Camila Cabello is delighted that Billboard crowned “Bam Bam,” her song with Ed Sheeran, the fifth-most popular song in the world outside the U.S. “I’m so damn grateful,” she said in an Instagram Story. “This song was me coming out of pain and into joy, from girlhood to womanhood, and putting in a song the wisdom that has been passed down to me.” She also called “Bam Bam” a “family heirloom” because it contains her family’s life lessons.
Speaking of Ed, he’s heading to one of the U.K.’s biggest summer concerts — Capital’s Summertime Ball. He will take over Wembley Stadium on June 12. Other artists include Harry Styles, “Budapest” singer George Ezra, Tate McRae, Lauren Spencer-Smith, Anne-Marie and others. Tickets go on sale on April 28.
Jessica Biel is completely aware the hairstyle she has in Hulu’s upcoming true-crime series Candy resembles that of husband Justin Timberlake‘s from his NSYNC days. “We laughed about it because it looked like the early days of those beautiful curls,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “Let’s get serious, he had beautiful curls.”
Jennifer Lopez is a fan of Ted Lasso and shouted out the Apple TV+ series in a new Instagram post. Lip-syncing a joke about how adulthood stinks, she captioned her post, “Me patiently waiting for the next season of Ted Lasso #adultingbelike.” The series regularly name-drops celebrities, including at least one instance of J.Lo herself getting a shout-out, during season 2.
(WASHINGTON) — Speaking publicly about his visit to Ukraine for the first time since returning home, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday asserted “the Ukrainians have won the battle for Kyiv,” while calling for additional aid to help the country weather the war as the fighting shifts eastward and to the south.
“As we took the train across the border and rode westward into Ukraine, we saw mile after mile of Ukrainian countryside, territory that just a couple of months ago, the Russian government thought that it could seize in a matter of weeks. Today — firmly Ukraine’s,” he recounted, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about his secretive visit to heart of the war-torn country with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Blinken said that on the trip, the highest-level visit to Ukraine’s capital by U.S. officials since the invasion, evidence of its military success abounded.
“In Kyiv we saw the signs of a vibrant city coming back to life. People eating outside sitting on benches, strolling. It was right in front of us,” he said. “For all the suffering that they’ve endured, for all the carnage that Russia’s brutal invasion continues to inflict, Ukraine was and will continue to be a free and independent country.”
During the hearing, convened to review the State Department’s budget for the coming fiscal year, Blinken argued that fulfilling the funding requests would prove critical to Ukraine’s defense and curbing Russian aggression.
“I felt some pride in what the United States has done to support the Ukrainian government and its people and an even firmer conviction that we must not let up. Moscow’s war of aggression against Ukraine has underscored the power and purpose of American diplomacy,” he said. “We have to continue to drive that diplomacy forward to seize what I believe are strategic opportunities, as well as address risks presented by Russia’s overreach.”
Blinken argued support from the U.S. and its allies had already played a decisive role.
“[The Ukrainian people’s] success is primarily because of their incredible courage and determination, but it’s also because we were able to equip them with what they needed,” Blinken said. “For every tank that the Russians have had in Ukraine, we’ve managed with 30 allies and partners, in one way or another, to provide about 10 anti-armor systems. For every plane that the Russians have flown in the skies, there have been about 10 anti-aircraft munitions of one kind or another.”
But Blinken acknowledged that as the battleground shifted to other regions of the country, the Ukrainians’ strategy needed to evolve well.
“The nature of this battle is changing, to eastern and southern Ukraine. They’re adapting to that. We’re adapting to that.”
The secretary said while in Kyiv, he discussed what assistance Ukraine required for the next phase of the fighting with its President Zelensky and top military leader.
“I think we’re largely aligned in what they say they need and what we think we’re able to provide,” he said.
While the committee largely projected bipartisan support for Ukraine, the most contentious round of the hearing came during Sen. Rand Paul’s line of questioning on what he called the “reasons” behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Paul, a Republican more aligned with former President Donald Trump’s “America First” stance than the other members of his party on the committee, blamed the attack in part on President Joe Biden’s and other officials’ public support for Ukraine’s eventual NATO membership.
“Russia said it was a red line,” Paul stated. “Had they been, or are they to become part of NATO, that means U.S. troops will be fighting in Ukraine and that’s something I very much oppose.”
“My judgment is different,” Blinken countered, pointing out the countries Russia had targeted — like Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine — were not part of NATO.
“You could also argue the countries they’ve attacked were part of Russia … well, we’re part of the Soviet Union,” Paul replied.
“That does not give Russia the right to attack them,” Blinken responded. “It is the fundamental right of these countries to decide their own future and their own destiny.”
Blinken also said that in the eyes of the department, the alliance was not Russian President Vladimir Putin’s chief concern ahead of the attack.
“This was never about Ukraine being potentially part of NATO,” he said. “It was always about his belief that Ukraine does not deserve to be a sovereign independent country that it must be re reassumed into Russia in one form or another.”
