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The category is Madame Tussauds wax figure realness, and Billy Porter is scoring 10s across the board!
On Thursday (Nov. 10), Madame Tussauds and Porter announced on Instagram that the Pose star’s likeness would be the next addition to the chain’s long-running Times Square location. “Madame Tussauds New York is in the process of making a brand new wax figure, and it just might be the most fabulous one yet,” the company wrote. “Coming in 2023, the category is: BILLY PORTER!”
In the photos, fans can see the “Children” singer standing on a pedestal and posing while a group of artists take his measurements. Fans of Porter will quickly recognize the turquoise jumpsuit he’s wearing — the look famously first appeared at the 2020 Grammy Awards, where Porter paired it with wide-brimmed hat that had a motorized curtain of crystalline fringe to cover his face.
In a statement released with the photos, Porter expressed his excitement at being all dolled-up in perpetuity. “I am humbly honored to be receiving my very own wax figure at Madame Tussauds,” he said. “It’s been a pleasure to work with the artists to make this dream come true and I can’t wait to see my twin in New York!”
Tussauds said that they decided to announce Porter’s figure ahead of World Kindness Day on Nov. 13 as a means of honoring Porter’s “vulnerability and supportive nature to all communities.”
2022 saw plenty of other accomplishments for Porter. Along with returning to his music career with the release of his latest single “Stranger Things,” the star spent much of the year promoting his directorial debut Anything’s Possible, a film following a young woman as she navigates her life as a trans high-schooler.
Check out announcement of Porter’s new wax figure below:
Britain’s Got Talent judge David Walliams has been accused of making “derogatory and sexually explicit remarks” about contestants on the talent show.
According to an exposé in The Guardian, Walliams — one of the U.K.’s best-known TV personalities and a hugely successful children’s author — was heard in a recording of one episode of the show repeatedly calling one contestant the C-word and saying that another “thinks you want to f— her.”
According to the report, the comments were made during an audition show filmed at the London Palladium in January 2020 and had been picked up by microphones used to record conversations between the judges, for which the paper then saw the transcript.
Lawyers for Walliams and Thames TV, which produces Britain’s Got Talent, told The Guardian that the comments were part of a private conversation never intended for broadcast.
In one incident, the transcript claimed that Walliams described an older performer — after he had failed an audition and made a joke about the judge — as “a c—” three times. In another, after a female contestant walked offstage, Walliams described her as being “like the slightly boring girl you meet in the pub that thinks you want to f— them, but you don’t,” according to the transcript.
In a statement, Walliams said: “I would like to apologize to the people I made disrespectful comments about during breaks in filming for Britain’s Got Talent in 2020. These were private conversations and — like most conversations with friends — were never intended to be shared. Nevertheless, I am sorry.”
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Sailors, rejoice — the official tracklist for Sam Smith‘s long-awaited new album has finally arrived.
After teasing fans about the album one day prior, Smith revealed the titles of all 13 tracks off of their upcoming fourth studio album Gloria on Thursday (Nov. 10). In doing so, Smith also unveiled that the album has a number of featured artists set to join them, including Ed Sheeran, R&B-pop singer Jessie Reyez, Reggae performer Koffee and, of course, pop princess Kim Petras.
Reyez is set to appear on two of the album’s tracks — her name appears next to track four, titled “Perfect,” as well as track nine, titled “Gimme.” Koffee also makes an appearance on “Gimme,” while Sheeran will help close out the album on “Who We Love.”
Fans already know which song Petras is featured on — Smith and Petras made Billboard history when their sultry duet “Unholy” climbed to the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 on the week of Oct. 29, become the first solo non-binary and transgender artists to top the chart, respectively. “I am honestly speechless, overwhelmed, nautious [sic], and extremely happy,” Smith wrote in a statement about the track becoming their first No. 1 single. “This is ours Sailors. I do this for you and you only.”
While their collaborations with Sheeran, Koffee and Petras mark firsts for the singer, Smith and Reyez have worked together in the past — the pair teamed up with Calvin Harris for the DJ’s2018 single “Promises.”
Gloria is out everywhere on Jan. 27. Check out the full official tracklist and announcement below.
Gloria Tracklist:
1. “Love Me More”
2. “No God”
3. “Hurting Interlude”
4. “Lose You”
5. “Perfect” feat. Jessie Reyez
6. “Unholy” feat. Kim Petras
7. “How to Cry”
8. “Six Shots”
9. “Gimme” feat. Koffee & Jessie Reyez
10. “Dorothy’s Interlude”
11. “I’m Not Here To Make Friends”
12. “Gloria”
13. “Who We Love” feat. Ed Sheeran
The Masked Singer pulled out the big hitters on Wednesday night (Nov. 9), when two legitimate heavyweights were sent packing.
On “Hall of Fame Night,” Fox’s quirky hit pulled no punches when former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman and funk legend George Clinton were knocked out of the competition.
