(MICHIGAN) — The FBI is renewing its push as it searches for a Michigan woman who has been missing since December and may have been killed.
Heather Mae Kelley, 35, of Portage, has been missing since Dec. 10, according to the FBI, which is supporting local authorities in the investigation.
“There is evidence to suggest that she may have been the victim of a homicide,” the FBI said in a press release.
Kelley told family she was on her way to pick up an acquaintance from downtown Kalamazoo but has not been seen or heard from since, according to the Department of Justice’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
She last spoke to her children around 10:20 p.m. local time that night saying she should be home soon, authorities said.
Her vehicle was found abandoned in Comstock Township on Dec. 11, authorities said.
“The vehicle was set on fire and evidence of blood was found inside the vehicle,” Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller III said in a press briefing last month. Her clothing was found near the vehicle, Fuller said.
Authorities had identified an unnamed person of interest who was offering “limited cooperation” in the investigation, the sheriff said at the time.
Fuller said investigators believe at least one person may have helped with the burning of the vehicle and “the possible destruction of other evidence.”
No charges have been announced in the case.
Silent Observer is offering up to $5,000 for information that leads to Kelley’s location.
The early years of Iron Maiden are going to be the subject of a new picture book from Rufus Publications.
Iron Maiden – The Paul Di’Anno Years, the third title in the publisher’s Portraits series, will focus on the band’s years with frontman Di’Anno, which covers 1978 to 1981. The book features hundreds of never-before-seen photos, with the black-and-white pics covering the band rehearsing, recording, playing live and more.
The 240-page book comes with a fold-out poster and features a black slipcase with a gold foil logo. There will be 666 numbered copies of the main addition, along with limited leather and metal editions, with just 66 of each available.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — During their first hearing investigating the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee sought Wednesday to evoke memories of the frenzied final days of the occupation, relying on emotional testimony from veterans who witnessed the evacuations and a deadly explosion outside of Kabul’s airport that killed 13 American service members along with scores of Afghans.
One of the witnesses at the hearing, Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, was badly injured by that blast — a suicide bombing carried out by the terrorist organization known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K.
Through tears, Vargas-Andrews described in poignant detail the moment he was thrown 12 feet by “a massive wave of pressure.”
“I opened my eyes to Marines — dead or unconscious — lying around me,” he said. “A crowd of hundreds vanished in front of me, and my body was catastrophically wounded.”
Vargas-Andrews lost an arm and a leg in the explosion, but much of his testimony focused on the hours leading up to the attack — the moments when he believes he and his fellow Marines could have stopped it from ever happening. He testified that on Aug. 26, 2021, the day of the attack, the military had intelligence that a suicide bomber traveling with a companion intended to strike Abbey Gate, the entrance to the airport, as well as a description of their physical appearances.
His team spotted two men matching that description who were “consistently and nervously looking up at our position through the crowd,” Vargas-Andrews said, adding that the older of the two appeared to be coaching the younger one.
Although they sent photos to their higher ups and asked for permission to shoot them, Vargas-Andrews said the only answer they received from their battalion commander was “I don’t know.”
Shortly after, the blast came.
While tacticians and other experts might debate the merits of pulling the trigger on an unconfirmed target, Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, argued that the lack of clear answer from Vargas-Andrews’ superiors at the time was indicative of a broader issue — the Biden’s administration’s disorder.
In his opening statement on Wednesday, McCaul accused diplomats and the White House of ignoring grim intelligence assessments depicting the realities on the ground in Afghanistan as the Taliban crept closer to Kabul, eventually overtaking the city in August 2021. At the time, the final American troops were preparing to leave the country as part of what the president said then was a necessary if difficult end to a historically long conflict that had stretched far beyond its goal, costing too much in lives and money.
But in McCaul’s view on Wednesday, “We simply weren’t ready” to leave.
Another veteran, former Army Spc. Aidan Gunderson, spoke to the lack of preparedness. He recalled embarking on a rapid deployment to help secure the Kabul airport in 2021 while evacuations of American citizens and allies were underway, saying the only food they had was whatever they happened to stash in their rucksacks before departing the U.S.
