The Great British Baking Show‘s American counterpart has found its new hosts.
Roku Channel has announced that Ellie Kemper and Severance star Zach Cherry have been tapped to co-host The Great American Baking Show, premiering in 2023.
The U.S. version of the popular British competitions series will see contestants vying to become America’s best amateur baker. Celebrity chef Paul Hollywood and restaurateur Prue Leith, who serve as judges on the British version, will return as judges for the American edition.
The show will feature six one-hour episodes. Production is currently underway in the U.K.
A previous version of The Great American Baking Show aired for five seasons on ABC. Roku announced in May that it would be the new home for the series.
Jimmie Allen returned home to Delaware over the weekend for his second annual Bettie James Fest, a musical event that he created specifically to have a hometown connection.
“This is the place that made me,” he explains to ET Online. “I grew up literally about a mile across that soybean field over there.”
Jimmie’s hometown of Milton, Delaware, isn’t a major destination for country festivals, which makes it all the more special for him to host Bettie James Fest there. Having just wrapped its second year, the singer says he hopes it’s a fixture throughout his career — and beyond.
“I’m looking forward to this being something I can pass down to my kids so they can keep it going, ‘cause there’s always gonna be talented artists,” he says. “There’s always gonna be artists to perform, so I’m hoping this festival goes on forever.”
The 2022 installment, which featured a headlining set from Jimmie and performances from acts like Lainey Wilson and Chayce Beckham, is named after his late grandmother Bettie and his late father, James “Big Jim” Allen. Ahead of the festival, Jimmie said he was planning another special, family-focused surprise.
“Me and my sister haven’t sung together since we were 13 in church and me and my sister are going to sing together,” he detailed.
The Bettie James Fest also served as the grand finale of Jimmie’s Down Home Tour. Later on this fall, he’ll join Carrie Underwood’s Denim & Rhinestones Tour.
(WASHINGTON) –The Inflation Reduction Act, a $739 billion measure signed into law by President Joe Biden on Tuesday, levies a 15% minimum tax on large corporations and marks the most significant climate legislation in U.S. history. Meanwhile, the law will reduce the federal deficit by $305 billion over roughly the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
More immediately, however, the legislation will impact everyday Americans’ wallets.
The law, which passed the House and Senate with support from Democrats in party-line votes, empowers a federal agency to negotiate with health insurers over the prices for prescription drugs under Medicare, for instance, which should bring down the cost of some drugs for seniors.
Further, the measure puts a ceiling on out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 beginning in 2025 for people enrolled in Medicare Part D, the prescription drug plan for seniors.
Beyond health care, the Inflation Reduction Act carries a host of tax credits and discounts on everything from electric cars to solar energy.
Americans can determine the financial benefits available to them under the law with help from a savings calculator created by Rewiring America, a nonprofit that aims to achieve energy efficiency through the electrification of “everything in our communities.” After entering personal information about the location, size, and income of a given household, the calculator will share all of the savings accessible through the measure.
A “Seven Nation Army” won’t hold Jack White back from uncovering the mysteries of Snoop Dogg‘s new breakfast cereal.
The rapper recently announced the debut of Snoop Loopz, a Froot Loops-esque cereal set to be released under his Broadus Food business. In an Instagram post, White congratulates Snoop on his new venture and extends a “pat on the back for its charitable benefits.” But he has a few “important questions,” specifically related to the Snoop Loopz box’s promise of “more marshmallows.”
“More than what?” White wonders. “If this is in fact a brand new cereal, it can’t be more marshmallows than ‘before.'”
“Is it a statement that this cereal has more marshmallows than say … a bag of sand, or a typical caesar salad?” the rocker continues. “Or, is it a DEMAND from Snoop Dogg himself that we just have more marshmallows in this world in general? That last theory is my hope.”
Diving even deeper into the existential dilemma of a Snoop Dogg-produced cereal, White notes that fellow rapper Master P also promoted Snoop Loopz on his Instagram, but the photo of the box in his post advertises only “more marshmallow,” singular.
“Photo attached, answers demanded,” White concludes.
While White’s questions are surely intriguing, they also raise more questions, mainly concerning what the White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather musician thinks about in his spare time. And, of course, we now can’t help but wonder what a Jack White-branded cereal would be called. Wheat Stripes? Seven Essential Vitamins & Minerals Army? I Can Tell That We Are Going to Be Flakes?
