Music

Britney Spears has reportedly found a new attorney to represent her in today’s conservatorship hearing.

Following a report from TMZ that the “Toxic” singer was in discussions to retain celebrity attorney Mathew Rosengart — who previously represented famous celebrities such as Sean Penn, Casey and Ben Affleck, Steven Spielberg and rocker Eddie Vedder — the gossip website now reports that Rosengart has agreed to represent her and will appear in court.

Britney reportedly signed a legal document stating her desire to hire the mega law firm of Greenberg Traurig, LLP to represent her in her ongoing effort to remove her father Jamie Spears from the conservatorship.  It would be Britney’s first step in attempting to end her longtime conservatorship, which has been in place for more than 13 years.

However, there is a hitch — Britney cannot sign contracts of any substance without her father’s approval.

Insiders tell TMZ that Rosengart will argue that Britney has a Constitutional right to the lawyer of her choice.  However, while defendants in criminal cases have a Constitutional right to an attorney, a conservatorship is another story.

Rosengart will likely argue that Britney is entitled to due process, which includes the right to a competent lawyer, something of which Rosengart’s resume certainly attests.

Rosengart could further argue against Jamie having the power to disapprove Britney’s choice, because his daughter is actively hiring legal representation with hopes of removing him from the conservatorship.

In addition, Judge Brenda Penny, who is overseeing this case, needs to approve of Rosengart’s appointment.  Should she decline, Spears will then be assigned another court-appointed attorney to represent her going forward – an option the singer previously said she does not want.

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While her sister and musical partner, Halle Bailey, just wrapped up filming Disney’s The Little Mermaid in Paris, Chloe Bailey is busy flexing at home on Instagram.

“Flex Park,” Chloe wrote in the caption of a series photos she posted Tuesday that show her posing in orange swimsuits from Beyoncé‘s latest Ivy Park collection. Chloe got all dolled up with hair and makeup to model a bustier one-piece in the bathroom mirror and a long-sleeve two-piece on a balcony. 

Snoah Aalegra, Lala Anthony and more fans left dozens of heart-eye emojis and orange hearts in the post’s comments. Yet most were left drooling over Chloe’s sculpted abs, toned legs and glowing skin.

“Orange is your color queen,” wrote one fan, while another said, “My wife only allow[s] me to like Chloe, [Rihanna] and Beyoncé pics.”

Meanwhile, others were calling for Chloe to drop her highly anticipated solo single “Have Mercy.” Since her birthday earlier this month, the 23-year-old has been dropping teasers of the song, which has yet to be released. She recently approved the song’s dance challenge, which was created by Tik Tok star Charles Niko. 

“Finally learned @thecharlesniko dance to ‘Have Mercy.’ How did I do?” Chloe wrote on Instagram yesterday, along with a video showing her grooving to a segment of the tune. “Tag me in your best dance videos, reposting my favs #havemercychallenge.”

It’s unclear when “Have Mercy” will be released, but the upbeat track definitely sounds like it’s worth the wait.

 

 

 

 

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Tom DeLonge will make his directorial debut with the upcoming film Monsters of California, and he doesn’t plan on stopping there.

Speaking with NME, the Angels & Airwaves frontman reveals he has “scripts for another five films in the works.”

“Those ones are much more ambitious,” DeLonge says. “Going forward, my goal is to make big, fun, crazy and thoughtful movies.”

Monsters of California is currently in post-production. DeLonge describes the film as “if [Steven] Spielberg went back and made an R-rated indie paranormal film.”

“It’s a John Hughes coming of age film with d*** jokes,” he adds.

Elsewhere in the interview, DeLonge speaks about the upcoming new AVA album, Lifeforms, due out September 24, and the possibility about touring again with Box Car Racer, his side project with former Blink-182 band mate Travis Barker.

“We have talked about…what it would be like to play shows, but everyone’s so busy!” DeLonge says. “It’s just how do you do that? Travis has a million things going on, I have a million things going on.”

“It’s just not the priority,” he adds. “It’s an awesome, nostalgic thing but nostalgic things don’t run your life, you have to fit them in.”

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A casual listen to Thomas Rhett‘s “Country Again” might lead you to wonder if the former ACM Entertainer of the Year had begun to doubt his authenticity amid his massive success. But it’s quite the opposite for the second-generation country star: the title track of his latest album is more of a reflection on what he learned during the pandemic.

“For me, the word country means simple,” TR explains. “That would be my favorite synonym for the word, and I think that ‘Country Again’ is that in a nutshell.”

“With the year that we had in 2020,” he continues, “I think a lot of us were forced to not do what we do for a living and forced to slow down and really forced to recognize, like, what are your blessings in life and what are you grateful for?”

For Thomas Rhett, the answers are close to home.

“For me, that was my family, and for me, that was the outdoors: that was getting outside again, going fishing again, going hunting again, going out west and hiking with my family,” he says. “Those are the things that I used to love to do so much, and then life just kind of got in the way.”

The second single from Country Again: Side A is a reminder for us all to not lose sight of the “simple” things.

“I think a lot of us have just been grinding without realizing how hard we’re actually working,” TR points out. “And hard work is great, but I do think every now and then you can slow down and just smell the roses for a second.”

