AP National Entertainment News

BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — Sprinkle on the sequins or settle down on the sofa: It’s time to find out who will be crowned champion at the 69th Eurovision Song Contest. Acts from more than two dozen countries will take the stage in Basel, Switzerland on Saturday to vie for glory through a 3-minute pop song.

NEW YORK (AP) — Testimony in the sex trafficking trial of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs began this week, opening a window into what prosecutors say was the sordid world of group sex, drugs and violence beneath the glittering, jet set persona cultivated by the Bad Boy Records founder. Much of the testimony was hard

By PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press FREEDOM, Maine (AP) — Heather Donahue is walking through the woods once again. The star of the successful low-budget horror movie “ The Blair Witch Project ” has an on-screen history of getting into scary situations in a forest. But this time she is merely picking up an old soda

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — Kazuo Ishiguro ‘s mother was in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb was dropped. When Ishiguro, the Nobel laureate and author of “Remains of the Day” and “Never Let Me Go,” first undertook fiction writing in his 20s, his first novel, 1982’s “A Pale View of

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — Ari Aster’s COVID-era Western “Eddington,” about a 2020 America quickly losing its mind to conspiracy theories, TikTok and political extremism, premiered to a mixed reception at the Cannes Film Festival. “Eddington,” starring Joaquin Phoenix as a muddled, mistake-prone sheriff who runs for mayor in a

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — One song generating a lot of froth at the Eurovision Song Contest is “Espresso Macchiato,” a dance-pop ditty by Estonian rapper and visual artist Tommy Cash. Estonia’s entry in the pan-continental pop competition, which holds its grand final on Saturday in Basel, Switzerland, is a playful

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — You can get nostalgic about almost anything at the Cannes Film Festival, even Jerry Seinfeld on a zip line in a bumblebee costume. For many years, Cannes has played host not just to an endless stream of artistically ambitious movies, but also to some of

By BERENICE BAUTISTA Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — For Colombian singer-songwriter Sebastián Yatra, life is full of small miracles that come from dance, family and freedom. “I saw happiness as a child as my long-term goal, one day to be happy, but I saw it as something very far away, and now I feel

By THOMAS ADAMSON Associated Press PARIS (AP) — For powerful men in France’s film industry, this was a week of reckoning. Gérard Depardieu — the country’s most famous male actor — was convicted of sexual assault. Two days later, the Cannes Film Festival barred another actor accused of rape from walking the red carpet. Together,

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump had more frequent exchanges with reporters during his first 100 days in office than any of his six predecessors, a study has found. Trump’s 129 interactions through news conferences or interviews averaged nearly two each workday, according to Martha Joynt Kumar, director

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown ‘s upcoming tour was thrown into question Friday as a British judge ordered him held in custody while facing allegations that he beat a music producer with a bottle in a London nightclub in 2023. Brown, 36, appeared in Manchester Magistrates’ Court to

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — There has already been triumph and tears, singing onstage and in the streets, and a touch of political division, as the 69th Eurovision Song Contest approaches its grand final in the Swiss city of Basel. Musical acts from 26 countries will take the stage at the

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer Charter Communications has offered to acquire Cox Communications, a $34.5 billion merger that would combine two of the top three cable companies in the U.S. Cox is the third largest cable television company in the country, with more than 6.5 million digital cable, internet, telephone, and home security customers.

By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — A man who attacked Salman Rushdie with a knife in front of a stunned audience in 2022, leaving the prizewinning author blind in one eye, was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison. Hadi Matar, 27, stood quietly as the judge pronounced the sentence. He did

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday that it has opened a criminal investigation into rape and sexual assault allegations against Motown music luminary Smokey Robinson. The department said in a statement that its Special Victims Bureau is “actively investigating criminal allegations” against Robinson.

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Three-time Tony Award-winner Charles Strouse, Broadway’s industrious, master melody-maker who composed the music for such classic musical theater hits as “Annie,” “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Applause,” died Thursday. He was 96. Strouse died at his home in New York City, his family said through the

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein ‘s assistants kept a list of female “friends of Harvey” to invite to events and sometimes considered them a special category for guest lists, an ex-aide testified Thursday at the former movie mogul’s sex crimes retrial. “A ‘friend of Harvey’ was a woman that

By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press DALLAS (AP) — Former President George W. Bush didn’t need to look too far for inspiration for his newest works of art. The 78-year-old has brushed portraits of world leaders and people who immigrated to the U.S. But his newest collection draws on scenes much closer to home: his presidential

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — Cannes is a short trip from Bono’s seaside villa in Eze-sur-Mer. He bought it with The Edge in 1993, and considers himself grateful to a coastline that, he says, gave him a “delayed adolescence.” “I can tell you I’ve slept on beaches close to here,”

By JILL LAWLESS and HILARY FOX Associated Press BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — Ukraine’s musicians can’t escape war, even at the Eurovision Song Contest. Rock band Ziferblat were in Basel, Switzerland to represent their country when they learned the home of backing singer Khrystyna Starykova in a frontline region of eastern Ukraine had been destroyed by

By The Associated Press Podcaster Theo Von performed a set for U.S. troops in Qatar on Thursday where he joked about snorting drugs off a mixed-race baby and the sexuality of men in the U.S. Navy, and compared the Qatari hosts’ attire to Klansman robes. His appearance preceded President Donald Trump’s visit to the Al-Udeid

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Amber Ruffin looked out upon hundreds of writers, publishers and editors gathered for PEN America’s annual gala and shared her experience of being on the receiving end of censorship. “I’m officially a banned book,” the comic-writer joked, referring to her being dropped as a speaker

LONDON (AP) — Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown was charged Thursday in England for allegedly beating a music producer in a London nightclub in 2023, prosecutors said. Brown, 36, was charged with one count of causing grievous bodily harm after being arrested at a Manchester hotel. The Sun, which first reported the story, said producer Abe

By TERRY TANG Associated Press The first monologue Daniel Dae Kim ever performed was by David Henry Hwang. He had to do one for his college summer program at the National Theater Institute in Connecticut. Kim chose a scene from “FOB,” Hwang’s play about the assimilation struggles of a Chinese American. So, it’s fitting that

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jon Batiste is hitting the road again. The Grammy and Oscar winner is launching his second headlining tour, promising fresh sounds for his forthcoming album and material from his latest project, “Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1).” Batiste announced Thursday that his Big

By ZEKE MILLER and CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press AL-UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar (AP) — When President Donald Trump addressed U.S. and Qatari troops at a military base in Qatar on Thursday, he assured the rank and file that “we don’t care if you’re politically correct.” Anyone needing proof of that could have watched comedian Theo

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — The Cannes Film Festival barred French actor Théo Navarro-Mussy from attending the premiere of the competition entry “Case 137,” in what’s believed to be a first for the festival in the #MeToo era. Festival director Thierry Fremaux confirmed to the French magazine Télérama that Navarro-Mussy

By JUWON PARK Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean artist BIBI released her highly anticipated sophomore album “EVE: ROMANCE” on Wednesday, delivering a project that blends her signature genre-defying sound with philosophical twists. The singer, songwriter and actor, who moves fluidly between pop, R&B, hip-hop and electronic music, has built a reputation