Apple TV+(LOS ANGELES) — Former Saturday Night Live star Jason Sudeikis returns to the small screen today with the new Apple TV+ comedy Ted Lasso, based on some comedy videos Sudekis did a couple of years ago to promote soccer on NBC.
Sudeikis plays the titular character, an unflaggingly optimistic American football coach who goes to England to take charge of a pro soccer team, and Sudeikis tells ABC Audio that he really enjoyed playing someone nice for a change.
“Look, I’m not Daniel Day Lewis. I’m not Meryl Streep. Surprise, surprise. I hate to ruin the illusion there,” he jokes. “I’m not like a method actor, but if you pretend to be horrible all day, you’re gonna be horrible for at least a half hour or hour when you get done with work, because you’re just viewing the world through that lens.”
The 44-year-old actor has created many different characters over the years, and he told ABC why he wanted to turn this one into a TV show.
“It’s a really fun way to view the world. It’s a fun sort of, you know, a prism to view the world,” he explains. “And I think that’s part of the reason why it was the desire to do that, because, you know, often if you play like different characters, sometimes you only want to play them for four minutes. I think that’s why, because of his optimism.”
Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence worked with Sudeikis on the show, and said his goal was to come up with something that would lift spirits in an otherwise difficult time.
“I want the show to have a ton of heart and be really optimistic and hopeful in a time that is not necessarily like that out there,” he tells ABC.
Matthew BerinatoAs Kane Brown‘s Mixtape Vol. 1 arrives today, it’s more than just the precursor to his full-length third album.
With non-country guests like Swae Lee, Khalid, and John Legend, it’s his most diverse collection yet, and very likely the most accurate representation of his musical DNA.
“When I was starting to get into the music business,” Kane recalls, “I always would tell my friends, I was like, ‘I want to be an artist that can do everything.'”
“I think rap would be the only thing that I would hold out [on doing]…” he adds. “I love music in general. Country music always has my heart. I’ll never leave country music. But it’s cool to be able to, you know, do all these things.”
In fact, Kane’s happy to take what some might consider a criticism and proudly own it.
“When everybody’s like ‘Oh, this is pop-country,’ yeah, I’m a pop-country artist,” he declares. “And this EP’s kind of just showing everybody that.”
“It’s like, I have a song with Swae Lee and Khalid. My album’s gonna have a song with [R&B singer/songwriter] H.E.R. on it,” he teases. “There’s probably gonna be some other artists — like features — on there.”
But the Chattanooga, Tennessee native is equally proud of the countriest track on the new set.
“I like having ‘BFE’ on there,” he explains, “because it’s kind of like, ‘This is what I grew up on, the nineties sound of country music.’ But that’s why I called it the Mixtape is because it’s like all of my sounds into one.”
The set also features his current top ten hit, “Cool Again.”
It’s his first collection of new music since 2018’s chart-topping Experiment.
BlakeDavidTaylor/iStockBy ALEXANDER MALLIN, ABC News
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) — The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department announced on Thursday the arrest of a suspect in the murder case of 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, whose tragic killing in late June inspired the namesake for the Justice Department’s “Operation Legend” law enforcement initiative.
Police charged 22-year-old Ryson Ellis with second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action, saying in a press release that Ellis fired shots into the apartment where Taliferro was sleeping on the night of June 29.
The KCPD said that Ellis sent threatening social media messages to a witness after the shooting, which led to Taliferro’s family members confronting him about the shooting, including Taliferro’s father.
Both Attorney General William Barr and President Donald Trump applauded the news of Ellis’ arrest, with Trump holding up a picture of Taliferro at a news conference at the White House.
“We named ‘Operation LeGend’ after LeGend Taliferro, where we are going to be helping out and are in the process of helping out cities throughout our country that have difficulty with crime,” Trump said. “So that’s really good news, they caught the killer of LeGend.”
In a separate statement, Barr said the arrest came as a result of coordination between Kansas City police, the FBI and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“Today’s arrest of LeGend Taliferro’s suspected murderer marks a significant step forward in his case and illustrates the potential of Operation Legend more broadly,” Barr said. “This development is a model for joint efforts to solve crimes and reduce violence in other cities. I thank the state and local law enforcement officers who helped make possible this important step in bringing justice to LeGend, to his family, and to his community.”
Barr first announced the creation of “Operation LeGend” in an exclusive interview with ABC News last month, when he told Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas that he decided to name the initiative after LeGend after hearing he had survived open heart surgery, only to be killed in his sleep.
