A number of instruments played and signed by artists who performed at the two tribute concerts to late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins are going up for auction.
Among the items available include a Gibson Trini Lopez guitar signed by Foo frontman Dave Grohl and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic; the bass Led Zeppelin‘s John Paul Jones played with signatures from Jones, Novoselic and The Cars‘ Elliot Easton; an Eddie Van Halen “Frankenstein” guitar signed by Grohl, Novoselic, The Police‘s Stewart Copeland, Joan Jett and Kesha; the guitar Queen‘s Brian May played signed by Grohl, Copeland, AC/DC‘s Brian Johnson and Kesha; and a Nile Rodgers-signed Hitmaker Fender Stratocaster.
The Gibson Trini Lopez and the Rodger-signed Strat are the highest-priced and are expected to fetch between $6,000 and $8,000.
Auction house Julien’s Auctions will be putting the instruments up for sale via its upcoming Icons & Idols: Rock ‘n’ Rollevent, taking place November 11-13. As with the concerts, proceeds from the auction will benefit the organizations MusiCares and Music Support.
“MusiCares was honored to be the U.S. non-profit beneficiary for the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts and we are proud to partner with Julien’s Auctions on this incredible collection,” says Laura Segura, executive director of MusiCares. “We are dedicated to helping the humans behind the music because music gives so much to the world, and this auction continues the beautiful celebration of Taylor’s life, and his immense contribution to the music industry.”
Just weeks after being flamed online for allegedly being rude to staffers at a NYC restaurant, James Corden is on his back foot again, apologizing for “inadvertently” stealing a joke from Ricky Gervais.
According to the U.K. Mirror, Corden’s The Late Late Show highlighted a Monday night monologue bit in which Corden made fun of the idea of Twitter being seen as a “town square.” However, internet users — and Gervais himself — were quick to point out it was nearly a carbon copy of a joke Ricky made in his 2018 stand-up show, Humanity.
After jabbing the “brilliant” joke Corden told, Ricky tweeted — then deleted — a comment denying he’d given permission to use the material, the U.K. Mirror reports.
On Tuesday, Corden acknowledged the situation, tweeting fans, “Inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke on the show last night, obviously not knowing it came from him. It’s brilliant, because it’s a Ricky Gervais joke. You can watch all Ricky’s excellent specials on Netflix.”
Though Corden’s tweet had replies turned off, many retweeted it, making their voices heard. “Inadvertently told a WORD-FOR-WORD joke (AKA: STOLE),” read one, who called Corden “hackish and unfunny.”
Others sounded off on Corden’s Instagram, even to an older video of Harry Styles singing “Happy Birthday” to Corden months back at Madison Square Garden. “You stole Ricky’s jokes mate. Wtf,” read one of many comments.
Gervais and Corden have traded barbs over the years — in some cases at public events. The Office creator jabbed Corden’s Cats while hosting the Golden Globes in 2020. His Netflix show After Life also took a couple of shots at the “Carpool Kamikaze” star, who seemed to touch off the feud when he sent up Gervais on his U.K. show Horne and Corden back in 2009.
OneRepublic’s Top Gun: Maverick tune is now topping the charts.
The group’s “I Ain’t Worried” has reached number one on Billboard’s Adult Pop Airplay chart.
The song marks the first time OneRepublic has topped that chart since “Counting Stars” spent seven weeks at number one in 2013-2014. It’s the Ryan Tedder-fronted group’s fourth chart-topper on the tally overall.
On the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the song has reached number six so far, marking OneRepublic’s fourth top-10 on that list and first top-10 hit since “Counting Stars.”
December’s a big month for Neil Young fans. Not only is the rock legend releasing a box set commemorating the 50th anniversary of his landmark Harvest album, we’re also getting a film documentary to go along with it.
Neil Young: Harvest Time “takes viewers on an intimate journey to Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch in Northern California for the ‘Harvest Barn’ sessions, to London for an iconic performance with the London Symphony Orchestra, and to Nashville where the then 20-something Neil Young worked on various tracks of this signature album,” according to the distributor, Trafalgar Releasing.
The film, shot between January and September 1971, includes footage of Young creating and recording Harvest classics like “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold,” as well as other songs from the RIAA-certified four-times Platinum album. You can watch a clip from the film now.
