On Tuesday’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, Seth commemorated the 40th anniversary of David Letterman‘s first episode of Late Night.
The tribute began from the drop, with a recreation of the opening to Letterman’s vintage series, and continued with a sit down with the man himself, who was on hand to share memories of his time on the groundbreaking series.
While admonishing Meyers for not having “an animal guy” on the show, a chat show staple for decades, Letterman remembered Jack Hanna‘s many appearances on Late Night. “We realized two or three shows in that Jack doesn’t know anything about animals,” Letterman joked. He also remembered a beaver they had on the show that bit Hannah so badly that Hanna walked himself to the emergency room — where he was mistaken for a gunshot victim.
Making matters worse, Hanna caught flak from the cops for having an “illegal beaver” within New York City limits, recalled Dave, now the host of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction on Netflix.
Later, Adam Duritz from Counting Crows performed a solo version of “Long December,” a favorite song of Letterman’s.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog speaks at al-Wasl Dome at Expo 2020 Dubai during Israel’s expo National Day in the gulf emirate on January 31, 2022. – KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images
(JERUSALEM)– While Israeli’s president Isaac Herzog was in Abu Dhabi on a historic visit on Monday, United Arab Emirates officials announced that a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels had been intercepted, the third such attack in three weeks.
Tensions between the two countries have escalated as the Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for a Jan. 15 drone-and-missile attack on the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. fuel depot, killing three people and wounding six. It was the first deadly attack since 2018, when the UAE-backed forces were fighting the Houthis for control of the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.
“The operation led to a large number of death and wounded, including Emiratis,” Yahya Sare’e, spokesman of the Houthis, tweeted on Tuesday.
A Saudi-led coalition retaliated the day after with an airstrike on Yemen, killing about 80 people.
In 2020, the UAE and Bahrain signed U.S.-brokered normalization agreements with Israel, known as the “Abraham Accords.” Iran and its regional allies, including the Houthis, were among their shared security concerns. Iran, meanwhile, denounced any normalization of relations with Israel.
“The Islamic republic of Iran not only condemns what some countries are doing aiming at normalization, but also believes that those countries should listen to awakening calls by their own people and stop sowing discord in the Muslim and Arab world. This will be much better for the region’s future,” spokesman of Iran’s foreign ministry Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday, according to the Tasnim News Agency.
Yemeni minister of information Dhaif Allah Al-Shami, also made clear his country’s similar stance.
“Every country has its own way of welcoming the leaders of the Zionist entity [Israel], and we in Yemen have only done our duty,” he said on Twitter.
Zakaria Al-Qaq, an expert in national security and war studies, told ABC News the Houthi attack on the UAE coinciding with the Israeli president’s visit had a clear message: “To stop the UAE intervention in Yemen.”
“Second, it’s not only a rejection to the Israel Emirates relation but also a threat to Yemeni National Security, because [of] the security coordination between the two countries,” he added.
Houthis have declared they would continue to fire rockets into the UAE.
“The armed forces affirm that the state of the Emirati enemy will be an unsafe as long as the tools of the Israeli enemy in Abu Dhabi and Dubai continue to launch aggression against our people and our country,” Sare’e wrote in another tweet.
The Houthi spokesman has also repeated threats, telling citizens, residents and companies in the UAE “to stay away from vital headquarters and facilities, as they are vulnerable to targeting during the coming period.”
People in the already war-worn Yemen have been going through a difficult humanitarian situation over the past years. The World Food Programme has warned that more than five million people are on the verge of famine, with 50,000 others now living in famine-like conditions.
The spate of recent attacks have helped raise crude oil prices above $90 per barrel, another worry for a global economy already struggling through the pandemic.
