“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” – Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures has announced it has made some moves within its own Spider-Verse. First off, the studio has moved the sequel to its Oscar-winning animated hit Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse from October 7, 2022 to June 2, 2023.
Furthermore, the film formerly known as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One), has dropped the “(Part One)” from its title, but it will remain the first chapter in a two-part story, concluding with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part II on March 29, 2024.
On a related note, Madame Web, starring Dakota Johnson, has been given a release date of July 7, 2023. As reported, S.J. Johnson, the executive producer and lead director of Netflix’s acclaimed Marvel series Jessica Jones, is calling the shots on the film, with Johnson playing the title character, first introduced in the pages of Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man #210 in 1980.
In non-superhero news, Sony Pictures also announced that a third Equalizer film, starring Oscar winner Denzel Washington, will hit theaters September 1, 2023.
Harry Styles kickstarted Coachella with a bang, attracting over 100,000 people to his opening night concert last weekend.
Variety reports the numbers are pretty fantastic considering COVID-19 postponed the music festival for two years in a row. While those attending Harry’s concert weren’t a record-sized crowd, since the venue maxes out capacity at 125,000, sources tell Variety his set was considered sold out.
Sources add the remaining 20,000 or so concertgoers watched musicians performing at other stages at the time the “Adore You” singer was headlining.
As previously reported, Harry dazzled on Friday night by performing several unreleased songs and also invited country legend Shania Twain onto the stage to perform “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” and “Still the One.”
Variety also reports Apple CEO Tim Cook and late-night show host James Corden were among Coachella attendees Friday
While Coachella itself has yet to release its official numbers, Variety noted the potential for “fluctuating” numbers due to the ongoing pandemic. The music festival reportedly declined their request for comment.
Harry will take the stage again on Friday night for the second and final weekend of the iconic music festival.
(NEW YORK) — A New York City mother found stabbed to death inside a duffel bag was allegedly killed by a handyman she’d been having an off-and-on affair with for two years, the NYPD said.
The suspect, David Bonola, was arrested just before 1 a.m. Thursday, days after he allegedly dumped Orsolya Gaal’s body in her son’s hockey bag, police said at a news conference Thursday.
Bonola, 44, allegedly stabbed 51-year-old Gaal dozens of times at her Queens home early Saturday morning while her 13-year-old son was upstairs, according to police sources.
Police described it as a domestic dispute, saying “their relationship was considered at an end.”
After the murder, police believe Bonola sent a text message to Gaal’s husband from her phone that referenced a previous crime and indicated the rest of the family was in danger. Police said there was no past crime and no danger to Gaal’s husband and two children.
Authorities said Bonola was seen on video rolling the duffel bag, leaving a bloody trail behind him.
After disposing of the body, Bonola allegedly fled through a park, where police said they found his jacket.
Gaal’s body was found Saturday morning.
Bonola turned himself in Wednesday night after officers canvassed his Queens neighborhood, according to police sources. He’s charged with murder, criminal tampering and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the NYPD.
NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said Bonola “made incriminating statements” but he didn’t elaborate.
Beastie Boys has announced a reissue of the Check Your Head box set in honor of the album’s 30th anniversary.
The four-LP collection, which was first available in 2009 but has since been out of print, comes with a host of bonus tracks including remixes, B-sides and live recordings. It’s set to be released June, and you can pre-order it now exclusively via the Beastie Boys website.
Check Your Head, the third Beastie Boys album, was originally released April 21, 1992 — 30 years ago Thursday. It was certified double-Platinum by the RIAA, and spawned the single “So What’cha Want.”
The Beasties will also be celebrating Check Your Head’s milestone anniversary during a special block of programming today on Apple Music Hits, including an episode of Mike D‘s The Echo Chamber Show with guests Ad-Rock, producer Mario C and keyboardist Money Mark.
Keith Urban is busy hearing blind auditions as a coach on this season of The Voice Australia, and one contestant, Kaylee, shocked the country superstar with a song she wrote just for him.
Aptly titled “Keith,” the song name drops more than 10 of Keith’s biggest hits, including “Somewhere in Your Car,” “Long Hot Summer” and “We Were.”
Kaylee’s tribute to the country superstar didn’t hurt her case, but it was her powerhouse voice and guitar skills that earned her a four-chair turn. Keith was the first to decide he wanted her on his team, of course, with fellow coaches Jess Mauboy, Rita Ora and Guy Sebastian quickly following suit.
It seemed like a no-brainer that Kaylee would choose Keith to be her coach, but there was a twist: Jess hit the block button, preventing Kaylee from joining the country superstar’s team, in an attempt to woo her into joining her team instead. The cut-throat move paid off: Ultimately, Kaylee joined Team Jess.
But Keith still shared some kind words for his superfan contestant, according to The Daily Mail’s recap.
“I’ve never had any song written about me before,” he professed. “That’s so touching, Kaylee. It really is. I can’t thank you enough for that.”
