Variety has debuted an exclusive clip from the new film Spinning Gold, a biopic about late Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart, that features actors portraying KISS delivering a performance of the band’s classic song “Rock and Roll All Nite.”
Spinning Gold, which went into production in 2019, is being screened this week for buyers at the Cannes Film Festival market.
The movie, which was directed by Bogart’s son, Tim, tells the story of how Neil founded the Casablanca Records label, which helped launch the careers of KISS and other well-known artists, including Donna Summer, Parliament Funkadelic and Village People.
The preview clip shows Bogart, played by Tony-nominated actor Jeremy Jordan, being led backstage at a KISS concert just as the band is playing their signature song for an enthusiastic crowd. KISS singer/guitarist Paul Stanley and drummer Peter Criss are portrayed, respectively, by X Ambassadors vocalist Sam Harris and All Time Low‘s Alex Gaskarth, while a young actor named Casey Likes plays singer/bassist Gene Simmons.
According to Variety, the Spinning Gold cast also includes Wiz Khalifa, Ledisi, Jay Pharoah, Michelle Monaghan, Jason Isaacs, Jason Derulo, Sebastian Maniscalco, Chris Redd, Michael Ian Black and Vinnie Pastore.
Ledisi plays Donna Summer, while actress-singer Tayla Parx portrays Gladys Knight. Variety reports that a special beach party celebrating the industry-only film screening will take place in Cannes Thursday night, and will feature Ledisi and Parx performing hit songs by Summers and Knight.
System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian will be featured in an upcoming video game called Metal: Hellsinger.
Described as a “rhythm FPS,” Metal: Hellsinger finds players shooting enemies to the the beat of original music sung by a variety of big-name metal artists. Tankian, for example, is contributing a song called “No Tomorrow.”
“Your ability to shoot on the beat will directly impact both the damage you deal and how awesome the music sounds,” the game’s description reads. “The more in sync you are with the rhythm, the more intense the music will become and the more destruction you will cause.”
Other artists taking part include Trivium‘s Matt Heafy, Lamb of God‘s Randy Blythe, Jinjer‘s Tatiana Shmailyuk, Refused‘s Dennis Lyxzén and Arch Enemy‘s Alissa White-Gluz.
You can watch a trailer featuring a clip of Tankian’s song streaming now on YouTube.
Metal: Hellsinger is set to be released later this year on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
It’s been almost a decade since beloved rap group Migos hit the scene with their debut song “Versace,” taking the hip-hop world by storm. But after group members Offset, Quavo and Takeoff seemingly unfollowed one another on social media, fans started to speculate the trio might soon be breaking up.
In snapshots shared by The Neighborhood Talk on Wednesday night, it looks as if the guys hit the Instagram unfollow button for reasons unknown. It might just be a coincidence, but fans speculate that Offset initiated the unfollowing after Quavo and Takeoff announced their upcoming song “Hotel Lobby,” which is expected this Friday.
One user took to Twitter to express his belief that it’s all just a business scheme, saying, “this is marketing, they will be back together in 2 weeks after quavo and takeoff drop a video.”
Others are chalking the situation up to a family disagreement. “I argue & unfollow my uncle/cousins all the time,” one person commented on IG. “They brothers. Brothers fight. Brothers disagree. Hopefully they make it right,” another said.
We’ll just have to wait and see if the three of them drop anymore music together.
The CW Network has announced that Riverdale will end with its upcoming seventh season. The announcement came ahead of the network’s Upfront presentation to advertisers Thursday.
“I am a big believer in attempting to give series that have had long runs an appropriate sendoff,” CW Chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz said Thursday in a network call, according to TV Line. “As a fan myself, I do want to do what is right for the show.”
The supernatural Sunday night teen drama was an unlikely adaptation of Archie comics, starring KJ Apa as Archie, Lili Reinhart as Betty, Cole Sprouse as Jughead and Camila Mendes as Veronica.
Pedowitz explained, “We had a long conversation with [executive producer] Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa] yesterday, who is thrilled by this news, and we will treat the show in the manner it deserves …. We want to make sure it goes out the right way.” He added, “I think they, too, felt that seven years is the right amount.”
The network also announced a Supernatural prequel called The Winchesters; a Walker spinoff called Walker Independence; celebrity reality show Magic with the Stars starring Criss Angel; a legal drama called Family Law; an action series called The Professionals; and DC Comics-based series Gotham Knights.
X Ambassadors vocalist Sam Harris and All Time Low‘s Alex Gaskarth “rock and roll all night” as members of KISS in a new clip from the upcoming film Spinning Gold.
The movie is a biopic about Neil Bogart, who founded the label Casablanca Records and helped launch the careers of artists like KISS, Donna Summer, Parliament and Village People.
