Richard Harbaugh/Disneyland Resort via Getty Images — Lucasfilm
“Talent without training is nothing” says Luke Skywalker in the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, and it seems that Hayden Christensen took that to heart when reprising his Star Wars prequel role of Anakin Skywalker for the forthcoming series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Fans were thrilled when news broke that Christensen was returning, and the actor took the commitment to heart by binging all of the Star Wars-related content made since he first donned Darth Vader’s helmet at the close of 2005’s Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.
Of particular importance was the Emmy-winning animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and its follow-up, Star Wars: Rebels. The former delved deeply into the battle brother relationship between his character and Ewan McGregor‘s Obi-Wan Kenobi, which sours when Skywalker turns to the Dark Side.
The latter series also featured Vader, and climaxed with a heartbreaking confrontation between Vader and his former Clone Wars student, Ahsoka Tano.
“They did a lot with these characters in those shows,” Christensen tells Entertainment Weekly. “And they did further explore the relationship. There was interesting stuff there to learn about. It was great fun getting to go back and re-immerse yourself in this world that just continues to grow and become more and more vast.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi debuts May 27 with two episodes on Disney+.
Green Day, Weezer and Phoebe Bridgers are among the many artists playing the 2022 Outside Lands festival, taking place August 5-7 at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
The bill also includes Mitski, Dominic Fike, Oliver Tree, Wet Leg, Mt. Joy, Local Natives, Sam Fender, Dayglow and KennyHoopla, among many more. Post Malone and SZA will headline, as well.
Tickets go on sale this Wednesday, April 20, at 10 a.m. PT.
Wu-Tang Forever meets Illmatic for an iconic hip hop tour kicking off late this summer.
Legendary rappers Wu-Tang Clan and Nas announced their upcoming NY State of Mind Tour on Tuesday, which is set to make stops in 25 cities across North America, starting with a St. Louis, MO show on August 30.
The tour is also slated for stops in cities such as Camden, Toronto, Connecticut, Virginia Beach and many more, before ending at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Oct. 4.
Wu-Tang shared the announcement on Instagram, saying, “This Summer we are bringing the heat with @Nas on our #NewYorkStateofMindtour.”
Nas shared a similar post on Tuesday, calling the Clan, “my brothers.”
Tickets for the Live Nation-produced concert series go on sale starting Tuesday, April 26, with presale opportunities available for Citi card members and American Express card holders, on April 19.
Here’s the full list of tour dates & cities:
8/30 — St. Louis, MO, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre*
9/1 — Noblesville, IN, Ruoff Music Center*
9/2 — Tinley Park, IL, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre*
9/3 — Clarkston, MI, Pine Knob Music Theatre^
9/4 — Toronto, ON, Budweiser Stage^
9/7 — Cuyahoga Falls, OH, Blossom Music Center*
9/8 — Camden, NJ, Waterfront Music Pavilion*
9/9 — Hartford, CT, Xfinity Theatre*
9/10 — Mansfield, MA, Xfinity Center*
9/13 — Newark, NJ, Prudential Center^
9/14 — Virginia Beach, VA, Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach*
9/16 — Bristow, VA, Jiffy Lube Live*
9/17 — Raleigh, NC, Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek*
9/18 — Charlotte, NC, PNC Music Pavilion*
9/20 — West Palm Beach, FL, iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre*
9/21 — Tampa, FL, MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre*
9/22 — Atlanta, GA, Lakewood Amphitheatre*
9/24 — Houston, TX, Toyota Center^
9/25 — Austin, TX, Germania Insurance Amphitheater^
9/26 — Dallas, TX, Dos Equis Pavilion*
9/29 — Phoenix, AZ, Ak-Chin Pavilion*
9/30 — Irvine, CA, FivePoint Amphitheatre*
10/1 — Oakland, CA, Oakland Arena^
10/2 — Wheatland, CA, Toyota Amphitheatre*
10/4 — Los Angeles, CA, Hollywood Bowl^
*Citi Presale available.
^American Express® early access available.
Lil Nas X is hard at work on his forthcoming sophomore album, but that didn’t stop the Grammy winner from tipping his hat to the single that started his career in the first place.
The “Industry Baby” rapper is the latest celebrity to guest star on the Disney+ reboot The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder. Lil Nas X voices a country crooner named June Bug, who enlists the disco-singing Bobby Proud to join his country ensemble.
