That’s R.E.M.‘s “Losing My Religion” video in the spotlight, being viewed one billion times.
The iconic clip has officially hit the milestone count on YouTube, 11 years after it was first uploaded to the site. It joins fellow ’90s videos Nirvana‘s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Guns N’ Roses‘ “November Rain,” AC/DC‘s “Thunderstruck,” Metallica‘s “Nothing Else Matters,” The Cranberries‘ “Zombie,” 4 Non Blondes‘ “What’s Up,” and Whitney Houston‘s “I Will Always Love You” in the billion views club.
“Losing My Religion” was initially released in 1991 as the lead single off R.E.M.’s album Out of Time. Its video won Video of the Year at the 1991 MTV VMAs.
News of “Losing My Religion’s” billion views achievement coincides with the anniversary of R.E.M.’s breakup. The band announced that they were splitting up on September 21, 2011.
Sleeping with Sirens has announced a run of intimate U.S. shows celebrating the upcoming release of the band’s new album, Complete Collapse.
The outing begins October 11 in Nashville and concludes October 28 in Fresno, California. Tickets go on sale this Friday, September 23 at 10 a.m. local time.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit SirensMusic.co.
Complete Collapse is due out October 14. It includes collaborations with Underoath‘s Spencer Chamberlain, Dorothy, Royal & the Serpent and Charlotte Sands.
You can also catch Sleeping with Sirens play the much-anticipated When We Were Young festival next month in Las Vegas.
Maren Morris’ Humble Quest is up for Album of the Year at the 2022 CMA Awards, but she says that she might not attend the ceremony this year — even though she’s grateful for the nomination.
“Honestly, I haven’t decided if I’m gonna go,” Maren tells the Los Angeles Times in a new interview. “I’m very honored that my record is nominated. But I don’t know if I feel [at] home there right now.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Maren spoke about her recent feud with Jason Aldean’s wife, Brittany, regarding some transphobic comments that Brittany made in an Instagram reel. It’s not the first time that Maren has spoken out against racism, sexism or other hate-filled speech and actions in the country music industry.
“So many people I love will be in that room, and maybe I’ll make a game-time decision and go,” the singer says of the CMAs. “But as of right now, I don’t feel comfortable going.”
She went on to say that she’s at peace with that decision, especially because she’s previously felt uncomfortable at awards shows.
“I think I was more sad going last year,” Maren admits. “Some nights are fun. Others I’m just crawling out of my skin. I’m not good at those events because I’m awkward. But this time I kind of feel peaceful at the notion of not going.”
The 2022 CMA Awards will air live from Nashville November 9 on ABC. Luke Bryan is set to co-host the show alongside Peyton Manning.
Whitney Houston’s movie debut, The Bodyguard, is heading back to theaters for its 30th anniversary.
The special screenings — scheduled for Sunday, November 6 and Wednesday, November 9 — will also include Whitney’s videos for two songs from the soundtrack — “Queen of the Night” and “I Will Always Love You” — immediately following the film.
Tickets for the screenings go on sale September 28 at 10 a.m. ET via TheBodyguard30.com.
The Bodyguard stars Whitney as Rachel Marron, a superstar actress and singer who hires a bodyguard, played by Kevin Costner, after being threatened by a stalker. The two eventually fall in love, but their romance is ill-fated. The film grossed over $400 million worldwide.
To go along with the 30th anniversary of the film, a vinyl version of The Bodyguard soundtrack will arrive November 18, with a “smoky lavender” colored vinyl available exclusively at Target. You can pre-order it now.
The Bodyguard soundtrack, featuring Whitney’s megahit version of Dolly Parton’s song “I Will Always Love You,” has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide, making it the top-selling soundtrack album of all time. It also won the Grammy for Album of the Year.
As previously reported, the Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody hits theaters December 21.
Doja Cat is not picking up the glow sticks and poi balls in her new album. The Grammy winner shut down talk that her next studio effort is inspired by “German rave culture.”
Doja told CR Fashion Book last week that she was working on her next album and they quoted her saying, “I’m very into this ’90s German rave kind of vibe right now and it’s really fun. I know that’s kind of the trend at the moment but I loved that stuff as a kid and now that I can express it… That’s kind of a hint to the album. Rave culture, not house.”
Those comments made waves on social media — so much so that the “Kiss Me More” singer clarified the comments in a series of tweets on Tuesday.
“im not doing a german rave culture album you guys,” she wrote. “i was pranking the outlet that interviewed me about it.”
Doja then followed up in a series of twotweets, saying “I’m doing an R&B album” and “Straight R&B no rap at all.”
Then, she got silly and further muddied the waters about her forthcoming work. “Yall I was lying. I’m doing an experimental jazz album. I thought it would be funny to steer you into believing i was doing r&b cuz i knew it would work but I’m doing experimental jazz now, honest truth,” she cracked.
