MusiCares Grateful Dead Tribute Is Big on Laughs (Thank You, Woody Harrelson), Love and Vibes

MusiCares Grateful Dead Tribute Lineup to Include Noah Kahan, Billy Strings, Maren Morris, More; Andy Cohen Set to Host Benefit Gala (Exclusive)

A hollow, lifeless conference hall at the Los Angeles Convention Center is just about the last place you would expect to find a Grateful Dead tribute concert on a Friday night. But it was there that MusiCares put on a show for the ages, honoring the band at its Persons of the Year gala with founding members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart in attendance (drummer Bill Kreutzmann could not make the trip and delivered a message by video) and a slew of acolytes who understood the assignment.

Typically, the MusiCares dinner is a polite affair, with guests seated respectfully for most of the performances, save the all-star finale, a staple of the event. And that’s not to say that previous Person of the Year recipients — which include Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and Barbra Streisand — didn’t have their own rabid fanbases in attendance. But the Deadheads just do things differently. If there’s a spot to spin in, they will annex it; lax security, they’ll beeline for a better view; and, of course, audience participation is key and, gowns not withstanding, impassioned singalongs were very much on the menu.

The beauty of this Grammy weekend perennial is how genres and generations are able to come together and reinterpret classic, timeless songs, but it’s also about celebrating the music community that has supported these acts throughout the decades. And if ever there was a time to appreciate the Dead’s own lyrics — “We will get by; we will survive” — it’s this year in the wake of destructive wildfires that have consumed entire L.A.-area neighborhoods. MusiCares has pledged financial support for musicians and industry professionals in the form of its Los Angeles Fire Relief Effort. The night’s donation tally topped $9 million, it was revealed.

In an ambitious and well-choreographed run-of-show, 17 performances went off with minor hitches, all under the direction of veteran producer and musician Don Was. The night started with several multi-act combinations: The War and Treaty were joined by Mick Fleetwood and Stewart Copeland for “Samson And Delilah,” followed by My Morning Jacket and Maggie Rose doing “One More Saturday Night” and Zac Brown and Marcus King teaming up for “Bertha.”

Some solo sets followed: Wynonna Judd delivered “Ramble On Rose” with a hint of country; Norah Jones offered a faithful “Ripple”; and Noah Kahan joined Béla Fleck for “Friend Of The Devil.”

With the slower tempo songs out of the way, Vampire Weekend helped get the crowd on its feet for “Scarlet Begonias,” followed by Dwight Yoakam’s pulsing “Truckin’.” Maren Morris came next with “They Love Each Other,” and Lukas Nelson and Sierra Ferrell teamed for “It Must Have Been The Roses.”

Billy Strings’ “Wharf Rat” was divine, while the lesser known “Loose Lucy,” performed by Sammy Hagar, and “Standing On The Moon” by Bruce Hornsby with Rick Mitarotonda, offered the black-tied a moment to rest. (The invite suggested “colorful black tie” but noted “Grateful Dead attire is welcome.”)

Winding down the night was a standout performance of “Box of Rain” by The War on Drugs. Keeping with the fan favorites, John Mayer’s stripped-down interpretation of “Terrapin Station,” a multi-act opus recorded with a full orchestra for the 1977 album of the same name, was inspired in its intricate melodic math.

Asked earlier in the night by host Andy Cohen which Grateful Dead song is horniest, Mayer suggested “Looks Like Rain,” a Weir-penned ballad with the questionable lyric, “Did you ever waken to the sound of street cats making love?” Mayer also shared his “gateway” song to the Dead’s music, “Althea,” and not long after, he was on stage playing it alongside Dead & Company bandmates Weir, Hart, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane. “Sugar Magnolia” and “Touch of Grey” closed out the night with an all-star jam. By that point, most guests in the trade show-sized ballroom had converged in the front, thanking their lucky stars that they were able to see this lineup that close.

In between performances, the audience was treated to video vignettes of the Dead’s history, made all the more poignant after the October loss of bassist Phil Lesh at the age of 84. And this August marks 35 years since Jerry Garcia’s death at 53. To honor their memories, and to stand in for Kreutzmann, Trixie Garcia, Grahame Lesh and Justin Kreutzmann took the stage, flanked by Recording Academy president Harvey Mason jr., Amazon’s Steve Boom and MusiCares’ Laura Segura, for the band’s official acceptance as persons of the year.

