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A Security Guard At Lollapalooza Was Arrested For Sending False Threats Of A Mass Shooting

A Lollapalooza security guard who reportedly gave her supervisor a false threat of a mass shooting because she “wanted to leave work early” is now being prosecuted in Chicago.

Janya Williams reportedly sent a text message to her supervisor via a smartphone app called TextNow, reading “Mass shooting at 4pm location Lollapalooza. We have 150 targets,” according to court documents obtained by Billboard.

The documents also noted that Williams, 18, allegedly fabricated a Facebook post, reading, “Massive shooting at Lollapalooza Grant Park 6:00 p.m.,” which she screenshotted and forwarded to her supervisor.

The posts and texts were reported to FBI investigators, who quickly traced them back to Williams. When interogated by FBI investigators, Williams admitted that she “sent the message and created the fake post because she wanted to leave work early.” She was arrested Sunday (July 31) and is currently facing a charge for making a false terrorsitic threat. On the same day, a hearing took place, in which a judge set a bail of $50,000. At the time of Billboard‘s reporting, it was unknown whether Williams posted bail or remained in custody.

During Lollapalooza, no delays or cancellations due to terroristic threats were put in place. Over 100,000 attendees were present at the festival at each of its four days.

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Lady Gaga Is In ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ And Fans Wonder Who She’ll Play

Earlier today (August 4) Lady Gaga confirmed the rumors that had been swirling since June, revealing that she will appear in Joker: Folie à Deux. In a tweet, the “Poker Face” artist shared a teaser video alluding to Joker, played by Joaquin Phoenix, and then Gaga’s silhouette. The video closed with the release date, October 4 2024, and with a significant wait until that day comes, the fans have been in a frenzy wondering who she will play.

Some people are confident she will take on the big shoes of Harley Quinn’s role, last played by Margot Robbie. Others immediately dug in their media libraries to find the funniest videos to match hilarious captions about Gaga’s first day on set or having to jump into chemicals. One fan simply marvelled at how Gaga will go from a tour to filming the movie, and what it says about her career.

Lady Gaga joins an elite list of musicians starring in major films, and the pressure is on for such a popular series as Joker. Fortunately, she’s got some previous acting experience having appeared in A Star Is Born, House Of Gucci, and two iteratitons of American Horror Story.

Check out fans reacting to Lady Gaga’s announcement above.

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Mase And Cam’ron Have Appeared To Settle Their Feud, Which Went On For Over 20 Years

Rappers Mase and Cam’ron have appeared to settled their beef — one that has lasted for over two decades. In an Instagram video shared by Mase’s sister, Stason, Mase is seen calling Cam’ron on the phone.

“Killa, what’s good?” says Mase. He later jokingly asks “Where’s Mr. Petty at these days?,” referring to Cam’ron’s 2017 diss track “Dinner Time,” targeted toward Mase, on which he says, “You done opened up a door, I’m petty, ready for war.”

Stason captured the video, saying, “Ok now @rsvpmase and @mr_camron I DEFINITELY DID NOT SEE THIS COMING but I’m here for it!!!! Smh y’all gotta stop with this nonsense or I’m swinging on both of y’all!!!”

Their beef began back in 1999, when Mase relocated from New York City to ATL, which was rumored to be due to an ongoing beef with a Harlem street figure named Baby Maine. Around that time is when he retired from rap to become a pastor. He returned to hip-hop in 2004, with a single called “Welcome Back.” During an appearance on Hot 97 in July 2004, Mase explained why he left hip-hop, and Jim Jones and Cam’ron called into the radio station, questioning the legitimacy of his story and calling him a fraud.

Now, the beef seems to be over for good, as Stason’s video was hashtagged with the tags, “#The2KingsOfPetty, #WhenMenGrowUp, #ILoveIt, #Mase and #Cam.”

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The Angels Hit 7 Home Runs And Lost

The 2022 campaign has been unkind to the Los Angeles Angels. After an encouraging 27-17 season that brought real optimism to the fan base, the Angels utterly cratered, prompting the team to sell key pieces at the trade deadline. On Thursday, the Angels suffered another loss and, in keeping with a recent meme including the club’s wild statistical performances in defeat, Los Angeles lost by an 8-7 margin despite hitting seven home runs against Oakland Athletics.

