A new Christmas song by Michael Bublé will be featured in a movie called Silent Night, due out next month.
The movie is being produced by Matthew Vaughn, who brought you hit films like Rocketman, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kick-Ass and more. As Deadline reports, Vaughn has started a music arm of his production company, Marv Music, to create original music for movies, and this holiday song by Michael is one of the first releases.
The song, called “The Christmas Sweater,” will be included on the Super Deluxe 10th Anniversary Box Set version of Michael’s album Christmas. As for the movie, it concerns a family that gets together for Christmas “on the eve of an environmental apocalypse.” It stars Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode and Kirby Howell-Baptiste and will be out December 3.
Marv Music will also be releasing the original music that Dua Lipa is creating for Vaughn’s upcoming film Argylle, in which she’ll also star.
(WASHINGTON) — An appeals court has put a temporary pause on the handover of records from the Trump White House to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.
A three-judge panel in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday granted a request from former President Donald Trump’s legal team for a temporary injunction to block the exchange of records from the National Archives to the committee, which was set to take place Friday, and scheduled a Nov. 30 hearing to hear arguments from all parties in the case.
Trump sued the committee and the National Archives last month, asserting executive privilege over a broad swath of documents the national archivist had identified as relevant to the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the subsequent attack on the U.S. Capitol.
A district court judge this week twice denied Trump’s request to block or delay the release of the documents, ruling that President Joe Biden’s decision to not assert privilege over the materials outweighed Trump’s efforts to do so as a private citizen.
“[Trump’s] position that he may override the express will of the executive branch appears to be premised on the notion that his executive power ‘exists in perpetuity,'” district judge Tanya Chutkan said in her ruling. “But Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.”
It’s unclear how the temporary delay might affect the work of the Jan. 6 committee. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, has previously said he hopes the committee’s investigation could conclude by early next year.
According to the national archivist, the first tranche of documents that were set to be handed over on Friday included daily presidential diaries, call logs, White House appointments that occurred around Jan. 6, and three handwritten notes from the files of former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, among other documents.
Founding Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge died today, according to separate messages posted by his longtime band mates Justin Hayward and John Lodge. He was 80.
“It’s a very sad day. Graeme’s sound and personality is present in everything we did together and thankfully that will live on,” Hayward wrote in a message posted on the band’s official website. “When Graeme told me he was retiring I knew that without him it couldn’t be the Moody Blues anymore. And that’s what happened. It’s true to say that he kept the group together throughout all the years, because he loved it.”
Justin added, “In the late [1960s] we became the group that Graeme always wanted it to be, and he was called upon to be a poet as well as a drummer. He delivered that beautifully and brilliantly, while creating an atmosphere and setting that the music would never have achieved without his words.”
In his own tribute, Lodge wrote on his Facebook page, “To me he was the White Eagle of the North with his beautiful poetry, his friendship, his love of life and his ‘unique’ style of drumming that was the engine room of the Moody Blues…I will miss you Graeme.”
Edge co-founded the band in 1964 and was the only original member to play with the group throughout its entire history. The Moody Blues stopped touring at the end of 2018, several months after the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
While Graeme was probably the least prolific of the band members with regard to songwriting contributions, he was best known for writing the poetic interludes that appeared on many of the group’s albums, most famously “Late Lament,” the spoken-word segment recited by keyboardist Mike Pinder that’s heard at the end of “Nights in White Satin.”
Back in March 2018, Edge talked with ABC Audio and revealed some of the things he was most proud of with regards to his long career, including the fact that he wasn’t involved in any scandals, The Moodies sold out Madison Square Garden five times in one week, and the band had the reputation of being “proper professionals” with its fans and promoters.
Graeme continued, “I’m proud of the music we’ve done. I bear not too much responsibility for that, but Justin and John and Ray [Thomas] and Mike have written some sterling songs, and it was just a privilege to play with them.”
Edge also noted, with a laugh, “I’m proud and grateful for the career that we’ve had, which has been successful but not made me too rich. You know, I think I could have been an a**hole if I’d have been too rich.”
Edge is the second member of The Moody Blues’ classic lineup to pass away, following Thomas, who died in January 2018 at age 76.
Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb — Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images
Paramount+ has cast Lizzie Caplan in a series adaptation of the 1987 hit Fatal Attraction, which starred Michael Douglas and Glenn Close. The show has already gotten a full season order for the streamer.
Caplan will play Close’s role of Alex, the woman who flies off the (knife) handle after having an affair with Douglas’ hotshot lawyer Dan. What results is a tale of twisted obsession that includes, famously, with a bunny in a pot of boiling water.
The Douglas role has yet to be cast.
According, to Paramount+, the new series is, “A deep-dive reimagining of the classic psychosexual thriller from the 1980s” that “will explore fatal attraction and the timeless themes of marriage and infidelity, through the lens of modern attitudes towards strong women, personality disorders and coercive control.”
Caplan, a veteran of dozens of movies and TV shows, recently earned Emmy and Critics Choice Award nominations in the Outstanding Lead Actress categories opposite Michael Sheen in Showtime’s Masters of Sex.
Dirty John veteran Alexandra Cunningham is writing and acting as the show’s executive producer.
The latest installment in the Power franchise, Power Book IV: Force, will premiere Sunday, February 6, 2022.
Starz made the announcement Thursday about the series starring Joseph Sikora as Tommy Egan, with a teaser-trailer. In the fourth installment of Power, Egan leaves New York City and plans to takeover Chicago.
Idris Elba, who currently stars in the Netflix Western The Harder They Fall, teased his return as homicide DCI John Luther in another Netflix film. The 49-year-old British actor wrote “Oi……I’m back!” Wednesday on Instagram with behind-the-scenes images from the set. Elba starred from 2010-2019 in the Luther BBC series. Cynthia Erivo has been announced as one of his co-stars in the movie, simply titled Luther.
In other news, VH1 announced that VH1 Family Reunion: Love & Hip Hop Edition, will return for season two on Monday, December 13th at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The show features cast members from the Atlanta, New York, Hollywood and Miami series, including Amina Buddafly, Brooke Valentine, Cyn Santana, Erica Mena, Juelz Santana, Mimi Faust, Peter Gunz, Rich Dollaz, Safaree and Stevie J. On Monday, Stevie filed for divorce from Faith Evans after three years of marriage.
Finally, Ava DuVernay, Will Smith, Halle Berry and Jennifer Hudson will be among the special honorees at the annual Celebration of Black Cinema & Television. DuVernay will receive the first-ever Melvin Van Peebles Trailblazer Award, and Smith will be honored with the Actor Award for Film for his role in King Richard. Berry will be presented with the Career Achievement Award, and Hudson will be recognized with the Actress Award for Film. Niecy Nash will host the event Monday, December 6 at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds pulled a fast one on both Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon Wednesday night, when they appeared in each other’s places on, respectively, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show.
Both guests, on both shows, claimed the other was running late, and volunteered to sub for each other.
It was a bit, of course, but one that poked fun at chat show conventions. For his part, Ryan answered Jimmy Fallon’s questions meant for Will, and Ferrell did his best to talk about Red Notice, Reynolds’ new Netflix movie. “I haven’t seen a stitch of it,” he confessed. “I’ve seen the billboards, though.”
Ryan spoke about Ferrell’s new movie, The Shrink Next Door, although he was only familiar with Paul Rudd, People‘s newly crowned Sexiest Man Alive. “He’s possibly the nicest person in all of show business,” said Reynolds, “and he’s aging backwards thanks to his contract with Satan.”
Ryan didn’t see The Shrink Next Door, either, describing the Apple TV+ as “Ant-Man adjacent,” but he “doesn’t shrink his body, per se.” Ryan joked, “It’s Marvel Phase 16, which everyone is saying is way more relatable.”
Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, Will gamely answered Kimmel’s already-prepared questions for Ryan about his “beautiful wife Blake Lively,” and their three girls.
Will and Ryan will be seen again — together, this time — in Spirited, a Christmas-themed musical that debuts next year on Apple TV+.
(HOUSTON) — Nine victims have been identified in the deadly stage surge at the Astroworld Festival concert.
23-year-old Arturo Sanchez, an attendee, said his heart literally stopped as he was trampled by the crowd, and he believed he was going to die himself.
