While Val Kilmer seemed like perfect casting to play The Doors frontman Jim Morrison in OliverStone’s 1991 film The Doors, he was far from the first choice for the role. In a new interview, recording artist and writer Bebe Buell, mother of actress Liv Tyler, reveals John Travolta was once in the running and had a really good shot at getting it.
During an appearance on the Totally 80s podcast, Buell says her former manager, the late Danny Sugerman, who also managed The Doors and co-wrote the Morrison biography No One Here Gets Out Alive, really wanted Travolta in the role.
“He was really, really, really gung ho on getting that Doors movie made,” Buell says. “But believe it or not, his first choice for Jim was not Val Kilmer. It was John Travolta.”
In fact, Buell says about 10 years before the film was actually made she witnessed Travolta’s unofficial audition for the role, and she was impressed.
“I actually saw him come over to Danny’s house, kind of Jim Morrison-y, and he stood up on Danny’s table. And when he sang, it was mind-blowing,” she says. “He channeled him. I guess that’s what a great actor can do. He channeled him like nothing I’d ever seen. It wasn’t as wacky as it sounds.”
In a follow-up email, Buell told Yahoo Entertainment that Travolta “nailed it,” adding, “Danny was raving to me later that night. JT blew his mind!”
(WASHINGTON) — As Democrats set their sights on the 2024 presidential cycle, several prominent party figures remain at odds over which blue city should host the next Democratic National Convention. The final choice — which has narrowed to Atlanta, Chicago or New York City — would reflect, in part, what Democrats see as their political path to the White House in the coming year.
A DNC official confirms to ABC News that Houston is no longer in consideration, though it was.
Democrats expect the party’s final decision will come sometime in the spring, following a similar timeline established in 2019, when Milwaukee was chosen as the 2020 DNC host city. Plans to host tens of thousands of attendees in the midwestern city were later upended by COVID-19 restrictions and transformed the gathering into a virtual broadcast presentation incorporating other elements from across the country.
Although the 2024 city preference broadly rests with President Joe Biden, the lead-up to the party’s decision is full of intraparty jockeying. Democrats from various corners of the U.S. have been touting regional politics, historic ties to policies and voter demographics in hopes of bolstering their case for hosting privileges, which also traditionally serve to symbolize the party’s platform and future aspirations.
Southern Democrats argue their electorate has been a catalyst for the party’s political success in recent elections, given that Georgia voters contributed to Biden’s 2020 victory while also helping Democrats claim and then retain a majority in the Senate. In a recent letter addressed to Biden, a group of more than 65 Southern Democratic lawmakers and political leaders cited these electoral gains, as well as the South’s legacy in the civil rights movement, as reasons for backing Atlanta as the top choice for the 2024 national convention.
“Everything we have accomplished as a party since January of 2021 can be traced back to Georgia, and specifically, to the metro Atlanta area which swung the state in our favor,” the letter said.
The Southern Democrats also argued that choosing Atlanta would “inspire Democrats in other competitive Southern states to run, to organize, to fundraise, and to volunteer in what is now truly fertile Democratic territory.”
According to former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, who helped organize the letter, the South is poised for a groundswell of Democratic support.
“It is the message I think that Democrats want to show — that we see the potential in the South, we understand how elections have been going there, but we see the potential of the South. We appreciate that. And second of all, the strongest base of the Democratic Party is the African American vote, and Atlanta and Georgia are the heart of the civil rights movement, [given ties to] Dr. [Martin Luther] King, John Lewis, I mean, it just makes perfect sense,” Jones told ABC News.
Farther north, Midwestern Democrats are coalescing around Chicago’s pro-labor history and proximity to perennial battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin in their case for the nation’s third-largest city.
Similarly to the South, proponents of hosting the convention in the Midwest say the host city’s significance could affect support in surrounding political landscapes at a time when Democrats are facing hurdles with support from blue-collar workers who have historically been a key voting bloc for the party base.
“The Midwest makes or breaks presidential campaigns. Wisconsin has been the tipping-point state [that decided] both of the last two presidential elections. We are right next door to Chicago. Michigan’s not far, Minnesota is a key protector [of the battleground map]. Iowa is an aspirational state to flip. This is ground zero for the states that will take things one way or the other,” said Ben Wikler who serves as the Wisconsin Democratic Party chair.
