News

11 Dec 2022

Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ Sleighs to No. 1 In U.K.

The Christmas invasion is in full swing on the U.K. singles chart, as Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” (via Columbia) returns to the summit.

Carey’s 1994 holidays classic took 26 years to reach No. 1 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, a record-setting feat it finally achieved in 2020. It’s right back at the top, having returned to the top 40 earlier than usual.

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

“All I Want For Christmas Is You” rockets 8-1, with 10.8 million streams during the latest cycle, the Official Charts Company reports, to unseat Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” (down 1-5 via EMI) after six weeks.

It’s the second stint at No. 1 for Carey’s “Christmas,” which, in 2020, set a new mark for weeks spent in the top 40 before reaching the summit.

As the mercury dives in the U.K., Christmas songs warm the chart. No less than five yuletide numbers impact the top 10, including Wham’s “Last Christmas” (up 9-3 via RCA), Ed Sheeran & Elton John’s “Merry Christmas” (up 15-4 via Atlantic), Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” (up 18-6 via MCA) and Michael Buble’s “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas” (up 20-10 via Reprise). 

A total of 24 Christmas songs, new and old, impact the top 40, published Dec. 9. It’s a list that includes Shakin’ Stevens’ “Merry Christmas Everyone” (up 26-12 via RCA), The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl’s “Fairytale of New York” (up 30-14 via Atlantic), Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” (up 28-16 via Republic Records), Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath The Tree” (31-17 via RCA), Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (up 34-18 via Mercury) and Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” (up 36-19 via MCA).

The highest debut on the latest chart belongs to Raye, with “Escapism” (Human Re Sources) featuring 070 Shake. “Escapism” lifts 6-2, a new solo career high for the British singer and songwriter.

Grime star Stormzy bags a 14th top 10 single with “Firebabe” (0207/Merky), a ballad lifted from his third and latest No. 1 album, This Is What I Mean. “Firebabe” rises 11-9.

U.S. producer and artist Metro Boomin bags two top 40 debuts with “Creepin’” (via Republic Records) featuring The Weeknd and 21 Savage, new at No. 13, and “Superhero” “(Heroes & Villains)” with Future and Chris Brown, new at No. 39. Both appear on Metro Boomin’s new album Heroes & Villains.

Finally, Scottish singer and songwriter Lewis Capaldi scores a seventh top 40 appearance with “Pointless” (Vertigo), co-written with Ed Sheeran. It’s new at No. 20.

11 Dec 2022

Julie Andrews Says Starring in New ‘Princess Diaries’ Movie ‘Probably Not Going to Be Possible’

Julie Andrews is sharing her thoughts on a potential role in the third Princess Diaries.

In an interview with Access Hollywood on Tuesday (Dec. 6), The Sound of Music actress addressed if she would appear in a chapter in one of her first public comments since the project was announced as being in development. In the first two films, Andrews played Queen Clarisse Renaldi, the grandmother of Anne Hathaway’s character, Mia Thermopolis.

“I think we know that it’s probably not going to be possible. It was talked about very shortly after two [The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement] came out, but it’s now how many years since then? And I am that much older and Annie the princess, or queen, is so much older. And I am not sure where it would float or run,” Andrews said. “In terms of us doing it, I doubt that now.” 

In November, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Aadrita Mukerji is writing a script for a new installment of Princess Diaries for Disney. According to sources, the movie is a continuation of the series of films that Anne Hathaway starred in rather than a reboot. 

THR reported that sources say Hathaway does not have a deal to return to the franchise but hope she would return if the film moves forward. In the past, the Les Misérables actress has shared her support publicly for a third film. 

This isn’t the first time Andrews has expressed her thoughts about returning to the Princess Diaries franchise. In 2019, during a visit to Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, the Mary Poppins star responded to rumors surrounding the potential film, saying, “The truth is I haven’t heard. There’s been talk about it for quite awhile.” 

More recently, in June 2022, Andrews spoke to THR ahead of receiving the AFI Life Achievement Award, calling her return a “lovely thought.”

But when asked if she would want to revisit the franchise, she said, “I think it would be too late to do it now. There was talk of a sequel many, many years ago. But I don’t think it ever came to pass. And Garry then did leave us. [Marshall died in 2016.] [For] especially me, it’s too far down the line now to go back to it.”