June Bug has a rather unique design. In the preview clip, the character appears as a shirtless, older and bearded man who opts for a tan cowboy hat, matching ascot, dusty jeans and heeled cowboy boots. In addition, his eyes are always closed and he has a golden left front tooth.
Lil Nas X will also perform his 2019 hit “Old Town Road” during the episode, which plays in the background as Oscar Proud attempts to tame a bucking bronco while Suga Mama shows off her tremendous fishing skills. The episode, titled “Old Towne Road,” becomes available to stream Wednesday at midnight PT.
LNX isn’t the only celebrity to cameo in the Proud Family revival. Lizzo previously appeared as herself in an episode that aired last month, writing, “Mama I made it!!!! I always wanted to be a cartoon.” Other celebs appearing in the reboot include Normani, Jaden Smith, Brenda Song, Tina Knowles, Gabby Douglas, Leslie Odom Jr., Chance the Rapper and Tiffany Haddish.
Jimmie Allen is getting honest through song about his struggle with mental health.
The singer shared a black and white video of himself on Instagram performing an acoustic rendition of an untitled song that takes listeners inside his head. In the lyrics, Jimmie admits to smiling for cameras, saying he’s okay when he’s actually not, and admits to “barely holding on,” fighting an internal battle that no one else sees.
“Truth is that I’m always on the edge/Trying to find the point of living/I’m barely hanging on/And no one can see that I’m constantly fighting with me,” he sings.
“Wrote this song about how I feel a lot of the time. Mental illness is something I have struggled with my entire life. Everyday is a constant battle with myself,” Jimmie expresses in the video’s caption. “To everyone struggling remember you’re not alone and it’s ok to say you’re not ok.”
Fans flooded the comments section with encouraging words, with one writing, “That’s courageous! Thank you for sharing,” while another praises, “this is so powerful.”
In 2020, the singer opened up about how he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was 13 and also struggles with has anxiety.
This year’s Tribeca Film Festival will be unspooling 110 feature films, as well as shorts and documentaries, its organizers have announced. All told, 150 filmmakers from 40 countries will screen their work there.
As previously reported, this year’s fest opens Wednesday, June 8 with Jennifer Lopez‘s Netflix documentary, Halftime.
Also debuting will be Somewhere in Queens, directed by Ray Romano and starring The Conners‘ Laurie Metcalf and stand-up comedian and actor Sebastian Maniscalco.
Also playing for the first time will be Jerry and Marge Go Large, a “feel great comedy” starring Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening as recent retirees who figure out a legal loophole to game the lottery.
Other entries are the documentaries Butterfly in the Sky, about Emmy winning Reading Rainbow host and Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s LeVar Burton; Loudmouth, about spiritual leader and political activist Rev. Al Sharpton; and Nothing Compares, about singer Sinead O’Connor.
The Tribeca Film Festival runs from June 8 through June 19 in New York City.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — A man who has spent 32 years in prison for being wrongly convicted of murder was exonerated by San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin on Monday.
Joaquin Ciria was arrested in 1990 and convicted of shooting and killing his friend, Felix Bastarrica, in San Francisco. His conviction was based on false witness testimony and police misconduct, according to Boudin.
“Our office is proud of and grateful for the work of the Innocence Commission in rectifying the wrongful conviction of Mr. Ciria,” Boudin said in a press release.
He added, “Although we cannot give him back the decades of his life lost we are thankful that the court has corrected this miscarriage of justice.”
Boudin dismissed the case against Ciria after a judge overturned his conviction.
According to Boudin, no physical evidence linked Ciria to the crime, but San Francisco police believed Ciria to be the shooter based on street rumors and statements from the alleged getaway driver, George Varela.
Varela testified in exchange for complete immunity that he drove Ciria to and from the scene. Boudin states that Varela, who was then a teenager, was pressured by police to name Ciria as the perpetrator.
The commission found that Varela has admitted to Ciria’s family members that he had falsely testified.
The jury heard from three eyewitnesses in Ciria’s trial, two of whom Boudin’s office says were “cross-racial identifications by strangers whose views were compromised by distance and poor lighting during the late-night shooting.”
An alternate suspect was not mentioned to the jury, and evidence of Ciria’s alibi was not given on trial despite two available alibi witnesses.
The Innocence Commission also found that another eyewitness, the victim’s best friend, identified another person as the shooter, and that other witnesses confirmed details to corroborate this new eyewitness’ story, including the description of the shooter provided by the stranger eyewitnesses, which more closely matches another suspect.
