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Dan + Shay stuff their stockings with “Take Me Home for Christmas” all-genre chart success

• No Comments • Country Music News

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.

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Laverne Cox is taking it "a day at a time" to mentally recover from transphobic attack

• No Comments • Entertainment News

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.” 

By Danielle Long and Jason Nathanson
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Jersey Shore star Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino catches flack for lagging on community service

• No Comments • Entertainment News

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. 

By Danielle Long
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Ravens wide receiver Dez Bryant tests positive before gametime

• No Comments • Sports News

33ft/iStockBy ABC News

(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.

Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

'Glee' co-stars honor Naya Rivera with charity drive

• No Comments • Entertainment News

Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Naya Rivera may be gone but her Christmas tradition of giving back will live on thanks to her Glee co-stars. 

The stars of the musical dram-edy, including Kevin McHale, Dianna Agron, Heather Morris, Chord Overstreet, Matthew Morrison and more, have started a GoFundMe in honor of Rivera. The funds raised will go to Alexandria House in Los Angeles, a charity that provides “safe and supportive housing for women and children in the process of moving from emergency shelter to economic stability and permanent housing.”

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday, Glee alum Jenna Ushkowitz explained that Rivera’s annual Christmas party, dubbed Snixxmas after her alter ego Snixx, would always turn into a charitable event, which is why they chose the GoFundMe to carry on the tradition. 

“Yeah so Naya actually, at Snixxmas, the party that she threw every year, would kind of turn it into a toy drive,” Ushkowitz explained. “And she worked with a bunch of different organizations, she was always very giving in how she could give back to the community. But Alexandria House was something that she had found more recently and kind of flew under the radar with it.  She would volunteer her time, she also raised funds for them earlier this year with her son Josey.”

The SNIXXMAS Charity Drive in Memory of Naya Rivera has already raised over $82,000, surpassing the initial goal of $50,000. The new goal is now set at $100,000.

Rivera died of an accidental drowning in July while on a boating trip with her son.  She was 33.

By Danielle Long
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.