ABC/Image Group LADan + Shay had some time to kill this week while stuck inside waiting for the roads to clear, after Nashville — and much of the rest of the country — got hit by a powerful snow and ice storm.
During their down time, the duo decided to spread some positivity to their fan base the best way they know how: through music.
“We get a lot of messages about wedding shout-outs and performances, and we try to do as many as we possibly can,” Dan + Shay explained on Instagram. “The other day (pre-ice storm), a fan asked if we could sing a bit of ‘My Side of the Fence’ for their wedding, so we filmed a chorus on our phone. Figured since we’re stuck at our houses until the roads are cleared, we might as well post it here for anyone else who has been asking about this song.”
“My Side of the Fence” is an album track from Dan + Shay’s self-titled third studio album, which arrived in 2018. In their performance, Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney harmonize their way through the chorus, accompanied by Dan’s acoustic guitar.
That guitar, they add in the video’s caption, has some major Dan + Shay history associated with it.
“Tequila [was] written on the guitar (it was a gift and actually sounds better than any of my other guitars, lol),” they explain, going on to poke fun at themselves for the messy hair and sweatpants that they’re sporting in the video. “We’re basically fashion icons.
During the same ice storm, Dan + Shay tweeted a snippet of their hit “I Should Probably Go to Bed” reworked as “I Should Probably Buy a Sled,” along with a video of people trying, unsuccessfully, to use various items as makeshift sleds.
ABC/Image Group LALast summer, a petition began circulating to replace Confederate statues in Tennessee with monuments to Dolly Parton. The motion picked up steam, even leading to a bill proposing the installment of such a monument on the State Capitol grounds.
But Dolly says she doesn’t think erecting a monument to her would be appropriate — at least, not right now. The singer shared a social media message with her fans this week, explaining why she asked state leaders to remove the bill from consideration.
“I want to thank the Tennessee legislature for their consideration of a bill to erect a statue of me on the Capitol grounds. I am honored and humbled by their intention,” Dolly wrote.
“Given all that is going on in the world, I don’t think putting me on a pedestal is appropriate at this time,” she continued. “I hope, though, that somewhere down the road several years from now or perhaps after I’m gone if you still feel I deserve it, then I’m certain I will stand proud in our great State Capitol as a grateful Tennessean.”
Though Dolly has long been widely adored for her musical legacy, acting roles and humanitarian work, she’s been especially celebrated over the past few years for her advocacy in other areas, particularly after her $1 million donation to COVID-19 research helped develop the Moderna vaccine.
The singer says that while she doesn’t feel like now is the right time for a statue to be erected in her honor, she plans to continue focusing on growing her legacy.
“I’ll continue to try to do good work to make this great state proud,” Dolly concluded.
David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — The cast was announced Wednesday for Hulu’s Conversations with Friends, an adaptation of Sally Rooney’s debut novel and a follow-up to Hulu’s previous Rooney adaptation, Normal People.
The series, featuring much of the same production crew that worked on Normal People, will star newcomer Alison Oliver as 21-year-old Frances, a college student and writer who gets entangled with an older married couple played by Jemima Kirke and Joe Alwyn. Sasha Lane plays Frances’ best friend. Bobbi.
It’s enough to give Normal People star and recent Golden Globe nominee Daisy Edgar-Jones major FOMO.
“I am so excited to see what they’re going to do with it, because I love that book and I was saying to them, like, I would be happy to come and be a runner, like, I’ll make the tea!” she tells ABC Audio. “I just want to be involved in some way.”
Conversations with Friends may have a lot in common with Normal People behind the scenes, but Edgar-Jones points out it’s a completely different story.
“Yeah, I think they’re going to do something amazing with it, and it’s kind of a different style to Normal People in terms of, like, the story’s a little bit darker and things, and it’s more complex subjects and stuff,” she says. “So I’m really excited to see how they’re going to do it.”
Production will begin later this year in Ireland, with the show scheduled to debut in 2022. Edgar-Jones, meanwhile, is set to star in yet another book adaptation, the Delia Owens bestseller Where the Crawdads Sing.
Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty ImagesBy MORGAN WINSOR and ANTHONY TROTTER, ABC News
(TOKYO) — The Tokyo Olympics organizing committee announced Thursday that Seiko Hashimoto has been appointed president, a week after the previous leader was forced to resign over sexist comments he made suggesting women talk too much in meetings.
“Today I am honored to be appointed President of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee,” Hashimoto said in a statement. “The circumstances surrounding the appointment of a new president have made the question of how Tokyo 2020 and the Games can further the cause of gender equality one of intense interest to many people. I intend to approach this question with a sense of urgency and within the month set forth a system for implementation and begin delivering results.”
Hashimoto has been involved with the Olympics for a number of years, as both an athlete and an official. The 56-year-old former speed skater and track cyclist is a decorated Olympian, having represented Japan at a total of seven Olympic Games and winning a bronze medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. She also served as a senior executive board member of the Japanese Olympic Committee, led Japan’s Olympic delegation to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, as well as the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and served as deputy delegation lead to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Hashimoto was “the perfect choice for this position.”
“With the appointment of a woman as President, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee is also sending a very important signal with regard to gender equality, which is one of the topics we addressed in Olympic Agenda 2020, the reform programme for the IOC and the Olympic Movement,” Bach said in a statement Thursday.
