After finally re-launching his long-delayed Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour last week, Elton John has now been forced to postpone two concerts — because he’s tested positive for COVID.
Elton’s two shows in Dallas, TX tonight and Wednesday night are being rescheduled, and tickets for the original shows will be honored. A statement notes, “Fortunately, Elton is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is experiencing only mild symptoms…Elton and the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour look forward to returning to the stage shortly.”
On his Instagram Stories, Elton wrote, “It’s always a massive disappointment to have to move shows and I’m sorry to anyone who’s been inconvenienced by this but I want to keep myself and my team safe.” Elton adds that he’s “fully expecting to make the Arkansas shows this weekend.”
Ahead of the tour’s launch, Elton’s longtime guitarist and musical director Davey Johnstone told ABC Audio that all COVID-19 precautions were being taken.
“There’s no backstage, there’s no guests. There are no backstage passes. There are no wives or girlfriends or anything,” said Johnstone, adding, “Everybody’s super masked up and getting tested every two days to make sure everybody on the tour stays safe.”
Although Rob Gronkowski will not play in this year’s Big Game, he’s paying it forward to the NFL fans who supported him through another tremendous season.
The Buccaneers tight end teamed with Groupon and is handing the keys to his 4,486 square-foot Foxborough, MA, home over to one lucky fan so they can watch the Big Game in style. Oh, and they can invite up to 15 friends, too.
“I got the whole setup down to perfection at my house,” he told ABC Audio, saying it is more than just ensuring his guests have their fill of good, local food and drink. “We got a pool… we got an indoor bounce house! We got indoor mini golf. These experiences are going to be amazing.”
Gronk says part of the experience is seeing what it’s like to party like a football player. “Everyone knows me. I used to party back in the day. I still have a good time, but obviously, I’m not 20 to 23 anymore,” he laughs. “It’s going to be popping.”
Because he is going over-the-top with his “Party like a Player” experience, he said he wanted the winner to not stress or feel pressure about who to invite. “You’re going to be able to bring everyone that you know,” promises Gronk. “It’s a true party experience.”
So, who does he think his guests will watch play on one of his big screen televisions?
“I’m going to go with the Kansas City Chiefs. Their offense is red hot,” said Gronk, noting their intense match against the Buffalo Bills. “And I’m going to say the San Francisco 49ers… That’s my prediction.”
Those over 21 and are U.S. residents have until February 2 to enter on Groupon’s Party Like a Player website.
David Becker/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
As a fellow Canadian pop superstar, it’s no wonder that Michael Bublé wanted to get in on TikTok’s hilarious #CelineDionChallenge — but of course, being Canadian, he couldn’t help working hockey into the equation.
The #CelineDionChallenge involves lip-syncing to Celine’s hit “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” while wearing some kind of coat, blanket or cover-up, and then throwing it off to reveal a glamorous gown, as confetti showers down and a fan — or a hair dryer, or a leaf blower — dramatically starts blowing your hair and outfit around.
In Michael’s version, he’s standing on ice skates guarding a hockey goal, holding a stick and wearing goalie gloves. As he hits the “Baby, baby, baby” part, he throws off his gloves and the stick and then grabs the Stanley Cup — apparently, it’s real — while some dude runs behind him holding a Canadian flag and someone else kneels in front of him and pops confetti.
“Finally had the time to put in the effort that this trend deserves,” Michael wrote on Instagram. “I love you @celinedion.”
Keith Urban continues to expand his Las Vegas show.
The country superstar has added five new dates to his Keith Urban Live – Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in March and April. The new shows take place on March 25, 26 and 30 and April 1 and 2. They join previously announced shows on May 27, 28, 29.
Keith will take to The Colosseum to perform many of his hit songs, bringing his arena show to a theatre setting.
Keith Urban Live – Las Vegas launched in January 2020, but several shows scheduled throughout the year were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He resumed the residency in 2021.
Tickets for the new dates go on sale January 31 at 1 p.m. ET.
Neil Young has demanded that Spotify either stop hosting the popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience or remove his music from the streaming service.
Rolling Stone reports that Young recently posted online a now-deleted letter he sent to his manager and record label in which he explains that he’s giving Spotify this ultimatum because he feels the podcast “is spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them.”
Young then tells his reps in the letter, “Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.”
Neil continues, “I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform. They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both.”
