Charlie Puth mourns death of beloved dog: “His tiny spirit lingers on”

Charlie Puth mourns death of beloved dog: “His tiny spirit lingers on”
Charlie Puth mourns death of beloved dog: “His tiny spirit lingers on”
JC Olivera/Getty Images

Charlie Puth is mourning the death of his beloved dog, Brady.  The “Light Switch” singer shared the heartbreaking news on Wednesday, along with a recent photo of the two hanging out by the pool.

“Brady the King Charles Cavalier moved on to puppy heaven last night after spending an amazing 15 years here on earth,” Charlie wrote on Instagram. “And although he physically won’t be here anymore, his tiny spirit lingers on and I can’t wait to catch glimpses of that.”

Citing his 2014 Grammy-nominated song, Charlie ended the post with, “I shall see you again someday tiny dog.”

Many of Charlie’s famous friends expressed their condolences, including OneRepublic‘s Ryan TedderPatrick Schwarzenegger and actor John Owen Lowe.

Charlie doted on Brady over the years and even credited his dog for scoring him dates back in the day.  He told MTV in 2015 that he took the pup on his “first date ever” because he was so nervous.

“She was like, ‘Oh my gosh I have a King Charles Cavalier, too!’ I’m like, ‘Money, perfect, amazing,'” he recalled, noting Brady was the best wingman.

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Tom DeLonge premieres first trailer for directorial debut, ‘Monsters of California’

Tom DeLonge premieres first trailer for directorial debut, ‘Monsters of California’
Tom DeLonge premieres first trailer for directorial debut, ‘Monsters of California’
Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images

Tom DeLonge‘s Monsters of California movie has its first trailer.

The clip, which is streaming now on YouTube, sets up the plot for the sci-fi adventure, which follows a group of teenage friends who “attempt to unearth answers to a series of mysterious, paranormal events happening around Southern California.”

The film, which marks DeLonge’s directorial debut, also features original music written and performed by the former Blink-182 member.

“Anyone who knows me, or follows me on social media, knows I’m no stranger to the paranormal, which is why directing Monsters of California was a no brainer,” DeLonge says. “The film takes my fascination with the unexplained, combines it with the skate culture I grew up a part of, and tosses in my ridiculous sense of humor that millions got to witness during my Blink-182 days.”

A release date for Monsters of California has yet to be announced.

DeLonge has also been busy with his band Angels & Airwaves, which released a new album called Lifeforms last September.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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‘Bridgerton’ recasts Francesca for season three

‘Bridgerton’ recasts Francesca for season three
‘Bridgerton’ recasts Francesca for season three
Netflix/Liam Daniel

Bridgerton‘s upcoming third season will see a new face playing a familiar character. Deadline is reporting Hannah Dodd will play Francesca Bridgerton in the bodice-ripper series, taking over for Ruby Stokes.

Stokes, who played the dry-witted character for two seasons, left during production of the sophomore frame to star in a new Netflix series called Lockwood & Co., based on the Jonathan Stroud book series.

It’s possible that with the new casting, the third season could focus more on the enigmatic Bridgerton sibling, in the way the second season has turned the attention to Jonathan Bailey‘s Anthony Bridgerton and his conflict between what his heart wants and his familial duty to find a bride.

The official Bridgerton Twitter account acknowledged the casting swap from Stokes to Anatomy of a Scandal vet Dodd with a post responding to Deadline’s headline. It reads, “The only thing the Ton loves more than a scandal is a celebration. Do joyously welcome the newest member to the Bridgerton family.”

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Songs from Katy Perry, Shawn Mendes, Sam Smith and The Weeknd now RIAA-certified Gold, Platinum and Diamond

Songs from Katy Perry, Shawn Mendes, Sam Smith and The Weeknd now RIAA-certified Gold, Platinum and Diamond
Songs from Katy Perry, Shawn Mendes, Sam Smith and The Weeknd now RIAA-certified Gold, Platinum and Diamond
ABC/Gavin Bond

Katy PerryShawn MendesSam Smith and The Weeknd are now the proud owners of even more RIAA-certified Gold and Platinum hits.

Seven of Katy’s songs achieved new honors. “Daisies” earned Gold certification, while her 2017 single “Bon Appetit” sold over a million copies and is now certified Platinum.  “One of the Boys” is now three-times Platinum, while “Prism,” “Part of Me” and “The One That Got Away” are all five-times Platinum.  Katy’s smash hit “Teenage Dream” is now nine-times Platinum.

Six of Shawn’s songs were upped to Platinum and three of his singles went Gold.  “Show You,” “Imagination” and “Ruin” all sold over half a million copies, while “Treat You Better,” “Stitches,” “Mercy,” “Life of the Party,” “Illuminate” and “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back” are all multi-Platinum, with the highest honor going to Shawn’s debut, “Stitches,” which is now eight-times Platinum.