“Not a single person on that plane was prepared for Kabul,” Gunderson said of his unit’s crossing into Afghanistan. “To say supplies were scarce is an understatement.”
Gunderson said that immediately upon landing in Kabul, the disorder and desperation was apparent. He vividly described seeing the airport swarmed with Afghans trying to flee and completely encircled by heavily armed Taliban fighters, who were permitting the withdrawal.
He also recalled the remains of those who had been so desperate to escape that they tried clinging to the landing gear of a plane as it took off.
“At this moment, I truly understood that the Afghans were risking everything — even death — to escape the Taliban,” he said, choking up. “I see the faces of all the people we cannot save — all those we left behind.”
Retired Army Special Forces Lt. Col. David Scott Mann, another witness, spoke to the trauma inflicted on the veteran community by the withdrawal, predicting the U.S. was on the “front end of a mental health tsunami.”
“We might be done with Afghanistan, but it’s not done with us,” he said.
Although Democrats listened attentively to the witnesses and expressed a desire to learn from mistakes made throughout the decades-long war, some of them accused Republicans of putting on a partisan show and unfairly pinning the blame solely on the Biden administration.
“Today’s hearing should be focused on examining the full scope of this conflict — its failures and its successes,” said Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I. “I fear, however, that today’s hearing was not convened in that spirit but rather as an attempt to distract us from the full picture and even in some cases to try and score political points, which I believe dishonors the lives lost and the bravery of those who sit in front of this committee.”
Republicans disagreed.
Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry accused Democrats in turn of attempting to avoid accountability and called for a full hearing with “the folks at the top” — the secretaries of defense and state, as well as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
(AFGHANISTAN) — More than 600 Afghan women and girls refuse to bow down to the Taliban’s ban on education. Run by 25-year-old Parasto, a non-registered NGO called SRAK allows students to take their studies underground in a secret network of schools.
The brutal crackdown on girls’ education in Afghanistan began shortly after the Taliban returned to power in 2021. First, the authoritarian group forbade female students from attending high school. More restrictions followed in December, when the Taliban banned women from attending university and even elementary school.
The bans sparked widespread condemnation from Western governments and human rights groups across the world.
ABC News Live takes an inside look at what life is like for the Afghan woman trying to educate the country’s girls, who have been banned by the Taliban from attending school. The story streams Wednesday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m. on ABCNews.com.
“The fall of Kabul was not an easy thing for us young generation especially, who were educated and they had their dreams, that now it was all vanished,” Parasto said. (ABC News agreed not to use Parasto’s last name due to safety concerns).
“I saw [on TV] that there were girls coming out of schools and they were crying and they had been asked to go back to their houses. It was shattered. It was devastating,” Parasto told ABC News.
Parasto said she couldn’t just sit and watch what was happening, so she founded an underground network of schools for Afghan girls to continue their studies in secret. She enlisted friends to become teachers; their ranks increased when female students were banned from universities.
One student, an aspiring engineer, told ABC News she wants to learn and make progress so her family will be proud. A 16-year-old student said that going to the school makes her happy and she wishes she could spend more time there.
“I think we have been a little bit successful in bringing back the shine in the eyes of the students here,” Parasto said.
But in the eyes of the Taliban, the underground schools are illegal, and teachers and students face the immense risk of being found. A school operating inside someone’s home was nearly discovered when Taliban authorities approached the homeowner and said they had heard there was a secret school there, Parasto said.
“[The homeowner] told him that, ‘I am not aware of what is going on here. Just some girls are good at gathering together, and they are learning religious studies only,’” Parasto said.
None of the teachers or students were at the secret school at the time, Parasto said.
“When I come here, I do have fears. I feel like if I bow down before my fears, I would believe I am dead,” one teacher told ABC News.
Parasto says that after the Taliban began searching homes, they had to close the schools for some time. She says that the idea of stopping the work is even more dire than the risk of being exposed.
“If I stop this work, many of the girls will be forced to get married. Many of them will be dead while they are delivering a baby in a rural area where they do not have access to any clinic. We had three students that wanted to commit suicide,” Parasto said.
Parasto said her young students have become her motivation. In turn, the girls “see the teachers as their family members” and fellow students as “sisters.”
