As reported, the second season of HBO’s buzzy, Emmy-winning show The White Lotus has booted tourism to Sicily, but it has also apparently spritzed sales for a spirits company.
According to Business Insider, sales of Aperol, the main ingredient in the orange-colored bevvy quaffed by most of its characters, the Aperol Spritz, have been goosed by the acclaimed show.
The Campari Group, the company that sells the spirit, says sales of Aperol jumped 50% last year; the second season of the Jennifer Coolidge-starring show debuted in October.
On Thursday, Prime Video dropped the trailer to its series The Power, based on English author Naomi Alderman‘s award-winning novel.
The streaming service teases, “Suddenly, and without warning, teenage girls develop the power to electrocute people at will. The series features a cast of remarkable characters from London to Seattle, Nigeria to Eastern Europe, as the Power evolves from a tingle in teenagers’ collarbones to a complete reversal of the power balance of the world.”
Tony winner John Leguizamo stars as a concerned dad whose daughter, played by Moana‘s Auli’i Cravalho begins to demonstrate this shocking ability; Oscar-nominated Sixth Sense star Toni Collette plays her mom, who is the mayor of Seattle.
The cast also includes Josh Charles as a military man looking to harness the power and veteran character actor Eddie Marsan (Deadpool 2, The Gentlemen).
The first three episodes of The Power premiere Friday, March 31, on Prime Video. New episodes will roll out every subsequent Friday until the series wraps up on May 12.
We are getting our first real look at the upcoming Disney+ docu-special about U2’s Bono and TheEdge, featuring talk show host David Letterman. A trailer for Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming has just been released, with the special described as “part concert movie, part travel adventure plus a whole lot of Bono and The Edge, with Dave’s humor throughout.”
The trailer features clips of the two rockers walking through Dublin with Letterman, along with performance footage, clips of the two singing with others at a local pub and more.
“Traditional storytelling part of Dublin,” Bono shares in the clip. “It’s in our music. Our songs, they’re still growing, they’re still emerging.”
In the trailer, Letterman asks the rockers about changing up the songs for their upcoming album, Songs of Surrender, dropping March 17. Bono notes, “We wanted to strip away the artifice that inevitably emerges when you’ve been around this long.”
Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, directed by Morgan Neville, debuts March 17 on Disney+.
Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
A federal judge in Chicago sentenced singer R. Kelly to 20 years in prison for his child pornography and enticement of minors for sex convictions Thursday.
However, the sentencing only adds one more year to his prison time, as Kelly will serve 19 years concurrently with his New York prison sentence, according to Chicago ABC station WLS. He would then be required to serve one year in the Chicago case.
Kelly is already serving a 30-year prison sentence after he was convicted in a New York federal court last year of racketeering and violating the Mann Act, a sex trafficking law.
He could have could faced between 10 to 90 years in prison for the crimes he was charged with in Chicago.
Prosecutors had recommended Kelly serve 25 years in prison, consecutively to his New York sentence, calling him a sexual predator who used his fame and wealth to abuse his victims, and has shown no remorse, according to WLS.
Kelly’s lawyer asked for a sentence of 10 years to be served concurrently with his New York sentence, saying Kelly being abused as a child justified leniency, WLS reports.
The disgraced 55-year-old singer was found guilty in September in what was his second federal trial.
The video for Jon Pardi‘s latest hit, “Your Heart or Mine,” is set to arrive on Friday.
The new dad made the announcement on his socials, along with a short clip that shows him leaning against a wall in a southwestern locale as an attractive woman walks by. You’ll be able to see the full video starting at 11 a.m. ET Friday via YouTube or Facebook.
It’s been an exciting week for the California native. He and wife Summer welcomed their first child, Presley Fawn, on Saturday. Since then, Jon’s shared photos of him beaming while holding his daughter and even chopping a little wood on Wednesday.
Adam Lambert releases his new album High Drama on Friday. He revealed the cover art, which shows him surrounded by shattered glass, is a representation of the barriers he broke through as a gay man in the industry.
Adam told People he also suffered a small injury while shooting the photo. A shard of glass cut him across his nose. “It wasn’t deep, but it was definitely a bit of blood,” he explained, adding, “I thought, ‘Well, this is high drama.'”
While Adam has grappled with negative comments about his sexuality throughout his career, he is now fielding unwanted remarks about his weight. He noticed such feedback after releasing the music video for his cover of Bonnie Tyler‘s “Holding Out for a Hero” in January.
“Most of the comments were very positive, but a fair number of people were like, ‘Whoa, he got fat,'” Adam recalled. “I thought to myself, ‘I’m fully aware I’m not the same size I was five years ago. Thanks for reminding me.'”
