NBC’s Saturday Night Live returns on January 21 with its first new show of 2023, and Sam Smith has the honor of being this year’s first musical guest.
Sam, whose new album Gloria comes out January 27, is returning to the show for the first time since 2017. During that appearance, they sang “Too Good at Goodbyes” and “Pray.” This will be Sam’s third appearance on the show overall; their first came in 2014, when they sang “Stay With Me” and “Lay Me Down.”
There’s no word on whether or not Kim Petras will join Sam if they decide to sing “Unholy.”
Aubrey Plaza, most recently seen in the second season of The White Lotus, will host.
Tony Bennett is celebrating his friendship with Lady Gaga by looking back at some of the fun times they had together.
Taking to Twitter on Thursday, the legendary singer shared a photo of him and Gaga dressed to the nines while engrossed in a game of pinball. Bennett is the one trying to beat the game as Gaga stands to the side and watches him play.
“Playing a little pinball with Lady Gaga backstage in Vegas in 2019!” the crooner captioned the post.
While it is unknown when the photo was taken, Gaga famously invited Bennett to perform during the debut of her Las Vegas Jazz & Piano residency at Park MGM in 2019. The two duetted on Frank Sinatra‘s “The Lady Is a Tramp” and Irving Berlin‘s “Cheek to Cheek.”
The two have collaborated on two duets albums, Cheek to Cheek and Love for Sale. They performed a final time together in 2021 for the CBS special One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga.
Bennett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, has since retired from performing.
Neal Schon appears to be asserting his dominance when it comes to his band Journey. Despite his ongoing legal battles with bandmate Jonathan Cain, the guitarist insists in a recent tweet that he “won’t take orders” about the band from anyone.
“No one is going to dictate to me at this point what I can and cannot do in regards to JOURNEY,” Schon tweeted. “I haven’t been here and not here to take orders- never have and never will. It’s my band and I’ll own it as I should and make the right changes as needed.”
The post prompted one fan to ask him who was trying to “dictate” to him, with Schon responding, “Have a guess,” an indication he was talking about Cain. He also posted an image that read “narcissists act out with frustration, sulking, resentment and rage when things don’t go their way.”
As previously reported, Schon and Cain have been in the news a lot lately because of their legal battles. The most recent incident had Schon sending a cease-and-desist letter to Cain over a performance of “Don’t Stop Believin’” at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
More revelers have joined Eddie Murphy‘s holiday comedy Candy Cane Lane, which is bound for Prime Video.
A day after it was announced that black-ish alumna Tracee Ellis Ross and 22 Jump Street‘s Jillian Bell have joined the cast, came word from the streaming service that A Black Lady Sketch Show creator Robin Thede, former Saturday Night Live star Chris Redd, and Parks and Rec veteran Nick Offerman have also signed up.
Other cast additions include Reasonable Doubt’s Thaddeus J. Mixson, Would it Kill You to Laugh?veteran Madison Thomasand BlackAF‘s Genneya Walton, according to the streamer.
Plot details for the film are still under wraps, but the project was said to be based on the real-life holiday experiences of writer Kelly Younger.
Twenty One Pilots have announced a streaming event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the duo’s 2013 album, Vessel.
“We’re gonna show some behind-the-scenes videos, some old photos, play some songs,” frontman Tyler Joseph says of the virtual festivities. “We’re gonna celebrate 10 years of Vessel.”
During the stream, Twenty One Pilots will also be offering a reissued vinyl version of Vessel.
You can tune in to watch this Sunday, January 8, at 3 p.m. ET on YouTube.
Vessel was originally released January 8, 2013. Every song on the record has been certified either Gold or Platinum by the RIAA, a feat Twenty One Pilots also achieved with 2015’s Blurryface. Twenty One Pilots is the first group to have two completely RIAA-certified albums.
The most recent Twenty One Pilots album is 2021’s Scaled and Icy. In a New Year’s Eve post, Joseph shared that the Scaled and Icy era had concluded.
