Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
As previously reported, Dolly Parton is making a rock album, and she’s lined up A-list artists like Paul McCartney, John Fogerty, ex-Journey frontman Steve Perry and Steven Tyler to join her. Well, now she’s revealed at least one song we can expect to hear on the album.
During an appearance on the Rachael Ray Show, Dolly shared that she has recorded a cover of The Beatles‘ “Let It Be” with McCartney for the record, which will be titled Rock Star.
“I’ve got a lot of wonderful, iconic songs that people love and wonderful, iconic singers joining me on them,” she shared.
Dolly also revealed that she’s already recorded one of Elton John’s hits with him and finished recording a song with Stevie Nicks, noting that she is still hoping to get Cher to agree to be on the album
Edward Berthelot/Getty Images — Michael Hickey/Getty Images
(NOTE LANGUAGE)Shailene Woodley is opening up about life after her split from NFL player Aaron Rodgers last year.
In an interview with Net-a-Porter, the actress reflected on the previous year of her life, telling the outlet, “It was hard to film because I was going through the darkest, hardest time in my life; it was winter in New York, and my personal life was s*****, so it felt like a big pain bubble for eight months.”
Woodley, who during that time filmed Three Women, the Showtime adaptation of Lisa Taddeo’s 2019 book which studies the sex lives of three women, added that the job helped her work through the challenging days.
“I was so grateful that at least I could go to work and cry and process my emotions through my character,” she said.
Woodley shared that the transformative time, which also included spending time in Europe, helped her to learn to live in the moment. “The way that I take care of myself now looks very different to the way I used to,” she said.
Woodley, 31, and Rodgers, 39, announced their engagement in February 2021 after they began dating in 2020. Reports that the pair split surfaced in February 2022.
(WASHINGTON) — Classified documents have been found in the home of former Vice President Mike Pence and turned over to the FBI for review, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
A lawyer for Pence conducted the search of Pence’s home in Indiana last week and found around a dozen documents marked as classified, sources said. The search was done proactively and in the wake of the news that classified documents from before he was president were found in Joe Biden’s home and old office at the Penn Biden Center, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
The Pence documents are undergoing a review by the Department of Justice’s National Security Division and the FBI, the sources said.
CNN first reported the discovery of classified materials.
In a letter sent last week to the National Archives, and obtained by ABC News, a representative for Pence wrote that Pence had engaged outside counsel on Jan. 16 to review records that were stored in his home. It was during that review that a lawyer found a “small number of documents that could potentially contain sensitive or classified information interspersed throughout the records.”
Pence’s lawyer and representative, Greg Jacob, wrote in the letter that the counsel was unable to provide an exact description of the folders or briefing materials because they did not review the contents after realizing they had potential classification markings.
“Vice President Pence immediately secured those documents in a locked safe pending further direction on proper handling from the National Archives,” Jacob, who is Pence’s designated representative for his records and also his former top lawyer during the administration, wrote in the letter.
Jacob asserted that Pence was “unaware” of the records being in his possession and was “willing to cooperate fully with the National Archives and any appropriate inquiry.”
In a second letter to the National Archives sent on Sunday, Jacob wrote that the Department of Justice requested direct possession of the documents and that Pence agreed to them taking possession, even though he was in Washington, D.C., at the time.
Jacob wrote that FBI agents came to Pence’s Indiana home last Thursday night to collect the documents. The transfer of the documents was facilitated by Pence’s personal lawyer, who conducted the prior review on Jan. 16.
In his letter, Jacob disclosed that there were four boxes containing administration papers, which included two boxes with papers with classified markings as well as “two separate boxes containing courtesy copies” of Pence’s vice presidential papers.
Jacob wrote he would deliver the boxes, which had been sealed, to the National Archives on Monday, Jan. 23.
Pence previously told ABC News’ David Muir that he did not retain any classified information after leaving office.
“Let me ask you, as we sit here in your home office in Indiana, did you take any classified documents with you from the White House?” Muir asked in a November interview.
“I did not,” Pence said then. Asked if he saw “any reason for anyone to take classified documents with them, leaving the White House,” he said, “There’d be no reason to have classified documents, particularly if they were in an unprotected area.”
The revelation makes Pence the third high-profile official to have classified material discovered at their residence in recent months.
Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was searched by federal agents in August after what the federal government said was a months-long effort to retrieve documents that they said he resisted handing over.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and asserted, without evidence, that he declassified the documents.
Biden’s attorneys have said his documents were “inadvertently placed” at his home and office, and emphasized cooperation with the Department of Justice. Biden’s lawyers stated they immediately turned over the documents to the appropriate authorities and consented to an FBI search of his Wilmington, Delaware, home on Friday.
But the president has been under fire for not disclosing the matter to the public sooner, as the first set of documents were found on Nov. 2 — just a week before the midterm elections.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to determine if any laws were broken in Biden and Trump’s handling of classified materials while out of office.
John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and former Department of Homeland Security undersecretary, said that in many cases it’s an “accident” that such material is taken out when an official leaves office.
“I suspect that because of the visibility that the Biden case and the Trump case have generated, that you have a large number of former government officials — whether they be former presidents or others — who are looking in their basement at boxes that they’ve stored there since the last government,” Cohen told ABC’s “Start Here” podcast.
But Cohen acknowledged then the process for handling the bulk of classified information is problematic and lacks a tracking system.
Only a small subset of classified material is required to undergo a sign-in and sign-out process, Cohen explained.
“The government over the last five, six, seven years has made strides in identifying behavior that could be suspicious on these government systems … But this idea that every classified paper document is being tracked? That’s just not how the system works,” he said.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Classified documents have been found in the home of former Vice President Mike Pence and turned over to the FBI for review, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
A lawyer for Pence conducted the search of Pence’s home in Indiana last week and found around a dozen documents marked as classified, sources said. The search was done proactively and in the wake of the news that classified documents from before he was president were found in Joe Biden’s home and old office at the Penn Biden Center, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
The Pence documents are undergoing a review by the Department of Justice’s National Security Division and the FBI, sources said.
Pence previously told ABC News’ David Muir that he did not retain any classified information after leaving office.
“Let me ask you, as we sit here in your home office in Indiana, did you take any classified documents with you from the White House?” Muir asked in a November interview.
“I did not,” Pence said then. Asked if he saw “any reason for anyone to take classified documents with them, leaving the White House,” he said, “There’d be no reason to have classified documents, particularly if they were in an unprotected area.”
CNN first reported the discovery of classified materials.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
James Taylor is the latest artist setting up shop in Las Vegas. Taylor and his All-Star Band have booked a five-night residency at The Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan.
The shows are confirmed for June 3, 4, 7, 9 and 10, with tickets going on sale to the general public Saturday, January 28, at 10 a.m. PT. There are also a variety of presales happening, including a fan and Citi presale on Wednesday, January 25, at 10 a.m. PT and an MGM Rewards presale kicking off Thursday, January 26, at 10 a.m. PT.
The Vegas shows are among a handful of dates Taylor currently has on the books for 2023. His next show is a February 25 concert in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He’s also set to play the Love Rocks concert in New York on March 9, Milwaukee Summerfest on June 24 and Tanglewood in Lennox, Massachusetts, July 3 and 4.
(ATLANTA) — The judge hearing arguments over whether or not to publicly release the report by the Georgia grand jury investigating efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election said Tuesday that he will take all arguments under consideration and “circle back” with a decision at a later date.
Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney heard arguments Tuesday regarding whether or not to publicly release the long-anticipated confidential report, which the grand jury submitted earlier this month, according to court records, after probing the matter for months.
“My proposal is that I think about this a little bit and then contact both groups,” McBurney said. “There will be no rash decisions.”
Earlier in the hearing, the district attorney leading the probe told the judge that she opposes the public release of the grand jury’s report.
“In this case, the state understands the media’s inquiry and the world’s interest,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told McBurney. “But we have to be mindful of protecting future defendants’ rights. We want to make sure that everyone is being fairly, and we think for future defendants to be treated fairly, it is not appropriate for this report to be released.”
“Decisions are imminent,” Willis said.
Donald Wakeford, a prosecutor in the DA’s office, also argued that release would be “dangerous” to the people “who may or may not be named in the report for various reasons.”
“It’s also a disservice to the witnesses who came to the grand jury and spoke the truth to the grand jury,” Wakeford said.
