(LAS VEGAS) — Team USA and Chicago Bulls guard Zach Levine has entered health and safety protocols and will not travel with the team to Tokyo, according to USA Basketball.
USA Basketball said they hope Levine can join the team later this week.
Levine is the third player on Team USA to be entered into the health and safety protocols. Washington guard Bradley Beal was forced to leave the team and Detroit guard Jerami Grant was placed in contact tracing quarantine for four days.
The team will now travel with just eight players, according to ESPN. The team is still waiting on Suns guard Devin Booker, Bucks forward Kris Middleton, and guard Jrue Holiday. The three are playing in the NBA Finals. Milwaukee is leading 3-2 with game six Tuesday night.
(NEW YORK) — Nashville Predators prospect Luke Prokop announced on social media that he is gay.
He becomes the first gay player on an active NHL contract. No active or retired player has come out as gay, according to ESPN.
“It has been quite the journey to get to this point in my life, but I could not be happier with my decision to come out,” Prokop wrote. “From a young age I have dreamed of being an NHL player, and I believe that living my authentic life will allow me to bring my whole self to the rink and improve my chances of fulfilling my dreams.”
The 19-year old was drafted in the third round of last year’s NHL Draft and played for the Calgary Hitmen in the Western Hockey League in Canada last season.
He told ESPN coming out publicly would help ease his mind and play his best.
“Luke is a valued prospect of the Nashville Predators and we think he has a bright future,” said Nashville President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile in a statement. “We want Luke to become a successful hockey player, and we understand his ability to be out comfortably will help him achieve his goals on and off the ice. We are committed to ensuring nothing stands in the way of his ability. His courage is an inspiration to us, and to the LGBTQ community in Nashville.”
Nashville defenseman Roman Josi told NHL.com the entire team is behind Prokup.
“We’re obviously very proud of him for taking that step,” Josi, told NHL.com. “Our message as a team [is that] we’re obviously very supportive of him. We just reached out and told him [we’ll help with] whatever he needs and that we’re proud of him. It’s a big step for him and we fully support him.”
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman applauded Prokop.
“I share his hope that these announcements can become more common in the hockey community,” Bettman said in a statement. “LGBTQ players, coaches, and staff can only perform at their absolute best if they live their lives as their full and true selves. We do not take the meaning and importance of this announcement lightly.”
The announcement comes a few weeks after Las Vegas Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib announced he was gay. Prokup told ESPN he made his decision independent of Nassib, but the public reaction to Nassib was inspiring.
Green Day is doing a surprise show Tuesday night in Tulsa, OK. The sold-out show, which starts at 9:15pm, will take place at Tulsa’s legendary venue, Cain’s Ballroom.
While the show was first announced earlier on Monday, the band noted on its socials, “Due to the recent spike in the Delta variant, and because it’s indoors, we’ve been asked to do this as a fully vaccinated show. ID & proof of vaccination will be required for entry for ALL attendees. No exceptions.”
In the comments, some fans expressed displeasure at this requirement. On the event page, the band also noted that the date of attendees’ last injection must be “not later than July 6, no exceptions at all.”
The Hella Mega tour, featuring Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer, officially gets underway July 24 at Globe Life Field in Dallas, TX. No word if Green Day plans to do any other surprise shows ahead of the tour.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Global Citizen VAX LIVE
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, is ready to tell his life story.
Harry, 36, plans to release a memoir late next year that he says will be a “firsthand account of my life that’s accurate and wholly truthful.”
““I’m writing this not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become,” Harry said in a statement released by Penguin Random House, the publisher. “I’ve worn many hats over the years, both literally and figuratively, and my hope is that in telling my story — the highs and lows, the mistakes, the lessons learned — I can help show that no matter where we come from, we have more in common than we think.”
Harry calls it a “firsthand account of my life that’s accurate and wholly truthful.”
Harry, the youngest son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, stepped down from their senior roles with the royal family in 2020. The couple now lives in California with their two children, Archie, 2, and Lilibet, who was born on June 4.
