AP National Entertainment News

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The irony tickles Cheech and Chong: The Palisades fire smoked them out of their homes. “I had to de-smoke my house,” Tommy Chong says, giggling. “Can you imagine that?” Chong and Cheech Marin ‘s houses, both in the Pacific Palisades, didn’t burn down. But as

By ELISE RYAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — As the COVID-19 vaccine began distributing more widely in early 2021, California-raised singer-songwriter Jensen McRae affectionally joked in a tweet that Phoebe Bridgers would release a song in two years about “hooking up in the car while waiting in line to get vaccinated at Dodger Stadium.”

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The great theater composer Stephen Sondheim loved puzzles, and when he died in 2021, he left one for his good friend, British super-producer Cameron Mackintosh. He left him an unfinished show. The two men conceived of a revue of Sondheim’s songs during the pandemic and

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — When Billy Idol first entered American consciousness in the early ’80s, leather-clad and bleached hair in tow, he not only brought a punk rock sound to the mainstream. The Englishman brought a new attitude, a new, rebellious way of being. In the time since, songs

By HOLLY MEYER Associated Press Speculation surrounding a conclave to elect a pope is a time-honored tradition. But for the impending conclave following the death of Pope Francis, the ranks of armchair Vatican experts have swelled thanks to Hollywood. “Conclave” the film, a moody 2024 political thriller, introduced many laypeople to the ancient selection process

By MEGAN JANETSKY and FERNANDA PESCE Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two days before her new album was launched, musical icon Vivir Quintana was behind barbed wire at a women’s prison in Mexico. The singer had spent the past 10 years visiting women incarcerated after defending themselves and, in doing so, killing their abusers.

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Friends of one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers testified Thursday that the woman told them long ago that Weinstein sexually assaulted her. Adding a new perspective to the ex-movie mogul’s retrial, one witness said she’d once suggested that accuser Miriam Haley date the movie mogul, but Haley

By DAN GELSTON AP Sports Writer PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Ryan Howard was a rookie with the Philadelphia Phillies just putting baseball on notice with his moonshot home runs when he met Buck O’Neil, a champion of Black ballplayers during a monumental, eight-decade career on and off the field. Howard was introduced to O’Neil as a

By GARY GERARD HAMILTON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — What music would you create if there weren’t any outside influences or self-imposed creative restraints? That’s what singer-actor Coco Jones contemplated. “What would I do if I didn’t have any fear of comparing myself to ‘ICU’ and my EP? Or if I thought there was

NEW YORK (AP) — “Saturday Night Live” will close out its epic 50th season with Scarlett Johansson as host and Bad Bunny as musical guest. NBC announced the lineup for its final three shows on Thursday, with Johansson and Bad Bunny headlining the May 17 show. The final show has in recent years gotten lots

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein needs to find room for another award. He’s going to be honored with a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. The four-time Tony-winner behind “Torch Song Trilogy” and “Kinky Boots” will get the award June 8 at

By LESLIE AMBRIZ Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Natalia Lafourcade sat down to craft “Cancionera,” she never expected to discover an alter ego that would lead her down a pathway of artistic enlightenment. She had always worn her heart on her sleeve through her lauded career, but with “Cancionera,” Lafourcade finally felt she

By JOCELYN NOVECK AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Ballet is beautiful. Ballet is ethereal. Ballet is mysterious. Can ballet also be cool? The creators of the new Prime Video show “Étoile” – Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” fame — are betting yes. Or, shall we say “oui” –

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Rolling Stones’Mick Jagger sings in swaggering French. Louisiana native Lucinda Williams delivers a slow, slinky, swamp pop sound. Steve Earle, Taj Mahal, Jimmie Vaughan, Charley Crockett and more energize Creole classics from accordionist and pioneer Clifton Chenier, the late King of Zydeco. Chenier, who

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer The Vietnam War cast a long shadow across one of the most fertile periods of American filmmaking, and has led filmmakers for the half-century since to reckon with its complicated legacy. These 10 films, assembled to mark the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, range from indelible anti-war