“I’m 41. I’m not 20 anymore! Also, you never know what someone’s life looks like behind closed doors or what factors have led to changes in people’s bodies — so keep [the criticism] to yourself,” he added.
Adam revealed he sought treatment for anxiety and depression five years ago after suffering panic attacks during his tour with Queen. “I was burnt out and hit a wall,” he explained.
He said the medication he was prescribed “put on the pounds,” and noted he is now prioritizing his mental health. “Finding that balance between career and personal life is really important…,” he said. “That’s a big part of staying happy and healthy.”
Adam is satisfied with his self-love journey, adding, “I feel more sure of myself than I’ve ever been.”
As previously reported, a recent article in Variety claimed The Rolling Stones had collaborated with Paul McCartney for their upcoming album, with the Beatle allegedly laying down bass tracks recently at a studio in Los Angeles. Well, it turns out fans shouldn’t expect to hear McCartney on the entire record.
ABC Audio has learned that McCartney does play bass on one track, and early reports, also by Variety, suggesting RingoStarr was also part of the project are inaccurate.
As for the record itself, it is reportedly being produced by Ozzy Osbourne/Iggy Pop/Elton John producer Andrew Watt. So far, there’s no word on when The Stones’ album will come out, but whenever it does, it will be the band’s first album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. The last new album they released was the 2016’s blues covers album Blue & Lonesome.
Elton John is making it even harder to break his record of having the highest-grossing tour of all time.
Last month, Billboardreported Sir Elton’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour became the first trek ever to earn more than $800 million, besting the previous record Ed Sheeran set in 2019 after his Divide tour made $776.4 million.
The outlet reports Sir Elton’s tour added an additional $40.9 million to its coffers in the month of January, during which he performed eight shows across Australia and New Zealand.
The numbers now extend his lead atop the Top Tours chart. Sir Elton is also #1 on the Top Boxscores chart for making $11.3 million after performing a pair of shows at Allianz Stadium in Sydney, Australia.
This marks the ninth time an artist has simultaneously ruled both charts, but the second time for Sir Elton. The only other act who ruled both charts twice is K-pop sensation BTS.
Sir Elton’s pair of performance at AAMI Park in Melbourne, Australia, is #2 on the recent Boxscores chart after making $10.2 million. He also appears in fourth place, making $8.4 million for his two shows at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle, New South Wales.
Sir Elton’s farewell tour is scheduled to conclude on July 8 in Stockholm, Sweden.
As previously reported, Sir Elton’s career total when it comes to concerts stands at $1.863 billion grossed and 19.9 million tickets sold — the highest for any solo artist in Billboard Boxscore history.
The Eagles’Don Henley received quite an honor this week. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer was feted at the 2023 PollstarAwards with this year’s Milestone Award.
“I appreciate this very much,” Henley said in accepting his honor. “We are three shows into our 51st year as a band and touring entity — and feeling every one of them. But we feel very fortunate.”
Henley was referring to the band’s current Hotel California tour, which hits Palm Springs, California, on Friday, and wraps April 8 in Baltimore, Maryland.
Other winners at the Pollstar Awards include: Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard’s co-headlining Stadium Tour, which nabbed Rock and Roll Tour of the Year; Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, who were among the openers on the trek, won Support/Special Guest Act of the Year.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is calling upon the Department of Justice to further examine Ticketmaster’s alleged monopoly.
This comes after the bipartisan committee grilled Ticketmaster officials on Capitol Hill during a January Congressional hearing, which was proposed after the disastrous presale of Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour.
Varietyobtained a copy of the letter Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee sent the DOJ, which included evidence from the recent hearing.
“We have long been concerned about the state of competition in America’s ticketing industry, especially with the power and reach of Live Nation and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ticketmaster,” the letter begins.
The Senate committee claimed, “For too long, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have wielded monopoly power anticompetitively, harming fans and artists alike.”
Evidence from the hearing included the claim that “87 percent of Billboard’s Top 40 Tours in 2022 were ticketed by Ticketmaster in the U.S. and that Ticketmaster has exclusive ticketing contracts for more than 85 percent of the nation’s NFL, NHL, and NBA teams.”
The letter adds Live Nation said those stats were inaccurate but did not “provide any alternative data.”
Live Nation apparently “provided no response” to other questions about its alleged monopoly, such as the number of venues it works with, its usage of exclusivity agreements and how many venue contracts it lost to competitors.
“Live Nation’s responses amount to ‘trust us.’ We believe that is wholly insufficient,” the letter closes. “We thank you for your prompt attention to these matters and encourage the Antitrust Division to take action if it finds that Ticketmaster has walled itself off from competitive pressure at the expense of the industry and fans.”
Critics have long accused Ticketmaster of raising ticket prices, shutting out smaller venues, crushing smaller artists and sidelining rival ticket companies.