Young’s demand comes after, according to Rolling Stone, 270 doctors, physicians, and science educators signed an open letter last month asking Spotify to stop spreading what they consider Rogan’s misinformed and baseless claims regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Neil adds in his letter, “With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence. Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.”
At the time Rolling Stone published its article, it says Spotify hadn’t responded to the magazine’s question about whether they intended to remove Young’s music from the service. You could still stream Neil’s recordings on Spotify as of this morning.
Tiffany Haddishappeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Monday night, and while other celebrities might have, she didn’t shy away from her recent DUI arrest.
Haddish was arrested on suspicion of DUI early in the morning of January 14, after cops investigated a report of a driver asleep behind the wheel of her car on a Georgia highway.
Haddish told Fallon in the Zoom interview, “I’ve been praying to God to send me a new man. A good man. And God went ahead and sent me four…in uniform.”
Haddish added, “And now I got a really great lawyer, and we’re going to work it out. I’ve got to get my asking of things to God a little better!”
Tiffany explained the last few months have been rough for her, what with her break up from boyfriend Common, and the deaths of both her friend and “mentor” Bob Saget and her grandmother.
“[Saget] was like a big mentor to me, a big brother, a father figure,” she explained.
“He meant a lot to me. Funny man. He was the first white man to ever tell me, ‘Just be yourself, just be who you are, Tiffany. Don’t worry about nothing. Just be you.’ That was huge for me.”
The Girls Trip star added solemnly, “And then, my grandma passed away, and she saved my life. That’s my heart. She was like my soulmate. So that’s been… really hard to process, all this…grief.”
“My next special is going to be about grief. And it’s going to be hilarious,” she added, explaining that would help her, “figure out how to process it all.”
“Kids get to cry whenever they want to, wherever they want to. As an adult you can’t do that,” Haddish joked.
A lawyer for Marilyn Manson has denied the allegations made by Evan Rachel Wood against the disgraced shock rocker in her new documentary, Phoenix Rising.
In the film, Wood accuses Manson, born Brian Warner, of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, and details how he allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted her while filming the video for “Heart-Shaped Glasses.”
“I was essentially raped on-camera,” Wood says in the doc, according to People.
In a statement obtained by E! News and Pitchfork, Warner’s lawyer Howard King calls Wood’s allegations “false” and an “imaginative retelling.”
“Evan was not only fully coherent and engaged during the three-day shoot but also heavily involved in weeks of pre-production planning and days of post-production editing of the final cut,” the statement reads. “The simulated sex scene took several hours to shoot with multiple takes using different angles and several long breaks in between camera setups. Brian did not have sex with Evan on that set, and she knows that is the truth.”
Wood, who previously spoke for several years about her experience with domestic violence, publicly named Warner as her abuser in a February 2021 social media post. At the time, Warner denied allegations as “horrible distortions of reality.”
Following Wood’s post, more women came forward with allegations of sexual, physical and emotional abuse against Warner, including actor Esmé Bianco, model Ashley Morgan Smithline, and Warner’s former assistant, Ashley Walters, all of whom filed lawsuits against him. Through lawyers, Warner has denied the allegations.
The first installment of the two-part Phoenix Rising premiered over the weekend at the Sundance Film Festival. The whole doc is set to debut on HBO in March.
For anyone affected by abuse and needing support, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or if you’re unable to speak safely, you can log onto thehotline.org or text LOVEIS to 1-866-331-9474.
Glass Animals, Black Pumas and Clairo are among the artists playing the 2022 Governors Ball festival, taking place June 10-12 at New York City’s Citi Field.
The bill also includes beabadoobee, Peach Tree Rascals, Almost Monday, Japanese Breakfast, Coin and Surf Curse. Kid Cudi, Halsey and J. Cole will headline.
Tickets go on sale this Thursday, January 27, at noon ET. Citi cardmembers can access a pre-sale now.
For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit GovBall.com.
The lineup for the 2022 edition of Governors Ball has been announced, and Halsey is headlining one of the three days.
The event takes place from June 10-12 at New York’s Citi Field; Halsey will headline the June 11 lineup. Other artists performing include Jack Harlow, Glass Animals, Benee, Roddy Ricch and Tove Lo. The other two days are being headlined by J. Cole and Kid Cudi.
