in critical care and 61 are on ventilators, the health department said.
“The Springfield-Greene County Health Department continues to urge anyone not fully vaccinated continue to take precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including wearing a mask,” Aaron Schekorra, a spokesperson for the health department, told ABC News. “Businesses and organizations are encouraged to implement policies in order to protect their staff, clients, and guests, such as requiring masking for all.”
The spike in Springfield is part of a larger wave of COVID in the state that has top health officials worried.
“Missouri is at the top of our list,” Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institute of Health, said during an interview with ABC News Kansas City affiliate KMBC, in reference to concerning COVID hotspots. “It seems to be now expanding more and more (to other areas) of Missouri,” Collins added.
Missouri’s vaccination rate trails the national average. As of Wednesday, 46% of residents had received at least one dose, and 40% were fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared with 56% of all Americans who’ve gotten at least one shot and 48% who are fully vaccinated.
In Greene County, where Springfield is located, vaccination rates are even lower than the statewide average. Just 40% of Greene County residents have received one dose of the vaccine, and only 35% are fully vaccinated, according to state health department data.
The classic all-American look includes a navy blazer, a striped shirt, printed scarf, a striped belt and slim-cut denim pants. There were also protective face masks created to match the look, which incorporates rich hues of red, white and blue throughout.
With these new uniforms, the brand has also debuted its RL COOLING wearable technology, which has a self-regulating temperature cooling device that will be incorporated into Team USA’s flag bearer’s uniform during the opening ceremony parade.
David Lauren, Ralph Lauren Corporation’s chief branding and innovation officer and vice chairman of the board, said in a statement that the brand is celebrating “America’s pioneering spirit and tradition while embracing modernity and innovation.”
“Recognizing Tokyo’s summer heat, we sought to develop a solution for Team USA that fuses fashion and function — allowing them to look and feel their best on one of the world’s biggest stages,” Lauren said in a statement.
The fashion label initially started exploring thermal management systems within its apparel in 2018 with its heated jacket at the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, an agency of the United States Department of Energy, suggests that personal thermal management is a portable and localized solution that, if scaled, has the potential to reduce the reliance on mass energy-intensive cooling systems, like HVAC systems, for personal comfort.
“Ralph Lauren’s dedication to providing innovative, sustainable and functional outfits for Team USA athletes helps elevate their Games time experience,” Peter Zeytoonjian, senior vice president of consumer products at U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Properties, said in a statement. “As our Olympic and Paralympic athletes step out on the global stage this summer, we’re proud to have the continued support of a brand whose thoughtful approach to how they can better serve our athletes uniquely benefits Team USA.”
In April, Ralph Lauren also revealed Team USA’s Tokyo Olympics closing ceremony uniforms, which include crisp white, blue and red looks and a drawstring jacket with an American flag on the sleeve, a Polo shirt, a striped belt and denim pants.
For anyone wanting to show their patriotic spirit, Ralph Lauren has also made its 2020 Team USA collection available to buy in select Ralph Lauren stores and online.
Stand-up comic and actor Gabriel Iglesiastook to social media to tell fans that although he’s been vaccinated, he tested positive for COVID-19.
In a video post accompany a message that reads “Announcement I didn’t want to make on my bday,” Iglesias, known to his fans as Fluffy, said, “I made sure I that I got tested by two different types of tests,” adding he has started to show some signs of symptoms, including body aches and chills.
“Other than that, I feel pretty good. I give credit to being vaccinated for getting me through this,” he said, in a voice more muted than usual.
The comic noted that he has to isolate, forcing him to cancel his five remaining shows at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio, and explained that he will “go back to work” when he gets three negative tests. Tickets will be refunded, the venue has announced.
“It’s not the way I wanted to spend my birthday, but I’m alive, and I have cake. I can’t taste it or smell it, but I have it,” Iglesias quipped, adding, “Wish me luck,” before thanking his fans.
Iglesias can currently be heard in the Disney+ show Monsters at Work.
EST Gee has been on the rise since signing with Yo Gotti’s Collective Music Group in January, a month after releasing his December 2020 mixtape,I Still Don’t Feel Nun.
While fans have been awaiting his next project, the Louisville rapper took to Instagram to share the album’s cover art and title.
“Bigger than Life or Death, July 20th. #EverbodyShineTogether #CocaineMuzik,” Gee wrote, sharing the album cover that shows his tattooed body with a vertical scar on the front of his abdomen.
“It’s Dat Time,” wrote Gotti in the post’s comments, while another fan said, “This album [is] going to be legendary.”
This year, EST Gee’s released his singles “Bigger than Life or Death,” “Lick Back” and “Capitol 1,” and landed his first-career entry on the Billboard Hot 100 song chart for assisting Lil Baby on “Real As It Gets.” Gee made his late-night television debut in January on Jimmy Kimmel Live! alongside fellow Louisiana MC Jack Harlow for a performance of their hometown anthem, “Route 66.”
Madonna‘s concert documentary, Madame X, has an official release date. It will have its Paramount+ debut on Friday, October 8.
The film was shot in Lisbon, Portugal during the Queen of Pop’s sold-out tour, which ran from September of 2019 to March of 2020. It captures songs off her 2019 album, Madame X, as well as previous hits and fan favorites.