For the new film, Debra Martin Chase is returning to produce after working on the first two Princess Diaries. Melissa Stack, the screenwriter for The Other Woman and Godmothered, is executive producing. 

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

11 Dec 2022

Fans Choose Lana Del Rey’s ‘Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’ as This Week’s Favorite New Music

Lana Del Rey‘s latest song release, “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd,” has topped this week’s new music poll.

Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Dec. 9) on Billboard, choosing the track as their favorite new music release of the past week.

Lana Del Rey’s new song brought in more than 80% of the vote, beating out new music by Paramore, SZA and more.

The singer-songwriter surprised fans earlier this week with the announcement of her upcoming ninth album, which shares its name with the title of her new song that was also unveiled. The album, with featured artists including Jon Batiste, Jack Antonoff’s Bleachers, Father John Misty, Judah Smith, Tommy Genesis and SYML, will arrive on March 10.

Trailing behind Lana Del Rey’s “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd” on the fan-voted poll is Paramore’s “The News,” with 13% of the vote, and SZA’s SOS album, with 5% of the vote.

See the final results of this week’s new music release poll below.

11 Dec 2022

Miley Cyrus Reveals Some of Her ‘New Year’s Eve Party’ Lineup on ‘The Tonight Show’

Miley Cyrus has announced some of the guests who will ring in 2023 with her and Dolly Parton for NBC’s annual New Year’s Eve special.

Cyrus stopped by The Tonight Show this weekend to have a chat with Jimmy Fallon about the upcoming holiday show, revealing that Sia, Latto and Rae Sremmurd are among the other musical artists who will be joining the festivities.

“Sia is coming. She’s one of my favorite artists,” Cyrus told Fallon.

She continued, “We have Latto.”

And Cyrus rounded out the reveal to announce the news that “Rae Sremmurd, who are friends of mine,” will be appearing. Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party is set to air on NBC Dec. 31, live from Miami.

“As we get closer to the show, I want to start revealing who else we have. But the lineup is very me. It is curated in a way that makes no sense, but makes total sense,” Cyrus explained.

Speaking of the theme of change around the new year, Fallon then asked Cyrus to give him a hand with shaving off his beard — which she agreed to do, but warned, “I don’t know what you’re gonna look like.”

Watch her Tonight Show clips below.

11 Dec 2022

Bomb Threat Disrupts Patti LaBelle Concert in Wisconsin

Patti LaBelle was abruptly rushed off stage just a couple of songs into her Christmas concert in Milwaukee after a bomb threat forced authorities to evacuate the theater.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that video from the Riverside Theater on Saturday night (Dec. 10) shows what appears to be two security officers interrupting the 78-year-old LaBelle as she chats with an audience member. They rush her off stage. Shortly after, someone announced that the nearly full 2,500-seat theater had to be evacuated because of a bomb threat.

Catherine Brunson, who documented the evacuation on Facebook Live, told the newspaper that the evacuation happened two songs into LaBelle’s concert around 9:24 p.m.

“We came out and police had the block taped off. … A whole lot of people were pretty upset. … It’s scary,” Brunson said.

Scott Pierce, who also attended the concert, said everyone exited the theater calmly, but it’s “just sad that someone does this.”

Milwaukee Police Capt. Warren Allen Jr. said in a statement early Sunday that K9 units searched the theater and no explosive devices were discovered, so there was no threat to the public.

As of Sunday morning, LaBelle hadn’t issued a statement about the evacuation on social media. The operator of the Riverside Theater, Pabst Theater Group, said it would work with LaBelle to reschedule the show in the future.

11 Dec 2022

Metro Boomin Scores Third No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 With ‘Heroes & Villains’

Metro Boomin’s superstar-filled album Heroes & Villains debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Dec. 17), giving the producer his third leader on the list. The 15-song set starts with his biggest week yet: 185,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 8, according to Luminate — largely driven by streaming activity.

Heroes & Villains boasts a cavalcade of heavy-hitters, including 21 Savage, A$AP Rocky, Chris Brown, Future, Gunna, John Legend, Travis Scott, the late Takeoff, Don Toliver, The Weeknd, Young Thung and unbilled spoken word cameos from Morgan Freeman.

