Riley Green at CMA Fest 2025 (Disney/Connie Chornuk)
Just like his duet partner Ella Langley, Riley Green clinched his very first CMA nomination in 2024, taking home the trophy for musical event for “you look like you love me.”
On Wednesday he competes in four more categories, including single, song and music video for the same hit.
As you might imagine, nobody’s prouder than his mom and dad.
“They might be more excited than me. My parents might have a better seat than me at the show, like they go to everything. I don’t know how they get into all these places,” Riley teases.
His playful attitude continues when it comes to his performance of his #1, “Worst Way,” also famous for its steamy visuals.
“I’m keeping all my clothes on during the performance,” he adds. “It’s not gonna be anything like the music video, so it’ll be a very, very family-friendly performance.”
The award Riley covets most? His other nomination, also for musical event with Ella, this time for the self-penned title track of his album, “Don’t Mind If I Do.”
“I wish either one of us could have seen it coming,” he says of the successful pairing. “I had no idea. But how cool is it to have two really big songs together with somebody?”
“And then also, we were on tour together getting to play those songs every night and you could just see the excitement of fans wanting to see us play those song together,” he recalls. “So it’s great that we’re still kinda riding that wave.”
Tune in to see how far it can take them, as the 59th CMAs air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. You’ll also be able to stream the show Thursday on Hulu.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News and Hulu.
Jordan Lutes and Demi Lovato attend the 2024 ‘Vanity Fair’ Oscar Party, March 10, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. (Stefanie Keenan/VF24/WireImage for Vanity Fair )
Demi Lovato married musician Jordan “Jutes” Lutes in May, and she credits the universe for bringing them together — sort of.
Speaking to Who What Wear, Demi explains, “I had been in past relationships where I thought, ‘Oh, this is the long game!’ But I hadn’t taken care of myself yet. The universe rewards you when you do the therapeutic work on yourself, [and] I had to do the work.”
“Because of that, the universe provided,” she adds. “I got myself ready for a life by myself, and then I was able to share it with somebody else.”
Demi met Jutes while she was making her 2022 rock album, Holy Fvck, which she says was a low point for her emotionally.
“I opened up to him because I was going through a really rough time when I made Holy Fvck. I had just come out of treatment, and I was newly sober and raw with my emotions,” she says. “I had nothing to medicate with. He was there for me as a friend, helping me get through this deep depression I was in.”
She said after they co-wrote her “vulnerable” song “Happy Ending,” she realized she felt “safe” with him, even though at that point they were still friends. Eventually they began dating, and after two years together, he proposed in December 2023.
“I’m really happy. I told my husband today, ‘I’ve never been more in love with you. I didn’t know my love could grow for you more so than it already has,'” Demi shares. “The timing was perfect.”
R.E.M.’s ‘Chronic Town’ and ‘Murmur’ Definitive Sound Series/ (Interscope-Capitol Records)
Two of R.E.M.’s early releases are getting a sound upgrade.
The band’s debut EP, Chronic Town, and their debut album, Murmur, are being reissued as part of Interscope-Capitol Records’ Definitive Sound Series.
The albums will be released together as a two-LP, 180-gram high-definition vinyl set, with the upgraded audio sourced from the original analog master tapes. Mitch Easter, who produced both releases, and Don Dixon, who co-produced Murmur, were directly involved with the upgrade.
The set will be released Dec. 10 and is limited to a one-time-only pressing of 3,000 copies. It is available for preorder now.
Released in August 1982, Chronic Town was a five-track collection that was recorded following the success of their first single, “Radio Free Europe.” A demo of the EP helped land R.E.M. a record deal with I.R.S. records.
Their debut album, Murmur, was released in April 1983 and debuted at #36 on the Billboard Albums chart. It was a huge hit with critics and went on to be certified Gold by the RIAA.
Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney attend the 28th SCAD Savannah Film Festival on Oct. 27, 2025, in Savannah, Georgia. Sabrina Carpenter seen in SoHo on Nov. 7, 2025, in New York City. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images, Aeon/GC Images via Getty Images)
Amanda Seyfried wants to bring a couple of superstars into the Mamma Mia! family.
The actress shared she thinks Sabrina Carpenter and Sydney Sweeney could join her in a potential third Mamma Mia! film in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight.
“Maybe I’m just naive, but I’m pretty sure Mamma Mia 3 is a done deal,” Seyfried said.
While the sequel film hasn’t been officially greenlit, Seyfried has shared her hopes for what a third Mamma Mia! film could be like.
