As promised, a newly created video for Billy Joel‘s beloved 1977 song from The Stranger, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” has premiered on Billy’s YouTube channel.
The animated clip brings to life the two main characters of the song, Brenda and Eddie, who meet at an Italian restaurant after years apart to reminisce about their lives. The clip pretty much illustrates the lyrics exactly, as the former couple catch each other up on what they’re doing now, think about their days together as the king and queen of the prom, and recall their ill-fated marriage and subsequent divorce.
The fun part of the video, however, is spotting all the Billy Joel Easter eggs. For example, the story unfolds comic book-style via the pages of a menu on the table of the restaurant, which is called Cacciatore’s — the name of a character in another Stranger song, “Movin’ Out.” The menu’s cover is decorated with a mask and a pair of boxing gloves, both motifs of The Stranger‘s artwork, which recur throughout the video.
In another comic-strip panel, there are scenes of people outside a bar called “Zanzibar,” the name of a 1978 song by Billy. When we see Brenda and Eddie’s “apartment with deep-pile carpets,” the walls are decorated with framed covers of Billy’s 1970s-era albums.
Also sprinkled in are scenes of Billy and his band performing live in various eras, and one shot shows a wall of posters advertising a gig at the “Coliseum” — a reference to Billy’s hometown venue, the now-defunct Nassau Coliseum. As the song ends and the menu closes, it morphs into the cover of The Stranger.
The Stranger is included in the nine-LP box set Billy Joel — The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1, due out on November 5.
The collection, which is priced at $19.99, features miniature versions of the band’s four main longtime members — singer Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, and late drummer Charlie Watts. Each figure stands over 2.5 inches tall.
The toys come packaged in a gift box resembling a concert stage and featuring The Rolling Stones’ iconic “tongue and lips” logo.
The set currently is available as an Amazon.com exclusive.
Other music stars who have been previously been immortalized as miniature toys as part of the “Little People” series include The Beatles, KISS, Elvis Presley and Run-DMC.
(ORLANDO) — The FBI has joined the search for 19-year-old Florida college student Miya Marcano as her desperate family said they suspect she was kidnapped from her apartment a week ago.
Marcano, a student at Valencia College in Orlando, was last seen at her apartment complex on Sept. 18 and a man Orange County Sheriff John Mina named Thursday as a “prime suspect” in her disappearance was found dead from an apparent suicide after investigators searched his home and car.
“We’re just ready to bring her home, but we need everyone’s help. We need every resource at this point,” Marcano’s aunt, Semone Westmaas, told ABC affiliate station WFTV in Orlando.
Mina said at a news conference Thursday afternoon that 60 detectives from his agency’s Criminal Investigations Division are working exclusively on this case.
“I know that Miya’s family and her loved ones are going through unimaginable anguish as they try and find out what happened to Miya,” Mina said. “Hundreds of sworn and civilian personnel here at the sheriff’s office and beyond have been working around the clock to employ all the resources at our disposal to find Miya.”
Sheriff investigators initially named Armando Manuel Caballero, a maintenance employee at the Arden Villas apartments where Marcano lives as a person of interest in her disappearance. Authorities said Caballero had expressed a romantic interest in Marcano but she rebuffed his advances.
Investigators said the 27-year-old Caballero possessed a key fob to access apartments and his was used at Marcano’s unit just before her disappearance.
Caballero was found dead on Monday in his apartment from an apparent suicide.
“We believe that the suspect that we had named, Armando Caballero, is responsible. We don’t know all the circumstances involved in what happened there, but he was obviously the prime suspect,” Mina said.
He said that at this time investigators do not believe another person was involved in the disappearance of Marcano, but have not entirely ruled out that possibility.
Mina said the sheriff’s office Emergency Response Team and personnel from other law enforcement agencies have conducted nearly 30 searches since Marcano went missing across three different counties. He said at least 175 people have been involved in the searches.
The sheriff said his agency reached out to the FBI for assistance and that the federal agency has provided resources.
“We are working with the FBI and they are assisting in this case. I’ll just say in a manner of technology at this point,” Mina said.
He announced the FBI’s involvement after Marcano’s loved ones called on the bureau to help in the case.
Mina said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has also loaned investigators a K-9 unit that is trained to search for electronics, specifically cellphones.
Deputies were seen on Wednesday combing through storage facilities at the Arden Villas apartments in Orlando, where Marcano also works, and searching a nearby wooded area.
Marcano was last seen at around 5 p.m. on Friday at her apartment complex, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Westmaas said relatives reported her missing after asking the sheriff’s department to conduct a welfare check on Marcano. She said that when she and other relatives entered Marcano’s normally tidy apartment, they found it “a mess” and discovered signs of an apparent struggle.
WFTV obtained a video of Caballero walking through the parking lot of the Arden Villas apartments after Marcano went missing, carrying what her family said resembled items belonging to her.
“We were given that video right away,” Mina said. “That video led us to be able to do a search warrant on Caballero’s apartment and vehicle.”
Mina did not disclose what evidence investigators found.
