Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.(LOS ANGELES) — Friends will still be there for you on Nickelodeon. The cabler on Thursday announced that it has renewed the award-winning series.
Nick also announced that beginning Monday at 9 p.m. ET/PT, Nick at Nite it will air its “Super-Stuffed Friends-Giving,” featuring a lineup of classic Friends episodes with beloved funny moments from the series airing throughout the week, and a marathon of Thanksgiving-themed episodes on Thursday.
Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney(NEW YORK) — Carrie Fisher died at 60 years old on December 27, 2016, following a heart attack, and traces of several drugs were subsequently found in her system. But her brother Todd tellsPage Six that Fisher would have died “long ago,” had it not been for the birth of her daughter, Billie Lourd.
The Star Wars actress was open about her lifelong struggles with mental illness and addiction. However, her brother explained, “When Carrie became a mother it grounded her very differently.”
Todd Fisher said, “Looking at Carrie, [we thought] ‘she’s going to be a mother, holy mackerel what is that going to be?'” While admitting she was a “unique” mom, Fisher says motherhood saved her. “It’s what kept Carrie with us. I think we would have lost Carrie long ago, long before if it hadn’t been for Billie,” he asserts.
Lourd gave birth to her first child, a son named Kingston, in September. Todd says Carrie would have loved to be a grandmother.
“Carrie would have continued that, she obsessed over Billie…I mean look what happened to my mom,” he said of actress Debbie Reynolds, who died a day after Fisher. “[She] bought the house next door to Carrie to be close to Billie. Debbie and Carrie weren’t even talking at the time. She would have bought the house next door, so to speak.”
“Thanks to Eddie Murphy’s comedic genius along with the brilliant filmmakers, writers and fabulous cast, we couldn’t be more excited to celebrate this new adventure,” says Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke in a statement. “We know audiences around the world will fall in love with this hilarious, joyful movie that will surely become a timeless favorite.”
As previously reported, original cast members Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Shari Headley and Paul Bates are all set to reprise their roles in the sequel, which was to have had a theatrical release that the COVID-19 pandemic scuttled.
The original 1988 film Coming to America starred Murphy as Akeem Joffer, the crown prince of the fictional African nation of Zamunda. In an effort to find a wife, Akeem, along with his trusty assistant Semmi, played by Hall, travel to Queens, NY. In the sequel, Akeem, who is set to become king, learns about a long-lost son and must return to America to meet his unlikely heir to the throne of Zamunda.
Coming 2 America also stars Wesley Snipes, Leslie Jones, Teyana Taylor, Tracy Morgan, Luenell, Jermaine Fowler, KiKi Layne, and Rick Ross, among others.
Warner Music NashvilleDan + Shay are keeping the holiday hits rolling today with another new festive original release, “Christmas Isn’t Christmas.”
The duo’s newest song is a poignant, piano-driven ode to spending time with family during the Christmas season, a subject that the band mates say is close to both of their hearts.
“‘Christmas Isn’t Christmas’ is very special to us,” the duo’s Shay Mooney explains. “We wrote this song with our families in mind. We are definitely reminded around the holiday season how important it is to have those people that you love around you. Christmas really isn’t Christmas if you don’t have the people that you love around you.”
Even before they dropped their newest song, Dan + Shay already gave fans a peek into how they celebrate the holiday with their own families in the music video for their previously-released “Take Me Home for Christmas.” That clip stars the group’s real-life families, including both their wives, Shay’s children and even Dan’s four dogs.
Though they’ve yet to put out a full holiday album, Dan + Shay are no strangers to the music of the season: In 2018, the duo cut a version of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”
ABC NewsBy ANGELINE JANE BERNABE and KIERAN MCGIRL
(NEW YORK) — The woman who says she had a consensual affair with the high-profile former pastor of a New York City megachurch, which led to his shocking firing, is speaking out about what happened.
“I still cherish what we had,” Ranin Karim told ABC News’ Amy Robach of her involvement with Carl Lentz. “It was always gonna be part of my past. I wish I can just like, delete it, but you can’t.”
