Lil Nas X is hard at work on his forthcoming sophomore album, but that didn’t stop the Grammy winner from tipping his hat to the single that started his career in the first place.
The “Industry Baby” rapper is the latest celebrity to guest star on the Disney+ reboot The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder. Lil Nas X voices a country crooner named June Bug, who enlists the disco-singing Bobby Proud to join his country ensemble.
June Bug has a rather unique design. In the preview clip, the character appears as a shirtless, older and bearded man who opts for a tan cowboy hat, matching ascot, dusty jeans and heeled cowboy boots. In addition, his eyes are always closed and he has a golden left front tooth.
Lil Nas X will also perform his 2019 hit “Old Town Road” during the episode, which plays in the background as Oscar Proud attempts to tame a bucking bronco while Suga Mama shows off her tremendous fishing skills. The episode, titled “Old Towne Road,” becomes available to stream Wednesday at midnight PT.
LNX isn’t the only celebrity to cameo in the Proud Family revival. Lizzo previously appeared as herself in an episode that aired last month, writing, “Mama I made it!!!! I always wanted to be a cartoon.” Other celebs appearing in the reboot include Normani, Jaden Smith, Brenda Song, Tina Knowles, Gabby Douglas, Leslie Odom Jr., Chance the Rapper and Tiffany Haddish.
Jimmie Allen is getting honest through song about his struggle with mental health.
The singer shared a black and white video of himself on Instagram performing an acoustic rendition of an untitled song that takes listeners inside his head. In the lyrics, Jimmie admits to smiling for cameras, saying he’s okay when he’s actually not, and admits to “barely holding on,” fighting an internal battle that no one else sees.
“Truth is that I’m always on the edge/Trying to find the point of living/I’m barely hanging on/And no one can see that I’m constantly fighting with me,” he sings.
“Wrote this song about how I feel a lot of the time. Mental illness is something I have struggled with my entire life. Everyday is a constant battle with myself,” Jimmie expresses in the video’s caption. “To everyone struggling remember you’re not alone and it’s ok to say you’re not ok.”
Fans flooded the comments section with encouraging words, with one writing, “That’s courageous! Thank you for sharing,” while another praises, “this is so powerful.”
In 2020, the singer opened up about how he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was 13 and also struggles with has anxiety.
This year’s Tribeca Film Festival will be unspooling 110 feature films, as well as shorts and documentaries, its organizers have announced. All told, 150 filmmakers from 40 countries will screen their work there.
As previously reported, this year’s fest opens Wednesday, June 8 with Jennifer Lopez‘s Netflix documentary, Halftime.
Also debuting will be Somewhere in Queens, directed by Ray Romano and starring The Conners‘ Laurie Metcalf and stand-up comedian and actor Sebastian Maniscalco.
Also playing for the first time will be Jerry and Marge Go Large, a “feel great comedy” starring Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening as recent retirees who figure out a legal loophole to game the lottery.
Other entries are the documentaries Butterfly in the Sky, about Emmy winning Reading Rainbow host and Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s LeVar Burton; Loudmouth, about spiritual leader and political activist Rev. Al Sharpton; and Nothing Compares, about singer Sinead O’Connor.
The Tribeca Film Festival runs from June 8 through June 19 in New York City.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — A man who has spent 32 years in prison for being wrongly convicted of murder was exonerated by San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin on Monday.
Joaquin Ciria was arrested in 1990 and convicted of shooting and killing his friend, Felix Bastarrica, in San Francisco. His conviction was based on false witness testimony and police misconduct, according to Boudin.
“Our office is proud of and grateful for the work of the Innocence Commission in rectifying the wrongful conviction of Mr. Ciria,” Boudin said in a press release.
He added, “Although we cannot give him back the decades of his life lost we are thankful that the court has corrected this miscarriage of justice.”
Boudin dismissed the case against Ciria after a judge overturned his conviction.
According to Boudin, no physical evidence linked Ciria to the crime, but San Francisco police believed Ciria to be the shooter based on street rumors and statements from the alleged getaway driver, George Varela.
