If watching Lady Gaga perform her nominated song “Hold My Hand” on the Oscars with no makeup, a t-shirt and ripped jeans was jarring for you, don’t worry — Gaga’s got you.
On Thursday, the star posted a video on TikTok captioned, “The rehearsal no one saw.” It shows Gaga performing “Hold My Hand” on a piano in her hotel room in her full red carpet glam look: dramatic makeup, Versace gown, braided updo and all. As she plays, she refers to what looks like a handwritten chord chart laying on the piano.
“Love you all, thanks for being so supportive of a song that means so much to me,” she wrote.
At the Oscars, Gaga didn’t play the piano: She simply sang the song, backed up by a few musicians, who were dressed down just like she was. She didn’t win, though: The Best Original Song Oscar went to “Naatu Naatu,” from the Indian film RRR.
Streams of “Hold My Hand” increased by 49% after the Oscars, Billboard reports. Streams of some of the other nominated songs, which weren’t as well known, increased dramatically: “Naatu Naatu” streams got a 260% bump; “Applause,” written by Diane Warren and sung by Sofia Carson, increased by 593%.
Streams of “This Is a Life,” from the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once, increased by 121%. Rihanna‘s “Lift Me Up,” oddly, only increased by 1%, possibly because it’s the most familiar of all the nominated songs.
But the biggest bump went to Lenny Kravitz‘s song “Calling All Angels.” After the rocker sang the song during the “In Memoriam” segment of the Oscars, streams increased by 3,449%.
Regina Hall kicked off 2023 by going viral after presenting at the Golden Globes, what’s next for her though is little bit more low-key.
“I’ve been really excited about producing,” she told ABC Audio, adding that one of her upcoming projects will come from her production company RH Negative. “I’ve been really excited to have acting projects, which I don’t really talk about early, really, to be honest, just because I am usually mentally preparing, hoping I don’t mess up somebody’s stuff.”
Before the actress jumps into full work mode, though, she plans on enjoying the time off with a drink or two in honor of the holiday on March 17.
“I will be drinking on St. Patrick’s Day so I can do a nice celebration before I go into a bunch of hard work,” she shared. “I’m gonna just probably get with some of my friends… have a good time, you know, with spirits. Enjoying spirits and laughter with friends.”
Her spirit of choice? Jameson Irish Whiskey, who she teamed up with to encourage fans to take SPTO (St. Patrick’s Day Time Off) from work to spend time with family and friends.
As for how she likes to enjoy her drink, she said, “I like a neat drink… depending on the time of day, I can do it on the rocks.”
“If I feel a little more fun, I like to add like ginger-ale just for a little fizz and lime. I don’t know what you call that, but I like a little Jameson, ginger-ale, and some lime,” she adds. “It kind of just depends on the time of day. But since it’s St Patrick’s Day, I guess you can drink all day and try all three.”
Ben Savage and his longtime girlfriend, Tessa Angermeier, tied the knot in February, according to Us Weekly.
“Congratulations to Mr & Mrs Savage, we couldn’t be happier for you ‘guuuyyyss’,” an attendee captioned a since-deleted post from February 19, which included a carousel of photos of the couple, including one of Savage, and Angermeier dressed in a tux and a white gown, respectively, with floral arrangements around them. Ben’s brother, Fred Savage, can also be seen standing with the couple, who was tagged in the post.
Neither Savage, 42, nor Angermier, 30, have confirmed the wedding, though Tessa changed the name on her Instagram account to Tessa Savage.
The Boy Meets World actor seemingly announced the couple’s engagement on his Instagram in January, sharing a photo of the couple posing together in front of a lake with Angermeier’s left hand on display with a ring on that finger.
While the post didn’t explicitly mention a proposal, many flooded the comments to celebrate the twosome.
Danica McKellar, who starred in The Wonder Years with Savage’s brother, Fred, wrote, “Congratulations!!” followed by several heart-eye emojis. Meanwhile, The Vampire Diaries actress Arielle Kebbel left a trio of red heart emojis under the post.
