Count Morrissey among those who have an issue with Sam Smith and Kim Petras‘ Grammy performance, which was deemed “evil” by Republic Sen. Ted Cruz for its supposed promotion of satanism.
A statement posted to the ex-Smiths vocalist’s Morrissey Central website reads, “Capitol Records (Los Angeles) proudly promotes Sam Smith’s ‘satanism’; yet they consider the honest truth of Morrissey’s factual Bonfire of Teenagers to be their biggest threat and they will not release it despite their contractual obligation and promise to do so.”
Bonfire of Teenagers is Morrissey’s new album, which he claims has been shelved by Capitol Records.
A previous Morrissey Central post reads, “Morrissey has said that although he does not believe that Capitol Records in Los Angeles signed Bonfire of Teenagers in order to sabotage it, he is quickly coming around to that belief.”
According to Morrissey Central, Bonfire of Teenagers was set to feature guest vocals from Miley Cyrus, who later requested to be removed from the album.
Two men who claim they were shot outside a 2022 Super Bowl weekend party, held after a Justin Bieber concert, have now filed a lawsuit against Justin, as well as rapper Kodak Black, Billboard reports.
The men, Mark Schaefer and Adam Rahmen, are being represented by attorney Gloria Allred. They claim they suffered injuries outside an L.A. restaurant where the pre-Super Bowl party was held, and that Justin and Black “negligently breached the duties owed to Plaintiffs” by “failing to provide adequate security; failing to warn Plaintiffs of the danger; increasing the likelihood of violence; and/or instigating, escalating, and exacerbating the impact of the violence.”
In the suit, Billboard reports, Black is specifically accused of assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. His actions are described as being a “substantial factor” in what allegedly happened to them.
Schaefer and Rahmen both claim they’ve suffered “physical pain, mental suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement, physical impairment, inconvenience, grief, anxiety, humiliation, and severe emotional distress” as a result of the incident.
The party took place after Justin performed at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood as part of a “Homecoming Weekend” series of events. At the time, police said that four men were shot outside the restaurant, with Black allegedly being one of them.
Céline Dion is Sam Heughan‘s romance adviser in the new trailer for Love Again, the long-awaited film in which the superstar makes her acting debut.
The Outlander star plays Rob, a journalist who’s writing a profile of Céline and ends up asking her advice about his unusual situation. It seems Rob’s new phone has the same number as the fiancé of Mira, played by Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Her fiancé has passed away, but Mira keeps texting passionate and loving messages to his number to help with her grief.
Of course, Rob falls in love with Mira after reading her texts and enlists Céline’s help in figuring out how he can meet her. At one point in the trailer, Céline calls Mira, who doesn’t believe it’s her. To prove it, Céline bursts into a version of her song “That’s the Way It Is,” singing, “Love comes to those who believe it/ and this is really me!”
The movie will also feature new music from Céline, who tells People, “I had a lot of fun doing this movie … I think it’s a wonderful feel-good story, and I hope that people will like it and like the new songs too.”
In the trailer, we also get to see Priyanka’s real-life husband, Nick Jonas, playing a guy she goes on a date with in an attempt to “put herself out there.” He turns out to be what looks like the world’s worst kisser.
Get the Kleenex ready before you read Pink‘s latest Instagram post.
The star has shared a snippet of a touching new song from her new album Trustfall called “When I Get There.” She’s paired it with a home video montage of herself through the years, apparently put together by her father Jim Moore, who also added a voiceover. Jim, a Vietnam War vet, died in 2021.
“Sometimes love leaves us too soon,” Pink captioned the video. “On Valentine’s Day- I cherish the love I have that I can touch- and the love I have in my heart for those who have gone on to the next adventure. This one’s for you, Daddy Sir.”
In the song, Pink sings, “I think of you when I think about forever/I hear a joke, and I know you woulda told it better/I think of you out of the blue when I’m watching a movie.”
The post also includes what appears to be the artwork for the song, which shows baby Alecia — who’d grow up to be Pink — sitting next to her dad, who’s playing the guitar.
Game on: Ted Lasso is returning to Apple TV+ on March 15.
Following the show’s historic back-to-back Emmy wins, the streamer on Tuesday dropped a teaser to the forthcoming third season.
AFC Richmond’s personalities are shown each making up cheery yellow signs with the word “Believe” written on it — except for, as one might predict, Emmy winner Brett Goldstein‘s Roy Kent, who, with a grunt, scrawls the word in a teensy font.
Jason Sudeikis‘ ever-cheery manager then enters the locker room with Brendan Hunt‘s Coach Beard and smiles, seeing each of the players have taped their respective signs to their lockers.
“Well, if seeing is believing, I believe we’ve been seen,” Ted tells Beard.
Ted Lasso‘s Wednesday debut predicts a mid-week drop for each new episode, a first for the streaming service.
