Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest airs on ABC Friday night, but on Wednesday, two of the stars scheduled to perform in New York’s Times Square — LL Cool J and Chloe — pulled out, LL due to a positive COVID test. Ryan Seacrest, however, says the show must go on.
“In our minds, the show is always going to happen. There’s always going to be a ball that drops, whether there are people there or not. I think we learned that last year!” he tells ABC Audio.
And while there will only be a quarter of the usual crowd in Times Square, Ryan notes, “Over these years…we’ve faced real challenges and we still turn the page and a new year still starts.”
As for the loss of two marquee performers, Ryan explains, “Over the years, there have been situations where we thought…a performer couldn’t make it in or they weren’t going to be able to get there to perform. So we are trained to know how to react to last-minute changes.”
“We’re going to pivot — we’re going to put Journey” — a previously announced Time Square performer — “in [LL Cool J’s] spot,” Ryan adds. “We have enough performers and enough different moving parts that the show will always fill any gap.”
This year marks the show’s 50th anniversary, and first-time co-host Liza Koshy says the show will “commend the incredibleness that Dick Clark began.”
“There are so many clips that we have that we’re playing back from the ’80s, ’90s, 2000s…it’s been an incredible journey,” she says. And with additional performances in L.A., Puerto Rico and New Orleans, Liza notes, “People are going to be tuning in to just layers of performance and entertainment the whole night!”
As for why New Year’s Rockin’ Eve is still rockin’ 50 years later, Ryan says, “There’s a mixture of nostalgia and relevance…[It’s] a part of our DNA as kids…and also an extreme relevance when you look at the artists that are performing.”
This year, those artists include Ciara, Billy Porter, Måneskin, Avril Lavigne, AJR, Travis Barker, Polo G, Walker Hayes, Daddy Yankee, OneRepublic and many more.
Those things, he adds, will “hopefully continue to make this the franchise that it is for another 50 years!”
Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman just celebrated a big day in their family: Their youngest daughter, Faith Margaret, turned 11 years old.
Nicole marked the occasion on social media, where she gave fans a peek at Faith’s birthday cake. Decorated with chocolate frosting and a generous helping of sprinkles, the cake was topped with a multi-colored, fringed banner reading “Happy Birthday.”
Faith is the youngest of two girls that Nicole and Keith share. They’re also parents to 13-year-old Sunday Rose.
“Happy birthday our darling Faith. You are loved beyond measure,” Nicole wrote in her post, signing the caption, “Mumma and Dad.”
While the two stars are relatively private about their family life, their two daughters do get a taste of the spotlight every once in a while. In the spring of 2021, for example, Faith and Sunday appeared on Zoom alongside their parents at the Golden Globe Awards.
After a huge breakout year, Måneskin will close out 2021 with a performance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2022. As the “Beggin'” rockers tell ABC Audio, they were rockin’ to the long-running special while growing up in Italy.
“Yeah of course we knew [about NYRE], it’s really famous,” laughs frontman Damiano David.
David adds that getting asked to play this year’s Rockin’ Eve was “unexpected.”
“We were very surprised when they told us that we were gonna perform,” he says. “We’re really happy to be here and play for the New Year.”
Måneskin’s huge year included winning the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest, and earning a worldwide hit with the viral “Beggin’,” a cover of the Four Seasons song. As for how they plan to top that in 2022, Måneskin will do what they do best.
“I think just play many gigs and make new music,” bassist Victoria De Angelis says of the group’s 2022 hopes. “Then we try to just see what happens and not make too many expectations and just enjoy it day-by-day.”
Drummer Ethan Torchio adds, “Yeah, going with the flow.”
NYRE 2022 premieres December 31 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. Other performers include Masked Wolf, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, OneRepublic, Avril Lavigne with Travis Barker, AJR with Daisy the Great, LL and more.
After Friday co-star Faizon Love recently revealed he didn’t return for the 2000 sequel film Next Friday because of low pay, Twitter erupted, accusing the film’s star and producer, Ice Cube, of underpaying the actors. Now the former N.W.A. member is responding
Love, who played the character Big Worm in Friday in 1995, told Comedy Hype he was paid only $2,500 for his role. “You can’t be,” he responded when asked if he felt “bitter” about his pay. But Love later confirmed that money was the reason he didn’t return for the sequel, NextFriday. “They wanted to give me double scale. So scale was $2,500, right? So double scale was $5,000,” Love commented. “The day after I said ‘No,’ I got a call to do a film for Warner Brothers called [The] Replacements and they paid me $100,000. So I ain’t crazy.”
One person tweeted, “Yo it’s wild how @icecube act like he for the people and whole time been robbing his own people.”
“I didn’t rob no f***in nobody,” Cube responded. “The 1995 Friday movie cost $2.3m to make. Shot it in 20 days. Faizon worked 1 day, maybe 2. All the actors got paid scale to do the movie. They could’ve simple said ‘No’ but they didn’t. ”
Faizon was surprised his comments ignited a controversy, and showed nothing but “love” for Cube.
