Ashley Cooke’s self-titled second album (Big Loud)
The unofficial start of summer is here, with Memorial Day weekend now in the rearview mirror.
That’s good news for folks like Ashley Cooke, who’s ready to get things rolling ahead of the official start of the season on June 21.
“I’m a big water girl,” she explains. “I love the ocean, I love the lake, I love the pool, whatever it is, I love being near water. I love to wakeboard. I love to just lay out, read a book under the sun.”
“Summer is my favorite season,” she adds, “and I feel like the most ‘me’ as soon as summer comes back around.”
The self-titled sophomore album from the “your place” hitmaker also drops this summer, arriving Aug. 14. It features her latest hit, “the hell you are.”
Black Eyed Peas are winners of the best throwback song award at the 52nd American Music Awards, from the MGM Grand Las Vegas, on Monday, May 25, 2026. (Francis Specker/CBS)
Fergie unexpectedly showing up at the American Music Awards to accept an award with her Black Eyed Peas bandmates has fans of 2000s pop in their feelings — and begging for a reunion.
Fergie officially left BEP in 2018, and since then, the group has carried on with singer J. Rey Soul in her place. Will.i.am, Taboo and Apl.de.ap remained friendly with Fergie, but the group’s appearance as a quartet on the AMAs was the first time they’d been publicly seen together in years.
After the group’s 2010 single “Rock That Body” won the best throwback song award on Monday night, the group posted footage of the moment, alongside the caption, “From 2010 to 2026, the energy never stopped. It’s crazy to see how this song keeps moving through time, from the era it came out to a whole new generation rocking with it today.”
In the comments, fans called for Fergie to rejoin the group. “FERGIE, PLEASE COME BACK TO THE BEP. WE ALL NEED THIS!!!” wrote one. “WE NEED FERGIE BACK TO BEP,” wrote another.
“My heart is melting seeing u all together again,” read a third comment. “Come back and rock that body, Fergie Ferg!” a fourth fan wrote.
On Fergie’s Instagram account, another fan penned, “This four together could make the world a happier place again.”
Other comments included, “PLEASE MAKE ANOTHER ALBUM TOGETHER OMFG,” “We need them back,” and “Who else waiting for the announcement of WORLD TOUR in Fergie’s speech.”
When Fergie initially left the group, will.i.am said she wanted to focus on being a mother to her son, Axl Jack Duhamel, who she shares with her ex-husband, Josh Duhamel. She shouted out Axl in her acceptance speech Monday night.
: (L-R) Chris Robinson and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes perform onstage during the FIREAID Benefit Concert for California Fire Relief at The Kia Forum on January 30, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images for FIREAID)
The Black Crowes recently launched their new Southern Hospitality tour with Whiskey Myers. It’s their first tour since releasing their new album, A Pound of Feathers, and guitarist Rich Robinson tells ABC Audio that fans can expect them to play a mix of old and new songs.
“We change our set list every night,” he says. “You know, we have 10, 12 albums’ worth of stuff to pull from, some released and some unreleased albums.”
“It’s something I’m looking really forward to is to get in and flush these songs out and see where they fit within the set list,” he adds.
Rich says over the years they’ve adopted a different approach to creating their set list. “When we were younger, we were a little more militant about not playing a song twice in a row.”
“We kind of refused to play some of the songs that some of the people really wanted to hear every night,” he says, noting now that they’re older they get that people want to hear songs like “She Talks to Angels,” “Hard to Handle” and “Jealous Again” at every show.
“And we do that now,” he says, “but then we also have these moments in our set list where we can bring in these new things and bring in covers and stuff like that.”
And while incorporating new material may not always be easy, Rich says he’s up for it.
“To me, it’s not even a challenge,” he says. “It’s just like, I can’t wait to play these songs.”
The Southern Hospitality tour hits Orange Beach, Alabama, on Wednesday, and runs through Aug. 20 in Mountain View, California. A complete list of dates can be found at TheBlackCrowes.com.
