Warner Music NashvilleIt’ll be a very merry Christmas for Dan + Shay this year, as the duo are topping their tree with a new holiday chart milestone. Their original song “Take Me Home for Christmas” climbed to the top of iTunes’ all-genre Top Holiday Songs chart this week.
The song has notched 10 million global streams to date — not bad for a duo who made their original holiday music debut this year, putting out a two-pack of holiday cheer that also included their solemn “Christmas Isn’t Christmas.”
But in a new, holiday-themed conversation with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, the pair reveal that writing their holiday music offered just as much joy to them as the finished product does to their fans.
“Especially right now with all the craziness that’s going on, I feel like it was pretty therapeutic for us to sit down and think of a better time,” the band’s Shay Mooney reveals of their songwriting process. “Christmas is, like, the only thing that can save 2020 at this point, so it was kind of cool to…reminisce and put ourselves in our happy place. I think everyone has memories tied to Christmas.”
Dan + Shay have plenty to look forward once we put 2020 behind us. The duo is once again nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 2021 Grammy Awards, a title they’ve held on to for two consecutive years.
L-R Cox, Taylor Schilling – NETFLIX(LOS ANGELES) — On November 29, actress Laverne Cox shared a story on Instagram about how she and a friend were attacked at a park in Los Angeles – an attack Cox said was aggressive and transphobic. She was clearly shaken in the post, and now she tells ABC Audio how she’s doing a little over a week later.
“I’m OK,” the Orange Is The New Black vet says. “It’s a day at a time. It’s a moment at a time. I wasn’t physically harmed or touched in the incident. And my friend who was is fine.“
The Emmy-Award winner added that she’s “grateful” that the situation did not escalate into something worse — and revealed that the incident brought up things that she’s been dealing with in therapy.
“What this incident did more than anything was trigger all of the other incidences of violence that I’ve experienced in my life over the years as a gender nonconforming kid and then later as a trans woman, as an adult,” she explains. “And so being able to stay present and use all my tools to not sort of go into, because the body doesn’t know if a trauma happened 20 years ago or five years ago, it experiences the trauma as if it’s happening right now once triggered.”
Cox co-stars in the movie Promising Young Woman, out Christmas day, which has themes of violence against women and believing them when they say they’ve been assaulted, and she shares that while she’s received a lot of support, she’s also faced skeptics.
“I’ve gotten so much support after what happened at Griffith Park, but there are a few people who were suggesting that it didn’t happen because I didn’t think to take out my phone and film it,” she says. “There’s something infuriating about that and sad.”
ABC/Byron Cohen(NEW YORK) — Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino is in a situation of his own for slacking on completing his community service hours.
According to TMZ, who has obtained documents, the Jersey Shore star has only completed 18 out of the 500 hours he was ordered to complete as part of his tax evasion sentence and his probation officer is not happy. So much so, that the officer is asking the judge to issue a warning.
Reportedly, in the documents, the officer said she continually educated Mike on different organizations and options on where he could complete his volunteer hours and stated that he had hours scheduled in August but failed to follow through due to COVID-19 concerns. She also added that there are options to complete hours from home but the reality star has not put forth an effort to get it done.
Mike served eight months in prison before being released in September 2019.
The update on Mike’s community service comes after he and his wife, Lauren, announced that they are expecting their first child, a baby boy, due in May 2021.
(BALTIMORE) — The Baltimore Ravens faced off against the Dallas Cowboys Tuesday night without their wide receiver Dez Bryant, who tweeted he would not be taking the field after testing positive for COVID-19 just minutes before kickoff.
Bryant said he was warming up with the team on the field — with a mask on — when he was pulled off by team officials for further testing.
Fox Sports reported an earlier COVID-19 test came back inconclusive and had to be retested.
Bryant reacted angrily on social media, as the former long-time Cowboys player had been looking forward to facing his former team. He tweeted he had the same routine and the positive test made no sense to him, before saying he was going to call it quits for the rest of the season.
The Ravens went on to beat the Cowboys without Bryant, 34-17.