Sam collected eight new certifications in April, with their songs “Not in That Way,” “Make It to Me,” “Love Goes,” “Diamonds” and “Fire on Fire” all earning Platinum certifications, while “The Thrill of It All” is now double-Platinum.  In addition, their songs “How Will I Know” and “Burning” sold over a half-million copies and both earned Gold status.

The Weeknd saw Platinum and coveted Diamond awards in April.  Going Platinum were his hits “Reminder,” “Feel It Coming,” “Die for You,” “Heartless” and “Party Monster.”  His new Diamond certifications, earned when a song sells 10 million copies, are the songs “Blinding Lights” and “Starboy.”

The RIAA also gave Gavin Degraw some love, with four of his songs going Gold while three of his hits — “In Love with a Girl,” “Chariot” and “I Don’t Wanna Be” — going Platinum.

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Jan. 6 committee subpoenas Kevin McCarthy, other GOP members for testimony

Jan. 6 committee subpoenas Kevin McCarthy, other GOP members for testimony
Jan. 6 committee subpoenas Kevin McCarthy, other GOP members for testimony
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack subpoenaed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and four other Republican members of Congress on Thursday for testimony about events surrounding the Capitol riot and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

McCarthy and the other members — Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania — had rejected the committee’s voluntary requests for cooperation in recent months.

“Before we hold our hearings next month, we wished to provide members the opportunity to discuss these matters with the committee voluntarily,” Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement regarding the subpoenas. “Regrettably, the individuals receiving subpoenas today have refused and we’re forced to take this step to help ensure the committee uncovers facts concerning January 6th. We urge our colleagues to comply with the law, do their patriotic duty, and cooperate with our investigation as hundreds of other witnesses have done.”

In Thompson’s letter informing McCarthy of the subpoena, which the committee chair released to the media, Thompson said, in part, “The Select Committee has tremendous respect respect for the prerogatives of Congress and the privacy of its members. At the same time, we have a solemn responsibility to investigate fully the fact and circumstances of the violent attack on the United States Capitol and issues relating to the peaceful transfer of power.”

The subpoenas mark a dramatic escalation in the committee’s tactics and follow weeks of internal debate over whether to try to force Republicans to testify behind closed doors about their conversations with former President Donald Trump and involvement in various parts of the effort to overturn the election and contest the certification of the results.

The Republican members are unlikely to comply with the requests, which could prompt a legal — and, at minimum, political — battle with McCarthy and other lawmakers who are expected to be in the majority next year and in position to seek retribution.

The committee is expected to begin a series of public hearings on their investigation next month, ahead of issuing a final report on their inquiry in the fall. The report will be the product of nearly 1,000 interviews, and tens of thousands of pages of records obtained by investigators.

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Billy Howerdel releases new solo song, “Free and Weightless”

Billy Howerdel releases new solo song, “Free and Weightless”
Billy Howerdel releases new solo song, “Free and Weightless”
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella

A Perfect Circle guitarist Billy Howerdel has released a new song called “Free and Weightless,” a track off his upcoming debut solo album, What Normal Was.

“‘Free and Weightless’ stood on its own as an instrumental demo for a year before I cracked the code on the vocals,” Howerdel shares. “It was built out of a rolling collage of loops, which isn’t something I would normally do.”

“Thematically, everything on this record is pointed at personal relationships,” he explains. “The songs are a combination of a few conversations happening in a split-screen point-of-view. No one story is ever completely singular. It’s like patchwork.”

“Free and Weightless” is available now via digital outlets. It follows the previously released single “Poison Flowers.”

What Normal Was drops June 10. Howerdel will launch a U.S. solo tour in support of the album the following day, June 11, in Ventura, California. The outing will include two dates opening for Puscifer, which, of course, is fronted by Howerdel’s APC band mate, Maynard James Keenan.

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Halsey assures fans that their health won’t impact upcoming tour

Halsey assures fans that their health won’t impact upcoming tour
Halsey assures fans that their health won’t impact upcoming tour
Lionel Hahn/Getty Images

Halsey has assured fans that their recently disclosed health issues will not impact the upcoming Love and Power Tour, which is only days away from starting. 

Saying they were “legitimately just rehearsing and decided to jump on and talk about how excited I am,” Halsey clarified what they said in an earlier Instagram story, where they revealed they were diagnosed with multiple ailments that may be causing them to become allergic to most foods. 

With their tour days away, Halsey encouraged fans to start thinking about seeing them in person instead of worry about “that really sad story.”  

