H.E.R. will become a Disney princess when she stars in the ABC animated and live-action special Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration.
The five-time Grammy and Oscar winner will portray Belle in the two-hour program, which will air Thursday, December 15, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and on Disney+ the next day.
“I can’t believe I get to be a part of the Beautyand the Beast legacy. The world will see a Black and Filipino Belle!” H.E.R. said in a statement. “I have always wanted to be a Disney princess, and I get to work with two wonderful directors Hamish Hamilton and my favorite, Jon M. Chu. It is very surreal and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
“With her obvious extraordinary talent and stage presence, H.E.R. is the perfect embodiment of our Belle and we are thrilled for audiences to see her in this celebration of creativity,” Chu added. “We were both influenced as storytellers by the original animated movie, so it’s very exciting to collaborate together to honor the artistry of that timeless classic while also inspiring a whole new generation of creators.”
The 25-year-old singer/actress will also star in a new adaptation of The Color Purple with Taraji P. Henson, Ciara, Fantasia and Halle Bailey next year.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of when Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The film went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, while the theme song “Beauty and the Beast” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1992.
Country trio Chapel Hart had a major moment on Tuesday night’s episode of NBC’s America’s Got Talent when they knocked the judges’ socks off with a performance of their original song, “You Can Have Him Jolene.”
Of course, that song is a nod to Dolly Parton’s early 1970s hit “Jolene,” which has gone on to become one of the country legend’s signature songs.
After the trio wowed the audience with their updated take on the famous story line — earning a standing ovation and a unanimous Golden Buzzer from all four AGT judges — Dolly got wind of the buzz-generating performance and shared her approval on social media.
“What a fun new take on my song!” Dolly wrote, also sharing a video clip and adding that the performance was especially significant because her husband, Carl — who inspired the original — is celebrating a birthday today.
“Carl’s birthday is today so I think I’ll hang on to him, and I’m not notifying Jolene that today is his birthday,” Dolly joked.
Hailing from Mississippi, Chapel Hart is made up of sisters Danica and Devynn Hart and their cousin Trea Swindle. Since 2019, they have independently released two albums.
Duran Duranwill headline the opening ceremony for the 2022 edition of the Commonwealth Games sporting event, which will run from July 28 to August 8 in the band’s hometown of Birmingham, U.K.
The Commonwealth Games is an international multiple-sport competition held every four years featuring athletes from countries in the Commonwealth of Nations.
Duran Duran will perform during the finale of the ceremony, which will take place July 28 at Alexander Stadium. The band, which will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this November, will play four classic songs from their back catalog with accompaniment from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
“The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games is a momentous event for the great city of Birmingham,” frontman Simon Le Bon says. “And we in Duran Duran are honoured to be a part of it in our home town.”
Adds drummer Roger Taylor, “We are so proud to be returning to our home town to close the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony. It is a true honour to be part of a global event that will bring sportspeople of all cultural backgrounds around the world together as one. Another milestone in a most incredible year for us.”
The opening ceremony will also feature a variety of other noteworthy local musicians, including Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, who will perform with sax player Soweto Kinch and R&B vocalists Indigo Marshall and Gambimi.
For more information about this year’s Commonwealth Games, visit Birmingham2022.com.
In a new interview with People, Witney Carson explains she hid having skin cancer surgery so she wouldn’t miss her first season on Dancing with the Stars.
Carson was 19 when she was diagnosed with melanoma, a genetic form of skin cancer she blames on the use of tanning beds when she was younger.
The potentially deadly diagnosis came at the worst possible time. “I finally got this call that was going to just skyrocket my career,” says the now-28-year-old dancer of the DWTS opportunity.
Witney recalls, “…of course, being myself, I’m like ‘It’s fine. I can still go on the show. I think I was embarrassed only in the fact that I was an athlete, and I was supposed to be encompassing everything healthy and fit…and so it was embarrassing for me to be like, ‘Yes…I was literally sick.'”
She added, “The producers didn’t know. My partner didn’t know. I wanted people to think I was perfectly healthy.”
Before reporting to rehearsals with partner Cody Simpson, Witney underwent surgical procedures to fight the cancer.
“They took an inch diameter around the mole on my foot as well as all of my lymph nodes in my left hip,” she recalled. “It was just spreading so quickly…and there was lots of healing time. I think I took six weeks and then I went straight to Dancing with the Stars...”
