Will Smith dropped the trailer for his Best Shape of My Life docuseries Friday, and in the clip, he reveals that he had thoughts of taking his own life.
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air star is publishing his autobiography, simply titled Will, on November 9. In discussing revelations in the book with family members in the clip, including son Jaden and daughter Willow, he shocks them when he says, “That was the only time in my life that I considered suicide.”
The 53-year-old entertainer also admits that he’s not the hero he portrays in films such as Men in Black.
“This began as a journey to get into the best shape of my life,” he says to start the trailer. His goal was to lose 20 pounds in 20 weeks; however, he says he discovered he was not mentally ready.
At one point Will declares,”I don’t want to do any of this. I’m finished with the Best Shape of My Life.”
The trailer also shows him reading a confessional statement, admitting, “What you’ve come to understand as Will Smith, the alien-annihilating MC, the bigger-than-life movie star, is largely a construction, a carefully crafted and honed character designed to protect myself, to hide myself from the world, to hide the coward.”
The six-part unscripted docuseries Best Shape of My Life debuts Monday, November 8, on Will’s YouTube channel.
Smith also stars as Richard Williams, the father of Serena and Venus Williams, in the film King Richard, premiering November 19.
(NEW YORK) — Michael and Jennifer Spaetti of Salisbury, North Carolina, were both vaccinated last spring as soon as shots became available. But when it comes to their 6-year-old grandson who lives with them, they aren’t so sure.
As his primary caregiver, they wonder about long-term side effects. He also hates getting shots, guaranteeing that an extra trip to the pediatrician would be tough emotionally.
“I’m not sure. It just seems like it came out so fast,” said Jennifer Spaetti. “And we’re talking about a child. I feel like it’s different for me, but I just I’m not sure. I don’t think I know enough about it.”
Denise, a mother of two from Columbia, South Carolina, expressed similar concerns. Asked to withhold her last name for privacy reasons, Denise jokes she would feel more comfortable seeing the neighborhood kids get their shots fist, just in case there is some rare side effect that researchers missed.
And as a Black mother, Denise said she worries not enough African American children were represented in the clinical trials.
“My husband is gung-ho,” she said. “And I’m definitely not opposed to it. But I do just want to wait and see … I want to make the best decision as a parent.”
With the first pediatric vaccine for COVID-19 expected to roll out as early as Nov. 3, only 27% of parents with kids ages 5-11 say they will vaccinate them “right away,” according to the latest poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Another 33% of parents with the elementary-aged kids say they want to “wait and see” how it works in others before getting their child vaccinated. And at least two thirds of those parents say they are concerned about potential long-term and serious side effects.
This hesitancy is worrying many health officials, who contend widespread vaccinations in schools will be critical to vaccinate kids ahead of the cold weather to prevent another surge in cases.
They also counter that parents should be much more worried about the virus than the vaccine. Of the 1.9 million kids ages 5-11 who contracted the virus, 8,300 wound up hospitalized. One third of those children hospitalized had no underlying health conditions.
Another concern pediatricians have is that children exposed to the virus are at risk of developing “long-haul” symptoms. While very rare for children, the symptoms such as brain fog, chest pain and debilitating fatigue persist for weeks after exposure.
None of the 2,200 kids who received the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric vaccine last June in the clinical trials has experienced serious side effects, including the myocarditis that’s been seen in a small group of older teen and adult males. Experts say any side effects to a vaccine typically occur within two months of getting a shot.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with independent vaccine and health experts, also have found no evidence that the vaccine could impact a person’s fertility and is safe for pregnant and breastfeeding moms.
The CDC also warns that people shouldn’t count on prior exposure to the virus. In a study released Friday, the CDC found adults with “natural” immunity through infection were more than five times more likely to develop COVID-19 compared to people who were fully vaccinated.
Still, even vaccine experts say it can be nerve-wracking to make a decision for millions of children based on a study involving only a few thousand kids.
The trial also wasn’t as diverse as some experts would like. Of the children participating in the clinical trials, the vast majority of participants – 78% — were white. Six percent were Black, while 21% were Hispanic and 6% were Asian.
Dr. Paul Offit, an adviser to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who voted in favor of authorizing the vaccine at a meeting this week, said he still supports the rollout because he believed the benefits outweigh the risks.
The FDA was expected to authorize the pediatric vaccine as early as Friday, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expected to sign off next week.