Chicago-area labor groups are also voicing concerns about the potential for implied mixed messaging regarding the party’s policy platform if the convention were held in Georgia, a “right-to-work” state, which forbids union membership as a condition of employment — but, its critics say, also weakens the power of unions to negotiate with employers.
Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter told ABC News that the possible scenario of a convention in Georgia would make it difficult for Democratic delegates who are also part of labor groups to attend in a spirited way.
“It’ll be one of those things where, you know, folks will fly in and out to attend the convention but [regarding] the engagement around it, there’ll be a lot of hand wringing [about] even sitting in Atlanta … it’s not going to be something that’ll necessarily inspire anybody to get fired up and go, at least from our side of the fence,” Reiter said in an interview.
His concern leans on the president’s own expressed priority of pro-union labor, which also has battleground symbolism. After reiterating his belief in building a “blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America” during this year’s State of the Union address, Biden traveled to a union training center in Wisconsin the following day.
Although New York City is not historically a competitive presidential battleground, advocates for the nation’s biggest city, including Mayor Eric Adams, are also casting its vast labor force as a major facet of its convention bid.
“The Democratic Party is the party of labor and there’s no greater union town than NYC,” Adams tweeted this week while also calling out a joint effort with the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, a local union, to promote New York City as a top DNC pick in a recently produced television ad.
“We’re a union town, labor strong and worker proud. Like New York, like the Democratic Party, we are diverse but not divided,” the ad boasts.
Despite efforts by two of the three cities in consideration to put a spotlight on labor, in defense of Atlanta, Jones said the goal is not to “pit labor against labor by any stretch.”
“You go where you want to promote your presence, and the Democratic Party will always promote organized labor and we can promote it in Georgia just like we can anywhere else,” the former senator said.
Puscifer Entertainment/Alchemy Recordings/BMG; Daniel Martin Diaz
Puscifer has shared a new version of the band’s track “Postulous,” recorded in collaboration with Phantogram.
The reworked tune appears on Puscifer’s upcoming Existential Reckoning: Re-Wired compilation, which collects remixes of each song off Maynard James Keenan and company’s 2020 album, Existential Reckoning.
“It’s always fascinating to hear how other [artists] approach your music,” Keenan says. “Phantogram’s contribution to Re-Wired is no exception.”
You can listen to Phantogram’s version of “Postulous” now via digital outlets.
Existential Reckoning: Re-Wired will be released March 31. It also includes contributions from Nine Inch Nails‘ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Tool‘s Justin Chancellor, Queens of the Stone Age‘s Troy Van Leeuwen and Bring Me the Horizon‘s Jordan Fish.
(WASHINGTON) — Like other Republican governors, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is making school choice a high-profile political issue, declaring education reform her “top priority” and first big legislative play since taking office in January.
It’s facing pushback from public school educators and some parents — but Sanders is relishing the fight.
Thirteen days after painting her plan with broad strokes in the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union, Sanders unveiled the text of her much-touted omnibus education reform bill this week. While supporters applaud Republican lawmakers for quickly taking it up, critics are concerned the bill — carrying massive implications on the state’s education system — is being “ramrodded” through the legislature, despite students’ best interests.
“This will be the biggest overhaul in education, I think, anywhere in the country — certainly in my home state of Arkansas — and we look forward to setting the standard on how this can be done right and being a blueprint for other states across the country to follow,” Sanders said in an interview Tuesday on Fox News, dismissing opposition as “the left mad that they’re losing control of the system.”
Two Republican state lawmakers on Monday filed the text of a 144-page bill, Arkansas LEARNS, just before close of business. By Wednesday, it had passed out of a Senate Education Committee, despite public opposition and bipartisan support for amendments, and by Thursday, the full Senate.
“I do probably like 60 to 70% of it,” said State Sen. Greg Leding, Democratic minority leader, in Wednesday’s hearing. “But as I’ve told a lot of people, if the last 30% of the cheeseburger is poison, it’s still a pretty lousy cheeseburger.”
More red states expand school choice
The bill lumps together dozens of policy changes, such as lifting teachers’ starting salaries from the lowest to among the highest in the nation, banning teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity before fifth grade, as well as Critical Race Theory at all levels, and includes an ambitious proposal to install a universal school voucher program in Arkansas within three years — a move advocates hail and critics warn against.