Multifaceted entertainer Billy Crystal will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 27th annual Critics Choice Awards on March 13 at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel, The Critics Association announced on Tuesday. He joins Lauren Bacall, Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Eddie Murphy and Robert Wise as the only past Lifetime Achievement honorees in the organization’s 27-year history. As previously announced, Halle Berry will receive the sixth annual SeeHer Award during the ceremony. Crystal, a Tony and Emmy winner, is currently prepping his Broadway return in his first musical comedy, an adaptation of his 1992 film Mr. Saturday Night, which is set to open on April 27. The Critics Choice Awards will air live at 7 p.m. ET on TBS and The CW and will be tape-delayed in the West…
Taraji P. Henson has been tapped for a starring role, alongside In The Heights‘ Corey Hawkins and Oscar/Grammy-winning artist H.E.R., in director Blitz Bazawule’ feature adaptation of The Color Purple, according to Variety. Henson will play jazz-blues singer Shug Avery, while Hawkins takes on the role of Harpo and H.E.R. portrays Squeak, played respectively by Margaret Avery, Willard Pugh and Rae Dawn Chong in Stephen Spielberg‘s 1985 feature film adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical, which was itself an adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Oprah Winfrey, who made her feature film acting debut in Spielberg’s The Color Purple, is producing the new movie, along with Spielberg. It’s set to hit theaters December 21, 2023…
Friday Night Lights‘ Connie Britton is reuniting with creator Jason Katims for a new Apple TV+ series based on author Ann Napolitano’s best-seller, Dear Edward. The drama also stars Orange Is the New Black alum Taylor Schilling and Wonka‘s Colin O’Brien. Dear Edward follows Edward Adler, “a 12-year-old boy who survives a devastating commercial plane crash that kills every other passenger on the flight, including his family.” As Edward and a diverse ensemble of others affected by the tragedy try to make sense of life after the crash, unexpected friendships, romances and communities are formed,” according to the streaming service…
Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush is set to play legendary comedian Groucho Marx in Raised Eyebrows, an upcoming adaptation of Steve Stoliar’s memoir Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House, according to Variety. Set between 1973 and 1977, Raised Eyebrows stars Charlie Plummer as Stoliar, who is hired by Erin Fleming — played Sienna Miller — to work with Rush’s aging and frail Groucho Marx. Fleming was in charge of Marx’s personal and professional life as his manager, and the two had a controversial relationship…
Paramount+ is expanding the Star Trek universe with the new spinoff Starfleet Academy, according to Deadline. The series, which shares its name with the late 1990s video game, follows a group of cadets being mentored for leadership roles in the United Federation of Planets’ Starfleet. Sources tell the outlet that the series will be pitched to Paramount+, and the hope is to get it going in the next year…
ABC has temporarily suspended Whoopi Goldberg as co-host of The View for comments she made about the Holocaust.
ABC News President Kim Godwin said in a statement issued Tuesday, “I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments. While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”
The suspension came a day after Goldberg commented on a Tennessee school board’s banning of Maus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Nazi death camps during World War II. She said the Holocaust was “not about race…it’s about man’s inhumanity to other man.”
The remark drew condemnation from several prominent Jewish leaders. Goldberg apologized hours later and then again on Tuesday’s morning edition of The View, stating, “I misspoke.”
“My words upset so many people, which was never my intention,” she said. “I understand why now and for that I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful and helped me understand some different things.”
Pat Benatar, Judas Priest and Devo are among the 17 artists who have been nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
The other nominees are Beck, Kate Bush, Duran Duran, Eminem, Eurythmics, Fela Kuti, MC5, New York Dolls, Dolly Parton, Rage Against the Machine, Lionel Richie, Carly Simon, A Tribe Called Quest and Dionne Warwick.
To be eligible for induction, an artist must have released their first commercial recording 25 years before the year of their nomination.
Benatar previously was nominated in 2020, while Judas Priest and Devo both received nods twice before.
Speaking with ABC Audio, Rock Hall VP of Education & Visitor Engagement Jason Hanley notes, “I think it’s a great year for someone like Pat Benatar. Between her and [her husband and guitarist] Neil Giraldo…they wrote some of the great classic songs of the 1980s.”
He adds that songs like “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” “were…delivered with this great rock edge, classic kind of clean but distorted ’80s guitar, and Pat’s just amazing voice.”
