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After a divorce, many women change their names back to their maiden name. But now it seems as though Kelly Clarkson may be changing her name in a more extreme way.
According to E! Online, which got a look at the court documents, the multi-talented entertainer has filed to change her name to “Kelly Brianne” — “Brianne” being her middle name — explaining, “My new name more fully reflects who I am.”
A hearing regarding Kelly’s request is set for March 28, E! reports.
In June of 2020, Kelly split with her husband of nearly seven years, Brandon Blackstock, citing “irreconcilable differences.” She was legally declared single in September of 2021. Kelly and Brandon share two children, River and Remington, and she was also stepmother to Savannah and Seth, Brandon’s two children from his previous marriage.
Last July, Kelly was ordered to pay Brandon nearly $200,000 per month in child and spousal support.
Meanwhile, Kelly’s taking on yet another project: co-hosting NBC’s American Song Contest with Snoop Dogg on March 21.
Brett Young enlisted the help of a very special co-star to make his newest music video: His wife, Taylor.
In the video for his song “You Didn’t,” Brett plays the role of a guy who’s had his heartbroken, and Taylor is the one who got away, appearing as a ghost and then fading away as soon as he reaches out for her. In the video, Brett is tormented by painful memories of the relationship, finally crawling into bed with a picture of himself and Taylor taken during happier times.
Taylor was an appropriate choice to play the role of Brett’s ex. Though they’re happily married now, the pair once went through a two-year-long hiatus when he first moved to Nashville to pursue country music.
Fortunately, they’re now back together and happier than ever: Brett and Taylor got married in 2018 and are now parents to two daughters, two-and-a-half-year-old Presley and six-month-old Rowan.
Here’s your chance to party in wine country with Metallica.
The metal legends have announced a charity raffle with the grand prize of two VIP three-day passes to the ‘Tallica-headlined BottleRock Napa Valley festival, taking place May 27-29 in Napa, California.
The campaign will raise money for Metallica’s All Within My Hands charity foundation. The more you donate, the more entries you’ll receive.
In related news, Metallica’s hometown baseball team, the San Francisco Giants, have announced the details of its 2022 Metallica Night. The annual celebration, which has missed the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, makes its return to Oracle Park on May 24.
Previous Metallica Nights have featured the band performing the national anthem and throwing out the game’s ceremonial first pitch.
If you think you know what you’re getting into with the Foo Fighters‘ Studio 666 movie, you may want to check out the red band trailer.
The newly premiered, uncensored clip gives you an NSFW preview of the upcoming horror-comedy movie, with all the blood, guts, entrails and f-bombs you can fit in 90 seconds.
You can watch the trailer streaming now on YouTube, if you dare.
In related news, Dave Grohl reveals in an interview with Empire magazine that he tried to get Vin Diesel to make an appearance in Studio 666, but the Fast & Furious star declined.
“The casting process was literally me looking through my phone,” Grohl shares. “We f***ing asked Vin Diesel to be in the movie! We were like, ‘Oh my god, 10 million people will go see this film! And he said no.”
Studio 666 does, however, feature all six Foo Fighters members, as well as Whitney Cummings, Leslie Grossman, Will Forte and Jenna Ortega, plus a cameo from Lionel Richie. It hits theaters February 25.
Its been four years since the infamous Pusha-T/Drake feud was ignited. Now, as Pusha prepares to drop a new album, he’s reconfirming that the beef has been quashed.
“I’ve already looked past that,” the “Mercy” rapper said on the 360 with Speedy Mormanpodcast. “I don’t look towards that anymore. … Bygones are bygones, as far as I see.”
The feud began in 2018, when Pusha accused the Champagne Papi of using a ghostwriter in the song “Infrared.” The beef escalated when Pusha revealed in the 2018 diss track “The Story of Adidon” that Drake had a son named Adonis.
Pusha is signed to Kanye West’s Good Music label, and Ye recently ended his feud with Drake. He thinks it “works really good” to see Drake and Kanye as friends, even though it surprised him.
“I told [Ye], ‘That might be good for you,’” Pusha added, asserting that he spoke with Kanye about ending the beef with the Certified Lover Boy rapper before Yeezy and Drake performed at the Free Larry Hoover concert on December 9 in LA.
Pusha is planning to drop his fourth studio album in the spring, and he’s full of confidence,
“There’s no album that’s better than mine this year,” the four-time Grammy nominee says of the project, produced by West and Pharrell Williams. “Nobody makes better music with those two entities than me. I want people to stop working with them, because it sort of cheapens what I do.”
As any admitted fangirl would be, Rosario Dawson is pretty psyched. She’s part of the Star Wars universe, thanks to playing former Jedi Ahsoka Tano in The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and her upcoming spin-off, Ahsoka.
She’s also working on a movie based on Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride and — completing a rare pop culture hat trick of Disney-owned properties — her former Netflix show, Daredevil, is now officially part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, thanks to co-star Charlie Cox‘s appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Dawson played Marvel’s heroic nurse Claire Temple in Daredevil, as well as in Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and The Defenders. She enthuses to ABC Audio, “I had a whole moment, I was like, ‘Charlie’s back, so I guess that means I’m part of the MCU, YAY!'”