Ciria’s case was the first one reviewed by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office’s Innocence Commission since its formation in 2020. The commission was created to review potential wrongful convictions and present findings to Boudin’s office.
“When a conviction is a perversion of justice because it deprives an innocent person of his freedom while robbing the victim and his family of justice, the District Attorney has a duty to correct that intolerable violation,” said Lara Bazelon, the chair of the Innocence Commission.
Ciria has long maintained his innocence. His release date is not yet known, but could be within the next few days, the DA’s office said.
“Joaquin’s case highlights so many issues with our system, including how long it takes to undo a wrongful conviction, the problems with using incentivized testimony, the unreliability of cross-racial identifications, and the ways people of color aren’t afforded the presumption of innocence,” said Paige Kaneb, supervising attorney at the Northern California Innocence Project, who represented Ciria.
There have been more than 270 known wrongful convictions in California alone since the National Registry of Exonerations began tracking wrongful convictions in 1989. Ciria will be added to that registry.
“Studies on the causes of wrongful convictions demonstrate that key contributing factors include mistaken eyewitness identification, false testimony, and official misconduct,” Boudin’s office said in a press release. “All three of those factors were present in Mr. Ciria’s case and led to his wrongful conviction in this case.”
(ATLANTA) — A federal judge has allowed a legal challenge by a group of Georgia voters to move forward as they seek to disqualify GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from running for reelection, citing her alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
As a result of Judge Amy Totenberg’s ruling, the Georgia voters will have their challenge heard before a state administrative law judge in Atlanta on Friday, where Greene will be called to testify, making her the first member of Congress to be questioned under oath about the events surrounding Jan. 6.
An avid supporter of former President Donald Trump, Greene has denied any involvement in the attack.
The judge, an Obama appointee, in denying Greene’s request to stop the lawsuit, said the case “involves a whirlpool of colliding constitutional interests of public import.”
The voters argue a provision of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment know as the “Disqualification Clause” prevents Greene from holding federal office.
Enacted after the Civil War, the Disqualification Clause bars any person from holding federal office who has previously taken an oath to protect the Constitution — including a member of Congress — who has “engaged in insurrection” against the United States or “given aid or comfort” to its “enemies.”
Mike Rasbury, one of the voters challenging Greene’s eligibility to run for reelection, said in a statement that “Rep. Greene took an oath of office to protect democracy from all enemies foreign and domestic……However, she has flippantly ignored this oath and, based on her role in the January 6 insurrection, is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution from holding any future public office.”
Ron Fein, a lawyer representing the voters and legal director of Free Speech For People, told ABC News in an email that the Georgia “voters who filed this lawsuit have a right to have their challenge heard.”
“At the hearing on Friday, we look forward to questioning Greene under oath about her involvement in the events of Jan. 6, and to demonstrating how her facilitation of the insurrection disqualifies her from public office under the United States Constitution.”
James Bopp, Greene’s attorney, told ABC News that the challenge is “absurd” and that it shouldn’t be up to judges to decide who represents Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
Bopp also represents GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who is facing a similar challenge against his reelection from a group of voters in North Carolina.
Cawthorn’s lawsuit to dismiss the challenge to his reelection is set to have oral arguments May 3 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, after a federal district judge in North Carolina blocked the voters’ case, citing Cawthorn’s argument the that Amnesty Act of 1872 overrode the Disqualification Clause.
Speaking on Fox News Monday night, Greene told host Tucker Carlson that Democrats are trying to keep her name off the ballot, maintaining she had nothing to do with the attack on the Capitol.
“I have to go to court on Friday and actually be questioned about something I’ve never been charged with and something I was completely against,” said Greene.
The challenges against Greene and Cawthorn are part of a larger legal effort to prevent anyone allegedly involved in the events surrounding Jan. 6 or who supported it from running for reelection.
Similar challenges are being brought against GOP Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona and theoretically could be brought against Trump if he decides to run for office again in 2024.
As of now, nine challenges have been filed against candidates across the country and more are expected to be filed in the coming months.
We finally have the new name and release date for Céline Dion‘s upcoming romantic comedy. Deadline reports the film, now titled It’s All Coming Back to Me, arrives in theaters shortly before Valentine’s Day next year.
