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Jesse Tyler Ferguson jokes he and his husband are raising their son gay "until he decides he's straight"

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PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images(LOS ANGELES) — Modern Family alum Jesse Tyler Ferguson and husband Justin Mikita are finding fatherhood agrees with them, even as they’re working to figure it out.

During a virtual hang out on The Ellen Degeneres Show, Jesse spoke of parenting their eight-month-old son, Beckett Mercer. “We’re still figuring out his personality… It’s a new person in your life, and just like anyone new that comes into your life, you’ve gotta figure out if you like them. It takes a little bit of time,” Ferguson joked to DeGeneres.

“No, I really do like him, he’s a really good boy,” Ferguson said, adding that he’d “wanted to be a dad for a really long time.” 

Ferguson explained that the boy is being fed a steady diet of the actor’s favorite music –show tunes — and that his first taste of music was Britney Spears, in the car ride home from the hospital. 

“So we’re raising him gay until he decides he’s straight,” Ferguson said to laughs.

“Justin and I were saying, he’s absolutely going to be such a straight kid,” he said with a laugh. “Who knows,” the actor-turned cookbook author admitted, noting he and his husband said they’d love to see Beckett play football someday, but that they’lll love him whatever he turns out to be.

Ferguson also admitted that Taylor Swift sent them the “nicest” baby clothes for Beckett, so much so that they’re still “stuffing his sausage legs” into the clothes, which he’s grown out of, but which they can’t part with because Taylor sent them.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Eric Church, Chris Stapleton performing at 'A Grammy Salute to the Sounds of Change'

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ABCEric Church and Chris Stapleton are taking part in A Grammy Salute to the Sounds of Change.

The country stars join a lineup that includes Brad Paisley, LeAnn RimesThe United States vs. Billie Holiday star Andra DayGladys Knight, John Fogerty and many others who will pay tribute to the songs throughout history that inspired social change.  

Presented by The Recording Academy and CBS, the two-hour special will highlight “songs that have seen us through the darkest hours and greatest triumphs,” according to a statement, with each artist offering their own interpretation of songs that embrace social justice and equality, in addition to sharing the stories behind them.

The event will also serve as a retrospective of some of the greatest moments in Grammy Awards history.  

A Grammy Salute to the Sounds of Change premieres on CBS on March 17 at 9 p.m. ET, three days after the 2021 Grammy Awards air on CBS on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.

By Cillea Houghton 
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Queen Latifah's 'The Equalizer' series gets second-season renewal after only four episodes

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Courtesy of CBS Communications(LOS ANGELES) — Queen Latifah will get to keep kicking butt. After only four episodes, CBS announced on Tuesday that they’ve renewed Latifah’s The Equalizer series for a second season.

According to the network, the show is television’s number-one scripted series in the key demos, averaging 14.6 million viewers. Its premiere on Super Bowl Sunday, February 7, was the most-watched debut of the 2020-2021 season, delivering 23.8 million viewers. It also scored the best viewer and demo numbers for any entertainment program since the 2020 Academy Awards on February 9.

Led by Latifah, who also serves as a producer, The Equalizer follows the star as an “enigmatic figure” who uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn.”  The show has been described as “new take” on the character first played by Edward Woodard in the 1980s CBS TV series, and most recently portrayed by Denzel Washington in two Antoine Fuqua-directed and produced films.

Although currently on hiatus until March 28, new episodes of The Equalizer air Sunday nights on CBS. 

By Candice Williams
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Darius Rucker recalls final conversation with Charley Pride

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ABCDarius Rucker is opening up about the last words he exchanged with the late Charley Pride.

Darius and Reba McEntire were serving as co-hosts of the 2020 CMA Awards in November, during which Charley was honored with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Darius had the chance to speak with the country icon during the show, and the two had made plans to get together for a social distance visit in Charley’s native state of Mississippi. But Charley sadly passed away from complications due to COVID-19 in December.

“When I saw him, we talked for a minute, and I told him I wanted to come to Mississippi. I said, ‘This is the perfect time. I’ll come, and we’ll social distance and sit and talk and drink some coffee,'” Darius shares with Southern Living. “And he was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do that.’ It was the last time I spoke to him.” 

The South Carolina native also shares that the most memorable moment of the night for him was when Charley took the stage to accept the prestigious award.

“The whole deal, really, was seeing Charley receive that [lifetime achievement] award and get it when he was still alive,” Darius recalls. “You can look at all the legends who are still around, all of whom are great, and none of them deserves it more than Charley.”

Darius recently collected his 10th #1 country single with “Beers and Sunshine.”  

By Cillea Houghton 
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

'Powerpuff Girls' unite! Live-action version of the classic cartoon casts Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, and Yanna Perault

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Bennet, Cameron, Parault — Saty + Pratha/Adria Vaidila/Marcus V. Richardson(LOS ANGELES) — The CW has found its Powerpuff Girls.

ABC Audio has confirmed that the live-action version of the hit cartoon about the pint-sized superheroes has cast Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. veterans Chloe Bennet and Dove Cameron, as well as Jagged Little Pill stage actress and recording artist Yanna Perault. 

Bennet, Cameron, and Perault will play grown-up versions of, respectively, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup in the forthcoming CW series. 

Based on Craig McCracken’s hit Cartoon Network animated show, the three Utonium Sisters got their start as lab-created super-girls. But according to a description from the network, the show, co-produced by Juno Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody, paints the heroes as “disillusioned twenty-somethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime fighting.”

Bennet’s Blossom was a “spunky, conscientious, Little-Miss-Perfect child who holds several advanced degrees,” but in the new show, her, “repressed kiddie-superhero trauma has left her feeling anxious and reclusive, and she aims to become a leader again.”

Former Disney star Cameron — who played one of Bennet’s enemies on S.H.I.E.L.D. — is Bubbles, the blue-skirted sweetheart of the trio. “She still sparkles as an adult,” the network notes, “but her charming exterior belies an unexpected toughness and wit. She’s initially more interested in recapturing her fame than saving the world.”

Perrault’s character was the brunette butt-kicker of the group in her crime-fighting days. Now, “more sensitive than her tough exterior suggests, Buttercup has spent her adulthood trying to shed her Powerpuff Girl identity and live an anonymous life,” says the network.

There’s no release date yet for the series.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.