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John Krasinski, Dan Levy, Regina King are the first 'SNL' hosts of 2021

• No Comments • Entertainment News

Krasinski directing “A Quiet Place Part II”/Paramount Pictures(NEW YORK) — On the show’s Twitter feed, Saturday Night Live just announced the hosts and musical guests for the first three shows of the 2021 season. 

John Krasinski will host the January 30th installment, with Machine Gun Kelly as the musical guest; Schitt’s Creek Emmy winner Dan Levy headlines the February 6 show, which features Phoebe Bridgers playing Studio 8H; and on February 13, Oscar and Emmy winner Regina King toplines the show, with Nathaniel Rateliff as the musical guest. 

Krasinski’s appearance is a do-over. He was in New York City and supposed to guest host last spring, before the release of his sequel A Quiet Place Part II, however the film’s debut — and indeed Saturday Night Live — became early victims of the COVID-19 shutdowns.

On his Twitter, the Office star-turned director just noted, “Aaaaaand cue the pinching myself.”

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

Carly Pearce details how “Next Girl” evolved from a “sad little letter” to an “anthem for women”

• No Comments • Country Music News

ABCCarly Pearce’s current single, “Next Girl,” is filled with musical nods to ‘90s country and a twangy, upbeat message of empowerment for any woman staring down a relationship full of cheesy pickup lines and broken promises.

But Carly says that the idea for the song actually started from a much sadder place: Her feelings of heartbreak and loss during her own “failed relationships.”

“I had this title, but I, in true Carly Pearce fashion, heard it more as a sad little letter to the next girl,” she recounts in a new installment of CMT’s “Hit Story” series.

But the song started taking on a peppier element after the singer brought it to Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne, who co-wrote the song with Carly and are also producing her new batch of music.

“They totally heard it as just, something like an anthem for women,” she continues. “And it almost wrote itself. We were just spewing things out, all together, and it was just a really, really fun song to write.

Since dropping “Next Girl,” Carly’s hinted at a handful of other unreleased new songs that she’s been working on during the pandemic. Many of them stick to the the themes of heartbreak and love gone wrong, and Carly — who divorced her husband, Michael Ray, last summer — says that’s the subject matter that she finds most creatively fruitful right now.

“I feel like I’m onto something with these, writing songs about relationships that don’t work,” she adds.


By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

"If" Chris Evans returns as Captain America, "I'd be very happy with that" says Anthony Mackie

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Marvel Studios(LOS ANGELES) — It had been recently reported that Chris Evans had agreed to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe years after he capped his Captain America career with Avengers: Endgame. 

However, even as that report was met with a Tesseract-size grain of salt, with Evans himself responding on Twitter “News to me,” and a shrugging emoji, his former partner seems to be OK with the possibility. 

Anthony Mackie, who played Sam Wilson/Falcon in the Marvel films — to whom a time-traveled Steve Rogers passed his Captain America shield and mantle at the end of Endgame — was asked about the possibility on the podcast Happy Sad Confused.

“You know, I’ve heard that,” the affable actor says about the Evans story. “Look, Chris is my boy, so if they’re getting the band back together, I’ll be very happy with that.” 

For now, Mackie can be seen in the sci-fi thriller Outside The Wire on Netflix.

He’ll next play Wilson, as the newly-crowned Cap, in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which debuts March 19 on Disney+.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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

Neil Patrick Harris doesn't see an issue with straight actors playing gay characters

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John Parra/Getty Images for Goldbelly(LOS ANGELES) — Neil Patrick Harris broke his silence on the debate over straight actors playing gay characters.  The A Series of Unfortunate Events star, who came out as gay in 2006, says he doesn’t see an issue.

In a Thursday interview with The Sunday Times, Harris weighed in on the comments made by screenwriter Russel T. Davies, who said he is against straight actors playing gay roles.

“I’m not one to jump onto labeling. As an actor, you certainly hope you can be a visible option for all kinds of different roles,” the 47-year-old Emmy nominee expressed, using the character he played on How I Met Your Mother — serial womanizer Barney Stinson — to illustrate his point.

“I played a character for nine years that was nothing like me,” said Harris before referencing Davies’ series Queer as Folk, which starred three straight actors as gay men.

“It was one of the real true turning points for me as examples of sexy guys behaving as leads in something of import, not as comic sidekicks,” the father of two elaborated. “There’s something something sexy about casting a straight actor to play a gay role, if they’re willing to invest in it.”

Harris also added that mentality may force actors and actresses in uncomfortable situations and also limit their opportunities, explaining, “In our world that we live in, you can’t really as a director demand that… Who’s to determine how gay someone is?”

Davies, in a previous interview, expressed, “You wouldn’t cast someone able-bodied and put them in a wheelchair. You wouldn’t Black someone up. Authenticity is leading us to joyous places.”

When asked about Davies’ comments directly, Harris understood where the Welsh television producer was coming from, saying he was “speaking more about the joyfulness of being able to be authentic.”

By Megan Stone
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Garth Brooks thanks Lady Gaga for loaning him her glam squad on Inauguration Day

• No Comments • Country Music News

ABC/Image Group LABlame it all on his roots, he showed up in boots…and apparently needed a little extra help getting camera-ready before his Inauguration Day performance!

Garth Brooks was among the stars who turned out to celebrate President Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, and the country superstar opted for an a cappella performance of “Amazing Grace.” Garth wore a dark shirt and jacket along with jeans and cowboy boots for the occasion, donning his signature cowboy hat as he walked up to podium but removing it before he began singing.

Afterwards, however, a tweet from the “Dive Bar” star revealed that he had a little last-minute help from his fellow performer, pop star Lady Gaga.

“You were fabulous today and every day. A national treasure,” Garth told Gaga over social media. “Please tell Frederick and Miss Sarah thank you for me! They saved a cowboy today.”

The people he named in his tweet are Gaga’s longtime makeup artist, Sarah Tanno, and hairstylist Frederic Aspiras. The specifics of how they “saved a cowboy” aren’t clear from Garth’s Tweet, but it seems they must have helped him primp before the big event — and the time they spent together clearly made an impression on the country star.

“Oh, and tell Miss Sarah to hug her momma for me! love, g,” Garth added.

Garth was the only country artist to perform at the inauguration ceremony itself, though Tyler Hubbard and Tim McGraw offered up their new duet, “Undivided,” at that evening’s Celebrating America TV special.

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.