TV/Film
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Lady Gaga took some playful jabs at herself during the opening monologue of Saturday Night Live on March 8.
The 38-year-old pop superstar and actress, who was both host and musical guest, opened the episode with a nearly four-minute roast, making jokes about her role in Joker: Folie à Deux, duetting with R. Kelly, and her age.
“Anyway, I’m an actor now,” the Oscar and Grammy winner said. “I select films that would showcase my craft as a serious actor, films such as Joker 2. Apparently, people thought it was awesome. Joaquin [Phoenix] and I even got nominated for a Razzie, which is an award for the worst films of the year. So we won worst onscreen duo.”
Gaga continued, “But jokes on them. I love winning things. My Razzie brings me one step closer to an EGORT. It’s like an EGOT, but it’s hurtful.”
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Todd Phillips’ R-rated Joker sequel, starring Phoenix as the Joker and Gaga as Harley Quinn, earned seven Razzie nominations in 2025 after underperforming at the box office. The musical film took home Razzies for worst screen combo and worst sequel.
“Tonight, I promise to act, to sing and to not do Joker 3,” Gaga joked.
Gaga’s monologue also touched on returning to host SNL for the first time since 2013. “I know you might be thinking I’m here to promote my album, Mayhem, but I’m actually here to remind you that I’m an amazing actor,” she said, referencing her just-released seventh album.
“The last time I hosted SNL I was 27,” she added. “I’m 38 now, which is scientifically the best age for a female pop star to be. I see that most pop stars are over 40. Chappell Roan is 58. Charli XCX, she’s 75. Tate McRae is my biological grandmother.”
Gaga also poked fun at her 2013 duet with the now-imprisoned R. Kelly on the show. “I’m so happy to be back at SNL. The last time I hosted was in 2013 and every aspect of my performance aged amazingly,” Gaga joked. “So there’s no need to Google SNL 2013, Lady Gaga featuring R. Kelly. I won’t bring it up because that would be bad.”
Amid hilarious sketches, the 14-time Grammy winner delivered high-energy performances of her new Mayhem tracks “Abracadabra” and “Killah.” Check out videos of the performances here.
Watch Lady Gaga’s SNL monologue below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes.
Lady Gaga brought mayhem to 30 Rock.
Just one day after the release of her seventh album, Mayhem, the 38-year-old pop icon and actress took on double duty as both host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live on March 8.
The evening opened with a hilarious monologue where Gaga poked fun at her movie Joker: Folie à Deux and even referenced her previous SNL hosting debut in 2013, which featured a guest appearance by the now-imprisoned R. Kelly. Amid a series of comedic sketches, the night shifted into high gear as the 14-time Grammy winner delivered two electrifying performances from her long-awaited new album.
Gaga opened with an impressively choreographed performance of the dance-pop anthem “Abracadabra,” wearing a sparkly red ensemble and surrounded by dancers in black with long red wigs, who spun around her inside a small, neon-lit structure. For her next performance of the funk-inspired “Killah,” Gaga started off backstage at Studio 8H, before moving to the main stage for a full-on, colorful dance party with a live band. She ended with an electrifying finish, rocking out next to the drum kit in a fiery display.
Gaga’s SNL appearance arrived more than a decade after she first hosted the show in 2013.
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Mayhem arrives on the heels of a successful 2025 for Gaga, which saw her chart-topping collaboration with Bruno Mars, “Die With a Smile.” The song spent five weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, marking her second-longest-running No. 1 hit after 2011’s “Born This Way.” She also won a Grammy for best pop duo/group performance alongside Mars.
The new album features a diverse mix of production collaborators, including Andrew Watt, Cirkut and Gaga’s fiancé, Michael Polansky. In a recent interview with Billboard, she discussed the creative process behind Mayhem, explaining that its chaotic vibe was intentional.
“There have been times in my career where I had an idea in terms of how to conceptually approach a record. But I would say that this album, from start to finish, was like pieces coming together,” she said. “I did not want to turn it into anything artificial, I really wanted to allow myself to just follow the music. By doing that, it started to slowly remind me of my earlier work.”
Watch Lady Gaga’s SNL performances below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes.