Apple TV+ teases, “In the 12-episode third season…the newly-promoted AFC Richmond faces ridicule as media predictions widely peg them as last in the Premier League and Nate (Nick Mohammed)…has gone to work for Rupert (Anthony Head) at West Ham United. In the wake of Nate’s contentious departure from Richmond, Roy Kent steps up as assistant coach…”
The streamer continues, “Meanwhile, while Ted deals with pressures at work, he continues to wrestle with his own personal issues back home, Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) is focused on defeating Rupert and Keeley (Juno Temple) navigates being the boss of her own PR agency.”
The tease concludes, “Things seem to be falling apart both on and off the pitch, but Team Lasso is set to give it their best shot anyway.”
(NEW YORK) — From “mom brain” to “mommy brain,” “momnesia,” “baby brain” and “pregnancy brain,” the terms used to describe the brain fog many moms say they experience during pregnancy and after are plentiful.
One of the terms, “baby brain,” even made it into Prince Harry’s memoir Spare as he described how the use of the term once caused a confrontation between his wife, Duchess Meghan, and his sister-in-law, Princess Kate.
Despite how common it has become for moms-to-be and moms to be subjectively thought of as scattered or forgetful, a group of scientists says the idea of “mommy brain” needs to be reexamined and rebranded.
The term, they say, has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, one that undermines the positive changes that happen to women’s brains and cognitive abilities with motherhood.
“It’s complicated because you internalize or potentially expect to experience something like ‘mommy brain’ in a negative way,” Clare McCormack, Ph.D., a research assistant professor at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, told ABC News. “You might expect to experience fogginess and forgetfulness, so when an everyday moment of forgetfulness happens, there’s a label for it, it’s confirming what you thought you would see, and it can really become ingrained.”
McCormack and two colleagues, Bridget Callaghan, Ph.D., of the University of California Los Angeles, and Jodi Pawluski, Ph.D., of the University of Rennes in France, are the authors of a headline-making article published this week in JAMA Neurology titled, “It’s Time to Rebrand ‘Mommy Brain.'”
“The idea that motherhood is wrought with memory deficits and is characterized by a brain that no longer functions well is scientifically just not so,” the authors write.
In addition to current research not conclusively pointing to the idea of “mommy brain,” the authors say there also has not yet been enough research done on what exactly happens to the brain with pregnancy and motherhood.
“We just don’t have enough information, unfortunately,” Pawluski, a behavioral neuroscientist and psychotherapist, told ABC News. “And this is because I think people don’t support research that’s specific to parenting or women’s health, their maternal health, and that’s a bigger issue.”
Citing studies showing that 80% of pregnant women say they experience some form of memory loss or brain fog, Pawluski added, “There are so, so many questions that need [to be] answered.”
When research does happen, according to Callaghan, it often looks only at negative performance, or cognitive impairments.
“There hasn’t really been a fair test of maternal cognitive abilities because we haven’t actually been looking for the cognitive advantages that pregnancy might pose,” said Callaghan, an assistant professor of psychology at UCLA.
Callaghan, Pawluski and McCormack led their own study that looked at the impact of pregnancy on long-term memory, and found pregnant women performed better cognitively than nonpregnant women.
“This is just one example of the ways that we can kind of think critically about how we’re assessing this phenomenon of mommy brain,” Callaghan said of the study, which was published in 2021. “And when we do, we find evidence of cognitive advantages to pregnancy, which is more consistent with what we see in the animal literature.”
Callaghan said she was inspired by her own pregnancy to start researching some of the benefits of becoming a mom.
“When I looked up any symptom I had during pregnancy, it was like, ‘Your body falls apart. Your mind falls apart when you’re pregnant,'” she said. “I knew that wasn’t the case based on my own experience of pregnancy and seeing other people.”
Callaghan continued, “It’s really important as scientists, and as female scientists, that we try and set the record straight about what the experience of pregnancy and motherhood is actually like, and if female scientists aren’t going to do it, I don’t really know who is.”
All three experts spoke of a desire to “change the narrative” around the changes that come with pregnancy and motherhood, while also acknowledging the fact that the changes are big and do exist.
More recent research has shown that some of the long-lasting brain changes that happen during pregnancy appear to be as significant as the brain changes seen in adolescence, according to McCormack.
“I think of the transition to motherhood as a really important time that is actually all about adaptation,” she said. “So when we’re saying it’s time to ‘rebrand mommy brain,’ we’re really just saying it’s time to reduce focus on what is lost with motherhood, which has been the main focus for a long time, and to start paying attention more to what is gained and how it is gained.”
For example, Pawluski said moms and moms-to-be can think of how their changing brain helps them parent.
Pawluski’s research has shown that in mice, new connections in the brain develop in the postpartum period. She and other researchers have suggested that the brain’s new connections during and after pregnancy don’t necessarily come at the loss of anything else, but are simply the brain adapting to new needs, i.e. parenthood.