After performing The Temptations’ “Get Ready,” the Venus Flytrap accumulated the least votes and was giving his marching orders. The mask came off, revealing Muhammad Ali’s “Rumble in the Jungle opponent.” Foreman, the two-time world heavyweight champion and grill king.
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He wasn’t the only champ to go home. Gopher got the chop, after facing off with The Bride in a battle royale, in which the contestants took turns singing Smashmouth’s “All-Star.”
Under the mask was the great George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic.
“Man it’s hot as hell in this, but I’m cool y’all,” explained Clinton, clearly relieved that the mask was off. And why did the funkster get the helmet on in this first place? “You’re always having too much fun on here,” he said. “I had to get some.”
They join the likes of Daymond John (Fortune Teller), the “Brady boys” Mike Lookinland, Barry Williams and Christopher Knight (Mummies), Montell Jordan (Panther), Jeff Dunham (Pi-Rat), Chris Kirkpatrick (Hummingbird), Eric Idle (Hedgehog) and William Shatner (Knight) as contestants revealed so far in the 2022 series.
TMS season 8 rings in the changes, with several big tweaks to its format.
For the first time, each episode features a completely new round of masked celebs with only one contestant moving forward by the end of the hour. Plus, the audience votes in-studio for their favorite performance of the night, and the singer with the lowest tally will then unmask in the middle of the show before taking his or her place in the new Masked Singer VIP section to watch the rest of the episode.
Can you feel it creeping up on you? The co-hosts of The View analyzed the results of the 2022 midterm elections on Wednesday morning (Nov. 9) with a little help from Taylor Swift‘s Midnights.
“Now the votes are still being counted in many of yesterday’s midterm elections, but it looks like that ‘red tsunami’ didn’t quite materialize,” Whoopi Goldberg stated, making reference to the predicted GOP sweep of the election to introduce the Hot Topics segment.
While Ron DeSantis flipped Florida red with his win as governor, other congressional races saw Democrats like John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Maggie Hassan beat far-right candidates backed by former president Donald Trump, and the show’s resident Republican co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin couldn’t help but make a reference to a fan-favorite track from Swift’s latest chart-topping album.
“Listen, I’m a Republican. I wanted good Republicans to win and I wanted bad Republicans to lose,” the freshman conservative voice at the table said before quipping, “I’m not losing sleep that Dr. Oz lost his race last night!
“This is actually the best I’ve felt about the country,” she continued, “because it was much more, [as] Taylor Swift would call a ‘Lavender Haze.’ This was no red wave.”
While Tay probably wasn’t thinking of the electoral map when she was writing “Lavender Haze” with help from Jack Antonoff and Zoe Kravitz, the Midnights opener debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 behind chart-topping lead single “Anti-Hero” in the same week the superstar set a new record as the first artist to ever dominate the entire Hot 100 top 10 in Billboard history. (This week, on the chart dated Nov. 12, the track remains in the top 10, dropping 2-6.)
Watch The View co-hosts dissect the “Lavender Haze” of the 2022 midterms below.
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After four years of waiting, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is almost here. The long-awaited sequel to Black Panther will premiere exclusively in movie theaters on Friday (Nov. 11).
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A lot has happened in the years since Black Panther became a billion-dollar franchise, namely in that the film’s star, Chadwick Boseman, died from colon cancer in August 2020. Coogler was still penning the script for Black Panther 2 at the time of Boseman’s death.
“You’re a different person in four years,” the 36-year-old director shared in a cover story for Variety. “You don’t know what your life is going to bring. You don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“Chadwick was so unique of a person that it’s actually hard to understand him if you had never met him or had a chance to see him work,” Coogler continued. “He really was the most unique person that I’ve ever met.”
Instead of shying away from the devastation of losing a central figure, the film leans into the grieving process. Black Panther 2 focuses on the leaders of Wakanda — Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the rest of the Dora Milaje (played by Florence Kasumba, Keisha Tucker Maya Macatumpag, Ivy Haralson, and Marija Abney) — as they fight to protect the kingdom from invaders and mourn the death of King T’Challa.
Want to skip the ticket line? Purchase an advance ticket for $11.49 through a special promotion offered by Fever and AMC Theaters. The ticket is valid any day and time at participating AMC Theaters.
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Black Panther 2 has already raked in $45 million in advance tickets and is expected to debut with $175-$185 million, per Deadline.
Tickets are also available on sites such as Cinemark, Atom Tickets, Regal, and Fandango, where you can get a six-month subscription to Peacock for $12, with the purchase of any movie tickets.
Check below to watch the official trailer for Black Panther 2.
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“Smooth like butter!” Earlier this year, Funko Pop debuted the BTS “Butter” collection, featuring figurines of Jimin, V, Suga, RM, Jung Kook, J-Hope and Jin, decked out in their wardrobe from the “Butter” music video complete with name tags.