Headlining the group was, as often, Shohei Ohtani and his two home runs on the evening.

Ohtani and the currently injured Mike Trout are two of the best players in baseball but, simply put, the Angels have not provided that dynamic pairing with enough support to produce real success. That point was driven home yet again on Thursday with real history being made by Los Angeles, including the Angels becoming the first team in history to hit seven solo home runs and provide nothing else on the scoreboard.

In addition, this is only the sixth time in the very lengthy history of Major League Baseball that a club blasted seven home runs and lost.

Overall, the 61st loss of the season for the Angels won’t have tremendous impact, especially since it came against another struggling club in the A’s. However, the wild stat lines just keep coming for Los Angeles, and it is wild to see.

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A ‘Male’ HBO Max And ‘Female’ Discovery+ Are Coming Together Next Summer

Next summer, HBO Max and Discovery+ will be smushed together to form a single streaming service. They don’t have a name for it yet, but today’s Warner Bros. Discovery presentation said HBO Max had a “male skew” and Discovery+ had a “female” one, so the nameless 2023-set marriage is safe from the Supreme Court for now.

Leaving aside the WTF nature of that labeling and whatever “genredoms” are, this is a pretty big gamble that Warner Bros. Discovery is treating like the natural evolution of corporate number-crunching. They didn’t reveal what the price point would be for the service (which I’m calling DiscHBOvery+ for the time being), and WBD is aiming to boost the services’ combined subscriber numbers from around 92 million to 130 million by 2025.

At the same time, CEO David Zaslav was explicit in the company’s focus on theatrical releases for their films, which was part of the reasoning to shelve Batgirl; they didn’t feel it would do well in theaters and didn’t want to put something that’s supposed to be “big” directly onto a streamer. The new HBO Max Discovery + hybrid will maintain the ad-lite and ad-free subscription models, but it’s unclear what strategy the company is employing to bring so many new subscribers to the behemoth combined service or what kinds of exclusive deals and originals will survive the culling process.

To put it plainly, they have an ambitious goal, but there’s nothing unique about these services beyond the specific titles they have (which is the same thing every streaming service boasts).

Luckily, Warner Bros. Discovery executives have us covered with a clear explanation:

(via Variety)

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BUKU Festival Will Not Return In 2023

An iconic New Orleans event will not return next year. BUKU announced that the festival is not set to take place in 2023, despite receiving much anticipation. Though organizers didn’t cite any specific reasons for the cancellation, like the ongoing COVID-19 and Monkeypox pandemics, a statement indicated that in order to continue, a hiatus was necessary.

“From day one, BUKU was created to be something different… a gritty yet colorful event celebrating the progressive subculture of New Orleans,” said BUKU organizers in a statement. “It became a homecoming for the most amazing bunch of beautiful weirdos ever assembled and in 10 years we accomplished exactly what we set out to do: we created a community… a community that truly matters. But times are changing… and the current model of BUKU needs to take a break. For a myriad of reasons, we’ve decided that the festival will not take place in March 2023. We don’t know exactly what the future will look like – and that’s okay as there is freedom in the unknown– but we know that we will gather again someday, in some form, bursting with creativity and purpose.”

Organizers also confirmed that “This isn’t ‘goodbye’ – this is ‘see y’all down the road,’” for the festival, and encouraged festival-goers to keep visiting New Orleans and creating art.

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Warner Bros. Is Going To Try To Copy Marvel Again To Reset Its Superhero Universe

After saving a few million dollars by not letting anyone see the Leslie Grace-led Batgirl, Warner Bros. Discovery has decided that Marvel might have been onto something with their whole superhero thing. Merger mastermind and CEO of the blended behemoth companies David Zaslav announced on an earnings call that the media corporation is pressing the reset button on their biggest superhero properties, cribbing straight from Marvel’s notes with a 10-year vision to build a cinematic universe worthy of Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, and more.

“It’s very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together very effectively with Kevin Feige at Disney,” Zaslav said. “We think that we could build a long-term, much stronger, sustainable growth business out of DC and as part of that, we’re gonna focus on quality.”

