AP National Entertainment News

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer The horror sequel “Black Phone 2” topped the North American box office charts this weekend with $26.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. Not only did it surpass the original’s $23.6 million debut, it’s a much-needed win for Blumhouse after a string of disappointments this year

By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press Sam Rivers, the bass player in the nu metal band Limp Bizkit, died on Saturday, according to social media posts by his band mates. The band did not disclose where Rivers died or the circumstances, but praised him as “pure magic” and “the soul in the sound.” “From the first

By JESSICA HILL Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — Movies like “The Hangover” and “Ocean’s Eleven” piqued interest in the Las Vegas Strip long ago. But now Nevada labor unions hoping to boost jobs and tourism are pushing state officials to offer tax credits aimed at bringing more Hollywood filmmaking to the state. The effort

By JOCELYN NOVECK AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The powerful gods of ancient Egypt are having a get-together on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. That would be at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s been more than a decade since the museum’s last big Egypt show, so “Divine Egypt” — a lavish exploration of

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Jason Momoa drove a vintage pickup along a winding country road in Hawaii, a tattooed arm dangling out the window and Metallica blasting. “POO’-ah-LEE’,” he said. His passenger corrected him, again, modeling the subtle emphasis on the “u” sound: “Puali.” Momoa was preparing for his role

By BETH HARRIS Associated Press PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Paul Telfer of “Days of Our Lives” and Nancy Lee Grahn of “General Hospital” won lead acting honors at the Daytime Emmys on Friday, with ABC’s “General Hospital” claiming six trophies in the major categories, including drama series. Sir David Attenborough broke Dick Van Dyke’s record

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer Two days after dozens of journalists left their desks at the Pentagon behind rather than agree to government-imposed rules on how they report about the U.S. military, it’s apparent they haven’t stopped working. Reporters have relied on sources to break and add nuance to stories about U.S. attacks in

By JOCELYN NOVECK AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Now here’s something you might not quite believe about Victoria Beckham, glam Spice Girl turned high-profile fashion designer: At theater school, they purposely put her in the back row. Because she was too heavy. “It was really difficult,” she says now of the memory from

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been imprisoned, banned from traveling, put under house arrest and ordered to stop making films for 20 years. And, yet, Panahi has continually made films. Many of them rank among the greatest of the century. Most would call that

By ITZEL LUNA Associated Press Long before Jessie Reyez was celebrated for her voice, poetry was the Toronto-bred musician’s “first love.” The Grammy-nominated and Juno Award winner’s music often feels like spoken poetry, backed by a mix of R&B, hip-hop and Latin beats. When music, and the commercial demands of the industry, fail to satiate

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Alicia Keys’ semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age Broadway musical is all grown up and leaving the nest. And, like any happy parent, Keys may visit it every once in a while. A new “Hell’s Kitchen” cast has assembled in Cleveland for a national tour that will take them

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kevin Federline says concern for his two sons with Britney Spears long kept him from telling his story, and those same concerns are the reason he’s telling it now that they’re men. In a memoir to be released Tuesday, “You Thought You Knew,” Federline documents

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — “It’s ‘Tycoon’ season,’” a beaming Ty Dolla $ign, declares. It is indeed. The inventive R&B singer has just released his fifth studio album, his first full-length solo release in five years. He chose “Tycoon” for its title because the word encompasses his current state of

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and ANDREW DALTON Associated Press Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist and founding member of the glam rock band Kiss, who captivated audiences with his elaborate galactic makeup and smoking guitar, died Thursday. He was 74. Frehley died peacefully surrounded by family in Morristown, New Jersey, following a recent fall, according to

By The Associated Press Notable reaction to the death of Kiss founding member Ace Frehley who died Thursday at 74. Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons “We are devastated by the passing of Ace Frehley. He was an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier during some of the most formative foundational chapters of the band and its

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press Susan Stamberg, a “founding mother” of National Public Radio and the first female broadcaster to host a national news program, has died. She was 87. Stamberg died Thursday, NPR reported. It did not provide a cause of death. Stamberg joined NPR in the early 1970s when it was getting off

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The first thing Kelly Reichardt saw Josh O’Connor in was his 2017 breakthrough film, “God’s Own Country,” in which he played the sheep farmer Johnny Saxby. “The next thing I knew of him was ‘The Crown,’ but I didn’t really realize it was the same

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — Former WWE CEO Vince McMahon has been allowed to enter a pretrial program to resolve a reckless driving charge stemming from a crash this summer in Connecticut. A state Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that McMahon could enter the program if he made a $1,000 charitable contribution and only drove if

By ALICIA RANCILIO Associated Press When the wife and son of prominent South Carolina attorney, Alex Murdaugh, were shot and killed in 2021, the news instantly captivated the public’s attention. Were they targets in an act of judicial revenge? Was the whole family in danger? Soon, the story went from tragic and shocking to bizarre

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, isn’t modest in his goals. “We want The Atlantic to be the greatest writer’s collective on the planet,” he said in a recent interview. To that end, he’s added nearly 50 new journalists to his staff this year,

NEW YORK (AP) — Former first lady Michelle Obama will be promoting her upcoming book on fashion, “The Look,” through a special, six-part companion series to the podcast “IMO” that she hosts with her brother, Craig Robinson. Guests will include Jane Fonda, model-activist Bethann Hardison and designer-former J. Crew executive Jenna Lyons. Higher Ground, the

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Dozens of reporters turned in access badges and exited the Pentagon on Wednesday rather than agree to government-imposed restrictions on their work, pushing journalists who cover the American military further from the seat of its power. The nation’s leadership called the new rules “common sense”

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer Former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young says that he was often responsible for “the dirty work” during his time fighting for civil rights with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. It seems an unsavory phrase. Grunt work is more like it — efforts that may not produce

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The first time the filmmaker Rebecca Miller met Martin Scorsese was on the set of 2002’s “Gangs of New York.” Miller’s husband, Daniel Day-Lewis, was starring in it. There, Miller found an anxious Scorsese on the precipice of the film’s enormous fight scene, shot on