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NEW YORK (AP) — If there's going to be a surge in viewership interest in the Tokyo Olympics, NBC Universal is still waiting.
For three straight nights, viewership for the Tokyo Games has been down more than 30% compared to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, and the network has been hit by a steady stream of bad news regarding American competitors.
NEW YORK (AP) — An unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album forfeited by Martin Shkreli after his securities fraud conviction was sold Tuesday for an undisclosed sum, though prosecutors say it was enough to fully satisfy the rest of what he owed on a $7.4 million forfeiture order he faced after his 2018 sentencing.
NEW YORK (AP) — People who watched the first day of a House investigation into the Jan. 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday were exposed to the sort of blunt language, including profanity and racial slurs, rarely heard on daytime television.
Prince, “Welcome 2 America” (Legacy Recordings)
Anyone who feared that Prince's vault was filled with nothing but Billy Joel covers, as the satirical website The Onion joked shortly after his death, need not worry.
“Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night,” Bleachers (RCA Records)
How's this for a flex from Jack Antonoff? Get no less than Bruce Springsteen to show up on your new solo album. For background vocals.
Remember lighthearted throwback adventure movies? “The Mummy”? “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”? “Pirates of the Caribbean”? The first one, at least? How about the classic romantic banter of a handsome but wholly mismatched pair in “Romancing the Stone” or “The African Queen”?
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A sports commentator in Greece who made an on-air remark about a South Korean athlete at the Tokyo Olympics that the station called racist has been fired, the country's state-run broadcaster said Tuesday.
Alvin Ailey and Bill T. Jones may have a generation between them, but the two influential choreographers crossed paths at a few pivotal moments. Ailey was the one who commissioned Jones’ first work, “Fever Swap,” in 1983.
"Native Sons,” Los Lobos (New West)
Considering the covers album “Native Sons” pays tribute to the music of a single city — Los Lobos' native Los Angeles — the set's breadth is breathtaking.
Familiar songs by Jackson Browne, Buffalo Springfield and the Beach Boys are interspersed with R&B and garage rock obscurities, along with nods to Los Lobos' many Latin influences.
Kanye West has been living inside an Atlanta stadium while working on his new album.
A representative for the performer said Monday that West planned to remain inside Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium while working to complete “Donda,” his 10th studio album.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears’ new attorney petitioned Monday to oust her father from the conservatorship that has controlled her life and money for 13 years and replace him with a professional accountant.
LONDON (AP) — Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro and Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Powers are among 13 authors in the running for the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction.
Britain’s Ishiguro, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017, is on the longlist announced Tuesday for the 50,000-pound ($69,000) prize with “Klara and the Sun,” a novel about love and humanity narrated by a solar-powered android.
NEW YORK (AP) — The NBC soap opera “Days of our Lives” is getting its own spinoff for Peacock.
NBCUniversal's streaming service, Peacock, announced Monday that it has ordered five episodes of “Days of our Lives: Beyond Salem.” The series will feature both past and present characters of the series, including Deidre Hall as Dr.
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A video showing a Montana man confronting Tucker Carlson is circulating widely on social media after the man called the Fox News host “the worst human being known to mankind.”
The video posted Friday shows Dan Bailey talking closely to Carlson inside a Montana fly fishing shop.
NEW YORK (AP) — R. Kelly's lawyers said Monday they would fight prosecutors' bid to tell jurors about allegations beyond the actual charges at his upcoming federal sex trafficking trial.
Actor Reid Miller was around 13 years old when he first heard about the death of Jadin Bell. The Oregon teenager who died by suicide in 2013 inspired a national conversation about bullying and its effects on LGBTQ youth.
Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.
TOKYO (AP) — At an Olympics aiming to set the highest level of television standards, the head of broadcasting at the Tokyo Games is trying to banish overly sexualized images of female athletes.
“Sport appeal, not sex appeal” is one mantra Olympic officials push in an effort to reach gender equity on the field of play and on screen.
HELSINKI (AP) — U.S. pop singer Pink has offered to pay a fine given to the Norwegian female beach handball team for wearing shorts instead of the required bikini bottoms.
Pink said she was “very proud” of the team for protesting against the rule that prevented them from wearing shorts like their male counterparts.
Dee Snider “Leave A Scar” (Napalm)
This is not a Twisted Sister album, not by any measure.
The latest solo album from the band's frontman Dee Snider is harder, heavier and more steeped in new metal than anything the former MTV darlings did in the '80s.