But not before Woody Harrelson regaled the crowd with stories of his first hangs with Garcia — smoking pot in the vice president’s mansion on one occasion and doing mushrooms backstage before a show on another. For a fuzzy evening in the early 1990s, the actor sure had a crystal clear memory of all that transpired.

Some highlights: “Jerry says, ‘If the universe is extended, isn’t time expanding?’ The crowd increases its pitch, the mushrooms are kicking in, and I’m perspiring because I realized Jerry is supposed to be on stage right now. … And then Jerry goes, ‘I got a job.’ … I’m side stage with Bruce Schroed talking about Bush and how upset we are about what we’re doing in Iraq. I climb up and I hear this wild cacophony of discordant notes blasting through the speakers. This is when everything goes slow-mo. Jerry, Bobby and Bill all turned. In fact, the whole band is looking at me. And then I see the roadies running toward me. ‘You’re sitting on a live MIDI!’ Which, if you don’t know, is an electric keyboard. I was instantly persona non grata. But hey, you know, I jammed with the Dead.”

Harrelson went on to characterize Weir as “one of the most interesting, electric, spiritually deep people on the planet, and not a bad musician.”

That this laugh-out-loud introduction prefaced Weir’s own emotional acknowledgments of the difficulties of the road and the team it takes to keep the Dead legacy going (he shouted out managers Bernie Cahill, Kraig Fox, Activist’s Liz Norris and Rhino Records president Mark Pinkus, among others) made the night feel singularly special.

“Longevity was never a major concern of ours,” said Weir, eliciting a few chuckles from the crowd. “Lighting folks up and spreading joy through the music was all we really had in mind, and we got plenty of that done.”

Read Weir’s acceptance speech in its entirety below:

How to Watch the 2025 Grammy Awards — And Everything Else You Need to Know About the Ceremony

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Contenders for the 2025 Grammy Awards were announced on November 8, and to no one’s surprise, leading the field with the most nominations (11!) was Beyoncé, who now has a whopping 99 to her credit. (She’s won 32.)

Yet Cowboy Carter has some fierce competition in album of the year, what with Charli XCX’s Brat, Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft, Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, and Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet also in the mix. They don’t call the Grammys music’s biggest night for nothing.

Among the other major categories? Best new artist, which includes the likes of Carpenter, Roan, Doechii, Raye, Khruangbin, and Beyoncé collaborator Shaboozey (who shared a charming video of himself and his team celebrating his nomination to Instagram); and record of the year, where “Texas Hold ‘Em,” “Espresso,” and “360” will face off against “Good Luck, Babe!,” “Not Like Us,” “Birds of a Feather,” “Fortnight,” and…a song by The Beatles?

Find everything else you need to know about the 2025 Grammy Awards — including the full list of nominees — below.

The 2025 Grammy Awards will take place at Los Angeles’s Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, February 2, from 5 p.m. PST/8 p.m. EST.

The 2025 Grammy Awards will air on CBS, though the telecast can also be streamed live and on demand on Paramount+ (which happens to be offering a one-week free trial).

No host has been announced just yet, but stay tuned; last year’s emcee, comedian Trevor Noah, could well return to host for the fifth time running.

The bench of talent lined up to perform at this year’s Grammys runs deep: Benson Boone, Billie Eilish, Brad Paisley, Brittany Howard, Bruno Mars, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Chris Martin, Cythia Erivo, Doechii, Herbe Hancock, Jacob Collier, Janelle Monae, John Legend, Lady Gaga, Lainey Wilson, Raye, Sabrina Carpenter, Shakira, Sheryl Crow, St. Vincent, Stevie Wonder, and Teddy Swims are all set to take the stage.

While most artists will perform selections from their nominated projects, others have been tapped for special tributes. Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga, for instance, will honor victims of the Los Angeles wildfires — what with the broader ceremony doubling as a fundraiser to support wildfire relief efforts — while the evening will also feature a special salute to the legendary producer Quincy Jones, who died in November.

The list of presenters at the 2025 Grammys inclides Anthony Kiedis and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cardi B, Gloria Estefan, Olivia Rodrigo, Queen Latifah, SZA, Taylor Swift, Victoria Monét, and Will Smith.