Two weeks ago, Baltimore experienced a coronavirus outbreak among players and staff. Twenty-three players and staff were put on the COVID-19 list, including reigning MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson.
The team had to postpone its Thanksgiving Day against the Pittsburgh Steelers three times. It also prompted this week’s game to be pushed back to Tuesday.
ABC/Craig Sjodin(LOS ANGELES) — On Tuesday’s episode of The Bachelorette, the men had all the right words for Tayshia, but could they stand up to a lie detector test?
First, however, Tayshia had to put a stop to the “teenage boy” drama between Bennett and Noah, which she settled with an impromptu two-on-one date.
After speaking to both suitors, together and individually, Tayshia decided to send Bennett packing. Noah wasn’t completely off the hook though, and had to wait for the rose ceremony to learn his fate.
While Ed, Demar and Spencer were sent home during the rose ceremony, Noah was given one more chance to make things right.
Afterwards, JoJo Fletcher, subbing for host Chris Harrison, upped the ante by telling the remaining suitors that the rose ceremony would be their ticket to next week’s hometown dates… And a chance to introduce Tayshia to their families.
The first opportunity to earn a rose was Ben, who was invited on a fun one-one date that began with a scavenger hunt. However, Tayshia was more interested in getting her date to open up about himself.
That led to a deeply emotional discussion in which the Army vet, who previously revealed a years-long battle with bulimia, shared an even darker part of his past that he hadn’t revealed to anyone else.
After realizing military service wasn’t working out for him, Ben suffered a broken back at 26-years old that left him barely able to walk. Ben said he attempted suicide twice due to being hurt, broke and lacking direction in his life. After undergoing “aggressive therapy,” he proudly declared, “The person that you see before you today isn’t that person.”
Afterwards, they were treated to a private performance by country singer Adam Hambrick, who serenaded the couple with his new song, “Between Me and the End of the World.”
Honesty was at the top of Tayshia’s list for a soul mate, and she put Zac, Brendan, Ivan, Noah and Riley to the test by inviting them on a lie detector date… and some of the results were surprising.
Out of fairness, Tayshia went first and revealed that she is “truly falling in love” with “more than one person.” However, her emphatic “no” response to whether she regretted sending anyone home touched off a yellow light, indicating that she wasn’t really sure. The men suspected she was having second thoughts about Bennett.
Things became even more interesting when the men took their turns. Zac admitted he once cheated on a girl, which raised a red flag with Tayshia, who is of the opinion “once a cheater always a cheater.”
It turns out Zac’s indiscretion happened when he was in sixth grade, where he kissed another girl while supposedly dating someone else.
Riley, on the other hand, didn’t make it past the first question: “What is your name?”
Riley’s confessed that his real name is Dwayne Henderson Jr. and that he was named after his father. Riley went onto reveal that, late in life, he became estranged from his mother and learned the years-long tension between them was orchestrated by his dad. Upon learning that his father meddled with their relationship in order to shut his mom out of his and his siblings’ lives, Riley legally changed his name.
Tayshia was impressed by all the conversations she had with each of her suitors, but with hometown dates just a week away and “so many guys” with whom she’s “falling in love” with, Tayshia said she needed more time to decide who would win the date rose.
That decision was about to get even tougher when Bennett unexpectedly showed up at her door.
After once again apologizing for appearing to question her integrity and decision-making ability, Bennett asked Tayshia for another chance and confessed that he was in love with her.
It turned out that Tayshia, as the others had suspected, still had unresolved feelings for Bennett. The episode ended with Tayshia telling Bennett that she would have a decision for him the following day, and if the coming attractions were any indication, the guys are in for an unpleasant surprise.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, get help 24/7 by contacting the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or online at SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
Warner Music NashvilleIt’ll be a very merry Christmas for Dan + Shay this year, as the duo are topping their tree with a new holiday chart milestone. Their original song “Take Me Home for Christmas” climbed to the top of iTunes’ all-genre Top Holiday Songs chart this week.
