Swift named a ‘global icon’
Taylor Swift was being honored as a global icon on Tuesday at the Brit Awards, set to be held in front of a live audience of 4,000 in London as part of a test return to mass-attendance events in the age of coronavirus.
Britain’s leading music prize ceremony is being used as a pilot event by the government ahead of the expected full easing of coronavirus restrictions this summer.
Attendees at London’s O2 Arena will not be socially distanced or wearing face masks, but they will have had to provide a negative COVID-19 test ahead of the show. The audience will include 2,500 key workers and their guests who had received tickets in recognition of their efforts during the pandemic.
“It’s the first event we’ve been to since the pandemic, there’s a great buzz,” said police nurse Brian George, who brought his 18-year-old daughter to the ceremony.
“I’m hoping that with a few more events like this it’ll be like, by the autumn, let’s open up everything again,“he said. “That would be fantastic.”
British female singersongwriters Dua Lipa, Arlo Parks and Celeste are each nominated for three prizes at the awards, Britain’s equivalent of the Grammys. DJ Joel Corry and rap duo Young T & Bugsey also have three nominations apiece.
Swift is set to become the first woman to receive the global icon prize, which has previously been awarded to superstars such as Elton John and David Bowie. — Associated Press
Could it be Bennifer is back on again?
They may have split in 2004, but superstar couple Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck — or Bennifer as we called them — remained very much in each other’s lives in the ensuing years.
“They are friends. They have always been friends, and they have seen each other through the years,” a source told People after the two were spotted together recently, sparking reconciliation rumors.
The former fiances were hanging out together around Big Sky, Montana, reports said Monday. “Jennifer spent several days with Ben out of town,” a source told People magazine. “They have a strong connection. It’s all been quick and intense, but Jennifer is happy.”
The star-powered duo was spotted driving together in Big Sky before they returned to Los Angeles on Saturday on a private jet, the sources said.
They met back in 2002 on the set of “Gigli,” playing gangsters who fall in love while attempting to kidnap a powerful federal prosecutor’s psychologically challenged younger brother. Critics, claiming a lack of chemistry between Affleck and Lopez, panned the pic.
But real life would refute that, as the pair began dating.
Lopez, now 51, and Affleck, 48, went public not long after her 2003 divorce from Cris Judd, her second husband. They got engaged later that year, a proposal sealed with a 6.1-carat, pink solitaire diamond Affleck had chosen himself, custom-made by celebrity jeweler Harry Winston.
Jennifer Lopez exchanged rings with Marc Anthony in a June 2004 wedding that reportedly surprised even her closeknit family. Lopez split from former fiance Ben Affleck just months before.
Affleck would go on to marry actress actress Jennifer Garner, a union that lasted 10 years before the couple separated in 2015, finalizing their divorce in 2018.
Lopez, meanwhile, divorced Anthony and met Alex Rodriguez, the nowretired baseball player. They had been engaged since 2019 but called off their relationship last month. — N.Y. Daily News (TNS)
Glover: Artists aren’t taking chances
The Donald (not that one) is tweeting about television shows, and people’s fear of being canceled.
Emmy Award-winning actor Donald Glover is sharing some thoughts on why he thinks the entertainment industry has become “boring.”
Glover - the creator and producer of the critically acclaimed FX comedy “Atlanta,” and a five-time Grammy-winning artist wrote that, after reading in the platform that some people were tired of “reviewing boring stuff (tv & film),” he decided to join in the conversation.
“We’re getting boring stuff and not even experimental mistakes(?) because people are afraid of getting cancelled,” Glover, who’s also known by the stage name of Childish Gambino, wrote in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
“So they feel like they can only experiment w/ aesthetic (also because some of em know theyre not that good),” he continued, in a three-tweet thread. — N.Y. Daily News (TNS)
Pfizer chair - CEO lands book deal
Pfizer Chairman and CEO Dr. Albert Bourla can now tell the incredible story.
Bourla has a deal with Harper Business for what the publisher is calling “an exclusive, first-hand, behind-the-scenes story” of how the drugmaker managed to develop an effective vaccine against COVID-19 in a remarkably short period of time — months instead of years. Bourla’s “Moonshot: Inside Pfizer’s Nine-month Race to Make the Impossible Possible” is scheduled to come out Nov. 9.
“I am sharing the story of our moonshot — the challenges we faced, the lessons we learned, and the core values that allowed us to make it happen — in hopes that it might inspire and inform your own moonshot, whatever that may be,“Bourla, 59, said in a statement.
Financial terms were not disclosed. Bourla plans to donate any proceeds to charity.