Names and faces
■ Colombian singer-songwriter Karol G has earned the title of Billboard’s 2024 Woman of the Year, landing her in the same company as Taylor Swift, SZA and Lady Gaga. Karol G made history Sunday when she not only won her first ever Grammy but became the first woman to win in best musica urbana. “You know, I feel a lot of responsibility about that. As a woman, I have to say, like in my experience, it was tough, like so many things, to be a girl in this industry, in the music that I do, in urban music,” she told The Associated Press. She will be honored March 6 as Woman of the Year at the Billboard Women in Music Awards. “With her immense talent, Karol G has created a movement for women across the globe due to her empowering lyrics and shameless confidence,” said Hannah Karp, Billboard’s Editorial Director, in a statement. “The release of her groundbreaking album Manana Sera Bonito has proven her a force to be reckoned with in both the English and Spanish charts. We are so excited to honor her as Woman of the Year.” The awards show will be held at the YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park in Los Angeles, hosted by actress Tracee Ellis Ross.
■ Christian Bale broke ground Wednesday on a project he’s been pursuing for 16 years — the building of a dozen homes and a community center in Los Angeles County intended to keep siblings in foster care together. The Oscar winner stood with a grin and a shovel full of dirt alongside local politicians and donors in the city of Palmdale, 60 miles north from Los Angeles. But Bale, who was Batman in director Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy, wasn’t just playing Bruce Wayne and lending his name and money to a charitable cause. “I would have done it all if it was just me by myself here,” Bale told The Associated Press in an interview. The British-born Bale has lived in California since the early 1990s and sought to build the community after hearing about the huge number of foster children in Los Angeles County, and learning how many brothers and sisters had to be separated in the system. That was around 2008, the time of “The Dark Knight,” when his now college-age daughter was 3 years old. The 12 homes, anchored by the community center, are set to be finished in April 2025.