For Sex and the City fans who can’t get enough of its follow-up …And Just Like That, help is here. HBO Max has revealed that there will be a behind-the-scenes documentary about the heavily hyped return of Sarah Jessica Parker‘s Carrie Bradshaw and her glamorous gal pals.
As a brand-new trailer for the doc shows, the streaming network will take fans into the writer’s room, on the set, and into the shoe-filled closets of the series. The preview also features interviews with its returning cast members, including Parker’s co-executive producers Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis, and series newcomers including Grey’s Anatomy‘s Sara Ramirez and Nicole Ari Parker, who Davis calls “a gift.”
Last year, T.I. celebrated the 20th anniversary of his debut album, I’m Serious, and as he begins his third decade in entertainment, he’s looking to diversify.
TIP, who also has enjoyed a successful acting career with roles in such films as ATL, American Gangster, Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Dolemite Is My Name, is now expanding into a new area — comedy.
The “Live Your Life” rapper has been doing standup routines for the past two weeks, and he says he’s serious about making people laugh.
“I’ve learned from & earned the respect & approval of some of the funniest people I know in this s***,” he comments in an Instagram post that’s accompanied by a photo of him with comedian Chris Spencer. “I can honestly say I’ve had nights where I tore they a** up & I had nights I was figuring the s*** out but I appreciate having the opportunity to adjust & improve.”
The 41-year-old entertainer knows that many people are skeptical about his skills as a comedian, but he says he’s encouraged by the reception he’s received from the pros.
“I’m also truly appreciative and humbled by the warm welcome I’ve been receiving from real comedic vets in this s***. Allowing me the opportunity to learn, grow & accept harsh critical ridicule from the best!!!” he notes. “I’ve developed a true admiration & respect for the skill set required to stand up in front of people with no hit records or catchy hooks to carry you through the performance.”
TIP has had his ups and downs in the comedy clubs, and he says he’s having fun, declaring, “I think I LIKE IT HERE!!”
(NEW YORK) — For the second time this month, at least six historically black universities and colleges have received bomb threats.
Howard University, Bowie State University, Bethune-Cookman University, Southern University, Delaware State University and Albany State University have all reported potential threats Monday.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is aware of the series of bomb threats and is working with law enforcement to address potential threats.
“As always, we would like to remind members of the public that if they observe anything suspicious to report it to law enforcement immediately,” the FBI said in a statement to ABC News.
The acting deputy director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Thomas Chittum, also said that agents from the bureau are responding to the reports.
“We can confirm that ATF has responded,” Chittum told reporters on a call Monday. “Of course, it is a federal crime to use interstate facilities to make a bomb threat, and so ATF will provide our investigative expertise and support to that investigation, but obviously, the facts are preliminary and unfolding.”
Albany State University in Georgia received notice of a bomb threat to the academic buildings of its campus. As local law enforcement officials investigate, all ASU campuses remained closed and employees and students were told not to report to campus.
Bowie State University in Maryland is also investigating a bomb threat with bomb technicians from the Maryland State Fire Marshal. The campus remains closed as K9s conduct sweeps of university buildings.
“OSFM Bomb Technicians and explosive detection K9s are assisting @BowieState PD with a telephonic bomb threat,” a tweet from the agency read. “Maryland State Police are on the scene. The investigation is active. Prince George’s County Police Department is also on the scene.”
Southern University and A&M College also received a bomb threat Monday and went into lockdown. The university told students classes were canceled and that they should remain in their dorm rooms until an all-clear was issued.
Delaware State University told ABC News that University Police are investigating and that employees and commuter students have been instructed not to report to the campus until further notice. Residential students have also been asked to remain in their dorm rooms.
Howard University and Bethune-Cookman University also report potential bomb threats to their campuses, according to ABC-affiliate ABC7 News.
Judson Bible College, which is not an HBCU, was also targeted.
On Jan. 4, at least seven historically Black colleges and universities received bomb threats, according to school officials.
However, no bombs were found on the campuses of Florida Memorial University, North Carolina Central University, Prairie View A&M University, The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Florida Memorial University, Norfolk State University and Xavier University of Louisiana.
The threats forced campuses to lockdown or evacuate and local law enforcement was alerted.
Editor’s note: ABC News incorrectly listed the HBCUs targeted with bomb threats Monday. Judson Bible College was included but it is not an HBCU, however it was also targeted.
