Did Taylor Swift almost appear in one of the Twilight movies? According to one of the directors, the answer is yes — but it’s a little more complicated than that.
Chris Weitz, who directed The Twilight Saga: New Moon, appeared on The Twilight Effect podcast to talk about his brush with the Grammy winner. Turns out Taylor, like most girls during the height of the Twilight saga, was a fan of the series.
In 2009, as New Moon was being made, Weitz said the singer asked if she could make a brief cameo in the upcoming flick.
“Taylor Swift and I had the same agent at the time and he said, ‘Taylor would like to be in this movie — not because of you, but because she’s a Twihard,” he recalled. “But she will be, like, someone at the cafeteria, or the diner, or whatever. But she just wants to be in this movie.”
Weitz turned down the opportunity, which he said was “the hardest thing” to do. “The moment that Taylor Swift walks onto the screen — for like five minutes — nobody’s going to be able to process anything,” he reasoned.
“I kicked myself for it, too,” Weitz admitted. “I was like, ‘Wow, I could have been hanging out with Taylor Swift!'”
He joked that Taylor must have thought he was a “jerk” to reject her at the time, but he ultimately thinks he made the right call. “Sometimes you make decisions you think … is for the best of the film,” said Weitz.
New Moon was released in theaters in November 2009 and grossed $709.8 million in the box office. It should be noted that Taylor was dating star Taylor Lautner, who played Jacob, at the time. They called it quits that December.
The already star-studded cast of Fox’s forthcoming TV series Monarch just got a major boost from four massive country stars. Little Big Town, Shania Twain, Martina McBride and Tanya Tucker will all make guest appearances throughout the season.
A new trailer shows a first glimpse into their cameos on the show, where they appear to play roles that mirror their actual music careers. A shot of Shania shows her in a dressing room, while Little Big Town and Martina appear to be onstage at awards shows, and Tanya is in the midst of a performance.
That makes sense for Monarch, which tells the story of a fictional “first family” of country music. Helmed by superstar Dottie Cantrell Roman — played by Susan Sarandon — the family must hold on to their legacy, by any means necessary, as a dark secret threatens to jeopardize their spot in the music business.
Trace Adkins is one of the lead actors in the series: He plays the role of Albie Roman, Dottie’s husband and fellow country star. His cover of “A Country Boy Can Survive” is also featured in the show.
The series will debut with a special two-night event on September 11.
Todd Rundgren‘s long-delayed studio album Space Force, which features collaborations with an eclectic variety of artists, will finally be released October 14.
Space Force is a 12-track collection that, as previously reported, includes contributions from Cheap Trick‘s Rick Nielsen, Steve Vai, Thomas Dolby, Crowded House frontman Neil Finn, former King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew, Weezer‘s Rivers Cuomo, Sparks and The Roots.
The lead track, a collaboration with Belew titled “Puzzle,” has just been released as the latest advance single from the album.
Four other Space Force tracks were previously released — “Espionage,” featuring Iraqi-Canadian hip-hop artist Narcy; “Down with the Ship” with Cuomo; “Your Fandango” with Sparks; and “Godiva Girl” with The Roots.
Originally due out in early 2021, Space Force is a follow-up to Rundgren’s 2017 album White Knight, another star-studded collection of collaborations.
In a new Variety interview, Rundgren says Space Force differs from White Knight in that the new album’s tracks featured more input from his collaborators.
“One of the reasons why I did White Knight was to force myself into opening up the process to others, but I had only done it halfway because I was still coming up with almost all of the material,” Todd notes. “So I thought, let’s go the next step. Let’s start using other people’s song ideas as the basis of where the music should go.”
Space Force can be preordered now and will be available on CD, in multiple colored-vinyl options and via digital formats.
Meanwhile, Rundgren has one joint concert with Daryl Hallscheduled for October 1 in Brookville, New York. Then, starting October 6, he’ll head out on the Celebrating David Bowie tribute tour, which also features Belew and other musicians.
Here’s the full Space Force track list:
“Puzzle” — with Adrian Belew
“Down with the Ship” — with Rivers Cuomo
“Artist in Residence” — with Neil Finn
“Godiva Girl” — with The Roots
“Your Fandango” — with Sparks
“Someday” — with Davey Lane
“I’m Not Your Dog” — with Thomas Dolby
“Espionage” — with Narcy
“STFU” — with Rick Nielsen
“Head in the Ocean” — with Alfie
“I’m Leaving” — with The Lemon Twigs
“Eco Warrior Goddess” — with Steve Vai
Love may be blind but it didn’t last forever for this Love Is Blind couple.