Blinken was also pressed on the State Department’s relatively slow-moving approach to repopulating the U.S. embassy in Kyiv after it was temporarily relocated in February, a step many of its allies have already taken.
“We are sending diplomats back to Ukraine this week, and they will begin to assess how we can most effectively and securely reopen the embassy in Kyiv. I anticipate that we will be in Lviv and then and then head to head to Kyiv, subject to the President’s final decision on that,” he said. “We want to have our embassy reopened and we’re working to do that.”
Chris Evans‘ re-team with Avengers series directors Joe and Anthony Russo, The Grey Man, has gotten a pair of release dates.
The action film, which pits Evans against Ryan Gosling, will hit theaters July 15, and Netflix on July 22, the streamer has announced.
Written by fellow Marvel movie vets Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the movie will have Gosling playing inmate-turned-CIA operative Court Gentry, aka The Grey Man, who finds himself in the sights of Evans’ rival secret agent, “who will stop at nothing to take him out.”
The Grey Man also stars Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton, Oscar nominee Alfre Woodard, No Time to Die‘s Ana de Armas, Matrix Resurrections‘ Jessica Henwick and — if Gosling and Evans aren’t enough good-looking dudes in a film for you — former Bridgerton star Regé-Jean Page.
Selena Gomez has joined forces with MTV Entertainment to raise awareness on youth mental health.
In a press release, MTVE unveiled plans for its first-ever Mental Health Youth Action Forum, set for May 18, which will be hosted by Selena. Her own mental health initiative, the Rare Impact Fund, will also be on hand.
“As an advocate for mental health, I am thrilled to join forces with MTV Entertainment alongside my
social impact initiative, the Rare Impact Fund, with the goal of destigmatizing mental health through
shaping positive conversations about self-acceptance and mental well-being,” the “Lose You to Love Me” singer said in a statement. “I have a long-standing passion for mental health advocacy and education… It’s a personal mission to continue this important work and empower young people to address their mental health.”
Since releasing her Rare Beauty line in 2020, Selena has directed one percent of its sales — with a goal of raising $100 million over the next decade — to increase mental heath resources via her Rare Impact Fund. So far, it has supported 13 organizations. She has also created the mental health online platform, Wondermind.
MTVE’s forum event will bring together 30 mental health youth activists to share their experiences and ideas on what needs to be done to improve accessibility and resources to those in need. It has also teamed with several nonprofit partners, including Lady Gaga‘s Born This Way Foundation and the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
On Wednesday, theater owners will reportedly get an eyeful of the long-anticipated sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time: Avatar.
The Hollywood Reporter says Oscar-winning director James Cameron will show peeks of Avatar 2 at the annual CinemaCon expo, currently underway in Las Vegas. Disney, which purchased the Avatar property with its purchase of 20th Century Fox in 2019, does have an exhibition Wednesday morning, but the studio is officially being tight-lipped on what projects will be teased.
Also in the works, according to THR, is some technical collaboration between Cameron’s Lightstorm production house and nationwide exhibitors: Cameron’s original Avatar in 2009 represented the bleeding-edge in 3D filmmaking, and the movie’s record-breaking success helped get theaters in line with what’s possible when it comes to presenting movies to audiences.
Like George Lucas was with his Star Wars movies, Cameron is very involved in making sure theater tech can keep up with his own: He’s promisedAvatar 2 and its three follow-ups are making similar “crazy” advancements.
Avatar 2 is set to launch on December 16 of this year. The third film, which recently finished shooting, will arrive in 2024; the fourth and fifth are respectively scheduled for 2026 and 2028.
Bob Dylan has recorded updated versions of some of his well-known songs with acclaimed producer T Bone Burnett in conjunction with Burnett’s plans to introduce a new ultra-high-fidelity audio format, Variety reports.
According to Variety, a press release issued Tuesday announced that the Dylan recordings will be part of a series of releases dubbed “Ionic Originals” that will be put out by Burnett’s newly formed company NeoFidelity Inc. on a new medium that resembles a vinyl LP but is made of aluminum.
According to the statement, the “newly developed discs…advance the art of recorded sound and mark the first breakthrough in analog sound reproduction in more than 70 years.”
No details yet about what songs Dylan re-recorded for the new releases, but the statement notes that he “revisited a personally chosen set of his iconic songs for the first time in decades.”
The new discs bring to apparent fruition a plan Burnett has long been working on that he said would improve on the sound of LPs, CDs and digital formats.
“An Ionic Original is the pinnacle of recorded sound. It is archival quality. It is future-proof. It is one of one. Not only is an Ionic Original the equivalent of a painting, it is a painting,” Burnett said in a statement. “It is lacquer painted onto an aluminum disc, with a spiral etched into it by music. This painting, however, has the additional quality of containing that music, which can be heard by putting a stylus into the spiral and spinning it.”
The release also notes that Burnett formed NeoFidelity with the intention to record artists across a wide range of musical genres and provide a platform of distribution for Ionic Originals, [as well as to] reset the valuation for recorded music.”
(GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.) — Nearly three weeks after Patrick Lyoya was killed, the Grand Rapids police chief on Monday identified the officer who fatally shot Lyoya as Christopher Schurr.
