Gwen Stefani received a special bouquet, which she showed off on her Instagram stories with help from her husband, Blake Shelton.
In a video, Gwen asked Blake what he’s doing. Blake, holding a small bouquet of flowers, replies, “Standing here like an idiot because you told me to go get some flowers to put in the vase for dinner and then I walk in and see this.” Gwen then pans the camera to show an enormous bouquet of white roses sitting on the table.
We then see a shot of the card that came with the bouquet: It’s from Vera Wang, who designed both Gwen’s wedding dress and her shorter reception dress when she and Blake tied the knot last month.
It reads, “Dearest Gwen, what a pleasure to have shared in your happiness by choosing us to dress you, not once, but twice. As an enormous fan, on behalf of me and my team, again thank you. Wishing you both a lifetime of happiness!”
“Wow, Vera! Thank you so much for the gorgeous flowers, but the dress… like, it was literally a dream come true to be able to work with you and get married to Blake in your gown,” Gwen says in another video.
We then see a shot of a box that reads, “My wedding gown,” in which the singer has evidently preserved the dress.
Next, Gwen posted photos comparing the wedding cake in the video for No Doubt’s song “Simple Kind of Life” with the cake from her wedding — they’re somewhat similar, actually.
Gwen ended her Instagram Stories post-fest with a shot of her TV, which was playing the scene in the movie Captain Marvel where Captain Marvel, played by Brie Larson, kicks butt to the tune of No Doubt‘s “Just a Girl.”
Dolly Parton is adding “published novelist” to her long list of titles. In partnership with novelist James Patterson, she has written her first book, called Run, Rose, Run.
The title, which publisher Little, Brown and Company describes as a “thriller about a young singer/songwriter on the rise and on the run,” hits shelves on March 7, 2022. Dolly says she has also created an album of the same name, which features 12 songs inspired by the book, for simultaneous release.
“I cannot be more excited about the release of my very first novel, Run, Rose, Run, with the great James Patterson,” Dolly tells People. “I also have a new album to go along with the book. All new songs were written based on the characters and situations in the book. I hope you enjoy the book and the songs as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together!”
The album will be released on Dolly’s own Butterfly Records, in conjunction with another, yet-to-be-announced, label, according to People.
Even with a massive catalogue of different kinds of books to his name, James says that working with Dolly was special, not only because of her legendary country status but also because of the added musical element they included in the finished product.
“The mind-blowing thing about this project is that reading the novel is enhanced by listening to the album and vice versa,” he notes. “It’s a really unique experience that I know readers (and listeners) will love.”
His collaboration with Dolly is, in fact, not James’ only Music City connection. The New York native received an M.A. in English from Vanderbilt University, which is located in Nashville.
Lauren Daigle, Harry Connick Jr., for KING & COUNTRY and American Idol winner-turned-country superstar Carrie Underwood will all vie for 2021 Dove Awards, which are handed out annually by the GMA, or Gospel Music Association.
Lauren and and for KING & COUNTRY are up for Artist of the Year, and both artists are also nominated in the category of Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year: Lauren, for her latest single “Hold On to Me,” and for KING & COUNTRY, for “Together,” their 2020 collaboration with Kirk Franklin and Tori Kelly.
“Together” is also up for Song of the Year, and all in all, for KING & COUNTRY have six nominations.
Harry Connick Jr. and Carrie Underwood are both nominated for Bluegrass/Country/Roots Album of the Year: Harry for his 2021 release Alone with My Faith, and Carrie for her 2021 album My Savior.
The Dove Awards will air live from Nashville on TBN October 22 at 8 p.m. ET.
Earlier this week, Machine Gun Kellyposted a photo of himself sporting a shaggy, Kurt Cobain-esque hair style while announcing his new album, Born with Horns. Well, we hope you weren’t to attached to that look, because it’s already gone.
Thursday night, Kelly tweeted a new photo revealing his current hairdo — or, more accurately, lack thereof. The “Bloody Valentine” rocker shaved his entire head, apparently for the video for the upcoming Born with Horns single, “Papercuts.”
The picture also reveals a large triangle drawn on the top of his head, though it’s unclear if that’s a permanent tattoo or something more temporary.
