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We’re guessing 6-foot-5 actor Jacob Elordi isn’t often called “baby girl,” but that’s just what Reneé Rapp and Bowen Yang label him in new Saturday Night Live promos, released Thursday night (Jan. 18). “Reneé, you were so right. He is so baby girl,” SNL castmember Yang says after Elordi announces his hosting gig, to which […]
Just one week after confirming an April 18, 2025, release for the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic, the creators behind the film have cast their young King of Pop.
Nine-year-old actor Juliano Krue Valdi will portray Michael Jackson during his formative years in the Jackson 5 — the legendary family band behind such timeless hits as “I’ll Be There,” “ABC” and “I Want You Back.” Valdi is well-known across social media for his Michael Jackson impersonations, with videos of him flawlessly executing the moonwalk garnering thousands of likes and views. He joins Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, who is set to play the older version of the late music icon.
“This opportunity is really important to me because Michael Jackson is the King of Pop, and he is very special in my heart. I’ve been dancing to his songs for five years now,” Valdi said in a statement. “He makes me feel really special and makes me feel good about myself. I love the energy of Michael Jackson.”
Titled Michael, the forthcoming biopic will be directed by Antoine Fuqua, the filmmaker behind 2001’s Oscar-winning Training Day and 2022’s Will Smith-starring Emancipation. In a statement regarding Valdi’s casting, Fuqua said: “Casting the role of the young Michael was more difficult than casting the adult role, because where do you find a child actor with the chops of the greatest entertainer who ever lived? In the end, that was our focus — talent — and we looked far and wide for an actor who could embody Michael’s spirit through his voice, his charisma, and his dance skills. Juliano’s undeniable, raw talent put him at the top of our list.”
Michael also features a slew of accomplished producers, including Graham King of the Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody and John Branca and Jon McClain, co-executors of Jackson’s estate. John Logan, a Tony winner and three-time Oscar nominee, wrote the script. Michael is set to survey Jackson’s life and historic four-decade career. Principal photography begins next week (Jan. 22).
Michael Jackson is one of the most successful artists of all time. As a soloist, he earned 13 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits, including “Billie Jean” (seven weeks), “Rock With You” (four weeks) and “Black or White” (seven weeks). Over on the Billboard 200, the music legend score six No. 1 albums, including 1982’s Thriller (37 weeks), 1987’s Bad (six weeks) and 1991’s Dangerous (four weeks).
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. It can feel as though there aren’t enough hours in the day to get all your work done, go to the […]
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
UFC 297 will kick off 2024 with its first pay-per-view event as middleweight champion Sean Strickland puts his title to the test against former KSW welterweight champion Dricus du Plessis. The two will enter the ring on Saturday (Jan. 20) at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada, but if you weren’t able to grab a travel deal this time or grab last-minute tickets to watch the Strickland vs. du Plessis live and in person, you can still livestream the event through PPV on ESPN+ for $69.99 at 10 p.m. ET.
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The co-main event will see an exciting match-up between Raquel Pennington vs. Mayra Bueno Silva as the two fight it out for the vacant bantamweight title. The title became up for grabs once Amanda Nunes announced her retirement during UFC 289 back in 2023.
Other fights you can look forward to also include Neil Magny vs. Mike Malott (welterweight), Chris Curtis vs. Marc-Andre Barriault (middleweight), Brad Katona vs. Garrett Armfield (bantamweight), Arnold Allen vs. Movsar Evloev (featherweight), Charles Jourdain vs. Sean Woodson (featherweight), Serhiy Sidey vs. Ramon Taveras (bantamweight), Gillian Robertson vs. Polyana Viana (women’s strawweight), Yohan Lainesse vs. Sam Patterson (welterweight), Jasmine Jasudavicius vs. Priscila Cachoeira (women’s flyweight) and Malcolm Gordon vs. Jimmy Flick (flyweight).
Keep reading to learn how to watch Strickland vs. du Plessis live at home.
When & How to Watch UFC 297: Strickland vs. Du Plessis
UFC 297 will stream live on Saturday (Jan. 20) with early preliminary matchups starting at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+ and the main card event taking place at 10 p.m. ET through PPV on ESPN+. You’ll need an ESPN+ account in order to get access to the PPV link. If you already have a membership, then you can just head to the fight’s main page and purchase the event through there or click here or the button below to purchase Strickland vs. du Plessis.
Don’t have an ESPN+ membership? You can purchase a bundle, which includes the PPV match as well as an ESPN+ membership for $134.98.