Trump Trolls Selena Gomez Using Official White House Account

President Donald Trump’s administration used the White House’s official X account to rebuke singer Selena Gomez on Friday in response to its mass deportation plan. Gomez, who is a third-generation Mexican-American, went viral after sharing a video of herself crying for her people “getting attacked” as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency carried out raids. “I wish I could do something but I can’t,” said Gomez in the since-deleted clip. Gomez took the video down after she was criticized by commentators supporting Trump’s mass deportation plan. “Apparently it’s not OK to show empathy for people,” wrote Gomez in response. Tagging Gomez in a tweet, the Trump administration shared the stories of Kayla Hamilton, Jocelyn Nungaray, and Rachel Morin, who were allegedly “murdered by illegal aliens.” The tweet added, “Their courageous mothers had something to say to @SelenaGomez and those who oppose securing our borders.” In the clip, Nungaray’s mother said it was difficult to believe Gomez’s crying video “because she’s an actress.” Hamilton’s mother added, “You don’t know who you’re crying for. What about our children who were brutally murdered and raped and beat to death and left on the floor by these illegal immigrants?”

Beyoncé’s Desert Mirage: Queen Bey Ignites Cowboy Carter Tour 2025

In a week where social media’s influence continues to reshape our world in unexpected ways, three distinct stories emerged that showcase how modern technology and traditional human dynamics collide in fascinating — and sometimes troubling — ways.

Perhaps most compelling is the tale of two Georgian twins, separated at birth, whose reunion reads like a modern fairy tale with TikTok as the unlikely fairy godmother. When 19-year-old Ano Sartania spotted a blue-haired doppelganger getting an eyebrow piercing on her FYP, she couldn’t have known she was about to unravel a decades-long mystery — and expose a shocking system of illegal child trafficking that may have affected up to 100,000 babies.

“It was like looking in a mirror, the exact same face, exact same voice. I am her and she is me,” Sartania told reporters, describing her first meeting with her twin Amy. The reunion — which took place at Rustaveli Metro Station in Tbilisi — was both heartwarming and heartbreaking. “I don’t like hugs, but I hugged her,” Ano admitted, capturing the raw emotion of the moment.

The discovery led to uncomfortable truths about Georgia’s dark history of black market baby trafficking, which journalist Tamuna Museridze estimates operated from the 1950s to 2005. Their birth mother’s story — waking from a coma to be told her babies had died — adds another layer of tragedy to an already complex narrative.

Meanwhile, in a completely different sphere of social media influence, Beyoncé proved once again why she’s the queen of cultural moments. The superstar’s announcement of her Cowboy Carter Tour 2025 arrived with characteristic dramatic flair — a desert-set video featuring an electrically charged sign illuminating the night sky. The announcement’s timing, delayed due to Los Angeles wildfires, showcases how even mega-stars must navigate real-world events with sensitivity.

But while some social media stories lead to joyful reunions or exciting announcements, others highlight ongoing tensions in our increasingly connected world. Take the case of a single woman whose off-leash Rottweiler became the center of a neighborhood dispute. The incident — involving uninvited neighbors entering her property — sparked heated debate about property rights, pet ownership responsibilities, and personal safety.

“Now these neighbors keep making comments about not feeling safe with their kids,” the woman reported, highlighting how quickly such situations can escalate in today’s climate of heightened awareness and anxiety. The incident serves as a microcosm of larger societal debates about personal freedom versus community safety.

These stories, while vastly different in scope and significance, share a common thread: the power of modern technology and social platforms to both connect and complicate human relationships. From reuniting separated twins to announcing global tours, from sparking neighborhood disputes to exposing historical injustices — our interconnected world continues to surprise, delight, and occasionally disturb us in equal measure.

Donald Trump Furious Over Selena Gomez’s Viral Video — Asks “No Tears for Victims of Illegal Aliens?” – Inquisitr News

Trump administration has badly bashed Selena Gomez for showing solidarity to deported immigrants (Source: Instagram | realdonaldtrump /whitehouse)

In a now deleted video, Selena Gomez was seen crying over illegal immigrants who are being deported by the Trump government. Trump has taken a rather aggressive approach to undocumented immigrants and that led to Selena Gomez posting a video on Instagram where she was hard saying, “All my people are getting attacked … the children. I don’t understand. I’m so sorry. I wish I could do something but I can’t. I don’t know what to do. I’ll try everything, I promise.”

However, she received severe backlash after posting the video, which prompted her to take it down. She said that, “apparently it’s not OK to show empathy for people”, after deleting the video from her account. She also mentioned that she herself is a third-generation Mexican American, which explains why she would feel for those who are being deported.

