Category: News

Now is Tony Bennett’s time to shine. The 95-year-old singer recently became the oldest artist to ever be nominated for the Album Of The Year Grammy Award, and he’s also fresh off the release of his One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett And Lady Gaga concert special. Now, CBS and Entertainment Weekly have shared a highlight from the show, the emotional moment when Gaga escorted Bennett off the stage for the final time.

Before doing so, Gaga says, “Tony, we’re all so grateful to have witnessed your talent, your generosity, your creativity, and your kindness, your service through all the years.” After pausing for applause, Gaga added, “Mr. Bennett, it would be my honor to escort you off the stage.”

Bennett gave a quiet “thank you” and nodded subtly as he gazed over the cheering crowd. Gaga then kissed the singer’s hand, locked arms with him, and walked as Bennett smiled and waved to the audience.

The Radio City Music Hall concerts were full of special moments, like one Gaga told Anderson Cooper about last month: “For the first couple of weeks that I saw Tony since COVID, he called me ‘Sweetheart.’ But I wasn’t sure he knew who I was. [Radio City Music Hall was] the first time that Tony said my name in a long time. I had to keep it together, because we had a sold-out show, and I have a job to do. But I’ll tell you, when I walked out on that stage, and he said, ‘It’s Lady Gaga,’ my friend saw me. And it was very special.”

It’s been a helluva year for London’s emerging seven-piece band Black Country, New Road. Released in February, their debut album For The First Time was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize given to the best album in the UK. They’ve wasted no time in keeping the momentum going by announcing their follow-up album, Ants From Up There, out in Febraury of next year.

The first two tracks from Ants, have seen them exploring the similarly chaotic punk of their debut on “Chaos Space Marine,” and then given way to the more doleful sounds of “Bread Song.” But on their latest track, “Concorde,” the group present a bustling folk arrangement that gets spritelier with the band’s signature horn section, and progressively builds into a bigger and bigger cathartic outpouring of emotions. Their best offering of new material yet, the six-minute “Concorde” is a deeper look into what this budding group is capable of and flashes a new dynamic wrinkle in their repertoire.

Listen to “Concorde” above and look out for Black Country, New Road as they embark on their first-ever North America headlining tour in 2022. Check out those tour dates below and grab tickets here.

02/19/2022 — Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
02/22/2022 — Brooklyn, NY @ Sultan Room, Turk’s Inn
02/23/2022 — Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
02/25/2022 — Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
02/26/2022 — Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
02/28/2022 — Detroit, MI @ Third Man Records
03/01/2022 — Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
03/03/2022 — Seattle, WA @ Barboza
03/03/2022 — Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
03/05/2022 — Arcata, CA @ The Miniplex, Richard’s Goat Tavern
03/06/2022 — San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
03/08/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
03/09/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ Regent Theater

Ants From Up There is out 2/4/2022 via Ninja Tune. Pre-order it here.

Rihanna never sleeps. Though plenty of fans have voiced their complaints that we haven’t seen a new album since 2016’s Anti, it’s not like Rihanna hasn’t been busy. She became one of the only female billionaires in the world this year, due to the success of her Fenty Beauty and Savage Fenty respective lines, and she even dipped her toes back into the music game a little bit with a massive vinyl collection of all her old work.

But despite all she’s accomplished in her career, part of Riri’s heart will also be in her native Barbados. She’s always kept her roots there, returning for different festivals every year and making sure people know she hasn’t forgotten where she’s from. Well, tonight she’s also back in Barbados to help celebrate a very historic moment in the country’s history: officially becoming a republic. You see, in the past, Barbados was a royal colony, but they’ve opted to self-govern. But Barbados will still remain part of the greater commonwealth, despite their newfound independence.

Catch a glimpse of Rihanna’s appearance at the ceremony below, and keep an eye out for her own thoughts on the transition, likely to appear on social media in the next few days.

The Houston Rockets are riding a three-game winning streak after beating the Oklahoma City Thunder for the second time this season on Monday night. While much of the national conversation about Houston has focused on the John Wall situation, where he wants to return but in a starting role while the team wants him to come off the bench, the Rockets are quietly starting to look like a more competitive team with wins over the Bulls, Hornets, and Thunder in succession.

