Lisa Marie Presley, the only daughter of music legend Elvis Presley and his then-wife Priscilla, has died, ABC News confirms. She was 54.
“Priscilla Presley and the Presley family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Lisa Marie,” Priscilla’s publicist said in a statement. “They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.”
Earlier on Thursday, Priscilla confirmed her daughter had been rushed to the hospital. TMZ reported first responders answered a 911 call about a possible cardiac arrest at her Calabasas, California, home and that CPR was given to Presley to restore her pulse.
As the only daughter of Elvis, Lisa Marie grew up in the spotlight, but her personal life kept her there: She was married four times, including her infamous marriage to Michael Jackson in 1994. Their relationship, which many griped was only for publicity, ended in less than two years.
In 1988, she married musician Danny Keough, and had twins Riley and Benjamin with him; Benjamin took his own life in July 2020. Riley Keough is a successful actress, appearing in such projects as The Girlfriend Experience and Zola.
Presley married die-hard Elvis fan Nicolas Cage in August 2002, but that marriage also lasted less than two years.
In 2006, Presley married Michael Lockwood. Her longest marriage to date, the couple welcomed twin daughters Harper and Finlay in 2008. Presley and Lockwood parted ways in 2016, though their divorce wasn’t finalized until 2021.
Over the years, Presley tried to follow in her father’s footsteps, releasing the record To Whom It May Concern in 2003, which featured a song called “Savior” co-written with Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan. In 2005, Lisa Marie released Now What; Storm & Grace dropped in 2012.
On Tuesday evening, Presley and her mother attended the Golden Globes, where Austin Butler picked up a trophy for portraying her late father in Elvis.
(SELMA, Ala.) — Severe weather devastated parts of Alabama, including Selma, on Thursday as multiple tornadoes tore through the state.
At least six people were killed due to severe weather in Autauga County, outside of Montgomery, the local sheriff’s office confirmed to ABC News. No further details were immediately available.
A tornado also delivered “significant damage” to the city of Selma, according to the mayor’s office.
A “large and extremely dangerous” tornado struck Selma at 12:20 p.m. local time, according to the National Weather Service.
Most of Selma’s streets are closed due to downed power lines and trees, according to the mayor’s office.
All Selma students are reported to be safe and at their schools, the office added.
The tornado in Selma is one of at least 23 twisters reported across Alabama on Thursday. More tornadoes are expected as a line of severe storms moves through Georgia and the Carolinas Thursday night.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a state of emergency for six counties — including Dallas County, which encompasses Selma, and Autauga County — “that were in the path of Mother Nature’s wrath,” the governor tweeted Thursday evening.
Ivey said she will be monitoring the severe weather system “to determine if an expanded state of emergency is needed.”
Selma, a famous focal point of the civil rights movement, is located in central Alabama and has a population of about 17,000.
ABC News’ Matt Foster and Melissa Griffin contributed to this report.
(CYRIL, Okla.) — Oklahoma police have arrested the caretaker of a 4-year-old girl who was reported missing after a postal carrier found her sister wandering alone outside on Tuesday, authorities said.
Local authorities began searching for Athena Brownfield Tuesday afternoon, when the postal worker discovered her 5-year-old sister near the children’s home in Cyril and notified police, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, which is also involved in the search.
Alysia Adams, 31, was arrested Thursday afternoon on two counts of child neglect, the agency said. The two sisters were reportedly in the care of Adams and her husband when the 5-year-old was found alone, police said.
Meanwhile, the search for Athena continues.
“The investigation into her whereabouts is active and ongoing,” the agency said Thursday.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol on Wednesday issued a missing and endangered person alert to people in a 15-mile radius of Cyril, located about 70 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.
Law enforcement is working to put together an exact timeline of when Athena was last seen, according to Brook Arbeitman, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
The location of the parents is “part of the ongoing investigation,” Arbeitman told reporters Wednesday.
“Right now our top priority is locating her and sorting out who’s responsible will come next,” Arbeitman said. “But we need to find this little girl.”
Arbeitman said whether the child is a victim of physical harm is “yet to be determined,” though she is considered in danger at this time.
“She’s a little child and she’s missing, and she’s on her own in the elements,” Arbeitman said.
