Bachelor star Kelley Flanagan tearfully opened up to fans on Monday about a recent change in her health, revealing that she has tested positive for Lyme disease.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lyme disease is caused by a bacterium transmitted to humans via infected tick bites. Common symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue and a skin rash. Without treatment, the infection can spread to the joints, heart and the nervous system. Most cases can be successfully treated with antibiotics over the course of a few weeks.
Flanagan hinted that she may have been unknowingly wrestling with the disease for a while, telling fans while wiping away tears, “I always felt like my body’s been so much more sensitive and super reactive to a bunch of things.”
Noting that she “just got the results back,” the reality star said she is now focused on making a full recovery.
In a lengthy caption, Flanagan expressed, “[I] decided to finally get tested for serval different things and tested positive for [L]yme disease and several other co-infections. It’s a blessing and a curse because now i can target why i feel off so often but also means several different lifestyle changes and extensive research on how to help/hopefully cure this!”
She also revealed that her siblings also wrestled with the disease, noting her journey will be “tough for me seeing what my brothers have gone through mentally and physically.”
“I’m going to put so much of my time and energy into figuring this out and combating this,” Flanagan closed, promising to keep fans in the loop on her “new journey.”
Bachelor Nation rallied around Flanagan, with Kaitlyn Bristowe, Ashley Iaconetti, Victoria Fuller, Raven Gates, Kristian Haggerty and several others sending in their well wishes and encouraging words.
FINNEASwill be found on the upcoming Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack.
The “Let’s Fall in Love for the Night” artist is contributing a new version of the song “A Little Closer,” one of two original numbers written exclusively for the film, which is based on the hit Broadway musical.
The songs for both the Dear Evan Hansen musical and movie were written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the Oscar-winning duo behind the music for La La Land and The Greatest Showman.
Dear Evan Hansen hits theaters September 24. Its soundtrack will be released that same day.
FINNEAS, meanwhile, will release his debut album Optimist on October 15. It includes the previously released singles “What They’ll Say About Us” and “A Concert Six Months from Now.”
(NEW YORK) — In yet another setback in the decadeslong scientific quest for an HIV vaccine, a Johnson & Johnson HIV vaccine candidate failed to reduce the risk of infection in a clinical trial among women in southern Africa. The would-be vaccine uses the same underlying technology used successfully for COVID-19 and Ebola viruses, but this recent high-profile failure is another example of immense challenge of creating a vaccine against HIV.
The trial, called Imbokodo, was co-sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. It included more than 2,600 women living in five African countries where women and girls have a high risk of HIV infection.
The vaccine was safe, researchers said, but ultimately, efficacy was only 25% — meaning people who received the vaccine had a slightly smaller risk of developing HIV, but the difference was so slight that the result might be chalked up to random chance.
Prominent scientists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have been searching for an effective HIV vaccine since the virus, which attacks the immune system and leads to a disease called AIDS if left untreated, was first identified in the 1980s. Today, nearly 38 million people are living with HIV worldwide. Although effective treatments can now help people infected with HIV live long and healthy lives, there is still no vaccine that can prevent infection.
Still, scientists say they aren’t giving up.
“The development of a safe and effective vaccine to prevent HIV infection has proven to be a formidable scientific challenge,” Fauci said in prepared remarks. “Although this is certainly not the study outcome for which we had hoped, we must apply the knowledge learned from the Imbokodo trial and continue our efforts to find a vaccine that will be protective against HIV.”
“The challenges associated with the development of an HIV vaccine are unprecedented in the history of vaccinology. After 40 years of global efforts, we still do not have an HIV vaccine,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
“This trial was not a home run but hopefully will guide the HIV field moving forward,” said Barouch, whose laboratory contributed significantly to the initial development of the investigational vaccine.
Despite the setback, the Imbokodo trial showed the vaccine was safe among people who received it — a hopeful sign. Imbokodo means “rock” in the South African language isiZulu, referring to a proverb about women’s strength and community.
“We are extremely grateful to the women who volunteered for the Imbokodo study, and to our partners, including the people on the front lines, all of whom are contributing every day to this enduring quest to make HIV history.” Dr. Paul Stoffels, vice chairman of the executive committee and chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson, said in prepared remarks.
The Johnson & Johnson HIV vaccine uses the same underlying “viral vector” technology used in its current COVID-19 vaccine. Scientists say the recent failure has no bearing on the technology itself, which has been used successfully for other viruses, including Ebola and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Rather, HIV itself is a unique virus. It evades the body’s immune system, making it very difficult to create a vaccine that generates immunity against infection.