“I not only consider Ice Cube a comrade but my brother and I’m still a fan,” he tweeted. “I guess it’s a slow news week so let me say what I got paid is a moot point…I have zero regrets. I want to take this time to thank Cube, DJ Pooh, and Felix Gary Grey for letting me be apart of such an iconic picture.”
Camila Cabello is $4.3 million richer after selling her gorgeous Mediterranean-style villa in Hollywood Hills, California. According to Dirt, the price was escalated by over a quarter-million dollars after a bidding war broke out.
Camila purchased the massive home in April 2019 from Bollywood actor Uday Chopra for a cool $3.4 million. The Grammy nominee then listed the home in November and originally set the selling price at a relatively modest $3.95 million, sparking the bidding war.
In the end, Camila got to live practically every home seller’s dream after watching the bids surge past the initial listing number, with the winning bid a full $350,000 over her asking price — meaning Camila has bagged a profit of nearly $1 million.
Dirt reports that a person from Mainland China scored the keys to Camila’s old castle and will now enjoy the 6,300 square foot home. The villa offers four bedrooms with the master boasting its own fireplace and balcony, plus four bathrooms, a tree-shaded courtyard with an adjacent pool, a Jacuzzi, a gourmet kitchen and a recording studio, among other perks.
Dwayne Johnson says he won’t be returning to the Fast & Furious franchise, despite Vin Diesel’s recent pleas on social media.
Johnson tells CNN that back in June, he told Diesel privately that there was “no chance” he’d return, so he was surprised when Diesel shared an Instagram post in November begging him to come back.
“Vin’s recent public post was an example of his manipulation,” Johnson, who played Luke Hobbs in the series, says. “I didn’t like that he brought up his children in the post, as well as Paul Walker‘s death. Leave them out of it. We had spoken months ago about this and came to a clear understanding.”
Johnson adds that his goal was “to end my amazing journey with this incredible Fast & Furious franchise with gratitude and grace” and says “it’s unfortunate that this public dialogue has muddied the waters.”
Still, Johnson says, he wishes his former co-stars and crew member “the best of luck and success in the next chapter.”
In Diesel’s Instagram post on November 7, he wrote, “My little brother Dwayne… the time has come. The world awaits the finale of Fast 10,” adding, “I say this out of love… but you must show up, do not leave the franchise idle you have a very important role to play.”
Allegations of abuse against Marylin Manson dominated rock music news headlines in 2021.
In February, Manson’s ex-fiancée, Evan RachelWood, who had spoken previously about being sexually and physically abused by an unnamed perpetrator, publicly named the shock rocker, born Brian Warner, as her abuser.
“[Warner] started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years,” Wood wrote. “I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”
Warner responded with a statement that did not mention Wood’s allegations specifically, only that “recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality.”
Following Wood’s post, more women came forward with accusations of sexual, physical and mental 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.
Warner has mostly stayed out of the public eye amid the allegations, save for an appearance at a listening event for rapper Kanye West‘s latest album, Donda. Having co-written a song on Album of the Year-nominated Donda, Warner would receive a Grammy should it win the award at next year’s ceremony. Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. addressed the controversial nomination in a statement to The Wrap, declaring, “We won’t look back at people’s history, we won’t look at their criminal record.”
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.
Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal makes her directorial debut in The Lost Daughter, one of the most critically acclaimed movies of the year that’s racking up award nominations left and right.
Maggie tells ABC Audio the movie takes a hard look at a little-shown side of the female psyche and features two mothers acting out in different ways after struggling to live up to expectations. That experience, says Gyllenhaal, is universal but not explored enough in film.
“Many many women have spent a whole long time watching movies where there was no one for us to immediately identify with,” she explained, adding she wanted the audience to think, “This person doesn’t look exactly like me, but I’m going to find a way in to understand their experience and have it be important to my experience.”
Peter Sarsgaard, Maggie’s husband, who co-stars in the movie, recalled when the audience at the Venice International Film Festival, where the movie premiered globally, praised Maggie’s vision. “I remember several people who came up to her and they feel that need to say, ‘You did something to me. I’m thinking. I’m feeling,'” he said.
Another cast member, Olivia Colman, explained why she jumped at the opportunity to star in the film, saying, “I’ve never seen this woman depicted so honestly before on screen and I wanted to have a crack at it.”
Echoing those remarks was Dakota Johnson, who was interested because the movie explored “an unhappy mother and wife — you’re not supposed to be that.”
“This idea that Nina wanted more for herself and had never really been seen and wasn’t being nourished in her heart and her mind just resonated with me,” she continued. “I found it heartbreaking and so real and so common.”
Perhaps the most memorable moment of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales on September 6, 1997 was Elton John‘s emotional performance of his rewritten version of “Candle in the Wind,” in which he sang, “Goodbye England’s Rose.” Now, new files released from the British National Archives reveal that the head of Westminster Abbey, where the funeral took place, made a personal plea to Buckingham Palace to have Elton included in the service.
According to the BBC, the files reveal that the Very Rev. Wesley Carr, Dean of Westminster at the time, wrote to the Palace and pointed out that having Elton sing at the service would be “imaginative and generous,” and would help the millions of people who felt “personally bereaved” by the Princess’ tragic death.
