Bleachers has premiered a live video for “What’d I Do with All This Faith?”, a track off the Jack Antonoff-led band’s new album, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night.
The clip finds Antonoff and company performing atop the roof of Electric Lady Studios in New York City, with a special appearance by St. Vincent providing guest vocals. You can watch it now streaming on YouTube.
Bleachers has also shared a Electric Lady rooftop performance video for another Saturday Night song, “Big Life.”
Electric Lady, it seems, has become Antonoff’s favorite performance venue of late. He previously joined Lorde there for rooftop renditions of her new singles “Solar Power” and “Stoned at the Nail Salon.”
Bleachers released Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night in July. The album also features the single “Stop Making This Hurt,” as well as collaborations with Lana Del Rey and Bruce Springsteen.
Meanwhile, Antonoff has also announced that he’s “working with the promoters and venues” to install a COVID-19 vaccine or negative test requirement for the upcoming Bleachers tour.
“We’re not messing around,” Antonoff says. “Every show will be as safe as possible without any weirdo bulls***.”
All Good Things‘ single “For the Glory” is certainly living up to its name.
The band’s breakout track, which features Hollywood Undead‘s Johnny 3 Tears and Charlie Scene, has hit number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
“For the Glory” gives All Good Things their first-ever number-one single. It’s also the highest either Hollywood Undead member has charted on the Mainstream Rock Airplay ranking.
Interestingly, All Good Things is the fourth act to earn their first Mainstream Rock chart-topper in 2021. This year has also seen Mammoth WVH, Ayron Jones and, surprisingly, Rise Against conquer the ranking for the first time with “Distance,” “Mercy” and “Nowhere Generation,” respectively.
“For the Glory” will appear on All Good Things’ upcoming album A Hope in Hell, due out August 20. The record also includes the single “The Comeback,” featuring Craig Mabbitt of Escape the Fate.
Marlon Wayans says he wanted to give Aretha Franklin‘s first husband and manager Ted White a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T when he channeled him in the new biographical drama, Respect. Unfortunately for the actor, that wasn’t an easy task.
“It was funny because I couldn’t really get anything out of anybody about Ted,” Wayans tells ABC Audio. “They said he was a really nice dresser. They said he was stroppy. They said he was charming, but…that there was a bad guy in there.”
Wayans says before he decided to take his own “creative license” to portray the accomplished songwriter, he first tried to “reach out to Ted” to get his perspective — “but Ted didn’t want to talk.”
“So, I…based [Ted] on a minute-and-a-half interview I saw with him and Aretha,” Wayans says. “And from there, I started thinking about the psychology of a guy like Ted, because as much of a devil [that] he was, there was something angelic about him. And so I focused in on not him being all good or all bad, but sometimes he couldn’t keep his bad under control.”
To that end, Wayans says he formed a back story for White that helped explain his harsh behavior.
“And I focused on him maybe having… mommy issues and a lack of appreciation for women,” he shares. “And…even pimps and guys like that, they’re not bad people. They’re hurt people.”
Wayans continues, “Damaged people damage people. And so I wanted to protect that little nugget of innocence in him, because I think in order to make a great bad guy — you’ve got to love him and you got to hate them.”
Respect, starring Jennifer Hudson as the Queen of Soul, hits theaters Friday.
The first-look teaser for Denzel Washington’s romantic drama, A Journal for Jordan, has been released.
Directed by Washington and starring Michael B. Jordan, the film is based on Dana Canedy’s New York Times best-selling memoir of the same name. It’s inspired by Canedy’s love affair with First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, who was killed in 2006 in Iraq when his son, Jordan, was just seven months old. The story centers on the journal King left behind for his son, filled with important life lessons. As previously reported, A Journal for Jordan will play in limited release on December 10 in New York and LA and then go to wide theatrical release on December 22.
In other news, Netflix has set a November 10 release date for Rebecca Hall‘s directorial debut, Passing. Based on Nella Larsen‘s 1929 novella of the same name, the film follows two mixed-race women who reunite in their adulthood and discover that one of them is now passing for a white woman. As previously reported, Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga will play the two childhood friends.