Chris Pratt attends the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, on April 27, 2023. (Rich Polk/Getty Images for Disney)
A new study has found that talking animals and men named Chris are more likely to star on the big screen than women over 60.
The study was conducted by the Centre for Aging Better through research from the Age Without Limits campaign. It revealed that the 100 highest-grossing films in the U.K. from the years 2023 through 2025 are four times more likely to have a talking animal as the lead character than an actress older than 60.
Additionally, six of the 100 movies starred an actor named Chris, while only five starred a woman older than 60.
In response to the study, actress Emma Thompson said, “Women are half the population and we get older. So where are the stories about us? The older we get, the more interesting we are. I want to see more films centre ageing women, we are compelling, relatable, and overdue for centre stage. Older women don’t need permission to exist on screen. They already exist in the world, cinema just needs to catch up.”
The five actresses older than 60 to lead a film in the past three years are Jennifer Saunders in Allelujah, Nia Vardalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, Diane Keaton in Book Club: The Next Chapter, Demi Moore in The Substance and Jamie Lee Curtis in Freakier Friday.
Meanwhile, the Chrises who make up the films led by men named Chris are Chris Pratt in The Super Mario Bros Movie, Pratt in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Pratt in The Garfield Movie, Chris Pine in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Chris Hemsworth in Transformers One and Christian Friedel in The Zone of Interest.
Going further, The Garfield Movie is both a movie starring a guy named Chris and a movie starring a talking animal.
Survey questions, methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.
John Lennon & Paul McCartney returning to Heathrow Airport from holiday in Greece (Cummings Archives/Redferns)
In a new video for Amazon Live and Amazon Music, Paul McCartney sits down with another famous Paul, Paul Mescal, who’s playing him in the upcoming quartet of Beatles films from Sam Mendes. During their 11-minute chat, McCartney discusses writing about his old Beatles bandmates on his new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane.
“On this record, I might even refer to him in my mind, you know, as if we’re still writing together,” McCartney tells Mescal about John Lennon. “I’ll write something and go, ‘What’s that? Is that any good?'”
“And you’re talking to him?” asks Mescal.
“Kind of,” says McCartney. “You know, sometimes I get away with it. And sometimes you say, ‘No, it’s s***!'”
“That’s mad,” replies Mescal. “You know, his spirit’s still in me,” McCartney says. “And I’m very glad of that.”
Mescal also asks McCartney how it feels to have written songs on the album specifically about Lennon and George Harrison. “It’s like seeing old snapshots,” he says. “It’s nice because you’re kinda revisiting them.”
But when Mescal asks McCartney how he managed to write songs about the old days and still make them sound as though they’re in the “present tense,” he has no answer.
“I mean, I don’t know how I do it,” McCartney replies. “I haven’t got a formula.”
In other McCartney news, he’ll be going live on TikTok Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. ET. He’ll be answering questions submitted by fans ahead of time, and ones that come in live during the stream. You can now register for the upcoming event.
‘Donna Summer: The Casablanca Studio Albums’ box set. (Crimson Productions)
A new box set compiling some of the late Donna Summer’s biggest albums has been announced.
The collection, dubbed Donna Summer: The Casablanca Studio Albums, is due out Oct. 2 on seven-CD and 10-LP sets.
As its title suggests, the set includes the albums the Queen of Disco released on the label Casablanca Records, specifically between 1975 and 1979. Inside you’ll find 1975’s Love to Love You Baby, 1976’s A Love Trilogy and Four Seasons of Love, 1977’s I Remember Yesterday and Once Upon a Time, 1979’s Bad Girls and1978’s Live and More live album.
Live and More includes Summer’s rendition of “MacArthur Park Suite,” which underwent a resurgence earlier in 2026 after Olympic figure skater and gold medalist Alysa Liu used it to soundtrack a routine.
‘ZAPPAtite – Frank Zappa’s Tastiest Tracks’ vinyl. (Zappa Records/UMe)
The Frank Zappa compilation ZAPPAtite – Frank Zappa’s Tastiest Tracks is being released on vinyl for the first time.