The Banshees of Inisherin‘s Barry Keoghan is in talks to star in Ridley Scott‘s untitled Gladiator sequel, alongside Paul Mescal, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. Mescal will reportedly play Lucius, the son of Lucilla — played by Connie Nielsen — and the nephew of Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus, portrayed by Spencer Treat Clark in the original film. Scott’s first Gladiator movie, released in 2000, starred Russell Crowe as Maximus, a former general forced into becoming a gladiator under the rule of the patricidal self-appointed Roman emperor Commodus. The movie won the Oscar for best picture, while Crowe earned best actor honors…
Deadline reports FBoy Island, canceled at HBO Max in December after two seasons, has been picked up by the CW, along with a spinoff, FGirl Island. FBoy Island, hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser, follows three women who move to a tropical island where they’re joined by 24 men — 12 self-proclaimed “Nice Guys” looking for love and 12 self-proclaimed ‘FBoys,’ there to compete for cold, hard cash…
Netflix’s You spent a second week at #1 on the streaming TV chart, though it slipped slightly in the week after its fourth season premiered. You, starring Penn Badgley, had 1.47 billion minutes of viewing time for the week of February 13-19, according to The Hollywood Reporter. New Amsterdam, also on Netflix, came in second with 1.05 billion minutes viewed…
Fathom Events is bringing back The Big Lebowski to the big screen for its 25th Anniversary with two shows each on April 16 and April 20. The event also includes exclusive commentary from feature film historian and critic Leonard Maltin, who will provide insights into the films. The Coen Brothers‘ cult classic, starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and John Turturro, debuted in 1998 and went on to gross nearly $47 million. Information on tickets and showtimes for the Fathom event are available at FathomEvents.com…
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-V.a.) is taking graduate classes to learn more about new technology. — ABC News Live
(WASHINGTON) — With the rise of artificial intelligence in our daily lives, members of Congress are trying to get ahead of the curve and ensure the technology doesn’t get out of control.
And they’re taking different approaches to find the best solution.
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) is taking graduate level courses on AI for his machine learning master’s degree at George Mason University. The 72-year-old lawmaker told ABC News that he doesn’t know enough about the technology but needs to stay on top of it to properly legislate it.
“I’m never going to be a scientist, but I’m helping make policy on some really important things,” he said.
The congressman said his wife recently used the AI in the Bing search engine using his name, and the results came back with falsehoods.
“So how do we regulate that? And especially because we, more than any other country in the world, have this deep, deep-seated commitment to free speech,” he said.
The new Bing is currently in public preview, a Microsoft spokesperson told ABC News.
“We’ve received a lot of helpful user feedback and have quickly responded with updates to address issues and continue to improve the experience,” the spokesperson said.
Beyer warned though that there are concerns about AI, such as impersonations, cheating and other fraud, but it is still too early to regulate it.
“It’s really hard to say, ‘Hey, here’s what I think we should do because it’s so new.’ We don’t know the upsides or the downsides,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), an MIT graduate, however, argued that now is the time for Congress to act. In January, Auchincloss showed off how powerful AI can be by reading the first speech on the House floor that was entirely written by ChatGPT.
He warned that tech companies won’t be writing the rules of AI.
“This can’t be social media to 2.0 where policymakers for 15 years, allowed companies to get big, to get rich and to not sufficiently interrogate the effects on society, on politics, on the media, that their technology was having. We have got to be ahead of this wave of innovation not behind,” he told ABC News.
U.S. Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif), a former video game designer who has a master’s degree in AI, told ABC News that he’s constantly had to educate his colleagues on the tech.
He said while the concerns that AI will take away jobs and disrupt lives are legitimate, the technology has had many benefits in advancing medicine, computer technology and other areas.
“What we can’t do is throw the baby out with the bathwater and regulate without understanding what we’re doing,” Obernolte told ABC News. “Because if we do that, we’re going to stifle the development of something that can be incredibly beneficial.”
Still, the elected officials said they will be keeping an eye on any developments.
“There is a meaningful thing there. But I have real trouble imagining what legislation would protect us from that creative destruction. It’s like, almost going back to the atomic bomb. You can’t uninvent it,” Beyer said.