“I love portraying a mom, so I would love to see Sophie with her kids,” Seyfried said. “Maybe she has a cousin she hasn’t seen in a while, and that could be Sabrina Carpenter. And then Sydney Sweeney could show up. There’s a bunch of girls that really want to be a part of it, and I’m all for it.”
As for the parts of the story she is sure about, Seyfried says she knows “the three dads are going to come back, and we still won’t know who the dad is because it doesn’t matter.”
The actress continued, saying that “Meryl [Streep] is a ghost, obviously, so she’ll be around. And Julie [Walters] and Christine [Baranski] will be back singing and looking hot, and we’re all going to be somewhere tropical. And ABBA will be playing.”
(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — A federal immigration crackdown dubbed Charlotte’s Web has netted 250 arrests in North Carolina’s largest city, officials said on Wednesday.
The arrests of people allegedly in the country illegally came in a span of just four days, officials said.
“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and federal agencies continue to target some of the most dangerous criminal illegal aliens as Operation Charlotte’s Web progresses,” a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on Wednesday. “This immigration enforcement surge in the Charlotte area has led to the arrest of over 250 illegal aliens as of the evening of 11/18.”
The announcement of the arrest tally in Charlotte came a day after Greg Bovino, the commander-at-large of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), blamed North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein for what he said was an increase in violent rhetoric that federal agents are facing in their immigration enforcement blitz in the state.
Bovino took to social media on Tuesday to slam Stein, a Democrat who released a statement over the weekend asking residents of the Tar Heel State to report any “inappropriate behavior” they witness from federal agents.
“If you see any inappropriate behavior, use your phones to record and notify local law enforcement, who will continue to keep our communities safe after these federal agents leave,” Stein said.
In a social media post, Bovino told Stein, “You need to check yourself,” and cited an online video of a woman threatening to use a screwdriver to stab U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents if they pull her over.
“Governor Stein, you caused this,” Bovino said in the post. “Let me say that again, Governor. When you spout lies about a lawful law enforcement operation, you spark something in weaker-minded people like this who may act upon your direction.”
Bovino did not specifically say what statements from Stein prompted his social media response.
On Sunday, Stein issued a statement, saying, “We’ve seen masked, heavily armed agents in paramilitary garb driving unmarked cars, targeting American citizens based on their skin color, racially profiling, and picking up random people in parking lots and off of our sidewalks.”
Bovino’s warning to Stein came after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cited two incidents this week in Charlotte in which people allegedly rammed the vehicles of federal agents or drove directly at the agents.
In one case, the DHS alleged that a U.S. citizen allegedly drove a “large van” at agents as they were conducting an immigration operation dubbed Charlotte’s Web.
“He immediately fled the scene, starting a dangerous high-speed chase through a densely populated area,” according to a DHS statement posted on X. “During the chase, he attempted to ram into law enforcement vehicles — posing a serious public safety threat. As agents were boxing him in — the driver proceeded to ram law enforcement vehicles in an attempt to escape.”
One federal agent was injured in the incident, according to the DHS.
The DHS statement said that after the suspect, whose name was not released, was arrested, a firearm was allegedly found in his van. The DHS said the man “has prior arrests for resisting law enforcement, public disturbance and intoxication/disruptive conduct.”
The DHS said another driver arrested in Charlotte on Monday jumped a curb, drove into a parking lot and sped toward agents.
“The driver was warned to stop and back up,” the DHS said in a statement. “The driver then drove the vehicle toward the exit of the parking lot and waited to try and box in Border Patrol. As agents went to confront the driver, the car rammed a law enforcement vehicle and fled the scene.”
In a statement on Tuesday, the DHS said CBP and ICE agents have faced nearly 100 vehicular attacks this year, nearly double the number from 2024.
Charlotte is the latest city targeted by the Trump administration to enforce immigration laws in a nationwide effort that has included Los Angeles and Chicago, which are so-called “sanctuary” cities and states that limit actions their local authorities take to aid the work of immigration agents.
Immigration advocates, elected leaders and lawyers representing people arrested elsewhere in the country on charges of ramming the vehicles of federal agents denied the charges have criticized how masked federal agents have stoked fear.
DHS, in announcing its action in North Carolina, said the state also has “sanctuary” politicians.
Elsewhere in the country where ICE and CBP sweeps have occurred, immigration advocates, elected leaders and residents have criticized the federal operations, saying they were not requested and that they are stoking fear in their communities. Lawyers representing people arrested elsewhere in the country on charges of ramming the vehicles of federal agents have denied the charges.
The lawyer for 30-year-old Marimar Martinez, who was shot in Chicago in October by Border Patrol agents, who accused her of ramming their vehicle, claimed in court that he viewed a body-camera video from one of the agents that proves his client did nothing wrong.