“We don’t want motherhood and the brain to immediately be thought of as a deficit,” she said, adding, “I mean, a pregnant person’s brain changes so that they can very quickly learn how to care for a baby because they’ve invested nine months into making it, their whole body and life has been invested into it.”
The experts also described an even more urgent reason more research is needed on brain changes during pregnancy, citing high rates of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.
In the United States, around one in eight women who have given birth experience postpartum depression, a depression that occurs after having a baby, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“If we take for granted that there’s this just kind of magical switch that happens when someone goes from not being a parent to being a parent, and when we don’t understand what goes on in this process, in the best of cases when it goes well, then we can’t help people effectively when they struggle,” McCormack said. “That’s one reason why it’s really important that we seriously try to understand how this process happens.”
Jordan directing ‘Creed III’ — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc./Ser Baffo
(NOTE LANGUAGE) Michael B. Jordan‘s played a few roles throughout his career, but his favorite was Oscar Grant in Fruitvale Station. In a feature interview with Rolling Stone, he recalled the reaction from French audiences when he and director Ryan Coogler brought the independent film to France.
“Motherf***ers standing up for 10 minutes. I didn’t know what the f*** was going on,” he recalls. “I never thought a n**** from North Jersey’d be able to have that impact.”
According to Michael, Oscar “is what Adonis [in the Creed series] is the most current iteration of.”
“He is Black in the world. He has to work through the aftereffects of what Killmonger was fighting for, and how Oscar wasn’t seen or respected,” he explains. “Adonis is trying to start a family, and dealing with childhood trauma, not knowing how to talk and not knowing how to express himself. Not knowing why he feels less, why doesn’t he feel worthy.”
Ironically, Michael faces similar struggles, working hard to “feel like I deserved the blessings that I have.” The actor admits he’s scared he’ll never feel like he’s accomplished enough.
“I don’t know if I want to be in a constant state of building. But I don’t see myself slowing down,” Michael says. “Even when I say I want to slow down — I do, in theory, [it] sounds good. But then, I’m so curious … I don’t want to leave any stone unturned. I want to squeeze every f***ing drop out of this.”
When asked if he’ll ever make time for a relationship, he says, “Of course I think about it, but I definitely want to try to be responsible with that, knowing how I wanted to be as present as possible. It’s gonna happen when it’s supposed to happen.”
(EAST LANSING, Mich.) — Three students were killed and five other students were injured by a gunman who opened fire at an academic building and the student union on the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing on Monday night, police said.
After an hours-long manhunt, police found the 43-year-old suspect, Anthony McRae, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound off campus.
All five injured students remain in critical condition Tuesday morning, officials said.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 14, 8:47 AM EST
No motive known
No motive is known, police said. The 43-year-old suspect, Anthony McRae, had no known connection to the university, according to authorities.
After police released the suspect’s photo, a tip from a caller led authorities to finding him, officials said.
A search warrant has been executed at a home, police said.
Feb 14, 8:14 AM EST
Michigan leaders call out US gun violence
At a news conference Tuesday, Michigan leaders called out the prevalence of U.S. gun violence.
Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said, “I cannot believe I am here again doing this 15 months later,” speaking at the scene of another Michigan school shooting, referring to the November 2021 mass shooting at Oxford High School where four students were killed and several others were injured.
“I am filled with rage that we have to have another press conference about our children being killed in schools,” she said.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer added, “We’re all broken by an all-too-familiar feeling.”
“We cannot keep living like this,” she said. “Our children are scared to go to school. People feel unsafe in their houses of worship or local stores.”
Feb 14, 6:00 AM EST
City manager thanks ‘brave’ first responders after ‘horrific act of violence’
Interim East Lansing City Manager Randy Talifarro described Monday night’s mass shooting at Michigan State University as a “horrific act of violence.”
“The City of East Lansing is mourning the devastating shooting that occurred on the campus of Michigan State University tonight,” Talifarro said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to all of the victims of this horrific act of violence as well as their family and friends. East Lansing and MSU have always shared in each other’s victories and each other’s losses. Tonight, we hold space while we grapple with this devastating loss of life together.”
Talifarro also thanked the “brave first responders who quickly responded to MSU’s campus.”
“Against every natural instinct they ran towards the sound of danger, seeking not their own wellbeing, but instead to protect and serve those in need,” he said. “And we stand shoulder to shoulder with everyone impacted by tonight’s events. Please know that you’re not alone in your grief. We stand with you and will be here as we seek to heal as a community.”
City buildings and offices, including city hall, the public library and the district court, will be closed to the general public on Tuesday. Essential city employees will be reporting to work.
Drop-in counseling services will be available for members of the community at the East Lansing Hannah Community Center beginning at 9 a.m. ET.