“With the closing of schools and universities, we lost our hopes too,” the 16-year-old student said. “I wanted to die at that time. There were no wishes left in my heart.”
Parasto said that there have been several raids in schools they operate in over the years, and one since ABC News filmed the story. No teachers or students were there when the raids took place. She also said that there is no certainty the underground schools will continue to run, because of limited resources. Many of the schools don’t have electricity to keep the students warm during lessons; several teachers work without pay.
More information about Parasto’s mission and how the underground schools are run can be found at srak.org.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — As the Biden administration prepares for the possible end of the immigration restriction known as Title 42 — which could lead to an increase of people attempting to cross the southern border — sources say government officials are weighing whether to detain migrant families who illegally enter the country, a politically fraught move on an issue that invites near-constant scrutiny.
The deliberations about potentially detaining migrant families, which the Biden administration stopped doing in 2021, were confirmed by sources familiar with the matter.
One source, who declined to be named in order to discuss internal policy deliberations, stressed that no decisions have been made and the conversations about migrant family detention have been limited in scope and focused on the short period of time needed for swift processing.
The detentions, under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, would be limited to a small number of days, another source told ABC News — unlike during the Trump administration, which tried to detain families indefinitely.
The sources also insisted that processing for those detained would comply with federal standards, including a 20-day cap on the amount of time they are held.
The administration has, more broadly, taken steps in recent months to speed up its processing of detained migrants.
But the possible return to detaining migrants families quickly ignited political blowback from key members of President Joe Biden’s party.
“I’m alarmed by news reports that the Administration is considering reinstating family detention policies,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said Tuesday. “If the reports are true, I strongly urge the Administration to reconsider this policy change and instead work towards implementing immigration policies that are humane, orderly, and in line with our American values.”
Rep. Nanette Barragán, the chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, called reports that the Biden administration is considering detaining migrant families “deeply concerning.”
“A just, safe, and humane immigration system should not place families in detention,” Barragán said, in part, in a statement. “We should not return to the failed policies of the past where families are detained in substandard conditions with long term damage to children.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday declined to comment on the possibility that the administration could go back to detaining migrant families while not ruling it out either.
“I’m not saying it is being considered … and I’m not saying it is not,” Jean-Pierre said. “I’m saying that I’m not going to speak to rumors,”
When asked why Biden might consider detaining migrant families, given he stopped the policy shortly after taking office, Jean-Pierre again punted.
“He is going to use the tools that he has before him to make sure that we deal with an immigration system, where we build an immigration system that’s again, safe, orderly and humane,” she said.
The administration has continued to prepare for the end of the public health order known as Title 42, which restricts immigration during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A federal judge initially ruled the restriction had to lift by December, finding it “arbitrary and capricious,” with minimal public health impact. But 19 largely Republican-led states appealed and the matter is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Luis Miranda reiterated in a statement this week that while “no decisions have been made” about family detention, “The Administration will continue to prioritize safe, orderly, and humane processing of migrants.”
But Republican state leaders like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and GOP lawmakers in Washington have argued that the president’s policies are “reckless” and expose the U.S. to too much harm from immigration — including as a burden on government resources and via the flow of deadly narcotics.
Conservatives often cite record numbers of border crossings over the past year.
Recently the administration has taken steps to crack down on unauthorized migration while opening new, limited avenues for humanitarian relief for those fleeing violence and persecution.
Parole programs allowing Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants to apply for entry from abroad have been paired with new restrictions that allow authorities to return migrants from those countries back to Mexico.
The administration is also currently working to implement a new rule to bar entry for migrants who cross illegally, seeking asylum, without first seeking refuge elsewhere.
But the administration has been under fire from both Republicans, who have fought the humanitarian pathways in court, and from Democrats concerned about turning away migrants with legitimate claims.
Immigrant advocates said this week that the administration considering again detaining families along with some of the other recent proposals were an embrace of Trump-like policies and a reversal of campaign promises from Biden.
“Children should be released from ICE detention with their parents immediately. This is pretty simple, and I can’t believe I have to say it: Families belong together,” then-candidate Biden tweeted in 2020.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has levied legal challenges against family detention by other administrations, said it will consider fighting any attempt by Biden to implement similar policies.