Paramount+ has unveiled the cast of its upcoming series Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, a prequel to the classic 1978 film musical Grease. The 10-episode series is set in 1954, four years before the events of the Grease movie, and centers on the titular young women who sparked “a moral panic that will change Rydell High forever.”
Marisa Davila stars as Jane, Cheyenne Isabel Wells as Olivia, Ari Notartomaso as Cynthia, Tricia Fukuhara as Nancy, Shanel Bailey as Hazel, and Madison Thompson as Susan. The cast also includes Johnathan Nieves as Richie, Jason Schmidt as Buddy and Maxwell Whittington-Cooper as Wally.
Production on the series is underway in Vancouver, Canada, the streaming platform also revealed.
(NEW YORK) — Two Bridgeport, Connecticut, detectives involved in the case of Lauren Smith-Fields, who was found dead in her apartment after a date last month, have been placed on administrative leave and are being investigated by the police department’s internal affairs office, according to the mayor.
Disciplinary actions may also be taken against Bridgeport Police detectives Kevin Cronin and Angel Llanos, due to a “lack of sensitivity to the public and failure to follow police policy” in the handling of the two cases, according to a statement from Joseph P. Ganim, the city’s mayor.
“It is an unacceptable failure if policies were not followed,” Ganim said. “To the families, friends and all who care about the human decency that should be shown in these situations in this case by members of the Bridgeport Police Department, I am very sorry.”
The detectives are also being investigated for their handling of the case of Brenda Lee Rawls, who was found dead and alone in her home on Dec. 12.
Smith-Fields was found dead in her apartment that same day, shortly after meeting a man on a dating app.
The families of Smith-Fields, 23, and Rawls, 53, claim the police failed to notify them of the deaths and say they learned of the deaths from others. Both women are Black.
The supervisory officer who was in charge of overseeing these investigations retired from the department on Friday, the mayor said, adding that the cases are both under active investigation and have been reassigned.
Both cases are both under active investigation and have been reassigned.
The news comes just days after the Connecticut chief medical examiner’s office announced that Smith-Fields’ cause of death was “acute intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, promethazine, hydroxyzine and alcohol” and the medical examiner ruled the manner of death an “accident.”
The cause and manner of death in Rawls’ case are still undetermined, the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reports.
The Bridgeport Police Department said it was unable to respond to ABC News’ request for comment and union Council 4 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees did not respond. It is unclear if Cronin and Llanos have legal representation.
Smith-Fields’ family announced earlier this month it plans to file a lawsuit against the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, as well as the Bridgeport Police Department, alleging that police haven’t properly investigated her death and have violated their civil rights.
“The way they handled her investigation was literally disgraceful, disgusting, horrible. It was not even human,” Lakeem Jetter, Smith-Fields’ brother, said in an interview with Good Morning America.
(NEW YORK) — A plea deal that would have allowed a white man convicted in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery to serve a large part of his sentence in federal prison was rejected by a U.S. District Court judge on Monday.
Judge Lisa Godbey Wood’s decision to turn down Travis McMichael’s plea agreement with federal prosecutors came after Arbery’s parents and two aunts gave emotional statements asking the judge to reject the deal and proceed with a federal trial next week.
A second hearing on a plea deal the government’s attorneys negotiated with McMichael’s father, 66-year-old Gregory McMichael, was also scheduled to occur on Monday. However, since Godbey Wood said her decision would be the same in the elder McMichael’s case, Gregory McMichael’s lawyer said there was no need for a hearing.
Both men and their neighbor, 52-year-old William “Roddie” Bryan, were convicted on state murder charges in Arbery’s 2020 death. They were sentenced to life in prison. Travis and Gregory McMichael were sentenced without the possibility of parole.
A federal prosecutor told the judge during Monday’s hearing that the agreement called for the men to immediately be turned over to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to serve 30 years in a federal penitentiary before being returned to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve the remainder of their sentence.
Godbey Wood gave both men the option to go forward with their guilty pleas and risk her giving them a harsher sentence than what they agreed to, or to withdraw their pleas and go to trial starting on Monday.
The judge gave them until Friday to decide.
Federal prosecutors filed notices of plea agreements for Travis McMichael, 35, and Gregory McMichael, on Sunday in U.S. District Court in Brunswick, Georgia, and requested Monday’s hearing for Godbey Wood to review the deal.