As for Judas Priest, the band’s induction might help soothe the critics who think the Rock Hall has an anti-metal bias.
“[Judas Priest is] the band that takes the early days of heavy metal from bands like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, and they turn it into what we know as metal,” Hanley says.
Hanley also feels Devo definitely deserves to be in the Rock Hall, praising the group for their “humorously disguised political songs,” and for being “innovators of sound and technology and music video.”
A Tribe Called Quest, Dionne Warwick and Lionel Richie are among the 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees.
To be eligible for induction, an artist must have released their first commercial recording 25 years before the year of their nomination.
A Tribe Called Quest is being nominated for the first time this year. Speaking with ABC Audio, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Vice President of Education and Visitor Engagement Jason Hanley points to the group’s “laid-back” and “almost philosophical” style — which pioneered the alternative hip hop movement of the ’90s — as a reason for their nomination.
“They were talking about the African-American community in the United States, and getting a message out that was important for them to talk about,” Hanley notes of the group’s socially conscious songs.
As for Warwick, who’s seen a recent resurgence thanks to her social media presence, Hanley says, “Her legacy is fantastic.”
“Here’s a woman who was just so good year after year at interpreting songs,” he adds, noting that Warwick’s performance on the 1964 top 10 hit “Walk On By” alone ” “is probably enough to get her inducted into almost any Hall of Fame.”
Richie, who got his start in the Commodores, scored his nomination thanks to his ability to write songs across genres – from classic funk and emotional R&B to party songs like “Dancing on the Ceiling.”
Eminem and Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti also made the ballot this year, along with rock bands Rage Against the Machine and Judas Priest, country star Dolly Parton, singer-songwriter Carly Simon, new wave band Duran Duran, and more.
The actual inductees will be announced later this year.
It seems few would deny Dolly Parton‘s a metaphorical rock star — but she could soon be one for real.
The Country Music Hall of Famer is now one of 17 nominees for potential induction this year into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. That puts Dolly in the same category as fellow contenders Lionel Richie, Dionne Warwick, Carly Simon, Pat Benatar, Eurythmics, and Duran Duran, among others.
Of course, the superstar from East Tennessee is certainly not without cred in the pop and rock world. She made it to #3 with “Here You Come Again” as far back as 1977, following that with lesser crossover hits like “Two Doors Down” and “Baby I’m Burnin’.” By 1980, she’d made it all the way to the top with “9 to 5.”
“Her songwriting transcends just maybe her home base, which is country,” the Rock & Roll Hall’s Jason Hanley points out. “And you’ve got Whitney Houston having one of the biggest selling songs ever with ‘I Will Always Love You.'”
“You’ve got other bands recording ‘Jolene,'” he adds. “You know, she has hit singles with Kenny Rogers, ‘Islands in the Stream.'”
Dolly returned to the top of the pop charts in 1983 with “Islands,” before Whitney’s cover smash in 1992. Rock duo The White Stripes covered “Jolene” in 2004, with Dolly most recently winning a Grammy for guesting on the Pentatonix version in 2017.
We’ll find out if Dolly makes it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when the final inductees are revealed later this year.
This year at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it’s all about the ’80s: Among the 17 artists who’ve been nominated for induction in 2022 are Lionel Richie, Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, Eurythmics and Devo.
“I think it’s a great year for someone like Pat Benatar,” says Jason Hanley, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Vice President of Education and Visitor Engagement. “Between her and Neil Giraldo, her longtime partner, they wrote some of the great classic songs of the 1980s…delivered with this great rock edge, and Pat’s just amazing voice.”
As for Lionel Richie, it was the “emotional songs” he released after leaving The Commodores that made him a solo ’80s superstar, Hanley tells ABC Audio.
“A song like ‘Hello’ [is] just really one of the great, great emotional love songs from that time period,” Hanley adds. “But then he could also write these great party songs, too.”
Hanley praises Duran Duran for being both “pop icons and incredible musicians” — or, as he puts it, “Yes, they were on the cover of Tiger Beat but they also wrote and performed really great songs.” The music of Eurythmics, Hanley says, “was so catchy, but also…kind of dug into these darker sides of the human emotion.”