Finally, a trailer for Issa Rae‘s Sweet Life: Los Angeles has been released. Described as a mix between MTV’s The Hills and BET’s Baldwin Hills, the new series follows a group of longtime friends from South LA who are “finally seeing the fruits of their labor.” Sweet Life: Los Angeles premieres on Thursday, August 19, with its first three episodes.
(WASHINGTON) — The Food and Drug Administration is planning to authorize a third shot for the immune-compromised on Thursday, two sources familiar with the plans confirmed to ABC News.
If the FDA green-lights the additional shots — first reported by NBC News — it’s up to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the Centers for Disease Control’s expert advisory panel, to make its own recommendation on who should get the shot and what factors they might want to consider. Those recommendations are typically adopted by the CDC as nationwide public health guidance. The ACIP is scheduled to meet on Friday, though it is not currently scheduled to vote.
Many immunocompromised Americans have not had high immune responses to the vaccines, leaving them vulnerable to the virus even after getting a shot. Response has been low particularly in transplant recipients, cancer patients or people on medications that suppress their immune response.
About 2.7% of U.S. adults are considered immunocompromised.
Asked to comment on the plans, the FDA said its “closely monitoring data as it becomes available from studies administering an additional dose of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines to immunocompromised individuals.”
“The agency, along with the CDC, is evaluating potential options on this issue, and will share information in the near future,” the FDA said in a statement.
At a July meeting, members of ACIP were largely supportive of giving immunocompromised people a third dose to boost their immunity and they called on the FDA to move on the issue.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent shockwaves across New York when he resigned on Tuesday.
But the 63-year-old Democratic stalwart still faces potential legal challenges, investigations and a potential impeachment as he scrambles to formulate a path forward.
Does Cuomo still have a chance to run for a fourth term as governor and save his reputation? His murky future may get a bit clearer over the next few weeks.
He conceded to a landslide of calls for him to resign from state politicians and President Joe Biden in wake of the State Attorney General Letitia James’ office’s withering report that substantiated the claims of 11 women against him and found he created a work environment “rife with fear and intimidation.”
He issued an apology to his accusers, but he also denied all allegations of sexual harassment, concluding on Tuesday: “I think, given the circumstances, the best way I can help now is if I step aside.”
Basil Smikle, a political strategist and lecturer at Columbia’s School of International Public Affairs, told ABC News that Cuomo “wanted to go out on his own terms” after he “nearly ran out of friends and allies inside and outside government and after it seemed clear if he didn’t resign he’d be pushed out via impeachment.”
Impeachment: Justice or vengeance?
His resignation takes effect on Aug. 24 and Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will take over, becoming the first female governor of New York.
Now the New York Assembly’s Judiciary Committee has to decide whether to move forward with an impeachment investigation.
“While we have the legal ability to still continue, what we have to analyze is what is best for the people of New York,” Assemblywoman and Judiciary Committee Democrat Catalina Cruz told ABC New York station WABC. “Do we want to take the extra step? Is it going to feel like wasted energy and more of a political revenge? Or is it going to really feel like justice? That’s a determination we’ll make on the committee together.”
Cruz said she’s concerned about focusing on local issues — vaccines and food pantries among them — but at the same time, “I also recognize as a survivor, that we got to give people justice. So, in full honestly, I’m a little torn.”
The Assembly’s Judiciary Committee is slated to meet Monday to discuss evidence gathered by the outside law firm that handled the probe.
An impeachment trial could result in the Assembly handing down a sentence that will bar him from holding state office again, but he still could run for federal office.
The office for Assemblyman Charles Lavine, the judiciary committee chairman, said on Monday that if the governor did resign, the Assembly would still consider moving forward simply to bar Cuomo from holding state office again, Spectrum Local News reported.
ABC News Legal Analyst Dan Abrams said on Good Morning America Wednesday it’s unlikely the Assembly would want to pursue an impeachment.
“The purpose of it would be to prevent him from holding public office again. They could go through the public impeachment process, have the trial, in an effort to make sure he can’t run for office again,” Abrams said. “I can’t imagine they’re going to have the political will to move forward with that entire process even though the governor has already resigned.”
