Although it hasn’t yet been announced that the Sex and the City follow-up …And Just Like That will get a second season, all involved in bringing the show to life are reportedly on board, according to a new interview with Variety.
But although Kim Cattrall‘s Samantha Jones texted to meet up with Sarah Jessica Parker‘s Carrie Bradshaw in Europe in the first season finale, don’t expect to see Samantha in the flesh on screen if a second season comes to pass.
“I don’t think I would, because I think there’s just too much public history of feelings on her part that she’s shared,” Parker tells the trade.
Indeed, Cattrall slammed the door pretty hard on the SATC universe many times, after a deal for a third film fell apart. “The answer was always no and a respectful, firm, no,” the fan fave told the Daily Mail, for example.
However, the decision to keep Samantha around in the SATC universe was a way to “respect” the character, says executive producer Michael Patrick King, hence …And Just Like That‘s climactic — but unseen — drinks date between Carrie and Samantha.
“We didn’t go to Kim for this, you know,” Parker told the trade. “After we didn’t do the movie and the studio couldn’t meet what she wanted to do, we have to hear her and listen to her and what was important to her. It didn’t fit into what was important or needed for us.”
“Magically thinking, it’s great to have Samantha,” King agreed, referring to her text-only cameos. “I have no realistic expectation of Kim Cattrall ever appearing again.”
(NEW YORK) — Several states across the country are considering lifting mask mandates in schools in an attempt to return to some semblance of normalcy.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Delaware Gov. John Carney announced Monday that mask mandates in schools will come to an end in March. Illinois school districts will be deciding whether or not to make masks optional after a judge ruled against the state’s mandate.
Additionally, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order last month allowing parents to choose whether their child will wear a mask in schools, although it was temporarily halted by a judge Friday.
Experts say it is too soon to end mask mandates in schools because vaccination rates are not high enough yet among the school-age population and new cases are still being reported.
“It is not safe at this time for schools to rescind mask mandates [because] even though we do have decent levels of vaccination in the older age groups, as populations get younger, the proportion who are vaccinated gets lower,” Dr. Mercedes Carnethon, vice chair of the department of preventive medicine and a professor of epidemiology and pulmonary and critical care at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told ABC News.
Currently, 22.6% of Americans ages 5 to 11 and 56.4% of those ages 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The proportion of parents who have chosen vaccination for their children is very low and we know that masking works to stop the spread of the coronavirus,” Carnethon said. “Rescinding those mandates where children 5 and up spend their days, I believe we will see rapid spread.”
Proponents of mask mandates say COVID-19 is not an endemic disease yet and lifting mandates will trigger a major rise in cases.
In Wyoming, Laramie County School District 1 — located in the capital of Cheyenne — reported a spike in cases just two weeks after the Board of Trustees voted to end the mask mandate.
First reported by the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, nearly 400 students and 100 staff have tested positive between Jan. 24 and Feb. 4, an ABC analysis of school district data shows.
Similarly, Hopkinton High School in Massachusetts was the first public school in the state to drop masks altogether but reinstituted the mandate after a rise in cases.
Murphy said a drop in COVID-19 infections linked to the omicron variant led him to lift the mask mandate.
“Balancing public health with getting back to some semblance of normalcy is not easy,” Murphy tweeted. “But we can responsibly take this step due to declining COVID numbers and growth in vaccinations.”
Dr. Stanley Weiss, a professor of biostatistics & epidemiology at Rutgers School of Public Health, called it a politically motivated decision.
“Gov. Murphy’s decision is a politically-based one because there is tremendous pressure coming upon everyone to get rid of the pandemic and stop talking about it and stop dealing with it because we’re all tired of this pandemic,” he told ABC News. “It is not scientifically based and I don’t think it is a rational approach based upon what we’re still seeing.”
According to Patch New Jersey, in-school transmission in the state has increased over the past month.
Between Jan. 4 and Jan. 10, there were 11 cases among students and 17 cases among staff. However, between Jan. 25 and Jan. 31, there were 398 cases among students and 57 among staff.
“I have problems with the change in policy,” Weiss said. “Yes, it’s a limited number of cases, but if you look over time, the new outbreaks have been continuing to increase in schools. The number of student cases and staff cases has not declined. It hasn’t gone away.”
In Illinois, some districts have already made mandates optional after a judge ruled school districts statewide cannot require students to wear masks in classrooms.
“If data were driving these decisions, we wouldn’t at all remove mask mandates right now,” said Carnethon. “The school districts in the regions of Illinois that are making this optional appear to be closely aligned with the geopolitical sentiment.”