We’ll presumably see more of Kelly’s new appearance when the “Papercuts” video premieres Wednesday night at 9 p.m. PT.
The shaved-head isn’t the only new aspect of the MGK look — he also got an arm tattoo that reads “Born with Horns,” as did Travis Barker, who’s executive producing the album.
Billy Idolwill release a new four-track EP titled The Roadside on September 17, and in advance of the record, the veteran pop-punk singer has made available one of the songs, “Bitter Taste,” as a digital single.
The bulk of The Roadside was written, recorded and mixed during the COVID-19 pandemic. It features contributions from Idol’s longtime lead guitarist and songwriter partner, Steve Stevens. The record, which was produced by Butch Walker, is Idol’s first collection of new original songs since his 2014 album Kings & Queens of the Underground.
The Roadside can be pre-ordered now on CD, on vinyl and as a limited-edition blue-vinyl LP, as well as digitally.
“Bitter Taste,” which was co-written by Idol, Stevens and two other collaborators, was inspired by Billy’s 1990 motorcycle accident that left him with a seriously injured leg.
“I think everyone has been feeling more reflective [during the pandemic]. So, it seemed quite logical and natural to write something about my motorcycle accident,” Idol explains about the new song. “Certainly, the motorcycle accident was the catharsis, the wake-up moment. A little bit of me got left on that roadside. But it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing in the end; it was a wake-up call. Maybe on that roadside I left behind the irreverent youthful Billy and opened the door for a more attentive father and a more sensitive musician.”
You can watch a dramatic companion music video for “Bitter Taste” at Idol’s official YouTube channel.
Here’s The Roadside EP’s full track list:
Rita Hayworth”
“Bitter Taste”
“U Don’t Have to Kiss Me Like That”
“Baby Put Your Clothes Back On”
(NEW YORK) — Two defendants indicted in a massive racehorse doping scandal in New York have have pleaded guilty.
Thoroughbred trainer Jorge Navarro and the head of a New York veterinary clinic, Kristian Rhein, were among more than two dozen people charged in a widespread scheme that prosecutors have alleged endangered horses, cheated bettors at tracks across the country and upended thoroughbred racing.
The scheme, which allegedly began in 2017, was designed to deceive regulators and horse racing officials regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs, prosecutors said, after the indictment was filed in the Southern District of New York in March 2020.
The plot allegedly was orchestrated by veterinarian Louis Grasso, who “manufactured, purchased, sold, shipped, delivered, received and administered at least thousands of units of PEDs issues by pharmacies pursuant to invalid prescriptions provided by veterinarians participating in the scheme,” according to court documents. At least one horse died as a result.
Navarro and Rhein pleaded guilty to their roles in the distribution of adulterated and misbranded drugs. They will be sentenced in December.
Navarro has agreed to pay more than $25 million in restitution, reflecting winnings obtained through his fraudulent doping scheme, and Rhein has agreed to pay restitution of more than $700,000 in connection with fraud committed through a false billing practice.
“Kristian Rhein and Jorge Navarro represent the supply side and the customer side of the market in performance enhancing substances that have corrupted much of the horse racing industry,” said U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss. “As he admitted today, Navarro, a licensed trainer and the purported ‘winner’ of major races across the world, was in fact a reckless fraudster whose veneer of success relied on the systematic abuse of the animals under his control.”
Rhein also “flouted his oath as a veterinarian” to profit through the sale and administration of unregulated substances used by trainers engaged in fraud and animal abuse, prosecutors said.
Navarro operated his doping scheme covertly, importing misbranded “clenbuterol” that he both used and distributed to others, avoiding explicit discussion of performance-enhancing drugs during telephone calls and worked with others to coordinate the administration of PEDs at times that racing officials would not detect such cheating, according to the indictment.
Among the horses that Navarro trained and doped was XY Jet, a thoroughbred that won the 2019 Golden Shaheen race in Dubai. Navarro’s preferred PEDs included various “blood building” drugs, which, when administered before intense physical exertion, can lead to cardiac issues or death, the indictment said.