“I was 24, maybe 23 and this album made a big difference in my life,” Young says of Harvest. “I had a great time and now when I listen to it, I think I was really just lucky to be there. I hope you enjoy this story, which is Harvest Time, and which talks about everything that happened.”
Neil Young: Harvest Time will debut December 1 in select theaters worldwide, with an encore presentation on December 4. Tickets go on sale November 10 at NeilYoungHarvestTime.com.
The Harvest 50th Anniversary Edition box set drops on December 1, just 24 hours before Neil Young: Harvest Time opens. You can order it now in two physical versions offering the same content — a three-CD/two-DVD set and a collection featuring two vinyl LPs, a vinyl seven-inch disc and two DVDs.
(WASHINGTON) — In the wake of the 2020 election, state and local election officials have faced a wave of threats and misinformation, prompting mass resignations up and down their ranks — and stoking fear among some experts that their replacements would put partisan loyalties above the free and fair administration of the election.
In the weeks and months after the 2020 vote, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School found that one-third of election workers reported feeling unsafe because of their job. Nearly one-fifth of respondents listed threats to their lives as a job-related concern.
ABC News reported in June 2021 that dozens of election administrators at the state and local level had resigned their posts at an alarming rate in places like South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. In August, ABC News reported that persistent threats and misinformation had prompted a “second wave” of resignations in at least nine states.
Election worker threats
In Georgia, two election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, were forced into hiding after Rudy Giuliani and conservative media outlets accused the mother-daughter duo of conspiring to commit election fraud. The two testified about their experience before the Jan. 6 committee.
Stephen Richer, the Republican chief elections officer in Maricopa County, Arizona, faced an onslaught of death threats after overseeing a controversial audit of the 2020 election, which lead him to cease attending political events for fear of his safety.
In response to the wave of threats targeting election workers, the Justice Department launched a task force focused on these complaints — but results have been paltry, state and local officials have said. In August, the task force said it had reviewed “over 1,000” reports of threats — though only 11% had met the threshold for federal criminal investigation. Seven cases have been charged — one of whom was convicted and sentenced in October to 18 months in prison.
Georgia’s office of secretary of state has launched a text message alert notification tool for election workers to report threats or security issues.
With so many election officials leaving their jobs, democracy experts fear their departures will leave an “institutional knowledge” gap about election administration, and their replacements may harbor partisan motivations.
Indeed, as ABC News reported in January, many Republican-led efforts to recruit new poll workers took on a partisan bent. More recently, ABC News reported that allies of former President Donald Trump have used false election claims to recruit ex-military members as poll workers.
Voting machines
Electronic voting machines became a target of many falsehoods and disproven conspiracy theories in the wake of 2022, with Republican activists falsely claiming that certain devices were somehow manipulated to switch votes from Trump to President Joe Biden, among others.
Dominion Voting Systems, one of the nation’s largest voting machine purveyors, filed multiple lawsuits against conservative news outlets and Trump allies over the promulgation of “outlandish” conspiracy theories involving its product.
Tina Peters, a county recorder in Mesa County, Arizona, was indicted in May 2021 on charges associated with a security breach in her office. Peters, a Trump supporter and election denier, allegedly allowed an unauthorized person to obtain voter machine logs and a forensic copy of its hard drive. The documents later emerged on the internet. Peters has pleaded not guilty.
Concerns over voting software and hardware will be front and center again in 2022, and the Ballotwatch team will be on the lookout for both unfounded claims and legitimate vulnerabilities with election infrastructure.
Nevada Secretary of State, Republican Barbara Cegavske, recently approved a proposal to allow counties to hand-count votes this fall after Nye County, based on unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, decided earlier this year to abandon the Dominion voting machines it had relied on for years.
Access to the vote
Long lines and access to polling locations have long been the scourge of democracy advocates — and 2022 will likely be no different. Republican-led state legislatures have enacted dozens of laws restricting voting access since 2020, including many that would repeal 2020 exceptions for the covid-19 pandemic.
Since the beginning of 2021, lawmakers have passed at least 42 restrictive voting laws in 21 states, according to the Brennan Center. Among those laws, 33 contain at least one restrictive provision that is in effect for the midterms in 20 states.
ABC News recently reported that the promulgation of election-related threats has made some schools and churches reconsider whether it is safe to continue serving as polling locations, prompting concerns among some election officials that voters may face more difficulty casting their ballots in November and beyond.
