Category: Worldwide

Ariana Grande recently reminded the world how hilarious she can be with a terrific Saturday Night Live hosting appearance. On the show, she busted out a pair of great impressions, of Jennifer Coolidge and Celine Dion.

It turns out she had another impression in her bag that she didn’t bust out: Emma Watson as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies.

On a new episode of Las Culturistas — the podcast hosted by Matt Rogers and SNL favorite Bowen Yang — Yang asked Grande to do her Hermione impression. Grande responded with a pretty fantastic impersonation, putting on an exasperated voice and telling Harry about some predicament Ron Weasley finds himself in.

Check out the clip here.

Grande has showed off her Harry Potter fandom on numerous occasions over the years. In a 2014 tweet, she wrote, “when in doubt…. reread the entire harry potter series.” In 2015, Draco Malfoy actor Tom Felton said he thought Grande would be a Gryffindor, and she responded on Twitter (now X), “pottermore said slytherin but i’ll take it.”

Then, in 2017, she responded to a JK Rowling tweet about a spider with a very inside-baseball reference. Grande also has multiple Harry Potter-inspired tattoos, including the word “Lumos” (a spell from the books) and “9 ¾,” a nod to the iconic Platform 9 ¾ where wizards can board the Hogwarts Express.

By some accounts, “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time. It’s about to get even more popular, 47 years after the singer’s death, thanks to V. The BTS member teamed up with the Crosby estate for “White Christmas (With V Of BTS),” a duet between V and Crosby of the eternal Christmas classic. It comes out on December 6 at midnight ET.

“I’m so grateful to have had the chance to be featured in a song with my all time favorite jazz artist, Bing Crosby,” V said in a statement. “I grew up listening to his song ‘It’s Been a Long, Long Time’ countless times a day, and I feel incredibly fortunate and honored to have sung along on ‘White Christmas’ with the voice of someone I consider an idol. Being a huge fan of his, I sang with the utmost sincerity and admiration for him, and I hope many people enjoy it as much as I enjoyed singing it. Lastly, I wish a lovely holiday season to everyone listening to the song.”

Crosby’s daughter Mary added, “As a family, we are thrilled to have V and Dad singing together on this ultimate Christmas song. Their voices blend beautifully, capturing the holiday spirit in the best possible way.” Meanwhile, his son, Harry, is “incredibly excited about V joining Dad for the duet of ‘White Christmas.’ We are happy that V will help share the joy of this timeless Christmas song.”

To find out more information on “White Christmas (With V Of BTS),” including how to pre-order vinyl and CD editions, head here.

Twitch favorite Kai Cenat is in the midst of a 30-day “Mafiathon 2” stream, and part of the festivities has been spending some time with Snoop Dogg. Specifically, on stream on Monday, Snoop gave Cenat a tour of his impressive Los Angeles compound.

It’s quite the space: Aside from multiple recording studios, the compound also features a basketball court, an arcade, a casino, an outdoor movie theater, a gaming space, a gym, a TV room, and other amenities. Cenat, understandably, was blown away by the variety and breadth of Snoop’s space.

Elsewhere on the stream, Snoop brandished an impressively large blunt, which left Cenat stunned (and making some phallic remarks) as Snoop said, “This motherf*cker right here is supersized. There’s a whole ounce in this motherf*cker.”

Aside from hanging out with Cenat, Snoop has been spending time promoting his upcoming Dr. Dre-produced album Missionary. Last week, he announced the project’s December 13 release date, doing so with a funny video starring two missionaries. Snoop also shared the cover art, which was inspired by a condom wrapper. He also unveiled the tracklist, which features 50 Cent, Eminem, Tom Petty, Jelly Roll, Dre, Sting, Jhené Aiko, BJ The Chicago Kid, and others.

Check out the full video here.

On Stranger Things, today, November 6, is the day that Will Byers was abducted into the Upside Down. Forty-one years after that event, Netflix has announced some exciting news about the fifth and final season of the show.

Stranger Things season 5 is confirmed to premiere in 2025, as expected. The streaming service also released the titles of the final eight episodes, which will take place in 1987:

-“The Crawl”
-“The Vanishing of…”
-“The Turnbow Trap”
-“Sorcerer”
-“Shock Jock”
-“Escape From Camazotz”
-“The Bridge”
-“The Rightside Up”

The full title of the episode “The Vanishing of…” wasn’t fully revealed in the announcement video, which you can watch here, but it’s a reference to the series premiere, “The Vanishing of Will Byers.” Who will vanish this time? The series finale is also a callback to the season 1 finale, “The Upside Down.”