Carnethon said districts where schools mask mandates are being removed are typically ones with limited testing ability and “limited enthusiasm” for policies such as requiring vaccinations in public spaces.
“These communities continue to be high-district transmission communities. These are the very decisions that are going to prolong the pandemic and lead to far more suffering than we need to have happen,” she said.
Those in favor of ending the mandates in schools say the public health focus needs to shift to learning to live with COVID-19 and more attention should be given to individual choice.
An increase in cases isn’t necessarily a bad thing due to children’s low risk of severe illness, according to some experts. Others, like Dr. Julia Raifman, disagree.
“I think cases are a problem,” Raifman, an assistant professor of health law, policy and management at Boston University School of Public Health who researches state-level policy responses to the pandemic, told ABC News.
She continued, “Cases are a problem because more cases do mean more hospitalizations and deaths. There’s no way around that. More cases mean more missed work and more missed school. More cases mean more people with lingering symptoms. More cases mean more of the unknown health impacts 10 years later.”
Raifman added that school mask mandates should not disappear completely and that one way to keep them in place is to have more outdoor class time for kids because masks are not recommended for outdoors and students and teachers could take a break from wearing face coverings.
She gave the example of Nevada, which has a policy that enacts mask mandates when cases in a county are high.
“If people are really eager for them to end, I recommend that they not end them, that they put in place a data-driven approach that turns on the mask policies when we need them when there are big surges,” Raifman said.
(SEATTLE) — One person was killed and at least one was injured during a shooting at a Washington state grocery store Monday, authorities said.
The suspect, who is believed to have a handgun, is still at large following the shooting at a Fred Meyer store in Richland, Washington, police told reporters.
ATF agents are heading to the scene, the agency said.
Richland is located about 200 miles southeast of Seattle.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
After starring as the father of tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams in King Richard, Will Smith has a new and much more demanding challenge for his latest project. The Bad Boys franchise star will travel 26,000 miles, from the South Pole to the North Pole, for his new National Geographic series, Pole to Pole, according to Deadline.
Following his previous series for the network, Welcome to Earth and One Strange Rock, this time Will’s goal is to unlock the mystery of Earth’s diversity and alchemy in 100 days of filming. He will experience polar ice, desert, jungle, mountain, and swamp, and live with local communities in some of the most extreme landscapes on the planet
In other news, NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson is the subject of a new four-part docuseries which will stream April 22 on Apple TV+. They Call Me Magicwill tell the story of the charismatic star who led the Los Angeles Lakers to five NBA titles in the 1980s. In 1991, Johnson became one of the first athletes to announce he had contracted HIV. He abruptly retired from the league, though he returned four years later in 1996 to play 32 games for the Lakers.
Magic was a member of the “Dream Team” which won a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics. He was also inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Finally, Apple TV+ has also dropped the trailer for the six-episode drama series The Last Day of Ptolemy Grey, starring Samuel L. Jackson in the title role. Grey suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and is assigned care of his orphaned teenager. The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey debuts Friday, March 11 on Apple TV+.
Jamie Lynn Spears is celebrating the fifth anniversary of daughter Maddie Briann‘s recovery from a near-fatal ATV accident.
Taking to Instagram to share a photo of a then-eight-year-old Maddie in a hospital bed and hooked up to various machines, the Zoey 101 star spoke of her daughter’s “miracle anniversary.”
“Maybe, it’s just a little reminder to remain faithful through the good times and the bad times. I mean, I had nothing when I thought I lost my baby girl, so my faith was literally all I had left to cling to,” Jamie Lynn wrote. “I thank God everyday for the extraordinary medical professionals, all the prayer warriors, and the countless angels in heaven, and on earth who made our miracle possible.”
Maddie was riding on an ATV in 2017 when she drove it into a pond on the family property and became trapped, according to Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards. Maddie was in critical condition when she was airlifted to a nearby hospital.
Maddie’s recovery anniversary coincided with Jamie Lynn’s show, Sweet Magnolias, becoming the number-one show on Netflix. “I can’t even begin to explain all the ways, that this show and the many wonderful people who create this show have been a saving grace to me,” Jamie Lynn said.
Jamie Lynn closed her post by declaring, “I’m filled with so much gratitude today for a lot reasons, and I don’t ever want to take any of my many blessings for granted. I LOVE YALL.”
The post is a break from Jamie Lynn’s back and forth with sister Britney Spears, following the release of Jamie Lynn’s Things I Should Have Said memoir.
On Monday, the hit-making country singer announced that he’s dropping his new single, “Last Night Lonely,” next week. It serves as the lead single off his forthcoming new album.
“Been in the studio working on some stuff. New single coming next week from my upcoming album!” Jon teased on social media.
