Ghostbusters: Afterlife hit theaters starting Thursday evening, and the film is off to a strong start, scaring up $4.5 million from preview audiences.
According to Deadline, that’s better than Sony Pictures had predicted.
Moreover, the film, which is a true sequel to 1989’s Ghostbusters 2, is resonating with audiences, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 95%.
The comedy reunites the first two films’ original cast, save for Rick Moranis and the late Harold Ramis, who died in 2015; however, series co-star and co-creator Ramis’ memory lingers long over the new movie. In Afterlife, the grandkids of Harold’s character, Dr. Egon Spengler — played by Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard — take up the family ghostbusting business.
Getting the cast together was key for fans — and important for Ernie Hudson, who reprises his role as Winston Zeddemore. Back in January, he told ABC Audio that he felt “blessed” to be back.
As he explained, “For me to be able to come in, work with a new cast, but also to be together with Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts, and realize that it’s been 35 years, but we’re all still doing what we love to do, yeah…I really feel blessed to have been a part of this franchise and what it means to people.”
Cardi B dropped her first new single in nine months, “Bet It,” from the soundtrack of Halle Berry‘s new film, Bruised, which was also released Friday. Cardi and the Oscar winner executive produced the first female hip hop project.
“The Bruised Soundtrack is finally hereee!,” the “WAP” rapper commented on Instagram. “I loved working on this with @halleberry and all of the amazing artists that contributed to the soundtrack, we really making history with this one.” In addition to Cardi, the album also features H.E.R, Saweetie, City Girls and many more.
Snoop Dogg begins his new role as creative consultant for Def Jam with his first project for the label, his compilation album, Algorithm. Mary J. Blige, Usher, Wiz Khalifa, and Redman & Method Man are among the many stars featured on the project. Snoop’s supergroup, Mount Westmore, which includes himself, Ice Cube, E-40 and Too Short, previously dropped the first single from the compilation, “Big Subwoofer,” which was followed by “Murder Music” by Benny the Butcher, Jadakiss, Busta Rhymes and Snoop.
French Montana‘s fourth studio album, They Got Amnesia, features John Legend, Rick Ross, Ty Dolla $ign, Saweetie, Doja Cat and the late Pop Smoke on the 20-track project. As previously reported, Drake pulled his song “Splash Brothers” from the album out of respect for victims of the Astroworld tragedy. A snippet released online featured him rapping about being intimate with another rapper’s wife. Many assumed he was referring to Kim Kardashian, Kanye West‘s estranged wife. Drizzy may not have wanted to anger Kanye after they just squashed their longtime beef.
Finally, Saweetie is making her Saturday Night Live debut this weekend, and she will perform the new single she dropped Friday, “Icy Chain,” from her upcoming debut studio album, Pretty B***h Music.
Legendary drummer Carmine Appice, best known for his work with Vanilla Fudge, Cactus and Rod Stewart, is releasing a box set gathering together many recordings by his star-studded Guitar Zeus project, including several previously unheard bonus tracks.
The Guitar Zeus 25th Anniversary box set, due out December 17, is a limited-edition 39-track collection that includes all of the songs from 1995’s Camine Appice’s Guitar Zeus and 1997’s Guitar Zeus 2: Channel Mind Radio. It also features two versions of an unreleased song called “Mystified” that showcase respective solos by KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer and ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian.
An impressive list of famous musicians contributed their talents to the Guitar Zeus tracks, including Brian May, Slash, Neal Schon, Elliot Easton, Richie Sambora, Vivian Campbell, Mick Mars, Edgar Winter, Leslie West, Denny Laine, Zakk Wylde, Ted Nugent, Pat Travers, Dweezil Zappa, Bruce Kulick, Steve Morse, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal and Yngwie Malmsteen.
The collection also features rough mixes of four Guitar Zeus tracks created so that guitarists can play along at home.
“I consider Guitar Zeus one of the best projects, if not the BEST project I’ve done,” Appice says. “I hope you enjoy this 25th year celebration of some of the greatest rock [guitarists] ever put together.”
Two versions of the box set can be pre-ordered now at DekoEntertainement.com and MerchBucket.com, both featuring four vinyl LPs, three CDs and a booklet containing new interviews and rare photos.
The pricier “Mega-Bundle” version of the set also comes packaged with a Guitar Zeus t-Shirt, an autographed photo of Appice, and a limited-edition Guitar Zeus necklace.
You can check out a video for the version of “Mystified” featuring Thayer at Deko Entertainment’s YouTube channel.