“If President Biden moves forward with these plans, he will be putting vulnerable, traumatized immigrant children at risk. We will fight him every step of the way,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said.
The Immigration Hub’s Executive Director Sergio Gonzales said family detention would not deter migrants rom seeking asylum in the U.S. and may also prompt people to separate out of fear that their children would be detained.
“There’s no credible research that I have seen that has shown that when you jail families, it actually stops people from coming to our border,” Gonzales told ABC News. “They’re literally fleeing for their lives when they come to our border. They believe they have no other choice.”
In 2018, Drs. Scott Allen and Pamela McPherson, two subject matter experts in medical and mental health who work with the DHS’ Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, raised alarm to DHS and Congress about the dangers family detention poses for children.
On Tuesday, the doctors sent a letter to President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warning the same.
“No amount of programming can ameliorate the harms created by the very act of confining children to detention centers,” they wrote.
(VIRGINIA) — A local prosecutor said Wednesday that he does not believe the law supports charging the 6-year-old boy accused of shooting a teacher at his Virginia elementary school.
“We don’t believe the law supports charging a 6-year-old with a criminal offense as serious as this one,” Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn told ABC Hampton, Virginia, affiliate WVEC in a phone call.
Gwynn said they would have to show that “any defendant, including a 6-year-old,” is competent to stand trial and understands the legal system enough to help with their defense.
“I think it’s problematical to assume that a 6-year-old understands the criminal justice system enough to be competent to stand trial,” Gwynn told the station.
Gwynn added that once his office has reviewed the facts of the case, they will determine if anyone else should be criminally charged in connection with the shooting.
The incident occurred at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News on Jan. 6. The 6-year-old, who has not been named publicly, allegedly brought a handgun from his home to school in his backpack and shot and wounded a teacher in a first-grade classroom in what police described as an “intentional” act.
The teacher, Abigail Zwerner, sustained a gunshot wound to the chest. A bullet remains lodged in her body, according to her lawyer.
About 16 to 20 students were in the room at the time of the shooting and none of them were physically injured, officials said. After Zwerner was shot, she ushered all of her students out of the classroom, according to police.
Police said the boy’s mother legally purchased the 9 mm Taurus pistol.
The 6-year-old’s family released a statement through a spokesperson in the wake of the incident, saying, “Our family has always been committed to responsible gun ownership and keeping firearms out of the reach of children.”
“We have been cooperating with local and federal law enforcement to understand how this could have happened,” the family said.
Their son “suffers from an acute disability and was under a care plan at the school that included his mother or father attending school with him and accompanying him to class every day,” the family said. “The week of the shooting was the first week when we were not in class with him. We will regret our absence on this day for the rest of our lives.”
Zwerner claimed the student had a history of violent behavior at the school and accused the school’s assistant principal of failure to act despite being told repeatedly that the student had a gun at school, her lawyer alleged in a letter notifying the district of the intent to file a lawsuit last month.
The student had been suspended the day before the shooting because he “slammed Ms. Zwerner’s phone breaking it” and had cursed at the guidance counselors,” according to the letter.
The student had allegedly been removed from the school a year prior after he “choked his teacher until she couldn’t breathe,” according to the letter.
“This school year, the shooter was put on a modified schedule in the fall of 2022 after the school year had started because he constantly cursed at the staff and teachers and then one day took off his belt on the playground and chased kids trying to whip them,” according to the letter.
The school’s assistant principal, Ebony Parker, resigned from her position on Jan. 25, according to a school spokesperson.
The Newport News School Board last month voted 5-1 to relieve its superintendent, George Parker III, “without cause,” effective Feb. 1, in the wake of the shooting.
ABC News’ Nadine El-Bawab and Beatrice Peterson contributed to this report.
(CALIFORNIA) — A Northern California woman was rescued after surviving three nights in her car when she became stranded in a historic snowstorm while driving up a winding mountain road in an attempt to evacuate snowbound relatives, authorities said.
The 43-year-old woman got stuck on Friday night near her home in Laytonville, about 150 miles north of San Francisco, along with her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend when a snowstorm slammed Mendocino County, according to officials.