No plea agreement was announced for Bryan.
Prior to Monday’s hearing, Arbery’s relatives slammed the plea deal, alleging it was done behind their back.
“This proposed plea is a huge accommodation to the men who hunted down and murdered Ahmaud Arbery,” the family’s attorney, Lee Merritt, said in a statement. “The family is devastated at this development, their wishes are being completely ignored and they do not consent to these accommodations.”
Arbery was out for a jog on Feb. 23, 2020, in the Satilla shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia, when the McMichaels assumed he was a burglar, armed themselves and chased him in their pickup truck. Bryan joined the five-minute pursuit, blocking Arbery’s path with his truck and recorded Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery with a shotgun during a struggle on his cellphone.
Arbery’s parents, Wanda Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery, asked the federal court to be allowed to assert her right under federal law to oppose the plea deal directly before the court.
“The DOJ has gone behind my back to offer the men who murdered my son a deal to make their time in prison easier for them to serve,” Cooper-Jones said in a statement. “I have made it clear at every possible moment that I do not agree to offer these men a plea deal of any kind. I have been completely betrayed by the DOJ lawyers.”
During a news conference in Georgia on Monday, Merritt said Cooper-Jones and Arbery’s father will be allowed to speak at the hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. on Monday. Merritt said the parents plan to ask a federal judge to reject the plea deal.
When Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted on state charges of murdering George Floyd, reached a plea agreement on federal charges that he violated Floyd’s civil rights, he asked to be sent to federal prison even though he is expected to serve more time than the 22 years he was sentenced to in state court.
In response to Chauvin’s plea deal, legal experts told ABC News that federal penitentiaries run by the Bureau of Prisons tend to better than state prisons. The experts said federal prisons have fewer overcrowding issues, more comfortable bunks and even better food and educational resources than often cash-strapped state prisons. High-profile inmates, especially former law enforcement officers like Chauvin and Gregory McMichael, tend to also get greater protection in federal prison, the experts said.
The federal Bureau of Prisons estimated that the annual cost of housing an inmate in a federal facility in 2020 was a little over $39,000.
The annual cost of housing an inmate in a Georgia state prison is roughly $20,000, according to a 2015 study by the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit research and policy organization.
“Federal prison is going to be a lighter sentence for these men,” Merritt said.
Merritt also cited an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice into conditions at Georgia state prisons that was launched in September.
The DOJ said in a statement that the investigation is primarily focused on whether Georgia provides inmates reasonable protection from physical harm at the hands of other prisoners and staff.
Cooper-Jones said at Monday’s news conference that she finds the plea deal “disrespectful.”
“I fought so hard to get these guys in state prison,” Cooper-Jones said.
She said she learned of the deal on Sunday and has had discussions with DOJ attorneys since.
“I told them very, very adamantly I wanted them to go to state prison and do their time,” Cooper-Jones said.
In a separate news conference, Marcus Arbery said that finding out about the deal made him “mad as hell.”
He said his son’s death was a racially-motivated murder and “we want 100% justice, not half justice.”
He added, “I don’t want no chance of trying to make their lives easy.”
Although Eddie Jackson‘s team of choice — the San Francisco 49ers — will not be playing in this year’s Super Bowl, that won’t stop the NFL player-turned-celebrity cheffrom cooking up a storm during the Big Game.
Speaking to ABC Audio, the BBQ Brawl star laid out what he plans to serve during his Big Game Party, saying finger foods are the way to go this year. “I call them one-handers — things that are readily accessible with one hand,” Jackson explains, noting that they are mandatory for sports parties because they allow you to “have a cold beverage in the other [hand]…so you’re not missing a beat.”
Jackson says he’s whipping up dishes for his meat-eating and vegan friends alike on February 13, when the Cincinnati Bengals take on the Los Angeles Rams. “We’re doing egg rolls, chicken egg rolls. We’re doing sliders, pulled-chicken sliders…[and] poppers,” he listed off before teasing a “twist” on some jalapeño poppers by stuffing them with plant-based chicken.
Jackson also weighed in on the criticism that plant-based options can never truly replace or substitute for the way meat tastes. He said as long as the flavor is there, it doesn’t matter — especially to him. “I know if something tastes good. That’s literally how I make my living — out of deciding if something tastes good or not,” he declares, adding that his son “destroyed” all the vegan dishes he’s cooked.
