‘SNL’ gears up for new season launch with Gosling, Jay-Z
NEW YORK » “Saturday Night Live” kicks off its new season with Ryan Gosling as host, Jay-Z as the musical guest — and pretty likely some jokes at the expense of the White House.
The sketch comedy show starts up again Saturday and is hoping to build off one of its mostwatched seasons in more than two decades thanks to Alec Baldwin’s turn as President Donald Trump and Melissa McCarthy’s appearances as former White House press secretary Sean Spicer. Both actors recently won Emmys for their work, as did Kate McKinnon, who played Hillary Clinton on the show.
The 90-minute show is now entering its 43rd season. It has grown so popular that it spun off the half-hour “Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Summer Edition” while the main show was on break.
Miley Cyrus packs out honky-tonk for release of new album
NASHVILLE, TENN. » Pop star Miley Cyrus returned to her Tennessee roots, musically and geographically, for the release of her new album “Younger Now” with a hometown performance at a Nashville honkytonk.
Cyrus answered fan questions and chatted on stage with her dad, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, during the welcome home party thrown Friday night by the streaming service Spotify at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. She sang songs from her new album, which was released Friday, as well as her dad’s 1992 mega hit “Achy Breaky Heart.”
Fans camped outside the bar for hours hoping to see the singer, who grew up in Nashville before becoming a teen television star. Now 24 years old with six studio albums, Cyrus told her fans that she wasn’t running from her old music, but embracing it.
Rapper Kendrick Lamar among headliners at Forbes summit
BOSTON » Rapper Kendrick Lamar and Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman are among the celebrities, athletes and business leaders heading to Boston for Forbes’ Under 30 Summit.
The four-day event on technology and business starts Sunday and runs through Wednesday.
It includes panel discussions, competitions for startup companies, networking opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs, as well as musical performances and other celebritydriven events.
The events are being staged at prominent locations across the Boston-area, including City Hall Plaza, historic Faneuil (FAN’-yul) Hall, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Fenway Park area.
More than 7,000 people are expected to attend.
Actor Ashton Kutcher, actress Evan Rachel Wood, skier Lindsay Vonn, model Karlie Kloss and television chef Ayesha Curry are among the other notable summit speakers.
Maria television reporting raises echoes of Katrina coverage
focused NEW YORK » As the days pass since Hurricane Maria ripped across Puerto Rico, television reports increasingly echo those after Katrina a dozen years ago in sounding the alarm for a desperate population frustrated by relief efforts.
The question is: how many people are listening this time?
Despite being hampered by the same communications and mobility problems that Puerto Rican residents face, reporters are working to tell the island’s story. Reflecting what they hear on the streets, they are questioning the effectiveness of relief.
Yet Americans haven’t show the same interest in the story as they did for Hurricane Harvey in Texas or Irma in Florida.
One measurement that shows the gap: The Weather Channel’s peak audience for Maria coverage is less than half of what it was for Harvey. the pace of
Playboy’s interviews were models of the art form
NEW YORK » Hugh Hefner, who died this week at age 91, was known most as an instigator of the sexual revolution of the 1960s and ‘70s.
But Playboy’s influence extended well beyond its centerfolds, whether by publishing authors like Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut, sponsoring comedians and jazz musicians or through its mastery of the art of the interview.
Playboy’s long and searching conservations are remarkable for the people who spoke to the magazine and for what they said.
Playboy has met with political leaders like Fidel Castro and athletes like Muhammad Ali. It was the rare publication to speak with Marlon Brando the second half of his life.
A joint interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono came out two days before the former Beatle was murdered by a deranged fan.