Iyanna McNeely and Jarrette Jones have announced they’re getting a divorce. The two got engaged without ever meeting face to face on the Netflix reality dating show’s second season. They then got married in the season finale.
They shared news of their split in a joint statement on social media.
“What’s going on, family. After much thought, we’re saddened to share that we have separated and will begin the process of divorcing,” the statement begins. “While we have love for each other, our lives are going in different directions, and that’s okay.”
“We hope you all give us some space as we close this chapter of our lives,” they continue. “Thank you to our close friends and family for loving us both through our experience. To the Love Is Blind family and Netflix, thank you for this unforgettable opportunity and support. Each of you have brought overwhelming love and joy into our lives.”
They concluded by saying the experience taught them so much and they “don’t regret a single thing.”
The couple had decided to tie the knot on the show in spite of their doubts – Jarrette had intended to propose to another contestant, Mallory Zapata, before choosing Iyanna.
Enjoy some Wednesday on your Wednesday — Wednesday Addams, that is.
Netflix has released the first official teaser for Wednesday, starring Jenny Ortega as the titular goth daughter of the Addams family.
In the trailer, we see Wednesday unleashing piranhas on her school’s water polo team for making fun of her brother, Puglsey. After the incident, the family moves to Nevermore, where Wednesday starts a new school.
“Finally you will be among peers who understand you,” Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Morticia tells her. “Maybe you’ll even make some friends.”
“Little did I know, I’d be stepping into a nightmare full of mystery, mayhem and murder,” we hear Wednesday say in a voiceover. “I think I’m going to love it here.”
The series, directed by Tim Burton and also starring Luis Guzmán as Gomez, comes to Netflix this fall.
As he gears up for a new season of The Voice, coach Blake Shelton has some serious country star power by his side: He’s enlisting Jimmie Allen as the guest mentor to his team.
“I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer..” Blake wrote on his social channels, posting a selfie of himself with Jimmie from the set of The Voice.
Blake and Jimmie may be longtime mutual fans, but according to Access, they’re new friends who got to know each other on the set of the TV show.
“We’ve met on occasion, at awards shows and music industry events, but literally nothing more than, ‘Hey, how you doing, good to meet you’ type moments,” Blake says. “But I’ve watched him. I’ve watched his career develop … he’s just an incredible performer, and he’s so focused on what he does. He’s clearly just a huge fan of music.”
For his part, when asked what the best part of meeting Blake was, Jimmie starts with a joke: “I got to say I hung out with Gwen Stefani’s husband.”
In all seriousness, though, Jimmie’s excited to have had “a chance to meet an artist I’ve admired for a while.” “Just how cool he was, how open he was to trusting me and what I have to say to share with his team.”
Season 22 of The Voice kicks off on September 19 on NBC.
Now that she’s no longer on the road with her sold-out world tour, Olivia Rodrigo seems to be working on the follow-up to her smash hit debut album SOUR!
We can thank her musical collaborator, producer Dan Nigro, for spilling the beans. He shared a photo of himself hanging out with the Grammy winner to his Instagram Stories on Tuesday.
The two, who are flashing peace signs, are relaxing on a couch in a music studio. Nigro is holding a guitar in his hands while Olivia looks excited. There was no caption so it isn’t entirely known what the pop star was doing there.
Fans are hopeful this means a new record or EP is on the horizon.
The “drivers license” singer has previously revealed she is working on her sophomore album. She spoke to ELLE in March and was questioned about the tone of her new work.
Olivia revealed, “I’m definitely not as sad as I was when I wrote SOUR … I’m so excited to make my next record and explore more colors and textures and feelings and grow as a human being even more.” The singer added she is “stoked” about what’s next because of how much she’s changed since releasing her debut single.
It is not known when we can expect to hear Olivia’s new work.
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Liz Cheney is looking to turn her landslide loss in Wyoming’s Republican primary Tuesday night into a nationwide crusade to keep Donald Trump out of the White House — one she said Wednesday could include her running for president herself.