HIV activists and scientists alike say this result shouldn’t slow down other efforts to find an effective HIV vaccine.
“It is very disappointing that this particular vaccine candidate did not work in this trial, but the trial was well-conducted and got an answer quickly. HIV remains a global threat, and a safe, efficacious and accessible HIV vaccine is still needed to contribute towards curbing new infections and providing a durable end to the pandemic,” Mitchell Warren, executive director of HIV prevention advocacy organization AVAC, said in prepared remarks.
Another late-stage trial called Mosaico, which uses a slightly different vaccine approach and is being tested among men who have sex with men and transgender people in Europe and North America, will continue. Another study called PrEPVacc is combining HIV vaccine candidates with a once-daily pill called PrEP, which reduces the risk of HIV infection. Meanwhile, Moderna has said it will begin early-stage clinical trials of its own HIV vaccine candidate, which uses its mRNA technology, this year.
“This is in no way the end of the search for an HIV vaccine,” Warren said.
John Cho will bring the character Spike Spiegel to life in the Netflix live-action reboot of Cowboy Bebop, but admits he had a hard time wrapping his head around the age difference separating him and his character.
In the Cowboy Bebop anime, which ran for one season between 1998 and 1999, Spike is listed as being in his mid 20s. Cho is 49. In a new interview with Vulture, the actor admitted the age difference was his “biggest fear” going into the project and that he “had to get over it.”
“I’m not a person who says age is just a number or whatever. It was gonna be harder — physically. And I was gonna look different than a 25-year-old guy,” he explained. “At some point, the opportunity is ‘Yes or no — do you wanna do it?’ And I did wanna do it. So I wasn’t gonna stop myself from doing it.”
Cho said he then learned that his age gave him an advantage at depicting Spike, saying it allowed him to make the character more well-rounded.
“I couldn’t have done it when I was 27. I mean, maybe I would’ve been better suited athletically, but in terms of my discipline, I am strangely better suited at this age,” the Star Trek star continued. “I don’t think I would’ve done justice to the emotional depth we tried to give Spike.”
Cho added that younger actors are best suited to make vengeful characters filled with rage, adding, “That might’ve been a more pronounced element in the character. What I’m better at, being older, is showing weakness and vulnerability and love. Those things are more accessible to me. Personally, I’d prefer the version I’m able to do now. That’s my taste.”
Asking Alexandria has released the video for “Alone Again,” the band’s latest single.
The clip includes shadowy performance footage of the U.K. rockers, cut with shots of a majestic owl flying over a snowy landscape as it hunts for prey. You can watch it now streaming on YouTube.
“Alone Again” premiered earlier this month. It’s the first single off Asking Alexandria’s upcoming album See What’s on the Inside, the follow-up to 2020’s Like a House on Fire.
Drake appears to be giving his Canadian hometown a sneak peak at lyrics from his upcoming album, Certified Lover Boy.
A series of digital ads in popped up in Toronto this week with the CLB logo. They include the phrases “Something other than me has got to give,” “I don’t miss…Let alone miss you” and “Should’ve said you loved me today, because tomorrow is a new day.” Photos of the billboards were posted on the Modern Notoriety Twitter feed.
The Champagne Papi posted images of T-shirts with the same phrases in an Instagram story, according to Complex.
Meanwhile, a video of Drizzy passed out free shirts was posted on the Instagram of his fan site Word on Word. In the clip, a fan tells Drake the album is dropping on his birthday, September 3, to which Drake responds, “Happy birthday,” and tosses him a T-shirt. As the “What’s Next” rapper drives away, he comments, “City’s hot right now. They know what’s up.”
As previously reported, Drake confirmed a September 3 release date for Certified Lover Boy on Monday morning on Instagram. On Friday, he cryptically teased the release of CLB with a handwritten note on ESPN’s Sportscenter.
Certified Lover Boy billboards have gone up in Toronto
CLB x Nike tees are also being handed out tonight in the 6 according to Drake pic.twitter.com/qxr4aP6MyV
Carrie Underwood and Dan + Shay are lending their voices to the soundtrack for the film, Dear Evan Hansen.
Based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway play of the same name, Dear Evan Hansen follows a high school student named Evan who has social anxiety and writes a letter to himself that is stolen by a classmate named Connor, who later commits suicide, leaving Connor’s family believing that the letter was written by Connor to Evan.