A pre-sale for three-day and one-day general admission and VIP tickets runs from today through Thursday for Citi® Cardmembers. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday at noon EST via GovBall.com.
Halsey’s also booked for the Hangout, Beach Music & Arts Fest in May in Gulf Shores, Alabama, as well as the U.K.’s Reading and Leeds Festivals in August. And next month, she’ll be part of the 2022 Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest at L.A’s Crypto.com Arena, along with Miley Cyrus, Machine Gun Kelly, Gwen Stefani and Green Day.
(NEW YORK) — A new study adds to the growing evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are safe for both pregnant people and people hoping to become pregnant.
The study, which looked at more than 2,000 couples in the United States and Canada, found “no adverse association” between getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and fertility, for both men and women.
On the other hand, men who contract COVID-19 may experience a temporary reduction in fertility. Couples who had a male partner test positive for COVID-19 within 60 days of their partner’s menstrual cycle were 18% less likely to conceive in that cycle, according to the study, published on Jan. 20 in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
“The findings provide reassurance that vaccination for couples seeking pregnancy does not appear to impair fertility,” Dr. Diana Bianchi, director of the National Institute of Health’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which funded the study, said in a statement. “They also provide information for physicians who counsel patients hoping to conceive.”
The myth that COVID-19 vaccines may negatively impact fertility was one that was spread largely on social media.
More and more research has now shown that not only do the vaccines not affect fertility, they also do not impact pregnancy.
A study released Jan. 4 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found no increased risk of preterm or low-weight birth among babies born to pregnant people who got a COVID-19 vaccine shot, compared to babies born to unvaccinated pregnant people.
The study’s researchers at Yale University looked at the health data of more than 40,000 pregnant women and did not identify any safety issues with getting vaccinated while pregnant, no matter which trimester a woman was in when vaccinated, or how many vaccine doses she got during her pregnancy. Researchers noted most of the women included in the analysis were vaccinated in the second or third trimester, and the study didn’t include booster doses.
In a health warning issued in September urging pregnant people to get vaccinated, the CDC said data shows there is also no increased risk for miscarriage linked to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Miscarriage rates after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine were similar to the expected rate of miscarriage,” the CDC said at the time. “Additionally, previous findings from three safety monitoring systems did not find any safety concerns for pregnant people who were vaccinated late in pregnancy or for their babies.”
In addition, two studies released last summer found Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines appear to be safe and effective for pregnant people, and were also found to likely offer protection to infants born to a vaccinated person.
In August, the CDC strengthened its recommendation for COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, citing new evidence of safety with the vaccines.
The nation’s two leading health organizations focused on the care of pregnant people — American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) — also issued new guidelines calling on all pregnant people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also says pregnant people can be vaccinated against COVID-19.
“Limited data are currently available to assess the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy. However, based on what we know about the kinds of vaccines being used, there is no specific reason for concern,” the WHO says on its website. “None of the COVID-19 vaccines authorized to date use live viruses, which are more likely to pose risks during pregnancy.”
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use mRNA technology, which does not enter the nucleus of the cells and doesn’t alter the human DNA; instead, it sends a genetic instruction manual that prompts cells to create proteins that look like part of the virus as a way for the body to learn and develop defenses against future infection.
They are the first mRNA vaccines, which are theoretically safe during pregnancy, because they do not contain a live virus.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses an inactivated adenovirus vector, Ad26, that cannot replicate. The Ad26 vector carries a piece of DNA with instructions to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that triggers an immune response.
This same type of vaccine has been authorized for Ebola, and has been studied extensively for other illnesses — and for how it affects women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
The CDC has concluded that pregnant people can receive the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine after reviewing more than 200 pages of data provided by the company and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Vaccine experts interviewed by ABC News said although pregnant women are advised against getting live-attenuated virus vaccines, such as the one for measles, mumps and rubella, because they can pose a theoretical risk of infection to the fetus, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine doesn’t contain live virus and should be safe.
The COVID-19 virus has also proven to be more dangerous for pregnant people, especially if they are not vaccinated.
According to the CDC, COVID-19 causes a two-fold risk of admission into intensive care and a 70% increased risk of death for pregnant people.
A study led by researchers in Scotland, and published this month in Nature Medicine, found that unvaccinated pregnant people who contracted COVID-19 not only were at risk of more severe illness themselves, but also were more likely to experience pregnancy loss or preterm birth compared to other women.