“The question is when do you know enough? And I think we certainly know that there are many children between five and 11 years of age who are susceptible to this disease who could very well be sick and are hospitalized or die from it,” said Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
For its part, the White House is planning to launch a social media campaign to urge parents to vaccinate their kids. To increase trust, federal officials also have pushed to make the vaccine for kids – which is a third of the dosage used in adults and comes in a special orange-capped vial — widely available in pediatrician offices and pharmacies, rather than relying on mass vaccination sites.
Still, many parents don’t want to be rushed.
Paul Ekeoha, a father of four kids in Odessa, Texas, says he’s not convinced yet that his kids need it because they seem healthy now and strong. At the same time, he’s not opposed to vaccines for other people and said he is open to changing his mind.
“If my hands are tied, and I don’t have options, I wouldn’t have any objection,” Ekeoha said.
Other parents said they would be keeping a close eye on how the rollout goes for pediatric vaccines.
“Probably what I’ll do is just wait and see how it goes,” said Jennifer Spaetti.
(NEW YORK) — Letitia James, the attorney general of New York whose sexual harassment investigation led to the resignation of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, announced a run for governor Friday, mounting a formidable primary challenge to Kathy Hochul, the state’s first female governor.
James could become the state’s first Black governor and the nation’s first Black female governor.
James announced her candidacy in a video and through a campaign website highlighting her election promises and past work as attorney general.
“New Yorkers need a governor who isn’t afraid to stand up to powerful interests on behalf of the vulnerable,” James said.
Two other Brooklyn Democrats, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, are also interested in the job, along with Long Island Democratic Congressman Tom Suozzi.
In August, James released a report that found Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, including a state trooper on his security detail. Cuomo attacked the report as politically motivated.
New York State Republican Committee Chairman Nick Langworthy called James a “radical left ideologue” who “turned a blind eye to Cuomo’s unethical behavior and corruption … when it suited her needs” in a statement Friday.
As attorney general, James has bolstered her profile with a lawsuit against the National Rifle Association. Her office is also investigating whether former President Donald Trump manipulated the value of some of his real estate holdings for tax and insurance purposes.
“I’ve sued the Trump administration 76 times,” James mentioned in her announcement video. “But who’s counting?”
She previously served in the New York City council and as the city’s public advocate.
(NEW YORK) — As the clock counts down, nearly 80% of New York City municipal employees have complied with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, city officials said.
Nearly all city workers, including police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians, have until 5 p.m. Friday to get at least one dose of the vaccine or be placed on unpaid leave, starting Monday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has said the city anticipates that many outstanding employees will get vaccinated close to the deadline, and city agencies have been making final pushes to drive up their numbers.
On Thursday, more than 1,000 NYPD members got their first shot, Commissioner Dermot Shea said. As of Friday morning, 80% of the department was vaccinated, Shea said on 1010 WINS radio. He said he believes that the department will be in “good shape for Monday morning,” but will move resources to ensure appropriate coverage.
Prior contingency plans are “being actually scaled-down” as NYPD officials watch vaccination rates rise, with Shea telling Channel 5 on Friday they’re now more concerned about filling “individual shifts” than staffing precincts on Monday.
“We will move resources around. We have had significant increase in people getting vaccinated in the past three days, and that’s the good news,” Shea told Channel 5. “The contingencies are there. New Yorkers should not, should not, be worried about this.”
Paul McCartney apparently is now claiming that he wrote the opening lines to the classic 1967 Beatles song “A Day in the Life,” which previously had been attributed to the late John Lennon.
The Daily Mail reports that in McCartney’s upcoming book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, he claims that when he wrote the lyrics “He blew his mind out in a car/ He didn’t notice that the lights had changed,” he was thinking about Guinness heir Tara Browne, who was killed in a 1966 car crash.
The newspaper points out that Lennon had once said that Browne “was in my mind when I was writing that verse,” while McCartney was quoted as saying in a 1997 biography that when the song was being written, he envisioned the lines being about “a politician bombed out on drugs who’d stopped at some traffic lights and didn’t notice that the lights had changed.”
Paul then added that the lyrics had been attributed to being about “Tara Browne, which I don’t believe is the case.”
The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present will be published this Tuesday, November 2. A new video trailer promoting the book has been posted on McCarntey’s official YouTube channel that shows clips of Paul chatting with British comedian and podcast presenter Bob Mortimer about different aspects of the book and his career.