(NEW YORK) — Consumer prices rose 6.4% last month compared to a year ago, continuing a months-long slowdown of price increases despite blockbuster job growth that revealed an economy running hotter than expected, government data on Tuesday showed.
The data marked the seventh consecutive month of smaller price hikes. In December, year-over-year inflation was 6.5%.
Inflation has fallen significantly from a summer peak but is more than triple the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
The Fed earlier this month imposed the latest in an aggressive string of borrowing cost increases as it tries to slash price hikes by slowing the economy and choking off demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the U.S. economy into a recession.
So far, the economy has largely defied an anticipated slowdown.
The economy added a staggering 517,000 jobs in January, more than double the employment growth a month prior and well above the breakneck pace of some 400,000 monthly jobs added on average last year, according to government data released earlier this month.
In turn, the unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, the lowest figure since 1969.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last week that the central bank’s fight against inflation has “a long way to go,” citing the jobs data.
Speaking at The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., Powell said the “extraordinarily strong” job figures took the Fed by surprise.
“It kind of shows you why we think this will be a process that takes a significant period of time,” he added.
Still, the Fed has transitioned to a slower pace of rate hikes in recent months, suggesting confidence that the central bank has begun to tame inflation.
Over the next three years, consumers expect inflation to fall to 2.7%, hovering just above the central bank’s target, the New York Federal Reserve found in a survey released on Monday.
The combination of strong hiring and easing inflation has buoyed hopes among some economists that the U.S. could avert a recession.
A report released by the International Monetary Fund last month predicted that U.S. economic growth would cool to 1.4% this year from 2% last year, but it found the U.S. could avoid a downturn.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen rejected recession fears in an interview last Monday with ABC News’ Good Morning America, saying the economy remains “strong and resilient.”
Many consumers, however, remain pessimistic.
Four in 10 Americans say they’re worse off financially since Biden became president, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released earlier this month. The figure marks the highest share of discontented respondents since the outlets began conducting the poll 37 years ago.
Home sales fell for the 11th consecutive month in December, reaching their lowest rate since November 2010, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Meanwhile, U.S. retail sales fell in December, ending the typically busy holiday shopping season with a whimper.
(EAST LANSING, Mich.) — Michigan State University student Dominik Molotky was in class on Monday evening when he heard a gunshot in the hallway, just outside the door.
“I was sitting next to the nearest door and thank god that my fight-or-flight response kicked in because, right when that first gunshot went off, I booked it to the far corner of the class,” Molotky, a senior, told ABC News in an interview Tuesday on Good Morning America.
A couple seconds later, the gunman entered the classroom and fired “three to four more rounds,” Molotky said.
“I was ducking and covering,” he recalled. “I think one of the students in my class got hit.”
When the gunfire stopped for “30 seconds to a minute,” Molotky said, he and his classmates started breaking open a window so they could escape.
“There was glass everywhere,” he added. “We broke open the window and climbed out of there, and I booked it back to my apartment.”
Molotky and other students recounted their horrifying experiences as the mass shooting unfolded at multiple locations on MSU’s main campus in East Lansing, Michigan. At least three people were killed and five others were wounded, police said. The suspect — identified as a 43-year-old man with no known ties to the university — was later found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police.
MSU graduate student Graham Diedrich said he was working at the writing center in the university’s library on campus when he heard police sirens outside. He noticed other students looking at their cellphones with concern, so he checked his email and found a message from the university offering advice on what to do during a mass shooting: “Run, hide, fight.”
“That’s when we kind of knew what was going on,” Diedrich told ABC News in an interview late Monday.
Diedrich said he never heard any gunshots, but he and other students decided to barricade themselves in a study room in the back of the library for safety. They stacked chairs, tables and a shelving unit to block the glass door and windows.
“We wanted to protect ourselves and make sure that there was no glass, no way that you could see into the room,” he added. “We dimmed the lights.”
Diedrich said they were told by the university and police to shelter in place. They were still barricaded in the library when Diedrich spoke to ABC News.
“I didn’t think that it would happen to me. But living in America, you know, you always have to live under the assumption that this will happen to you. It happens to people every day in this country, and we have to consider why,” he said. “It’s not unique, but it’s a lot different when it happens to you.”
MSU students Luke Restrepo and Riley Dorfman said they were in their apartment when they noticed a scene of “absolute chaos” outside their window — police cars speeding by and people running for their lives.
“I called my mom and she was in shock, she was terrified,” Restrepo told ABC News in an interview late Monay. “You never want your kid to call you and say: ‘Oh hey, by the way, the school is under attack, it’s getting shot up a block away from me and I cant guarantee my safety.'”
Dorfman added: “The fact that this has been going on for three hours now and I have to constantly call my mom every 20 minutes to hear her crying, hoping I’m OK, it’s not OK. It shouldn’t happen.”