By JACK BROOK Associated Press/Report for America NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival kicks off on Thursday, bringing together a smorgasbord of the city’s most iconic homegrown artists for the next two weeks. The festival, which draws hundreds of thousands of attendees, began in 1970 as a homage to the

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer War, like love, has long inspired artists and musicians. That is especially true of the songs written in response to the Vietnam War during the countercultural movements of the 1960s and ’70s. The songs released in that time — and in the years that followed — sought to highlight

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer The evening news brought the Vietnam War into American living rooms, but once the news was over, so was the war. Prime-time shows brought nary a mention of it as networks looked to bring uncontroversial content to the broadest possible audience. But the war simmered below the surface as

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer Vietnam has been called the first “television” war. But it has also inspired generations of writers who have explored its origins, its horrors, its aftermath and the innate flaws and miscalculations that drove the world’s most powerful country, the U.S., into a long, gruesome and hopeless conflict. FICTION “The

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Charles Burnett has been living with “Killer of Sheep” for more than half a century. Burnett, 81, shot “Killer of Sheep” on black-and-white 16mm in the early 1970s for less than $10,000. Originally Burnett’s thesis film at UCLA, it was completed in 1978. In the

By GARY GERARD HAMILTON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Many of Tina Knowles’ fondest childhood memories are of sitting under a pecan tree as her mother recited the history of their family, stretching back generations. Now, the mother of Beyoncé and Solange has given her own story to the world with “Matriarch: A Memoir,”

By RONALD BLUM Associated Press Ryan Fleur was promoted Wednesday to president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, leading an institution that he has worked for since 2012. Fleur had been interim president since January, when Matias Tarnopolsky left to head the New York Philharmonic. Fleur said he will concentrate on trying

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Jen Psaki is stepping up — not to a podium, but to MSNBC’s flagship time slot. Former President Joe Biden’s first White House press secretary, who began hosting her Sunday show “Inside” in 2023 for the network, will move regularly to prime-time starting on May

By YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — The highspeed bullet train says Japan as much as Godzilla, sushi and Mount Fuji. And it takes center stage in Shinji Higuchi’s new film, “Bullet Train Explosion,” which premieres on Netflix Wednesday. Higuchi, the director of the 2016 “Shin Godzilla” (or “New Godzilla,”) has reimagined the 1975

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — When Random House Publisher Andrew Ward met recently with staff editors to discuss potential book projects, conversation inevitably turned to current events and the Trump administration. “It seemed obvious that we needed to look back to the country’s core documents,” Ward said. “And that we

LONDON (AP) — A set of the first four editions of William Shakespeare’s collected works is expected to sell for up to 4.5 million pounds ($6 million) at auction next month. Sotheby’s auction house announced the sale on Wednesday, Shakespeare’s 461st birthday. It said the May 23 sale will be the first time since 1989

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein ’s #MeToo retrial opened Wednesday, giving a new jury a fresh look at familiar rape and sexual assault allegations — plus a newly added claim from a former model. For the first time, prosecutors publicly identified Kaja Sokola and detailed

By JONATHAN MATTISE and TRAVIS LOLLER Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Board of Parole on Tuesday recommended a pardon for country music star Jelly Roll, a Nashville native who has spoken openly about his criminal record and what it has taken to overcome it. The board’s action leaves the final decision on

MOSCOW (AP) — Zurab Tsereteli, a prominent Georgian-Russian sculptor known for colossal, often controversial, monuments, died early on Tuesday at 91. His assistant Sergei Shagulashvili told Russia’s state news agency Tass that Tsereteli suffered cardiac arrest. Tsereteli was born on January 4, 1934, in Georgia, which was part of the Soviet Union at the time,

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — With his show involved in a bitter dispute with President Donald Trump, the top executive at the storied CBS News show “60 Minutes” abruptly resigned on Tuesday while saying he’s losing the freedom to run it independently. Bill Owens, executive producer of television’s most popular