“All the universes!” she adds with a laugh.
As for Ahsoka, Dawson explains, “We haven’t started, I haven’t even read an episode yet or anything,” admitting her interview with ABC Audio started a little late, because she had just been “talking about stuff” with Ahsoka producer Dave Filoni.
“So we’re we’re a ways away, but it’s still really…exciting to start getting into it. …I literally am like, ‘I can’t hang out because I’m saber training.’ Like, that’s an actual thing I got to say, which is really, really fun and cool!”
Karwai Tang/WireImage; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
At least one Britpop icon is in Taylor Swift‘s corner.
In an interview with NME, Liam Gallagher says he thinks the pop superstar is “f***ing cool” in response to the controversy over Blur frontman Damon Albarn‘s comments regarding Swift as a songwriter.
As you may recall, Albarn claimed that Swift “doesn’t write her own songs” in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times. He also dismissed the idea of Swift “co-writing” songs, which he said “doesn’t count.”
As for that assertion, Gallagher tells NME, “Says who?”
“All them f***ing gorilla albums are co-writes aren’t they?” Liam asks, presumably referring to Albarn’s other band, Gorillaz.
Liam also has some experience with Albarn’s type of criticism, being as his estranged brother, Noel Gallagher, is credited as the main songwriter behind Oasis.
“I get it,” he says. “Noel bangs on about it as well: ‘I’m more important than you because I write my f***ing songs.'”
Following Albarn’s comments, Swift tweeted back, “I write ALL of my own songs. Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging.” Albarn then apologized “unreservedly and unconditionally,” claiming the quote was “reduced to clickbait.”
“Well, [Albarn] won’t be saying that again in a hurry, though, will he?” Liam says. “Did he not get ran out of f***ing town by the Swifters?”
“I think [Swift is] f***ing cool, man,” he adds. “She does write her songs and I’m sure she’s co-wrote with people.”
Liam also calls Swift’s hit “Shake It Off” a “f***ing tune,” though he should probably learn the proper name of her fan base if he wants to stay on the Swifties’ good side.
Jake Owen dropped the next installment off an as-yet-unannounced new album today, and it’s a deceptively up-tempo song about heartbreak.
Called “Fishin’ on a River,” the song is about a guy who’s got big plans for a day of fishing — that is, until his love interest throws him a curveball by deciding to call it quits.
“I don’t know where it all went wrong / But all I know is that girl’s gone / And a honey hole ain’t gonna help me forget her / So I’m sitting in a bar instead of fishin’ on a river,” Jake sings in the chorus.
Jake says it was that unexpected twist that first made him fall in love with the track, which was written by David Fanning, Cole Taylor and Drew Parker.
“When you first hear the title, you’d think it’s a good ole country anthem about fishin’ with the boys,” he explains. “Instead, it’s a love-done-gone, sway-along track that most everyone can relate. Here’s to the brokenhearted chasing their blues away with Jack and Rye instead of bass and fishing line.”
Jake’s new song follows the release of his current single, “Best Thing Since Backroads.” Keep your eyes peeled for more new music from Jake in the months ahead.
If you talk to Billie Eilish, be prepared to hear the truth.
The Oscar-nominee told Vanity Fair she developed her desire to be truthful when she was a kid. “I try to complain as little as possible, but also be really honest… which is kind of the opposite side of this kind of industry,” she explained. “And growing up as a fan and seeing celebrities and people in the public eye talk, I just always felt like everyone was bulls****ing and I felt like people weren’t telling the truth. And now that I’m in the industry, I know that people aren’t telling the truth almost 95% of the time.”
Billie says she “made it a rule in my own mind of kind of trying to be honest as much as I can.” However, she admits it’s becoming harder to stick to that vow because “the more eyes that are on me, the less honest I could actually be.”
Billie finds it “sad” that artists cannot be “fully open and honest,” and remarked, “I always hoped that I would be able to be fully, 100% honest and say everything I was thinking all the time, and you just can’t because there’s too many people with different ideas and different brain things going on.”
The “bad guy” singer is looking ahead to the Oscars on April 3, where her 007 theme “No Time to Die” is up for Best Original Song. Discussing the ballad’s unique sound, Billie said she “strived” to make it “feel like me, but take nothing away from the franchise of James Bond… that it had all the Bondness that it needed.”
(MINNEAPOLIS) — Former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter was sentenced to 24 months and a fine of $1,000 on Friday, following her conviction in the death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was fatally shot during a traffic stop.
Potter will serve 16 months in prison and the remaining eight months on supervised release, a sentence far below what the prosecution sought. Judge Regina Chu acknowledged the sentence was a “significant downward departure” from sentencing guidelines.