Some Assembly members like Mary Beth Walsh and Yuh-Line Niou have voiced support for proceeding with it.
“Impeachment means Governor Cuomo will not be able to run for office again by claiming to be the victim and gaslighting the true victims. Impeachment means securing justice for all those who came forward and all those who have yet to come forward,” Niou said in a statement.
Smikle, the political strategist, said he believes Cuomo will be impeached.
“I think the Assembly and the Senate are very focused on accountability,” he added. “In the in many ways, I think the governor wants to be able to resign and have all of these other investigations stopped.”
What charges could Cuomo face?
Cuomo is under investigation by the Albany County sheriff’s department, which is probing the allegations of accuser Brittany Commisso, 32, who filed a complaint against him there last week.
She was identified as “Executive Assistant #1” in the attorney general’s report. She alleged the governor groped her backside on New Year’s Eve in 2019 and reached under her blouse and groped her breast at the Executive Mansion in November 2020. He and attorney Rita Glavin have vehemently denied those claims.
“He is 63 years old. He has spent 40 years in public life, and for him to all of a sudden be accused of a sexual assault of an executive assistant that he really doesn’t know, doesn’t pass muster,” Glavin said in a press conference Friday. On Tuesday, she claimed James’ report failed to corroborate all of Commisso’s claims.
Experts have said Cuomo could face a misdemeanor criminal charge in that case.
An attorney for Lindsey Boylan, Cuomo’s former aide who was the first to publicly accuse him, said she’d file a lawsuit for alleged retaliatory actions by Cuomo’s office after she came forward, which were outlined in the report. Cuomo and his attorneys also have denied these allegations.
At a press conference Tuesday, Glavin denied the sexual harassment and retaliation claims and alleged Boylan had a personal vendetta against Cuomo. She said the attorney general’s report “got key facts wrong” and failed to include a witnesses whose testimony “did not support the narrative.”
At least five district attorneys — Manhattan, Albany, Nassau, Westchester and Oswego counties — also are investigating allegations of sexual harassment mentioned in the report.
Additionally, Cuomo remains under investigation regarding whether he misused government resources by having staffers help produce his memoir, and the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI are looking into his handling of data linked to nursing home deaths during the pandemic.
His future
As for Cuomo’s political future, it may be too soon to tell.
Karen Agnifilo, a former prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney’s office who worked under Cy Vance, told ABC News, “Like all people, he’s not all good or all bad.”
“There are a lot of things that he has done that deserve to be a part of his legacy. Marriage equality, I would say, is one of the most momentous things that he was able to accomplish,” she said. “I think for him to have a political future he’s going to have to admit what he did. He’s still denying it.”
Smikle said Cuomo’s political prospects are dim.
“Politically, I don’t think he has a future by the voters of the state. Certainly, the political leadership of the state that refused to stand with him in these final days want to be able to turn the page on his chapter as governor,” he said. Cuomo could pursue an alternate career as a lawyer, but “if there are criminal charges pending, there’s a potential for him to lose his law license.”
Cuomo’s also seemingly lost support from many in his inner circle.
His top aide, Melissa DeRosa, announced her resignation Sunday. She was also accused in the report of allegedly participating in retaliatory actions against Boylan.
Sean Hacker, an attorney for DeRosa, said in a statement to ABC News: “With respect to legal questions relating to how a complaint should be handled, or whether personnel records could be provided to the public, Ms. DeRosa consulted with and relied upon advice of experienced counsel.”
Jay Jacobs, the head of New York’s Democratic Party and formerly a close Cuomo ally, said last week: “I agree with the attorney general. I believe the women. I believe the allegations. I cannot speak to the governor’s motivations. What I can say is that the governor has lost his ability to govern, both practically and morally.”