Eddie Van Halen and Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation’s Felice Mancini in 2012; Frazer Harrison/Getty Imagesin 2015; Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Solters
The late Eddie Van Halen put aside a substantial amount of money that was recently donated to the youth music education organization Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, the nonprofit has announced.
According to a statement, the rock guitar great, who died of cancer in October 2020 at age 65, left “a meaningful percentage of his estate to the organization in his will.” In the decade before his passing, Van Halen forged a close relationship with Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation and embraced the organization’s mission of helping students who attend at-risk public schools develop a passion for music.
The statement notes that Eddie’s donation will help the foundation to assist more schools, hire more employees, improve its technology and more.
“Eddie’s support and friendship over the years meant the world to us and to his fans. His passion for music and our work created a strong bond, which is evident in his extraordinary bequest,” says the foundation’s president and CEO, Felice Mancini. “To know how much our foundation meant to Eddie is intensely humbling and gratifying to all of us — and we know that Eddie’s family is confident that his powerful legacy and values live on through our efforts.”
Eddie’s son, Wolfgang Van Halen, also has become a major supporter of Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, and has been carrying on the partnership his dad began with the charity. In tribute to his father, he donated the proceeds from his group Mammoth WVH‘s solo single, “Distance,” to the foundation.
“Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation and the work they do for music education was always something that was important to my father,” says Wolfgang. “I am incredibly proud to help facilitate this donation as he wished.”
On the stand in his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard Thursday morning, Johnny Depp was again cross-examined by her attorney, who grilled the star about his drug use with, and controversial texts he sent to, his friend, WandaVision actor Paul Bettany.
Attorney J. Benjamin Rottenborn tried to contrast Depp’s living up to the “standards of a Southern gentleman” with his alleged conduct with Bettany.
“Paul Bettany is a friend who’ve you done drugs with, yes?” Rottenborn asked.
“That’s a strange question,” Depp countered, before admitting he had, “at times.”
Her attorney asked if Heard didn’t like Depp being high on drugs, to which the actor replied, “She didn’t like it when it was her perception that I was high on drugs,” but Heard’s perception wasn’t necessarily the truth, Depp claimed.
Depp was quizzed about texts he sent to Bettany, including one reading, “Let’s burn Amber,” and another that followed, “Let’s drown her before we burn her.”
On the stand, Depp also again mentioned his attempts to get sober, and texts to Elton John were entered into evidence. “I would have been swallowed up by the monster, if it wasn’t for you,” Depp reportedly texted the star in 2012.
Heard’s attorney fixated on the word “monster,” which was either Depp or Heard’s term for his addictions.
“Elton was a dear friend who has been sober for 40 years, 30 years, and we’ve had discussions, and he wanted me to get clean and sober,” Johnny said, mentioning Elton even offered the assistance of a friend who helped the “Rocket Man” singer in his recovery.
Depp continued abusing substances until, as he claimed in court Wednesday, he underwent a painful detox with the help of a physician in 2015. He subsequently fell off the wagon, he claimed in court Wednesday, after a fight that escalated to the point of Heard allegedly hurling vodka bottles at him, which he claims severed the tip of his right middle finger.
Depp is suing Heard over her 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post in which she referred to herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse,” implying Depp abused her without mentioning his name. He claims the piece had a devastating effect on him personally, and on his career.
(NEW YORK) — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will have rippling effects in populations far outside the two countries in conflict — especially in the global food supply, experts are warning.
The war in Ukraine could plunge millions into malnutrition if governments, donors and funders do not act now to prevent a shortage of the nutritional staples typically exported out of the region, according to an op-ed published Thursday in Nature.
Women and children in low- and middle-income countries are particularly vulnerable, according to the op-ed, which was authored by 10 nutrition and food supply experts from all over the world. The nutritional needs of children are high, relative to their body size, and women’s nutritional needs are especially high when pregnant and breastfeeding.
“Impacts of malnutrition might be less immediately visible than those of hunger. But left untreated, they can be multi-generational and irreversible,” the authors wrote.
The biggest concern is the long-term implications malnutrition will have on children, Saskia Osendarp, executive director of the Micronutrient Forum and co-coordinator of Standing Together for Nutrition, a consortium of nutrition, economics, food and health system experts, told ABC News. This could include cognitive development, school performance, and, later in life, social capital and the increased risk of chronic diseases, she said.
Nutrient deficiencies, particularly in the first 1,000 days in a child’s life — beginning from conception and lasting until the child’s second birthday — can have “irreversible, lifelong consequences,” Osendarp said.
Existing gender inequality and power imbalances — which are often exacerbated during crises — result in women having less agency to direct resources toward feeding themselves and their children, the experts said. Increased prices, the reduced availability of food or difficulties accessing it will directly affect the quality of people’s diets, and increased prices and trade problems will reduce the reach of humanitarian services that prevent and treat acute malnutrition, the experts said.