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The Pop! vinyls — sold separately and as a seven-pack collectible set — went up for pre-order on June 23 and began shipping out this month.
And it seems that more vinyl figures have been released, per the Funko website. As of Wednesday (Nov. 11), the site has the collectible figurines listed under “new releases.” For K-pop fans who missed the first wave of pre-orders over the summer, all seven of the vinyl Pop! figures are now in stock at Funko.com.
BTS ARMY members can shop the collection at Amazon, Entertainment Earth and GameStop, although prices and release dates may vary depending on the retailer. Amazon pre-orders, for example, will be released on Dec. 31, while Entertainment Earth is listed for March 2023.
The 4-inch Pop! vinyls retail for $11.99-$12.99, while the set of mini-figurines is $88.33 and sold exclusively at Walmart.
“Butter” recently reached a musical milestone, becoming the K-pop group’s second single to earn one billion Spotify streams. The music video has racked up over 825 million views on YouTube.
This latest Funko Pop! collaboration follows the BTS Dynamite Collection released last year.
The BTS Funko Pop! “Butter” collectibles are in stock at Funko.com and GameStop, and you can pre-order them at Amazon and Entertainment Earth.
Shop the collection below and for more BTS gear, see our list of affordable merch.
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Universal has enlisted Black Panther: Wakanda Forever co-writer Joe Robert Cole and director Allen Hughes, who with his brother Albert directed movies such as Menace II Society and Dead Presidents, to tackle a definitive biopic of the influential, iconic rapper and entertainment mogul Snoop Dogg.
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Snoop is heavily involved with the project announced Wednesday, which will incorporate music from his cast catalog. He is also producing the feature along with Sara Ramaker and Hughes. The project will mark the inaugural film from Snoop’s Death Row Pictures which he runs with Ramaker.
“I waited a long time to put this project together because I wanted to choose the right director, the perfect writer, and the greatest movie company I could partner with that could understand the legacy that I’m trying to portray on screen, and the memory I’m trying to leave behind,” said Snoop in a statement. “It was the perfect marriage. It was holy matrimony, not holy macaroni.”
Snoop, whose real name is Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., shot to fame in the early 1990s West Coast rap scene thanks to his collaborations with Dr. Dre and then his one-two-punch albums, Doggystyle and The Doggfather. He parlayed that into a media and business empire, becoming an actor, DJ and media personality as well as an entrepreneur with ties to technology, global consumer brands, food and beverage industries, and of course, the cannabis world.
With 35 million albums worldwide, he is a 17-time Grammy nominee, an American Music Award winner, and a Primetime Emmy Award winner. He has played himself in countless series and appeared in movies such as Training Day, Starsky & Hutch and this summer’s Jamie Foxx vampire action movie Day Shift.
“Snoop Dogg’s life and legacy makes him one of the most exciting and influential icons in popular culture,” stated Donna Langley, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. “We met with Snoop shortly after he acquired Death Row Records and had the opportunity to hear his story in his own words. We are humbled to be able to create the lasting document of this singular artist.”
Universal has had previous success tapping into rap culture with musical biopics focusing on key artists. In 2015, it released Straight Outta Compton, centered on the West Coast hip-hop scene and N.W.A, the seminal group that Dr. Dre was a part of. The film grossed over $200 million and earned an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay. With 2002’s 8 Mile, it told a thinly-veiled autobiographical story of Eminem and his rise into an industry and genre dominated by Black artists. That movie grossed over $250 million and won the Oscar for best original song with “Lose Yourself.”
With the Snoop biopic in development, Universal will now have a trifecta of the artists — Snoop, Dr. Dre, and Eminem — who performed during this year’s Super Bowl halftime show.
Hughes and his brother, both born in Detroit and grew up in Southern California, made their names by telling stories of the Black experience with Menace and Dead Presidents at the same time as Snoop was making his rise. In 2017, he tackled the music scene by directing The Defiant Ones, the award-winning four-part HBO documentary focused on Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine.
“Snoop Dogg is one of the most internationally beloved figures in hip-hop,” states Hughes. “There’s just something about his energy that brings people of all walks of life together. Snoop Dogg, not just the artist, but the man and his brand, has transcended generations with his connection and appeal to audiences. His story is so authentic and utterly inspiring, and to have the opportunity to tell his story allows me to go back to the hood 30 years after Menace II Society, and say more now than I could then.”
Cole is a generation younger than Snoop and Hughes and grew up influenced by their work as he made his mark as a screenwriter. He’s notably worked with Ryan Coogler on the two Black Panther movies as well as a writer-producer on the Emmy-winning FX series American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson, for which he received an Emmy nomination for writing the episode “The Race Card.”