Lyoya, a native of Congo, was shot in the head on April 4 after Schurr pulled him over for an unregistered license plate. Video footage of the incident shows Schurr struggling with Lyoya, eventually forcing him to the ground and shouting, “stop resisting,” “let go” and “drop the Taser,” before shooting Lyoya.
While Grand Rapids attorney Ven Johnson and civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who are representing the Lyoya family, have been calling for the name of the officer to be released since the day Lyoya was killed, now that it’s happened, Johnson said knowing the name does little to console the family.
“Our clients literally buried their son Friday. … This doesn’t do a whole lot, and it’s something that should have been done at the time when they released the videos,” Johnson told ABC News, adding that Lyoya’s parents “feel like they’re getting red tape after red tape after red tape.”
Chief Eric Winstrom had refrained from releasing the name of the officer as the investigation was ongoing, arguing the city has a long-standing policy not to release the names of employees under investigation.
“How dare you hold the name of a man who killed this man?” civil rights activist Al Sharpton said at Lyoya’s funeral in Grand Rapids on Friday. “Every time a young Black man or woman is arrested in this town, you put their name all over the news. Every time we’re suspected of something, you put our name out there.”
Winstrom released a statement Monday saying he decided to identify Schurr “in the interest of transparency, to reduce ongoing speculation and to avoid any further confusion.”
While the name has been released, Johnson said it’s “too little, too late.”
“They hid the name of this officer who killed my client for three weeks, and yet as part of their press release, they say this is in the spirit of transparency,” Johnson told ABC News. “Well, if I said to you, I’m gonna be transparent with you, but I’m gonna hide material facts … for three weeks, they will look at me and say, just, that’s not fair.”
After Schurr’s name was released, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer released a statement saying the investigation should be wrapping up “quickly” and said her “heart is with the Grand Rapids community.”
While no charges have been filed against Schurr, Johnson said his team is prepared but hopes the state will do better in the future for preventing these events.
“In Michigan, we have a lot of hard work we need to do,” Johnson said.
Schurr is currently on administrative leave and has been stripped of all his police power as the investigation continues. ABC News was not able to reach an attorney for Schurr.
Pharrell Williams announced Tuesday the return of his “Something in the Water” festival this year, set to take place in Washington, D.C., on Juneteenth weekend.
Tyler, the Creator, Chloe & Halle, Jon Batiste, Usher, Lil Baby, Ashanti, Moneybagg Yo, Lucky Daye and many more will join Pharrell for a three-day celebration of art, culture and music scheduled for June 17-19.
Originally held in Pharrell’s hometown of Virginia Beach, Virginia, SITW was launched with a mission to unite communities, celebrate diversity and spread empowerment. Last year, after the police shooting of Donovon Lynch, Pharrell’s cousin, Williams sent a letter to the city announcing the removal of the festival and calling on leaders to “talk about your issues, talk about your struggles so we can get past them.”
In a new press release, Pharrell says, “SOMETHING IN THE WATER is a Black solution (LOVE) for a systemic issue, and this year we are taking our celebration to a higher platform — the nation’s Capital during Juneteenth Weekend. We want to show the world that there is SOMETHING IN THE WATER across the whole DMV and I want to continue to bring awareness to the greatness within these communities and invite large corporations to show up for the people.”
Fans who have previously purchased SITW passes will be able to buy pre-sale tickets starting on Wednesday April 27, while Virginia residents who plan to attend can purchase passes beginning on Friday, April 29. Three-day passes for Something in the Water 2022 will go on sale to the general public this Saturday, April 30, and will be available at the festival’s official website.
Ahead of its 12th season finale of Blue Bloods on May 6, CBS has announced it has re-upped its hit cop drama for a 13th season.
“America’s favorite first family of law enforcement is back for season 13,” says CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahlin a statement.
The Friday night series, which Tom Selleck stars as New York City’s Police Commissioner Frank Reagan, the head of a family of cops, remains one of the network’s most popular shows.
Adds Kahl, “The Reagans possess an incredible bond with audiences literally everywhere and on every platform. And in its 12th season, with over 250 episodes, Blue Bloods not only continues to dominate in the ratings but excels at an exceptionally high creative level.”
The series also stars Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan, Will Estes, Marisa Ramirez, Vanessa Ray, and Tony winner Len Cariou.
Backstage at a recent show, the band gathered the crew to present an end-of-tour gift, revealing that after a brief delay, they had received the official documentation that they are official lords and ladies in Scotland. With the certification comes a piece of land for each person — albeit only a square foot. The news incited laughter and cheers from the crew.
Frontman Matthew Ramsey then lead a toast thanking the crew for their hard work, remarking that it felt like they came through the ranks together.
“We love our road family so much, they inspire and drive us every day to be the best entertainers we can, they really run the show. So we thought let’s make it official. So we present… Lords (and a Lady) of Scotland,” the band writes alongside the video.
Old Dominion is currently on the road opening for Kenny Chesney on the Here and Now Tour.