Perhaps someone can ask White about it during his ongoing solo tour supporting his new albums Fear of the Dawn and Entering Heaven Alive, which continues Wednesday in Indianapolis.
Michael Bublé took over Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday night and two lucky fans were able to go thanks to a fun little treasure hunt.
The Canadian crooner shared on hisInstagram Stories that he arrived at the venue early and got an idea to further engage his fans. He decided to hide a pair of tickets somewhere in the city and encouraged the lucky winner to “make a TikTok and tag me [in a video]. Show me your adventure!”
Michael, who put on a red letterman jacket, documented his escape from the venue and declared while waving the passes, “I have found the exit! Bublé has left the building and here we go, sneaky sneaky!”
The Grammy winner decided to hide the tickets in the Music City Walk of Fame park, near the arena and the Country Music Hall of Fame. He selected “one of the benches in the far end of the park” — by Garth Brooks‘ star — and filmed himself taping the tickets underneath the seat.
A few hours later, TikTok user @ajspirit8 and a friend found the pair of tickets and filmed themselves excitedly opening the envelope. The two ladies thanked Michael and couldn’t stop giggling.
The “Sway” singer shared the video to his Instagram Story.
Michael is next set to play Thursday at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He will then take a mini break from touring to welcome his fourth child, a baby girl, via C-section
(NOTE LANGUAGE) Kid Cudi, who’s been open about the highs and lows of his life, is sharing more with his fans. As the cover star of Esquire‘s September issue, he dished details on a variety of topics, including the current and future status of his friendship with Kanye West.
Cudi met Ye at a Virgin Megastore in 2006, and he requested that Ye listen to his music. Two years later, they encountered each other again when the Chicago rapper signed Cudi to his G.O.O.D. Music record label. The stars went on to collaborate on West’s 808s & Heartbreak, but Cudi made it clear that Ye was not responsible for his discovery or success.
“I just want to clear that up for anybody that feels like Kanye made my career or made me who I am,” he explained. “He brought me on to do 808s. I thought that was really f***ing awesome. I wanted to be a part of a family and saw G.O.O.D. Music as that opportunity. So I finally said yeah. Kanye West did not come and pluck me out of Applebee’s or the Bape store.”
Cudi and Ye would continue to work together on projects in the following years, including Cudi’s Kids See Ghosts. Their friendship eventually came to an end when West called Cudi out for being friends with Pete Davidson, who dated his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian.
In the Esquire piece, Cudi explained that he has “zero tolerance for the wrong energies” and noted it would “take a mother****ing miracle” for them to rekindle their friendship. “I don’t see it happening. He gon’ have to become a monk,” he said.
Cudi’s full interview also sees him discussing his friendship with Virgil Abloh, wanting a girlfriend and some of his future projects. Check it out here.
Image Group LA/Disney Channel via Getty Images Image Group LA/Disney Channel via Getty Images
The fallout continues for Kevin Federline, who found himself in hot water for airing his alleged family troubles with Britney Spears. Now, Nicki Minaj is weighing in on the drama.
The rapper, who toured with Britney in 2011 and also hopped on a remix of her song “Till the World Ends,” openly condemned Federline on an Amp livestream Tuesday.
“Do you understand what kind of a clown you have to be,” she lambasted, according to Twitter user @breatheonmiley, who captured the moment. “To be a whole, grown f***ing man. And as soon as you see somebody happy and getting married and moving on and being free and feeling good in their own skin — to do the very thing that you know is going to attempt to break them down?”
Minaj blasted Federline for “going to the media” with negative stories about his famous ex-wife and using their sons, 16-year-old Sean Preston and 15-year-old Jayden, against her.
“Only cowards use the media against a famous person who they once loved, they procreated with,” said Nicki. She then accused Federline of not only “being taken care of by” Britney, but that he’s using the pop star’s “fame as this constant ‘gotcha’ moment.”
“And you think you’re gonna f***ing have karma from it? You think it’s OK? You think that anybody is gonna feel sorry for you?” she continued.
Nicki then turned her attention toward Britney and declared, “She loves her kids more than life itself.” She accused Federline of weaponizing that love.
“How dare you encourage this woman’s children to be a part of your nonsense,” she blasted. “They’re kids! They don’t know how detrimental this is. But you know!”
Nicki finished by warning Federline to “leave [Britney] the f*** alone!”