Martinez’s lawyer, Christopher Parente, said during an Oct. 6 court hearing that the federal agents appeared to swerve into Martinez’s car after one of them was heard in the footage saying, “Do something, bitch.”
“When I watched the video after this agent says, ‘Do something, bitch,’ I see the driver of this vehicle turn the wheel to the left. Which would be consistent with him running into Ms. Martinez’s vehicle, okay,” Parente said. “And then seconds later, he jumps out and just starts shooting.”
Raleigh, N.C., Mayor Janet Cowell said in a statement on Monday that federal agents were expected to continue their operations in her city on Tuesday after they fanned out across nearby Charlotte over the weekend, detaining more than 130 people within about 48 hours.
Cowell, a Democrat, said the federal action was not requested.
“As the capital city, it is important to us that everyone who lives, works, plays, and learns in Raleigh feels safe,” Cowell said. “We have been made aware that Customs and Border Protection are coming to Raleigh. While [the Raleigh Police Department] is not involved in immigration enforcement, we are committed to protecting our residents and to following the law.”
Federal agents are expected to stay in North Carolina until Friday, according to preliminary information from federal authorities. By the end of the week, about 200 agents are expected to be redeployed to New Orleans to begin “Operation Catahoula Crunch” in the Big Easy, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
ABC News’ Jessica Gorman contributed to this report.
(L-R) Trevor Rosen, Geoff Sprung, Matthew Ramsey, and Brad Tursi of Old Dominion attend Save The Music’s 6th Annual Hometown to Hometown Event at City Winery Nashville on November 11, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Catherine Powell/Getty Images for Save The Music)
Old Dominion‘s taken home the CMA vocal group award every year since 2018.
But the “Making Good Time” hitmakers put in a decade of work before they started routinely winning that CMA category.
“We’ve been a band now for close to 20 years,” lead singer Matthew Ramsey says. “And we’ve been operating at this level, you know, successfully, for 10 now, so it has been quite a journey.”
Trevor Rosen is quick to affirm that OD was no overnight success.
“It seemed like it took forever,” he admits. “But we spent many years just learning how to write great songs in Nashville before we even thought about trying to go after it as a band. And then when we did decide to be a band, there [were] many years in a van and trailer just building it up fan by fan. So it is always funny to me when people observe it like it happened overnight.”
Perhaps the primary ingredient in the five-man band’s longevity is friendship.
“I don’t think we would have made it this far if we didn’t have such a good time just as friends,” Geoff Sprung says, “talking about the eight to 10 years where we were really kind of slugging it out. The reason we kept coming back was because when we got in that van, it was a lot of fun just to interact with these guys.”
OD will do a medley of their hits during Wednesday’s 59th CMA Awards, which air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena starting at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
“It’s a nice long performance, too,” Matthew says. “Sometimes those performances, they go by so fast and you don’t really remember what happened, but this will feel like a little mini-show and it should be a lot of energy.”
James Comey onstage on May 30, 2023 in New York City. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
(ALEXANDRIA, Va.) — Though President Trump was miles away from the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, Wednesday morning, his words loomed large over the arguments before U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff as the government sought to defend its case against former FBI Director James Comey.
Trump’s Sept. 20 social media post demanding that “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”” was at the center of Comey’s argument that the president was using the justice system as a “cudgel to damage and intimidate his political opponents.”
“It is effectively an admission that this is a political prosecution,” Comey’s attorney Michael Dreeben said. “The president is underscoring what he wants done here.”
Dreeben argued that by replacing the prosecutor leading the U.S. attorney’s office in Virginia with his former staffer and lawyer Lindsey Halligan, Trump was “manipulating the machinery of prosecution” and committing an “egregious violation of bedrock constitutional values.”
“This has to stop,” Dreeben said about Trump’s social media posts targeting Comey, arguing “a message needs to be sent to the executive branch.”
Comey pleaded not guilty in October to one count of false statements and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020, amid what critics call Trump’s campaign of retribution against his perceived political foes. Vice President JD Vance has said any such prosecutions are “driven by law and not by politics.”
At Wednesday’s hearing, the government’s counsel, Tyler Lemons, repeatedly stumbled and had to take lengthy pauses as he faced pointed questions from Judge Nachmanoff about the fact-pattern that led to Comey’s indictment — and struggled to make the case that Halligan’s decision to seek charges against him was not at the direct orders of President Trump.
“Ms. Halligan was not directed to bring this prosecution; it was her decision and her decision only,” Lemons said. “Ms. Halligan was not a puppet.”
In defending the president’s conduct, Lemons argued that it is “appropriate” for President Trump to publicly accuse his adversaries of breaking the law if he believes a crime was committed.