Varela testified in exchange for complete immunity that he drove Ciria to and from the scene. Boudin states that Varela, who was then a teenager, was pressured by police to name Ciria as the perpetrator.
The commission found that Varela has admitted to Ciria’s family members that he had falsely testified.
The jury heard from three eyewitnesses in Ciria’s trial, two of whom Boudin’s office says were “cross-racial identifications by strangers whose views were compromised by distance and poor lighting during the late-night shooting.”
An alternate suspect was not mentioned to the jury, and evidence of Ciria’s alibi was not given on trial despite two available alibi witnesses.
The Innocence Commission also found that another eyewitness, the victim’s best friend, identified another person as the shooter, and that other witnesses confirmed details to corroborate this new eyewitness’ story, including the description of the shooter provided by the stranger eyewitnesses, which more closely matches another suspect.
Ciria’s case was the first one reviewed by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office’s Innocence Commission since its formation in 2020. The commission was created to review potential wrongful convictions and present findings to Boudin’s office.
“When a conviction is a perversion of justice because it deprives an innocent person of his freedom while robbing the victim and his family of justice, the District Attorney has a duty to correct that intolerable violation,” said Lara Bazelon, the chair of the Innocence Commission.
Ciria has long maintained his innocence. His release date is not yet known, but could be within the next few days, the DA’s office said.
“Joaquin’s case highlights so many issues with our system, including how long it takes to undo a wrongful conviction, the problems with using incentivized testimony, the unreliability of cross-racial identifications, and the ways people of color aren’t afforded the presumption of innocence,” said Paige Kaneb, supervising attorney at the Northern California Innocence Project, who represented Ciria.
There have been more than 270 known wrongful convictions in California alone since the National Registry of Exonerations began tracking wrongful convictions in 1989. Ciria will be added to that registry.
“Studies on the causes of wrongful convictions demonstrate that key contributing factors include mistaken eyewitness identification, false testimony, and official misconduct,” Boudin’s office said in a press release. “All three of those factors were present in Mr. Ciria’s case and led to his wrongful conviction in this case.”
(ATLANTA) — A federal judge has allowed a legal challenge by a group of Georgia voters to move forward as they seek to disqualify GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from running for reelection, citing her alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
As a result of Judge Amy Totenberg’s ruling, the Georgia voters will have their challenge heard before a state administrative law judge in Atlanta on Friday, where Greene will be called to testify, making her the first member of Congress to be questioned under oath about the events surrounding Jan. 6.
An avid supporter of former President Donald Trump, Greene has denied any involvement in the attack.
The judge, an Obama appointee, in denying Greene’s request to stop the lawsuit, said the case “involves a whirlpool of colliding constitutional interests of public import.”
The voters argue a provision of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment know as the “Disqualification Clause” prevents Greene from holding federal office.
Enacted after the Civil War, the Disqualification Clause bars any person from holding federal office who has previously taken an oath to protect the Constitution — including a member of Congress — who has “engaged in insurrection” against the United States or “given aid or comfort” to its “enemies.”
Mike Rasbury, one of the voters challenging Greene’s eligibility to run for reelection, said in a statement that “Rep. Greene took an oath of office to protect democracy from all enemies foreign and domestic……However, she has flippantly ignored this oath and, based on her role in the January 6 insurrection, is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution from holding any future public office.”
Ron Fein, a lawyer representing the voters and legal director of Free Speech For People, told ABC News in an email that the Georgia “voters who filed this lawsuit have a right to have their challenge heard.”
“At the hearing on Friday, we look forward to questioning Greene under oath about her involvement in the events of Jan. 6, and to demonstrating how her facilitation of the insurrection disqualifies her from public office under the United States Constitution.”
James Bopp, Greene’s attorney, told ABC News that the challenge is “absurd” and that it shouldn’t be up to judges to decide who represents Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
Bopp also represents GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who is facing a similar challenge against his reelection from a group of voters in North Carolina.