A subscription with ESPN+ will cost $10.99/month and give you access to the entire ESPN+ library including live games of other sports like football, soccer, hockey, baseball and more, game recaps and analyses hosted by Peyton Manning, a shorter version of NFL Primetime, as well as full replays of historic NFL games.
You can even expand your content offerings by bundling ESPN+ with Hulu and Disney+ for more programs to binge at your leisure.
For the last few years, Lil Nas X has carefully built up his public persona as a pop provocateur, master marketer and hilarious internet troll. But in a new clip, the rapper is stripping away all the facade and letting fans get to see the person underneath. On Thursday (Jan. 18), Lil Nas X unveiled […]
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Hello Kitty has always been a classic character, and now she’s celebrating her 50th anniversary with the cutest collaboration with Crocs. The special-edition Hello Kitty Crocs officially dropped on Wednesday (Jan. 17) and are still in stock, but most likely not for long.
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Now, you can sport the famous comfy clogs with designs inspired by the Sanrio character, including her classic red bow and blue overalls. Styles come in adult and kids sizes, and you can choose from the Classic Clog, Stomp Slide and Siren Clog. To go alongside the special Hello Kitty Crocs, the brand has also launched exclusive Jibbitz charms, which start at $5 and are purrfect for decorating and customizing all of your Crocs.
The shoe brand has been tapping celebrities and beloved franchises such as Shrek and Barbie to collaborate on collectable styles, and Hello Kitty is no exception. Unlike the traditional Crocs shoes, though, these collaborations are known to sell out quickly, which means you won’t want to hesitate before clicking “add to cart.”
In case your size is out of stock, you may be able to snag a pair of the shoes through resale retailers such as StockX and eBay.
Unleash your nostalgic side and upgrade your shoe collection with these paw–some styles that are not only eye-catching and display-worthy, but will stylishly show off your love with of the character.
Keep reading to shop the Hello Kitty and Crocs collaboration.
Crocs
Hello Kitty Classic Clog
The Classic Clog gets a Hello Kitty-approved makeover that includes her iconic red bow and a blue trim inspired by her go-to overalls. The interior features the plush yet supportive foam material that’s both waterproof and lightweight to help keep you comfy all day long.
Crocs
Hello Kitty Stomp Slide
Elevate your outfits in a pair of Stomp Slides that not only include a platform sole, but also feature an open-toe design — perfect for showing off a fresh pedicure. Decorating the upper is a white and red graphic of Hello Kitty as well as exclusive super-sized red bow Jibbitz.
Crocs
Hello Kitty Siren Clogs
If you prefer a closed-to option, these Siren Clogs feature a platform heel design with a glittery sole and blue-and-white Hello Kitty graphics. As a bonus, you’ll also receive a 3D charm of the character as well as a red bow for each shoe.
Looking for more Hello Kitty 50th anniversary collabs? Brands such as Uniqlo and Igloo have also released collections in celebration of the milestone anniversary, which you can shop now and expand your collection.
For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best shoes for travel, men’s sneaker deals and Doc Marten dupes.
Selena Gomez is casting a time-turning spell with her latest TV venture. On Thursday (Jan. 18), it was officially announced that the 31-year-old singer-actress is stepping back into her iconic role as Alex Russo in the pilot episode of a Wizards of Waverly Place reboot, a nostalgic project she’ll also produce alongside former costar David […]
In 2023, a number of rock icons decided to talk about transgender kids and why they disapproved of giving them access to best-practice healthcare to help with their transition. In 2024, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong would like to break that trend.
In a new interview with The Los Angeles Times, the 51-year-old singer called out the conservative-led moral panic surrounding trans kids having access to gender-affirming care, criticizing those who would stand in the way of progress. “I just think they’re f–king close-minded,” he told the publication. “It’s like people are afraid of their children. Why would you be afraid? Why don’t you let your kid just be the kid that they are?”
Armstrong elaborated elsewhere, saying that seeing kids get to celebrate their identities earlier in life is a net positive, especially considering that his generation didn’t have that same luxury. “Nowadays it’s more common for kids to be LGBTQ, and there’s more support,” he said. “But for us, back in the day, that was like the beginning of when people were able to openly say things like that.”
When speaking about the band’s forthcoming song “Bobby Sox” (in which he nods to his own bisexuality by singing both “Do you wanna be my boyfriend?” and “Do you wanna be my girlfriend?”), Armstrong said it felt “liberating” to be in a place where he could sing about his sexuality. “It became more of a queer singalong.”