If the legislation is passed and signed, Arkansas could be the fifth state — following Arizona, West Virginia, Iowa and Utah — to enact universal school choice, as more Republican-led legislatures prioritize taking up school choice policies.
School choice — or the distribution of school vouchers or scholarships — essentially reallocates state funding to individual families that sign up, allowing their children to leave the public school system for any reason and use the money budgeted for them on private or home school instead. That will be around $7,500 in an “Education Freedom Account” for each Arkansas student, according to the proposed legislation and current funding.
“Arkansas, in passing this, would be the latest state to join the universal school choice revolution,” said Corey DeAngelis, a prominent school choice advocate and senior fellow at the American Federation for Children. “The dominoes are falling and there’s nothing the government school monopoly can do about it.”
But more than a dozen Arkansans with ties to public education told ABC News they were concerned about the changes and the speed with which they’re happening.
“With a bill of this size that fundamentally changes the entire public school system in Arkansas, to give less than 48 hours for the public to review it before brought to the Senate Education Committee for testimony is not fair to the taxpayers of this state,” said Veronica Paulson, a parent of two public school children in Little Rock.
Stacey McAdoo, the state’s “Teacher of the Year” in 2019, questioned whether Arkansas teachers were involved in writing the legislation.
“People need time to digest it. I’m still processing everything, ” McAdoo told ABC News. “I don’t think that I’ve had adequate time to be as prepared and comfortable with what exactly this is and what it means.”
Asked about the two-day turnaround from filing to committee approval, Sanders’ office dismissed the concerns raised by ABC News that there wasn’t ample time to read the text.
“Arkansas LEARNS is something the Governor spoke about enacting for two years while she was campaigning,” said spokesperson Alexa Henning. “The details of this legislation, which have been developed in collaboration with elected legislators for months, are not secret and have been available since the Governor announced the legislation on February 8. We welcome the conversation about how Arkansas LEARNS will give every child access to a quality education and set them on a path to success.”
Paulson, who did not vote for Sanders, was among a dozen protesters who gathered outside the governor’s mansion in Little Rock on Sunday night — anticipating the bill’s release — with signs reading “public $ for public schools” and “teacher over vouchers.”
“I’m very concerned about taxpayer dollars going to private schools that can discriminate against children,” Paulson told ABC News. “Saying the money should follow the student makes children compete for an education, which should never be the case.”
“I personally feel like this bill is an attack on public education,” said Latoya Morgan, a librarian at Carver Elementary School in Little Rock. “I understand everybody wants what’s best for their kids, right? But what if that’s taking away from somebody else’s child?”
Morgan argued vouchers would help families already paying for private school and hurt public school students in Arkansas, particularly those in rural areas who don’t have many alternative options available to them.
Private schools aren’t required to meet the same accountability standards as public schools, Morgan added, like providing transportation to all students or accepting those with behavioral issues. And vouchers don’t always cover the full tuition of a private school, making the switch unattainable for some low-income families, forced to stay in a school with now-diminishing resources.
“Because if I’m in rural Arkansas, what other option do I have? What private choices do I have?” Morgan said. “And then if I have a behavior issue, because private schools can be selective about who they allow in, how will those kids be serviced by this system? Why are we not prioritizing a plan to invest in building a public education system that we can all be proud of in the state of Arkansas?”
Supporters of vouchers say they encourage competition among schools and allow parents the power to decide which schools work for their kids — to “fund students, not systems.”
“Maybe government schools would do a better job if they operated more like businesses and had incentives to cater to the needs of their customers,” DeAngelis said.
State Rep. Tippi McCullough, a Democrat and former private school educator in Little Rock, told ABC News late Thursday she hopes there will be time for amendments in the House before the bill heads to Sanders’ desk for signing.
“This complex bill has been rushed, but after only two days of bipartisan questioning that pointed out serious problems, sponsors promise they are open to amendments,” she said. “Even though Democrats and educators haven’t been included in the process up to this point, in the spirit of the collaboration that the sponsors continue to tout, it is our hope that there will be a robust process to accept our clarifying and substantive amendments.”
‘This will devastate Arkansas’
An hour’s drive away from Little Rock, in Rosebud, a town with a population of less than 500, Steve Grappe, chair of the Rural Caucus of Arkansas, organized an emergency Zoom meeting Sunday night, where he and 40 other participants crafted a “mobilization plan” to defeat the bill.
