AP National Entertainment News

By JAIMIE DING and MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press Dave Shapiro, a groundbreaking music executive in the heavy metal and hard rock scene, has died in a San Diego plane crash. He was 42. Shapiro had a pilot’s license and was listed as the owner of the plane that crashed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

By LOUISE DIXON Associated Press ANTIBES, France (AP) — Artwork by Adrien Brody and James Franco and a chance to sit courtside at a Knicks game with director Spike Lee were among the starry offerings at the annual amfAR Gala to raise money for AIDS research. Held at the famous Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes

By JULIE WATSON Associated Press SAN DIEGO (AP) — A private jet carrying a music talent agent and five others hit a power line in foggy weather early Thursday and crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, slamming into a home and killing multiple people on the flight. With the home engulfed in flames and jet

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, “Eleanor the Great,” stars June Squibb as a 94-year-old woman who, out of grief and loneliness, does a terrible thing. After her best friend (Rita Zohar) dies, Eleanor (Squibb) moves to New York and, after accidentally joining the wrong meeting at

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man charged with stalking Jennifer Aniston and crashing his car through the front gate of her home has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial, but he demanded a second opinion at a court hearing Thursday. Jimmy Wayne Carwyle a 48-year-old from Mississippi, appeared

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — Before this week, the dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi hadn’t attended the premiere of one of his films in more than 15 years. Panahi, one of the leading international directors, was banned from traveling out of Iran in 2009 for attending the funeral of a

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Amber Salazar is the kind of idealist you just knew would end up running a bookstore — a lifelong reader who felt angered “to the core” as she learned of book bans around the country. A resident of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Salazar last year opened

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — It took nearly until the end of the festival, but the Cannes Film Festival has its first outright sensation. Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” premiered Wednesday night to the kind of rapturous response that Cannes is fabled for. The film, starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård and

By THOMAS ADAMSON Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Decades before transgender became a household word and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” became a worldwide hit — before visibility brought rights and recognition — there was Bambi, the Parisian icon who danced for Hollywood. The moment that changed queer history occurred on a sweltering summer day in early

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Kermit the Frog knows it’s not easy being green — or graduating from college and entering the real world, especially during a time of economic uncertainty and political turmoil. Members of the University of Maryland’s class of 2025 received their diplomas Thursday evening with sage advice from the amphibious Muppet

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Kid Cudi is the latest celebrity to testify at Sean “Diddy” Combs′ sex trafficking trial in New York. The popular melodic rapper took the stand Thursday and told the jury about his brief relationship 14 years ago with Combs’ ex-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie. Cudi

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Rapper Kid Cudi testified Thursday that Sean “Diddy” Combs broke into his Hollywood Hills home in 2011 after finding out he was dating Combs’ ex-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, and said he was sure Combs was behind the firebombing of his car

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Kim Kardashian is a step closer to following in her father’s footsteps and becoming a lawyer. She has completed a legal apprenticeship and is now eligible to take the California bar exam, her representative confirmed Wednesday. The entrepreneur and reality TV star posted an Instagram Story from a small private

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The recommended reading list contained some works of fiction. It also contained some works that were, in fact, actually fictional. The content distributor King Features says it has fired a writer who used artificial intelligence to produce a story on summer reading suggestions that contained

By JEFF MARTIN Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The rapper known as Rod Wave faces more than a dozen charges, some involving a gun, after he turned himself in to sheriff’s officials in Georgia on Tuesday. Wave, whose real name is Rodarius Green, voluntarily surrendered to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office on warrants stemming from

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer There’s no retreat or surrender from Bruce Springsteen — or from President Donald Trump, for that matter. The rock star released a digital EP on Wednesday with four songs recorded live in Manchester, England last week, along with two of his addresses to the audience that attacked Trump’s “corrupt,

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer The spirit of Indiana Jones is baked into the essence of the new movie “Fountain of Youth.” This lighthearted, globe-trotting heist from Guy Ritchie, debuting on Apple TV+ on Friday, stars Natalie Portman and John Krasinski as estranged siblings attempting to piece together historical facts in hopes of finding

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — There’s no sufficient way of explaining what it’s like to be around Spike Lee, but his new film, “Highest 2 Lowest” comes pretty close. The main character, played by Denzel Washington, is a Knicks fan who won’t tolerate Celtics green in his house. A framed

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cardi B is no stranger to ASCAP accolades with another prestigious honor soon to join her trophy case. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers said Wednesday that Cardi B will receive the Voice of the Culture Award. She’ll be honored at ASCAP’s

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown was released on 5 million-pound ($6.7 million) bail Wednesday while facing allegations he beat and seriously injured a music producer with a bottle in a London nightclub in 2023. The decision by a London judge to grant bail will allow Brown to launch

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Two giants of the women’s rights movement, Gloria Steinem and Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee, have teamed up for a picture book with the mission of inspiring young people to change the world. “Rise, Girl, Rise: Our Sister-Friend Journey. Together for All” will be published next

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Indian author Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi won the International Booker Prize for fiction Tuesday for “Heart Lamp,” a collection of 12 short stories written over a period of more than 30 years and which chronicle the everyday lives and struggles of women in southern India.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs ‘ one-time personal assistant testified Wednesday that he was in charge of cleaning up hotel rooms after the hip-hop mogul’s sex marathons — tossing out empty alcohol bottles, baby oil and drugs, tidying pillows and making it look as

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union agreed Tuesday to provide emergency funds to help keep Radio Free Europe afloat after the Trump administration stopped grants to the pro-democracy media outlet, accusing it of promoting a news agenda with a liberal bias. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty started broadcasting during the Cold War. Its programs are aired

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — George Wendt, an actor with an Everyman charm who played the affable, beer-loving barfly Norm on the hit 1980s TV comedy “Cheers” and later crafted a stage career that took him to Broadway in “Art,” “Hairspray” and “Elf,” has died. He was 76. Wendt’s family

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — An angry Sean “Diddy” Combs demanded $20,000 from Casandra “Cassie” Ventura’s mother and threatened to release explicit sex tapes of his longtime girlfriend after learning she was dating someone else, the mother testified Tuesday at the hip-hop mogul’s sex trafficking trial. Regina

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — Harris Dickinson is sitting on a rooftop terrace in Cannes, trying to find all the movie tattoos on his body. There’s a little one for 2001’s “Donnie Darko,” but there’s a much larger one on his arm for “Kes,” Ken Loach’s seminal British social realism

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer They have some similarities, Bruce Springsteen and Donald Trump — guys in their 70s with homes in New Jersey and big constituencies among white American men middle-aged and older. And both, in very different respects, are the boss. That’s about where it ends. The veteran rock star, long a