“I recognize there will be those who disagree with the sentence. That I granted a significant downward departure does not in in any way diminish Daunte Wright’s life. His life mattered. And to those who disagree and feel a longer prison sentence is appropriate, as difficult as it may be, please try to empathize with Ms. Potter’s situation,” Chu said.
Chu said she received “hundreds” of letters in support of Potter, all of which she said she had read.
“This is one of the saddest cases I have had in my 20 years on the bench,” Chu said when delivering the sentence. “Officer Potter made a mistake that ended tragically, but she never intended to hurt anyone.”
A surcharge of $78 will also be taken out of Potter’s prison wages. She already has a credit of 58 days served in jail while awaiting sentencing.
The maximum sentence for first-degree manslaughter is 15 years and a $30,000 fine, and for second-degree manslaughter it’s 10 years and a $20,000 fine.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Arbuey Wright, Daunte Wright’s father, described how upset he is with the sentence Potter was given.
“I walk out of this courthouse feeling like people are laughing at us because this lady got a slap on the wrist and every night we are still waiting around crying, waiting for my son to come home,” he said.
Ben Crump, a lawyer for the Wright family, said the judge’s comments at sentencing “showed a clear absence of compassion for the victim in this tragedy and were devastating to the family.”
“Today’s sentencing of Kim Potter leaves the family of Daunte Wright completely stunned. While there is a small sense of justice because she will serve nominal time, the family is also deeply disappointed there was not a greater level of accountability,” Crump said in a statement.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in a statement said he accepts the judge’s decision and urged everyone to “accept her judgement.”
“I don’t ask you to agree with her decision, which takes nothing away from the truth of the jury’s verdict. I know it is hurtful to loved ones of Daunte Wright. I ask that we remember the beauty of Daunte Wright, to keep his memory in our hearts, and to know that no number of years in prison could ever capture the wonder of this young man’s life,” Ellison wrote.
“There is no cause for celebration: no one has won. We all have lost, none more than Daunte Wright and the people who love him. None of us ever wanted Kim Potter to recklessly pull the wrong weapon and kill Daunte Wright,” he said.
Before the sentencing, Katie Ann Wright, Daunte Wright’s mother, delivered an emotional and tearful impact statement Friday, asking the judge to give Potter the maximum sentence.
“I will never be able to forgive you for what you have stolen from us,” she said, while addressing Potter during her statement. “You took his future.”
“My life and my world will never be the same,” she said.
In her statement, Katie Ann Wright said she would not be able to give Potter sympathy.
“How do you show remorse when you smile in your mug shot after being sentenced to manslaughter, after taking my son’s life?” she asked.
Katie Ann Wright told the judge that Potter left her family’s world with “so much darkness and heartache.”
She said that Potter never once said her son’s name, only referring to him as “the driver,” which she saw as dehumanizing her son, she said.
“I will continue saying your name until driving while Black is no longer a death sentence,” she said.
Afterward, Potter tearfully apologized to the Wright family and responded to them calling her out for “never looking at them.”
“I didn’t feel like I had the right to look at any of you,” Potter said. “I am so sorry that I hurt you so badly.”
A Minnesota jury convicted Potter, 49, of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11, 2021, incident. She had pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Arbuey Wright told the court the killing of his son was because of Potter’s recklessness.
“She was a police office longer than my son was alive,” Arbuey Wright said during his impact statement.
“She also damaged my whole family’s heart. Nothing will be the same. Everything we do as a family ends in tears because all we have is memories left of our son,” he said.
Daunte Wright’s sister, Diamond Wright, also addressed the court, saying how difficult the loss of her brother has been.
“I never thought that my brother would be killed by the same people we are supposed to feel protected by,” Diamond Wright said. “I feel like I have been living in a complete nightmare.”
She had also asked the judge for the maximum sentencing.
“You can’t tell me this was an accident, it is in plain sight,” she said. “How come I have to see my brother in a metal container just to talk to him”
In a court filing on Tuesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office announced they sought 86 months, or seven years and two months, prison time for Potter. Sentences in the state are served concurrently, so Potter only would have served the higher sentence.
The prosecution had also asked that in the event the court sentences Potter to probation, that she serve at least one year in prison “to reflect the seriousness of Daunte Wright’s death,” and that the probation last at least 10 years, according to court documents.
Potter fatally shot Wright after initially pulling him over for an expired registration tag on his car. She then determined he had an outstanding warrant for a gross misdemeanor weapons charge and tried to detain him, according to former Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon, who resigned after the incident.
As officers tried to arrest him, Wright freed himself and tried to get back in his vehicle. That’s when, according to Potter’s attorneys, she accidentally grabbed her firearm instead of her stun gun and shot him.
Wright’s death reignited protests against racism and police brutality across the U.S., as the killing took place just outside of Minneapolis, where the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd, was taking place at the time.
Potter took the stand on the last day of her trial, breaking down in tears and apologizing. “I’m sorry,” she said through sobs, “I didn’t want to hurt anybody.”
The jury deliberated for about four days before reaching a verdict on Dec. 23.
