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Apple TV+ launching 'The Oprah Conversation'

• No Comments • Entertainment News

AppleTV+(LOS ANGELES) — Apple TV+ and Oprah Winfrey on Monday announced they’re partnering on a new series called The Oprah Conversation, which will debut on the streaming service Thursday, July 30.

According to a press release, the show will be “Filmed remotely and incorporating audience engagement,” and will see Winfrey, “lead timely and intimate discussions with today’s foremost newsmakers, thought leaders, and masters of their craft.”

The debut episode, How to Be an Antiracist, will have Oprah and bestselling author Professor Ibram X. Kendi discussing matters of race with “white readers who confront their own racist beliefs.” 

The Oprah Conversation will also feature interviews with Emmanuel Acho — athlete, commentator, activist and the creator and host of Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.  That two-part installment streams on August 7 on Friday, August 7. 

Equal Justice Initiative founder and bestselling Just Mercy author Bryan Stevenson will be featured on another installment.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

'Tenet' will debut in theaters after all — but overseas

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Melinda Sue Gordon; ©2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.(LOS ANGELES) — The anticipated Christopher Nolan thriller Tenet will come to theaters after all — just not in the U.S. in time for the summer movie season. 

Variety reports that the time-bending film — which at one point theater chains, and Warner Bros., hoped could salvage the COVID-19-devastated summer movie season — will open overseas on August 28. 

Tenet will open in 70 territories on that day in Europe, Australia, Russia, Canada, and the U.K.

The movie, which stars John David Washington and Robert Pattinson, won’t open in the States until September 3, when it will debut in select theaters. At least, that’s the plan for now.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging in much of the U.S., particularly in states like Arizona, California, Texas and and Florida, theater chains in the U.S. have delayed their planned re-openings, even with planned safety enhancements. 

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Carly Pearce, Lindsay Ell among country stars partaking in viral female empowerment trend

• No Comments • Country Music News

ABC/Image Group LAMany country stars are participating in the new viral social media trend, #womensupportingwomen. 

Over the past several days, women have been nominating one another for the social challenge that sees them posting a black and white selfie of themselves and then tagging a fellow female to do the same. 

The trend is building steam in Nashville, with many of the women of country lifting each other up. “Here’s to all the beautiful & strong gals in my life and beyond,” Carly Pearce shares on Instagram with a glamour shot.

Lindsay Ell also accepted the challenge, writing, “All about a women empowerment movement. All about being inspired by the incredible females that surround me in my life.”

“I am very grateful to have worked with and to know many empowering and incredible women!” captions Sara Evans, tagging Martina McBride, who accepts the challenge by stating, “When we lift each other up we all win,” alongside a selfie from her kitchen.  

“I’m so thankful for my strong, amazing tribe!” proclaims Jennifer Nettles with an outdoor shot that shows her cozied up in a sweatshirt, while Runaway June‘s Jennifer Wayne echoes this sentiment with her own nature photo acknowledging the “beautiful, strong, women in my life.” 

Mickey Guyton, RaeLynn and Kassi Ashton are among the other country artists taking the challenge.  

Several Hollywood stars have also participated, including Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington and Gabrielle Union. #Womensupportingwomen currently has more than six million posts on Instagram.

By Cillea Houghton
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Rascal Flatts' EP is a callback to early sound

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Big Machine RecordsWhen Rascal Flatts releases their new EP, How They Remember You, on July 31, fans can expect to hear a throwback sound. 

Flatts members Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney say the band has “piecemealed” together the new project — compiled during quarantine as a way to satiate fan appetite for new music — using songs they’ve collected over the years.

“Some of them really do hearken back to kind of the good old days, if you will, of Rascal Flatts sound, and it’s just really well written songs,” Joe Don shares in an interview with the band’s record label, Big Machine Label Group, pointing to current single “How They Remember You” as a strong example of that sound. 

Jay adds that the songs were left over from previous projects and were updated during quarantine, calling the process “very therapeutic.” The Flatts’ guitarist also notes that what makes their sound is lead singer Gary LeVox‘s distinct voice, especially when it pairs with Jay and Joe Don’s harmonies.

“There’s a unique buzz and a blend that happens when the three of us sing together that you can’t manufacture. It either happens organically and naturally or it doesn’t,” Jay remarks, adding, “We’ve just always been driven by message in the song and in the music.”

The EP comes three years after the band’s previous album, Back to Us. The trio announced in January that they’re retiring after 20 years together. 

How They Remember You will be released Friday.

By Cillea Houghton
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOgvFhb-Rl0&w=640&h=360]

Ryan Reynolds offers $5,000 reward for the safe return of woman's stolen teddy bear

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Jason Mendez/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — Ryan Reynolds is doing what he can to help reunite a distraught woman with her lost teddy bear, which carries a special recording of her late mother’s voice.

Reynolds, 43, alerted fans that the priceless stuffed animal went missing and offered up a hefty award for its safe return — no questions asked.

“Vancouver: $5,000 to anyone who returns this bear to Mara.  Zero questions asked,” the Deadpool star tweeted Saturday and linked the call to action. “I think we all need this bear to come home.”

The bear in question belongs to Mara Soriano, 28, who says the bag containing her Build-a-Bear, a Nintendo Switch, important documents and an iPad was stolen in the city’s west end.

Soriano told CBC that the bear holds a very special message from her late mother, which is a recording of her saying “I love you. I’m proud of you. I’ll always be with you.”

The 28-year-old says the recording was taken just before her mother, Marilyn Soriano, was placed in hospice care.

Mara says that bear holds the last recording her mother ever made while her voice was still recognizable.

“At hospice her voice was different. Much softer. Not the mom I grew up with,” She explained. “That bear is the last memory I have of her speaking in her normal voice.”

Marilyn lost her cancer battle in June 2019.  She was 53.

“It just makes me feel devastated,” Mara told the publication, saying whoever took her bag can keep the items.  She only wants the stuffed animal back. “I’m absolutely crushed.”

Hopefully, with Ryan Reynolds’ intervention, she will be reunited with her bear — and her mother’s voice.

By Megan Stone
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.