Sarah Michelle Gellar is tired of how pop culture portrays people with asthma — and she’s aiming to change that.
In partnership with the pharmaceutical company Teva, Gellar helped launch the Inhaler Tales campaign, which aims to raise awareness on proper inhaler use and encourage those with asthma to advocate for themselves.
“I think that there’s this stereotype — like any kind of diagnosis — [asthma] is a sign of weakness. And it’s not,” the Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum told ABC Audio. “Our bodies are not machines.”
Asthma is a condition of the lungs, says the Mayo Clinic, where the airways can narrow and swell, which in turn can make breathing difficult or trigger an attack. Asthma can’t be cured but it can be controlled with medication.
Gellar took note of how pop culture makes light of asthmatic characters and that those misguided stereotypes can feed misinformation. For example, Mikey from The Goonies and Albert from Hitch used their inhaler as a prop and were portrayed as defenseless or cowardly. Gellar says those tropes should be “taken with a grain of salt” because asthma is “not something to be ashamed of.”
Gellar also noted how actors who play asthmatic people don’t correctly use an inhaler on screen.
“They just puff into it. Always wrong,” the Cruel Intentions star stressed, noting a recent Teva study that found over 50% of people with asthma or COPD use their inhaler incorrectly.
Gellar said improper inhaler use can exacerbate symptoms, and stressed, “With the right treatment program, you really should be able to live your life to the fullest.”
That’s why she says it’s “so important… to know how to properly utilize that equipment.” Gellar encourages those with asthma to be honest with their doctors when their inhaler isn’t effectively controlling their symptoms.
Rudin left, Sorkin right in 2011 — Mark Sullivan/WireImage
In a lengthy interview with Oscar-winning screenwriter and The Newsroom creator Aaron Sorkin, Vanity Fair got him to speak for the first time about producer Scott Rudin, a once frequent collaborator whose career was torpedoed by accusations of bullying and even physical violence against his staff.
Those accusations from former employees were chronicled in a bombshell Hollywood Reporter feature last April.
“He got what he deserved,” Sorkin said in part, explaining he previously stayed silent about Rudin because he didn’t think it was “helpful for me to stand on his torso and kind of jump up and down.”
Sorkin says, “…I’ve worked with Scott a lot, three feature films, an HBO series, and a Broadway play. [I]t was painful to read that Hollywood Reporter story, particularly because it’s pretty likely that some of those assistants who were being abused were working on something I wrote while they were being abused. So I took it personally.”
Sorkin insists to Vanity Fair that he knew about Rudin’s “higher class of bullying,” but claims he never personally witnessed any troubling behavior or heard any of the physical violence accusations. The pair last worked on the Tony-winning revival of To Kill a Mockingbird, with Jeff Daniels in the lead.
Sorkin also explained the last time he spoke with the disgraced producer was when he severed Rudin’s ties with To Kill a Mockingbird via Zoom. The play will re-open after the COVID-19 hiatus on October 5, without Rudin’s involvement.
As for his former collaborator on The Social Network, Steve Jobs, Moneyball and The Newsroom, Sorkin, who’s battled substance abuse problems, said of Rudin, “I feel the way I would with an alcoholic or an addict. I hope he gets better.”
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 696,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 65% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Latest headlines:
-Daily hospital admissions down 32% in last month
-NYC teachers ask Supreme Court to block school vaccine mandate
-37% of people may have at least 1 symptom months after having COVID: Study
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Sep 30, 4:33 pm
Daily hospital admissions down 32% in last month
Since the beginning of September, the U.S. has seen a drop of more than 27,000 patients in hospitals across the country, according to federal data. A little less than half of those patients come from Florida.
Daily hospital admissions are down by nearly 15% in the last week and by 32% in the last month, according to federal data.
The country’s daily case average has fallen to 107,000 — a 33% drop in the last month. However, about 97% of counties are still reporting “high” or “substantial” community transmission.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Sep 30, 4:02 pm
Aladdin on Broadway to resume after COVID cancellation
Aladdin will return to Broadway Thursday night after Wednesday’s show was canceled due to several people in the production testing positive for COVID-19.
All members of Disney Theatrical’s companies must be vaccinated.
“Our extensive protocol system to test our employees and identify positive cases worked, and allowed us to act immediately to contain those cases,” production said. “Given the thoroughness of our Covid protocols and a vaccinated workforce, we remain confident that the environment is safe for our guests, cast, crew and musicians.”
Disney Theatrical Productions is a part of the Walt Disney Company, the parent company of ABC News.
Sep 30, 3:39 pm
NYC teachers ask Supreme Court to block school vaccine mandate
A group of New York City public school teachers asked the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday to block the city’s vaccine mandate for school employees, claiming it violates their due process and equal protection rights.
The unvaccinated teachers said they should be given an option to regularly test rather than forced to get the shot and they accused the city of failing to explain why that alternative was not made available.
“If permitted to take effect, the August 23 Order will force thousands of unvaccinated public-school employees to lose their jobs — while other municipal employees, including those who have significant contact with children, are allowed to opt-out of the vaccine mandate through weekly COVID-19 testing,” the petition said.