Bruised and battered, Sanchez told ABC News from his hospital bed on Sunday about the panic and chaos that erupted during the opening song of rapper Travis Scott’s performance.
He said that as soon as Scott began to sing, the crowd surged forward, knocking him off balance and causing him to fall to the ground near the front of the stage.
“I was on the floor screaming for help and trying to reach for people’s hands so they could see me and no one could see me,” Sanchez said. “I just kind of accepted the fact that I was going to die, and I did for a little bit. My heart stopped, apparently.”
Sanchez said doctors told him he suffered a heart attack and had briefly flatlined.
He said he remembered a large man falling on him and sitting on his chest as he struggled to breathe and then passed out.
Sanchez said a registered nurse attending the concert performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him and helped get him to an ambulance.
“She saved my life, honestly,” Sanchez said.
Latest victims identified
Bharti Shahani, 22, died Wednesday night after being hospitalized from injuries caused by the crowd surge, bringing the concert’s death toll to nine. Shahani, a student at Texas A&M University, was taken to Houston Methodist Hospital, where her family said she had been on a ventilator and had heart failure.
“Bharti is love. You know what is love? Bharti is love,” her mother Karishma Shahani said tearfully at a press conference. “What happened to my blessing? I want my baby back. I won’t be able to live without her.”
The eighth victim to be identified, Axel Acosta, died at Memorial Hermann Hospital, father Oscar Acosta confirmed to ABC station KTRK-TV in Houston. He said his son traveled from Washington to see Scott perform.
Acosta, 21, was among the concertgoers killed when throngs in the estimated crowd of 50,000 packed into NRG Park — which is next to NRG Stadium, home of the Houston Texans NFL football team — suddenly surged toward the stage, authorities said. Another 25 people were injured, one just 10 years old, officials said.
Acosta identified his son after the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences released a post-mortem photo and asked the public for help in identifying him.
Five other people killed were identified by either their families or the schools they attended.
‘An innocent young soul’
Danish Baig, 27, of Dallas was killed while trying to save his fiancee, Olivia Swingle, who had fallen and was reportedly about to be trampled by concert-goers pushing forward, his brother Basil Baig told ABC News.
“He was an innocent young soul who would always put others before him,” Basil Baig said in a statement. “He was a hardworking man who loved his family and took care of us. He was there in a heartbeat for anything. He always had a solution to everything.”
Basil Baig said in a Facebook post that he also was at the concert, promoted and organized by Live Nation, and described it as being “poorly” managed and supervised. He alleged that Scott provoked the crowd to move toward the stage.
“Travis Scott and his team and everyone associated in the event should and will be held responsible,” Basil Baig said in his statement to ABC News.
In videos Scott posted on Instagram Saturday, he said he tried to spot people in the crowd having physical problems and paused during the show to try to get help to fans that appeared in need.
“I could just never imagine the severity of the situation,” Scott said in one of the videos.
In a separate statement, Live Nation said, “We will continue working to provide as much information and assistance as possible to the local authorities as they investigate the situation.”
The youngest victim
The youngest victim who died was 14-year-old John Hilgert, a freshman at Memorial High School in Houston, according to a letter the school’s principal sent to parents.
“Our hearts go out to the student’s family and to his friends and our staff at Memorial,” principal Lisa Weir wrote in the letter. “This is a terrible loss, and the entire MHS family is grieving today.”
One victim had passion for dance
Also killed was 16-year-old Brianna Rodriguez, a junior at Heights High School in Houston, her aunt, Iris Rodriguez, told ABC News.
Iris Rodriguez said her niece had a passion for dance.
“Now she’s dancing her way to heaven’s pearly gates,” the Rodriguez family wrote on a GoFundMe page that included a series of photos of Brianna.
College senior dies
Franco Patiño, 21, a senior at the University of Dayton in Ohio, was identified by the school as one of the concertgoers killed.
In a letter addressed to members of the university’s campus community, the school’s president, Eric Spina, said Patiño was from Naperville, Illinois, and was majoring in mechanical engineering technology with a minor in human movement biomechanics.
Patiño was also a member of Alpha Psi Lambda, a Hispanic-interest fraternity, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Spina wrote. Patiño had been working in an engineering coop program in Mason, Ohio, according to Spina.
