Lizzo, Sheeran to headline jazz fest
Lizzo and Ed Sheeran are among the headliners at this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which takes place over two weekends starting April 28.
The lineup released Friday also includes Dead & Company, Mumford & Sons, the Lumineers, Santana, Jon Batiste,
Jill Scott, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Kane Brown, H.E.R., the Steve Miller Band and Ludacris.
Batiste, a New Orleans area native, is one of many local acts who will perform. Other New Orleans acts set to play include Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Radiators.
The festival features hundreds of acts and draws tens of thousands of visitors daily. Festival organizers said this year’s event also will include a celebration of Puerto Rico.
Producers guild reveals nominations:
“Top Gun: Maverick,” “The Fabelmans,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Tar” have all been nominated for the Producers Guild of America’s top honor, the organization said Thursday. All five films also got top Directors Guild nominations on Wednesday.
The Producers Guild nominates 10 films for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures. Also nominated are “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Elvis,” “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and “The Whale.”
In the animation category, the nominees are “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On,” “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” “Puss in Boots: The
Last Wish” and “Turning Red.”
The PGA also recognizes television programs. Nominated dramas include “Andor,” “Better Call Saul,” “Ozark,” “Severance” and “The White Lotus.” Comedies nominated are “Abbott Elementary,” “Barry,” “The Bear,” “Hacks” and “Only Murders in the Building.”
Awards will be handed out at an untelevised ceremony Feb. 25.
Stunt performer Knievel dies:
Robbie Knievel — an American stunt performer who set records with daredevil motorcycle jumps following the tire tracks of his thrill-seeking father — has died at age 60, his brother said. Robbie Knievel died Friday at a hospice in Reno, Nevada, after battling pancreatic cancer, Kelly Knievel said.
Their father, Evel Knievel, died in 2007 in Florida. But where Evel Knievel famously almost died from injuries when he crashed his Harley-Davidson during a jump over the Caesars Palace fountains in Las Vegas in 1967,
Robbie Knievel completed the jump in 1989 using a specially designed Honda.
Dancer Flatley diagnosed with cancer:
“Riverdance” creator Michael Flatley is battling an “aggressive form of cancer,” his team announced. The veteran Irish dancer hasn’t personally commented on the diagnosis.
“He has undergone surgery and is in the care of an excellent team of doctors,” Flatley’s team wrote Wednesday on Instagram.
Flatley was diagnosed with skin cancer around 2003, he told the Sunday Independent in 2021.
Singer Marilyn Horne is 89. Singer Barbara Lynn is
81. Singer Ronnie Milsap is 80. Singer Katherine Anderson Schaffner is 79. Director John Carpenter is 75. Actor Debbie Allen is 73. Singer Maxine Jones is 61. Singer Sade is 64. Actor Richard T. Jones is 51. Model Kate Moss is 49. Actor Lin-Manuel Miranda is 43.