“What he has said is, he broke the law,” Lemons said. “That has been the focus of the president’s statement, and that is appropriate.”
Toward the end of the hearing, Judge Nachmanoff turned his attention to the legitimacy of the indictment itself.
Drilling down into the details of the charging document, the judge pressed Lemons to explain why two different indictments were issued, going so far as to question why the color of the ink on the documents differed. Lemons struggled to answer his questions, often asking for permission to consult with Halligan and his co-counsel.
It was at that point that Nachmanoff called Halligan directly to the lectern, and questioned her over the series of events that led to the full grand jury not being provided or voting on a second indictment that was drafted by her office.
Halligan explained that the second indictment was presented and reviewed by the grand jury’s foreperson as well as another grand juror, and reflected the full grand jury’s full vote on the previously rejected indictment.
At that point the courtroom fell completely silent, and Judge Nachmanoff simply responded, “Well.”
Dreeben said the issue with the grand jury indictment clearly required Judge Nachmanoff to throw out the case.
In his concluding remarks, the judge instructed both parties to provide briefings on a 1969 case decided by the Supreme Court in which a defendant’s conviction was overturned due to defective briefing before a grand jury — and what bearings that decision could now have specifically on Comey’s case.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge Wednesday said he is moving forward with his contempt inquiry into whether Trump administration officials violated a court order by deporting hundreds of men to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act in March.
In a hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said he would like to move forward with the inquiry quickly, and ordered the parties to submit a proposal by Monday on how the case should proceed.
The Trump administration invoked the AEA — an 18th-century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order and ordered that the planes be turned around, but Justice Department attorneys said his oral instructions directing the flight to be returned were defective, and the deportations proceeded as planned.
The federal judge said Wednesday that the next steps would likely be to hear from witnesses including Erez Reuveni, a DOJ attorney who was fired from the department in April after he appeared in federal court in Maryland and told a judge that the government had mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.
“I certainly intend to find out what happened that day,” Judge Boasberg said
Boasberg’s earlier finding that the Trump administration likely acted in contempt was halted for months after an appeals court issued an emergency stay. While a federal appeals court on Friday declined to reinstate Boasberg’s original order, the ruling allowed him to move forward with his fact-finding inquiry.
“Class members are still recovering from the serious harm, including trauma, they experienced at CECOT,” the ACLU said in a recent court filing.
In response to the motion for a preliminary injunction, attorneys for the Department of Justice argue in court filings that the Venezuelans’ release from El Salvador “has further undermined their claims.”
“Petitioners have not shown that they suffer any ongoing injury traceable to Respondents, for they are apparently at liberty in their home country, and any ongoing threats to their health and safety come from third parties not before this Court,” DOJ attorneys said.
Poster for ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’/(20th Century Studios)
While we have to wait a little longer to see if it gets any Oscar nominations, the Bruce Springsteen biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere has been recognized by at least one award show.
The film earned two nominations for this year’s Movies for Grownups Awards, put on by AARP. The awards honor “outstanding films and television projects that celebrate the voices and stories of the 50-plus,” according to a release.
Deliver Me From Nowhere, which follows Springsteen as he makes the 1982 solo album Nebraska, earned a best director nod for Scott Cooper, while the film was also nominated for best period film.
Also recognized this year is the Led Zeppelin doc Becoming Led Zeppelin, which is nominated for best documentary.
The annual Movies for Grownups Awards ceremony will take place on Jan. 10, 2026, in Los Angeles. Tony and Emmy winner Alan Cumming returns to host the awards show, which will be broadcast by Great Performances on PBS on Feb. 22.
Cover art for deluxe editions of Summer Walker’s ‘Finally Over It’ (LVRN/Interscope Records)
Summer Walker is finally over the baggage and stress, so much so she’s added more songs to her latest album. Finally Over It now has two new deluxe editions, continuing with the album’s wedding-themed rollout.
Finally Over It (Cocktail Hour) includes an unreleased version of “Session 32,” recorded live from one of the Breezy Bowl tour stops in Vegas. There’s also a new song titled “Session 34,” a breakdown of all three of Summer’s “Session” songs and the video for her song “Go Girl.”
Finally Over It (The After Party) officially brings previous vinyl exclusives “Take Me Out This Club” and “Drown In My Love” featuring Foggie Raw to streaming services. A solo version of “1-800 Heartbreak,” which features Anderson .Paak on the original album, is also on this deluxe edition.
Finally Over It (Cocktail Hour) is exclusively available on iTunes, while Finally Over It (The After Party) can be streamed on all DSPs.