Doja then tweeted in a voice note that she is actually “putting out a rock album,” named Rock Out Vol. 1: The Abyss 5000, that will have “emo jams.”
“I’m entering a rock phase,” she said. “… I’m gonna spit flames from my mouth on stage.”
It’s assumed this, too, is a joke. It is currently unknown when Doja will be issuing her fourth studio album.
(NEW YORK) — For 20 years, Donald Trump and his family enriched themselves through “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentations,” New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges in a new lawsuit that accuses the Trumps of “grossly” inflating the former president’s net worth by billions of dollars and cheating lenders and others with false and misleading financial statements.
The civil lawsuit, filed Wednesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, seeks a $250 million judgment and a prohibition on any of the Trumps leading a company in the state of New York.
Among other allegations, the suit claims that the former president’s Florida estate and golf resort, Mar-a-Lago, was valued as high as $739 million, but should have been valued at around one-tenth that amount, at $75 million. The suit says that higher valuation was “based on the false premise that it was unrestricted property and could be developed for residential use even though Mr. Trump himself signed deeds donating his residential development rights and sharply restricting changes to the property.”
“We found that Mr, Trump, his children, and the corporation used more than 200 false asset valuations over a ten year period,” James said at a press conference announcing the charges.
James is referring her findings to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who could possibly open a criminal investigation into bank fraud, according to a footnote in the lawsuit.
Through “persistent and repeated business fraud,” the Trumps convinced banks to lend money to the Trump Organization on more favorable terms than deserved, according to the lawsuit, which named the former president, three of his adult children, the company, and two of its executives, Allan Weisselberg and Jeff McConney.
“Mr. Trump made known through Mr. Weisselberg that he wanted his net worth on the Statements to increase — a desire Mr. Weisselberg and others carried out year after year in their fraudulent preparation of the Statements,” the lawsuit said. “The scheme to inflate Mr. Trump’s net worth also remained consistent year after year.”
Weisselberg last month pleaded guilty to unrelated criminal charges of tax evasion brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has been conducting a parallel investigation.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and has called the investigation a politically motivated “witch hunt” by an attorney general he has called “racist.” James, who is black, rejected a settlement offer from the Trump Organization last month to resolve the matter, sources told ABC News.
“Today’s filing is neither focused on the facts nor the law — rather, it is solely focused on advancing the Attorney General’s political agenda,” Trump attorney Alina Habba said in a statement Wednesday. “It is abundantly clear that the Attorney General’s Office has exceeded its statutory authority by prying into transactions where absolutely no wrongdoing has taken place. We are confident that our judicial system will not stand for this unchecked abuse of authority, and we look forward to defending our client against each and every one of the Attorney General’s meritless claims.”
During a deposition last month, Trump repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The lawsuit includes numerous instances in which Trump invoked the Fifth when asked to explain how the company calculated the value of certain properties. In a civil trial, jurors would be able to draw a negative inference about Trump declining to answer.
The attorney general’s investigation began in March 2019, after Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified before Congress that Trump’s annual financial statements inflated the values of Trump’s assets to obtain favorable terms for loans and insurance coverage, while also deflating the value of other assets to reduce real estate taxes.
Trump valued his Trump Tower apartment at $327 million, James said Wednesday. “No apartment in New York City has ever sold for that amount, she said, adding the inflated valuation was based on exaggerated square footage despite Trump knowing it wasn’t that big.
The suit also said a 2012 statement valued rent-stabilized apartments in the Trump Park Avenue property as if they could be rented at market value. As a result, units collectively worth $750,000 were valued at nearly $50 million, according to the lawsuit.
Trump Turnberry, a golf club in Scotland, was valued at nearly $127 million, but the suit said that since it opened in 2017 the golf course has operated at a loss each year.
“As a result, using values for the golf course ranging between $123 million and $126.8 million based on employing the Fixed Asset Scheme is materially false and misleading; the golf course should have been valued at a much lower figure,” the attorney general’s suit said.
“The examples I laid out barely scratch the surface,” James said Wednesday.
“The magnitude of financial benefit derived by Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization by means of these fraudulent and misleading submissions was considerable,” the suit said.
Tom Hardy proved he’s been keeping up with his training from his days in the 2011 martial arts movie Warrior: He reportedly took gold after competing in the 2022 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Open Championship in Milton Keyes, England on Saturday.
According to the local paper Teeside Gazette, the blue belt quietly entered the Oakgrove School and competed under his birth name Edward Hardy —but that didn’t stop fans and fellow competitors from spotting the Mad Max: Fury Road star.
“I recognized him straight away. Everyone knows who Tom Hardy is, don’t they?” said one of Hardy’s competitors, local martial artist Danny Appleby. “I was shell-shocked. He said ‘just forget it’s me and do what you would normally do.'”
After submitting to the actor’s arm bar, Appleby admitted Hardy was the real deal, saying, “He’s a really strong guy. You wouldn’t think it with him being a celebrity.”