The Sussexes have been very candid about the difficulties they say they faced as senior members of Britain’s royal family, including their explosive, tell-all interview earlier this year with Oprah Winfrey.
Harry has also been open about the mental health struggles he faced following the death of his mom, Princess Diana, in 1997.
Penguin Random House describes it as an, “intimate and heartfelt memoir from one of the most fascinating and influential global figures of our time.”
Harry’s book will be published in late 2022 initially in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The terms of Harry’s book deal were not released. He will be donating proceeds to charity, according to Penguin Random House.
Black Veil Brides’ new album The Phantom Tomorrow is coming out in October, and now the band has announced that they’re giving you something to read while you listen to it.
The group has teamed with Incendium to create a six-issue comic book series, also called The Phantom Tomorrow, which front man Andy Biersacksays will “build on the world that we have developed for “Blackbird,” “9,” “Scarlet,” and the entire Phantom Tomorrow universe that BVB fans have come to know over the past year via our music videos and other visual mediums.”
The Phantom Tomorrow story is based on a concept by Biersack, and is written by Michael Moreci, who’s contributed to Stranger Things and Batman: Detective Comics. It follows a brilliant scientist named Dennis Kane, whose huge ego “causes the world to fall apart around him,” according to the description on Incedium‘s website.
Then, Kane is “resurrected as “Blackbird — a mysterious figure caught between life and death,” who is desperately seeking redemption, and is “willing to fight through hell and back to get it.”
The first print edition of each issue will come as a limited-edition, individually numbered collectible book with cardstock covers, foil treatments and glossy pages.
Biersack writes on Instagram, “Growing up, I was heavily influenced by the works of Alan Moore, Todd McFarlane, and many other iconic writers and artists in the comics field and to have the chance to create and develop an original character that both pulls from those influences as well as creates new and compelling story arcs is a dream come true.”
In addition to the comic books, both t-shirts and action figures are also being released as part of The Phantom Tomorrow series. You can pre-order the series now.
(NOTE LANGUAGE) Yes, Kate Beckinsale looks stunning at 47, and no, good doctors can’t take the credit. The Underworld series star put it plainly in a chat with the UK’s Sunday Times that she hasn’t had any work done.
“I’m not against people having it,” she allows. “[But] I do get pi**ed off. It’s sort of a given that I’ve had it, which I just literally haven’t.”
The actress explains it’s her mother — who Beckinsale says at 76 is still “f***ing radiant and amazing” — who scared her away from getting any tweaks.
Beckinsale says of Botox, “I’m frightened of paralyzing my face. My mum’s voice is in my head, very loud, at all times. I know if I did do Botox, I’d be the one that would get the droopy eye and my mum would go, ‘I f***ing told you! See? You should never do that.'”
Beckinsale, promoting her new Amazon Prime action film Jolt, noted women in showbiz can’t win. “I think women are damned anyway,” she said. “You’re seen as too young, you’re too old. Where is the f**king sweet spot for women? At some point you just have to go, b**** – this is me.”
Jolt, which also stars Laverne Cox, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon, and Jai Courtney, hits Amazon Prime on July 23.
What did a year with no live gigs do to the fortunes of pop’s biggest stars? Well, they definitely took a hit, but for a lucky few, the money kept rolling in thanks to streaming royalties and physical sales of their music.
Taylor topped the chart based almost solely on sales of her albums folklore and evermore — physical and digital sales, plus streaming. Billboard notes that because Taylor owns her masters, she gets 46% of the money they generate, compared with the 33% a top artist usually earns.
Post Malone is number two on the list, just behind Taylor with $23.2 million. Unlike her, he actually had some touring income in the early part of 2020 that boosted his overall paycheck, which was added to his streaming sales for hits like “Circles.”
Celine Dion comes in at number three because, she was able to tour before the pandemic hit, raking in some $17 million. Royalties from her recordings and publishing made up the rest of her $17.5 million paycheck.
Billie Eilish was in the top five thanks to three pre-pandemic concerts she performed, but she made the bulk of her $14.7 million in streaming and publishing, as well as physical album sales.