Voter intimidation and poll watchers
Partisan poll watchers representing both Republicans and Democrats have observed elections for decades. But in the run-up to the 2020 election, former President Trump’s allies sought to weaponize these actors for their own political benefit, demonstrating behavior that some democracy advocates say amounted to voter intimidation.
Ahead of the midterms, more of the same appears to be underway.
In Arizona, for example, multiple cases of alleged voter intimidation at drop box locations have already been referred to the Justice Department. Complaints described individuals loitering near the drop box locations, filming, and photographing voters as they returned their ballots and, in some cases, taking photographs of the voters’ license plates.
On Tuesday, a federal issued a temporary restraining order to prohibit some people accused of voter intimidation from gathering near ballot boxes and surveilling voters, ruling that observers must remain at least 75 feet away from drop boxes and banning open carry and body armor within 250 feet.
Drake had fans fooled Wednesday night after posting a fake Howard Stern interview, where he dished on his X-rated video preferences and the possibility of marriage.
Taking to Instagram, the “Sticky” rapper shared a clip of the supposed interview, which started off with a question about the type of X-rated videos he enjoys watching.
“Top. Highest tier of top givers. That’s really what I’m consistently on a daily basis tuned into,” Drake said. “Those are the real superstars of the world to me.”
The conversation then turned to Drake’s current dating life and whether or not he could see himself committing to one woman and getting married, to which he answered, “I’m sure I could.”
“Right now I feel like I get into this habit of dating four or five women to make one woman,” he shared. “I like two things from this girl and then I like what this girl does for a living.”
“I think that, eventually, once all this is said and done for us and that addiction of work and success and forward movement is over, I feel like we’re all going to need something real,” he went on. “Hopefully, it’s not too late…I honestly don’t know. Hopefully, I find somebody.”
“Biggest thing is I need to be inspired,” the Certified Loverboy continued. “I don’t know how to find that with the porn question in there. I just need all those things.”
Drake captioned the clip, which also featured 21 Savage, “Absolutely NO filter with the incomparable @sternshow thanks for having us.”
The interview was apparently a promo gimmick for Drake and 21 Savage’s collaboration album, Her Loss, which is scheduled to be released Friday, November 4. He also posted a fake Vogue cover and a fake clip of an NPR Tiny Desk Concert.
(An earlier version of this story did not note the interview was promotional in nature for Drake’s forthcoming album. This version has been updated accordingly.)
(NEW YORK) — The Brooklyn Nets and their all-star point guard Kyrie Irving have announced that each of them will donate $500,000 to the Anti-Defamation League after Irving tweeted a link to a film that critics say promotes antisemitic tropes.
“The events of the past week have sparked many emotions within the Nets organization, our Brooklyn community, and the nation,” the joint statement between the two parties read. “The public discourse that followed has brought greater awareness to the challenges we face as a society when it comes to combating hate and hate speech. We are ready to take on this challenge and we recognize that this is a unique moment to make a lasting impact.”
“To promote education within our community, Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets will each donate $500,000 toward causes and organizations that work to eradicate hate and intolerance in our communities,” the statement continued. “The Nets and Kyrie Irving will work with ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), a nonprofit organization devoted to fighting antisemitism and all types of hate that undermine justice and fair treatment for every individual. This is an effort to develop educational programming that is inclusive and will comprehensively combat all forms of antisemitism and bigotry.”
Last Thursday, Irving tweeted a link to the 2018 movie Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America on Amazon Prime Video. The synopsis states that the film, based on a 2015 book of the same name, “uncovers the true identity of the Children of Israel.” Several Jewish rights organizations, including the American Jewish Congress and the Anti-Defamation League, have denounced the film as antisemitic.
In the latest statement released by Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets, Irving maintained that he never meant to hurt anyone.
“I oppose all forms of hatred and oppression and stand strong with communities that are marginalized and impacted every day,” said Kyrie Irving. “I am aware of the negative impact of my post towards the Jewish community and I take responsibility. I do not believe everything said in the documentary was true or reflects my morals and principles. I am a human being learning from all walks of life and I intend to do so with an open mind and a willingness to listen. So from my family and I, we meant no harm to any one group, race or religion of people, and wish to only be a beacon of truth and light.”
The Nets and the NBA had previously released statements maintaining their intolerance for antisemitism and any form of hate speech.
Nets owner Joe Tsai said in a tweet Saturday he wants to “sit down” with Irving and ensure he understands “it is wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion.”