The Venice International Film Festival unveiled a starry lineup of world premieres for September — including Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer,” starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, and Ridley Scott’s medieval drama “The Last Duel,” featuring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Adam Driver.
“Unthinkable” by Brad Park (Thomas & Mercer)
In the opening of “Unthinkable,” Brad Parks’s latest thriller, lawyer turned house-husband Nate Lovejoy awakens in an ornate bedroom hours after being drugged and kidnapped.
Celebrity birthdays for the week of Aug. 1-7:
Aug. 1: Singer Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is 90. Blues musician Robert Cray is 68. Singer Michael Penn is 63. Singer Joe Elliott of Def Leppard is 62. Rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy is 61.
LONDON (AP) — Irish singer Ronan Keating on Monday accepted “substantial damages” from a British tabloid newspaper publisher over phone hacking.
The former member of boy band Boyzone is the latest in a long list of celebrities whose mobile phone voicemail messages were intercepted by News of the World reporters more than a decade ago.
SAITAMA, Japan (AP) — The soundtrack of the NBA a generation ago has made its way to the Tokyo Olympics.
“Roundball Rock” — the iconic score composed by John Tesh about three decades ago — is being utilized again by NBC at the Tokyo Games, as the theme music for men’s and women’s basketball on their broadcasts.
BERLIN (AP) — The annual Bayreuth opera festival has returned after a one-year break forced by the coronavirus pandemic, with a woman conducting for the first time in the 145-year history of the event.
NEW YORK (AP) — An estimated 17 million people in the United States watched the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics held in a largely empty stadium, down 36% from the kickoff to the Rio de Janeiro Games five years ago.
M. Night Shyamalan’s “Old” easily won a slower weekend at the North American box office, while the G.I. Joe pic “Snake Eyes” lived up to its name.
Although both fresh offerings from major studios, moviegoers turned out in modest numbers on a weekend where there was the notable distraction of the Olympics as well as rising concerns about the delta variant.
MADRID (AP) — Madrid’s tree-lined Paseo del Prado boulevard and the adjoining Retiro park have been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, holding an online meeting from Fuzhou, China, backed the candidacy on Sunday that highlighted the green area’s introduction of nature into Spain’s capital.
NEW YORK (AP) — Jackie Mason, a rabbi-turned-comedian whose feisty brand of standup comedy led him to Catskills nightclubs, West Coast talk shows and Broadway stages, has died. He was 93.
“Gold-Diggers Sound” is an apropos name for the third studio album of an artist who struck it rich six years ago with his debut LP.
Leon Bridges’ music quickly earned him recognition. “Coming Home” was nominated for Best R&B album at the 2015 Grammys.
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors in R. Kelly's sex trafficking case say he had sexual contact with an underage boy in addition to girls, and the government wants jurors in his upcoming sex trafficking trial to hear those claims.
TOKYO (AP) — Olympics opening ceremonies generally focus on going big. They love to use grandeur and pomp and big visuals — fireworks, acrobatics, athletes marching en masse, choreography that's most impactful from a distance or on TV.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The family of entertainer James Brown has reached a settlement ending a 15-year battle over the late singer’s estate, an attorney involved in the mediation said Friday.
David Black, an attorney representing Brown's estate, confirmed to The Associated Press that the agreement was reached July 9.
TOKYO (AP) — Although the name Marty McFly won't be on the start list for the first Olympic skateboarding competition, the “Back to the Future” character who inspired the immortal lines “What's that thing he's on?
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Angelina Jolie scored a major victory Friday in her divorce with Brad Pitt when a California appeals court agreed with her that the private judge deciding who gets custody of their children should be disqualified.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Alejandro Sanz just earned another accolade to go with his 29 Grammys: Olympic performer.
The Spanish sensation joined John Legend, Keith Urban and Angelique Kidjo on Friday to spread the message of peace at the Tokyo Games in a pre-recorded rendition of “Imagine.”
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — People in Utah are gathering to celebrate the state's history and recognize early Mormon pioneers who trekked west in search of religious freedom.
Pioneer Day is a beloved only-in-Utah holiday every July 24 that features parades, rodeos, fireworks and more.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeVar Burton’s quest to become the new host of “Jeopardy!” has been a confident, upbeat effort by the actor and those who rooted him on with a petition drive.
But when the day came to tape the first of his week's share of episodes as one of a succession of guest hosts, the show's pace and the challenge of following in Alex Trebek's much-admired footsteps threw Burton off stride.