Prosecutors said that 75 witnesses were interviewed as part of the probe.
Thomas Clyde, a lawyer representing a coalition of media outlets that includes ABC News, urged Judge McBurney to order the release of the report based on existing case law and “a genuine public interest in what these jurors found.”
“We believe the report should be released now and in its entirety,” Clyde said. “It is not unusual for the [district attorney] … to release information during the progress of its case.”
Clyde cited several examples in which “special purpose” grand jury reports were made public, and argued that none of the material likely included in the report would justify keeping it sealed.
Though the grand jury does not have the ability to return an indictment, it can make recommendations concerning criminal prosecution. Another grand jury would bring any possible charges, should they be recommended.
The central question regarding the report: Did the grand jury recommend criminal charges for Donald Trump and his allies?
Attorneys for Trump said in a statement on Monday that they would not be participating in Tuesday’s hearing — and did not expect charge recommendations.
“On behalf of President Trump, we will not be present nor participating in Tuesday’s hearing regarding the possible release of the special purpose grand jury’s report,” said the statement. “To date, we have never been a part of this process. The grand jury compelled the testimony of dozens of other, often high-ranking, officials during the investigation, but never found it important to speak with the President. He was never subpoenaed nor asked to come in voluntarily by this grand jury or anyone in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.”
Attorneys in the statement said they therefore “assume that the grand jury did their job and looked at the facts and the law, as we have, and concluded there were no violations of the law by President Trump” — although there’s no indication if that’s true or not.
Willis officially launched the probe in February 2021, sparked in part by the now-infamous Jan. 2, 2021, phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump pleaded with Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” the exact number Trump needed to win Georgia.
Trump has repeatedly defended his call to Raffensperger, calling it “perfect.”
(ATLANTA) — The district attorney leading the Fulton County, Georgia, investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election told a judge Tuesday that she opposes the public release of the grand jury’s report on the probe.
Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney is hearing arguments regarding whether or not to publicly release the long-anticipated confidential report, which the grand jury submitted earlier this month, according to court records, after probing the matter for months.
“In this case, the state understands the media’s inquiry and the world’s interest,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told the judge. “But we have to be mindful of protecting future defendants’ rights. We want to make sure that everyone is being fairly, and we think for future defendants to be treated fairly, it is not appropriate for this report to be released.”
“Decisions are imminent,” Willis said.
Donald Wakeford, a prosecutor in the DA’s office, also argued that release would be “dangerous” to the people “who may or may not be named in the report for various reasons.”
“It’s also a disservice to the witnesses who came to the grand jury and spoke the truth to the grand jury,” Wakeford said.
Prosecutors said that 75 witnesses were interviewed as part of the probe.
Thomas Clyde, a lawyer representing a coalition of media outlets that includes ABC News, urged Judge McBurney to order the release of the report based on existing case law and “a genuine public interest in what these jurors found.”
“We believe the report should be released now and in its entirety,” Clyde said. “It is not unusual for the [district attorney] … to release information during the progress of its case.”
Clyde cited several examples in which “special purpose” grand jury reports were made public, and argued that none of the material likely included in the report would justify keeping it sealed.
Though the grand jury does not have the ability to return an indictment, it can make recommendations concerning criminal prosecution. Another grand jury would bring any possible charges, should they be recommended.
The central question regarding the report: Did the grand jury recommend criminal charges for Donald Trump and his allies?
Attorneys for Trump said in a statement on Monday that they would not be participating in Tuesday’s hearing — and did not expect charge recommendations.
“On behalf of President Trump, we will not be present nor participating in Tuesday’s hearing regarding the possible release of the special purpose grand jury’s report,” said the statement. “To date, we have never been a part of this process. The grand jury compelled the testimony of dozens of other, often high-ranking, officials during the investigation, but never found it important to speak with the President. He was never subpoenaed nor asked to come in voluntarily by this grand jury or anyone in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.”
Attorneys in the statement said they therefore “assume that the grand jury did their job and looked at the facts and the law, as we have, and concluded there were no violations of the law by President Trump” — although there’s no indication if that’s true or not.
Willis officially launched the probe in February 2021, sparked in part by the now-infamous Jan. 2, 2021, phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump pleaded with Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” the exact number Trump needed to win Georgia.