Cawthorn’s lawsuit to dismiss the challenge to his reelection is set to have oral arguments May 3 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, after a federal district judge in North Carolina blocked the voters’ case, citing Cawthorn’s argument the that Amnesty Act of 1872 overrode the Disqualification Clause.
Speaking on Fox News Monday night, Greene told host Tucker Carlson that Democrats are trying to keep her name off the ballot, maintaining she had nothing to do with the attack on the Capitol.
“I have to go to court on Friday and actually be questioned about something I’ve never been charged with and something I was completely against,” said Greene.
The challenges against Greene and Cawthorn are part of a larger legal effort to prevent anyone allegedly involved in the events surrounding Jan. 6 or who supported it from running for reelection.
Similar challenges are being brought against GOP Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona and theoretically could be brought against Trump if he decides to run for office again in 2024.
As of now, nine challenges have been filed against candidates across the country and more are expected to be filed in the coming months.
We finally have the new name and release date for Céline Dion‘s upcoming romantic comedy. Deadline reports the film, now titled It’s All Coming Back to Me, arrives in theaters shortly before Valentine’s Day next year.
The film was previously labeled Text for You. Starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Outlander‘s Sam Heughan, it’s about a woman, played by Chopra Jonas, who copes with her fiancé’s death by sending heartfelt text messages to his old cellphone number. It turns out the number’s new owner, played by Heughan, is also someone suffering from a similar heartbreak.
The two eventually meet and sparks fly, but they are forced to question if they are truly ready to move on and find love again. The catalyst that encourages them to take the leap turns out to be Céline’s music.
Chopra Jonas previously raved about working alongside the legendary singer for the movie, telling Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, “She’s so funny. And she’s an amazing actress.”
The movie will be Céline’s acting debut and, according to the Quantico star, she has the chops to take over Hollywood should she choose. “She definitely needs to do more of this,” Chopra Jonas enthused.
It’s All Coming Back to Me hits theaters February 10, 2023.
(NEW YORK) — In the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a record number of Americans died from drug overdoses. Although months of data is still incomplete, statistics show that most of the deaths involve the potent drug fentanyl.
According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. In the new series “Poisoned,” which explores the devastation caused by fentanyl, ABC News Live examines how many parents are learning the deadly reality of the drug only after their children have suffered a fatal overdose.
Romello Marchman grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. His mother said that he was a typical 22-year-old man who loved video games and cars.
“He was a young man like so many others out there,” said Tanja Jacobs. “They are stressed, they are worried. The pandemic keeps them away from their friends. They can’t go to school.”
During the pandemic, Romello Marchman died from cocaine laced with fentanyl, according to Jacobs.
“He got it from his friends. And it’s the only reason why he took it, is because he did get it from his friends and he did trust them,” said Jacobs.
Last year, Tennessee had the third highest overdose death rate in the country, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
“In the Nashville area, between 75% and 80% of our fatal overdoses will involve fentanyl at this point in time,” said Trevor Henderson, a public health analyst at the CDC Foundation.
That statistic accounts for the death of Frankita Davis.
Betty Davis said her daughter was diagnosed with cancer when she was 17 years old and that doctors had prescribed her pain medication. One day, a friend offered her daughter a pain-reliever pill that they did not know was laced with fentanyl, the mother said.
“She chose to take a pill, but she didn’t choose to die,” said Davis.
Fentanyl, which was originally made for sedation during surgery, is one of the most powerful opioids ever created. Fentanyl-related fatalities began to skyrocket nationwide after drug dealers and cartels began to lace the chemical into drugs that they were already selling, often targeting addicted users looking for a more powerful high, according to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
“A few grains of fentanyl will make you high. A couple more will kill you,” said Sam Quinones, who authored a book on the U.S. opioid crisis. “It’s just so potent and so profitable… Dealers are seeing that this is something they could sell in all manner of ways and to all manner of customers.”
Candice Sexton, a Nashville coroner, keeps a growing list of people dying with fentanyl in their systems. In 2016, her office noted 102 deaths related to fentanyl in middle Tennessee alone.
Every year since, those numbers have nearly doubled, Sexton said.