When food prices increase, households switch to cheaper staple foods and processed foods instead of buying more nutritious — and generally more expensive– foods, such as fruits, vegetables, dairy meat, decreasing the quality of their diets, Osendarp, one of the authors of the op-ed, said.
“So they may be able to cope and to to keep their caloric intakes at a level to some point, but then they will suffer from nutrient deficiencies,” she said.
In addition, budgets currently devoted to improving people’s nutritional status could be redirected to other, more urgent needs as a result of the war, according to the op-ed.
The World Food Programme estimated that in 2022, 323 million people would be in urgent need of assistance when it comes to obtaining sufficient food and nutrients.
Ukraine is considered on one of the breadbaskets of the world and is a top 10 global exporter of a number of key agricultural products, including wheat, barley, corn, sunflower oil, soybeans and poultry. An estimated 70% of the country is used for farmland — land that is currently being devastated by assaults by Russian forces.
Countries in Africa and the Middle East are particularly vulnerable, while Somalia and Benin have a total dependence on imports of mostly Russian and Ukrainian wheat, according to a rapid assessment by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Several countries rely on Russia and Ukraine for more than half their wheat imports.
The number of malnourished people, especially women and children, is expected to increase as a result of record-high price hikes and disruptions in the trade of food, fertilizer and fuel, according to the paper.
Cities such as Odessa and Mariupol, where about 70% of Ukraine’s exports are moved from, have now been blocked due to incessant Russian shelling, according to USAID.
This is not an isolated crisis, Osendarp said. Two years into the pandemic, governments are still recovering from the global economic stressors of the virus as well as climate change-related events, such as severe droughts in the Horn of Africa, as well as increased conflict in other war-torn regions, such as Ethiopia and in Yemen, she said.
The authors called for the cessation of trade restrictions that affect access to nutrition and for the use of social protection measures, such as food or cash transfers, specifically tailored to address malnutrition. Protection of financial commitments already made for nutrition, both within nations and globally, and increased investment in humanitarian resources beyond the promises already made will also be necessary, they said.
Without an immediate humanitarian response, it is almost guaranteed that the numbers of malnourished children and mothers will increase and will affect generations to come, Osendarp said.
“It will affect millions and millions of mothers and children, and we can just simply not afford to lose that generation,” she said.
ABC News’ Guy Davies and Dragana Jovanovic contributed to this report.
Ellie Goulding has confirmed that new music is on the way, after performing a secret, intimate concert in London.
British publication the Daily Mail reports that Ellie performed an ultra-exclusive Secret Socials with Hilton concert Wednesday night, where she sang her greatest hits, including “Love Me Like You Do” and “Lights.” Just 80 people, including Ellie’s husband, Caspar Jopling, were invited to watch her perform.
Upon wrapping her set, Ellie told the crowd, “I’ve missed being on stage performing to my amazing fans. It was great to do it in such an intimate setting.”
“I loved seeing how surprised everyone was and having one of my closest friends, [TV presenter] Fearne [Cotton], to cheer me on in the crowd definitely made the night one to remember,” the 35-year-old singer added.
But she saved the biggest reveal for last — telling everyone, “Next time I’ll perform with a bunch of whole-new songs!”
Ellie didn’t go into detail about what this could mean — whether it be a new album or single — but fans are certainly excited that they won’t have to wait too much longer.
The Grammy nominee’s last single was “Love I’m Given,” which she released in August 2020. Ellie’s last album, Brightest Blue, also came out in 2020.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images for CNN. A WarnerMedia Company. All Rights Reserved
April 20 marked the fourth anniversary of Avicii’s death, and Aloe Blacc, the vocalist on the Swedish DJ’s hit “Wake Me Up,” marked the occasion by posting a video that shows him singing the song in three different languages.
“Avicii’s music touched the world. Writing the lyrics and recording the vocals on WAKE ME UP was a transformative experience for me,” writes Aloe in the comments. “Everywhere I’ve been, no matter the country, music lovers and fans sing the lyrics with me in English.”
He goes on to write, “In honor of Avicii and with the help of Metaphysic.ai and Respeecher.com, I present a very special international version of WAKE ME UP in multiple languages.” In the video, Aloe sings the song in Mandarin, Spanish and English.
According to Billboard, Metaphysic.ai is a content company, and Respeecher uses AI to make one person speak in the voice of another specific person, so it appears as though Aloe had some technological help in appearing to sing both languages flawlessly.
“Wake Me Up” peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart for 26 weeks.
Fellow superstar DJ David Guetta also paid tribute to Avicii on Wednesday, posting a video of the late star, born Tim Bergling, being goofy. He wrote, “4 years already. We all miss you very much @Avicii.”
After struggling with mental health issues and physical health challenges for several years, Bergling died by suicide in Oman in 2018.
If you are in crisis or know someone in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.