“Sharing my vision with global audiences has been profoundly meaningful to me,” Madonna says in a statement. “The opportunity to bring its message and the incandescent artistry of all involved to an even wider audience comes at a time when music is so deeply needed to remind us of the sacred bond of our shared humanity.”
Madonna’s Madame X trek was unlike any of her previous tours. Instead of her usual stadium show, she created a much more intimate performance for theaters, and played multiple nights in major cities in the United States, England, France and Portugal.
Several shows on the tour were canceled due to a recurring knee injury Madonna suffered, and the entire trek was subsequently cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robert Downey Jr. will appear in a small-screen project for the first time since his short stint on Saturday Night Live, playing multiple characters in an HBO series adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Sympathizer.
Viet Thanh Nguyen‘s book centers on a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist double agent during the final days of the Vietnam War and afterward, after he settles in the United States.
Deadline, which broke the news, says legendary Oldboy director Park Chan-wook will direct the series. The project will be produced by Team Downey, the company that the Marvel movie veteran runs with his wife, producer Susan Downey.
According to the trade, Downey Jr. will play several characters, including an American congressman, a CIA agent and a Hollywood director. In a statement, Downey said, “Adapting Mr. Nguyen’s important and masterful work requires a visionary team. With…Park at the helm, I expect this to be a creative producing adventure for Susan, me and Team Downey, and a stimulating process for myself in playing these complex supporting roles.”
The series will reportedly feature a predominantly Southeast Asian cast.
(WASHINGTON) — Roughly a dozen Texas Democrats who fled their state to come to Washington met Thursday in a Capitol Hill basement with the Senate Democrat who holds the key vote in Congress on voting rights legislation, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin.
But apparently, the subject of Manchin making an exception to the Senate’s filibuster rule for voting rights never came up.
Emerging from the hour-long meeting, Manchin told reporters, “It was a very good meeting. It was a very informative meeting, and basically, we’ve all come to a total agreement that what we want is basically to protect voting rights. That’s it. A voting rights bill with guardrails. That’s all.”
The centrist Democratic senator, who has refused to support an exception to the filibuster rule requiring 60 votes to move forward on most legislation in the 50-50 Senate, said that hot topic pushed by many voting rights activists wasn’t even discussed.
“A filibuster doesn’t need to (happen),” Manchin insisted after the meeting, claiming, “There shouldn’t be a Democrat or a Republican that wouldn’t or couldn’t or shouldn’t vote for something that truly just only deals with voting and the rights of voters.”
Later, the Texas Democrats confirmed to reporters that the filibuster indeed wasn’t mentioned, saying that was by design.
“I think enough people have discussed the filibuster with Joe Manchin. That’s the elephant sitting in the room. Everybody knows what the deal is,” said state Rep. Joe Moody of El Paso, the now-former speaker pro tempore of the Texas House after Republicans voted to strip him of that title.
The meeting comes a day after President Joe Biden made an impassioned speech calling Republican efforts to restrict voting rights an “assault on democracy” but didn’t mention Manchin or the Senate filibuster rule.
Manchin said he is working on legislation, but it is not clear if that would be a new effort, or if it would be the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, designed to restore and modernize the 1960s era- process of “pre-clearance” by the Justice Department that protected minority populations from discriminatory laws in states with a history of discrimination.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down a section of the federal Voting Rights Act that voided that pre-clearance process as outdated.
And Texas Democrats said they are “100%” confident that what Manchin is trying to do will protect what they want to accomplish.
“We were encouraged by his comments and I think we know what his path is and it’s to focus on something a lot more narrower than S.1 and to focus on something that specifically addresses voting rights and pre-clearance,” said state Sen. Carol Alvarado, referencing the sweeping election reform bill — calling for expanded mail-in and absentee voting, requiring automatic voter registration, and major campaign finance and ethics reforms — that the Senate voted down last month.
But whether there is sufficient bipartisan support for narrower legislation is also unclear, though Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski has said she will help rally her conference to back the effort.
Getting legislation through the Senate at this time would be extraordinarily difficult with infrastructure and budget bills expected to consume months of floor time starting next week.
ABC News’ Alisa Wiersama contributed to this report.
Metallica is continuing to roll out content connected to “The Unforgiven” this week in the run-up to the release of the upcoming 30th anniversary box set celebrating the band’s 1991 self-titled album, also known as The Black Album.
Available to watch online now is a live performance of the song recorded at Aggie Memorial Stadium in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on August 27, 1992. What makes the performance stand out is that it took place a few weeks after frontman James Hetfield‘s infamous onstage pyrotechnic accident in Montreal, during which he suffered second- and third-degree burns on his hand and arm.
As a result, the Las Cruces show featured guitar tech John Marshall playing rhythm guitar, while Hetfield simply stands and sings, with both of his arms and his left hand swathed in bandages.
The video is included on the Wherever I May Roam DVD, which is part of the deluxe Black Album box set, due out September 10. The 1991 album’s official 30th anniversary takes place on August 12. In addition to the box set, the iconic album is being celebrated with a 53-track tribute compilation dubbed The Metallica Blacklist.