Navarro also assisted in doping Maximum Security, briefly the winner of the 2019 Kentucky Derby before being disqualified. On June 5, 2019, New Jersey racing regulators tested Maximum Security for performance enhancing drugs a short time after the horse had received a shot of SGF-1000, one of the misbranded or adulterated drugs, according to prosecutors.
In an intercepted call following that test, Rhein said, “[t]hey don’t even have a test for [SGF-1000],” according to court documents. “… There’s no test for it in America.”
Jason Kreiss, an attorney for Navarro, said in an emailed statement to ABC News that he “has accepted responsibility for his actions and looks forward to moving on with his life.” A lawyer for Rhein didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A former sales representative for a Kentucky company that marketed SGF-1000 pleaded guilty last month to drug adulteration and misbranding of drugs charges related to the scheme.
SGF-1000 was not approved, was mislabeled and distributed without a valid prescription, assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Mortazavi said in a plea hearing for Michael Kegley.
Federal investigators intercepted calls during which Kegley acknowledged he did not know the precise contents of SGF-1000, according to the indictment. Kegley also was overheard explaining that trainers could be charged with felonies in the U.S. for doping horses.
Kegley conspired with trainers, veterinarians and others to make misbranded drugs, secretly administer them to racehorses and cheat bettors in the $100 billion global racehorse industry, prosecutors said.
When asked by a judge whether he knew that trainers intended to use the drugs on thoroughbred racehorses last month, Kegley replied, “Yes, your honor.”
Kegley has agreed to forfeit more than $3 million and faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
Mike Richards and former The Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik have been confirmed as the new hosts of Jeopardy!
Richards will take over as he full-time host of Jeopardy!’s daily syndicated program, replacing the late Alex Trebek. Bialik is set to host Jeopardy!’s primetime and spinoff series, including the upcoming Jeopardy! National College Championship, which will air on ABC next year.
Richards, who’s been serving as executive producer on the show since last year, will continue his producing role. Jeopardy!’s all-time champ Ken Jennings will return as consulting producer.
“I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to host the syndicated version of Jeopardy!,” Richards says in a statement, in part. “Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined being chosen to step into a role of this magnitude.”
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to join the Jeopardy! family,” Bialik adds. “What started out with my 15-year-old repeating a rumor from Instagram that I should guest host the show has turned into one of the most exciting and surreal opportunities of my life!”
Trebek died in November at age 80, after hosting Jeopardy! for 37 years. A series of guest hosts took over this past season, including Katie Couric, LeVar Burton, George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts and others.
Jeopardy! is set to begin production on season 38 last this month, with new episodes debuting on September 13, 2021.
Halle Berry makes her directorial debut with Bruised this fall, and the actress recently revealed just how far she was willing to go to ensure her labor of love crossed the finish line.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Berry explained she broke two ribs on the first day of filming. She quickly added they weren’t the same ribs she fractured when filming 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum.
“When you break something, it calcifies and it’s stronger. You don’t usually break the same bones twice,” Berry said. She explained that she chose to work through the pain because, during Parabellum, her injury caused production to come to a standstill.
“I told the director about it, they told the insurance. We had to shut down for months and it was a big ordeal,” the 54-year-old actress recalled. “On this, because it was an independent movie, we didn’t have a big budget. The director in me said, ‘I didn’t come this far and work this hard to go home.'”
Eric Brown, who worked as the stunt coordinator for Bruised, was impressed by Berry’s determination.
“[It was] kind of a crazy injury. But that was just her intensity,” said Brown. “Halle’s a special case. I’ve worked with tons of actors, and almost none of them have that kind of work ethic.”
Bruised, a sports drama in which Berry plays a disgraced MMA fighter on a path to redemption, premieres November 24 on Netflix.
(WACO, Texas) — The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions levied punishments against Baylor University on Wednesday, following the conclusion of its investigation into several alleged rules violations.
According to a news release, the committee determined that Baylor provided impermissible benefits to student-athletes and violated recruiting rules between 2011 and 2016. They could not, however, conclude whether Baylor had violated NCAA rules when it failed to report allegations of sexual violence on its campus.
“Baylor admitted to moral and ethical failings in its handling of sexual and interpersonal violence on campus,” the panel said in its decision, “but argued those failings, however egregious, did not constitute violations of NCAA rules.”