“My daughter had open-heart surgery at a comparable age and I remember how stressful it was for our family,” Barr said at the time. “And the idea of your child surviving that and, you know, the– the joy you would feel to see your kid pull through something like that and then have them shot in the face, it — it affected me a lot.”
Since its launch in Kansas City, the DOJ has expanded Operation LeGend to multiple other cities, including St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee and Memphis, Tennessee.
The effort involves the deployment of agents from the FBI, ATF, Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Marshals to assist in investigating violent crimes in cities that have experienced recent surges. But it has been met with considerable skepticism, at least initially, from local leaders who believe Trump and Barr are working to target cities led primarily by Democrats with aggressive and visible federal responses like have been seen in Seattle and Portland.
Barr has repeatedly sought to separate “Operation LeGend” from the violent clashes in Seattle and Portland between protesters and federal agents primarily from the Department of Homeland Security.
“Although LeGend’s suspected murderer has been arrested, Operation Legend will go on,” Barr said Thursday. “Inspired by this success, federal law enforcement will continue working tirelessly to support state and local partners in our shared mission to keep the American people safe and enforce the rule of law.”
sshepard/iStockBy ALEXANDER MALLIN and MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice has accused Yale University of illegally discriminating against Asian American and white applicants.
A two-year civil rights investigation, in response to a complaint by Asian American groups, found that race was a factor in hundreds of admissions decisions each year, officials said. It also found Asian American and white applicants have one-tenth to one-fourth the likelihood of admission as African American applicants with similar credentials.
In a letter sent to the university’s attorneys, Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband, who heads the DOJ’s civil rights division, said that the department has “determined that Yale violated, and is continuing to violate, Title VI.” Title VI of the 1965 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin in programs that receive federal financial assistance. The Supreme Court has ruled that colleges that receive federal funds can consider an applicants’ race, along with other factors, but Yale’s use of race “is anything but limited,” the DOJ said.
“Yale’s use of race at multiple steps of its admissions process results in a multiplied effect of race on an applicant’s likelihood of admission,” Dreiband said in the letter.
In a statement, Yale said it “categorically denies” the DOJ’s allegation of discrimination, and called the investigation “meritless” and “hasty.”
“At Yale, we look at the whole person when selecting whom to admit among the many thousands of highly qualified applicants,” the statement said, adding that the Ivy League school takes into account factors such as their “academic achievement, interests, demonstrated leadership, background, success in taking maximum advantage of their secondary school and community resources, and the likelihood that they will contribute to the Yale community and the world.”
Yale said that it has been complying with the DOJ’s investigation and had not yet provided all the information the department had requested. “Had the Department fully received and fairly weighed this information, it would have concluded that Yale’s practices absolutely comply with decades of Supreme Court precedent,” the statement said.
In its letter, the DOJ demanded that Yale stop using race or national origin in its upcoming 2020-2021 admissions cycle. The university could also choose to submit a plan to the DOJ that does consider race or national origin that is “narrowly tailored as required by law,” including a date to stop using race in its admissions process. The letter gives Yale until Aug. 27 to comply with the DOJ’s demands or risk facing a federal lawsuit.
Yale said it does not plan to change its admissions process.
“We are proud of Yale’s admissions practices, and we will not change them on the basis of such a meritless, hasty accusation,” the university said in its statement.
Angela Weiss / AFP(LEBANON) — Yes, the real Russell Crowe has stood up, after a “very generous” donation appeared on an online fundraising page for a beloved Beirut restaurant called LeChef, which suffered damage from last week’s deadly explosion.
A journalist called Richard Hall was one of the fundraisers’ organizers, and he tweeted that “someone called Russell Crowe made a very generous donation to our Le Chef fundraiser. But not sure if it’s the @russellcrowe.”
Turns out it was.
The restaurant was a favorite of the late Anthony Bourdain, who visited it in 2006 on his Emmy-winning No Reservations show — and that evidently led the Oscar winner to pitch in.
“On behalf of Anthony Bourdain,” Crowe said, confirming his identity. “I thought that he would have probably done so if he was still around. I wish you and LeChef the best and hope things can be put back together soon.”
The Unhinged star donated $5,000 towards the fundraiser’s goal of $15,000 — it’s only $800 away from that benchmark.
The Beirut blast killed at least 135 people, and injured thousands.
Apple TV+(LOS ANGELES) — Former Saturday Night Live star Jason Sudeikis returns to the small screen today with the new Apple TV+ comedy Ted Lasso, based on some comedy videos Sudekis did a couple of years ago to promote soccer on NBC.