“The end of this episode when we were reading it — just us reading it — about halfway through, people started crying,” star David Harbour recently shared about the final episode of Stranger Things. “Then about the last 20 minutes, it was just uncontrollably crying, waves of different people.” He added that it’s “the best episode they’ve ever done.”

It’s still unknown if every episode of Stranger Things season 5 will be released at once, or if the season will be split into two “volumes,” like in season 4.

Pharrell Williams wasn’t “happy” working at McDonald’s. McDonald’s wasn’t particularly pleased with him, either. The super-producer and subject of the Piece By Piece biopic recently recalled being fired by the fast food king.

“McDonald’s was my first and only job,” Williams told BBC Radio 2, according to Billboard. “I got fired three times. I was eating the chicken nuggets. The first two times it was just because I was lazy. The third was like, ‘What are you doing? You’re just sitting there eating nuggets?’”

Pharrell (who, in a full-circle twist, is a credited producer on a song based on McDonald’s iconic “I’m Lovin’ It” jingle) is in good company: Rachel McAdams was also canned by McDonald’s, although not for eating McNuggets.

“[I worked at McDonald’s] for a good three years. My sister and brother worked there. My sister was my manager,” the Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret actress told Glamour. “It was a great place to work, but I had a little bit of an OCD thing with hand washing and just didn’t have time. They were like, ‘Hey, the drive-through’s backing up. Stop washing your hands!’ I was not a great employee; I broke the orange juice machine one day.”

50 Cent is perhaps the biggest troll in hip-hop today, especially when it comes to Instagram. He frequently uses the platform to send jabs, but he insists that even though it may ruffle some feathers, it’s primarily all in good fun.

During a recent appearance on Hot 97, Ebro asked, “How much of what we see when you trolling people on Instagram is real dislike, and how much of it is just having fun because you like trolling?” 50 responded, “I’m preconditioned from behaviors that you guys have exercised in front of me. I’ve watched you. I’m doing by version of Ebro on my Instagram. That’s it, it just not politics, it’s a little more cultural. But look, none of that is really personal. It’s me just having fun.”

Meanwhile, 50 recently revealed he turned down a $3 million offer to perform at a rally for now-president-elect Donald Trump, saying, “I’m afraid about politics. You understand? I do not like no part about them… It’s because when you do get involved in it, no matter how you feel, some one passionately disagrees with you. That’s the formula for the confusion that sent Kanye to Japan. He said something about both of those things — and now he can only go to Japan.”

Check out the full interview here.

The official Glastonbury 2025 lineup hasn’t been revealed. But to ensure things run smoothly once it is, organizers have announced a few logistical changes to the beloved multiple day event. Coldplay, Dua Lipa, and SZA served as headliners for Glastonbury 2024, which made securing tickets next to impossible. But an update to Glastonbury’s ticket sale system could even out the odds for next year’s festivities.

As pointed out by NME, on Glastonbury’s official website, organizers announced the introduction of an inaugural queuing system courtesy of See Tickets. Instead of fighting with thousands of others to refresh the ticket sale webpage, viewer’s slot will be tallied upon visit then ushered along until check out.

While this is standard practice with other ticketing platforms such as Ticketmaster, Glastonbury has been slow to adapt it. Read Glastonbury’s full description of the process below.

The booking process itself for 2025 will be the same as in previous years, however, the way in which you join the booking process is changing. Rather than refreshing the holding page to attempt to access the booking page, this year, when the ticket sale begins (at 6pm or 9am respectively) everyone who is already on the glastonbury.seetickets.com page will randomly be assigned a place in a queue to access the booking process. Anyone who logs on once the sale has started will automatically be added to the back of the queue, so it’s important to make sure you are online ready at least a few minutes before the sale opens. Once you are in the queue, a progress bar will indicate how close you are to reaching the booking page.

Those interested in attending Glastonbury are still required to register ahead of each year’s official ticket sale. Glastonbury 2025’s ticket plus coach travel is scheduled for Thursday, November. The general admission sale will follow on Sunday, November 17. Glastonbury 2025 itself is scheduled to take place between June 25, 2025, and June 29, 2025. Find more information here.