Her sister did not require any medical care and currently is in protective custody with the state, Arbeitman said.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and soldiers from Fort Sill are among those assisting in the search, Arbeitman said. State troopers were conducting sonar searches of bodies of water in and around Cyril on Wednesday. Search dogs from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and drones from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs have also been employed in the search.
Volunteers also helped conduct a grid search, looking in vacant houses and local waterways, police said.
Arbeitman said authorities are finding items in town that “could be relevant” and helpful to the case, though did not elaborate.
“We are finding things that we hope might give us clues,” she said.
Law enforcement is encouraging residents and businesses to share any surveillance footage they may have, including doorbell cameras, as well as to search their properties.
Athena is described by authorities as being 3 feet tall and 45 pounds with light brown hair and blue eyes. She is believed to have been recently wearing a butterfly hoodie.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations at 800-522-8017 or tips@osbi.ok.gov.
(NEW YORK) — Teachers are speaking out days after a 6-year-old allegedly shot a teacher at a Newport News, Virginia, elementary school.
Trayvon Thompson teaches kindergarten at a public school in Los Angeles County. The 22-year-old is in his first year of teaching and he said when he first heard about the shooting, which reportedly took place last Friday, he was “shocked” and immediately had questions.
“My students are 6. I was just like, it really puts it into perspective. Like, OK, if he can do that, that makes it a little bit scarier because what if … one of my students were to do that?” Thompson told “Good Morning America.”
According to Newport News police, a 6-year-old student, who has not been identified, allegedly brought a gun from home to Richneck Elementary School on Friday, Jan. 6, and opened fire, striking Abigail Zwerner, a 25-year-old first grade teacher at the school, in the hand and chest.
Authorities described the incident as an “intentional” act.
The incident is the latest in a spate of other school shootings, which have roughly doubled in the last 10 years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Zwerner, who according to police managed to usher her students to safety even after being shot, was taken to a local hospital following the incident.
On Monday, Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said the 25-year-old was in stable condition.
After learning about the incident, Thompson took to TikTok to share his thoughts. “I was really shocked and I wanted to see how other people felt about it, how it made them feel, if it would make them scared to go to school in a way,” he said.
Of his post, Thompson told “GMA,” “I did mention the fact that if a school shooting were to happen in a school I worked at, that I would deeply consider quitting. I don’t really blame anyone if they would quit because of [a] school shooting or would say, ‘You know what, let me not be a teacher due to it.'”
Teachers across the U.S. have been leaving the profession in droves, and last fall, 45% of public schools reported they had at least one vacant teaching position, according to data from NCES.
Educators have cited stressors such as burnout, mental health struggles, school safety, low pay, funding cuts and a lack of respect as reasons many are leaving, or are considering leaving, the education field.
Marisa Palermo is also an elementary school teacher at a Connecticut public school and has been teaching for the last nine years. She said this year is the first time where she’s considered the idea of leaving her profession, one that she loves.
“This is something that teachers should never ever have to even worry about happening coming into school, just the same as students should never have to worry about being harmed in school either,” Palermo, 30, said.
“I was pretty angry that [Zwerner] was even put into this situation for this to happen,” the fifth grade teacher added.
Teachers say change is needed
Palermo opened up Monday in her own TikTok post, sharing a strong message. “Administration WAKE UP,” she captioned her video.
Other teachers chimed in on Palermo’s post, sharing their own viewpoints.
“I have been a para educator for 13 years [at] a public high school. Every year has gotten worse, and scarier. People don’t understand who don’t work in it,” wrote one TikTok user.
“Teacher here of 29 years and you said exactly what we’re all saying. If I was starting out as an educator now, I would never stay in this career,” another added.
Both Palermo and Thompson said safety concerns are always at the back of their minds, especially since gun violence has become a leading cause of death for children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“As a teacher, my number one concern always is keeping my students safe and that comes before anything else to me, like academics, anything. So watching the way things have been going down in our country, it is a thought that I have going into work every single day,” Palermo said.
Thompson said he’s even adopted a safety precaution in his daily routine.
“I’ve started carrying pepper spray with me,” he said. “It’s just something that at first I was carrying it in case somebody tried to do something to me while I was walking down the street but now … if someone were to come in with a gun, at least that’s something I do have on deck. Maybe I can’t reach anything to throw but maybe I can get to my pepper spray quickly enough and maybe I could spray with it.”