The NBA similarly said it intends to continue working with all members of the NBA community to “ensure that everyone understands the impact of their words and actions.”
However, former athletes and Jewish leaders argue the team and the league need to go a step further, calling for them to hold Irving accountable through disciplinary measures.
“I think that the Nets should have suspended him,” Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress, told ABC News. “They’re part of the problem, and they need to take action.”
Representatives for Irving, the NBA and Brooklyn Nets did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comments.
Several former professional basketball players, including Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller, have also spoken out on the controversy, denouncing Irving’s tweet. Barkley stated he believes Irving should be suspended, citing past precedent.
Then-Sacramento Kings guard Rajon Rondo was suspended in 2015 after directing an anti-gay slur at an NBA referee. Last year, the Miami Heat’s Meyers Leonard received a $50,000 fine and was suspended for one week after making an anti-Semitic slur during a livestream while playing video games.
Irving’s teammate Kevin Durant was also fined last year for his use of homophobic and misogynistic language in Twitter messages to actor Michael Rapaport.
“We’ve suspended people and fined people who have made homophobic slurs. And that was the right thing to do. If you insult the Black community, you should be suspended or fined heavily,” Barkley said on TNT’s Inside the NBA.
“When you’re somebody as great at basketball as him, people are going to listen to what you say. I blame the NBA, he should have been suspended,” Barkley added.
Asked why Irving hasn’t been disciplined for his tweet, Nets general manager Sean Marks told reporters: “I think we are having these discussions behind the scenes. I honestly don’t want to really get into those right now…Really just trying to weigh out exactly what the best course of action is here.”
The Anti-Defamation League, a New York-based Jewish civil rights organization, initially applauded the NBA and the Nets via Twitter “for responding quickly to condemn the promotion of #antisemitic hate speech.”
ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt, who has been in ongoing conversations with the NBA, said he is looking forward to engaging Irving more on the matter.
“I think its more ignorance, not intention. But that doesn’t diminish his accountability,” Greenblatt told ABC News. “We need an ongoing process of discussion and dialogue. And I’m hoping that will happen.”
Irving has since deleted his original tweet but until the latest statement, defended his right to share the link to the documentary.
“I’m not going to stand down on anything I believe in,” Irving said during Saturday’s postgame press conference “I’m only going to get stronger because I’m not alone. I have a whole army around me.”
He noted that he is “not a divisive person when it comes to religion” and embraces “all walks of life.”
“Did I do anything illegal? Did I hurt anybody?” he added. “Did I harm anybody? Am I going out and saying that I hate one specific group of people?”
He confirmed he watched the film but denied endorsing it and said he shared the link after finding the movie during an internet search.
Season 1 of HBO’s original drama series The Last of Us will debut January 15, the cabler announced Wednesday. The series follows Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal as Joel, a smuggler ferrying teenaged Ellie, portrayed by Bella Ramsey, out of a dangerous quarantine zone and across a post-apocalyptic United States. Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker — who respectively voiced Ellie and Joel in the game and its sequel — have also joined the cast, which includes Nick Offerman, Jeffrey Pierce, Anna Torv and Terminator: Dark Fate‘s Gabriel Luna…
Father Stu, Mark Wahlberg‘s R-rated religious biopic that hit theaters back in April, will be re-released to theaters December 9, this time with a PG-13 edit, titled Father Stu: Reborn, according to People. The film stars Wahlberg as Stuart Long, a burned-out boxer who becomes a priest after a string of bad decisions and events force him to realize he’s on a different life path. Mel Gibson and Jacki Weaver also star. The R-rated cut of Father Stu is currently streaming on Netflix…
Parks and Recreation‘s Aubrey Plaza has been tapped for a role in Disney+’s WandaVision, Variety reports, following Heartstopper‘s Joe Locke‘s addition to the cast. They join Kathryn Hahn in the Marvel Studios series in which Hahn will reprise her WandaVision role of Agatha Harkness. Plaza and Locke’s roles, as well as exact plot details, are being kept under wraps. Emma Caulfield Ford is also set to reprise her role of Dottie from WandaVision in the new series, which is set to debut in 2023. Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News…
Netflix has released the official trailer for the Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini dark comedy Dead to Me, which returns for its third and final season Nov. 17. It comes more than two years after season two ended on a cliffhanger when Jen and Judy — played respectively by Applegate and Cardellini — got into a major car accident after being struck by drunk-driving Ben, played by James Marsden. The trailer reveals the pair survived the crash, though Jen ends up in a neck brace while once again trying to avoid being found out as the murderer of Ben’s twin brother, Steve, also played by Marsden… (Trailer contains uncensored profanity.)
