AP National Entertainment News

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Hollywood kicked off 2026 with “Avatar: Fire and Ash” atop the box office for the third straight week and with hopes for a blockbuster-filled year after a disappointing 2025. In three weeks of release, “Fire and Ash” has cleared $1 billion worldwide. The third chapter

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — They’re going to light up 2026 like dynamite: K-pop group BTS’ comeback has an official date. According to a note shared to social media by the entertainment company BigHit Music, the mega popular group will return on March 20. That’s after a nearly four-year hiatus,

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Here’s to a lifetime of pink skies: The irreverent country singer Zach Bryan is married. Bryan, 29, confirmed the news in an Instagram post shared Thursday. Beneath a photo of him holding his bride, Samantha Leonard, 28, he wrote the caption, “tougher than the rest,”

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny has redefined what it means to be a global giant — and he may once again make history at the 2026 Grammy Awards. The artist born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio is up for six awards at the Feb. 1

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Actor George Clooney and his wife Amal Clooney were granted French citizenship because “they contribute, through their distinguished actions, to France’s international influence and cultural outreach,” the French government said Wednesday, defending their naturalization that was questioned by a junior French minister. The naturalizations of the Kentucky-born

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A Walt Disney World worker in Florida was injured while attempting to stop a large runaway prop boulder from rolling into seated spectators at the Indiana Jones live show. The worker at the “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular” at the Disney’s Hollywood Studios park was knocked to the ground by the

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Betty Boop and “Blondie” are joining Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh in the public domain. The first appearances of the classic cartoon and comic characters are among the pieces of intellectual property whose 95-year U.S. copyright maximum has been reached, putting them in the

By JEFF MARTIN Associated Press Richard Smallwood, a gospel singer and recording artist nominated eight times for Grammy Awards, has died. He was 77. Smallwood died Tuesday of complications of kidney failure at a rehabilitation and nursing center in Sandy Spring, Maryland, his representative Bill Carpenter announced. Smallwood had health issues for many years, and

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — English actors Tom Hiddleston and Zawe Ashton have welcomed their second child. Hiddleston confirmed the news to GQ in a feature published Monday. He described birth as the “most beautiful, profound, earth-shattering, life-altering” experience. He did not share his child’s birthday, but according to the

BEIJING (AP) — Dressed in a red-and-white warrior costume, Peking opera actress Zhang Wanting balances on one foot on the narrow handle of a rosewood chair. She bends forward, lifts her other leg high and grasps the two long pheasant plumes on her helmet to strike a pose like a flying swallow. From more than

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Fireworks are typically a celebratory centerpiece of Hong Kong’s New Year celebrations. Not this year. The territory greeted 2026 without spectacular and colorful explosions in the sky over its iconic Victoria Harbor after a massive fire in November that killed at least 161 people. The city’s

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — By nearly any measure, 2025 has been a rough year for anyone concerned about freedom of the press. It’s likely to be the deadliest year on record for journalists and media workers. The number of assaults on reporters in the U.S. nearly equals the last

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer Isiah Whitlock Jr., an actor who made frequent memorable appearances on the HBO series “The Wire” and “Veep” and in five films with director Spike Lee, died Tuesday. He was 71. Whitlock’s manager Brian Liebman told The Associated Press in an email that the actor died in New York

By The Associated Press It’s the end of the year and there are fewer new streaming options headed to a device near you. But it’s a great time to catch up on some of best movies,television,music and video games of 2025. The Associated Press has comprehensive guides on the best releases of the year on

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press The Kennedy Center is ending the year with a new round of artists saying they are canceling scheduled performances after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the facility, prompting the institution’s president to accuse the performers of making their decisions because of politics. The Cookers, a jazz supergroup that

By RONALD BLUM Associated Press Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s path to the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day concert started when he replaced a banned Russian conductor at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2022 with the help of a pianist who traveled trans-Atlantic after practicing all night in a Berlin hotel bar. Just four days before Valery Gergiev

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Call them Monsieur and Madame Clooney. France’s government says that George Clooney, his wife Amal and their twins Ella and Alexander have been awarded French citizenship. The naturalizations of the Kentucky-born star of the “Ocean’s” series of heist movies and his family were announced last weekend in

By SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — The funeral for Brigitte Bardot will be held next week in Saint-Tropez, the glamorous French Riviera resort she helped make famous and where she lived for more than a half-century, local authorities said. The cinema star and animal rights activist died Sunday at the age of 91

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Britons ranging from Hollywood stars Idris Elba and Cynthia Erivo to a 102-year-old judo instructor have been named in King Charles III’s New Year’s honors list, an annual tradition that recognizes people for their contributions to U.K. public life. Elba, who starred as a drug dealer in

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Insulting the director who is making a documentary about you might not be the most diplomatic of choices. Then again, Chevy Chase has never been very diplomatic. The comedian gets snarly at the top of filmmaker Marina Zenovich’s “I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not,” which

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Text messages show that Tyler Perry and “Boo! A Madea Halloween” actor Mario Rodriguez, who recently filed a lawsuit accusing the filmmaker of sexual assault, remained in contact years after Rodriguez alleges their interactions ended. Rodriguez alleged in the lawsuit filed last week in

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Nick Kyrgios won the latest version of the “Battle of the Sexes” in tennis, beating top-ranked women’s player Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 6-3 in an exhibition match that represented light entertainment rather than another landmark moment for gender equality. There was laughing and joking between the players, some under-arm serves,

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Hollywood wrapped up a turbulent year with big ticket sales for “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and a box-office hit for Timothée Chalamet with “Marty Supreme” over a busy holiday weekend in movie theaters. As expected, James Cameron’s latest trip to Pandora dominated ticket sales, collecting

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — In addition to being a 1960s French sex symbol, actor, singer and animal welfare activist, Brigitte Bardot was a muse to many — in particular, musicians. Her name, with its alliterative cadence, became synonymous with a kind of classic beauty. In songs, Bardot is often

By ANGELA CHARLTON and ELAINE GANLEY. Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Brigitte Bardot felt each pop of the flashbulb like the impact of a high-powered rifle bullet. And so it was, she said, that years of implacable hounding by the world’s paparazzi turned a woman idolized as a sultry sex kitten into a militant animal

By THOMAS ADAMSON and ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later a militant animal rights activist and far-right supporter, has died. She was 91. Bardot died Sunday at her home in southern France, according

By PATRICK AFTOORA-ORSAGOS Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Whether it’s stand-up comedy specials or a dramedy series, when Muslim American Mo Amer sets out to create, he writes what he knows. The comedian, writer and actor of Palestinian descent has received critical acclaim for it, too. The second season of Amer’s “Mo” documents Mo