Search-and-rescue crews and sheriff’s deputies came to the woman’s rescue on Monday afternoon in a convoy of bulldozer and snowcat tractors after several earlier attempts to locate her were unsuccessful due to the heavy snow, ice and white-out conditions, said Capt. Greg Van Patten, a spokesperson for Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.
The lack of cell phone reception in the area prevented her from immediately calling for help, Van Patten said. He said worried loved ones reported her missing when she failed to show up to evacuate her relatives.
Van Patten said that once the snow let up, the woman was able to walk to an area where she found cell phone reception and called for help on Monday.
He said the woman’s daughter and boyfriend managed to walk to an empty home to hunker down. But the woman stayed in her car alone waiting for the rescuers, he said.
Van Patten said the woman had some food and water in her car to sustain her. When rescuers reached her, she was very cold and showing signs of dehydration, Van Patten said.
“She was definitely nearing the end of that sustainability had we not been able to get up to her with all those coordinated efforts,” Van Patten told ABC San Francisco station KGO-TV.
Van Patten said rescue workers also found the woman’s daughter and her boyfriend safe.
Authorities did not release the woman’s name, but a friend identified her to the community newspaper MendoFever as Lisa Herbstritt.
Herbstritt could not be reached for comment Wednesday. In a post on her Facebook page, Herbstritt wrote, “I want to let everyone know that we are safe and sound.”
“I am safe and sound thanks to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department and search and rescue,” wrote Herbstritt, adding that she was still “in shock.”
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — First lady Jill Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday hosted the 17th annual International Women of Courage Awards — and for the first time, the ceremony took place at the White House, on “the biggest stage we could,” Biden said.
The pair honored 11 global women leaders — some from countries embroiled in crisis — to mark International Women’s Day and recognize those with “exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, often at great personal risk and sacrifice.” Since 2007, the State Department has given out the courage awards to more than 180 women from more than 80 countries.
“Today, we’re here to tell girls everywhere the truth that they need to hear: Yes, you matter. Yes, you can make a difference,” Biden said at the White House’s East Room.
“That’s why we wanted to bring the leaders we’re honoring today, and the stories that they share, to the biggest stage we could: The White House. And, Tony, thank you for helping us do that,” she said.
The 2023 event honored Yuliia “Taira” Paievska, who led a volunteer unit of paramedics in Ukraine and spent three months in Russian captivity after getting detained in Mariupol for attempting to evacuate women and children in the wake of Russia’s invasion.
Earlier on Wednesday, the White House released a statement from President Joe Biden to mark the day. He noted the gender abuses in conflict-ridden countries like Afghanistan and Ukraine.
“Despite decades of progress, in far too many places around the world, the rights of women and girls are still under attack, holding back entire communities,” he said.
“We see it in Afghanistan, where the Taliban bars women and girls from attending school and pursuing employment. We see it in Iran, where the regime is brutally repressing the voices of women who are courageously standing up for their freedom. And in the face of Russia’s vicious and unjust invasion of Ukraine, including the use of rape as a weapon of war, we see countless stories of women bravely fighting for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Ukrainians,” he continued.
At Wednesday’s ceremony, Jill Biden applauded Blinken’s leadership in addressing foreign crises like in Ukraine, and Blinken highlighted the administration’s work to push forward gender equality abroad.
“President Biden has made gender equality and women’s rights a priority of our foreign policy,” Blinken remarked, nodding to the creation of the “first ever” cross-government strategy on women’s global economic security, a gender policy council and updated strategies to respond to gender-based violence globally, including new efforts to expand access to programs for historically marginalized communities.
Other honorees at the courage awards included independent Ethiopian journalist Meaza Mohammed, who has been covering gender-focused violence in the country; Zakira Hekmat, an Afghan doctor and advocate who grew up and was secretly educated under Taliban rule; and Doris Ríos, an indigenous rights leader from Costa Rica, among others.
The Madeleine Albright Honorary Group Award went to the women and girl protestors of Iran who embarked on months of grassroots demonstrations across Iran’s 31 provinces following the suspicious death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian woman taken into custody for allegedly improperly wearing a hijab.