The 84-year-old Oscar winner is creating and launching his first NFT series in partnership with the startup Orange Comet. The digital collectibles, called the Eternal Collection, are inspired by Hopkins’ iconic film characters and will incorporate his own artwork.
“I’m probably the oldest guy in the NFT community and on social media, which proves all is possible at any age,” Hopkins said at an online press conference, according to Variety.
He said NFTS are “a blank canvas to create art in a new format” and that he believes the metaverse “offers an incredible opportunity to connect with an audience in an entirely different way.”
The Eternal Collection will be released in three phases in mid-September on NFT marketplace OpenSea.
(NEW YORK) — The planet continues to experience a massive loss in forest land as the world warms and allows severe wildfires to run rampant in regions spanning the globe.
Overall, forest fires are getting worse worldwide, according to a new report released Wednesday by Global Forest Watch, a forest monitoring platform led by the World Resources Institute. The data captures stand-replacing fires, which kill all or most of the living overstory trees in a forest, and includes wildfires, escaped fires from human activities such as agriculture and hunting and intentionally set fires that result in tree cover loss.
Tree cover loss due to fires is now twice as high as it was in 2001, with forest fires destroying about 7.4 million more acres of land — an area roughly the size of Belgium — last year compared to the turn of the century, according to the researchers, who analyzed two decades of fire data from the Global Land Analysis and Discovery Lab at the University of Maryland.
Forest fires also accounted for more than 25% of all tree cover loss in that past 20 years, with 2021 ranking as the second-worst fire season on record due to unprecedented damage to boreal forests in the Northern Hemisphere, according to the report.
About 70% of all fire-related tree cover loss over the past 20 years has occurred in those boreal forests, likely due to warming temperatures in northern, high-latitude regions, the researchers said.
Nearly 23 million acres of land — an area the size of Thailand or roughly 16 soccer pitches per minute — were scorched globally last year, according to the report. The rate of tree cover loss due to fire is increasing by about 568,000 acres — roughly 4% — every year.
In tropical forests, which are moist and wet environments, stand-replacing fires were historically rare events. However, fire loss in the tropics is increasing about 5% per year, which is an annual increase of about 89,000 acres, the experts said. Almost all fires that occur in the tropics are started by people, such as escaped fires from agriculture and land cleaning.
The top five countries that experienced tree cover loss over the past 20 years were Russia, at 131 million acres; Canada, at 66.7 million acres; the U.S., at 29.7 million acres; Brazil, at 23.5 million acres; and Australia, at 15.6 million acres. Extreme weather caused a significant spike in bush fire activity in Australia from 2019 to 2020.
Climate change is likely the major driver of increasing fire activity, the researchers said. A “climate feedback loop” has occurred in which rising temperatures create drier conditions, causing more forest area to burn, which then release even more carbon into the atmosphere.
The obliteration of forests could further hinder efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate global warming.
Forests are critical to Earth’s ecology for their ability to capture and store carbon out of the atmosphere, alter the air quality and quantity of drinking water and provide habitat for the world’s land species.
But longer fire seasons and an increase in fire frequency could turn some forests into a net source of carbon emissions, releasing more carbon than they are absorbing, which poses a long-term threat to countries’ ability to uphold commitments under the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution.
The cause of increasing forest fires are complex and vary significantly by geography, the researchers said, adding that there is no “silver bullet” to reversing the trend of increasing tree cover loss due to fires.
In addition, there is no solution to bring fire activity back down from historic levels without drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and breaking the fire-climate feedback loop, according to the analysis. Human activity in and around forests is also making them more susceptible to wildfires, especially in the tropics.
Carrie Underwood‘s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is in good hands.
When one fan took it upon himself to carefully tend to her marble star while paying it a visit in Los Angeles, the singer couldn’t help but extend her gratitude.
“Cleaning the QUEEN’s [star],” the fan wrote alongside a series of photos that show him wiping off the block with a blue cloth, and flashing a smile and a peace sign at the camera.
“Thanks for keeping her clean!” the superstar responded, along with a crying laughing emoji. “CARRIE OMG I LOVE YOU SO MUCH IM FREAKING OUT,” the fan replied with a series of crying face and heart emojis.
Carrie was awarded the 2,646th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018. Her husband, Mike Fisher, and their eldest son, Isaiah, attended the ceremony where she was inducted by Brad Paisleyand former American Idol judge Simon Cowell.