The clip shows Bogart, played by Tony-nominated actor Jeremy Jordan, being led backstage at a KISS concert just as they’re playing their signature song “Rock and Roll All Nite” for the enthusiastic crowd. We also get brief looks at Harris playing guitarist and vocalist Paul Stanley and Gaskarth playing drummer Peter Criss.
Spinning Gold — which was written and directed by Bogart’s son, Timothy Scott Bogart — will be shown Thursday during an industry-only screening at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden welcomed Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish President Sauli Niinistö to the White House on Thursday to discuss their historic bids to join NATO.
All three leaders called for swift acceptance of the applications amid resistance from Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who announced Thursday that his country will oppose Finland and Sweden joining the alliance.
“The bottom line is simple, quite straightforward,” Biden said in remarks in the Rose Garden. “Finland and Sweden make NATO stronger.”
The two nation’s formally submitted their applications on Wednesday as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is about to enter its fourth month. Finland and Sweden said they made the decision to join the alliance after seeing strong support from the public and the backing from their respective governments.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters he welcomed the move, calling the countries the alliance’s “closest partners.”
“All allies agree on the importance of NATO enlargement,” Stoltenberg said at a news conference. “We all agree that we must stand together. And we all agree that this is an historic moment, which we must seize.”
Their request must be approved by all of NATO’s 30 member countries, making Erdogan’s objection a potential headache.
“We have told our relevant friends we would say ‘no’ to Finland and Sweden’s entry into NATO, and we will continue on our path like this,” Erdogan said in a video statement on Thursday.
Erdogan has been critical of both countries, stating he perceives them as being supportive of groups Turkey views as extremist — including the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
Both Sweden’s prime minister and Finland’s president addressed Turkey’s disapproval during their visit to the White House.
“Finland has always had proud and good bilateral relations to Turkey,” Niinistö said. “As NATO allies, we will commit to Turkey’s security, just as Turkey will commit to our security. We take terrorism seriously, we condemn terrorism in all its forms and we are actively engaged in combating it. We are open to discussing all the concerns Turkey may have concerning our membership in an open and constructive manner.”
Andersson said Sweden is having dialogues with all NATO members, Turkey included, to sort out any issues at hand.
Despite Turkey’s opposition, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC White House Correspondent MaryAlice Parks on Wednesday the administration is “confident at the end of the day” that Finland and Sweden “will have an effective and efficient accession process” and that “Turkey’s concerns can be addressed.”
Sullivan also warned that the U.S. “will not tolerate any aggression against Finland or Sweden” as their applications are being considered.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met in New York on Wednesday to “reaffirm their strong cooperation as partners and NATO allies,” according to a joint statement.
“They discussed ways and assessed concrete steps to enhance their cooperation on defense issues, counterterrorism, energy and food security, combatting climate change and boosting trade ties, while agreeing to intensify consultations on a range of regional issues,” the statement read.
Justin Bieber‘s had so many hits that you can be forgiven if you don’t remember a few of them. But the video for one of them — which he released back in 2012 — has just become his 11th video to hit 1 billion views on YouTube.
Remember that time Justin collaborated with Nicki Minaj on a song called “Beauty And A Beat“? Appearing on his third studio album, Believe, the song was co-written by Nicki, Zedd, Max Martin and others, and produced by Zedd and Martin. The song peaked at #5, but the video, filmed in a water park in L.A., set a new record on Vevo for the most views in 24 hours, racking up 10.6 million.
Now that “Beauty And A Beat” has hit a billion views, it joins Justin’s 10 other videos to achieve that milestone, which include “Baby,” “Sorry,” “Love Yourself,” “Let Me Love You,” “What Do You Mean?” and “Cold Water.”
(WASHINGTON) — As so many parents still scour grocery shelves for baby formula the head of the Food and Drug Administration faced congressional lawmakers Thursday, amid the nationwide shortage that has ricocheted across the country and struck at the core of American families’ urgent need to feed their children.
FDA Commissioner Robert Califf’s appearance before a House Appropriations subcommittee comes just hours after President Joe Biden announced new steps to ramp up the federal response to the crisis, a problem that had been brewing for months.
On Wednesday evening, Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to help expedite domestic manufacturing and allow military aircraft to fly formula into the U.S. from overseas. Yet, even with Biden’s action, top FDA officials have predicted that the the nation is still “weeks” away from seeing enough infant formula on the shelves.
It all comes as the administration faces mounting pressure from the American public clamoring for formula relief, with the issue used as a political cudgel by Republicans — and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle questioning whether the FDA responded with sufficient transparency and efficiency.
The critical shortage has been fueled by a perfect storm of circumstances, including pandemic supply chain disruptions, and the largest domestic formula manufacturer’s plant being shut down in February, following contamination issues at the factory which had been linked to four infants being hospitalized with a rare but serious bacterial infection, two of whom ultimately died.