Thank goodness they’re going to focus on quality.

Cutting through the business jargon, you’ve got to give Zaslav at least a little credit for being upfront about copying Marvel’s wildly successful model of introducing characters, weaving them into each other’s movies, and then teaming them up for a major event. Granted, that’s also not specifically what he said, but it’s what we can hope he means. Plus, Warner Bros. and DC have been down this path before, convinced that Zack Snyder was shepherding a cohesive expanded universe that never felt connected.

The looming question is how big of a reset this really is. With Wonder Woman and Aquaman‘s popularity, can you really fully clear the slate? Will they recast the major heroes and genuinely start fresh? Or will it be a Frankenstein’s monster vibe where Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa buddy up with a brand new Batman and Supes? And how can we make sense of a cohesive DC universe when Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga are making Joker movies while Robert Pattinson’s Batman is somehow outside the greater DC continuity?

A pure reset is a pipe dream. The challenge, then, will be how to replicate Marvel’s technical schematics while already up in the air.

(via The Wrap)

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Beyoncé Said Her Birkin Bags Are In Storage And Some People Are Not Happy About It

When an act is as big as Beyoncé, anything they do will be polarizing. Thus, it is no surprise that her latest album Renaissance
is being praised for its musicality, but panned for specific samples or lyrics. After an initial onslaught from Kelis and the subsequent demands of fans denouncing ableism, the Lemonade artist has now drawn the ire of Birkin bag owners.

On the album closer, “Summer Renaissance,” the Houston artist proclaims “This Telfar bag imported, Birkins, them shit’s in storage” after listing off other brands such as Versace, Bottega, and Dior. Though Birkins have been popular within the culture for quite some time, Telfar has gained its own following over the last two years. With such a big figure in music placing one above the other, naturally, each side had strong feelings. Brand loyalty isn’t new, and throwing Beyoncé in the mix puts the contention into overdrive.

Funny enough, Beyoncé’s line and the subsequent hysteria did cause an impact beyond the timeline, as there was a spike in how much Telfar was searched according to reports from Vogue Business. Everyone may not be happy, but the independent Black-owned business definitely is.

Check out reactions to the controversial line above.

Renaissance is out now via Parkwood Entertainment. Listen to it here.

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Demi Lovato opens up about using ‘she/her’ pronouns again in new interview

For many, gender expression really is a journey, not a destination. It’s an ever-evolving experience and therefore an ongoing conversation. However, having these kinds of conversations might not always feel easy.

Recently, singer Demi Lovato, who in 2021 came out as nonbinary and incorporated “they/them” pronouns exclusively, announced on an episode of the “Spout” podcast that they’d readopted the use of “she/her” pronouns in addition to “they/them.”

The way in which she explained her decision might help normalize the concept of gender fluidity and make conversations around the subject a bit more accessible. At the very least, it might help those who do want to use pronouns interchangeably feel more comfortable about doing so.

“I’m such a fluid person when it comes to my gender, my sexuality, my music, my creativity,” Lovato began. She explained that last year, during the time she changed her pronouns to “they,” her energy felt balanced between “masculine and feminine.”


She added, “When I was faced with the choice of walking into a bathroom and it said, ‘women’ and ‘men,’ I didn’t feel like there was a bathroom for me because I didn’t feel necessarily like a woman. I didn’t feel like a man [either].”

“I just felt like a human. And that’s what they/them is about. For me, it’s just about feeling human at your core.”

Many nonbinary people opt for gender-neutral pronouns for this reason—because they don’t feel they fit into either gender. Or perhaps they do not wish to conform to societal expectations of either gender. Or they identify differently depending on their environment or different stages of life (also seemingly a factor in Lovato’s case). Really, there are as many reasons behind pronouns choices as there are people in the world to make them.

Lovato continued by sharing that since she incorporated “she/her” on the basis of feeling more “feminine” again. She even tweaked her social media to reflect the change—on Instagram all four pronouns are now listed under her name.

Lovato added the caveat that she didn’t expect everyone to address her correctly right away.

“Nobody’s perfect. Everyone messes up pronouns at some point, especially when people are learning,” she told “Spout,” acknowledging that these sorts of changes can be initially confusing for some. What really matters, Lovato asserted, is the attempt to show “respect.”