In response to the announcement, Jon’s wife, Summer, cheers in the comment section,”YA BABY!!!” while a fan celebrates, “Best news I’ve gotten this year,” and another fan writes, “SO STOKED!!!!”
The California native currently has two hits on the radio: he and Lauren Alaina teamed up for the smoldering duet “Getting Over Him,” while Jon’s solo single “Tequila Little Time,” off his 2019 album Heartache Medication, is currently in the top five on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.
“Last Night Lonely” is available to pre-save now. The “Dirt on My Boots” hitmaker is set to perform at the famed Houston Rodeo on March 5.
Mastodon has announced a second leg of the band’s co-headlining tour with Opeth.
The joint outing kicks off April 21 in Montreal, and will wrap up May 11 in Riverside, California. Tickets go on sale this Friday, February 11, at 10 a.m. local time.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit MastodonRocks.com.
The first leg of the tour, which also featured Zeal & Ardor on the bill, launched last fall in support of Mastodon’s new album, Hushed and Grim.
Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan celebrates his 60th birthday today.
Born David Rashbaum, Bryan is a co-founding member of Bon Jovi and also has co-written several of the New Jersey band’s songs, including “In My Arms,” a top-30 hit in 1993.
David was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the band in 2018.
Outside of Bon Jovi, Bryan has forged a successful career as a composer for musical theater productions. Most notably, he wrote the music for Memphis, a Broadway musical that won four Tony Awards for the 2010 season, including Best Musical and Best Original Score.
Bryan also co-wrote the music for the new Broadway production Diana the Musical, based on the life of the late Princess Diana. Unfortunately, the filmed version of the musical, which debuted on Netflix in October 2021, just earned the dubious distinction of receiving the most nominations for the 2022 Razzie Awards, “honoring” the worst in cinema.
Among the film’s nine nods is Worst Screenplay, with Bryan listed as a nominee alongside the film’s script writer and co-composer, Joe DiPietro, who also was David’s Memphis collaborator.
Back to David’s birthday, his longtime band mate Jon Bon Jovitweeted a message to him in honor of the milestone, which reads, “Sweet 16 or sweet 60? We’re still doing it my friend!” The post also features a vintage photo that includes Jon and David that was taken when they were teenagers, and a pic of the current Bon Jovi lineup.
In its first weekend in theaters, Jackass Forever not only came in first place at the box office, but it’s $23.5 million-plus performance already means that the $10 million movie is comfortably in the black.
That said, its cast is also in the black — well, black and blue — again, thanks to the long-running series’ bone-crushing stunts.
However, longtime Jackass director Jeff Tremaine and cast member Wee Man insist that the old adage of “you only hurt the ones you love” comes into play.
Tremaine suggests that the series’ success partly hinges on how long the Jackass guys have been together, since audiences can appreciate their camaraderie.
“It’s an authentic group of friends, right?” Tremaine tells ABC News. “The group that we’re doing this with is a family in a lot of ways, and so that helps you feel it even more.”
He adds, “You care about these guys, and you know their nuances and you know what they’re scared of and stuff. And so that all plays into it.”
Wee Man offers with a laugh about the audience, “The things we do, if they’re funny to us, we know it’s gonna be funny for you. And it’s always pain, and pain is what we’ve always done, but we have to go through it just to make sure the audience gets what they really need.”
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Beyoncé dropped a new teaser video Sunday night for her new Valentine’s Day Ivy Park collection, dubbed Ivy Heart.
Queen Bey stars in the 60-second promo with actress and model Karrueche Tran, model and actor Tyson Beckford, singer/songwriter/actor Troye Sivan, model and actress Shu Pei, and actress/comedian Naomi Watanabe.
Speaking about Ivy Heart, Beyoncé told Vogue China, “We all have that one outfit that instantly makes us feel powerful, sexy, confident, and loved. We recognize that visceral feeling immediately. With Ivy Heart, I wanted to create a collection that makes everyone feel the joy of looking in the mirror and celebrating self-love.”
The “Be Alive” singer posed in several Instagram photos from the capsule collection with Adidas. She modeled a red tailored jumpsuit with shoulder pads, and in a second look, she’s wearing a red puffer coat and dress, with arm-length gloves and a red Ivy Park logo baseball cap. Beyoncé’s looks in the video also include a snake print, sequined duster coat and matching beret.
“We used vibrant reds, pinks, and neutrals with red as the dominant color,” she noted. “Red has always meant joy, sensuality, and love to me.”
The Ivy Park/Ivy Heart line is available online at Adidas.com on Wednesday, February 9 at 12 p.m. ET, and Thursday, February 10 in select stores.