Cuomo, who is single and divorced, also will have to find a new home. He previously lived with ex-girlfriend Sandra Lee, a TV Chef, in Mount Kisco, New York, but she sold the home in 2020 following their 2019 split.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
L-Walter Yetnikoff, R- Billy Joel; Bobby Bank/WireImage
Legendary record executive Walter Yetnikoff, who died on Sunday, would have been 88 on Wednesday, August 11. As the head of CBS Records from 1975 to 1990, Yetnikoff guided the careers of Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand and Billy Joel, who posted a tribute to the late music-industry bigwig on his website Wednesday.
Billy recorded for Columbia Records, which at the time was owned by CBS. Billy writes, “Walter Yetnikoff was the man who changed everything at Columbia Records…Walter was a street fighter — a man who didn’t shy away from confrontation with other power players when it came to protecting his artist’s interests.”
Billy continues, “I will always be eternally grateful to him for ensuring that my song copyrights and publishing rights were returned to me — intact. I loved him as a dear friend and a mentor, in a business where real friendships don’t exist.”
The Piano Man adds, “I owe much of my good fortune to Walter’s stewardship at the Columbia label. I will miss him and the strong life force that he was.”
In other news, Billy returned to the stage for his first post-pandemic concert at Boston’s Fenway Park last week, and is currently set to perform at Buffalo’s Highmark Stadium this Saturday.
(NEW YORK) — The first signs are emerging that the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus is dampening demand for air travel: cancellations are rising, while passenger loads and air fare are on the decline.
On Tuesday, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened 1.7 million people nationwide — the lowest number of passengers in nearly two months.
In its most recent financial filing, Southwest Airlines reported seeing a recent uptick in cancellations. The airline attributed them to the rise in COVID-19 cases as fears mount about the delta variant.
The airline projected the surge in cancelations to continue into September, a much more grim outlook than Southwest and most other major U.S. airlines had just three weeks ago.
Travel booking site Hopper has seen domestic demand flatline since July Fourth.
“What we saw was that mid-July was one of our best booking weeks ever,” Hopper economist Adit Damodarn said, “so the domestic bookings were really strong in mid July, but on the domestic front we have seen bookings be pretty flat since then.”
International bookings have been hit harder, Damodarn explained, hitting lower than projected rates.
“I think there’s a lot going on here that’s making people think twice about traveling,” Founder of crankyflier.com Brett Snyder told ABC News. “One of the big concerns for people going internationally is the chances of even if you’re vaccinated of getting an infection seem to be going up. It may not be severe, but it does mean that you might not be able to come back into the U.S. for some time just because of the testing requirement. So with that I think you’re scaring some people off. And then, of course, we have the just general concern about getting sick, going to places where there is more virus.”
Hopper noticed more fliers began to purchase cancel-for-any-reason flight insurance in July.
“It is up about 33% since early July,” Damodarn said. “So I think what we’re seeing here is a little bit of hesitancy, maybe, from users traveling.”
And the airlines’ prices are already starting to reflect the halt in demand recovery.
Average air travel booking prices, before fees, are currently down $76 from the end of June, according to travel itinerary app TripIt.
“We’re seeing a significant drop in domestic and international airfare,” Damodarn said. “It’s a little bit more than the seasonality that we have seen in prior years, and so that would suggest to us that there’s both the seasonal variation coming off the peak summer travel season, as well as the impact of the delta variant.”
Jamie Foxx is hitting the road for a book tour in support of his first memoir, Act Like You Got Some Sense.
The multi-city trek kicks off October 15 in Philadelphia and makes stops in New York, Los Angeles, and Irving, TX, before wrapping October 22 in El Cajon, CA. It’ll feature special guests and each ticket holder will receive a signed copy of the book.
In the memoir, out October 19, Foxx writes about being raised by his no-nonsense grandmother, his rise to fame in Hollywood, and how he’s taken the lessons he’s learned into being a father to his two daughters.
“When I am deep in the weeds, trying to figure out how to parent my daughters, it is the voice of my grandmother I hear in my head, encouraging me, and of course yelling at me when I’m messing up as a parent,” Foxx says in a statement. “Thanks to her, I knew that it wasn’t about always being your kids’ best friend but being a parent. Even when it means you gotta be tough with them. Sometimes you gotta be tough because you love them. Just like she always loved me.”