This sentiment is echoed by experts and advocates for the LGBTQ+ community. In an interview with NPR, Deputy Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen said, “I think it’s perfectly natural to not know the right words to use at first. We’re only human. It takes any of us some time to get to know a new concept. The important thing is to just be interested in continuing to learn. So if you mess up some language, you just say, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ correct yourself and move forward. No need to make it any more complicated than that. Doing that really simple gesture of apologizing quickly and moving on shows the other person that you care. And that makes a really big difference.”

In the same interview, GLAAD communications officer Mary Emily defined this type of respect quite astutely: “It’s really just about letting someone know that you accept their identity. And it’s as simple as that.”

It’s both an individual and collective journey—navigating the evolving terrain of language and ideologies around gender. Hopefully by hearing more of these stories (be it from celebrities or folks in our everyday life) we can better understand these shifting nuances and better connect with each other in the process.

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London-Based Duo Franc Moody Gives Us Their Local’s Guide For A Weekend In London

While we love nothing more than playing tourist right here in the US, there’s nothing quite like a legendary European tour. You’ll stop for a dreamy weekend in Paris then go party it up in Ibiza. Maybe you’ll even spark a vacation romance while staying in Santorini.

Of course, you’ll also want to stop for a few days in London. And sure, the tourist-centric city sites like Big Ben and Buckingham Palace might be worth your time. But what better way to experience such an iconic city than by taking top recommendations from London locals themselves?

To get the inside scoop on what’s really worth doing on a trip to London, we spoke to up-and-coming electro-funk duo Franc Moody — who both happen to be from London Town. Below, band members Jon Moody and Ned Franc share their top picks for where to play, eat, and party in London. Read their full guide and while you’re at it check out their latest singles “Mass Appeal” and “Raining in LA.”

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PART I — Where to Play

Jon Moody:

The Palm London
The Palm Pub

Go and grab a pint and check out the house band on a Saturday night at The Palm in Mile End! The pub’s still on its original ’70s decor and the bands has been playing there since time began.

A great local, east-end experience!

Ned Franc:

There are so many weird and wonderful things to do in London it’s really tricky to pinpoint one particular activity but here goes…I’ve got a miniature English Bull Terrier and live in South London, and one of my favourite things to do is to walk from Blackheath down through Greenwich Park and Greenwich itself before boarding a boat from Greenwich Pier to London Bridge and walking through Borough Market and grabbing something to eat. If you’re visiting London you need to see the river and this is a great way to do that.

PART II– Where to Eat

Jon Moody:

L’Angolo London
L’Angolo

So much great food here it’s tricky to pick! Gotta be between a sandwich place or an Indian restaurant for me…There’s a little family-run Italian deli near our old studio in Kensal Rise called L’Angolo, which became the main source of fuel whilst writing and recording in that studio. Earth shatteringly good sandwiches and the loveliest guys who run it.

The only catch is the coma you’ll slip into post eating one of their finest two-feet sandwiches. Worth it!

Ned Franc:

The Camberwell Arms London
The Camberwell Arms

For consistently great food look no further than The Camberwell Arms, the Scotch Bonnet pork fat on toast kills me. Always awesome but if there’s no room there then grab the best falafels in town at the appropriately named Falafel & Shawarma about 30 yards up the road. Other than those two you HAVE to eat at some of the best greasy spoons in town too…The Regency Cafe in Pimlico, Tony’s Cafe in Bermondsey and many more.

Beans, black pudding, hash browns, a couple of bangers, and 17 fried eggs are possibly the only thing we Brits do right.

PART III — Where to Party

Jon Moody:

Thursday nights, St. Moritz Club, ‘Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues.’ This tiny underground SoHo sweatbox has kept our knees swinging and our feet tapping for years. Live rhythm and blues bands followed by DJs all night long with some of the best selection of R&B, jump shuffle, and aka.

I think it’s the longest-running club night in London!

Ned Franc:

For a guaranteed good night catch one of Hannah TW’s “LOCAL” nights. The night occurs (about) every two months at various imaginative spaces in South London and always has the best DJ lineups.