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Crazy Cool at 60: Paul Abdul teases she’ll do something “spectacular” or “be with my dogs” on birthday

May 25, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Paula Abdul turns the big 6-0 on June 19 and, ahead of her milestone birthday, the Grammy winner teased how she plans to ring in her special day.

“I’m gonna do something big,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “Maybe charter a yacht or go somewhere exotic [and] take some friends.” Although she has lofty goals for her 60th birthday, Paula joked, “Knowing me, I’ll stay home [and] be with my dogs.”

The “Straight Up” singer continued, “I wanna do something fun and something spectacular … Every day we [should] celebrate ourselves. We are above ground. We are living. We are healthy. You know what? We’re celebrating really important things in life.”

Paula also spoke about getting to do something just as fun as celebrating a big birthday — serving as judge on ABC’s upcoming competition series The American Rescue Dog Show. The singer, along with fellow judges Yvette Nicole Brown and Leslie Jordan, will determine which rescue pooch is top dog in categories such as “Best in Snoring.”

“My heart’s gonna be melting [over] the cute factor, of course, and the sweet factor,” she gushed. “I wish I could take all of these dogs home … We will be aww-ing and ooh-ing and oh my God-ing.”

Paula added the show is all the more special to her because she has “rescued dogs for decades” and thinks rescue pets are “so special.”

“I hope that this show actually makes everyone tune in and that everyone adopts a dog. They’re magical. They’re so sensitive to our human feelings and they make everything better,” she raved. “I can’t imagine life without rescuing dogs. I really can’t. I have the coolest rescue dogs.”

The American Rescue Dog Show premieres May 25 on ABC.

Warriors’ Steve Kerr shatters silence after Texas shooting in pregame presser

May 25, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(DALLAS) — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr delivered a powerful message on Tuesday after 19 children and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas: “We can’t get numb to this.”

In his pregame news conference before tip-off for Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Mavericks, Kerr said “any basketball questions don’t matter” and instead addressed politicians in a plea for gun control.

“When are we going to do something?” Kerr yelled, slamming his fists on the table. “I’m tired. I’m so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there — I’m sorry. I’m tired of the moments of silence. Enough.”

Kerr, who has long been outspoken against gun violence, also referenced H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021, a bill that would tighten background checks for private firearm transfers. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives last year but has since stalled in the Senate, with conservative lawmakers, whose votes are required to overcome a filibuster, and Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin opposed to the legislation.

“There’s a reason why they won’t vote on it. To hold on to power,” Kerr said Tuesday. “So I ask you, [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell, I ask all of you senators who refuse to do anything about the violence and school shootings and supermarket shootings, I ask you: Are you going to put your own desire for power ahead of the lives of our children and our elderly and our churchgoers? Because that’s what it looks like. It’s what we do every week.”

Kerr’s father was shot dead in a reported terror attack in Beirut in 1984. Kerr has since spent much of his professional career using his platform to echo calls for gun law reform.

“I’m fed up,” he said Tuesday evening. “I’ve had enough. We’re going to play the game tonight, but I want every person here, every person listening to this — think about your own child or grandchild or mother or father, sister, brother — how would you feel if this happened to you today?”

The Uvalde, Texas, shooting at Robb Elementary School happened just over a week after a suspected white supremacist was accused of killing 10 Black shoppers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and 10 days after a gunman opened fire at a church in Laguna Woods, California, killing one.

Will Britney Spears appear on ’Euphoria’? Her meeting with The Weeknd sparks rumors

May 25, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Britney Spears, like many people, is an outspoken fan of Euphoria, and a since-deleted Instagram post has fans buzzing that she could make a cameo on the popular HBO drama.

Sharing a short video of her hanging out with The Weeknd and Euphoria director Sam Levinson, the Grammy winner revealed, “Here’s me today meeting the director of @euphoria today and @theweeknd,” which has fans scrambling over the possibility of Britney’s return to acting.

Britney’s fiancé, Sam Asghari, further fueled rumors by commenting, “New character in Euphoria?” In addition, The Weeknd commented with a single red heart emoji.

While the “Toxic” singer spent much of her post focusing on Euphoria, fans also pointed out The Weeknd is currently working on a music-industry drama series called The Idol, which he co-wrote with Levinson. The series follows a female pop star who falls in love with a Los Angeles club owner who is also a cult leader.

That series is currently going under a “new creative direction,” which means the show’s “adjusting its cast and crew accordingly,” according to an HBO spokesperson. It is currently unknown how or if Britney fits into the equation.

Also in Britney’s post, she spoke about having clarity in her life and opened up about being forced into “840 hours” of therapy against her will. She also revealed that, seven months prior to being committed against her will, she had been meeting with charities to help Hillary Clinton “cut the red string for the key to Las Vegas,” but the opportunity never arose. “That’s Hollywood for you,” she remarked.