“It was just mind boggling,” she added.
In 2021, Sexton’s office reported nearly 1,200 fentanyl-related deaths. She said she expects 2022 to be even higher.
“We are on track for it to be worse,” said Sexton. “We have outgrown our cooler. We have a FEMA trailer that they’re allowing us to use as well for additional storage.”
Phil Bogard is a program administrator at Rock to Recovery, a recovery clinic in Nashville for women suffering from addiction.
”In 2018, I remember people coming in for heroin,” said Bogard. “Now nobody’s coming in saying, ‘I’m here for heroin.’ People are walking in the door saying ‘I’m here for fentanyl.’”
Naloxone, otherwise known as Narcan, reverses an opioid overdose. First responders said they are often administering multiple doses of Narcan just to resuscitate one person.
In Nashville, Henderson leads a small team of five people monitoring the fentanyl epidemic. One of their main goals is to distribute Narcan in parts of the city that have high numbers of overdoses.
“We can identify hotspots of activity. So we can look at ZIP codes that are hit particularly hard,” said Henderson.
Unfortunately, the growing number of fentanyl-related deaths is not unique to Nashville, but a scene playing out across the country. Like many other parents, Jacobs has been trying to spread the word about the dangers of fentanyl.
She said she is against the use of the word “overdose” and prefers to use the word “poison.”
“If you take too much of something, you overdose. You might or might not die,” she said. “But once that fentanyl is in there, if you get something you haven’t asked for and then you die from it – it’s poisoning, which makes it a murder.”
Four-time Emmy winner Jean Smart is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next Monday.
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Chair Lupita Sanchez Cornejo made the announcement, calling the Hacks and Mare of Eastown lead “a triple threat,” thanks to her work on TV, on the stage and in movies.
Smart’s Hacks co-star Hannah Einbinder and venerated TV producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason will be on hand to unveil the 2,721st star; Smart’s spot will be located at 6150 Hollywood Boulevard.
On Monday, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul‘s Bob Odenkirkunveiled his Walk of Fame star, with the help of his friend and fellow cast member Giancarlo Esposito, and comedy legend Carol Burnett.
(NEW YORK) — As the effects of climate change prompt more urgency to cut greenhouse gas emissions around the world and reduce energy use, every industry is facing scrutiny about their impact on the climate and the environment.
Video games, media, and entertainment companies, in particular, require a significant amount of energy to run powerful computers, high-speed internet connections and cloud-based technologies.
One study estimated that gaming worldwide used the same amount of energy as 5 million cars. Gaming consoles or computers also contribute to the 50 million tons of electronic waste produced every year, only 20% of which is recycled, according to the UN Environmental Programme.
But video games also have a huge audience of players, fans and commentators around the world. And the United Nations saw an opportunity to reach both the industry and its audience with a message about the importance of combating climate change.
“Three billion people play games. Nearly one person in every two on the planet is either on their phone or on their console at home. So this medium is the most powerful medium in the world. And so we think working with this industry to make a difference can unlock all kinds of different changes in people,” said Sam Barratt, the chief of a unit of the UN Environmental Programme that works to engage young people with environmental issues.
“So, for us, I would say the climate crisis is everyone, everywhere, all at once to try and make a difference, which is why the video gaming industry has to have sleeves up on this, which is what we’re trying to do.”
Barratt said he was inspired to reach out to video game developers after watching how much time his children, especially his 12-year-old son, spent playing games like Minecraft, FIFA, or Roblox.
“He spends a lot of time in games, and it just made me think, how can this medium not just kind of entertain people, but also give them opportunities to make a difference? So, we came up with the idea of Playing 4 The Planet just to explore what was possible in gaming,” Barratt told ABC News.
Since its 2019 launch, Barrett said the Playing 4 The Planet Alliance has worked with over 40 companies and industry groups to set standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and plastic pollution. They also use initiatives like their Green Game Jam developer competition to incorporate environmental messages into both small educational games and big-name franchises.
Alenda Chang, an assistant professor of media studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games, said there’s a lot of potential to use games to change how people think about the environment.