“And that’s what last year was for me,” he adds, “which is kind of where the inspiration for ‘Country Again’ kinda came from.”

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Tai Verdes broke through on TikTok with his viral hit “Stuck in the Middle.” Now the 25-year-old California native has tens of millions of streams, a record deal and a radio hit with “A-O-K.” Tai says it all happened because he decided to challenge himself.

“I went in knowing that I wanted to make my TikTok a promotional app — I just didn’t know for what,” explains Tai. “When I saw Curtis Waters do a dance to his song [‘Stunnin’] and it went viral, I was like, ‘I don’t want to do that dance. But I still think I can make myself go viral with a song, by just putting out content and promoting it.'”

So, after honing his vocal skills for several months, Tai posted “Stuck in the Middle” on TikTok last year, and, yes, it went viral. That led to a deal with Arista Records, and his debut album, TV.,

“[ It’s] kind of awesome that I just tried something and it worked…it all came to fruition,” says Tai.

As for “A-O-K,” it’s about keeping a positive outlook, and treating each day as though it could be your last.

“You have to be like, ‘If this is going to be the last day, I might as well think that this is a great day,’ because that’s way more fun,” he explains.

Later this month, Tai’s playing Lollapalooza; in September, he’ll tour with Chelsea Cutler and Quinn XCII, before headlining his own tour in November.  But right now, Tai feels like he hasn’t seen any actual proof that he’s, y’know, famous.

“Everything that’s happened to me is imaginary — these numbers are imaginary,” he laughs. “When I go to Chipotle now, the workers smile because they know who I am. So that’s probably it!”

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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Aline, a new movie that just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, is based on Celine Dion‘s life. And even though Variety described it as “kooky” and predicted Celine herself would be both “flattered” and “horrified” by it, the film received a standing ovation at the legendary festival.

Aline is directed by and stars French comedian Valerie Lemercier as a musical sensation named Aline Dieu, who’s based on Celine. Lemercier, who’s 57, plays Aline from youth to adulthood.

The outlines of Aline’s life closely follow that of Celine’s: She becomes famous, marries her manager, does a Las Vegas residency and has three children after struggles with infertility. But some details have been changed “to be more cinematic and romantic,” says Lemercier.

Throughout, Aline lip-syncs to Celine’s songs — including “My Heart Will Go On” — but they’re actually being sung by a soundalike named Victoria Sio.

According to Variety, when the film ended, the audience at the premiere gave it a standing ovation that lasted for a full five minutes; one woman in the audience told Variety, “I was actually crying.”

But is Celine herself O.K. with this movie?  Lemercier tells Variety, “The first thing I did was give the script to her French manager. She read it and said it’s good for Celine; she said it doesn’t mock her. She could see how much I loved her.”

Lemercier adds, “That was the first thing I did, but Celine didn’t want to read anything. She didn’t see the movie.”

Lemercier, who’s never met Celine and has only seen her live once, then notes, “If I was Celine, I’m not sure I’d run to watch it.  I hope she will recognize something [of herself in the film], but she should do what she wants.”

Aline has yet to find a distributor in the U.S.

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Machine Gun Kelly‘s Tickets to My Downfall continues to disprove its name.

The Travis Barker-produced record, which dropped last September, is the biggest rock album of this year so far. That’s according to MRC Data, which combined traditional album sales, individual track downloads and on-demand streams to determine the top rock record at 2021’s midpoint.

While Tickets is nearly a year old at this point, the rest of 2021’s biggest rock albums are even older. Queen‘s Greatest Hits is number two on the list, followed by Fleetwood Mac‘s Rumours, Elton John‘s Diamonds and Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits.

In terms of just pure album sales, Foo Fighters‘ Medicine at Midnight takes the cake for rock. Among all genres, Medicine is the ninth-best-selling album so far this year.

Meanwhile, Glass Animals‘ “Heat Waves” is the top rock song of 2021, measured by a combination of song sales and streams. MGK’s blackbear collaboration “My Ex’s Best Friend” takes the runner-up spot, followed by Fleetwood Mac‘s “Dreams,” AJR‘s “Bang!” and The Neighbourhood‘s “Sweater Weather.”

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A mural was unveiled Tuesday morning in Yonkers, New York commemorating hometown hero and late rapper DMX.

According to the City of Yonkers on Twitter, the mural was commissioned by the Yonkers Art coalition to restore an existing mural after local fans specifically asked for a DMX memorial. It was designed and completed by New York artist Floyd Simmons and features lyrics from X’s songs “School Street” and “Look Thru My Eyes.”

Ruff Ryders CEO Darrin Dee Dean and X’s fiancée, Desiree Lindstrom, were both in attendance at the mural’s unveiling near the Calcagno Homes housing complex on South Street, where X once lived. Lindstrom is also the mother of X’s five-year-old son, Exodus. 

“Extended blessings to the family of @DMX. Got Exodus and Dez with us,” Dean wrote on Instagram.

DMX, born Earl Simmons, died on April 9 at age 50 from a cocaine-induced heart attack, which decreased blood circulation to his brain. The Grammy-nominated rapper spent days on life support and never recovered. X’s posthumous album, Exodus, was released in May by his longtime friend, collaborator, and executive producer Swizz Beatz.

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