Califf was expected to face tough scrutiny over whether the agency prioritized getting Abbott’s plant back online, and why FDA did not act sooner to mitigate the looming supply shortages.
At the hearing, Appropriations Committee chair Rosa DeLauro D-Conn., underscored what she said was the need to “get to the bottom of FDA’s slow response, which contributed to product staying on the shelves, and in the homes of families the country over, potentially putting babies at risk and forcing parents to play a game of Russian Roulette that they did not know they were playing.”
“Why did the FDA not spring into action?” DeLauro said, pointing to the time it took for the agency to make the recall of several of Abbott’s brands, following reports of contamination at their plant and allegations of ongoing quality control concerns.
“It makes me question which side the FDA is on,” DeLauro said. “Are they on the side of Abbott, and industry, or on the side of the American consumer, in this case babies and their moms and dads?”
In his opening remarks Califf recognized American families’ anxieties at the shortage.
“We know many parents and caregivers are feeling frustrated,” Califf said. “This crisis has shown us the impact of having a single manufacturer cease production for a brief period, and unless we strengthen the resilience of our supply chain, we could be one natural disaster or quality mishap or cyber attack from being here again. I hope I can work with this committee to ensure we have the tools and resources we need moving forward.”
Korn has premiered a new live video for “Worst Is on Its Way,” the current single off the band’s new album, Requiem.
The performance was recorded during Korn’s streaming concert earlier this year celebrating the release of Requiem, which was filmed at the Hollywood United Methodist Church in Los Angeles. Three hundred fans got to attend the intimate show in performance, which required attendees to wear “appropriate black funeral attire.”
You can watch the live “Worst Is on Its Way” video streaming now on YouTube.
Requiem, Korn’s 14th studio album, was released last February. It also includes the lead single “Start the Healing.”
Korn will hit the road in support of Requiem on a U.S. tour alongside Evanescence kicking off in August.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — As loved ones of the victims looked on, an 18-year-old suspect accused of fatally shooting 10 people in what authorities described as a racially motivated rampage, appeared in court Thursday and was called a “coward” by someone at the hearing.
The suspect, Payton Gendron, entered the Buffalo, New York, City Court wearing an orange jumpsuit, a white face mask and chains on his legs and hands and surrounded by numerous court officers.
Prosecutors said a grand jury had indicted him on first-degree murder, but all the charges remain under seal.
Judge Craig D. Hannah adjourned Thursday’s one-minute hearing. The hearing was scheduled to be a felony hearing, but because Gendron has been indicted, the judge scheduled his next hearing for June 9, when he is expected to be arraigned on charges in the grand jury indictment.
Relatives and family members of victims killed in the shooting at a grocery store Saturday crowded into the courtroom to watch. Gendron entered and left under heavy guard.
A woman in sitting in the courtroom gallery was overheard yelling, “Payton, you’re a coward” as he exited the courtroom.
“The defendant continues to remain held without bail. There will be no further comment from our office until there is a report following an investigation by the Grand Jury,” Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said in a statement. “As are all persons accused of a crime, the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”
No additional charges have been filed.
Gendron made no comments in court.
Gendron was initially charged with one count of murder following Saturday afternoon’s massacre at a Tops Friendly Market in which police officials alleged he intentionally targeted Black people in the attack he planned for months. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered to be held without bail.
Gendron is expected to face additional murder and attempted murder counts and state hate crime charges. The FBI is also conducting a parallel investigation, which the Department of Justice said could lead to federal hate crime and terrorism charges.
During a visit to Buffalo on Tuesday, President Joe Biden called the mass shooting an act of “domestic terrorism.”
All 10 of the people killed in the attack were Black, six women and four men. Three other people were wounded in the shooting, including one Black victim and two white victims.
Investigators said Gendron drove three hours from his home in Conklin, New York, and alleged he spent Friday conducting a final reconnaissance on the store before committing the mass shooting Saturday afternoon.
Authorities allege Gendron was wielding an AR-15-style rifle, dressed in military fatigues, body armor and wearing a tactical helmet with a camera attached when he stormed the store around 2:30 p.m., shooting four people outside the business and nine others inside. Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said the suspect fired a barrage of 50 shots during the rampage.
Police said Gendron allegedly livestreamed the attack on the gaming website Twitch before the company took down the live feed two minutes into the shooting.
Among those killed was 55-year-old Aaron Salter Jr., a retired Buffalo police officer who was working as a security guard at the supermarket. Authorities said Salter fired at the gunman, but the bullets had no effect due to the bulletproof vest the suspect wore.
Buffalo police officers arrived at the store one minute after getting the first calls of an active shooter and confronted the suspect, who responded by placing the barrel of the rifle to his chin and threatening to kill himself, according to Gramaglia. He said the officers de-escalated the situation and talked Gendron into surrendering.