While 2023 was a record-breaking year for anti-LGBTQ legislation in the U.S., 2024 is already on track to break that record yet again. As of press time, the ACLU is already tracking more than 200 anti-LGBTQ bills in the 2024 legislative session, with 71 of those such bills aimed focused on “healthcare restrictions.”
Green Day, meanwhile, is gearing up for the release of the 14th studio album Saviors on Friday (Jan. 19). In its interview, the band said that the new album centers more plainly on America’s current political strife ahead of the 2024 election, returning to the socially conscious themes of some of their past albums such as American Idiot and Revolution Radio.
“We purposely stayed away from politics [on 2020’s Father of All…] just because everything was such an easy target,” Armstrong said. “We didn’t want to be like this CNN band. And I think in the back of our minds, we knew that MAGA and the divisiveness was gonna be there four years later anyway.”
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. SKIMS has asked Lana Del Rey to be its Valentine this year as the face of the lingerie brand’s popular Valentine’s […]
Ice-T may have risen to fame in the ’90s as a rapper and fronting the band Body Count, who courted controversy with their song “Cop Killer,” but these days he’s a cop himself — at least on TV. He’s Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola on NBC’s long-running police procedural Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which kicks off its milestone 25th season on Thursday, Jan. 18, and it’s the rapper-actor’s 24th season on the Emmy-winning crime drama.
Over the show’s many seasons, it has featured countless entertainers as guest stars before they made it big (Stephen Colbert, Bradley Cooper, Adam Driver and Hayden Panettiere, for example), as well as household names (Carol Burnett, Robin Williams, Angela Lansbury and John Stamos, to name a few). But SVU has also given everything from blink-and-you’ll-miss-it guest spots to pivotal roles to musicians besides Ice, who has become a beloved staple alongside Mariska Hargitay’s Captain Olivia Benson (who one of Taylor Swift’s cats is named after).
Among them? Miranda Lambert, Heavy D, Sabrina Carpenter, Dave Navarro, Questlove (who played a dead body!) and many more.
“The one thing about [creator] Dick Wolf [and production company Wolf Entertainment] is they understand how musicians translate into acting — they have no fear of that,” Ice tells Billboard. “I think Dick Wolf’s theory is, ‘If you could be a star at something, you could be a star at anything.’”
“My whole career doing music and being on SVU, I’ve never had Dick Wolf or any people then try to talk to me about music or anything, like, ‘Oh, Ice-T did ‘Cop Killer” or this that or the other,” adds the actor-musician. “I think from the Wolf perspective, ‘The bigger the star Ice-T is elsewhere, the bigger the star I have on my show.’ So when I go win a Grammy, it’s like SVU now has a Grammy Award-wining actor. He understands power is power.”
As for his run on the procedural, Ice — who’s up for a 2024 People’s Choice Award for drama TV star of the year — tells Billboard it’s not just his acting abilities that keep Fin on the drama. “[Wolf] sits back, he watches not only a performance but what are you bringing — kind of like what I always say is he looks at a show and goes, ‘If anybody’s tuning in to see Ice-T, yes, he stays on the show.’ If you’re on the show and they don’t think they’re tuning into see you, you can get one in the back of the head in the parking lot, you know?” the Grammy winner says. “For some reason, he likes me. I think I’ve done more television with Dick Wolf than anybody in his camp. I’m on five shows; I’ve been on seven, counting crossovers.” (The Law & Order franchise has boasted a total of seven different shows to date.)
As for how much longer Ice can see himself playing Fin, the answer is a long time. “Yeah, I’ll stay on it. I have nothing better to do,” he shares. “Like I said, right now, it’s an easy gig for me. I’m still able to do Body Count, my music, I gig on the weekends; I got a daughter in school — it’s much easier. When you’re touring, you have to do 200 days a year on the road. … I said when Law & Order ends — whenever it does end — I’ll just go out and read for all Samuel L. Jackson’s parts!”
But until then, he’s happy to keep carrying Fin’s shield, and having musicians guest star on SVU alongside him. “I just love it when they bring hip-hop artists on,” Ice tells Billboard. “It’s one of those shows where if you got a fanbase and you throw your name in the hat, they might call you.”
While Ice isn’t sure which musician he’d like to see on the police procedural next, there are a few who have stood out in his mind as some of the most notable guest roles. Read on to see which five musicians are Ice-T’s favorite cameos on Law & Order: SVU.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit airs on NBC on Thursdays. Catch up on past seasons — as well as other shows in the Law & Order franchise — on Peacock.
Big Boi
Image Credit: Will Hart/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images