Elton John recently announced he’s adding one more date to his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour — his final tour ever — and fans think it’s going to be a pretty huge festival gig.
Elton kicked off the speculation when he shared a tease on his Instagram Story, “One final date to announce…,” followed by another post that read “Rocket Man is incoming.”
According to NME, fans on social media were quick to guess he was teasing an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival. BBC’s Glastonbury Twitter feed seemed to support, if not outright confirm, the speculation.
“We caught a stunning shot of @glastonbury on our webcam yesterday. Click the link below and hit ‘best shots’ to take a look…,” they tweeted. When fans click the link they are met with a webcam shot of the festival’s Pyramid Stage, with a rocket flying above it, an apparent reference to the Rocket Man.
The timing of the appearance certainly could work with Elton’s schedule. Glastonbury is set to take place the weekend of June 21 to 25 and right now there is a gap in his schedule during that time. He has a June 18 show set for Glasgow, Scotland, then a break until a show in Paris June 25.
Taylor Swift‘s cat Olivia Benson is reportedly worth a lot of money. How much, you may ask? A new celebrity pet list estimates little Miss Olivia is worth $97 million.
All About Cats published its year-end Ultimate Pet Rich List that tells us which pets are the world’s wealthiest and most influential. Coming in third place was Taylor’s Scottish fold.
The website crunched data from Instagram, such as number of followers and likes, to determine how much money a famous pet could potentially earn.
As for how this little kitty is worth nearly $100 million, All About Cats explains, “With a whopping $97 million net worth, Olivia has found success outside of the world of Instagram influencing. The Scottish Fold earned her fortune starring alongside her owner in several music videos, has crafted her own merchandise line, and has had cameos in many big-budget ads, including for the likes of Diet Coke and Ned Sneakers.”
It should be stressed Olivia is third on this list. As for the two acts who beat her, the honor goes to first-place finisher Gunther VI the German shepherd at $500 million and Nala Cat in second place with $100 million.
Hopefully all that fame, money and fortune isn’t going to Olivia’s head.
Taylor got Olivia in 2014 and named her after Mariska Hargitay‘s character on Law & Order: SVU.
As we inch closer to 2023, more and more year-end lists are coming out of the pipeline. The latest roundup comes from PETA, who had a special award for Harry Styles.
The organization said the time when Harry was pelted by chicken nuggets onstage was this year’s “Best Viral Moment for Animals.”
PETA shared footage of the moment to their Instagram; the video shows the singer being hit by cold chicken nuggets during one of his August shows at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Harry seemed amused by what was thrown at him — until the crowd told him to eat the nuggets.
“I don’t eat chicken, sorry,” he told the audience. “I don’t eat meat.” He also said he wouldn’t eat the nuggets because they were cold and old.
PETA said Harry “rejecting” the nugget and revealing he doesn’t eat meat is what made the moment worthy of a year-end accolade. “Each person inspired to go vegan by the superstar will save the lives of nearly 200 animals per year,” the organization claimed.
Chris Janson announced his upcoming Heavy & Western Tour this week, and fans will only have to wait days before the shows kick off. The trek launches December 17, with opening acts Tim Montana and Shane Profitt set to join in on the fun. Visit Chris’ website for a full list of dates and details.
LoCash are playing the halftime show for Thursday night’s New England Patriots versus Buffalo Bills game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The game, and a portion of the halftime show, will air on Amazon Prime video.
Chris Stapleton, Kelsea Ballerini, Carly Pearce, Old Dominion and Alan Jackson are all among the stars that have contributed items to the second annual ASCAP Foundation Silent Auction. Donations made at the auction will benefit music education and talent development programs across the U.S. Bidding is open through December 16; you can check out the items available on CharityBuzz.com.
It sounds like we may be getting some new music from Blondie, if you believe Johnny Marr. During an appearance on The Lineup with Shaun Keaveny podcast, the former The Smiths guitarist revealed he’s written a new song for the band.
Johnny previously wrote the song “My Monster” for Blondie and he now shares, “I’ve written another new one for the new, current record that they’re recording,” adding, “I don’t know whether it will end up on the album, you never know. But they seemed to really like it.”