Chang said many video games treat nature as a beautiful backdrop or a source of resources but that the interactive and immersive nature of games could allow players to experiment and learn about humans’ impact on the natural world as a living, breathing ecosystem in a way that sticks with them more than simply hearing or reading about it. She pointed to games like Shelter, where gamers play as a mother badger protecting her cubs, as a way to help gamers empathize with a non-human perspective or games like SimCity that can demonstrate large-scale impacts of human society.
“I think the biggest overall takeaway is that play actually does matter. That play is not a sort of secondary realm that’s frivolous or escapist,” Chang said, adding that’s what many adults are led to believe.
“But as a professor who studies and writes about video games … to me it’s very clear that solutions and sort of collectivization around climate change and other environmental issues are social.”
Sony Interactive Entertainment, the parent company of PlayStation, launched a conservation campaign with one of its biggest game releases of the year, Horizon: Forbidden West. The game revolves around the main character, Aloy, as she tries to save a future Earth from threats like diseased land, enemies including hostile animal-like machines, and worsening storms.
Kieran Meyers, senior director of environmental and social governance for Sony Interactive Entertainment, said the game inspired the company to emphasize the real-world importance of natural ecosystems.
“The game shows they see these post-apocalyptic scenes where nature is taking over. And basically, that narrative really speaks to our world where we all sort of want to make a difference,” Meyers told ABC News.
Sony partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant nearly 300,000 trees in areas impacted by deforestation or wildfires in California, Wisconsin and Florida.
“[PlayStation] met their customers, they met their network where they are, doing what they love to do — playing games. And they found a creative way to engage them and inspire them, to be a part of advancing our common goals of planting trees and doing something great for the planet,” Arbor Day Foundation director Dan Lambe told ABC.
Lambe said that planting trees alone isn’t going to solve the climate crisis but it’s a good place to start.
Meyers said Sony has also set goals to reach a zero-environmental footprint by 2050, including by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in their workplaces and supply chain, eliminating the use of virgin materials and phasing out materials that pose environmental risks.
On Earth Day this year, the UN’s Green Game Jam competition will judge competing games on how well they incorporate these environmental messages. The UN initiative hopes to reach hundreds of millions of gamers through the campaign.
One of the Green Game Jam winners in 2021, Anno 1800, used in-game events where players were forced to clean up pollution from invading armies and challenging players to build a new society without damaging too many natural resources.
The game’s publisher, Ubisoft, also used money from paid content within the game to fund efforts to plant more than 300,000 trees.
“I think overall, maybe in the end, the goal is to see how we can translate online actions into real life benefits for the planet and our communities and our players. And that’s something no other type of media can do,” Ubisoft’s director of Environment and Social Governance, Nicolas Hunsinger, said.
The man charged with supplying rapper Mac Miller with counterfeit oxycodone pills that led to his overdose death has been sentenced to over a decade in prison.
Ryan Michael Reavis, 39, will serve 10 years and 11 months behind bars for his involvement in the “Self Care” rapper’s death, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
District Judge Otis D. Wright II handed down the sentence, which was reportedly less than the recommended 12-and-a-half years by prosecutors. In addition, Reavis will undergo three years of supervised release and drug testing after he’s released.
Reavis claimed he was unaware the pills he was provided to sell to Miller were counterfeit and caused his accidental overdose. The pills were found to be laced with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic painkiller that’s 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
“This is not just a regular drug case. Somebody died, and a family is never going to get their son back. My family would be wrecked if it was me,” Reavis told the court, according to Rolling Stone. “Whatever happens today, I’m the lucky one because my family is here and I’m here and I’ll be with them again.”
Miller’s mother, Karen Meyers, told the court, “[My son] would never knowingly take a pill with fentanyl, ever. He wanted to live and was excited about the future. The hole in my heart will always be there.”
Miller, born Malcolm James McCormick, died September 7, 2018. Reavis is one of the three men charged in connection with Miller’s death.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). SAMHSA’s National Helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service.