Witney took to rehearsals without her doctor’s clearance and split her stitches open while dancing. “I looked down and my white tennis shoe is just covered in blood, just covered in blood,” she remembers.
Carson is now the healthy mom of one-year-old Leo, who she wants to give a sibling — sometime after hoofing it the upcoming season of DWTS.
(PHILADELPHIA) — The legal team representing the family of two young Black girls who were seemingly waved off by a Sesame Place character is calling for the costumed performer to be fired.
“We want a genuine and authentic apology,” attorney B’Ivory LaMarr said in a press conference Wednesday. “The second thing that we’re requesting is for the immediate termination of that performer. The third thing that we’re going to request is — we’re going to demand that they take care of any type of health care or mental care expenses that these children have realized.”
In a video posted on Twitter, two young Black girls at Sesame Place Philadelphia waved excitedly and held out their arms as a performer dressed in a Rosita costume approached.
Rosita high-fives parkgoers as she walks down the line, before appearing to shake her head at and wave off the two girls as she walks away from them.
“#BabyPaige & her cute lil friends went to @SesamePlace this weekend to celebrate Paige’s 4th birthday & this is how #SesamePlace treated these beautiful Black children,” the tweet, posted by the apparent aunt of the girl celebrating her birthday, read.
Outrage ensued online, as more footage of similar incidents with park characters and Black children were posted online in response to the viral video. Calls to boycott Sesame Place are growing on social media.
“While we hate to speculate and consider ‘race’ as the motivating factor, which would explain the performer’s actions, such actions both before and after the young girls reached out only leads us to one conclusion,” said LaMarr, who is representing the family, in a statement to ABC News.
He continued, “Although Sesame Place purports to stand for inclusivity and equality, this was not demonstrated this past Saturday. We are currently investigating this incident and will exercise every legal remedy possible to further protect this family.”
In the park’s initial statement, the performer portraying Rosita is said to have intended the “no” hand gesture in response to requests to hold children for a photo and did not intentionally ignore the girls.
The park said it has apologized to the family directly and has invited them for a meet-and-greet with the characters. It has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment on the family’s employee termination demands.
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that runs Sesame Street, said it will “conduct bias training and a thorough review of the ways in which they engage families and guests” at Sesame Place after a video of a potential racial bias incident went viral online.
“As a global nonprofit educational organization with a mission to help children grow smarter, stronger and kinder, Sesame Workshop has always stood for respect, inclusion and belonging and is committed to providing the highest quality engaging experiences for all children and families,” the organization said in a statement.
In an interview with ABC News, the mother of the birthday girl Jodi Brown said she’s happy the video went viral.
“These are innocent children. And the job of the character is to bring joy to the kids,” she said. “I also think that a lot of parents, as you can see in the other videos that are now released, have went through a similar thing and just didn’t speak up about it right away. So now they have the courage to say ‘hey, this also happened to my child.'”
Sesame Place Philadelphia released a second statement on the incident, saying, “We know that it’s not OK. We are taking actions to do better. We are committed to making this right.”
The park said it will conduct training for employees to deliver an “inclusive, equitable and entertaining” experience for parkgoers.
Sesame Place is a licensed park partner of Sesame Workshop.
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin and Kendall Ross contributed to this report.
Charles Dickens‘ holiday classic is coming to Netflix in a computer-animated movie called Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, and some big names are bringing it to life.
Oscar and Emmy winner Olivia Colman will be voicing this version of the Ghost of Christmas Past in the feature, ABC Audio has confirmed, with Beauty and the Beast‘s Luke Evans voicing Scrooge, himself.
Jessie Buckley, who starred with Colman in the award-winning The Lost Daughter, also lends her voice to the project.
Other stars set to feature in the film are Tony winner Jonathan Pryce, taking on the voice of Scrooge’s former partner Jacob Marley and Hawkeye‘s Fra Fee as Harry Huffam. Trevor Dion Nicholas, who originated the role of Genie in Disney’s Aladdin: The Musical will voice Present, and Stardust‘s Johnny Flynn will lend his pipes to Bob Cratchit.
Directed by Lost in Oz‘ Stephen Donnelly, Scrooge will feature “reimagined” songs from the late Oscar nominee and Grammy winner Leslie Bricusse, a veteran of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Home Alone and Superman.