Palermo and Thompson are also of the opinion that schools need to provide more mental health resources — and not just for students.
“What schools will do, they’ll provide counselors and resources for students, but sometimes I feel like they overlook teachers and the trauma that teachers go through when it comes to shootings,” Thompson said. “They should think about teachers heavily as well.”
“What I’m seeing right now in schools, and what I’m hearing from other educators as well, is our students are crying out for help, and nobody’s really listening, it feels like — and surely nobody is listening to teachers,” Palermo said.
Palermo suggested one way of effecting change is to bring teachers to the table and not only rely on lawmakers and administrators who may be far removed from today’s classroom to make school-related policy decisions.
“I think one of the biggest changes that can be made, other than money of course … is having teachers be part of this decision-making process at the school level but also at state levels to help our country just improve,” Palermo said.
Parents have also been speaking out in the aftermath of the alarming incident. They include Joselin Glover, whose son is a fourth grade student at Richneck Elementary.
“It’s just really hard to process that this happened to us,” Glover told “GMA.”
“[My son] said to me on our walk out, ‘I don’t want to come back here. I never want to come back here. I want to forget this happened.'” Glover recalled her child telling her after she picked him up from school on Friday.
Michele Nordeen, the president of the Newport News Council PTA, which includes Richneck Elementary, told “GMA” the local PTA council is standing by teachers and students in the community following Friday’s shooting.
“I reached out to the Richneck teachers just to let them know that we’ve had a huge outpouring across from PTAs across the country offering support, and I wanted to let them know that even though the child and the injured teacher had been receiving all of the attention, that I wanted to let them know that we were also thinking of them,” Nordeen said.
In a statement released last Friday, Nordeen and Virginia PTA president Pamela Croom also said in part, “Schools should be safe places that celebrate learning. We cannot become numb to these continued acts of violence in our schools. We must all play a role in working collaboratively to address violence in our schools and create a strong safety-net of mental health support for our children that helps them learn how to channel anger and frustration in a healthy manner.”
The Arcs have released a new song called “Sunshine,” which will appear on the Dan Auerbach-led band’s upcoming album, Electrophonic Chronic.
The track was co-written by and features late band member Richard Swift, who passed away in 2018. Electrophonic Chronic is dedicated to Swift’s memory.
Electrophonic Chronic, the sophomore follow-up to 2015’s Yours, Dreamily, arrives January 27. It also includes the previously released songs “Eyez,” “Keep on Dreamin'” and “Heaven Is a Place.”
To celebrate the album’s arrival, Auerbach and The Arcs member and Electrophonic co-producer Leon Michels will play a run of DJ sets, taking place January 14 in Paris, January 28 in New York City and February 3 in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Auerbach is gearing up to tour Europe with The Black Keys this summer in support of their 2022 album, Dropout Boogie. In May, he and Patrick Carney will play a one-off U.S. headlining show in Santa Barbara, California, as well as SoCal’s BeachLife Festival.
Stevie: Erika Goldring/WireImage; Billy: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks continue to add dates to their co-headlining tour.
Billed as “two icons – one night,” the latest concert is set to go down October 7 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. Tickets go on sale January 20 at 10 a.m.
The joint shows seem to be turning into a full-fledged tour. Billy and Stevie kick things off March 10 at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium, with confirmed dates in Arlington, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri; Foxbourgh, Massachusetts; and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
A new musical with a score by David Byrne and FatboySlim is headed to Broadway later this year, Variety reports.
Hear Lies Love, which originally played at New York’s Public Theatre 10 years ago, and had runs in London and Seattle, is described as a “disco pop” musical that puts audiences in an immersive setting. Its story is a dramatic telling of the Philippines’ former first lady Imleda Marcos‘ rise to power and then her hard downfall.
The musical will begin preview performances at the Broadway Theatre on June 17 and then open July 20.
The immersive nature of the show has been an issue with making it to Broadway, but according to the announcement, the plan is to “transform the venue’s traditional proscenium floor space into a dance club environment, where audiences will stand and move with the actors.” Because of this, fans will be able to buy both standing and seating options to see the show.