The amateur fighter was no slouch, for the record, explaining he fought his way to the medaling podium six times prior to facing Hardy; Appleby took bronze to Hardy’s gold. “[H]e’s probably the toughest competitor I’ve had – he certainly lived up to his Bane character, that’s for sure,” Appleby said.
Hardy played the brutal, muscled Batman villain in Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises.
Incidentally, this isn’t the first time this year Hardy has been spotted testing his skills. Last month, he also took gold at a charity BJJ event in Wolverhampton, England. As he did on Saturday, the scruffy Venom series actor took time to pose for pictures with fans.
Steve Perry, Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain in 2017; Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Ex-Journey frontman Steve Perry has launched legal action against his former bandmates Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain seeking to block their claimed ownership of trademarks involving 20 of the band’s popular songs.
Billboard reports that Perry filed a petition at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on September 11, asking that 20 trademark registrations secured by the Freedom JN LLC company, which the singer says is controlled by Cain and Schon, be invalidated.
The trademarks, which include the rights to the names of such tunes as “Open Arms,” “Anyway You Want It,” “Wheel in the Sky” and others, cover the use of those titles on T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts and other merch items.
Perry claims that Cain and Schon didn’t have the right to register trademarks for the song titles without his approval because the three musicians had signed a partnership agreement requiring all of them to consent unanimously to the use of the tunes for products or other purposes.
Perry charges that Cain and Schon committed “fraud on the trademark office” by applying to register the song names without informing the agency of the true status of the ownership of the songs.
The petition also maintains that using the song titles in products would falsely suggest that he endorsed or had a connection to those items.
In addition, the petition notes that Perry, who split with Journey in 1998, was lead singer on all 20 songs in question when they were originally released and became popular, adding, “Their respective titles have become uniquely and unmistakably associated with and point to petitioner Perry.”
Billboard reports that, as of Tuesday, a lawyer for the Freedom JN company had not returned the magazine’s request for a comment about the matter.
A dozen new episodes of AXS TV’s popular music-themed countdown series Top Ten Revealed will premiere on the channel this fall, starting with a show dubbed “Bands on the Map” that will debut on Tuesday, October 4 at 8 p.m. ET.
The episode will profile 10 bands who named themselves after a geographical location, among them Chicago, Boston, Asia, Berlin, Miami Sound Machine, Nazareth, Europe and LA Guns.
The show will feature a variety of celebrities offering up humorous commentary about the groups, including Carnie Wilson, longtime John Fogerty drummer Kenny Aronoff, current Warrant singer Robert Mason, former Tina Turner sax player Tim Cappello and ex-MTV host Matt Pinfield.
ABC Audio is debuting an exclusive preview segment of the show focusing on Asia, which is #7 on the list.
In the clip, Pinfield declares, “Asia had a huge debut album, one of the biggest,” referring to the prog-rock supergroup’s 1982 self-titled record, which spent nine weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200.
Cappello, meanwhile, explains that the prog-rock supergroup featured members of Yes, King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and adds, “They had a bunch of hits. You gotta give props to ‘Only Time Will Tell.'”
The segment also quips that the band’s name didn’t necessarily make sense since the four members were all from the U.K.
The 12 new episodes of Top Ten Revealed will all be part of the second half of the series’ fifth season.
Here’s a partial list of the show’s other upcoming episodes along with their premiere dates:
10/18 — “’80s Hair Bands”
10/25 — “Songs of the Occult”
11/15 — “Fallin’ Jams”
11/22 — “Songs with Fire”
12/6 — “Christmas Crooners”
12/13 — “Hip Hop Trios”
One of the two people who accused Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears of child molestation have reportedly withdrawn their lawsuit against the stars, TMZ is reporting.
The celebrity comics were accused of hiring two then-children to appear in a past Funny or Die sketch called Through a Pedophile’s Eyes.
The two plaintiffs in the withdrawn suit, identified as Jane Doe, 22, and her now-14-year-old brother, John Doe, were respectively 14 and 7 years old at the time they were paid by family friend Haddish to appear in the sketch, the suit alleged.
One reportedly had the female eating a hero sandwich while moaning and simulating sex acts she was coached to perform; the other had the boy playing and bathing as Spears’ character leered and interacted with him suggestively.
In a statement to TMZ on Tuesday, Jane Doe noted, “My family and I have known Tiffany Haddish for many years – and we now know that she would never harm me or my brother or help anyone else do anything that could harm us.”
She concluded, “We wish Tiffany the best and are glad that we can all put this behind us.”
The statement didn’t mention Spears, who called the suit “extortion” in an Instagram video.
After the suit was filed, Haddish told her fans, “Unfortunately because there is an ongoing legal case, there’s very little that I can say right now. But, clearly, while this sketch was intended to be comedic, it wasn’t funny at all — and I deeply regret having agreed to act in it.”
Haddish’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, insisted to Vanity Fair that the suit was baseless.
He added of the two now-adult accusers, “The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action.”