In a statement, Donnelly said, “It’s been a fascinating challenge to adapt such a beloved and often-told story and I think this version will give those who know A Christmas Carol all the things they expect but not as they’ve experienced them before.”
He says the movie’s a faithful take on Dickens but adds, “There are more than enough psychedelic, time-travelling and musical surprises to keep those familiar with the story on the edge of their seats…”
Britney Spears often uses her social media to pay tribute to famous women who’ve inspired her in some way. The most recent target of her affection is … Michelle Pfeiffer.
Britney posted a clip of Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle in the 1992 movie Batman Returns, opposite Michael Keaton as Batman. In the scene, she transforms into Catwoman by sewing a skintight black vinyl outfit for herself, donning it and then purring to the cats outside her window, “I don’t know about you, Miss Kitty, but I feel soooo much yummier!”
“I feel like she’s the most charming … sexy … and alluring woman … this scene is probably the hottest scene I’ve ever seen in my life !!!” Britney writes of Catwoman, adding, “Of course, @michellepfeifferofficial whom I’ve never met is the character. she is sick in this movie in the most conventional way possible !!!…she gives hell a whole new meaning … I respect that.”
After declaring that, despite numerous remakes, she doesn’t think “anyone can come even close” to Pfeiffer’s performance, Britney writes, “I know she has no idea who I am, but I just want to let her know a silly girl from the South has always thought she was a freaking God and I have so much respect for her it’s kind of insane !!!”
Britney concludes, “Thank you for doing your craft in such a beautiful way…one and only Pfeiffer!!!”
Fans flooded the comments section, telling Britney that of course everyone on the planet knows who she is; one even tagged Pfeiffer and asked, “Do you know who Britney Spears is?” Pfeiffer has yet to respond.
It’s a family affair as Sean “Diddy” Combs is joined by his sons Justin, Quincy and Christian in his new “Gotta Move On” video directed by Teyana Taylor.
The clip, featuring Bryson Tiller, dropped Tuesday and includes cameos from Tiffany Haddish, Serayah and producer London on da Track. Set in Club Love, Haddish greets the Bad Boy Entertainment CEO and his massive entourage as they enter the glamorous venue.
“Gotta Move On” is Diddy’s first single since 2017’s “Watch Gon’ Do?” featuring Rick Ross and the late Notorious B.I.G. The song will be included on his upcoming project, which will be released on his new Love Records label, distributed by Motown Records. The album will be his first since 2006’s Press Play.
Diddy performed “Gotta Move On” with Tiller on June 26 at the BET Awards in Los Angeles, where he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
More than two decades into their career as a band, country foursome Little Big Town is sharing their key to longevity.
During a conversation with Trailblazers Radio With Fancy Hagood on Apple Music, the group’s Karen Fairchild explains that for LBT, it all comes down to unanimity. That means that all four of the bandmates have to agree on every major career decision — from deciding on a single to booking a show.
“We just set some rules. It’s not really rules. It was things that we knew would keep the band together,” Karen explains, “and that was taking care of each other first over anything, no matter what was going on in the business.”
That approach has served LBT well over the years. If they wanted to stay together for a long time, they knew they had to value each other over individual songs or career moves, Karen continues.
“It’s got to be the four of us saying, ‘No, we all want to cut this song.’ Then you’re looking ahead 10 years and you’re singing some c***py song you didn’t want to sing and you’re mad about it still.”
Years later, Little Big Town still follows that mantra of prioritizing each other over everything else.
“Even today, this morning, it was like, ‘Do you guys want to play this show?’ Most of us wrote back and said, ‘That’s the time we have off with our kids. So we’re going to pass,’” Karen says. “We’re very much together in those choices.”
Little Big Town just announced their 10th studio album, Mr. Sun. The lead single, “Hell Yeah,” is out now.
(WASHINGTON) — Gov. Larry Hogan is a popular Republican who won two statewide elections in Democratic-leaning Maryland — but his full-throated endorsement didn’t mean enough to the Republican base in Tuesday’s primary.
Hogan’s preferred candidate, his former Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz, is projected to lose the GOP nod to succeed Hogan.
Instead, primary voters chose state Del. Dan Cox, a vocal critic of Hogan’s policies — in particular restrictions to combat COVID-19 — who was backed by former President Donald Trump, another Hogan foe. The governor, in turn, assailed Cox as a right-wing “conspiracy theorist.”