Here’s the box set’s full track list:
“Mothers Space” — featuring Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal
“Gonna Rain” — featuring Richie Sambora
“Mystify” — featuring Derek Sherinian*
“Nobody Knew” — featuring Brian May
“Where You Belong” — featuring Slash
“Out of Mind” — featuring Neal Schon
“This Time Around” — featuring Yngwie Malmsteen and Dug Pinnick
“Nothing” — featuring John Norum
“Doin’ Fine” — featuring Vivian Campbell
“Under the Moon and Sun” — featuring Mick Mars and Edgar Winter
“Code 19” — featuring Zakk Wylde
“Angels” — featuring Char
“Guitar Zeus, Pt. 1” — featuring Jennifer Batten
“Days Are Nights” — featuring Ted Nugent
“Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” — sung by Carmine, featuring Pat Travers
“Safe” — featuring Neal Schon
“Dead Wrong” — featuring Dweezil Zappa
“Trippin’ Again” — featuring Ty Tabor
“Even Up the Score” — featuring Ted Nugent
“Dislocated” — featuring Paul Gilbert
“Stash” — featuring Stevie Salas and John McEnroe
“Perfect Day” — featuring Warren DeMartini
“Killing Time” — featuring Ty Tabor
“So Long” — featuring Doug Aldrich
“My Own Advice” — featuring Kenji Kitajima
“Guitar Zeus, Pt. 2” — featuring Leslie West and Jennifer Batten
“Mystify” — featuring Tommy Thayer*
“Time to Set Alarms” — featuring Elliot Easton and Bob Daisley
“Where You Belong” — featuring Paul Gilbert
“Cruzin” — featuring Denny Laine
“Couldn’t Be Better” — featuring RaiZi
“Snake” — featuring Bruce Kulick
“4 Miles High” — featuring Steve Morse
“Surrender” — featuring Chris Biggiani*
“GZ Blues” — featuring Seymour Duncan and Steven Seagal
“This Time Around” (music rough track – guitar play along)**
“Days Are Nights” (music rough track – guitar play along)**
“Where You Belong” (music rough track l – guitar play along)**
“Guitar Zeus” (music rough track – guitar play along)**
The second season of the Emmy-nominated Apple TV+ series The Morning Show wrapped on Thursday, and to mark the finale, its producers/stars Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston dropped some set shots.
The pair posted photos from the day they wrapped the season, to commemorate the sophomore season’s end.
“Goodbye for now to my @themorningshow family,” Aniston captioned her pics. “We made it. Crawled to the finish line…and I could not be prouder of each and every one of these extraordinary actors, a crew that you can only dream of, and directors that held my hand on quite a wild journey of emotions.”
She added, “Thank you guys for being part of the ride. That’s a wrap, baby!”
For her part, Reese captioned her pics in part, “Can’t believe tonight is already the FINALE!! So much gratitude to EVERY member of our cast & amazing crew for making all the magic happen!”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden issued the first pardons of his presidency Friday to some lucky turkeys named Peanut Butter and Jelly.
In a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, Biden spared the poultry pair from becoming Thanksgiving dinner this year.
Biden said the turkey pardoning tradition is meant to remind Americans at Thanksgiving to be grateful — but also provides the chance to have “a little bit of fun.”
“Turkey is infrastructure. Peanut Butter and Jelly are going to help build back the butterball,” Biden said, in the wake of a big week for his infrastructure agenda.
“As a University of Delaware man, I’m partial to a Blue Hen,” Biden joked about that college’s mascot, later adding the two turkeys would be getting their booster shots soon.
“It’s important to continue traditions like this to remind us how from the darkness, there’s light and hope and progress — and that’s what this year’s Thanksgiving, in my view, represents,” he said.
With the National Turkey Federation pledging that there are plenty of turkeys to gobble up during this year’s celebration — when more Americans will gather than in 2020 — Biden stuck to tradition, sparing two turkeys from the dinner table this year.
The White House selected the names Peanut Butter and Jelly from a list of options submitted by students in Indiana.
Peanut Butter, and his alternate, Jelly, traveled to the White House from Jasper, Indiana, early Wednesday, driven in a minivan outfitted as a “mini-barn” to the nation’s capital.
The responsibility of deciding which farm will supply the birds each year falls to the chairman of the National Turkey Federation — a process that Phil Seager, this year’s chair, began in July, when he asked turkey grower Andrea Welp if she would accept the challenge.
“That turkey needs to kind of learn to sit, stay, and in a perfect world, kind of strut a little bit and look good for the cameras,” Segar said.
Welp worked with a small flock to try to prep them for this process in the last six weeks, with Peanut Butter and Jelly last week being deemed the turkeys with the best temperament to handle the big moment, according to Segar.
Welp, a third-generation farmer from Indiana, said raising the presidential flock has been a lot of fun for her and her family and a highlight of her career.