Carrie is teaming up with Dan + Shay on a rendition of the song featured in the original play, “Only Us,” for Dear Evan Hansen: (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). Dan + Shay hinted at a collaboration with Carrie on social media hours before it was announced.
The film and soundtrack are set for release on September 24.
Sam Smith, FINNEAS and Tori Kelly are among the artists who’ve recorded fresh takes on songs from the hit Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen and its upcoming movie version, which hits theaters September 24.
Sam has teamed with R&B singer Summer Walker for one of the musical’s signature numbers, “You Will Be Found,” while Tori sings another well-known song, “Waving Through a Window.” Dan + Shay and Carrie Underwood have teamed up to record “Only Us,” which will be released on Friday.
Meanwhile, SZA and FINNEAS have each recorded versions of new songs written exclusively for the film by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the duo behind the music of The Greatest Showman and La La Land.
SZA has recorded a track called “The Anonymous Ones,” while FINNEAS has cut “A Little Closer.”The Dear Evan Hansen motion picture soundtrack featuring all these recordings will be released on September 24. The album is mostly made up of the songs performed by the movie’s stars, including Ben Platt, Julianne Moore, Amandla Stenberg and Amy Adams.
Here’s the Dear Evan Hansen original motion picture soundtrack track listing:
“Waving Through A Window” – Ben Platt & Dear Evan Hansen Choir
“For Forever” – Ben Platt
“Sincerely Me” – Colton Ryan, Ben Platt & Nik Dodani
“Requiem”– Kaitlyn Dever, Danny Pino & Amy Adams
“If I Could Tell Her” – Ben Platt & Kaitlyn Dever
“The Anonymous Ones” – Amandla Stenberg
“You Will Be Found” – Ben Platt, Amandla Stenberg, Liz Kate, DeMarius Copes, Isaac Powell, Hadiya Eshe & Dear Evan Hansen Choir
“Only Us” – Kaitlyn Dever & Ben Platt
“Words Fail” – Ben Platt
“So Big / So Small” – Julianne Moore
“A Little Closer” – Colton Ryan
“You Will Be Found” –Sam Smith feat. Summer Walker
“The Anonymous Ones” –SZA
“Only Us” –Carrie Underwood & Dan + Shay
“A Little Closer” –FINNEAS
“Waving Through A Window” –Tori Kelly
The 17th season of Discovery’s hit Deadliest Catch recently premiered, and in addition to the many dangers of crab fishing on the Bering Sea, this season sees the crews dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the show’s biggest stars, and the show’s technical consultant — F/VNorthwestern Captain Sig Hansen — says at the height of the pandemic, he and the crews felt “blessed,” because their work was deemed essential.
“I’ve had friends that are on other fishing vessels…that literally did not leave their boats for eight to nine months, they could not step on land,” he explained to ABC Audio via phone.
“The state of Alaska, we went through our own COVID regulations. You’ve got federal, state, and then every [harbor] has its own set of regulations as well. So, quite honestly, we were so fortunate to be able to go out there and go to work, you know.”
Hansen explains how it’s still amazing to see how people follow the show after so many seasons. “It’s been this snowball. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard families come up to me… ‘My grandson watches Deadliest Catch or my granddaughter or my mother or my father.’ It’s just a generational thing where I think families watch it together.”
Sig adds, “And I still think that’s a good thing, even though this is a dangerous factor in Deadliest Catch, you’ve got that work ethic all the guys have up there. I just think…that’s important for people to see.”
After fishing his whole life as his father did, the captain, best-selling author, and entrepreneur says he’s got no plans to quit his “day job.”
“Yeah, it’s an addiction, it’s in your blood.”
Deadliest Catch airs tonight at 8 p.m. on Discovery.
Elton John appears to be teasing a collaboration with Eddie Vedder. In his Instagram Stories, the “Tiny Dancer” icon posted the names of a variety of different artists, including the Pearl Jam frontman, superimposed over an image of sparkling rhinestone stars.
Other musicians listed include Gorillaz, Miley Cyrus, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, Brandi Carlile, Nicki Minaj, Lil Nas X and Dua Lipa. Given that Elton just released a new song with Lipa called “Cold Heart,” it would appear that he’s now teasing a whole collection of duets, akin to his 1993 album, Duets.
John also previously teamed up with Gorillaz for a track off the cartoon band’s 2020 album, Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez, and worked with Cyrus on a star-studded rendition of Metallica‘s “Nothing Else Matters.”
Whatever is happening, it appears we’ll know for sure on Wednesday. In a separate Instagram post, John declared, “Announcement tomorrow,” alongside a rocket emoji.