Netflix has picked up Neil Gaiman‘s The Sandman for a second season, according to a tweet from Gaiman himself. The series follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the dream king, played by Tom Sturridge. The cast also includes Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, the ruler of Hell, joining Vivienne Acheampong, Boyd Holbrook, Charles Dance, Asim Chaudhry and Sanjeev Bhaskar…
(HOUSTON) — At least three people were shot in Houston on Wednesday during what police described as a human smuggling operation.
Officers from the Houston Police Department were dispatched to an IHOP restaurant on West Sam Houston Parkway in the Westchase neighborhood of the Texas metropolis at around 11:30 a.m. local time, after receiving at 911 call about a shooting. Upon arrival, the officers found two men — one of whom had been shot in the arm — who “told them that they had escaped from a human smuggling situation at a nearby hotel,” according to Houston Police Commander Jonathan Halliday.
“While speaking to the victims, they told us that the shooting happened earlier in the morning approximately two hours west of here, in the greater San Antonio area, but the exact location is not known,” Halliday said during a press conference Wednesday. “We believe they were being smuggled and they were brought to this area after the shooting occurred.”
The pair had escaped the hotel room and ran to the nearby IHOP, where they called 911 for help. They were both taken to a local hospital, though only one was wounded, according to Halliday.
Two other men, who also escaped after being shot in the arm and leg, fled the scene and later showed up at a local hospital for treatment, but it was not immediately clear how they got there, Halliday said.
All three gunshot victims — each of them male and approximately 30 to 40 years old — were hospitalized in stable condition and are expected to survive. There were initial reports of a fourth gunshot victim, but so far police have been unable to confirm that information or locate the individual, according to Halliday.
“We continue to check hospitals for anyone else that might be connected to this incident,” he told reporters. “At this point, we believe one of the three people shot may possibly be one of our suspects but final determination hasn’t been made yet.”
Officers stopped two vehicles that were leaving the hotel and detained the occupants — a total of nine people, all adult males, according to Halliday, who added that “we’re not sure which of them are victims and which are possible suspects at this time.”
Police believe the victims were being held in the hotel room since they were brought there sometime on Wednesday morning. Officers cleared the room, with no one else found inside, according to Halliday.
The identities of all those involved have not been released and Halliday said their nationalities were not yet known.
“I don’t know where they were coming from or where they were going,” he told reporters.
No charges had been filed as of Wednesday, but Halliday noted that the investigation is still in the “very early” stages.
Halliday said there is “no public safety threat” and that police are not actively searching for any additional suspects at this time.
Investigators from the Houston Police Department remain at the scene, while agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were en route Wednesday, according to Halliday.
“We’ll be interviewing all the parties detained with our HPD detectives, with the Homeland Security agents to try and, you know, figure everything out, determine who’s suspects, who are victims and get them the appropriate resources,” he added.
Drake is holding nothing back in his latest interview, dishing on his X-rated video preferences and the possibility of marriage.
Taking to Instagram Wednesday, the “Sticky” rapper shared a clip of his October 26 interview with Howard Stern, which started off with a question about the type of X-rated videos he enjoys watching.
“Top. Highest tier of top givers. That’s really what I’m consistently on a daily basis tuned into,” he said candidly. “Those are the real superstars of the world to me.”
The conversation then took a turn to Drake’s current dating life and whether or not he can see himself committing to one woman and getting married, to which he answered, “I’m sure I could.”
“Right now I feel like I get into this habit of dating four or five women to make one woman,” he shared. “I like two things from this girl and then I like what this girl does for a living.”
“I think that, eventually, once all this is said and done for us and that addiction of work and success and forward movement is over, I feel like we’re all going to need something real,” he said. “Hopefully, it’s not too late…I honestly don’t know. Hopefully, I find somebody.”
“Biggest thing is I need to be inspired,” the Certified Loverboy continued. “I don’t know how to find that with the porn question in there. I just need all those things.”
Drake captioned the clip, which also featured 21 Savage, “Absolutely NO filter with the incomparable @sternshow thanks for having us.”
The interview comes just days before Drake and 21 Savage’s collaboration album, Her Loss, which is schedule to be released Friday, November 4.