The record will make its wax debut on July 17. It was previously only available on CD and digital upon its original release in 2016.
The two-LP package is divided into four sections — Appetizers, Entrées, Second Course and Desserts — and is described in a press release as “an inviting entry point into the more rock-oriented side of [Zappa’s] expansive repertoire.”
“This isn’t a greatest hits album, as Frank didn’t really have ‘hits,’ per se, nor is it a ‘best of,’ since it would be impossible to fit so much awesome onto one disc,” Zappa’s son Ahmet Zappa said of the collection back in 2016. “It’s a veritable smorgasbord of musicality for the curious and a buffet of favorites for the fans.”
Miley Cyrus has many pets, including dogs, cats and horses, but she just added a new one to her menagerie. According to Wags and Walks, a nonprofit animal rescue group, Miley adopted a 20-year-old tortoise named Teru from them. “When we heard that @mileycyrus was hoping to adopt a tortoise, we knew we had to help make the connection happen. After a little coordination, the stars aligned, and Teru officially found his forever home with Miley,” the charity wrote on Instagram, sharing photos of Miley feeding her new pet.
Olivia Rodrigo has already released two videos for songs from her upcoming album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, but she’s apparently filmed another one. She was photographed during the shoot standing on a New York City street while surrounded by dancers in pink tutus.
Ariana Grande is releasing her new single, “hate that I made you love me,” on Friday, and so far all we’ve heard from it are some electronic bleeps and bloops. But on Tuesday she shared what seems to be a lyric from the song. She posted a photo of herself and captioned it, “cause i barely tried.”
KATSEYE’s performance at the American Music Awards gave fans a preview of what to expect on their upcoming WILDWORLD TOUR, but it may be hard to get tickets. The trek, which will see the group playing in the U.K., Europe and North America, sold out in just 48 hours. Shows were added in London, New York, LA and Mexico City, but those have also sold out. The tour launches Sept. 1 in Dublin, Ireland.
Bruno Mars is giving fans a look at his current The Romantic tour.
He’s released a live video performance of his single “Risk It All,” which was filmed on tour. Since it’s the first song in his set, the video shows the curtain rising to reveal Bruno standing alone onstage, with a huge sign reading “The Romantic” hanging above him. As he sings the song, a video animation of a stained glass window appears behind him.
After he hits a long note, he says, “Ladies and gentlemen, The Hooligans.” The lights come up and another curtain opens to reveal his band and a full horn section, who join him for a bit. As the song ends, the lights go down again, the curtain closes and Bruno is standing alone onstage once again.
While Bruno didn’t attend Monday’s American Music Awards, he ended up winning three trophies: best male R&B artist, best R&B song for “I Just Might” and best R&B album for The Romantic. The tour continues Wednesday in Toronto, Canada.
Emily Blunt in ‘Disclosure Day,’ directed by Steven Spielberg. (Niko Tavernise/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment)
Fans will get their chance to claim free tickets to Steven Spielberg’s latest film, Disclosure Day.
Universal Pictures has announced a chance for moviegoers to find free tickets to the upcoming movie in celebration of tickets going on sale. This Wednesday, 1,000 vibrant origami cardinals are set to appear in key locations across major cities in the U.S.
At each of the locations, 100 of the origami birds will contain unique Fandango codes for two free tickets to see Disclosure Day in theaters.
The cities participating are New York, Los Angeles and Kansas City, Missouri. New York City participants can go to Brookfield Place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET; Kansas City participants should head to City Market from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT; and Los Angeles participants can go to Lake Hollywood Park from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT.
Disclosure Day is a new, original event film from Spielberg that returns him to his extraterrestrial roots.
Josh O’Connor, Emily Blunt, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo star in the thriller, which is based on a story by Spielberg.
David Koepp, the writer of Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, wrote the screenplay for this new movie.
Spielberg is the top-grossing director of all time. He previously explored stories about extraterrestrial life in the films E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and War of the Worlds.