Despite her six-year tenure in Congress now headed to a close, Cheney said her political work isn’t done yet and is previewing what’s to come next — including a potential run for the presidency and an organization aimed at taking down Trump in 2024.
Cheney’s first hint at a presidential campaign came in her concession speech, in which she invoked President Abraham Lincoln as an example of patriotism and a champion of the Republican Party.
“The great and original champion of our party, Abraham Lincoln, was defeated in elections for the Senate and the House before he won the most important election of all,” she told her supporters on Tuesday night. “Lincoln ultimately prevailed, he saved our Union and he defined our obligation as Americans for all of history.”
Cheney, once a rising Republican star, was soundly defeated by Trump-backed Harriet Hageman. Cheney said Tuesday she could have won another term but only if she accepted Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.
As vice-chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Cheney has become one of the party’s most outspoken critics of the former president.
“It would have required that I enable his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic — that was a path I could not and would not take,” she said as she addressed her supporters on Tuesday night.
Cheney made a more direct indication she’s thinking about running for the White House on Wednesday morning.
“I’m not going to make any announcements here this morning, but it is something that I am thinking about and I’ll make a decision in the coming months,” Cheney told NBC’s “Today” program on Wednesday.
In the meantime, her focus will be on stopping Trump.
“In coming weeks, Liz will be launching an organization to educate the American people about the ongoing threat to our Republic, and to mobilize a unified effort to oppose any Donald Trump campaign for president,” Cheney spokesperson Jeremy Adler told ABC News.
The news of the anti-Trump group was first reported by Politico.
Trump has yet to formally announce a campaign but has repeatedly hinted at a comeback since the day he left office. Most recently, he told Fox News at CPAC that the “the time is coming” for a formal announcement.
Trump took a victory lap as Cheney was defeated on Tuesday night, calling Hageman’s win “great and very decisive.”
“This is a wonderful result for America, and a complete rebuke of the Unselect Committee of political Hacks and Thugs,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions towards others. Now she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion where, I am sure, she will be much happier than she is right now.”
His criticism of Cheney continued in another post on Wednesday.
“The Fake News Media is claiming that Liz Cheney has such a ‘wonderful and bright’ political future. Maybe they didn’t notice that she lost by nearly 40 points? She’s too angry and sick to succeed in the future, but who knows!” he wrote on the conservative social media site.
ABC News’ Will Steakin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Wyoming’s Republican voters got one step closer to picking their secretary of state on Tuesday in a primary matchup of candidates with opposing views on the 2020 election.
ABC News reports that state Rep. Chuck Gray is projected to win the Republican nomination for secretary of state.
Gray, who is endorsed by Donald Trump, claimed the 2020 race was “illegitimate.” He faced state Sen. Tara Nethercott, who has said that she believes the 2020 election was secure; and geologist Mark Armstrong.
Gray also supported the former president after the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, tweeting: “This is political persecution!”
There were no listed Democrats on Tuesday seeking the party’s nomination to be secretary of state, though voters could submit write-ins.
The winner of November’s general election will succeed Ed Buchanan, who is retiring and has himself defended the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
While Wyoming is not a competitive state at the presidential level, the race marks another example of election deniers running for a position that would involve overseeing elections.
The secretary of state is also first in line to the governorship, since Wyoming does not have a lieutenant governor.
We are getting closer to the season premiere of The Voice, which features first-time coach Camila Cabello. Now, we finally know who will be joining this year as battle advisors.
Charlie Puth has been tapped by Camila to serve as her battle advisor. He will help whip her team of singers into fighting shape ahead of the knockout rounds. As for returning coach Gwen Stefani, she tapped pal Sean Paul to lend her a hand.
As for the rest of the coaches, Blake Shelton is bringing on Dancing with the Stars alum Jimmie Allen, while John Legend appointed R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan as his advisor.
Aside from new faces on the coaching panel and all new advisors, NBC announced it is tweaking how the knockout rounds are going to go. The company announced in a statement, “This season will showcase a new format element during the Knockout Rounds. For the first time ever, this phase of the competition will include three-way knockouts. The stakes have never been higher for the coaches and their artists as they vie for the win.”
In addition, the show is doing away with its mega mentors. Instead, “Coaches will work with their artists directly to prepare them as best as possible for this new challenge.”
The Voice returns September 19 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