Heroes & Villains is Metro Boomin’s seventh charting effort on the Billboard 200, and fifth to reach the top 10. He previously hit the region with Savage Mode II (a collaborative album with 21 Savage, No. 1 in 2020), Not All Heroes Wear Capes (No. 1, 2018), Double or Nothing (a collaborative set with Big Sean, No. 6 in 2017) and Without Warning (billed to 21 Savage, Offset and Metro Boomin, No. 4 in 2017).

On Sept. 16, Heroes & Villains was initially announced with a release date of Nov. 4. Then, on Oct. 26, the set was pushed to Dec. 2 due to sample clearance issues.

Also in the top 10 on the Billboard 200, Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas returns, rising 11-10. The album, released in 1994, peaked at No. 3 that year, and has returned to the top 10 in each of the last four holiday seasons.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 17, 2022-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Dec. 13. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of Heroes & Villains’ 185,000 equivalent album units earned, SEA units comprise 179,000 (equaling 233.38 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise 5,000 and TEA units comprise 1,000. The album’s sales were largely powered by its digital download album, though there was a CD available in limited quantities (including a signed version), which resulted in about 3,000 sales. In addition, on Dec. 5 the album was reissued in a deluxe edition on streamers and at digital retail with 15 bonus instrumental tracks of the album’s standard songs.

Following Heroes & Villains (released via Boominati/Republic) on the Billboard 200, a pair of former No. 1s is up next, as Taylor Swift’s Midnights (Republic) falls to No. 2 with 143,000 equivalent album units (down 5%) and Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss (OVO Sound/Republic) dips 2-3 with 78,000 (down 16%). Thus, Republic Records completes a sweep of the top three on the Billboard 200, the first time any label has held the top three since Republic itself did it on the Feb. 6, 2021-dated list. That week, the chart was led by Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album (Big Loud/Republic), Pop Smoke’s Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon (Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic) and Swift’s Evermore (Republic).

Bad Bunny’s chart-topping Un Verano Sin Ti falls 3-4 on the Billboard 200 with 55,000 equivalent album units earned (though up 5%). Michael Bublé’s former No. 1 Christmas is pushed down 4-5 despite a 16% gain to 54,000 units. Harry Styles’ No. 1 Harry’s House rises 9-6 with 49,000 units (up 42% — mostly owed to vinyl LP sales) and Wallen’s Dangerous descends 6-7, but with a gain of 16% to 47,000.

Wrapping up the top 10 are The Weeknd’s The Highlights (7-8 with 42,000 equivalent album units; up 5%), Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song (8-9 with just over 40,000; up 13%) and Carey’s Merry Christmas (11-10 with 40,000; up 23%).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

11 Dec 2022

Georgia Holt, Actress, Singer and Cher’s Mother, Dies at 96

Georgia Holt, the seven times-married mother of Cher who spent time as a model, actress and singer-songwriter, has died, her daughter announced Saturday night (Dec. 10) on Twitter. She was 96.

“Mom is gone,” Cher wrote.

A rep for the Oscar-winning singer-actress confirmed Holt’s death to The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday morning. No details of Holt’s death were immediately available.

Holt appeared briefly in such films as A Life of Her Own (1950), Grounds for Marriage (1951), Father’s Little Dividend (1951) and Artists and Models (1955) and on TV shows like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and, as a “Jacques Marcel” model, on I Love Lucy (in the hilarious 1956 episode “Lucy Gets a Paris Gown”).

Holt was offered a contract by Columbia Records, and in 1980 recorded an album, Honky Tonk Woman, backed by members of Elvis Presley’s band. It included a duet with Cher, “I’m Just Your Yesterday”; covers of “Love Me Tender” and “Cryin’ Time”; and original tunes written by Holt.

“I know that a record company might want to sign me just because I’m Cher’s mother,” she told People magazine in 1978. “I’d like to have a career, but I’m not going to be a novelty or a flash in the pan. A lot of people say I can do it.”

However, the album was not released until spring 2013, shortly after the master tapes were rediscovered in Holt’s garage. Cher took the tapes to her musical director, Paul Mirkovich of The Voice, and “he went in and took it all apart and put all new music in it,” she told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. “Basically, we just kept Mom’s voice and put everything else new on it.”

Also in 2013, mother and daughter appeared (with Cher’s half-sister, actress Georganne La Piere) in the Mother’s Day Lifetime documentary Dear Mom, Love Cher.

