ABCDarius Rucker has scored his first top 10 country hit in two years.
The Hootie & the Blowfish star officially ascends into the top 10 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart this week as his latest single, “Beers and Sunshine,” moves up from #11 to #10.
The song marks the first time that Darius has appeared in the top 10 on the chart since 2018 when “For the First Time” claimed the #1 spot for a week.
“Beers and Sunshine” gives the South Carolina native his 12th top 10 hit on the chart, in addition to previous hits including “Alright,” “This,” “Wagon Wheel” and more.
The summery tune serves as the lead single off Darius’ impending sixth studio album. He performed the track during the 2020 CMA Awards where he was co-host alongside Reba McEntire.
ABC/Christopher Willard(LOS ANGELES) — With just one day left in 2020, the folks from the coming attractions-spoofing YouTube hit Honest Trailers have slammed the door on the accursed year.
“From the world that brought you 1918, 1347, and Woodstock ’99, comes a year we can’t wait to close the book on,” Trailer Voice Guy intones, over shots of plague, pestilence, and rioting Gen Xers from back in the day.
The trailer starts the look back in January, when we were enjoying “two months of blissful [Sonic the] Hedgehog-filled ignorance,” and fast forwards to the, “hot new virus that affects everyone,” but still remained polarizing, because society.
“The only thing that brought us together was Tiger King,” the trailer notes. “Can you believe that came out 10 years ago?”
Patton Oswalt interrupts in voiceover, contrasting this year to the uplifting climax of Avengers: Endgame. “Think about the ‘On your left’ moment: Cap was down, the odds were against him, and suddenly — hope!” But Patton says 2020 is like, “instead of Wakandans and wizards and zero body fat hunks coming out of those portals, it’s…a never-ending…torrent of diarrhea…That’s 2020.”
This year we discovered “The new home of entertainment is your home,” Trailer Guy says. “And the new home of work is your home. And the new home of school is your home…As we…keep bingeing the shows that help us escape to the ‘Before Times’…because staying home all day eating snacks on a hot couch is literally saving lives.”
The trailer ends with a montage of movie clips in which the various characters all declare, “At least it can’t get any worse.”
“Have you people ever seen a movie?” says Oswalt. “What did you think was gonna happen?”
ABCAt the end of the whirlwind year that was 2020, Dierks Bentley is looking forward to a mellow New Year’s Eve.
Dierks recalls that New Years past have been spent partying after playing a live show, and admits that the back-to-back events can be a bit overwhelming.
“New Year’s is rough. New Year’s hurts no matter what’s going on,” he says. “I’ve played a lot of New Year’s shows, but I’ve honestly found that it’s not my favorite night to throw down.”
Admittedly feeling exhausted after a show, Dierks says he often relishes in the low-key New Year’s celebrations that don’t include a hangover the next morning.
“A lot of times on New Year’s, I’m looking for a really mellow hang, a good party, good friends, pretty chill. Some of my best New Year’s have been actually hearing fireworks go off while I’m in bed,” he continues.
To ring in 2021, the “Burning Man” hitmaker plans to take it easy with his family as they retreat in Colorado, hoping to enter the new year with a sense of rejuvenation.
“The goal this year is to go into it feeling pretty good and the kids help with that, because you really just don’t want to be hungover with children. It’s not a good feeling,” he describes. “You would probably admit to any crime to get them, just feel better, and get them leave you alone. So, [I’m] gonna try to hit New Year’s this year in stride.”
Dierks is entering the new year with a top-25 hit on his hands, as his current single, “Gone,” climbs the charts.
LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX(NEW YORK) — Bridgerton stars Phoebe Dynover and Regé-Jean Page joined Good Morning Americavirtually on Wednesday to discuss the latest hit from Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland.
The Netflix series, created byChris Van Dusen and based on Julia Quinn’s bestselling novels, is set in London during the Regency era and depicts the equally dramatic and romantic twists and turns of high society’s courting season. The couple at the center of it all, Dynover’s Daphne Bridgerton and Page’s Simon Basset, aka the Duke of Hastings, has sparked the interest of viewers.
Page told GMA the chemistry between his character and Dynover’s was “probably the easiest part” of the job for him.
“We were working with such wonderful material,” the Sylvie’s Love actor said. “The characters already existed … and they have great chemistry in the books, so all we had to do was channel through this amazing chemistry that already existed.”
There was also an intimacy coordinator on the set to help make shooting the most passionate of scenes more comfortable for the actors.
“It was so great to have an intimacy coordinator,” Dynover said. “We blocked every scene weeks before we started shooting them, so by the time we got to set, we knew exactly what we were doing, and we both felt safe. I think it just made the whole experience a lot easier and nicer for both of us.”
With an effortlessly diverse cast, Bridgerton doesn’t look like other period pieces you may have seen set in the early 1800s. It also doesn’t sound like what you might expect, often featuring instrumentals of today’s most popular songs like Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next.”
Dynover said the series is a “reimagined world” of the historical era, with the music and dancing being a “really special part” of the experience.
Dawn Wells Archives(LOS ANGELES) — Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann Summers on the campy classic TV show Gilligan’s Island, has died from COVID-19, ABC News has confirmed.
Her rep noted the actress, motivational speaker and philanthropist “passed peacefully [Wednesday] morning, in no pain as a result of complications due to Covid at the age of 82.”
The brunette actress was the wholesome, “girl next door” castaway counterpart to Tina Louise’s Marilyn Monroe-clone movie star Ginger Grant on the series, which ran from 1964-1967 on CBS.
Wells, a former Miss Nevada, made many stage and screen appearances after her pageant days, but it was her stint on the famously popular show — which saw seven castaways stranded on a deserted island after a three-hour boat tour gone awry — that cemented her pop culture status.
In fact, Wells’ rep noted in a statement, “Dawn’s gingham dress and famous belly button covering shorts worn on ‘Gilligan’s Island’ are currently on display in the lobby of The Hollywood Museum.”
Wells remained close with the character and its legacy. A constant at autograph signings at pop culture conventions, she published a self-help book in 2014 called What Would Mary Ann Do? A Guide to Life.
In it, Wells noted, “It’s not my ego talking, but Mary Ann wasn’t just a silly and sweet ingenue. She was bright, fair-minded and reasonable.” She added, “Sherwood Schwartz, the show’s producer and creator, was smart enough to put her in short shorts so you wouldn’t think of her as your bossy sister.”
ABCDarius Rucker has scored his first top 10 country hit in two years. 