“Ultimately, and with tremendous reluctance, this panel agrees.”
The NCAA panel says that while the organization provides resources to support member institutions in carrying out the responsibilities of reporting and addressing sexual violence on campus as required by the U.S. Department of Education, current NCAA rules don’t call for their adjudication of how schools respond to such issues. Still, the panel quotes one former university president as saying Baylor’s handling of sexual violence was a “colossal operational failure.”
Baylor was accused of shielding football student-athletes from disciplinary processes and failed to report allegations of misconduct by football student-athletes.
The panel did find that one student-athlete who had been suspended for plagiarism had been required to submit to an academic performance plan, but later was caught cheating on an in-class quiz. That incident, they say, was not reported to the university president as a failure to live up to that performance plan.
The school also was found to have used a “predominantly female student-host group, the Baylor Bruins” to recruit football student-athletes. While the group eventually allowed membership for men, the panel says it was “geared toward female participants.”
“The gender-based nature of this group is especially concerning in light of the campus-wise cultural issues…as well as the extremely troubling assertions…that the Bruins were ‘kind of at the disposal of football players in a very inappropriate way.'”
Among the penalties the NCAA panel will levy are a $5,000 fine, four years of probation, more stringent recruiting restrictions. The school must also vacate all records from contests in which ineligible student-athletes participated.
(ATLANTA) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday announced new evidence that strengthens its recommendation for pregnant people to get vaccinated.
“CDC recommends that pregnant people should be vaccinated against COVID-19, based on new evidence about the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines. COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for all people 12 years and older, including people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or trying to get pregnant now or might become pregnant in the future,” the CDC said in a summary of its updated guidance.
The update is based on further research that found pregnant people can receive an mRNA vaccine with no increased risk to themselves or their babies. Getting the vaccine early in pregnancy, including anytime before 20 weeks, poses no increased risk for miscarriage, CDC scientists found, and there are no safety concerns for pregnant people vaccinated late in pregnancy, or for their babies.
Preliminary: New CDC study found no increased risk of miscarriage after #COVID19 vaccination during early pregnancy. These findings can help inform discussions about COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy between pregnant people & healthcare providers: https://t.co/pBVlI6STf8pic.twitter.com/kruX8OJvyl
“In a new analysis of current data from the v-safe pregnancy registry, scientists did not find an increased risk for miscarriage among people who received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine before 20 weeks of pregnancy. This adds to the growing evidence of the safety of these vaccines,” the CDC said.
Until Wednesday, the CDC’s guidance for pregnant women was that they were eligible and could get vaccinated. The new guidance, which is that pregnant women should get vaccinated, is armed with more data and safety assurances. It also comes as the nation sees a significant spike in COVID cases and hospitals near capacity in states like Texas and Florida.
The risk of severe illness from COVID is much higher for pregnant women.
Pregnant women are more likely to be hospitalized and need critical care, including ventilation and admission to the intense care unit (ICU), according to the CDC, and COVID-19 during pregnancy increases the risk for preterm birth of the infants — a birth that is three or more weeks ahead of the expected due date.
Last week, two of the nation’s leading women’s health organizations, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), came out in full support of vaccinations for pregnant women.
“ACOG is recommending vaccination of pregnant individuals because we have evidence of the safe and effective use of the vaccine during pregnancy from many tens of thousands of reporting individuals, because we know that COVID-19 infection puts pregnant people at increased risk of severe complications, and because it is clear from the current vaccination rates that people need to feel confident in the safety and protective value of the COVID-19 vaccines,” ACOG president Dr. J. Martin Tucker said in a statement. “Pregnant individuals should feel confident that choosing COVID-19 vaccination not only protects them but also protects their families and communities.”
Both ACOG, a national membership organization for more than 60,000 OBGYNs, and SMFM, a global organization with more than more than 5,000 physicians, scientists and women’s health professionals, previously recommended that pregnant people have access to vaccines and should “engage in shared decision-making” about the vaccine with their doctors.
Currently, the rate of vaccination among pregnant women is very low. Just 23% of pregnant women received one dose of a vaccine during pregnancy as of July 31, per CDC data.