A year later, Holt appeared as a guest judge alongside her grandson Chaz Bono on Logo TV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Holt was born Jackie Jean Crouch on June 9, 1926, in Kensett, Arkansas. Her mother was just 13 at the time and her father, a baker and an alcoholic, wasn’t much older.

“When I was little I was a singer,” she said in a 2013 interview. “When I was 7, my father used to put me up on top of the old-fashioned bars. They used to have sawdust on the floor and spittoons. It was during the Depression. We had no money and no food — well, we got beans, but that was it.”

She performed with bandleader Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys at age 10 and then hitchhiked to California with her dad and her brother. She once said that she had attended 17 different junior high schools growing up.

While working in a doughnut shop in Fresno, California, she met truck driver John Sarkisian, and soon they were off to Reno, Nevada, to be married.

“I left him the day after [the wedding],” she told People. “I knew I didn’t want to be married. But he told me to try it for three months, and if I didn’t like it, then I could walk out. Well, before three months was out, I was pregnant with Cher.”

Cherilyn Sarkisian was born on May 20, 1946, in El Centro, California, and spent some time in a Catholic orphanage, where nuns urged her mother to give up her baby for adoption, but Holt wouldn’t do it.

Holt won several singing and beauty competitions and worked as a model as she made her way to Hollywood. She said that she was given a part in John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle (1950), but her agent called to say she was being replaced by Marilyn Monroe.

Holt was married three times by the time she was 21. Her husbands were Sarkisian, John Southall, Joseph Harper Collins, Chris Alcaide, banker Gilbert La Pierre (who adopted Cher and Georganne), Sarkisian again and Hamilton Holt.

She also had a recent and longtime relationship with former antiques dealer Craig Spencer.

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

11 Dec 2022

Selena Gomez, Kieran Culkin Cameo in ‘Father of the Bride’ Sequel Spoof on ‘SNL’

Succession‘s Kieran Culkin and Only Murders in the Building‘s Selena Gomez popped into the latest episode of Saturday Night Live for a Father of the Bride reunion.

Steve Martin and Martin Short both hosted the Dec. 10 show, which saw the comedic duo reprise their iconic characters, George Banks and wedding planner Franck Eggelhoffer, respectively, in a bit that riffed on the film and franchise sequels.

Culkin returned as a grown Matty Banks, while SNL castmembers took the family’s other various roles, including Chloe Fineman impersonating Diane Keaton in her role of mother Nina Banks and Heidi Gardner as the titular bride Annie, originally played by Kimberly Williams-Paisley. Bowen Yang also starred in the sketch, appearing as Howard Weinstein, second-in-command to Short’s Eggelhoffer — a role originated by BD Wong.

Returning to 24 Maple Dr., the Banks family is gearing up for yet another wedding for Annie, who is now 52 in Father of the Bride: Part 8. The imagined sequel follows Annie “three decades and seven divorces later,” as she opens her heart to the potential of marriage yet again.

In typical fashion, Martin’s George is dragging his feet, though this time it might be easier to understand why. “Annie, what makes you think I can afford another Nancy Meyers-style wedding?” he gasped. “I’m financially drained!”

“But daddy, I’m your little girl,” Gardner’s Annie whines before Martin snaps back, “You’re 52! Your mom started driving Lyft to pay for your last wedding.”

It’s quickly revealed that a shrimp tower and performances by Nicki Minaj were included in previous weddings, ceremonies orchestrated by none other than Yang’s Weinstein and Short’s Eggelhoffer, who is still using his signature and unintelligible accent.

“That’s right, Martin Short is back as the beloved wedding planner Franck doing an accent that I think is still OK,” the sketch’s voiceover says. “Let’s all agree it’s still OK.”

Culkin and Gomez make their appearances soon after, with the Succession star’s voiceover introduction hilariously acknowledging that audiences likely forgot the actor was in the film, but that it’s OK. “Did you forget that Kieran Culkin is in this movie? So did we, and so did he. But he was, and now he’s on Succession, so good for him.”

Gomez, who crashed Martin and Short’s monologue earlier in the night, ultimately makes an appearance as Annie’s wedding performer. “How much is she gonna cost me,” Martin asks before Gomez casually responds “$1.8 million easy.”

But it’s a price Martin’s George is willing to pay for his “little girl — my menopausal little girl,” he joked. 

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.