Scotty McCreery says “the pressure” is how golf is similar to performing onstage

May 25, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Scotty McCreery was a baseball player in high school, but his focus has since shifted to a more mellow sport: golf.

When he’s not on the road entertaining his legion of fans, you can find Scotty on a golf course, who plays about two or three times a week when he’s at home. The singer has been playing golf since he was six years old and said he ended up with a score of 74 in his best round of golf. “I was pretty pumped,” he tells PGA Tour.

As for his favorite course in the country, Scotty cites Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. “It’s like walking into the Land of Oz, it’s unbelievable,” he describes, adding that Tiger Woods is his favorite player of all time.

While he plays golf for fun, the North Carolina native says that being onstage is where he feels most comfortable, noting that the similarity between golf and singing is the pressure.

“In golf, you got to hit the shot. When people are watching onstage, thousands of folks out there watching, you got to make sure you deliver. I enjoy the pressure when I’m singing, golf wise probably not so much,” Scotty laughs. “I don’t mind the pressure onstage.”

Among the many other golf fans in the country community are Darius Rucker, Charles Kelley of Lady A and Jake Owen.

Environmental-themed Atlantis Concert for Earth to feature performances by Sting, Julian Lennon & more stars

May 25, 2022 by WDNY Radio

A star-studded environmental-themed festival called Atlantis Concert for Earth that will feature live and virtual performances will be held July 22 and 23.

The live show will take place on the rim of a volcano crater on Sete Cidades in Portugal’s Azores islands. The concert will include a virtual performance by Sting, and the lineup also features Julian Lennon, Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, Black Eyed Peas, Pitbull, Nicole Scherzinger, Mod Sun and others. Scherzinger also will serve as host.

Atlantis Concert for Earth is a nonprofit event that will celebrate global conservation. In addition to the music performances, the show will highlight the work of a variety of conservationists and organizations focused on the environment, including Lennon’s White Feather Foundation.

On July 23, the event will be streamed for free at the Veeps platform, and viewers will be encouraged to donate money, 100 percent of which will benefit the organizations showcased by the festival.

The event was conceptualized in part by Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, who was born in the Azores and who recently collaborated with Julian on a cover of his late dad John Lennon‘s classic peace anthem, “Imagine.”

“These days, words Climate and Climate Crisis trigger so many different emotions from all walks of life,” said Bettencourt.

He adds, “[T]ogether during Concert for Earth we are taking our universal language and power of music to celebrate the Conservationists and Entrepreneurs from around the world who are game changers leading the way with real, tangible solutions to flip the current narrative of climate and conservation from blame, anger, and doom; to positivity and hope by shining a light on inspirational SOLUTIONS to get us back in balance with our planet.”

For more details about the event, visit AtlantisConcertforEarth.com.

‘Top Gun: Maverick”s Monica Barbaro recalls “almost panicking” while training for role

May 25, 2022 by WDNY Radio

There was a lot of flight time for the cast of Top Gun: Maverick, which opened on select IMAX screens Tuesday and will hit all theaters on Friday. Monica Barbaro plays one of the new fighter pilots, call sign Phoenix, and she tells ABC Audio she was a little nervous at first to go up in the military jets. But now?

“I love flying,” she shares. “Getting to be in the sky was, it became like actually, as intense as it all was, it became actually quite peaceful in the moments between takes and the moments between training.”

Thanks to training, Barbaro says that “depending on the plane” she might be able to step in if there was ever a pilot emergency.

“Obviously, a commercial airliner, a lot of bells and whistles that are quite complicated,” she notes, adding, “A Cessna, I can fly. I can fly a Cessna…But obviously in an emergency situation…If there were no licensed pilots on that plane, I would be the closest thing to it.”

In the future Barbaro might be able to go bigger than a Cessna thanks to co-star Tom Cruise, who she reveals “gifted us a lifetime membership to basic ground school.”

Learning to fly wasn’t the only training for Barbaro, who says the biggest challenge was the underwater training they had to go through in case they had to eject over the ocean. She recalls “almost panicking” before following through with everything and coming out just fine on the other side.

“I never felt happier in my whole life,” she says.

Finally! Kelly Clarkson is releasing a ‘Kellyoke’ EP

May 25, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Ever since Kelly Clarkson started doing fan-voted cover songs in her live shows, people have asked for her to release those covers. The call intensified after Kelly made cover songs, aka “Kellyoke,” a daily feature of her talk show. In other words, we’ve been waiting a lifetime for a moment like this — and now we’re finally getting it.

Kelly has announced that a six-song EP titled Kellyoke will arrive June 9. It’ll feature Kelly’s takes on Linda Ronstadt‘s “Blue Bayou,” The Weeknd‘s “Call Out My Name,” Radiohead‘s “Fake Plastic Trees,” Whitney Houston‘s “Queen of the Night” and Billie Eilish‘s “Happier Than Ever,” the latter of which is out now on all digital platforms.