Here’s how some other big stars did in terms of their U.S. paychecks:
11. The Weeknd, $10.4 million
19. BTS, $8.9 million
23. Ariana Grande, $7.5 million
31. Justin Bieber, $6.22 million
36. Ed Sheeran, $5.66 million
37. Halsey, $5.55 million
38. Harry Styles, $5.51 million
Globally, Taylor slides to number two, Billie rises to number three, and rock legends Queen are ranked number one.
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton are celebrating two weeks of wedded bliss.
The pop superstar shared a never-before-seen candid shot from her wedding ceremony to her country star husband, which took place on July 3. “Happy 2 week anniversary [Blake Shelton],” she wrote in the caption of her post.
The black-and-white image shows Blake and Gwen dressed up in their wedding outfits, standing together in the doorway of the chapel that Blake had built on the property of his Oklahoma ranch specifically for the couple’s wedding. Standing by them is Carson Daly, who officiated the wedding.
Per People, the superstar couple purposely kept their wedding intimate and focused on family. “They didn’t want a circus. In the end, they just wanted to have this moment with their loved ones,” one source explained.
In the days since the wedding, fans have learned the backstories behind a few of the details that the couple used to honor their family members. Gwen’s custom bridal train featured her name and Blake’s embroidered into it, plus the names of her three sons, Kingston, Apollo and Zuma.
She also tributed her parents — who were both present at the wedding — with a lavish, five-tier wedding cake based on the same one that they had at their own ceremony.
Blake and Gwen’s wedding came five years after the couple started dating. They originally met when they were both coaches on The Voice.
The Korean pop supergroup is calling on fans to show off their dance moves to their new song, “Permission to Dance,” for the first global dance challenge hosted on YouTube Shorts.
Throughout the video, the superstar group can be seen doing dance moves that incorporate the signs for “joy,” “dance” and “peace.”
Fans will have three weeks to submit their own 15-second video recreating the dance moves from the upbeat video, using the hashtags #PermissiontoDance and #Shorts. BTS will then pick their favorite clips to be featured in a Shorts compilation video.
The contest takes place from July 23 through August 14.
Co-written by Ed Sheeran, “Permission to Dance” has amassed more than 170 million views on YouTube. The track follows BTS’ current single, “Butter,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 and set a Guinness World Record for becoming the most viewed YouTube music video in a 24-hour period.
What did a year with no live gigs do to the fortunes of rock’s biggest stars? Well, they definitely took a hit, but the lucky few who managed to get some live dates in before the pandemic shut things down did well, as did sales and streaming of new releases and catalog reissues.
Among veteran artists, The Eagles were tops. They came in fourth on Billboard‘s ranking of the highest-paid musicians of 2020 in the U.S., behind pop superstars Taylor Swift, Post Malone and Celine Dion. That’s because they were lucky enough to have played 10 shows before the pandemic hit, netting them about $11 million. The rest of their $16.3 million paycheck came from streaming radio and sales and streaming of recordings.
Queen rank number seven with earnings of $13.2 million, thanks to royalties from record sales, publishing and massive streaming numbers. In fact, their on-demand audio streams outranked every other veteran act on the list.
The Beatles ranked number eight with $12.9 million thanks to physical sales of their albums — most of which were pricey vinyl reissues — plus an impressive 1.8 billion streams, which Billboard says is rare for a rock band.
Just out of the top 10, AC/DC came in at #13 with $10.1 million, thanks to sales of its 2020 album Power Up, its back catalog and nearly 1.5 billion streams
Here’s how some other veteran acts ranked in terms of their U.S. paychecks:
18. Metallica, $9 million
20. Pink Floyd, $8.8 million
29. Fleetwood Mac, $6.6 million (thanks to that viral “Dreams” TikTok video)
33. KISS, $6 million
34. Rolling Stones, $5.96 million
39. Billy Joel, $5.49 million
40. Aerosmith, $5.35 million
Globally, though, Queen soar to number one in the rankings.