“With another year of uncertainties with the pandemic, this project has really been something to look forward to, and has been a joy to be able to participate in. I know the kids have really had a lot of fun raising the birds, especially dancing to loud music to get them ready for all the media attention on the big day,” Welp said at a news conference Thursday, where the turkeys were first trotted out before the public.
After arriving in D.C., the two turkeys spent the day ahead of the pardoning having their feathers fluffed at the nearby five-star Willard Hotel.
“We do some extra prep to the room to make sure it’s comfortable for them, putting down shavings and making sure their food and water is accessible,” Beth Breeding, the spokesperson for the National Turkey Federation, told ABC News.
“We do our best to make sure that we leave the room cleaner than we even found it. We clean up afterwards and then we also work with the hotel to make sure the room is cleaned,” she added.
History of Poultry Pardons
The origin of the presidential turkey pardons is a bit fuzzy. Unofficially, reports point all the way back to President Abraham Lincoln, who spared a bird from its demise at the urging of his son, Tad. However, White House Historical Association Historian Lina Mann warns the story may be more folklore than fact.
Following Lincoln’s time in office, the White House was often gifted a bird for the holidays from Horace Vose, the “turkey king” of Rhode Island, sending his top turkey to 11 presidents over four decades — though these turkeys were already slaughtered and dressed for the president’s table, Mann says.
The true start of what has evolved into the current tradition has its roots in politics and dates back to the Truman presidency in 1947.
“There had been this government-led initiative called “poultry-less Thursdays” to try and conserve various foods in the aftermath of World War II,” Mann said.
“But the poultry industry balked because Thursday was the day of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, and those were the big turkey holidays. So, they were outraged,” she added.
After the White House was inundated with live birds sent as part of a “Hens for Harry” counterinitiative, the National Turkey Federation and the Poultry and Egg National Board presented Truman with a turkey to smooth the ruffled feathers and highlight the turkey industry — although the turkey was not saved from the holiday fest.
Instead, President John F. Kennedy began the trend of publicly sparing a turkey given to the White House in November 1963, just days before his assassination. In the years following, Mann says the event became a bit more sporadic, with even some first ladies like Pat Nixon and Rosalynn Carter stepping in to accept the guests of honor on their husband’s behalf.
The tradition of the public sparing returned in earnest under the Reagan administration, but the official tradition of the poultry pardoning at the White House started in 1989, when President George H.W. Bush offered the first official presidential pardon.
“Let me assure you and this fine Tom Turkey that he will not end up on anyone’s dinner table — not this guy,” Bush said on Nov. 17, 1989.
“He’s granted a presidential pardon as of right now and … allow him to live out his days on a children’s farm not far from here,” he added.
In the 32 years since, at least one lucky bird has gotten some extra gobbles each year.
After they receive the first pardons of Biden’s presidency, Peanut Butter and Jelly will head back to Indiana to live out the rest of their lives at the Animal Sciences Research and Education Farm at Purdue University.
“Those folks who are going to be the next generation of leaders in our industry, so we’re really excited to partner with Purdue on that and to make sure that the turkeys have a home where they’re going to receive the highest quality of care,” Breeding said.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
If you won’t be spending the holidays with someone special, Justin Bieber has the perfect song for you. Bryson Tiller tapped him and Poo Bear to sing all about the Christmas blues in the new single, “Lonely Christmas,” which is out now.
Bryson, a Grammy-nominated R&B artist, released his A Different Christmas EP on Friday, which contains the new single. Although he says in a statement it “was really fun to make” the offering, he adds it was “Inspired by Bieber, Ariana [Grande], and by one of my loneliest holiday seasons ever…”
“Lonely Christmas” is no exception. The acoustic, country-like ballad features all three singers lamenting what they would be doing around the holidays if they still had that special someone in their lives.
Justin starts off the song and, when singing about his “lonely broken-hearted Christmas,” he reveals, “Right now, I be out there shoppin’/ Some of you call it trickin’ off/ The money never meant nothin’/ To see you smile, you know that I’d blow it all/ We used to get our lights from Walmart/ And hang them up for the world to see.”
An accompanying music video was also released Friday, which shows Bryson getting into an accident and waking up in “Lonesome Valley,” a stop-motion world reminiscent of the classic Rankin/Bass holiday specials. He walks through the fading memories of Christmases past before joining Justin and Poo by a bonfire.
The “Lonely Christmas” video ends with Lonesome Valley lighting up in holiday lights as the three continue to strum guitars and sing around the fire’s glow.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
f you didn’t make it to Cleveland, OH last month to attend the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, you can watch the whole thing unfold this Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max. Taylor Swift had the honor of opening the show with a tribute to one of her musical heroes, Carole King.