Johnny says hearing Debbie Harry singing his lyrics is “a new level of wow for me because they are my lyrics, Debbie’s singing my lyrics.”
The new song is called “Spectral Eyes,” but Marr says “they took so long recording it” he recorded it himself as a B-side on a 7-inch. He adds, “I wasn’t about to put it on an album, just in case.”
Lucasfilm has finally revealed a title for its fifth Indiana Jones film — and the final one starring the man in the hat himself, Harrison Ford. A new teaser for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny not only shows off Ford as an octogenarian Indy — thanks to digital de-aging tech, it also reveals what adventures Indy had in between the canonical films.
The plot reportedly centers on Nazis who were recruited by both the U.S. and Russia to help them in the Space Race.
As fans had hoped, John Rhys-Davies appears again as Indy’s loyal pal Sallah. “I miss waking up every morning wondering what wonderful adventure the new day will bring to us,” he muses as men of a certain age often do.
“Those days have come and gone,” Indy replies. “Perhaps,” his old friend retorts slyly, “Perhaps not.”
Phoebe Waller-Bridge apparently plays Indy’s goddaughter, who clearly has knack for swashbuckling. We also get peeks of co-stars Boyd Holbrook, playing the heavy, and a grizzled Antonio Banderas.
As Jones adventures through the ages — the film spans from the ’40s to 1969 — he says in voiceover, “I don’t believe in magic. But a few times in my life I’ve seen things. Things I can’t explain.” At this point, he apparently reveals on screen the movie’s titular MacGuffin.
“And I’ve come to believe it’s not what you believe, but how hard you believe it,” he says.
The action-packed teaser also has a great reversal callback to an iconic scene in 1980’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. While Indy uses his famous whip to subdue a room full of baddies, they respond as he did to that Cairo swordsman: They pull their guns and blast away.
Lucasfilm is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
Styles P and Jadakiss have rapped back to back on a number of songs throughout their careers, but now they’ll be displaying their collaborative skills during a special show in their hometown state.
The rappers, part of the rap group The Lox, will take the stage for an event titled Back to Back: Masters of the In & Out Flow.
Styles and Jada initially announced the show last month, noting they “wanted to do something special to close out the year.” That post promised updates about the lineup while calling for potential sponsors.
A new post, shared on both of their social media accounts Thursday, details the more than 40 organizations that have stepped up to help sponsor the event.
Back to Back: Masters of the In & Out Flow is set for December 16 at New York City’s Irving Plaza. It will start at 8 p.m. ET; doors open an hour earlier.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering updating its blood donation policy, which currently places some restrictions on blood donations from sexually active gay and bisexual men.
In a statement, an FDA spokesperson said, “While we can’t comment on what might be in the content of the guidance, we can say that the screening policy we put forward will be gender neutral and science-based.”
The announcement on Wednesday was made on the eve of World AIDS Day, a day to spread awareness of and dismantle the stigma associated with the disease.
Public health experts and advocates said relaxing restrictions doesn’t only help battle stigma but could also help address future blood shortages.
“The plan for the FDA to revise its donation guidelines is absolutely a step in the right direction because what it does is it’s going to move the criteria from a population-centered approach to a risk-approach,” Dr. Perry Halkitis, dean of Rutgers School of Public Health whose research focuses on HIV and disparities in the LGBTQ population, told ABC News.
A ban on gay and bisexual blood donors began during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, which primarily affected gay and bisexual men. The FDA banned all donations from men who have sex with men in 1985 in response to the crisis.
This restriction remained in place until 2015, when the policy was changed to allow such donors to give blood if they abstained from sex for one year. In 2020, amid severe blood shortages during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA shortened the abstinence period to 90 days.
“At the time of the initial epidemic, we had no way of identifying and testing for AIDS and HIV,” Ayako Miyashita Ochoa, an adjunct professor at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs whose research focuses on HIV-related health disparities, told ABC News. “What radically shifted over the decades is that testing came online a long time ago, So, at the point in which we were able to identify the virus, I believe that the lifetime deferral became outdated.”