“I didn’t want you guys to think that something was wrong, so I jumped on to maybe give guys a little more positive of a vibe,” Halsey continued, teasing some features of the upcoming tour. “I changed the set list yesterday,” Halsey revealed, noting they “swapped a bunch of stuff around and added a bunch of songs.”

“I’ll pull a fast one. I’ll just change it last minute. That’s what I do,” they teased. 

“The show is wonderful,” Halsey continued. “The visuals are really cool and really intense.” 

The “Bad at Love” singer did bring down the mood to issue one final reminder to parents planning to attend one of their shows: “If you are bringing a young child to the show, consider this me telling you maybe to not,” adding that the tour’s “vibe” is not for “young, young children.”

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Rolling Stones vinyl box set featuring replicas of band’s early singles and EPs due out in June

Rolling Stones vinyl box set featuring replicas of band’s early singles and EPs due out in June
Rolling Stones vinyl box set featuring replicas of band’s early singles and EPs due out in June
ABKCO Records

A new limited-edition vinyl box set featuring reproductions of 18 singles and EPs that The Rolling Stones issued during the first few years of their career will be released on June 10 in commemoration of the band’s 60th anniversary this year.

The Rolling Stones Singles 1963-1966 boasts 18 seven-inch vinyl discs recreating singles and EPs originally released on the Decca and London Records labels in the U.K. and the U.S. The tracks were all remastered by Grammy -winning engineer Bob Ludwig, and each disc is housed in a “period-correct” picture sleeve.

The collection also includes a poster, five photos cards and a 32-page book with liner notes by Rolling Stones expert Nigel Williamson, as well as rare photos and other historic images.

The box set’s discs span from the band’s 1963 debut single, featuring a cover of Chuck Berry‘s “Come On,” through the U.S. version of the band’s 1966 hit single, “19th Nervous Breakdown.”

Other well-known Stones songs features on the single replicas include “I Wanna Be Your Man,” “Not Fade Away,” “It’s All Over Now” and “Time Is on My Side,” “Heart of Stone,” “The Last Time,” “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Get Off of My Cloud” and “As Tears Go By.”

The box set also features three EPs — 1964’s The Rolling Stones and Five by Five, and 1965’s Got Live If You Want It! Five by Five features songs that The Stones recorded at Chicago’s famed Chess Studios, while Got Live If You Want It! was the band’s first collection of in-concert performances.

A companion vinyl box set, The Rolling Stones Singles 1966-1971, is due out next year.

You can pre-order The Rolling Stones Singles 1963-1966 box set now at ABKCO.com. Here’s the full track list:

“Come On” (released June 1963)
Side A: “Come On”
Side B: “I Want to Be Loved”

“I Wanna Be Your Man” (released November 1963)
Side A: “I Wanna Be Your Man”
Side B: “Stoned”

The Rolling Stones E.P. (released January 1964)
Side A: “Bye Bye Johnny,” “Money”
Side B: “You Better Move On,” “Poison Ivy”

“Not Fade Away” (released February 1964)
Side A: “Not Fade Away”
Side B: “Little by Little”

“Tell Me” (released June 1964)  
Side A: “Tell Me”
Side B: “I Just Wanna Make Love to You”

“It’s All Over Now” (released June 1964)
Side A: “It’s All Over Now”
Side B: “Good Times, Bad Times”

Five by Five E.P. (released August 1964)
Side A: “If You Need Me,” “Empty Heart,” “2120 South Michigan Avenue”
Side B: “Confessin’ the Blues,” “Around and Around”

“Time Is on My Side” (released September 1964)
Side A: “Time Is on My Side”
Side B: “Congratulations”

“Little Red Rooster” (released November 1964)
Side A: “Little Red Rooster”
Side B: “Off the Hook”

“Heart of Stone” (released December 1964)
Side A: “Heart of Stone”
Side B: “What a Shame”

“The Last Time” (released February 1965)
Side A: “The Last Time”
Side B: “Play with Fire”

Got Live If You Want It! E.P. (released June 1965)
Side A: “We Want The Stones,” “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love,” “Pain in My Heart” “Route 66”
Side B: “I’m Moving On,” “I’m Alright”

“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (U.S. version, originally released June 1965)
Side A: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
Side B: “The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man”

“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction)” (U.K. version, released August 1965)
Side A: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
Side B: “The Spider and the Fly”

“Get Off of My Cloud” (U.S. version, released September 1965)
Side A: “Get Off of My Cloud”
Side B: “I’m Free”

“Get Off of My Cloud” (U.K. version, released October 1965)
Side A: “Get Off of My Cloud”
Side B: “The Singer Not the Song”

“As Tears Go By” (released December 1965)
Side A: “As Tears Go By”
Side B: “Gotta Get Away”

“19th Nervous Breakdown” (U.S. version, released February 1966)
Side A: “19th Nervous Breakdown”
Side B: “Sad Day”

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Supreme Court justices meet for first time amid fallout from leaked draft abortion opinion

Supreme Court justices meet for first time amid fallout from leaked draft abortion opinion
Supreme Court justices meet for first time amid fallout from leaked draft abortion opinion
Photo by Robert Mooney/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — Supreme Court justices met Thursday for the first time since the bombshell leak of a draft opinion showing the Court’s conservative majority is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The private conference is for the justices only, no staff or aides are allowed in the room.