“While a temporary interruption of work is not actionable, the mandate here would have a permanent effect: it is open-ended, where if a teacher never gets vaccinated, he or she will never be able to return to work,” the petition said.
A federal appeals court earlier this week dissolved a temporary injunction and allowed the mandate to stand. The city has given school employees until Friday afternoon to comply before enforcement begins Monday.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Sep 30, 3:22 pm
Africa making modest vaccination gains: WHO
Out of the African continent’s 1.3 billion population, 60 million people have now been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
Fifteen African countries met the WHO’s goal to fully vaccinate at least 10% of residents by Sept. 30. (Nearly 90% of high-income countries have met this target.)
Twenty-three million vaccines arrived in Africa in September, 10 times the number delivered in June. COVAX is working to identify countries that can absorb large volumes of vaccines.
COVID-19 cases in Africa are on the decline. There were 74,000 new cases reported the week of Sept. 16, a 35% drop from the previous week.
A new album is coming from Pistol Annies, this time a Christmas one.
The trio, made up of Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, announced that their Hell of a Holiday album will be out on October 22. The 13-track record includes both original and cover songs, including “Auld Lang Syne,” “Make You Blue” and the title track.
Pistol Annies teased the news earlier in the week. “We’ve been thinking about…finally sharing the news we’ve been holding onto for months early tomorrow morning,” the group posted on social media Wednesday. “Whew we’ve had a hell of a time holding this one in.”
Fans who pre-order Hell of a Holiday will receive “Snow Globe” from the project, out at midnight tonight. The record, which will also be available on vinyl, will be released on October 22.
This is the Pistol Annies’ fourth studio album. They previously released Hell on Heels in 2011, followed by Annie Up in 2013 and Interstate Gospel in 2018.
DED has announced a new album called School of Thought.
The sophomore effort from the “Anti-Everything” rockers will arrive on digital platforms October 15, followed by a physical release on November 19. It’s the follow-up to DED’s 2017 debut, Mis•an•thrope.
“We are elated to release our sophomore album School of Thought, as we really pushed ourselves outside of our comfort zone and that is where growth and great things can happen,” says frontman Joe Cotela.
“We cover themes of self-empowerment, mental health, darkness, anger, futility, false idols, and being the change you want to see amongst others — everything it is to be a human while navigating through this life,” he adds. “I think it includes a broader spectrum of our influences and where we can venture creativity and dynamically as well. We feel it and we hope everyone else does, too.”
School of Thought features the previously released songs “Kill Beautiful Things,” “A Mannequin Idol (Lullaby),” “Parasite” and “Eyes Sewn Shut.” Its track list also includes a cut titled “Love Song,” featuring In This Moment‘s Maria Brink.
DED is currently on tour with In This Moment and Black Veil Brides.
It’s the 40th anniversary of Olivia Newton-John‘s smash hit single, “Physical” — and the album of the same name — so what better way to celebrate than to get people all around the world to hit the gym?
Olivia is teaming with Crunch Fitness to host a global group fitness event on October 20: An attempt to set the world record for the most people performing lying lateral leg raises simultaneously. Why that particular move? Because it’s featured in Olivia’s iconic “Physical” music video.
Also in October, a “Physical” TikTok challenge, featuring moves choreographed by a Crunch Fitness expert, will launch.
Crunch members and non-members can sign up to participate in the world record attempt at CrunchPhysical40th.com. While you’re there, you can also enter to win a trip for two to LA, where you’ll spend the day at Universal Studios and meet Olivia via Zoom. You’re encouraged to donate to the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund for cancer research when you enter.
The partnership also involves the online apparel company ThirdLove, which is launching a line of activewear designed to fit every body.
“I’m so excited to be partnering with Crunch and ThirdLove for this special 40th anniversary of Physical,” says Olivia in a statement. “Both brands fit perfectly for ‘getting physical’ and I’m thrilled that they are helping raise money and awareness for my ONJ Foundation Fund, [which supports] pioneering research into plant medicine for cancer.”
With the troubling state of affairs that is 2021, why not take a peek back at a time when an American hero could even get the Soviet Union to chant “USA! USA!”…onscreen, at least.
To that end, Slyvester Stallone will be releasing a brand-new director’s cut of 1985’s Rocky IV.
Titled Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago, the movie celebrates what MGM is calling “the greatest fight in cinematic history” — Stallone’s Rocky Balboa against the seemingly unbreakable Soviet menace, Dolph Lundgren‘s Ivan Drago.
Promising 40 minutes of never-before-seen footage from the blockbuster that Stallone wrote, directed and, of course, starred in, the film is coming to Fathom Events theaters for one day only — November 11 — before it’s released to digital on demand the following day.
As part of the screenings, Stallone himself will appear in a live Q&A session about the making of the film, and restoring it for release in 2021.
Tickets can be purchased online at FathomEvents.com or at participating theater box offices today. A complete list of theater locations is available on the Fathom Events website.