Christian Wood is leading the way, but Kevin Porter Jr. is also showing positive signs at the point guard position, as he’s averaging over 10 assists per game in the three-game streak. On Monday, he recorded his first career triple-double with 11 points, 11 assists, and 10 rebounds — the last of which took some serious effort on the part of he and his teammates.

With just over a minute to play, the Rockets worked extremely hard to get Porter his 10th board, with Alperen Sengun trying to tap the ball to Porter, Jae’Sean Tate then standing by the bouncing ball while Josh Christopher screams at KPJ to come get the ball.

The hometown scorer gave Porter Jr. credit for the rebound to get that triple-double, but we’ll see if that gets reviewed by the league. In any case, it’s some incredible teamwork to get Porter to a statistical milestone of his first triple-double and, for that, we must commend them. It’s not quite Ricky Davis missing a layup on the wrong basket on purpose, but it’s certainly the spiritual successor to Davis’ legendary attempt at getting himself a triple-double.

Things have been a little awkward for Chris Cuomo for a while now. On the one hand, he has a weeknight CNN show. On the other, his brother is Andrew Cuomo, who in August resigned as governor of New York following multiple accusations of sexual misconduct. A new report released Monday claimed that Chris had been more involved in his brother’s defense than he’d claimed. But you’d have no idea any of this happened if you watched that evening’s episode of Cuomo Prime Time.

The CNN host devoted the opening stretch of the night’s show to the Omicron, the new COVID strain that was made public on the day after Thanksgiving, and about which still very little is known. The hour was business as usual, which is to say Cuomo never once mentioned the hot water in which he currently resides. The closest thing to an acknowledgement was when he passed the baton to colleague Don Lemon, who gave him a suspiciously warmer-than-usual greeting.

“I am grateful for your friendship and your love,” Lemon told Cuomo. “I think that you are fantastic. One of the kindest people I know on this planet.”

Records show that Chris Cuomo had been an eager part of his brother’s defense team. As sexual harassment accusations mounted, Chris was reportedly adamant that Andrew not resign, even willing to dig up dirt on some of his accusers. CNN announced shortly thereafter that they will conduct a “thorough review” of the report. In the meantime, their employee may simply have to pretend all’s hunky dory.

(Via Deadline)

Marilyn Manson has been facing multiple allegations of abuse since his ex, Evan Rachel Wood, came forward this February about the abuse she endured in their relationship. Since then, a timeline around accusations against Manson, real name Brian Warner, has been necessary to keep track of the outpouring from women who have suffered at his hands. Of course, that hasn’t stopped plenty of other male entertainers, like Kanye West, from collaborating with and supporting Manson regardless of the pain he’s caused his victims and the illegal behavior he allegedly engaged in.

Law enforcement is actually involved in investigating the charges against Manson, though, and today they took steps in their investigation when the LA County Sheriff raided the performer’s residence. “What I can confirm is there was a search warrant that was served this morning,” a source from the LA County Sheriff told Rolling Stone. “It’s confirmed it was his address, his location. It’s confirmed that it was Marilyn Manson’s location. It was a search warrant for his belongings. I don’t know what was taken. It occurred this morning, and it was for him.”

Rolling Stone reached out to Manson but hasn’t received a comment about the raid. This story will be updated if that changes.

It’s been a long road for Britney Spears, who was only very recently freed from the abusive conservatorship she’s endured for years. After the singer opened up about how much she was suffering, including being forced to take medication that dehabilated her, Britney’s father was removed from the situation and then the setup was finally terminated. Things are looking up for Britney even though she clearly has a lot of healing and adjusting to do, and as we head into the holiday season she shared a picture of a cozy fire to Instagram, along with some updates for fans.