‘Huge hole in our lives’
The family of Jacob “Jake” E. Jurinek said in a statement Sunday that he was among those killed. Jurinek was a junior at Southern Illinois University and was majoring in art and media, his family said.
“We are all devastated and are left with a huge hole in our lives,” said Jurinek’s father, Ron Jurinek.
Rodolfo Pena, 23, from Laredo, Texas, and Madison Dubiski, 23, from Cypress, Texas were also killed.
Bedlam ensues
The concert bedlam unfolded around 9:30 p.m. local time Friday when the “the crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage,” Houston Fire Chief Sam Peña told reporters during a news conference Friday night.
“That caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries,” Peña said.
At least 13 people injured remain hospitalized, including five under the age of 18, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told reporters during a briefing.
As of Sunday night, at least one lawsuit has been filed against Scott.
What triggered the surge is under investigation by the Houston Police Department. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he has ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to make state resources available to support the investigation.
Scott has history of issues at concerts
Problems have previously occurred at other Travis Scott concerts. In 2015, the rapper was arrested on charges of inciting a crowd to jump barriers at a Lollapalooza concert in Chicago. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and paid a fine, according to officials.
In 2017, Scott was arrested again after he invited more people to come closer to the stage, prompting fans at the Walmart Music Pavilion in Rogers, Arkansas, to breach barricades and overrun security. In that case, he also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct and paid a fine.
Prior to the fatal surge at Scott’s concert on Friday night, some 300 people had been treated throughout the day at the music festival by on-site medical personnel, authorities said. There were “many instances” where they had to administer Narcan, which is used to treat a narcotic overdose, said Peña, who did not have an exact number.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said that during the pandemonium, a private security guard working at the festival was possibly injected in the neck with drugs as he was attempting to grab or restrain someone.
“When he was examined, he went unconscious,” Finner said during a Saturday afternoon briefing. “(Medical staff) administered Narcan. He was revived, and the medical staff did notice a prick that was similar to a prick that you would get if someone was trying to inject.”
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso, Jenna Harrison, Kendall Coughlin, Darren Reynolds and Marcus Moore contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Under the glare of dueling national spotlights, judges presiding over the Kyle Rittenhouse homicide trial in Wisconsin and the case against three white Georgia men in the death of Ahmaud Arbery have both displayed their ire as they’ve struggled to maintain fairness in the courtroom.
A display of frustration boiled over from the bench in the Rittenhouse case Wednesday when a visibly angered Judge Bruce Schroeder lambasted the lead prosecutor, accusing him of low-blow antics he said bordered on a “grave constitutional violation.”
Brian Buckmire, a New York public defender and ABC News contributor, said both judges have taken actions to maintain fairness in the proceedings and shield the juries from hearing anything unrelated to the evidence they’ve allowed in the two high-profile cases, despite some of the attorneys seeming to posture for the cameras in the courtroom.
“Judges are very protective of the jury, sometimes even considering it their jury,” said Buckmire, who is also an anchor for the Law & Crime Network. “You always want the jury to be pristine, to only make decisions based on the evidence and not because a judge scolded a lawyer or vice versa.”
The latest exhibit of exasperation coming from the bench occurred during the testimony of 18-year-old Rittenhouse, who claimed he shot three men, two fatally, in self-defense during a 2020 protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Shortly after prosecutor Thomas Binger began his cross-examination of Rittenhouse, Schroeder had the jury marched out of the courtroom before he ripped the state’s attorney for asking the teenager about his silence about the shootings prior to taking the witness stand.
Schroeder warned Binger that he was edging toward a “grave constitutional violation” by ignoring Rittenhouse’s right to remain silent in front of the jury.
“You’re right on the borderline, and you may be over it,” Schroeder said, at times shouting at Binger. “But it better stop. This is not permitted.”
After Binger resumed the questioning, he prompted another verbal lashing from Schroeder by beginning to broach evidence the judge had ruled inadmissible. Schroeder had the jury exit the courtroom again before he lit into Binger, and defense attorney Mark Richards accused the prosecutor of trying to provoke a mistrial.
