Hayes: Song feels like No. 1 draft pick
Like most any boy growing up in Mobile, Walker Hayes’ early goal in his sporting career was obvious. Star at Alabama and then be drafted into the NFL. While it hasn’t quite worked out that way for the country music singer-songwriter, he has found the No. 1 overall draft pick of his profession.
Hayes, who appears in concert in Las Vegas on Saturday night, five days before the draft kicks off in town, had the megahit of 2021 with “Fancy Like.” The song not only crushed it on the charts and through every music medium, but it also launched a dance craze thanks to a TikTok he and daughter Lela concocted.
“That’s a humbling comparison,” he says of “Fancy Like’s” success in relation to the draft, “only because as a child my first dreams were to go pro like most kids in Alabama. I was put at defensive end in eighth or ninth grade, and I’m thinking, ‘This is it, I will be hitting quarterbacks the rest of my life.’
“When you say a firstround pick at the draft, that is one human selected out of millions and millions of kids who said one time in their life, ‘I will be the first draft pick in the NFL.’ ‘Fancy Like’ is like that for me, for sure. But I would have been happy with being a sixthrounder, or just let me walk on, let me long snap for a team. I just wanted to be on the field. To be compared that way with that song, it is really mind blowing to process.”
Hayes also scored a pair of follow-up hits with “AA” and “U Girl,” and is on an extended national tour.
Complaint against Murray shuts down film shoot:
Filming on Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut “Being Mortal” was shut down this week following a reported complaint over inappropriate behavior by co-star Bill Murray. Filming began nearly a month ago in Los Angeles.
While specifics have not been made public, Deadline reported that the complaint was filed last week and that Murray is the subject of the complaint. According to Deadline, filming was paused Monday before the decision was made to suspend the Searchlight Pictures production. The studio reportedly informed cast and crew of the interruption in a letter Tuesday citing the unspecified complaint.
Searchlight Pictures on Wednesday confirmed that the “Being Mortal” production had been suspended, but would not comment on an ongoing investigation.
Colbert tests positive
for COVID-19: Stephen Colbert tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, canceling the night’s episode of “The Late Show.” Colbert, 57, said that he felt fine and had received three vaccine doses. “I tested positive for Covid, but basically I’m feeling fine- grateful to be vaxxed and boosted,” the comedian wrote in a tweet. “Thank you for the well wishes.”
“The Late Show” had planned to air reruns from Friday through May 1, so the only episode that was affected was Thursday’s, the show said in a tweet.
April 23 birthdays: Actor David Birney is 83. Actor Joyce DeWitt is 73. Director Michael Moore is 68. Actor Valerie Bertinelli is 62. Comedian George Lopez is 61. Actor Melina Kanakaredes is 55. Wrestler John Cena is 45. Comedian John Oliver is 45. Actor Kal Penn is
45. Actor Dev Patel is 32. Model Gigi Hadid is 27.