Kelly originally performed “Happier Than Ever” on her show September 30 of last year. In this studio version, she definitely does not shy away from the profanity in the song.

“Music is in the DNA of everything I do, so when The Kelly Clarkson Show started we knew it was the perfect way to kick off every episode,” Kelly says in a statement. “Over 500 songs later, and we’re still not running out of amazing artists to pay tribute to. Picking just six was near-impossible, but these songs have been some of my favorites. Thanks for singing along with me, y’all!”

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Selena Gomez react to Texas school shooting: “So broken”

May 25, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Selena Gomez are among the celebrities who took to social media to express their grief, shock and outrage over the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday that left 19 children and two adults dead.

On Twitter, Taylor posted a video of Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr making an impassioned plea for gun control. “I’m so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there…I’m tired of the moments of silence. Enough,” said an emotional Kerr.

Taylor captioned the video, “Filled with rage and grief, and so broken by the murders in Uvalde. By Buffalo, Laguna Woods and so many others. By the ways in which we, as a nation, have become conditioned to unfathomable and unbearable heartbreak. Steve’s words ring so true and cut so deep.”

Taylor’s friend Selena Gomez, a Texas native, wrote on Twitter, “Today in my home state of Texas 18 innocent students were killed while simply trying to get an education. A teacher killed doing her job; an invaluable yet sadly under appreciated job. If children aren’t safe at school where are they safe?”

Including a link to the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, Selena added, “It’s so frustrating and I’m not sure what to say anymore. Those in power need to stop giving lip service and actually change the laws to prevent these shootings in the future.”

And at her concert in LA on Tuesday night, Olivia Rodrigo told the audience she was “devastated” about the shooting, and added, “We should never have to worry about our safety or our lives at places that are dedicated to our learning and growing. And I’m so heartbroken that this is the reality that we’re living in — and we need stricter gun control laws in America.” The audience cheered her remarks.

Matthew McConaughey calls for action following school shooting in his Texas hometown

May 25, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Matthew McConaughey is speaking out following Tuesday’s horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in the actor’s Texas hometown of Uvalde that left 19 children and two adults dead.

“As you all are aware there was another mass shooting today, this time in my home town of Uvalde, Texas,” McConaughey wrote in a message on social media. “Once again, we have tragically proven that we are failing to be responsible for the rights our freedoms grant us.”

He went on to call for action and asked Americans to not “make excuses” and to not “accept these tragic realities as the status quo.”

“As Americans, Texans, mothers and fathers, it’s time we re-evaluate, and renegotiate our wants from our needs,” he wrote. “We have to rearrange our values and find a common ground above this devastating American reality that has tragically become our children’s issue.”

McConaughey continued, “This is an epidemic we can control, and whichever side of the aisle we may stand on, we all know we can do better. We must do better. Action must be taken so that no parent has to experience what the parents in Uvalde and the others before them have endured.”

The shooting took place at Robb Elementary School. The 18-year-old suspect, identified by law enforcement sources and Gov. Greg Abbott as Salvador Ramosa, a student at Uvalde High School, is also dead.

In brief: CBS pulls ‘FBI’ finale in wake of school shooting, and more

May 25, 2022 by WDNY Radio

CBS pulled Tuesday night’s season four finale of FBI in light of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, that claimed the lives of 19 students, two teachers and the alleged gunman earlier in the day. The episode has been pulled due to the fact that the storyline concerned a school shooting, according to Variety. The episode’s official synopsis reads, “As the team investigates a deadly robbery that garnered a cache of automatic weapons for the killers, they discover one of the perps is a classmate of Jubal’s son, who is reluctant to cooperate with the case.” FBI aired a repeat in the finale’s place. A new airdate for the finale has yet to be announced…

Samuel L. Jackson has been tapped to star alongside Chris Pratt in a new animated Garfield film, according to Deadline. The film is based on Jim Davis’ titular lazy comic strip cat and his interactions with his owner, Jon Arbuckle, along with his fellow pet, Odie the dog. Jackson will reportedly play a brand-new character, Garfield’s father, Vic. This will mark the third time Garfield has been brought to the big screen. Bill Murray previously voiced the character in 2004’s Garfield and 2006’s Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, both of which were a combination of live-action and animation…

The Bachelorette star Tayshia Adams is set to host the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted, according to Variety. The show will take place live at the Barker Hangar on Sunday, June 5, at 10 p.m. ET. This year, the MTV Movie & TV Awards and the Unscripted show will air back-to-back and simulcast across BET, BET Her, CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV2, Nick at Nite, Paramount Network, Pop, TV Land and VH1. Before the Unscripted awards, Vanessa Hudgens will host the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards. The tick, tick…BOOM! star previously hosted the MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time special in 2020…

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