Binger claimed he thought Schroeder had left the “door open” for him to question Rittenhouse about the inadmissible evidence and during a subsequent hearing told the judge he was “acting in good faith.”
“Good faith! I don’t believe you,” Schroeder told Binger.
In the Arbery case, Judge Timothy Walmsley had the jury exit the Brunswick, Georgia, courtroom on Tuesday so the panel wouldn’t hear his choice words for one of the defense attorneys.
Jason Sheffield, a lawyer for defendant Travis McMichael, garnered Walmsley’s wrath by provoking multiple objections from prosecutor Linda Dunikoski and by apparently trying to argue with the judge.
Walmsley stopped Sheffield’s questioning after he asked Glynn County Detective Parker Marcy several times about why he went to a house under construction in the Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, a site where security video footage had recorded Arbery entering several times and where he was reportedly seen by a neighbor leaving on the day he was killed.
“By going there, you were looking to determine or trying to understand that somebody may have entered that dwelling with the intent to take something?” Sheffield asked, soliciting an objection from Dunikoski that the defense was trying to testify for the witness during the cross-examination.
Walmsley sustained the objection, and when Sheffield appeared to try to argue with him, he sent the jury out of the courtroom.
“I don’t care whether you like my rulings or not, or like me or not, but in this court, it’s axiomatic that counsel show at least respect for what the court is doing,” Walmsley said. “And what you just did shows a lack of respect for what the court is trying to do here, which is to create an environment which is fair to all parties.”
Walmsley went on, saying, “I would suggest that you take a moment to think about that. I’m going to step off the bench because I found that … I’ll just call it rude.”
By then, Walmsley seemed frustrated by other behavior by Sheffield, noting the attorney’s use of a large flipchart in which he pointed to the word “break-in” during his cross-examination of Marcy. Walmsley told Sheffield his “jumping up and moving the board” was distracting to the jury.
“I would suggest that you taper some of that very quickly, because it will not be tolerated in this court,” Walmsley said.
A more subdued Sheffield returned from the recess and finished his questioning of Marcy.
The courtroom fireworks in the Rittenhouse case came about a week after a juror unwittingly tested Schroeder’s patience.
Schroeder booted a juror on the third day of the trial after the panelist acknowledged that he told a tasteless joke to a deputy about Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was shot and paralyzed by a Kenosha police officer. The shooting prompted protests in Kenosha that devolved into looting, rioting and eventually the shootings that Rittenhouse committed.
Schroeder then launched into a lengthy explanation to the attorneys in the case that the trial is being televised nationwide, and he noted that he heard one TV news commentator saying that “‘this is the most divisive case in the country today.'”
“So, anything that undermines public confidence in what happens here is very important,” Schroeder said sternly. “It’s important for this town, it’s important for this country to have people have confidence in the result of this trial.”
Halestorm members Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger are performing during Thursday night’s Rock to Remember, a streaming charity concert in honor of Veterans Day.
The online event is being put on by Gibson guitars and Guitars for Vets, an organization that provides guitars and music lessons to military veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.
Other artists taking part in Rock to Remember include Daughtry, Theory of a Deadman‘s Tyler Connolly, and Anthrax vocalist Joey Belladonna. Additionally, several participants in the Guitars for Vets program will be performing their own original music.
You can tune in to watch starting at 8 p.m. ET via Guitars4Vets.org.
Three of country music’s biggest names are among the performers at the 2021 American Music Awards. Carrie Underwood and Jason Aldean are slated to perform their duet, “If I Didn’t Love You,” which recently went number one at country radio.
Meanwhile, Kane Brown will take the stage for a rendition of “One Mississippi,” which he’s delivering from the campus of Tennessee State University, which is an HBCU, or historically black college and university.
Both performances are part of the “My Hometown” featured segment on this year’s AMAs, which focuses on the influence artists take from their hometowns. For Kane, that means charting his Tennessee and Georgia roots and his journey toward becoming one of the most successful artists in country music.
Jason and Carrie’s performance will also spotlight their Southern roots. Carrie is an Oklahoma native, while Jason hails from Georgia.
The 2021 AMAs airs on November 21 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC. The fan-voted ceremony will take place at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater, and will be hosted by rapper Cardi B.