If a policy change is implemented, gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships can donate without abstaining from sex. It follows several other Western countries that have recently dropped bans or eased restrictions including the United Kingdom, France, Greece and the Netherlands.
Activists said these restrictions are based solely on identity rather than individual risk because the ban even applies to gay men who are monogamous, test HIV negative and practice safe sex.
“There is a perception that being a gay or bisexual person is in and of itself unsafe,” Sarah Warbelow, the legal director at Human Rights Campaign, told ABC News. “We have to differentiate between what are behaviors that place people at risk — and that’s all people at risk –” and identity based restrictions.
“Not every gay man is the same, not every bisexual man is the same, not every straight person is the same,” Halkitis added. “And so recognizing that people are — within each population — diverse is a much better way to assess the risks that people take and then deciding based on people’s risk.”
The American Red Cross and the American Medical Association have both supported a risk-based approach to donor eligibility.
The FDA said there is no “specific timeline” for the update because the agency is currently collecting and analyzing data from multiple sources. However, in a statement to ABC News, the FDA says the evidence analyzed so far will “likely support a policy transition” that focuses screening blood donations based on each person’s HIV risk.
In 2020, the FDA launched a study called ADVANCE to look into alternative solutions to its current policy. The FDA is currently reviewing research from the American Red Cross, OneBlood and Vitalant to determine if eligibility based on an individual’s risk can replace the current time-based deferral system while maintaining the safety of the blood supply.
Despite the growing research on HIV/AIDS, as well as the success in tackling and treating the illness, the shame and stigma against the LGBTQ community remains.
“As LGBTQ leaders and medical experts have been saying for years: bans and restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men are rooted in stigma, not science,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD.
She continued, “Giving one set of rules to some people, and another set of rules to others, based purely on identity, is blatant discrimination. This fight is not over until all LGBTQ Americans who want to donate blood are met with the same protocols as other Americans.”
Experts say the updated policy will also help address the national blood shortage and, in turn, save lives. In January 2022, the American Red Cross said it was facing its worst blood shortage in more than a decade.
A 2014 study co-authored by Miysahista Ochoa found that eliminating the ban could increase the donation supply by 2% to 4%, bringing in more than 615,000 pints of blood every year.
“That isn’t a small amount,” she said. “That 2 to 4% count is roughly calculated to a million lives saved.”
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Jon Favreau‘s beloved 2003 Christmas movie Elf introduced fans to Buddy, the human raised by Santa’s elves — and he introduced moviegoers to his traditional North Pole take on spaghetti.
As the character, Will Ferrellloaded a bowl of pasta with maple syrup, chocolate sauce, crumbled Pop-Tarts and just about every other sweet you can buy before digging in — and thanks to HelloFresh, you can now make it yourself.
Starting on December 5, the company will offer as one of its shippable meal kits Buddy The Elf Spaghetti, which includes a package of Colavita pasta and everything else you’ll need to recreate the “iconic” dish, “from sweet ingredients to a step-by-step recipe card!”
The kit sells for $14.99 and is limited to two packages per order while supplies last.
Meghan Trainor has to impress a really tough critic before she releases new music: her son, Riley.
Speaking to Britain’s Capital FM, the singer revealed she gauges a song’s worthiness by watching her toddler’s reaction to it. “My first song that I danced with him to was called ‘Takin’ It Back’,” she recalled. “… He loved it!”
That song was also the title track of her newest studio album. Continued Meghan, “I would just hold him and we’d swing and sway and every time it stopped, he’d [get upset].”
Meghan revealed her son is now a big fan of her songs. “Every time my songs come on the speaker, he goes, ‘Mama!’ Like, he definitely knows [it’s me] and then we’ll play other people and he doesn’t say that,” she said.
Meghan added her son takes the cuteness factor up a notch whenever he decides to walk “up to the speaker and go ‘Mama!'” “Like, he thinks I’m trapped in there…,” she continued. “That’s my boy!”
Meghan and husband Daryl Sabara welcomed Riley in 2021. The singer hasn’t been coy about the fact that she’s trying to give her toddler a sibling and hopes to have a large family one day.