Jackson, who recently teamed with plant-based food maker Sweet Earth, spoke of the rising popularity of vegan dishes. “Times change. You have to evolve with the changes,” he notes. “You look at the recipes and the recipes are constantly changing [and] constantly evolving. The way we eat is constantly evolving…But I still love it much the same.”
Regina King stars in the western The Harder They Fall, and she expressed to Varietyher pride in being a Black actress.
“I know that we call ourselves African American, but I’m a Black American, and I’m very, very clear about the history of being Black in the country that I live in,” the 51-year-old actress says.
“We are so rich in culture. We have so much substance. And so often, we allow that little box in our house or that big screen to tell us who we are and what our experiences are, instead of actually feeling who we are,” King continues. “That’s what happens when you’ve been enslaved and told what your story is.”
In other news, Halle Berry says it was very special watching her boyfriend, Van Hunt, and H.E.R., create “Automatic Woman” for her directorial debut in Bruised. The track is on the short list for Oscar nominations for Best Original Song.
“All of a sudden I find myself in a relationship with someone who could deliver a song of this magnitude for me. It was serendipitous in some ways.” the 55-year-old actress tells Deadline.
“When I heard the beginning ideas of ‘Automatic Woman’, I was so moved,” adds H.E.R. “That idea of perseverance and pushing through and fighting through. You know, how do you really empower yourself? I’m an automatic woman. I can do this.”
“She’s a trailblazer for her generation, so I was just very impressed,” Berry says about the 24-year-old singer.
Finally, Variety also reports that grown-ish star Yara Shahidi has joined the cast of the Apple TV climate change anthology series Extrapolations. Forest Whitaker, Meryl Streep and Daveed Diggs are among the previously announced cast members.
This marks the first time in almost 30 years that a Disney song climbed to the top of the Hot 100, and only the second time in history it’s happened. The first time was in 1993, when Aladdin‘s “A Whole New World,” sung by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle, soared to number one.
“Bruno” is now songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s first number one hit, and it’s also set the record for having the most credited recording artists ever on a number one song: It features the voices of six different Encanto cast members.
One reason why “Bruno” may have hit number one is because, as Billboard notes, it got a sales boost after the iTunes Store put it on sale for 69 cents.
Coincidentally, the Encanto soundtrack is also the number one album in the country; it’s now held the top spot on the Billboard 200 for three weeks. This marks the first time in Disney history that one of its soundtracks and songs simultaneously topped both charts.
Meanwhile, another song from Encanto, “Surface Pressure,” has broken into the top 10 and currently sits at number nine.
When Charlie Puth FaceTimed with The Kid LAROI, he probably wasn’t expecting Justin Bieber to take the phone — and confront him about that infamous on-stage diss from over five years ago.
In 2016, Charlie disparaged Justin while performing “We Don’t Talk Anymore,” a song he collaborated on with Justin’s ex Selena Gomez. Although Charlie later attested he said it in jest, it seems the two never really fully reconciled… until now.
Taking to Instagram on Monday, Justin shared video of the awkward FaceTime exchange, where he finally confronts Charlie.
“We never really got to talk about just, like, years ago when you said ‘F*** you, Justin Bieber’ on stage,” the “Peaches” singer began, which caused Charlie to break into a nervous chuckle. “I don’t think it’s very funny, to be honest.”
Justin goes on to say the diss “hurt my feelings” — even though it was a joke that Charlie insisted “was completely blown out of proportion.”
Bieber adds even more pressure by asking what caused the on-stage outburst and remarked he “doesn’t appreciate” Charlie’s repeated attempts at downplaying the event. But, it appears the confrontation itself was a joke because all three, including LAROI, burst out in hysterics.
“You know you had it coming,” captioned Justin.
Meanwhile, fans are hoping this is the trio’s way of teasing something on the horizon. Already, followers are begging in the comment section for the three to collaborate on a new song.
In other Bieber news, Justin just dropped $1.29 million on a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT, which is reportedly 300% more than its valued market price. The Bored Ape #3001 digital collectible is a cartoon drawing of a sad-looking monkey with its eyes welling up in tears. Bieber showed off the artwork on Instagram Monday.