“We’re trying to get in front of as many people as we can to let them know the dangers of what’s happening,” Grappe told ABC News. “What we think is going to happen is they’re going to drop this bill and ramrod it through as fast as they can – and not give the people of Arkansas even a chance to digest what is in this and make a decision. So what we’re trying to do is get people organized right now.”
Grappe, a Democrat, shared the same concerns about how vouchers would impact rural areas which dominate the state’s landscape.
“In many of our small towns, the school is the lifeblood of the town. It’s the only thing keeping the town together,” Grappe said. “Because rural Arkansas has been leaking population over the last two decades, this will devastate it. Try to get people to move into a town that doesn’t even have a school, and you got to send your kids 30 miles to school. We’re never going to recruit new business and new people and these talents are going to dry up.”
Grappe said Sanders isn’t necessarily thinking about what’s best for Arkansas but what’s best for her resume. (Sanders’ office said, “The only people talking about ‘national ambitions’ is the media,” when asked about the criticism.)
“School choice is a national Republican ambition, and I think that Sarah Huckabee Sanders has higher ambitions than a governor. She’s trying to prove that Arkansas is the most conservative MAGA state in the country. And I don’t think it has anything to do with the welfare of our citizens,” he said.
He called efforts to slow or stop the legislation a “long shot” but “our only shot — because this is going to devastate the state of Arkansas.”
(NOTE LANGUAGE) HBO Max’s award-minting machine Succession will come to an end when the upcoming fourth season wraps up.
In an interview with The New Yorker, show creator Jesse Armstrong dropped the bombshell that the scheming Roy family’s adventures will be drawing to a close.
He explained, “I got together with a few of my fellow writers before we started the writing of Season 4 … and I sort of said, ‘Look, I think this maybe should be it. But what do you think?'”
He added they “played out various scenarios,” but ultimately decided against them. “We could do a couple of short seasons, or two more seasons. Or we could go on for ages and turn the show into something rather different, and be a more rangy, freewheeling kind of fun show, where there would be good weeks and bad weeks. Or we could do something a bit more muscular and complete, and go out sort of strong. And that was definitely always my preference.”
Armstrong, an Emmy winner himself for the series, noted of his stars, including fellow Emmy winner Brian Cox and Matthew Macfadyen, “I said to the cast, ‘I’m not a hundred per cent sure, but I think this is it.’ Because I didn’t want to bulls*** them, either.”
He adds, “Although I wish, in a way, to carry on doing this thing with this group of actors and writers forever, I wouldn’t want to be going down the mine … for more and more vanishingly thin seams of gold.”
The first three seasons of the show earned 48 Emmy nominations and 13 wins, including Outstanding Drama Series. It also earned five Golden Globe Awards and trophies from the Writers, Directors, and Producers Guild Awards.
Succession returns for its fourth — and now officially final — season on March 26.
(NEW YORK) — Philadelphia 76ers star James Harden gave a much-needed morale boost to John Hao, a 20-year-old Michigan State student who was paralyzed from the chest down after the deadly shooting on campus earlier this month.
After Harden read about Hao, who is a huge fan, he knew he wanted to help.
The star point guard surprised Hao, who is getting care in the hospital, with a FaceTime call.
“Everything will work itself out. Be strong. You’re alright, you’ll be alright. I promise you are,” Harden told Hao. “I got you. I love when you’re smiling too … I’m with you.”
“I know it’s tough right now but you gotta stay physically strong you know what I mean? You just gotta just think positive things and keep pushing and keep fighting. I got you,” Harden went on.
He then had another surprise for Hao.
“I got some gifts for you too,” Harden said. “I got some things coming your way [to] hopefully give you some encouragement, make you smile.”
Harden sent Hao sneakers, including one pair that was worn in a game.
Harden also contributed to Hao’s GoFundMe page, which was set up to help pay his medical bills, which total $366,000.
“Let me know if you need anything else, I got you,” Harden said at the end of their call, giving Hao his personal cellphone number.
Harden told ESPN that he wanted to brighten Hao’s day even if it was just for one minute.
He also spoke to reporters about the interaction after the 76ers won on Thursday night.
“There’s things like that, where you sit back and think about just real life and things bigger than basketball,” Harden said. “I heard that he was a fan of mine, so I wanted to get up on that ASAP and just see what I could do, anything I could do.”