In hindsight, Dr. Dre’s divorce from Nicole Young might have been walk in the park. Well, compared to his now rocky legal matter with former marriage counselor Dr. Charles Sophy.

Last month, Sophy was granted a temporary restraining order against the mogul after accusing Dr. Dre of sending threatening text messages. According to TMZ, Dr. Dre (real name Andre Young) through his legal counsel’s response slammed the Sophy’s $10 million civil harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress lawsuit (viewable here) and restraining order as a “racist caricature that depicts Black men, like Young as inherently violent.”

Now, Rolling Stone reports that half of Dr. Dre’s courtroom battle has ended in the mogul’s favor. Today (November 5), the outlet claimed that a presiding judge dropped Sophy protection over due to it not meeting the “burden of proof.”

In a court documents obtained by RS, Los Angeles County Judge Melanie Ochoa, declared: “The court finds the party requesting the order of protection did not sustain the applicable burden of proof and accordingly the request is denied. Any temporary restraining order earlier issued is hereby dissolved.”

Although Dr. Dre openly admitted to sending strongly worded messages, he vehemently denies threatening to harm his ex-mediator.

A decision has not been made in Sophy’s civil harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress lawsuit.

Five years ago, Nipsey Hussle was tragically gunned down outside of his Marathon Clothing store in Los Angeles, California. Since then, his estate and longtime partner Lauren London have honored his legacy in several ways. Family and friends have slowly found peace knowing that Hussle’s convicted killer Eric Holder faced justice for his actions.

Back in 2023, Holder was sentenced to 60 years to life in prison. Since then, Holder has fought to appeal the court’s decision filing arguments against closing trial arguments. However, according to AllHipHop, Holder’s efforts case has been rejected.

Based on documents obtained by the outlet, a three judge panel in California’s Second District Court of Appeal have ruled to uphold Holder’s conviction, which includes first-degree murder, two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a firearm for shooting two separate men (both survived).

Read the court’s decision below.

Nothing in the trial court’s rulings prevented appellant from arguing objective and subjective provocation to the jury or from clearly articulating the defense theory that ‘appellant acted in the heat of passion as a result of being publicly called a snitch’ by ‘the famous, the great Nipsey Hussle. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in prohibiting defense counsel from telling the jury what appellant was thinking and feeling at the time of the shooting to explain appellant’s conduct.

Contrary to appellant’s claim, the record here affirmatively shows the trial court fully understood and properly exercised its discretion when it declined to dismiss the firearm enhancement,” the three-judge panel ruled. “Highlighting the evidence that appellant used not one, but two guns in his violent attack which killed [Nipsey] and wounded [Kerry] Lathan and [Shermi] Villanueva, the court declared its finding ‘by clear and convincing evidence’ that dismissal of any enhancements in this case ‘would endanger public safety’ … The court emphasized its responsibility to consider and evaluate the mitigation evidence presented by the defense, particularly the evidence of appellant’s history of mental illness, and it indicated that the sentence it was about to pronounce balanced appellant’s mitigating evidence with the devastation appellant had caused to the victims and their families.

Michael Jackson died 15 years ago. Yet still, the crowned King of Pop’s music continues to dominate streaming platforms. That is sure to spike after the late singer’s biopic hits theaters. However, according to reports, Michael has been delayed.

According to Deadline, the highly anticipated pictured directed by Antoine Fuqua has officially been pushed back to 2025.

Originally Michael was slated to be released around Easter 2025 (estimated around April 18-20). Now, based on the outlet’s exclusive report Michael has been locked in for October 3, 2025. Deadline speculates that the delay was a strategy call to get Michael “positioned in the awards corridor next year.” Given that producer Graham King (the Oscar award-winning Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody) is continued to the project, the adjustment makes sense to both die-hard fans of Jackson and film critics alike.

The release dates seems to be the only change to the movie thus far. Universal Pictures remains at the helm of the film’s international production duties. The title role is still held by Michael’s nephew Jaafar Jackson (Jermaine Jackson’s son). Nia Long, Laura Harrier, Miles Teller, and Colman Domingo will also star in the movie as John Branca and John McClain serve in the producers seat with John Logan responsible for the script.

An early synopsis described the project as a “look at the complicated legendary recording artist from his human side to the his public and private struggles.”

A first look at forthcoming film (viewable here) has set supporters’ expectations high.