(NEW YORK) — An Ohio public pension fund for teachers revealed it lost millions by holding more than $27 million in Silicon Valley Bank shares before the bank’s collapse.
The State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) of Ohio stated that the shares represented a minuscule portion of its overall holdings –.03% of the total fund — which held over $88.8 billion in assets as of June 2022. The statement confirmed that the bank had no shares of Signature or Silvergate banks, which collapsed in the past weeks.
STRS is a pension fund for over 500,000 current and former public educators in Ohio.
“The collective actions taken by the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to insure and backstop deposits have helped to mitigate the situation facing the banking industry,” STRS wrote in their statement. “STRS Ohio continues to monitor and assess the impact of these developments.”
The multi-million dollar loss comes as another repercussion of the ongoing financial crisis. Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th largest bank in the U.S., collapsed one week ago, followed by the collapse of Signature Bank. Silvergate Bank, which specialized in providing services to cryptocurrency users, also liquidated its assets earlier in March.
The financial crisis has impacted other pension funds, including North Carolina’s state pension fund and California’s public employee retirement fund.
In a statement to ABC News’ Raleigh station WTVD, North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell said the state’s pension fund held about $9.9 million in Silicon Valley Bank and $7.8 million in Signature Bank stock. Similar to STRS, the limited exposure to North Carolina amounted to only .01% of the total value of the impacted portfolios.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which covers 1.5 million people, also revealed it had roughly $67 million in exposure to Silicon Valley Bank and $11 million in exposure to Signature Bank at a board meeting this week. The nation’s largest public pension fund with over $422 billion, CalPERS suffered a relatively small impact from the financial crisis.
The losses in California, Ohio and North Carolina represent a fraction of the losses suffered by a Swedish pension fund representing over 2.6 million people that invested over $1.1 billion in Signature and Silicon Valley Bank. Magnus Billing, the CEO of Alecta, told Bloomberg that the investments were a “big failure” and that the fund would likely write off their holdings as a loss.
(NEW YORK) — Fans might call it the luck of the Irish!
Singer-songwriter Niall Horan, who rose to fame as part of the international boy band sensation One Direction, will give a special performance at the White House on Friday to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre teased the star’s appearance on Thursday, tweeting, “It doesn’t get better than this!”
“I think I speak for all the music lovers in the Biden-Harris Administration when I say we cannot wait to welcome @NiallOfficial to the White House tomorrow for a special performance to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!” she said.
But Jean-Pierre later admitted at a Thursday afternoon press briefing, “I’m going to keep my comments to myself on One Direction. I don’t know who they are. Sorry,” earning laughs from attendees.
Horan, who is from Ireland, was quick to confirm the news.
“It’s an honour to be invited and represent my country. Looking forward to performing and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day at the White House tomorrow,” the 29-year-old responded over Twitter.
President Joe Biden, who often plays up his Irish heritage, will also welcome Leo Varadkar — Ireland’s Taoiseach, or prime minister — on Friday for a bilateral meeting and shamrock bowl handover, an Oval Office tradition to mark St. Patrick’s Day dating back to 1952.
Biden also said earlier this week it was his “intention” to visit both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to mark 25 years since the Good Friday agreement, the peace accord between Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Typically on St. Patrick’s Day, Ireland’s Taoiseach is hosted across the street from the White House at the Blair House, where the Irish flag is put on display.
Biden couldn’t meet in person with Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheál Martin last year after Martin tested positive for COVID-19 while in Washington.
While Horan hasn’t performed at the White House before, it’s not the first time he was invited. When the Obamas were in the White House, they said One Direction band members had an “open invitation” to perform there and identified daughters Sasha and Malia as big fans.
The band formed in 2010 and broke up in 2016, with members going on to pursue solo careers. Horan was the only member of the British boy band native to Ireland.