Since September 2019, Hashimoto had been serving as minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in the cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. She was also in charge of women’s empowerment and gender equality. Hashimoto told reporters that she submitted her resignation to Suga upon accepting her new role as head of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee.
“With five months to the Games, this role is an immense and sobering responsibility,” she said in the statement Thursday. “Looking ahead to the summer, we must make safety the ultimate priority and do everything possible to prepare a Games where everyone may feel safe and secure. In my previous role as Minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games I was fully devoted to the Games’ success, and now that I am returning to Tokyo 2020 I will make every effort to further deepen our collaboration with the national government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to deliver what the people of Tokyo, Japan and the world can agree is a safe and secure Games.”
“As we approach the first postponed Games in history, Tokyo 2020 will do everything in our power to share a potential vision for a new era of the Games, and to make a contribution to the future of the Olympic and the Paralympic movement as we carry out the mission of the Tokyo 2020 Games,” she added.
Hashimoto’s predecessor, Yoshiro Mori, announced his resignation on Feb. 12. The 83-year-old former prime minister of Japan had sparked outrage after making sexist remarks during an executive board meeting that was held online earlier this month. When giving his “private opinion” about the Japanese Olympic Committee’s goal of increasing the number of female board directors from 20% to more than 40%, Mori expressed concern about how that would affect the length of meetings, according to a report by The Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s largest daily newspapers.
“A meeting of an executive board that includes many women would take time,” Mori was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “Women are competitive. When someone raises his or her hand and speaks, they probably think they should speak too. That is why they all end up making comments.”
He also referred to the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, saying it “includes about seven women, but they all know how to behave,” the newspaper reported.
Mori apologized for his remarks at a hastily prepared press conference the following day. But by then, calls for his resignation were already trending on social media.
Early reports said that Mori had picked Saburo Kawabuchi, the 84-year-old former president of the governing body of Japanese soccer and an ex-player himself, to succeed him. But the news triggered further outrage that the process of choosing Mori’s successor was not transparent and that replacing him with another man who is even older would not help the situation. Toshiro Muto, chief executive officer of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, later told reporters that there had been “no concrete discussion” about Kawabuchi succeeding Mori and that Kawabuchi said he would turn down the job anyway.
“We will pick a successor as soon as possible,” Muto said at a press conference on Feb. 12. “We need to ensure that the process to appoint a successor will be transparent, as established by the executive board.”
The controversy and ensuing leadership shuffle come as the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee forges ahead with its plans to hold the Games in Japan’s capital this summer amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2020 Summer Olympics were supposed to kick off in Tokyo last year on July 24. But in late March, amid mounting calls to delay or cancel the upcoming Games due to the pandemic, the International Olympic Committee and Japanese organizers announced that the event would be held a year later. Organizers have been staunch in their determination to go forward with the Games ever since. Earlier this month, they unveiled a series of “playbooks” for how they plan to hold a safe and successful Games in Tokyo this summer while preventing the spread of COVID-19.
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has confirmed more than 420,000 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including at least 7,196 deaths. The country’s daily number of newly confirmed cases has been on the decline in recent weeks after peaking in early January. Tokyo and nine other prefectures remain under a state of emergency to bring down the infection and death rates.
Japan launched its mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Wednesday, months after other major economies did so and amid concerns over whether the drive would inoculate enough people in time for the already-delayed Tokyo Olympics.
Following the announcement of her appointment, Hashimoto told reporters she wants to ensure “athletes can actively participate in the Games without anxiety.”
“Under the current circumstances, some athletes might wonder if it is appropriate to be a part of the summer Games. I’m sure this must be a challenging and difficult situation,” she said at a press conference Thursday. “I’m a former athlete. Therefore, I take into considerations the needs of the athletes as well as the public. Safety is of utmost importance.”
Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — As more Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel alums speak out against the alleged misconduct disgraced director Joss Whedon displayed on set, one voice was noticeably absent — Nicholas Brendon.
Brendon, who played the affable Xander and was a critical member of the “Scooby Gang,” broke his silence about why he hasn’t publicly spoken out about the controversy.
Taking to Facebook Live recently, the 49-year-old actor revealed that he is about to undergo emergency surgery to repair some residual nerve damage in his back.
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to get some spinal surgery tomorrow and heal and come up with a statement that represents me,” he said while reclined in a hospital bed before reflecting on how social media has changed things for celebrities.
“When things happen like this, with social media and stuff, it’s hard for me — it makes me sick,” said Brendon, who explained why he didn’t jump at the opportunity to speak out. “I don’t owe you a God-damn thing… So stop treating any celebrity like they owe you anything statement-wise. They just don’t!”
The Criminal Minds alum touched upon former co-star Charisma Carpenter’s allegations of misconduct against Whedon, furthering in a separate Facebook Live video, “While some people think that I owe them a statement, I don’t really owe them a statement right now. This is my life, and these are two people that I love very much.”
“Yes, I do love Joss, and I love CC more than most, and so I’m not just going to give you a statement that says ‘my thoughts and prayers go out to the families and the victims,'” Brendon explained. “I’m not going to do that. I’m going to think about it.”
However, he did add that he “supports” Carpenter, but maintained that is all he’s willing to say for now.
ABC/Image Group LADan + Shay had some time to kill this week while stuck inside waiting for the roads to clear, after Nashville — and much of the rest of the country — got hit by a powerful snow and ice storm. 