Paul McCartney is the latest rock star to share his thoughts on the passing of Jeff Beck, who died Tuesday at the age of 78.
Saying he was saddened to hear of Beck’s passing, McCartney called him “a lovely man with a wicked sense of humor who played some of the best guitar music ever to come out of Great Britain.”
He added Beck “was a superb technician and could strip down his guitar and put it back together again in time for the show. His unique style of playing was something that no one could match.” He shared, “I will always remember the great times we had together. He would come over to dinner at our place or he and his wife, Sandra, would host an evening at their house.”
Finally Sir Paul offered, “I will cherish forever the moments we spent together. Jeff Beck has left the building and it is a lonelier place without him.”
Meanwhile, Queen‘s Brian Mayalso shared his thoughts on the loss, posting a five-minute video to social media in which he says he’s struggling to deal with Beck’s passing.
“This is such an extraordinary loss and he was such an extraordinary person, it’s hard to process the fact that he’s not here, apart from process what I would like to say,” he shared. “Jeff was completely and utterly unique and the kind of musician who’s impossible to define. And I was absolutely in awe of him.”
May added, “The loss is incalculable. It’s so sad not having him in the world anymore. I still can’t quite compute it in my head.”
After a four-year hiatus, Selena Gomez is back on the ‘gram. Selena famously quit the app, citing mental health reasons, and presumably handed it over to her team to manage over the years. Now she’s back to posting selfies and asked fans in her new update, “Wait can you tell I’m back on Instagram ?”
Another Pitbull music video surpassed 1 billion YouTube views. His 2011 anthem “Give Me Everything,” featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer, officially became his fourth entry into YouTube’s Billion Views Club — joining his Kesha collab “Timber,” his “Rain Over Me” collab with Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez‘s “On The Floor.”
Lizzo wants to join the world of Avatarand explored video filters that turn her into a Na’vi, one of the blue aliens that star in the James Cameron franchise. “Tell James Cameron I’m ready…,” she captioned a TikTok video of her chilling in the ocean.
Charlie Puth teased an all-new song on TikTok, which he revealed is a mashup of two previously scrapped tracks that worked together perfectly when he began chasing a new idea. Although he didn’t reveal a title, the song is about a girl who keeps leading him on by relying on him during times of need.
Billboarddid the math on last year’s vinyl sales. Turns out that one out of every 25 vinyl sales was a Taylor Swift record. Roughly 43.5 million vinyl records were sold in 2022 and Taylor sold the most — 1.695 million albums.
Britney Spears is a fan of Ally Brooke — and the feeling is definitely mutual. Britney shared a video of her dancing to Ally’s “Higher,” which the former Fifth Harmony member shared to Twitter. “Omggg,” she wrote in all capital letters. “I love you @BritneySpears.” She also included several crying and dancing emojis.
Music fans have another chance to see Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks in concert together. The two will take over M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, on October 7. Ticket sales for the new show begin Friday, January 20, at 10 a.m. ET on LiveNation.com. This becomes their seventh overall joint show.
Michael Bublé was in charge of watching his four kids and joked he definitely wasn’t in over his head. “Father of 4. Wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s absolute chaos but it’s our chaos,” he captioned the videos of his youngsters throwing their toys all over the place. “I think I’m killing it!” he added.
Billboard did the math on last year’s vinyl sales. Turns out that one out of every 25 vinyl sales was a Taylor Swift record. Roughly 43.5 million vinyl records were sold in 2022 and Taylor sold the most — 1.695 million albums.
Andy Grammer revealed new single “These Tears,” which is due out Friday, is about losing his mother when he was 25. He revealed, “I miss her everyday. I wrote this song to let her know that I’m gonna be alright.” He added in the caption, “Letting go is hard to do.”
Pink paid tribute to her late father James Moore, who died a year ago. Sharing a tender moment of her as a toddler interacting with her dad as he’s playing the guitar, she wrote, “Miss you dad.” She soundtracked the snap to Don McLean‘s “And I Love You So.”
Ed Sheeran has been voted the most kissable ginger in the U.K., besting Prince Harry for the coveted title. Wales Online reports ginger beer brand Fentimans polled 1,000 people for its updated rankings, and Ed beat Prince Harry with 17 percent of the vote. Fifteen percent of respondents wanted to smooch Harry.