“I’ve been a fan of Snoop since ‘Deep Cover,’” says Cole. “His music and the films of Allen Hughes have left an indelible mark on me over my life. What excites me most is the humanity of Snoop’s journey to international icon. Universal has proven they can guide a movie like this to something special. I’m proud to be a part of the team.”
NBCUniversal’s president of music and publishing, Mike Knobloch, will supervise the project’s music. Universal’s senior vp of production and development Ryan Jones will oversee the project for the studio.
Snoop is repped by Stephen Barnes of Morris Yorn. Hughes is repped by WME and Hansen, Jacobson while Cole is repped by Circle of Confusion and Jackoway Austen.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
With a little over a month left until its arrival in theaters, the second trailer for the Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody arrived on Wednesday (Nov. 9). The trailer features Naomi Ackie as the “I Have Nothing” singer responding to critics of her music being too genre bending, as well as singing the national anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl and getting into a heated spat with Houston’s father, John Russell Houston (Clarke Peters).
The trailer starts off with Houston sitting down for an interview with a radio host, who tells her, “A common criticism of you, your music isn’t Black enough.”
“Who said that? That’s just bull. And it makes me angry actually because it’s hateful and uninformed. My whole life: ‘She ain’t Black enough, she ain’t white enough.’ Well how ’bout ‘She’s not obedient enough’? How ’bout ‘She ain’t fearful enough’?” she replies.
In between scenes from her life and performing at the Super Bowl, she continues, “Music is not a color to me. It has no boundaries. I sing what I wanna sing, be how I wanna be, and reach as big an audience as I can.”
Houston then butts heads with her father over her finances. “Whitney, you’re Daddy’s princess. We’re building something here, so you just keep singing,” advises John Houston (played by Clarke Peters).
The father-daughter pair face off, with the singer fiercely declaring, “Daddy … my money. I trusted you. You were meant to look out for me,” as Houston’s hit single “I Will Always Love You” plays in the background.
Slated to arrive in theaters Dec. 21, I Wanna Dance With Somebody was directed by Kasi Lemmons and written by Bohemian Rhapsody’s Anthony McCarten. Clive Davis, now 90 years old, is portrayed by Stanley Tucci, and served as a producer on the film.
Watch the new trailer for I Wanna Dance With Somebody above.
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Country music’s biggest night! Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning will co-host the 56th annual CMA Awards airing live from Nashville on Wednesday (Nov. 9) at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on ABC.
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First-time nominee Lainey Wilson leads the pack with six nominations, including new artist of the year, album of the year and song of the year. Following close behind the “Hold My Halo” singer are Carly Pearce and Chris Stapleton with five nods.
Josh Osborne landed four nominations and Ashley McBryde secured three nods. Carrie Underwood and Luke Combs received multiple nods as well.
2022 CMA Awards Performers & Presenters
The CMA Awards will open with a tribute to Loretta Lynn performed by Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire and Underwood. Alan Jackson will receive the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, which will include a musical tribute performed by Dierks Bentley, Jon Pardi, Underwood and Wilson.
Some of the collaborative performances include Kelsea Ballerini featuring Kelly Clarkson and Pearce; Brothers Osborne with The War and Treaty; HARDY featuring Wilson; Elle King with The Black Keys; McBryde and Brandy Clark; Caylee Hammack, Pillbox Patti and John Osborne; Thomas Rhett with Katy Perry; Stapleton with Patty Loveless; and Zac Brown Band featuring Jimmie Allen and Marcus King.
Little Big Town, Wynonna Judd, Breland, Jessica Chastain, Mookie Betts, Jordan Davis, Sarah Drew, Rex Lynn, McEntire, Wilson, Jeannie Seely, Michael Shannon, Ben and Erin Napier and Parker McCollum are presenters.
Keep reading for details on ways to watch and stream the show.
How to Watch & Stream the 2022 CMA Awards
The 2022 CMA Awards will broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday. The show is set to air at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on ABC and stream on Hulu the following day.
Whether you’re a cable or satellite user or a cord-cutter, there are a variety of ways to watch and stream the show live and on-demand.
For example, if you don’t already have ABC in your local channel lineup, you can access the channel with an antenna (like this best-seller available at Amazon). Another way to watch: sign into ABC.com (you will need a cable or streaming provider log-in to watch ABC).
Cable and satellite typically take longer to set up, but if you’re pressed for time, streaming is the best option. All you need is internet access to join platforms such as Direct TV Stream, Sling, Fubo TV and Vidgo, all of which offer free trials and/or discounted rates. That means you can watch the 2022 CMAs without paying much (if anything) up front. Streaming from outside of the U.S.? Use ExpressVPN to access ABC and more.
Hulu starts at $6.99/month and subscribers get to stream the CMA Awards beginning on Thursday. To watch live, upgrade to Hulu + Live TV ($69.99/month) and stream from a TV, computer or another compatible streaming device.