50 Cent is up to his trolling ways again, and he’s still relishing being somewhat responsible for the recent spat between Cam’ron and Jim Jones. The Queens rapper and filmmaker posted and deleted an AI-created video on Instagram of Jim Jones, Cam’ron, and Floyd Mayweather playing characters in a scene from Rocky III. Jones, as […]
The star-studded lineup for NBC’s upcoming Opry 100: A Live Celebration just keeps expanding, with the network announcing Thursday (March 6) that Post Malone, Keith Urban and a slew of other musicians will be joining the special. In addition to the “I Had Some Help” singer and Australian musician, the three-hour showcase — which will […]
Millie Bobby Brown isn’t standing for any misconceptions about how meticulously Taylor Swift curates her albums, not even from The Electric State costar Chris Pratt.
In a new video posted by Netflix and the Jurassic World star on Instagram Wednesday (March 5), the two actors debate who had it better: teenagers in the ’90s or modern-day adolescents. Their biggest disagreement came, however, when it came to music, with the Enola Holmes leading lady aghast to find that teens had to listen to songs in the order they appeared on albums three decades or so ago.
“If I didn’t want to listen to ‘It’s Your Thing,’ I would have to fast-forward through all of ‘It’s Your Thing’ to get to ‘Dreams to Remember’?” she said while inspecting a cassette tape loaded into a Walkman. “That’s horrible!”
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Pratt then mused pointedly, “There was once a time where artists who made tapes, they curated their music into a very intentional list.”
“No, that’s not true, Chris,” the Stranger Things actress vehemently interjected. “Taylor Swift curates her album from start to finish.”
“You don’t have to listen to her album that way,” Pratt countered. “You can go on Spotify and hit shuffle and listen to it however the AI decides.”
Brown then finished the argument by insisting passionately, “A true Swiftie wouldn’t.”
“You don’t understand,” she added to the Parks & Recreation alum.
In the clip, Brown and Pratt also compared and contrasted Polaroid cameras with iPhone selfies, as well as inspected a 30-year-old answering machine. The inspiration for the video came from the 1990s setting of The Electric State, which arrives on Netflix March 14.
The spirited debate is also far from the first time Brown has demonstrated her fandom of the “Anti-Hero” singer. While on The Kelly Clarkson Show in March last year, the actress dubbed herself a “hardcore Swiftie to the point of knowing “exactly where [Swift] is at all times.”
“I went to the Eras Tour and it was just … it was the most amazing experience,” she gushed at the time. “So when I went to my show — I went to Ohio, I flew there solely for Taylor — and she played ‘Evermore’ and I collapsed to the ground. It was pretty crazy.”
Watch Brown and Pratt discuss Swift’s album-curation skills below.
Country Music Hall of Famer Randy Travis‘s life and career will be spotlighted in the upcoming biopic Forever and Ever, Amen, which will also star his fellow country singer Clay Walker, Travis announced on Wednesday (March 5) during his performance at the Grand Ole Opry.
The film is currently being cast by Anne McCarthy, Kellie Roy and Morgan Robbins at Engine Casting; the role of Travis will be portrayed by three actors. Walker will play Travis in his 40s and 50s, while casting is underway for actors to portray him as a child (around 9-12 years old) and at 20-30 years old, according to the press release.
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Writer-director Andrew Hyatt will direct from his own script, while Travis and his wife, Mary Travis, will serve as executive producers alongside Walker.
“We’ve been approached many times through the years about doing a movie … but the timing or team has never felt quite as good as it feels right now,” Randy Travis said in a statement. “With Clay on our side, and the creative direction he and the producers have, I feel good about telling my story through this medium.”
Walker added: “Randy Travis is the voice of a generation and one of the greatest country singers of all time. I am truly honored to be a part of this project, and cannot believe I get to play one of my heroes.”
The biopic will spotlight Travis, who sparked a time of surging sales success in country music in the mid-1980s, when he ushered in his traditional country sound and unmistakable, burnished voice on hits such as “Forever and Ever, Amen,” “Diggin’ Up Bones,” “1982,” and “On The Other Hand.”
The biopic’s titular song earned single of the year honors from the Country Music Association in 1987, while his album Always & Forever was named CMA album of the year, stayed at the pinnacle of Billboard‘s top country albums chart for 43 weeks, and sold 5 million copies. Travis’s subsequent five projects also reached platinum sales status. Along the way, he won numerous accolades, including the CMA’s horizon award (1986) and male vocalist of the year honor (1987-1988), the ACM’s male vocalist honor (1986-1987) and Grammy accolades for best country vocal performance, male, in 1987 and 1988.
Beyond music, Travis made his mark as an actor in film and television, with roles in films Black Dog, Maverick, The Rainmaker, The Legend of O.B. Taggert and The Wager, and television series including Touched by an Angel, King of the Hill and Matlock.