Trump has repeatedly defended his call to Raffensperger, calling it “perfect.”
Babyface and Sheryl Lee Ralph will warm up the crowd ahead of Super Bowl LVII. The stars have been tapped as entertainment for the event’s pregame show.
According to a press release, Babyface will sing “America the Beautiful.” Sheryl, who recently won an Emmy for her role in Abbott Elementary, will showcase her singing during a performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Also taking the stage is Chris Stapleton, who will sing the national anthem.
Super Bowl LVII will take place at the State Farm Stadium in Arizona on Sunday, February 12. The game will air on FOX and will feature a halftime show headlined by Rihanna.
Former child star Ke Huy Quan says he’s “ecstatic” about the pack-leading 11 Oscar nominations for Everything Everywhere All at Once, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for his own performance.
The actor called into Good Morning America Tuesday to revel in the good news, explaining he and the other members of his “EEAAO family” were watching the nominations together via Zoom.
He called the movie’s showing at the nominations unexpected, explaining, “… it was just this little movie that we shot for 38 days in Simi Valley. So to get this kind of recognition with 11 nominations … is absolutely incredible. None of us could have ever imagined this would happen. And yet here we are. So it’s a wonderful feeling. And I’m so, so happy [for] our family.”
Quan starred in Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom and The Goonies when he was a kid, but transitioned to work behind the camera when acting opportunities dried up. He said, “When I stepped away … all the dreams that I had of, you know, imagining one day of walking down the red carpet at the Oscars, I mean, those dreams dissipated, and they were so distant that I didn’t think they would ever come back. And so for me to be here today, to be nominated, it is so surreal. It’s an incredible feeling, honestly. And it goes to show that … dreams do come true, no matter how long you take.”
One big bonus of going to the big show? Reuniting with his Fabelmans-nominated Indiana Jones director, Steven Spielberg, like he did at the Golden Globes. “I just love that man so much,” Quan says. “So it’ll be incredible to see him and to give him a big hug at the biggest award show in the world!”
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department and eight other states filed a historic antitrust lawsuit Tuesday targeting Google over what they allege is the Big Tech giant’s monopoly over the online advertising market.
The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, aims to have Google’s dominance in the online ad marketplace broken up by having a court compel the company to divest its Google Ad Manager suite. They also seek an order from the court enjoining Google from further engaging in any of the anticompetitive practices outlined in their lawsuit.
“Having inserted itself into all aspects of the digital advertising marketplace, Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies,” according to the lawsuit. “The United States and Plaintiff States bring this action for violations of the Sherman Act to halt Google’s anticompetitive scheme, unwind Google’s monopolistic grip on the market, and restore competition to digital advertising.”
DOJ is joined in the lawsuit by California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Virginia.
“Competition in the ad tech space is broken, for reasons that were neither accidental nor inevitable,” the DOJ wrote in the lawsuit. “One industry behemoth, Google, has corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry by engaging in a systematic campaign to seize control of the wide swath of high-tech tools used by publishers, advertisers, and brokers, to facilitate digital advertising.”
Google is set to take in more than 26% of all digital advertising revenue this year, according to an analysis from data firm Insider Intelligence. In total, tech giants Google, Amazon and Facebook-parent Meta will take in about 64% of the $200 billion in digital ad revenue generated this year, the study found.
Google rebuked the lawsuit’s claims in a statement to ABC News.
“Today’s lawsuit from the DOJ attempts to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive advertising technology sector. It largely duplicates an unfounded lawsuit by the Texas Attorney General, much of which was recently dismissed by a federal court,” a spokesperson said.
“DOJ is doubling down on a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow,” the spokesperson added.
Google exploits a conflict of interest, the lawsuit alleges, since the company controls the technology used to both offer and purchase advertising space, as well as the largest ad exchange on which marketers are matched with publishers.
Further, the lawsuit accuses Google of using its market power to punish companies that purchase digital ads elsewhere and charge heightened fees for clients that buy ads on its platforms.
In turn, such “anticompetitive behavior” has forced potential competitors out of the digital advertising business and sidelined businesses that remain, the lawsuit said.
“Google has thwarted meaningful competition and deterred innovation in the digital advertising industry,” the lawsuit said.