On Friday, Taylor tweeted a picture of herself hugging Carole and a picture of her performing one of Carole’s most enduring songs, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” Taylor wrote, “Carole, you and your music mean more to me than I could ever sum up in a speech or a performance. But I TRIED. #RockHall2021 tomorrow at 8pm ET.”
Taylor’s treatment of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” was decidedly different from the version by The Shirelles, which hit number one in 1960, and from Carole’s own version on her iconic 1971 album, Tapestry.
“The version that she did was amazing, and she just owned it…and it’s a way that I’ve never done it,” Carole told reporters of Taylor backstage at the Induction last month. “No one’s ever done it that way, and that’s my joy as a songwriter, to see how different people interpret a song.”
This was the legendary artist’s second time being inducted into the Rock Hall: She’s previously gone in as a songwriter along with her former husband and writing partner, Gerry Goffin.
Other stars who were inducted this year include Tina Turner, The Go-Gos, Foo Fighters and JAY-Z. Performers and presenters you’ll see on the HBO ceremony Saturday night include Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Paul McCartney, Lionel Richie and more.
Oscar winner Halle Berry is receiving another special honor, the People’s Icon award at the 2021 People’s Choice Awards. Cardi B, who co-executive produced the soundtrack of Halle’s new film, Bruised, will present the award.
“Halle Berry has broken down barriers, directed and starred in diverse roles that have paved the way for others in the industry,” says Jen Neal, executive vice president of NBCUniversal Entertainment Television. “In addition to her filmography accolades and trendsetting ethos, Berry is known for her philanthropic work with women, children and underserved communities. She is an icon of our time and for all these reasons and more, we are honored to present her with ‘The People’s Icon’ award.”
Bruised, which stars Halle and marks her directorial debut, is now in select theaters and arrives on Netflix November 24. The 2021 People’s Choice Awards will air on both NBC and E! on Tuesday, December 7 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
In other news, King Richard, the film story of how Richard Williams groomed his daughters Venus and Serena to become tennis superstars, opens in theaters and streams on HBO Max on Friday. Serena has become the more famous sister, but she tells Entertainment Weekly her older sibling deserves credit for her success.
“There would be no Serena if there wasn’t a Venus,” Serena declares. “She was my hero and she still is my hero. She’ll do something and I’m like, ‘I’m doing that, too.'”
Lastly, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony featuring honorees Jay-Z, LL Cool J and Tina Turner, airs Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max. Then on Sunday, the second season of Starz’ Power Book II: Ghost, starring Michael Rainey Jr. and Mary J. Blige, debuts at 8 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. Central.
While there have been plenty of big Australian rock, pop and country acts over the years — from AC/DC to Sia to Keith Urban — Australian rappers haven’t had as big of an impact internationally, until this year. In fact, two of them are up for New Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards Sunday night: The Kid LAROI and Masked Wolf.
Masked Wolf, born Harry Michael, tells ABC Audio that in addition to his own hit “Astronaut in the Ocean,” he appreciates what LAROI — born Charlton Howard — has done to help boost the genre.
“I mean, he has done some pretty massive songs and made some pretty big waves,” says Wolf. “Australia’s finally being put on the map. I think we’ve tried for a long time. A lot of artists have tried to break internationally, and now it’s like finally happening, which is really good.”
But do he and LAROI hang out? Wolf jokes, “LAROI doesn’t want to meet me because he knows I’d beat him in basketball. I know he plays basketball, so he’s trying to stay away.”
Seriously, though, there’s no rivalry there, and Wolf says he doesn’t necessarily need to win Sunday night to feel like he’s a success.
“It’s really special to have that acknowledgment. But you have to be first happy with what you’ve been doing before the award,” he explains. “And whether we win it or not, truly, I’m just happy with where I’m at and where I’ve come from. I’ve been grinding at this for like 11 years. So award or not, I feel like what I’m doing now is the award.”
See who takes home the award Sunday night when the American Music Awards air on ABC at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Kid Rock has some thoughts on “snowflakes” and “millennials.” Shocker: he’s not a fan.
The “Bawitdaba” rocker has released a new song called “Don’t Tell Me How to Live,” a collaboration with the band Monster Truck. The track is an updated version of a past Monster Truck tune of the same name, now with added rap verses from Kid.
Sample lyrics include “What the f***’s up with all the backlash/You snowflakes here’s a news flash,” and “Every opinion has a millennial offended.” Later on, Rock compares himself to David Lee Roth, Bruce Springsteen, and even Brad Pitt.
“Don’t Tell Me How to Live” is available now for digital download. Kid Rock’s most recent album is 2017’s Sweet Southern Sugar.