Topics Sir Paul touches on in the trailer include writing songs with Lennon, and forgetting the lyrics to “Blackbird” while he was performing at New York’s Grand Central Station in 2018. The video also captures McCartney checking out the new exhibit focusing on his book that will be opening at the British Library in London on November 5.
black-ish was renewed for its eighth and final season back in May, and Tracee Ellis Ross, who plays the Johnson family matriarch Dr. Rainbow “Bow” Johnson, says the final show will be a bittersweet moment for her.
“I’m ready for it to be the end, and also it’s going to be really hard. I mean, eight years we’ve watched the TV kids grow up. We’ve watched [Anthony Anderson’s] beard do tons of different things,” she tells Harper’s Bazaar.
“But also, I found my voice. It came before, but I really started using it during black-ish,” adds the 49-year-old actress.
Ross says the show has offered her “a different and larger platform” to speak out on issues of representation in media and political representation for women. That included hosting the second night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention and highlighting Kamala Harris‘ historic nomination for vice president.
black-ish premiered in 2014 and has earned three Emmy Awards. Ross won a Golden Globe in 2017 for her work on the show and, in doing so, became the first Black actress to win best actress in a TV comedy Golden Globe since Debbie Allen in 1983.
A new video has been released for the mash-up duet version of Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy‘s song “Hellraiser.”
The animated clip starts with the two rock legends playing an arcade game together at the late Motörhead frontman’s beloved Rainbow Bar and Grill in Los Angeles when aliens start invading. Somehow, things get even stranger from there.
“I’m so glad we were able to honor my dear friend Lemmy with this duet and now the video,” Ozzy says. “We immortalized him with a clip of the two of us being together, hanging out and getting into some trouble as we so often did.”
You can watch the “Hellraiser” video streaming now on YouTube.
The original “Hellraiser” appears on Osbourne’s 1991 solo album No More Tears, and is one of four songs off the record co-written by Lemmy. Motörhead then recorded their own version of “Hellraiser” for 1992’s March ör Die.
The duet version, which combines Ozzy’s and Lemmy’s vocals from their respective recordings, is included on the 30th anniversary reissue of No More Tears, which was released in September.
Michael Ray will debut the music video for his album title track, “Higher Education” tonight, and he’s bringing a rowdy crowd of friends along to help him do it.
Lee Brice, Kid Rock, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, and Tim Montana are all featured guests on Michael’s song, an anthemic tip-of-the-hat to the working-class life lessons the singer and his pals have all learned outside the classroom.
Tonight, Lee and Tim are helping Michael introduce the visual aspect of the song to fans: They’ll join him for a YouTube Premium-exclusive after-party, which will take place directly after the video premieres on YouTube at 6 p.m. CT.
Michael recently got warmed up for his music video’s debut with a stop on Fox and Friends, where he and Tim — who’s also a songwriter on “Higher Education” — discussed the track. They also shared a performance video of the song, which was filmed at Music City venue the Nashville Palace.
Of Monsters and Men has shared a previously unreleased song called “Phantom.”
The track, which vocalist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir first wrote at age 16 while growing up in Iceland, is included on the newly released 10th anniversary reissue of Of Monsters and Men’s 2011 debut album, My Head Is an Animal.
“It was one of those songs that belonged to an era before the band but also these first few years that the band was forming and finding our sound,” Nanna says of “Phantom.”
“We never recorded it but it was always very important to our history and believe it was patiently waiting all these years,” she adds. “I’m so incredibly happy this song finally found a home and that we get to share it with you!”
The My Head Is an Animal reissue is out today. It also includes another previously unreleased song called “Sugar in a Bowl.”
Of Monsters and Men will keep the 10th anniversary celebration going with a batch of special concerts in Iceland in November. Streams of the shows will be available to watch in December.
So maybe President Biden’s gift to Olivia Rodrigo wasn’t quite as weird as we thought?
While on Jimmy Kimmel Live! earlier this week, the 18-year-old singer said that one of the gifts she received after visiting the White House was a shoehorn engraved with the presidential emblem. But now she’s clarifying that the “shoehorn” was actually an ice cream scoop.
“thank u for having me @jimmykimmellive !!! also thank u to my mom who told me this president biden ice cream scoop was a shoe horn and let me repeat it on national television lolllll,” Olivia wrote on Instagram.
She also included a photo of said ice cream scoop.