Hogan, a moderate who twice won over a majority of voters in a blue state, hoped to see a similar politician win the nomination to continue the GOP’s control of the governorship.
But Trump, as he has done to mixed success in other state primaries, weighed in to support the more conservative choice and relished the chance to punish a Republican critic.
It was Cox — who criticized the 2020 elections results; opposes abortion and restrictions on guns; and who has campaigned heavily against government’s role in public life, including COVID lockdowns and changes in education — who won out.
“RINO Larry Hogan’s Endorsement doesn’t seem to be working out so well for his heavily favored candidate,” Trump said in a statement after Tuesday’s race. “Next, I’d love to see Larry run for President!”
In remarks on Tuesday night, Cox said, “President Trump didn’t have to come alongside an outsider, a newcomer so to speak. Somebody that believed in his vision of America first. A person that believed in it for each one of us. But he did.”
Soon, Hogan’s office was telling reporters that he would not vote for Cox in November.
And, according to The Baltimore Sun, Schulz adviser Doug Mayer spoke sharply about who the base had chosen: “The Maryland Republican Party got together and committed ritualized mass suicide. The only thing missing was Jim Jones and a glass of Kool-Aid. I hope it was a good party.”
This year’s primary season has seen the next phase of the GOP’s political identity slowly form, race by race, across the country.
In Maryland as in some other states, like Arizona and Georgia, a relative sliver of high-profile Republicans have decided to challenge the Trump-backed candidates, many of whom baselessly question the 2020 election as he does or who run further to the right of the general electorate.
In Georgia, for example, the Trump choice lost handily. In Illinois and in Maryland, it was the reverse.
While that narrows the lane for local anti-Trump Republicans, some Democrats hope the victory of more right-wing nominees will give them a boost in the November midterms.
In Maryland as elsewhere, Democratic groups spent big on advertising in the Republican primary trying to raise the profile of Cox as the more conservative choice in a state with blue-leaning voters.
Observers says they may be right: The day after the primary, the Cook Political Report changed its rating for the Maryland governor from “lean Democrat” to “Solid Democrat.”
In a press conference earlier this month, Hogan blasted the Democratic Governors Association decision to advertise about Cox, saying Democrats were “spending over $1 million … [because they] desperately want [Cox] to be the Republican nominee.”
Cox reportedly attended that press conference, occasionally shouting back at the governor and at Schulz, then later posted a series of videos on social media that called the event “laughable” and “hilarious.”
So where does Tuesday’s result leave more moderate Republicans like Hogan? He has been pointed and emphatic about his hopes for the party repudiating Trump — as epitomized during a speech at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California this past May.
“The last four years were the worst four years for the GOP Party since the 1930s, even worse than after Watergate when Ronald Reagan had to rebuild the party from the ashes,” Hogan said in remarks about the future of the Republican party. “We lost the White House, the Senate, the House. We lost governors’ seats, and state legislative bodies. Trump said we would be winning so much we’d would get tired of winning. Well, I’m tired of our party losing.”
Republican voters, though, aren’t tired of Trump. While a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, showed half of the party preferred someone else as a potential 2024 candidate, Trump was still the overwhelming favorite among a hypothetical field of candidates.
And a significant number of Republican candidates have found primary success sowing the same sorts of doubts that Trump embraces and that Hogan warned against. According to data collected by FiveThirtyEight, at least 120 election-denying candidates who ran for all sorts of down-ballot offices advanced from their primaries and will be on the general election ticket in November.
Cox likewise attacked the 2020 election. He called former Vice President Mike Pence a “traitor” for certifying the 2020 election results in now-deleted tweets. (He later apologized.) He also organized buses to drive Maryland residents to Trump’s rally on Jan. 6, 2021, though he said he didn’t go to the Capitol and denounced the rioting that broke out there.
Schulz’s loss is deflating for Hogan for another reason: He opted-out of a run for Senate but has yet to take a presidential bid off the table, citing his belief that he has a winning brand of Republican politics.
In an interview with CBS News earlier this month, Hogan said “more and more people are encouraging” him to consider campaigning.
“There’s a diminishing number of folks that are wanting the former President Trump to run,” he told CBS. “There’s a growing number of people that are looking for our kind of successful, bigger-tent politics.”
ABC News’ Alisa Wiersema contributed to this report.