It is unclear at what time Horan will perform Friday evening.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Thursday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL SPRING TRAINING
INTERLEAGUE
Houston 3, St. Louis 0
Tampa Bay 5, Atlanta 1
LA Angels 3, Milwaukee 2
Philadelphia 10, Detroit 1
Pittsburgh 9, NY Yankees 6
Texas 3, LA Dodgers 1
San Francisco 0, Seattle 0 (Tie)
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Tampa Bay 2, Minnesota 0
Cleveland 5, Chi White Sox 1
Kansas City 2, Oakland 0
Baltimore 7, Toronto 4
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Arizona 3, Chi Cubs 1
San Diego 7, Colorado 1
Washington 3, NY Mets 0
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Denver 119, Detroit 100
Toronto 128, Oklahoma City 111
Sacramento 101, Brooklyn 96
Indiana 139, Milwaukee 123
Phoenix 116, Orlando 113
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Los Angeles 4, Columbus 1
Seattle 2, San Jose 1 (OT)
NY Rangers 4, Pittsburgh 2
Florida 9, Montreal 5
Colorado 5, Ottawa 4
Tampa Bay 4, New Jersey 3 (SO)
Boston 3, Winnipeg 0
Chicago 2, Nashville 1
Edmonton 4, Dallas 1
Arizona 3, Vancouver 2
Calgary 7, Vegas 2
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Alabama 96, Texas A&M-CC 75
Houston 63, N. Kentucky 52
Kansas 96, Howard 68
Texas 81, Colgate 61
UCLA 86, UNC-Asheville 53
Princeton 59, Arizona 55
Duke 74, Oral Roberts 51
Furman 68, Virginia 67
Penn St. 76, Texas A&M 59
San Diego St. 63, Coll. of Charleston 57
Tennessee 58, Louisiana-Lafayette 55
Missouri 76, Utah St. 65
While many have jumped on the podcast train and admitted to bingeing their favorite shows for hours, Thomas Rhett hasn’t. In fact, the country star and father of four says it’s foreign territory and he doesn’t listen to any.
“I think I’m the last person in the world that has hopped on the podcast train,” Thomas says.
“I’m also never alone in the car. I’m always, like, got two kids in the back seat, and if I were to turn on, like, a Joe Rogan podcast, I think they’d be like, ‘What are we listening to?'” he says. “So, maybe one day when all four of my kids are in school I’ll become a podcaster type of person, but I am not as of late.”
Thomas is currently climbing up the country charts with his latest single, “Angels Don’t Always Have Wings.” This summer he will hit the road for his Home Team Tour 23, with Cole Swindell and Nate Smith as opening acts. The 40-city trek kicks off on May 4 in Des Moines, Iowa, before concluding in Nashville on September 29.
Pop Evil‘s new album, Skeletons, is out now and arrives less than two years after the group’s last record, Versatile, dropped in 2021. Speaking with ABC Audio, frontman Leigh Kakaty reveals that both efforts were written around the same time the COVID-19 pandemic kept Pop Evil off the road.
“I know we were hungry to finally be back on tour and to be doing what we normally do,” Kakaty shares. “[There’s] a lot of built-up urgency on this record, and giving ourselves an opportunity to just really grow and evolve.”
“You get stir-crazy, man,” he adds. “You wanna feel like you’re doing something. So I think that we did, we had some momentum there to really push, and we did, and this is kinda what it looked like.”
With Skeletons, Pop Evil continues to experiment with different sounds, such as the electronic elements on single “Paranoid (Crash & Burn)” and the almost country feel to the title track. However, the main goal of Skeletons was not necessarily to push into different genres, but rather to not overthink when those different genres start to creep into the sound.
“I feel like I’ve overthought so many of these albums in the past,” Kakaty says. “It should be quick, it should be if you’re feeling it, and it’s raw emotion, we wanted to capture that.”
“The more I’m overthinking it, then it’s not really music to me anymore,” he continues. “Obviously, we’re spending time to make sure the lyrics are perfect, but we didn’t want to overthink it. If it … feels right, then let’s trust it.”
Pop Evil is also launching a U.S. headlining tour Friday in support of Skeletons. In teasing the tour, Kakaty declares, “It’s a whole ‘nother level of focus for our live show.”