“Sunroof” singer Nicky Youre is back with a new song and video, “Shut Me Up.”
Nicky says the bouncy tune was written last year and is about “that time in relationships when you’re unsure how someone feels about you … when you think you know how they feel, but neither of you have said it out loud to each other.”
In the chorus, Nicky sings, “I’m sick of overthinking/ Kiss my lips and shut me up.” He notes that when you’re scared to make the first move, “you just need a little bit of help by your partner to shut you up and make it for you.”
He adds, “I only hope and wish you can use this song to shut your next partner up!”
In the video, Nicky throws it back to the late ’90s, talking on a rotary phone and using a colorful iMac G3 computer to search ways to prepare himself to make that move.
In other Nicky news, the California native has set his first-ever headline shows in LA and New York City: He’ll perform at LA’s Moroccan Lounge on March 30 and New York’s Baby’s All Right on April 18. Tickets are on sale now at NickyYoure.com. On Instagram, he writes, “These are going to be the most fun shows that we’ve ever done.”
As previously reported, Nicky has also recorded a Diane Warren song called “Found” for the Netflix animated movie The Magician’s Elephant, which starts streaming on March 17.
Queen is back with another peek behind the scenes with the latest episode of their weekly YouTube series Queen The Greatest Live. After last week’s episode focused on picking the right opening number, this week they look at one of their go-to openers, the song “Now I’m Here.”
The episode features four live performances of the 1974 track, from the Sheer Heart Attack album, which has appeared on more Queen set lists than any other song.
Two of the live performances feature Freddie Mercury performing the song, one at the London Rainbow in 1974 and another at the London Hammersmith in 1975. The other two feature Adam Lambert and were shot at Summer Sonic, Tokyo, in 2014 and at the band’s Rhapsody Over London show in 2022.
In this screen grab from a video, law enforcement officers are shown at the scene of a shooting in Philadelphia, Feb. 23, 2023. — WPVI
(PHILADELPHIA) — Seven people were shot, six of them children, in a shooting that took place at a schoolyard in Philadelphia Thursday evening, according to the Philadelphia Police Department.
Police found multiple shooting victims at a schoolyard of the James G. Blaine School, located in Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion section, at about 5:52 p.m. Thursday. Authorities then transported six people to area hospitals, five of them children, and one being a 31-year-old woman who was shot twice and is in stable condition.
A 2-year-old girl, 13-year-old boy, 15-year-old boy, and two 16-year-old boys were shot at the schoolyard. All are in stable condition and are seeking treatment at area hospitals, police said.
A 17-year-old boy was also grazed by a bullet and was transported by Uber to a local hospital. He is listed in stable condition, according to police.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Photography by Keith Getter (all rights reserved)/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Twenty-three states from California to Connecticut are on alert for blizzard, heavy snow, flooding, strong winds and bitter wind chill as two massive winter storms pound the U.S.
In California, over 100,000 customers are without power Friday morning as the West Coast storm pounds the region.
Six inches of rain is forecast for Southern California, where flooding and mudslides are possible.
A rare blizzard warning was issued for Southern California where up to 8 feet of snow is possible in the highest elevations in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains.
Big Bear Lake in the mountains of Southern California has already seen 37 inches of snow, with more to come.
A dusting of snow has even reached the hills around San Francisco and the hills of Hollywood.
In the Midwest and the Northeast, residents are digging out from the second winter storm.
Over 700,000 customers in Michigan are without power Friday morning after an ice storm hit, coating trees and power lines.
A volunteer firefighter in Paw Paw, Michigan, died Wednesday evening when a power line fell on him, according to Paw Paw Fire Chief Jim DeGroff. The buildup of ice caused a tree limb to snap the line, DeGroff said.
Minneapolis saw over 1 foot of snow, marking the city’s second-biggest February snowstorm.
In the Northeast, the storm dumped 6 to 10 inches of snow in New England and upstate New York.
Now a short-lived cold blast is expected for the Northeast. The wind chill — what temperature it feels like — is forecast to plummet to 14 degrees in New York and minus 6 degrees in Boston.
Washington, D.C., which saw a record high of 81 degrees Thursday, will face a dramatic plunge to a wind chill of 25 degrees by Saturday morning.