He made a music comeback in the 2000s, thanks to his country-gospel hit “Three Wooden Crosses,” which won song of the year at the CMA Awards and a GMA Dove Award for country song of the year. He released country-leaning gospel albums including Rise & Shine, Inspirational Journey and Passing Through.
Nearly 12 years ago, Travis suffered a stroke which limited his ability to sing and perform, but he has continued to release original music with the help of new AI technology.
The official trailer for BE@RBRICK is out now (Thursday, March 6), with Billboard Family giving audiences an exclusive first look at the new Apple TV+ animated series.
Based on the collectible figures from Japanese company Medicom Toy, the CG-animated show infuses a message to embrace individuality with feel-good comic relief and plenty of music. The series was developed by Meghan McCarthy (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Centaurworld), who serves as showrunner, executive producer and writer, with music helmed by Timbaland, executive music producer.
The BE@RBRICK trailer, premiering ahead of the series’ release on Apple TV+ on March 21, introduces young Jasmine Finch and her high school bandmates, who are breaking the mold by pursuing their dreams of making music in a world where your painted-on look is expected to be what determines your path in life.
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Speaking to Billboard Family over Zoom, McCarthy says her aim was to treat the animated ensemble, voiced by Brianna Bryan, Skyla I’Lece, Isaiah Crews, Alison Jaye and Noah Bentley, “with respect and treat them like they are three-dimensional, real characters that your audience can see themselves in, see their friends in.”
First Look: The Official BE@RBRICK Trailer From Apple TV+
“Any time you’re translating from something that exists in another format, like in this case a collectible [toy] … you do have people who are very familiar with it, and then you have an audience that isn’t familiar with BE@RBRICK at all, and then neither is familiar with how you’re going to showcase them in a series,” McCarthy explains.
“If you ask somebody on the street who’s familiar with BE@RBRICK, tell me three things that you know about them, what does everybody tell you? That’s a great starting point ‘cause you want to make sure you stay true to those things,” she says of developing the show, produced and animated by DreamWorks Animation and Dentsu Inc.
Jasmine Finch (voiced by Brianna Bryan) and Nick Hazard (voiced by Isaiah Crews) in ‘BE@RBRICK,’ premiering March 21, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Apple TV+
For BE@RBRICK, McCarthy says those things included a “very specific shape — little bear heads and little bellies,” and “how when you paint them, they take on this whole new thing. That’s what really gives them their uniqueness and their value, so you don’t want to abandon that.”
“The third thing was they do all these amazing collabs with musicians and artists,” she adds, “and so creativity is a huge part of what makes BE@RBRICK, BE@RBRICK — expressing that creativity.”
There’s the humor that makes BE@RBRICK the series relatable — “I think that it’s really funny in a way that is not mean-spirited. We’re laughing with these characters, we’re not laughing at them, which I think is really great for families,” says McCarthy, who’s a parent herself — and there’s the music, a primary focus for the storyline.
“It’s a show you can dance to,” she says. “The music is really incredible and fun and there’s so much of it on the show.”
Holly Honeywell (voiced by Skyla I’Lece) in ‘BE@RBRICK,’ premiering March 21, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Apple TV+
“Ultimately, I think the takeaway of the show is the importance of creativity and self-expression and how that can change the world, and how kids [like Jasmine] are a factor in changing the world. I think those are great, relatable themes that a whole family can rally around,” McCarthy says.
That’s something that drew Timbaland to the project.
“The bigger message is that anyone can choose their own path, no matter where they come from,” he tells Billboard Family of the show.
Timbaland first discussed the opportunity to be involved with BE@RBRICK back in 2019, in a meeting with Alexandra Nickson, SVP, TV Music at DreamWorks Animation. DreamWorks then came to McCarthy with the prospect of working alongside the Billboard chart-topping and Grammy Award-winning producer for the show. “Who’s gonna say no to that?” she says with a laugh. “The guy who’s produced some of the coolest things in the history of the world? Yeah, I think he’d be pretty good for this.”
Over the past few years Timbaland has worked with a group of Beatclub producers, artists and songwriters to bring the series’ soundtrack to fruition. The series features an original score by Jina Hyojin An (XO, Kitty) and Shirley Song (Exploding Kittens).
“The process was similar to making a record,” Timbaland notes over email, “but in this case, we received creative briefs from the DreamWorks team. That allowed us the time to get everything right, the music, the lyrics and the overall vibe.”