Tickets for the book tour are on sale now. Select stops will require attendees to provide either proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test result within 48 hours.
(Hadley and Delaney Robertson) Hadley and Delaney Robertson, 15, created the BraceTrack app to help people who use scoliosis braces
(MIAMI) — Twin sisters Hadley and Delaney Robertson created the BraceTrack app to help people who use scoliosis braces.
The twins, 15, from Miami were both diagnosed with scoliosis at age 12 during their annual checkup in January 2018. According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, scoliosis affects 2-3% of the population, or an estimated 6 to 9 million people, in the United States. It can develop as early as infancy but is typically onset between 10 and 15 years old.
While Delaney’s scoliosis didn’t require treatment, Hadley was diagnosed with idiopathic scoliosis and the curve of her spine was greater than 20 degrees. Doctors prescribed her a back brace that needed to be worn for 18 hours a day to stop the progression, Hadley told Good Morning America.
“Getting used to wearing a brace can be a little daunting,” Hadley, who was able to stop bracing in June 2020, said. “It’s made of a hard plastic so it can be hot to walk around in on a daily basis and it makes it a little bit difficult to do activities like sports.”
Fortunately, if Hadley needed to take off her brace for any reason, she could wear it for extra hours another day to make up for lost time. The true difficulty was in keeping track of not just those banked hours, but also her daily use.
“One thing about that I found really difficult was figuring out how to track the time that I wore it,” Hadley said. “I tried using a lot of different things. I think we tried using a notepad, a whiteboard, and I even tried looking for an app on the app store to see if there was something that could help me track that but there really wasn’t one so we decided to develop one ourselves.”
That same year, the twins began to research more about scoliosis and app development to figure out what functions would best serve people with the condition. While the girls were previously interested in STEM, they had no prior experience with building an app.
“I think one common misconception around this sort of thing is that you have to know everything about an idea to get into it,” Delaney said. “We really didn’t know everything about app development, or scoliosis even. We just jumped in and started doing a lot of research.”
They then worked with an app developer to make sure they had everything they needed to get the app into app stores across all devices, and it officially launched in May 2019.
“Since BraceTrack is a medical app, it was really important that we were HIPAA compliant and that we had all of those things in order,” Delaney said. “So we found an app developer that would be able to help us actualize all of the vision, all of the designs that we had.”
BraceTrack has several functions to assist users. It can keep track of how long a person wears their brace each day as well as how many banked hours they have, which can be applied to other days where they’ve needed to take their brace off.
It even keeps a log of past history of brace use and creates average trend data based off that. Users also have the ability to create a report with all of the data the app collects, which they can save and send to a doctor, relative, or the like.
“These reports make it more easy to interpret and understand where you could be wearing your brace more or where you’re wearing it a lot,” Delaney said.
The app has been downloaded over 1,000 times, the sisters said, and had around 500 active users last week. Currently, BraceTrack has a 4.9 out of 5-star rating on Apple’s App Store with a myriad of positive reviews.
“We’ve been really amazed by the response we’ve gotten to the app,” Hadley said. “People have said that’s made their brace experience a lot easier and that they’re able to track their time and understand better where they are with that.”
Hadley and Delaney also founded Brace for Impact in January 2021, which is a nonprofit that aims to provide funding for scoliosis braces for children and families who are unable to afford them.
“Bracing journeys can be really expensive since braces cost anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000,” Delaney said, adding that braces are custom-fitted and kids may need multiple braces as they grow.
She continued, “It can be a real financial investment and we were sort of thinking about what we could do to support kids who aren’t able to afford these braces since insurance doesn’t always cover them and they’re really important to your spinal health.”
Brace for Impact has raised $120,000 to date to for four of its partner scoliosis centers: Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, Shriners Hospital for Children, Children’s Diagnostic and Treatment Center and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.
“We’ve just been really amazed by the places we’ve been working with,” Delaney said. “The doctors and hospital staff that we’ve been talking to about this have just been so amazing and so inspiring.”
“It’s been really amazing so far to watch how Brace for Impact has been able to help kids,” Hadley said.