Jamie Lynn Spears recently revealed how big sister Britney Spears‘ fame impacted her mental health.
Jamie Lynn starred in the Wednesday premiere of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, in which celebrities undergo training similar to the U.S. Special Forces, and spoke about how she struggled with her self-worth.
The actress admitted that she feels like whatever she works hard for is invalid. “Growing up, my sister became famous — worldwide famous — when I was very young,” Jamie Lynn began.
While she said she is “so proud” of Britney and that she “love[s] her to death,” Jamie Lynn confessed she sometimes feels like she’s “never been able to have anything for myself.” During the episode, the actress was instructed to leave the past behind.
“I can be extremely proud of my sister but also have my own identity and be expected to be seen as my own person,” she said. “I struggle with self-esteem all the time and, as a parent, you really want to fake it because you don’t want to ever see your children feel the same feelings you feel.”
Jamie Lynn also suffered a breakdown during the episode when she was tasked with doing a backward dive into the ocean from a helicopter. The activity triggered a traumatic flashback to her daughter Maddie‘s near-fatal accident.
When Maddie was 8, her ATV was submerged in a pond and she almost drowned. Jamie Lynn said she was brought back to the exact moment when she dove into the water and was unable to pull her daughter to safety.
Maddie, who is now 13, survived and is doing well.
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX and streams the next day on Hulu.
Rolling Stone’s list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time has caused a lot of controversy since its release this week, and Gene Simmons has something to say about it.
A TMZ reporter asked the KISS frontman how he felt about being left off the list, to which he replied, “Well, that’s OK,” joking, “I was thinking of buying Rolling Stone.”
“Well, it’s skewed. You have to consider who’s popular and who’s not,” Simmons elaborated. “But if you really think about it, how good somebody sings may be part and parcel of what they do. For instance, if Jimi Hendrix, who had a long, well, actually, a short career, but he was very famous, would he make it on American Idol? How about Bob Dylan … And I wrote songs with Bob Dylan; I know the guy. Would he make it on American Idol?”
He also added, “How well you sing is not the most important thing. It’s, do you have style? Do you have a fingerprint that says, ‘I know that voice immediately’?”
Simmons insists artists shouldn’t really care about the list. “If you’ve got success, that’s enough,” he says. “Accolades and all that, you get that when you do a concert or when fans come up. That’s the best thing. To be on a poll by a magazine by people in the backroom, I don’t know how much that means.”
And Simmons also shared his thoughts on Ozzy Osbourne making the list at #112: “That’s a crime.”
Lately, Jimmie Allen and Callista Clark have been teasing “you think they’re ready for this?” on their socials. The posts include a photo of the two of them, back to back, with Jimmie looking off into the distance and Callista looking toward the camera.
Of course, Jimmie’s currently at #1 on the country charts with “down home,” and it’s not clear what his next single will be. Though his chart-topper is the lead single from his Tulip Drive album, he’s also released the non-album track “Lose You” and floated a song called “Smalltown Anthem” on his socials.
Callista, on the other hand, is the musical prodigy who scored a top 20 hit with her debut, “It’s ‘Cause I Am,” and released her full-length debut, Real to Me: The Way I Feel, in October.
While it sure seems like the two are gearing up for a collaboration, we’ll have to wait until Friday, January 13, to find out for sure, as their posts indicate.
Following Trevor Noah‘s exit in December after a seven-year run on The Daily Show, Comedy Central has announced the dates for the series of guest hosts who will be taking his spot behind the anchor desk.
Things kick off the week of January 17 at 11 p.m. with SNL vet Leslie Jones as host. The following week, comedienne and actress Wanda Sykes will take the chair, while a week later, comic D.L. Hughley will get his shot.
The week of February 6 will feature Chelsea Handler as guest host, followed by Sarah Silverman the week of February 13.
The dates for other already announced future fill-in hosts John Leguizamo, Al Franken, Hasan Minhaj, Kal Penn and Marlon Wayans will be forthcoming.