Another nominee this year who started in the ’70s but had continued success in the ’80s is Carly Simon. Hanley says the fact that younger artists like Taylor Swift have cited Carly as an influence has led to a revaluation of music by female singer-songwriters in general.
“It’s softer, it’s more intimate. It might be one person with a piano and a voice or a guitar and a voice,” he notes. “But the power in that music is just so important.”
The other nominees include Judas Priest, Dionne Warwick, Dolly Parton, Eminem, Kate Bush, rap group A Tribe Called Quest, proto-punk bands New York Dolls and MC5, Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, and ’90s alt-rockers Rage Against the Machine and Beck.
Bobby Bank/Getty Images; David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images
Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Lionel Richie, Devo, Carly Simon, Dionne Warwick and Dolly Parton are among the 17 artists who have been nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
Also on the ballot are Beck, Kate Bush, Eminem, Fela Kuti, Judas Priest, MC5, New York Dolls, Rage Against the Machine and A Tribe Called Quest.
To be eligible for induction, an artist must have released their first commercial recording 25 years before the year of their nomination.
Benatar, Eurythmics, Warwick and Devo have all been nominated for induction before, while Duran Duran, Richie, Simon and Parton are among the first-time nominees.
Speaking with ABC Audio, Rock Hall executive Jason Hanley notes, “I think it’s a great year for someone like Pat Benatar. Between her and [her husband and guitarist] Neil Giraldo…they wrote some of the great classic songs of the 1980s.”
He adds, that songs like “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” “were such good songs and delivered with this great rock edge, classic kind of clean but distorted ’80s guitar, and Pat’s just amazing voice.”
Hanley also says he’s excited that Duran Duran have been nominated, noting that the British New Wave act combined good looks, catchy tunes and excellent musicianship.
“Yes, they were on the cover of Tiger Beat. And yes, they also wrote and performed really great songs,” he offers. “And I think if you can handle both sides of Duran Duran…then you really have a really good argument to vote for them.”
Hanley also similarly touts Eurythmics for the multifaceted appeal of their music.
Singling out the ’80s synth-pop duo’s signature tune “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These)” as an example, Hanley notes, “[T]heir music was so catchy, but it also really made you think and it kind of dug into these darker sides of the human emotion.”
(ARLINGTON COUNTY, Va.) — Former Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole — a decorated World War II veteran and presidential candidate who served in Congress for 36 years — will be laid to rest with military honors on Wednesday at historic Arlington National Cemetery.
Dole died on Dec. 5, 2021, after announcing last February that he’d been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and was starting treatment.
Dole’s wife of 46 years, former Cabinet secretary and North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, and daughter, Robin, are expected to attend the invitation-only, graveside funeral with family members, close friends and former colleagues. Dole was given the rare honor to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda late last year before his body was taken to his home state of Kansas for memorials and then back to Washington, where he’ll be laid to rest Wednesday afternoon alongside American war heroes.
Dole, a native of Russell, Kansas, served as an army officer in World War II and was severely wounded in action at age 21, left with permanent limited mobility in his right arm. Overcoming adversity, Dole went on to graduate law school, serve in the Kansas legislature, and represent his home state for four terms in the House of Representatives and five terms in the Senate, where he led the Republican Conference for more than a decade.
In Congress, he was an advocate for the rights of veterans and Americans with disabilities, spearheading the inclusion of protections against discrimination in employment, education and public services in the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. Dole also served as national chairman of the World War II Memorial Campaign which raised funds for the World War II Memorial to be built on the National Mall.
He ran three times for president, ultimately winning the Republican party nomination in 1996 but losing the general election to Bill Clinton, who was seeking a second term. Months later, Clinton presented Dole with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House.
In a USA Today op-ed he finished on pen and paper less than two weeks before his death, Dole wrote Congress needs teamwork now more than ever, writing, “Those who suggest that compromise is a sign of weakness misunderstand the fundamental strength of our democracy.”
