Stanley Donen 100th Birthday Tribute
‘Golden Bachelor’ couple announces they’ll divorce
“The Golden Bachelor” Gerry Turner and wife Theresa Nist are getting a divorce.
The couple, who wed earlier this year on the first season of the ABC reality show, announced the split Friday on “Good Morning America.”
“Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and we’ve looked closely at our situation, our living situation, so forth and – and we’ve kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it’s probably time for us to dissolve our marriage,” Turner told host Juju Chang.
Turner, 72, and Nist, 70, married on live television in January with the season’s other contestants in attendance, ages 60 to mid-70s.
“We have received so much love and support from so many people who watched ‘The Golden Bachelor,’ and I don’t think we can tell you how many people told us that it gave them so much hope,” Nist said. “We want none of that to change for anybody.”
Swift’s music returns to TikTok ahead of new album release
TikTok users discovered Taylor Swift’s music has returned to the social media platform after being removed for two months.
Three days before the Grammys in February, Swift’s label, Universal Music Group, pulled its artists’ music from the app. The halt came after failed negotiations between the label and ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok.
The songs that now appear on the social media platform are from Swiftowned albums: “Lover,” “Folklore,” “Evermore,” “Midnights” and the rerecorded “Taylor’s Version” albums. That’s drawing speculation that the artist struck a deal with the social media platform before her newest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” is released globally next Friday. Representatives with Swift’s team, UMG and TikTok did not reply to requests to comment.
When Swift signed with Universal Music Group in 2018, the singer negotiated a deal to own the copyrights. This is dissimilar to other artists including Olivia Rodrigo, Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish, whose songs are still off the platform.
McCartney honors Buffett with song, stage margarita
In a night filled with wildly eclectic musicians honoring Jimmy Buffett at the Hollywood Bowl Thursday, Paul McCartney captured the range of the “Margaritaville” bard’s impossibly wide web of global friendships and joy of living.
Entering the stage late in the “Keep The Party Going” tribute concert, McCartney, 81, spoke about being invited to Buffett’s home a week before the party-loving singer-songwriter died of skin cancer in September at age 76.
“He was in a pretty bad way, but he still had a twinkle in his eye,” said McCartney, who sat behind the piano to perform the song he had played for his dying friend – the classic ballad “Let It Be.” In Thursday’s performance, McCartney jammed along with the Eagles and Don Henley.
During the next and final song, McCartney joined music stars – from Sheryl Crow to Pitbull – for Buffett’s signature “Margaritaville,” with Sir Paul proudly hoisting a Las Vegas-sized margarita onstage.
Rowling says she won’t forgive actors for supporting trans rights TCM, beginning at 12 p.m.
Legendary director and choreographer Stanley Donen would have turned 100 today (he was born April 13, 1924, in Columbia, South Carolina; he died Feb. 21, 2019, in New York City at age 94). To celebrate his film legacy, TCM is airing four of his classics. Up first, airing in the network’s usual Musical Matinee block, is Singin’ in the Rain, the iconic 1952 musical that Donen choreographed and codirected with star Gene Kelly. Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds and Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Jean Hagen costar. After that is the Best Picture-nominated 1954 musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, led by Howard Keel and
J.K. Rowling is not on good terms with the “Harry Potter” cast who have opposed her anti-transgender views.
Responding to an X post from a fan about feeling “safe in the knowledge” that Rowling would forgive “Harry Potter” stars such as Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, who have denounced the author’s anti-trans rhetoric, Rowling wrote, “Not safe, I’m afraid.”
Her post continued, “Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces.”
Radcliffe, Watson and Rupert Grint – who played protagonists Harry Potter, Hermoine Granger and Ron Weasley – have all expressed their support for the trans community in recent years.
After Rowling penned a personal essay in June 2020 detailing her beliefs about “trans activism” and young people eventually outgrowing gender dysphoria, several “Harry Potter” cast members publicly criticized her comments, which were deemed transphobic.
Jane Powell. Next is the musical comedy Royal Wedding (1951), featuring Fred Astaire, Powell and Peter Lawford, and the Oscar-nominated song “Too Late Now.” The Donen tribute concludes with the beloved 1958 romantic comedy Indiscreet, starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.