“That beautiful … nice … and warm fucking fuzzy feeling when you’ve been waiting patiently for 13 years to be able to live your life however you choose and it’s finally here !!!!” she captioned the post. “Lighting my candles sure is a joy folks !!! And you might be surprised cause my prayers are pretty damn powerful ESPECIALLY when you’re on the right medication just a month ago !!!! Damn I can actually pray …. it feels so good to just BE HERE !!!! I’M HERE … thanks to no doctor or conservatorship people … good God my friends … it’s good to BE HERE and be PRESENT !!!! Since I can actually PRAY now hopefully in just 3 months there will be a shift for me … I mean who knows … I’m not gonna thank anyone I’m gonna pull a @snoopdogg and say I thank ME for believing in ME !!!!! Let’s watch watch watch some TV folks !!!! ”

On that note, how about this latest season of Succession, eh?
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Chucky the killer doll has been with us for nearly 35 years now, surviving countless sequels, a couple tonal revamps, a big screen reboot, one vocal change that was quickly reversed (sorry, Mark Hamill), even a blundered Amber alert. And it appears he’ll live to terrorize unwitting everyday folk yet again: As per Variety, the Chucky TV show is coming back for a second season.

The series, whose first season only boasted seven episodes, debuted on both USA Network and SyFy in early October, with Brad Dourif returning as the serial killer who finds himself trapped in the body of a freckled, ginger doll. This time he winds up in a yard sale in the sleepy city of Hackensack, New Jersey. On top of providing the audience with killer doll kills, it’s also a coming-of-age story about his 14-year-old charge, dealing with real issues, such as sexuality and bullying.

Along with Dourif, Jennifer Tilly also returns, revamping Tiffany Valentine, his main squeeze in the before-time, who joins him in dolly possession and murder. Tilly was added to the franchise with 1998’s Bride of Chucky, which revived the series by amping up the winky-winky camp element and offering a more lighthearted look at serial murder. A movie reboot, from 2019 starring Aubrey Plaza, only did moderate business.

(Via Variety)

According to a report from TMZ, Trey Songz is linked to a sexual assault investigation in Las Vegas. The R&B singer has been under scrutiny for this kind of behavior many times in the past, including allegations from earlier this year that he hit a woman with his car, allegedly punched a bartender, and fought with a police officer at an NFL game (he won’t face charges for this one). He also faced allegations of sexual misconduct in 2020, including a surprise “golden shower” and actions that are in the realm of kidnapping and coercion. Songz denied those at the time.

The latest allegations involve the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department investigating a sexual assault incident at The Cosmopolitan hotel. Songz is reportedly cooperating with the police, and no charges have been filed so far in the investigation, which began on Sunday. The performer was in Vegas to celebrate his 37th birthday, and also performed at Drai’s Nightclub on Saturday night. According to TMZ’s source, a group of women accompanied Trey and his crew back to The Cosmopolitan, which is when the incident occured. So far, there’s no comment from Trey’s camp, though TMZ did reach out to get his side of the story. This is a developing story and might be updated as more details come to light.

Orlando Magic rookie Jalen Suggs put together one of his best statistical games of his young career on Monday, scoring 17 points and dishing out five assists in 29 minutes of action against the Philadelphia 76ers. However, Suggs was forced to the sideline after 29 minutes on the court after getting hit on the hand by Joel Embiid swiping down on the ball as Suggs drove into the paint in the fourth quarter.

After the game it was announced by the team that the No. 5 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft will miss “an extended period of time” with a fractured right thumb.

While that timetable is flexible in nature, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports it will be “several weeks” before Suggs can return.

Prior to Monday’s game, Suggs was shooting just 33.6 percent from the floor and 24.8 percent from three-point range in his first 20 games. Those scuffles are not out of the ordinary for a rookie guard, though, and Suggs is not in the best offensive context with a limited cast and limited spacing for the Magic this season. Still, his start has not been outstanding, and this is an unfortunate hiccup in the middle of his rookie season.

In Suggs’ stead, the Magic will likely turn to fellow youngster RJ Hampton, particularly with Cole Anthony nursing an ankle injury and Markelle Fultz still sidelined with a knee issue. Orlando does have options, but Suggs was selected with an eye toward the future, and the Magic will have to put his development on hold, at least for a few weeks.