The film was previously labeled Text for You. Starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Outlander‘s Sam Heughan, it’s about a woman, played by Chopra Jonas, who copes with her fiancé’s death by sending heartfelt text messages to his old cellphone number. It turns out the number’s new owner, played by Heughan, is also someone suffering from a similar heartbreak.
The two eventually meet and sparks fly, but they are forced to question if they are truly ready to move on and find love again. The catalyst that encourages them to take the leap turns out to be Céline’s music.
Chopra Jonas previously raved about working alongside the legendary singer for the movie, telling Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, “She’s so funny. And she’s an amazing actress.”
The movie will be Céline’s acting debut and, according to the Quantico star, she has the chops to take over Hollywood should she choose. “She definitely needs to do more of this,” Chopra Jonas enthused.
It’s All Coming Back to Me hits theaters February 10, 2023.
(NEW YORK) — In the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a record number of Americans died from drug overdoses. Although months of data is still incomplete, statistics show that most of the deaths involve the potent drug fentanyl.
According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. In the new series “Poisoned,” which explores the devastation caused by fentanyl, ABC News Live examines how many parents are learning the deadly reality of the drug only after their children have suffered a fatal overdose.
Romello Marchman grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. His mother said that he was a typical 22-year-old man who loved video games and cars.
“He was a young man like so many others out there,” said Tanja Jacobs. “They are stressed, they are worried. The pandemic keeps them away from their friends. They can’t go to school.”
During the pandemic, Romello Marchman died from cocaine laced with fentanyl, according to Jacobs.
“He got it from his friends. And it’s the only reason why he took it, is because he did get it from his friends and he did trust them,” said Jacobs.
Last year, Tennessee had the third highest overdose death rate in the country, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
“In the Nashville area, between 75% and 80% of our fatal overdoses will involve fentanyl at this point in time,” said Trevor Henderson, a public health analyst at the CDC Foundation.
That statistic accounts for the death of Frankita Davis.
Betty Davis said her daughter was diagnosed with cancer when she was 17 years old and that doctors had prescribed her pain medication. One day, a friend offered her daughter a pain-reliever pill that they did not know was laced with fentanyl, the mother said.
“She chose to take a pill, but she didn’t choose to die,” said Davis.
Fentanyl, which was originally made for sedation during surgery, is one of the most powerful opioids ever created. Fentanyl-related fatalities began to skyrocket nationwide after drug dealers and cartels began to lace the chemical into drugs that they were already selling, often targeting addicted users looking for a more powerful high, according to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
“A few grains of fentanyl will make you high. A couple more will kill you,” said Sam Quinones, who authored a book on the U.S. opioid crisis. “It’s just so potent and so profitable… Dealers are seeing that this is something they could sell in all manner of ways and to all manner of customers.”
Candice Sexton, a Nashville coroner, keeps a growing list of people dying with fentanyl in their systems. In 2016, her office noted 102 deaths related to fentanyl in middle Tennessee alone.
Every year since, those numbers have nearly doubled, Sexton said.
“It was just mind boggling,” she added.
In 2021, Sexton’s office reported nearly 1,200 fentanyl-related deaths. She said she expects 2022 to be even higher.
“We are on track for it to be worse,” said Sexton. “We have outgrown our cooler. We have a FEMA trailer that they’re allowing us to use as well for additional storage.”
Phil Bogard is a program administrator at Rock to Recovery, a recovery clinic in Nashville for women suffering from addiction.
”In 2018, I remember people coming in for heroin,” said Bogard. “Now nobody’s coming in saying, ‘I’m here for heroin.’ People are walking in the door saying ‘I’m here for fentanyl.’”
Naloxone, otherwise known as Narcan, reverses an opioid overdose. First responders said they are often administering multiple doses of Narcan just to resuscitate one person.
In Nashville, Henderson leads a small team of five people monitoring the fentanyl epidemic. One of their main goals is to distribute Narcan in parts of the city that have high numbers of overdoses.
“We can identify hotspots of activity. So we can look at ZIP codes that are hit particularly hard,” said Henderson.
Unfortunately, the growing number of fentanyl-related deaths is not unique to Nashville, but a scene playing out across the country. Like many other parents, Jacobs has been trying to spread the word about the dangers of fentanyl.
She said she is against the use of the word “overdose” and prefers to use the word “poison.”
“If you take too much of something, you overdose. You might or might not die,” she said. “But once that fentanyl is in there, if you get something you haven’t asked for and then you die from it – it’s poisoning, which makes it a murder.”