Carr urged “boldness” and the “inclusion of something of the modern world that the princess represented” in the service. If Elton was a no-go, the files show that the backup plan was to have a saxophone player perform a solo.
In his autobiography ME, Elton writes that a few days after Diana’s death, Richard Branson called him and told him that many people were signing the book of condolence at St. James’s Palace by quoting from the original “Candle in the Wind,” and that radio stations were playing it a lot as well. According to Elton, it was Branson who then asked Elton to rewrite the lyrics and sing it at the funeral, and he surmised that Branson had been contacted by Diana’s family to make the request.
After singing the song at the funeral, Elton went straight into the studio and recorded “Candle in the Wind 1997” as a charity single. It went on to became the best-selling single in both U.K. and U.S. history. But Elton has never performed the song since and says he never will, unless Princes William and Harry ask him to.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday — their second conversation this month amid heightened fears of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The call, which the Biden administration said comes at Putin’s request, is the latest effort to defuse those tensions diplomatically.
But tens of thousands of Russian troops remain near Ukraine’s borders, and bellicose rhetoric from Russian officials and state propaganda have Western officials on edge still.
The U.S. and European allies have threatened unprecedented economic penalties for Moscow if it attacks Ukraine, nearly eight years after its forces seized the Crimean Peninsula and sparked a war in Ukraine’s eastern provinces known as Donbas.
Sanctions and other penalties have not brought that conflict to an end, with approximately 14,000 people killed and Russian-led separatists still fighting Ukrainian forces. U.S. officials say it’s unclear if Putin has decided to attack again in an all-out invasion, but Biden has already made clear U.S. forces will not come to Kyiv’s aid on the battlefield.
Instead, the Biden administration is hoping deterrence and diplomacy will stop Putin. A senior administration official said they “cannot speak to why the Russian side has requested the call,” but added both leaders believe there is “genuine value in direct leader to leader engagement.”
“I think we are at a moment of crisis and have been for some weeks now given the Russian build-up and that it will take a high level of engagement to address this and to try to find a path of de-escalation,” the official told reporters Wednesday.
In addition to the leaders’ call, U.S. and Russian diplomats will meet on Jan. 10, the two sides confirmed Tuesday, to discuss stated security concerns on either side.
“Open lines of dialogue, open lines of diplomacy have the potential to be constructive as we seek to de-escalate the potential for conflict in and around Ukraine,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said of the talks.
After those meetings, NATO will hold a meeting with Russia on Jan. 12, while the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a key security forum that has deployed a war monitor in eastern Ukraine, will hold a session Jan. 13.
“The Biden administration continues to engage in extensive diplomacy with our European allies and partners, consulting and coordinating on a common approach in response to Russia’s military build-up on the border with Ukraine,” Emily Horne, Biden’s National Security Council spokesperson, said in a statement.
But some European allies have called for greater involvement. The European Union “must be involved in these negotiations,” its top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told the German newspaper Die Welt.
“It’s about us. This is not simply the case for two states, i.e. America and Russia, or NATO and Russia — even if Moscow imagines it,” he added in the interview, published Wednesday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said repeatedly the U.S. will not negotiate any arrangement about European security without first consulting European allies — speaking again to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy Wednesday, just as the two spoke before Biden and Putin’s first call this month.
He reiterated “unwavering” U.S. support for Ukraine, per Price, and “discussed efforts to peacefully resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine and upcoming diplomatic engagements with Russia” — a nod to both Thursday’s call and the Jan. 10 meetings.
Zelenskiy tweeted that he was assured of “full” U.S. support “in countering Russian aggression.” U.S. officials have already publicly rebuked Russia’s demand heading into talks — that Ukraine be barred from NATO membership, saying the Western alliance’s military activity in former Soviet states threatens Russia.
But other items on Russia’s public demands are not “unacceptable” and could be addressed through diplomacy, Blinken, Price and others have said — provided that Russia de-escalate as well by pulling back its forces from Ukraine’s borders.
Instead, while Russian state media reported Monday that more than 10,000 were withdrawn, the senior administration official said there’s still a “significant Russian troop presence in and around the border.”
The ominous language from Russian officials has also continued. Putin himself said Sunday that he is weighing “diverse” military and technical options if Russia’s demands aren’t addressed.
Amid that heightened threat, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv is making “emergency preparations” in case it evacuates non-emergency personnel or diplomats’ families, according to internal emails obtained by ABC News.
The embassy is seeking additional security staff to temporarily fill in next month, as the “permanent staff continue Emergency Preparations in case of Authorized or Ordered Departure” — when an embassy allows diplomats’ families and non-emergency personnel to relocate because of a threat.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed Wednesday they are “conducting normal contingency planning, as we always do, in the event the security situation severely deteriorates.” But they told ABC News they are not “currently considering evacuations of U.S. government personnel or American citizens from Ukraine.”
Earlier this month, the State Department updated its travel advisory for Ukraine to include a warning about “increased threats from Russia.” The advisory had been at the agency’s highest level, “Level 4: Do Not Travel,” for months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it now warns, “U.S. citizens should be aware of reports that Russia is planning for significant military action against Ukraine.”
