AP National Entertainment News

By CHARLOTTE KRAMON Associated Press/Report for America ATLANTA (AP) — Three years after Atlanta rapper Young Thug and 27 others were indicted on gang and racketeering charges, followed by a long, problem-plagued trial, nobody will be convicted of murder. When Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced the indictment in May 2022, she said her

NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors in Harvey Weinstein ’s sex crimes retrial are due to start deliberating Thursday, with dozens of witnesses, scores of documents and two days of closing arguments to sift through. The seven-woman, five-man jury will start its private discussions after getting legal instructions from the judge Thursday morning. Closing arguments concluded

By ELISE RYAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Kimberly Belflower knew “John Proctor is the Villain” needed its final cathartic scene to work — and, for that, it needed Lorde’s “Green Light.” “I literally told my agent, ‘I would rather the play just not get done if it can’t use that song,’” the playwright

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen King recently spoke to The Associated Press about the new film adaption “The Life of Chuck,” his latest book “Never Flinch” and other topics. Here are highlights from that conversation. On ‘The Life of Chuck’ Over time, King has developed a personal policy in

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The English pop singer Jessie J says she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and will undergo surgery after her performance at the London music festival Capital’s Summertime Ball next weekend. Jessie J, 37, shared the news in an Instagram video on Wednesday. “I was

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen King ’s first editor, Bill Thompson, once said, “Steve has a movie camera in his head.” So vividly drawn is King’s fiction that it’s offered the basis for some 50 feature films. For half a century, since Brian De Palma’s 1976 film “Carrie,” Hollywood

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Two irreplaceable instruments owned by members of the rock band Heart were stolen from a venue in New Jersey last weekend as the group prepared to launch a nationwide tour, and the musicians are now offering a reward for information leading to their return. The band was set to kick

By JOHN CARUCCI and MARIA SHERMAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — It began as it always should, with her voice. The second solo album from Cynthia Erivo, fresh off a herculean press run with the success of the first “Wicked” film, was always meant to be “vocal-focused,” she told The Associated Press recently. It

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Edmund White, the groundbreaking man of letters who documented and imagined the gay revolution through journalism, essays, plays and such novels as “A Boy’s Own Story” and “The Beautiful Room is Empty,” has died. He was 85. White’s death was confirmed Wednesday by his agent,

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has a book out this fall that promises a close look at President Biden’s decision not to run for reelection and calls for thinking beyond the two-party system. Jean-Pierre herself has switched her affiliation to independent after working

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Bernardine Evaristo doesn’t like boundaries. For the Booker Prize -winning novelist, rules about genre, grammar or what a working-class biracial woman can achieve are all to be challenged and swept away. Evaristo was announced Wednesday as recipient of the 100,000-pound ($135,000) Women’s Prize Outstanding Contribution Award for

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Marty McFly grabbed a guitar in “Back to the Future” and rocked out with the band at a 1950s high school dance, helping him narrowly avoid blinking out of existence before time-traveling back to the 1980s. The guitar, in real life, wasn’t as lucky. Filmmakers went

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein ‘s lawyer portrayed him as the falsely accused “original sinner” of the #MeToo era, while a prosecutor told jurors at his sex crimes retrial Tuesday that the former movie mogul preyed on less-powerful women he thought would never speak up. The two sides took

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — While it remains unclear what prompted the fatal shooting of Jonathan Joss, a Native American voice actor best known for his work on the animated television series “King of the Hill,” police say they are looking into whether his sexual orientation played a role in his

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge sentenced disbarred celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi to seven years and three months in prison on Tuesday for embezzling tens of millions of dollars from his clients, including several with severe physical injuries and families of people killed in accidents. U.S. District Judge

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Don’t bother asking Kara Young which one of her roles is her favorite. They’re all her favorite. “Every single time I’m doing a show, I feel like it is the most important thing on the planet,” she says. “I don’t have a favorite. It’s like

By GLENN GAMBOA AP Business Writer Harrison Ford will receive an award for his philanthropy Tuesday night from the global surgery and training nonprofit Operation Smile. But the star of the “Indiana Jones” and “Star Wars” film franchises, as well as this year’s “Captain America: Brave New World,” says all the attention should go to

By RONALD BLUM Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) — Near the end of “This House,” a heart-wrenching opera given its world premiere last weekend, the matriarch Ida poignantly intones messages to her family on stage and to the audience. “History’s the only thing to survive,” soprano Adrienne Danrich sings before adding: “You may have left

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Former CIA director and Biden cabinet official William J. Burns is working on a book about his years leading the intelligence agency. Random House announced Tuesday that it would publish Burns’ “Diplomat Spy: A Memoir of Espionage in Revolutionary Times.” The release date is still

By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN AP Science Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists have unlocked one of the solar system’s many secrets from an unexpected source: a planetarium show opening to the public on Monday. At the American Museum of Natural History last fall, experts were hard at work preparing “Encounters in the Milky Way,” a deep

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer Assigned to cover the Pentagon for the conservative outlet One America News Network, Gabrielle Cuccia didn’t pretend to be an unbiased reporter. She describes herself as “a MAGA girl” who is unapologetically defiant in her support of President Donald Trump. Yet days after publicly criticizing a Trump appointee, Defense

By JAMES POLLARD Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — MrBeast plans to turn the success of his Amazon Prime Video reality competition series into millions of dollars for charity. YouTube’s biggest creator is offering an exclusive weekend on the set of Beast Games Season 2 to the first 40 donors who make $100,000 gifts to

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Comic and actor Marc Maron said Monday that he’s ending his popular and influential podcast “WTF with Marc Maron” after nearly 16 years. Maron said on a newly released episode that the last of the nearly 2,000 episodes he has hosted will be released later

By JOCELYN NOVECK AP National Writer Renée Victor, who voiced the no-nonsense, sandal-throwing Abuelita in Disney’s animated hit “Coco” and played the wisecracking Lupita on Showtime’s “Weeds,” has died. She was 86. Victor’s death was confirmed on Monday by a representative, Julie Smith, who said the actor had lymphoma for several years. She died Friday

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Pulp has returned with a new album, their first in 24 years. Who could’ve predicted that? Not even the band, it turns out. “It took us by surprise as well,” dynamic frontman Jarvis Cocker told The Associated Press. “Why not?” If there are casual Pulp

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A former personal assistant who accuses Sean “Diddy” Combs of rape testified Monday that she continued sending the hip-hop mogul loving messages for years after her job ended in 2017 because she was “brainwashed.” The woman, testifying under the pseudonym “Mia,” pushed

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — When he was first asked to helm the Broadway hit musical “Death Becomes Her,” director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli loved it, but refused to work on the big, splashy opening number. It was just too delicious. “When they sent it to me, I was cooking