BRBX Media DJ (voiced by Timbaland) in ‘BE@RBRICK,’ premiering March 21, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Apple TV+
As McCarthy points out, “For our main character Jasmine and her friends to be able to express themselves through their music, and to root for them, you have to think they’re pretty darn good at it. You have to think the world would be at a loss if they weren’t allowed to put their creativity out there. So to have Timbaland, who has such a finger on the pulse of music and making it feel very relevant to today, that was so key. … They’re not human characters, but they’re making this music that feels like, ‘Oh yeah, I would totally hear this out in the real world. This would be a hit song in the real world.’ That’s the energy and that’s the vibe that he absolutely brought to the table.”
Timbaland says he can “absolutely” relate to Jasmine’s experience in feeling the pull to create music, sharing that “from a very early age, I always knew I wanted to be a music producer when I started DJing.”
His advice for kids who want to follow his path as a producer: “Now is one of the best times to be an independent artist. The playing field is more level than it was when you had to be signed to a major label to break into the industry. My advice is simple: Never give up!”
BE@RBRICK will be available to stream on Apple TV+ on March 21.
In an age where cult indie band Pavement could become one of the biggest hits of TikTok, it only makes sense that their life and history receive the big screen treatment. Now, we can see the trailer for this ambitious undertaking.
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Pavement played what is ostensibly their final performance back in October, as part of the New York premiere of Alex Ross Perry‘s experimental biopic/documentary, Pavements. The film has been in the works for some time now, with its roots tracing back to Perry’s 2022 production, Slanted! Enchanted! A Pavement Musical.
However, those hoping for a biopic in the style of the recent A Complete Unknown will be disappointed, with the film taking on an approach as avant-garde as Pavement’s music often was. Perry referred to the film in 2022 as a “semiotic experiment,” and reviews of its 2024 premiere have since seen it referred to as equal parts, documentary, mockumentary, biopic, musical, and a behind-the-scenes making-of featurette.
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In keeping with the unique focus of the wider film, a trailer has now been shared for the film-within-a-film biopic, Range Life: A Pavement Story. Presented by the fictitious Paragon Vantage, and soundtracked by Pavements’ own songs “Here” and “Shady Lane,” the trailer stars Stranger Things’ Joe Keery as frontman Stephen Malkmus as it focuses on the band as they grapple with success, record label intrusion, and their infamous 1995 mud-laden appearance at Lollapalooza.
“Progress is predictable and predictability involves science. I want nothing to do with science,” notes Keery as he lifts directly from Malkmus’ own words. “This is music — if it’s fun, it’s fun, if it’s work, it’s work, and that’s not fun.”
The trailer also features Nat Wolff as Scott ‘Spiral Stairs’ Kannberg, Fred Hechinger as Bob Nastanovich, Logan Miller as Mark Ibold, Griffin Newman as Steve West, and Jason Schwartzman as Matador Records’ Chris Lombardi.
Pavements is scheduled for release later in 2025, though a specific date has not yet been announced.
In real life, the California band were initially active from 1989 until 1999, releasing a total of five albums, including 1992’s Slanted and Enchanted, 1994’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, and 1997’s Brighten the Corners, which gave the group their highest-charting U.S. release when it hit No. 70 on the Billboard 200.
The group initially split in November 1999, with the previous month’s Major Leagues EP serving as their final piece of original material. Since then, the band’s members have been intensely active on other projects, including a run of reissues that complemented their original albums with a myriad unreleased and rare tracks.
In December, Kannberg revealed in an interview with the Kreative Kontrol podcast that the Pavements soundtrack will also feature the first new song from the band in more than 25 years.
“There will be a new Pavement song on the soundtrack, that’s all I’m going to give you,” he explained. “I just heard a mix of it today, and it’s pretty good. It’s not a big deal, it’s just cool because it’s something different and it’s a song that we all kind of loved playing.”
Travis Scott is one of music’s most exciting live performers, but even he can’t deny the allure of stepping inside the squared circle. The Houston rapper made headlines over the weekend when he reportedly ruptured Cody Rhodes’ eardrum and gave him a black eye during John Cena‘s Elimination Chamber heel turn. And he couldn’t contain […]
Remember when Bill Murray and Kelis were allegedly an item? Well, the legendary actor and comedian cleared those rumors up during a recent visit to SiriusXM’s Sway in the Morning to promote his new movie Riff Raff. When the subject turned to Murray’s relationship to hip-hop, the actor brought up Kelis and how much he loved […]