Lentz became a high-profile pastor during his time at Hillsong Church, a megachurch once frequented by celebrities including Justin Bieber, Chris Pratt and Vanessa Hudgens. Lentz, who was fired earlier this month, developed a celebrity status of his own, followed online by more than 500,000 people.
Karim says her story with Lentz began five months ago when they first met at a park near her New York City home.
Their meetings at the park became a regular thing, according to Karim, who said that Lentz refused to tell her his last name or even what he did for a living. Lentz also asked her not to Google him and saved her phone number in the Notes app of his phone, instead of in his contact list, according to Karim.
“He was like, ‘You know, I work with celebrities … I manage celebrities, and I travel with them,'” Karim recalled. “He didn’t want to say what he does.”
Karim said she did a reverse Google search with Lentz’s phone number and found out about his role at Hillsong, which was founded in Australia in 1983 and has over 150,000 members worldwide.
Karim said she attended Hillsong once, years before meeting Lentz, a father of three. After finding out who he was, she said she asked him directly about his marriage.
“I was, like, ‘Are you married?,’ and he said, ‘I am,'” said Karim. “But he doesn’t wear a ring. You never ever see him wearing a ring.”
After finding out Lentz was married, Karim said she stayed in touch because she did not “want to judge him.”
“I was like it’s all good. I was married before, and I didn’t want to judge him,” she said. “I like to meet people, and feel like they’re a blank canvas, you know?”
“You get to know them, and you let them paint their warm colors on it,” Karim said. “You don’t go and just stick or put stickers on people and think they’re going to be that, and going to be this, and I didn’t want to do that to him, because I don’t want to judge him.”
Lentz, who has not identified the woman with whom he had an affair, did not respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
Karim described her connection with Lentz as one that is “hard to explain in words.” She said Lentz’s wife found out about the alleged affair in October.
“He called me at midnight and he said … ‘My wife find out. And I gotta go. She saw the text messages,’” said Karim. “I was devastated.”
Shortly after, on Nov. 4th, Hillsong Church’s global senior pastor Brian Houston released a statement on the church’s website announcing that Lentz had been fired.
“This action was not taken lightly and was done in the best interest of everyone, including Pastor Carl,” Houston wrote. “The action has been taken following ongoing discussions in relation to leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures.”
“I was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life and held accountable for that,” Lentz wrote. “This failure is on me, and me alone and I take full responsibility for my actions. I now must begin a journey of rebuilding trust with my wife Laura and my children and taking time to work on and heal my own life and seek out the help that I need.”
“I am deeply sorry for breaking the trust of many people who we have loved serving,” he added.
Houston later announced that Hillsong Church is launching an “independent investigation into the inner workings of Hillsong NYC/East Coast.”
“We need a solid foundation for a fresh start and new beginning,” Houston wrote in a Nov. 12th tweet. “The best is yet to come.”
We are launching an independent investigation into the inner workings of Hillsong NYC/ East Coast. We need a solid foundation for a fresh start and new beginning. The best is yet to come.
Karim said she believes that Lentz’s rising celebrity status may have contributed to his behavior.
“When you give somebody so much power, they become God to people, and I think people forgot the concept of religion and beliefs,” she said. “I think that people look at Carl like he is God to them.”
Karim said she is also sorry for what happened to Lentz’s family due to the affair, and is especially sorry to his wife, Laura.
“I feel bad for her,” she said. “Woman to woman, I don’t think she deserved to be hurt the way that she did, and I never meant to hurt her.”
Now that Karim has shared her side of the story, she said she wants to move forward and leave the past behind.
“I know people [are] gonna hate me, think whatever they want to think, but in the end of the day, it’s my story,” she said. “I wanted to free myself of what people think of me.”
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.(LOS ANGELES) — Friends will still be there for you on Nickelodeon. The cabler on Thursday announced that it has renewed the award-winning series. 