The meeting came as abortion rights activists showed no signs of slowing down, gathering outside the homes of Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The protests, while peaceful, have prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland — the nation’s top law enforcement official — to direct additional support to ensure the safety of the nine justices.

“Attorney General Garland continues to be briefed on security matters related to the Supreme Court and Supreme Court Justices,” Justice Department spokesperson Anthony Coley said in a statement on Wednesday. The Attorney General directed the U.S. Marshals Service to help ensure the Justices’ safety by providing additional support to the Marshal of the Supreme Court and Supreme Court Police.”

On Wednesday, additional height was installed to the already “unscalable” eight-foot-high fence erected outside the Supreme Court last week. The barrier was similar to that placed around the U.S. Capitol after the violence on Jan. 6, 2021 and it comes ahead of a large-scale protest planned for Saturday.

The increased security at the Supreme Court and for the justices comes as Republicans continue to blast the demonstrations, despite no reports of violence.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Thursday said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the White House won’t “condemn the harassment.”

McConnell also hit Garland for not doing more to enforce a statute some say makes it illegal for protesters to picket or parade with the intent of influencing a judge at a building or residence occupied or used by such judge.

“One would think a DOJ run by the former chief judge of the D.C. Circuit would need no prodding, no prodding to protect judicial safety and judicial independence. But at least so far the attorney general was quicker to pounce on concerned parents at school board meetings,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “The governors of Maryland and Virginia have had to write a joint letter to the attorney general begging him to make his U.S. attorneys do their job and uphold the law.”

Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan and Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin wrote to Garland on Wednesday asking the Justice Department to provide “appropriate resources to safeguard the Justices and enforce the law as it is written.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday that the administration believes in peaceful protest, and that “violence, threats and intimidation of any kind have no place in political discourse.”

But she also took aim at Republicans, saying those criticizing these protests were “silent for years on protests that have happened outside of the homes of school board members, the Michigan Secretary of State, or including threats made to women seeking reproductive healthcare, or even an insurrection against our Capitol.”

“I know that there’s an outrage right now, I guess, about protests that have been peaceful to date — and we certainly continue to encourage that — outside of judges’ homes,” Psaki added. “And that’s the president’s position. But the silence is pretty deafening about all of the other intimidation that we’ve seen to a number of people.”

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$20K reward offered in search for gunmen in deadly Philadelphia gas station ambush

K reward offered in search for gunmen in deadly Philadelphia gas station ambush
K reward offered in search for gunmen in deadly Philadelphia gas station ambush
Philadelphia Police Department

(PHILADELPHIA) — A $20,000 reward is being offered in the search for a pair of gunmen caught on security video apparently stalking and then opening fire in broad daylight at a busy Philadelphia gas station, killing a 30-year-old man.

The Philadelphia Police Police Department released surveillance video Wednesday of the brazen ambush shooting in the Mt. Airy section of the city.

The footage captured the two gunmen pulling into the Liberty gas station in a 2009 red Mazda 3 sedan at around 2:30 p.m. Monday and opening fire on the victim as he was pumping gas into his vehicle.

The video shows the suspects’ car with the New Jersey license plate V62-PWX first stopping near the crowded gas pumps and backing up after apparently spotting the victim. The footage showed the car, driven by a third person, parking nearby and the gunmen, both dressed all in black, springing from the rear seat, rushing up to the victim commando-style and unleashed a barrage of gunfire.

Police said one of the gunmen appeared to be armed with an AK-47 rifle and the other looked to be firing a handgun with an extended magazine clip.

“The offenders fired multiple shots at the victim, striking him throughout the body,” police said in a statement.

The victim, identified by police as Brandon Dixon of Philadelphia, was taken to Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.

Police described the shooting as a “brazen act of viciousness” that put multiple innocent bystanders in jeopardy as the gunmen fired wildly at Dixon, who tried to run as he was being shot. The video showed the gunman running back to the four-door Mazda and driving away.

Dixon’s mother, Lisa Dixon, went to the gas station on Wednesday, saying she was “searching for answers.”

“I’m just hurt,” Lisa Dixon told ABC station WPVI in Philadelphia. “I came back here because I just need to be where he was last alive.”

Fighting back tears, she added, “He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve this. My son did not deserve to die like this.”

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