MORE: Afghans and advocates speak out after Taliban bans women from working with aid groups
“Women in all of their diversity are often the ones on the front lines of change. And yet at the same time, they face still greater obstacles to their political participation,” Blinken said Wednesday.
“Defending the rights of women and girls is rooted in our democratic values of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, the State Department marked International Women’s Day by announcing coordinated action with its allies intended to “to promote accountability for the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses,” particularly against women and girls in the wake of the death of Amini.
Blinken announced sanctions against two Iranian officials overseeing prisons in Iran which he alleged were complicit in the gross mistreatment of prisoners, two senior Iranian security leaders who he said ordered the detention and torture of protestors, three companies that supply Iranian law enforcement & their CEOS, and another high-ranking law enforcement officer in the country for imposing censorship policies.
Jill Biden closed her Wednesday remarks with a call for accountability of men to uphold gender-based freedoms.
“As much as we need women who are willing to speak up, we need more men who are willing to listen and act,” she said.
“We need more men to hold each other accountable when their sisters are being hurt or left behind. We need more men who nurture families, who feed and teach and mentor, who build safer communities. We need more men who know that caring, collaboration, and kindness are signs of strength, not weakness.”
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford contributed to this report.
Michael Bezjian/Getty Images for Byron Allen, Allen Media Group
A battle over the name Earth, Wind & Fire may be headed to court. Rolling Stone reports that Earth, Wind & Fire LLP, the rights holders of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group’s trademark, has filed a lawsuit against Substantial Music Group and Stellar Communications over their Earth, Wind & Fire Legacy Reunion, which is basically a cover band featuring of unnamed “former members” of the R&B group.
The real Earth, Wind & Fire consists of HOF band members Verdine White and Philip Bailey; they just announced a tour with Lionel Richie. The lawsuit contends the Legacy Reunion show doesn’t have the legal right to use the band’s copyrights to promote concerts.
The suit argues that Substantial Music Group and Stellar Communications “hired a few musicians who previously had played with the real Earth, Wind & Fire as side musicians for brief periods” for their tour and “hatched a scheme to falsely imply in advertising that this new group was the real Earth, Wind & Fire.”
They say by using the real band’s logos, word mark and more they are “misleading consumers and selling more tickets at higher prices.” It’s so confusing that the plaintiffs say even ticketing sites have gotten confused and mixed up the two bands’ tour dates on their sites.
Earth, Wind & Fire LLP is demanding a court force Substantial Music Group and Stellar Communications to stop using all copyright-infringing promotional materials. They are seeking “all revenues” from the concerts and performances of “Legacy Reunion,” along with “a monetary judgment reflecting its compensatory and general damages at trial, or in the alternative, statutory damages.”
Sunday night’s Oscars telecast on ABC may be able to boast a performance by Rihanna, but unfortunately, Lady Gaga will be a no-show.
Oscars EP and showrunner Glenn Weiss told reporters on Wednesday that Gaga, nominated for Best Original Song for her Top Gun: Maverick song “Hold My Hand,” wouldn’t be performing at the ceremony.
“I would love to say, ‘No I can’t confirm,’ but y’know what? I’m gonna tell ya,” Weiss told reporters. “So here’s where we are: We actually invited all five nominees — we have great relationships with Lady Gaga and her camp — [but] she is in the middle of shooting a movie right now, and here we are honoring the movie industry and what it takes to make a movie.”
Some had suspected that Gaga wouldn’t be able to make it due to her filming the movie Joker: Folie à Deux. But the irony of Gaga not being able to attend a ceremony honoring movies because she’s busy making one isn’t lost on Weiss, either.
“After a bunch of back and forth, it didn’t feel like she can get a performance to the caliber that we’re used to with her, that she’s used to,” Weiss explained. “So she is not going to perform on the show.”
“However, this is all from our point of view of somebody making a movie and us completely understanding that that’s what’s a priority in this business,” he noted. “Especially when we’re honoring movies.”
In addition to Rihanna, who’ll be performing “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, viewers will see performances of songs from the movies Everything Everywhere All At Once, Tell It Like a Woman and RRR.