To hit back on Gomez, Trump and his administration took the matter to the official White House X account and posted a video of three mothers talking about their murdered daughters who were apparently killed by illegal immigrants.

Tammy Nobles, the mother of one victim Kayla Hamilton appeared in the video, saying, “You don’t know who you’re crying for. What about our children who were brutally murdered and raped and beat to death and left on the floor by these illegal immigrants?”

Kayla Hamilton was only 20 years old when she was murdered in Aberdeen, Maryland, in 2022. As reported by WMAR-TV, she was killed by a MS-13 gang member, who was only 16 years old, who was from El Salvador.

In response to Gomez’s video, Alexis Nungaray, mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, another one the murder victims, said,

“Seeing that video, it’s hard to believe that it’s actually genuine and real because she’s an actress. My daughter was a child. There’s many other children whose lives were taken due to people who crossed here illegally.”

As reported by CNN, Jocelyn was only 12 years old when she was murdered in Houston. The Houston Police Department mentioned that it was two undocumented men from Venezuela who committed the crime and were charged accordingly.

Patty Morin, the mother of another victim Rachel Morin was also part of the video and said,

“I just feel like it’s a ruse to deceive people and to garner sympathy for lawlessness. … No one has stood up except for us mothers to cry out about our children.”

37 year old Rachel was murdered in August 2023 while she was doing a run in Harford County, Maryland. A man belonging from El Salvador was charged with her murder as reported by CBS News.

Besides questioning the sense of solidarity of the Only Murders in the Building star, these mothers also praised Trump for his attempts to seal the borders as they believe this will significantly keep the population safe.

Tom Homan, the newly appointed border czar of Trump has also addressed Gomez and others who have an issue with these policies, asking them to take this up with the Congress.

The power of independent journalism: From her Brooklyn apartment,…

First word of the Trump administration’s since-rescinded order to freeze spending on federal loans and grants came not from a major news organization, but from a woman working alone in her Brooklyn apartment.

Marisa Kabas’ scoop this past week was a key moment for a growing cadre of journalists who work independently to gather and analyze news and market themselves as brands. Many are refugees from legacy outlets while others are scrappy newcomers like Kabas, who found traditional career paths unappealing or out of reach.

“This week has been career-changing,” Kabas said in an interview. “In a sense, my job has changed overnight.”

She was sitting at her kitchen table last Monday, sifting through emails on her laptop, when a source forwarded her a copy of a memo announcing the freeze sent by the Office of Management and Budget’s acting director. Kabas has her own website, the Handbasket, but to give the story wider visibility, she posted a screen shot of the memo on the social media site Bluesky.

Then she waited.

Her stomach was in knots. She calmed herself with a walk on a frigid night. Despite her belief in independent journalism – and her own work – she recognized that to many, news only becomes “real” when it appears in a major outlet. Three hours later, The Washington Post published its story, with a hat-tip to Kabas.

This undated photo provided by Marisa Kabas shows Kabas holding up a press credential on Oct. 4, 2024 in Pittsburgh. (Marisa Kabas via AP)

The directive caused such an uproar that the administration walked back its order two days later.

Kabas, 37, kicked around in various journalism and publicist jobs and freelanced for outlets like MSNBC.com, the Huffington Post and New Republic. She started her website in 2022 primarily for personal writing and decided to go “all in” with journalism the next year.

The advantage to going it alone is that “I get to write about things that I care about,” she said. “I don’t have to work on assignments that are given to me that I don’t care about.” The down side is she’s all alone, dependent upon her own hustle.

Kabas wrote on ex-congressman George Santos, the raid on a weekly newspaper in Kansas and Elon Musk, although much of her writing was essays instead of reported work.

Like many in the independent journalism world, she doesn’t hide her opinions. She wrote that the OMB memo was “a truly unhinged document that sounds like it was written by the world’s most petty 4Chan poster.”

“She’s got attitude, she’s got personality,” said Greg Munno, a journalism professor at Syracuse University. “I think attitude and personality help these independent journalists connect with readers and potentially sources.”

A wide variety of independent journalists have made their mark, often working on publishing platforms like Substack and Beehiiv.

Seamus Hughes’ Court Watch pulls together interesting legal documents from around the country. Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters From an American explores the intersection of history and today’s politics. Peter Geoghegan’s Democracy for Sale investigates money in politics.

Casey Newton, a former editor at The Verge, looks at the tech world on Platformer, and this past week urged people worried about the A.I. company DeepSeek to take “a few long, deep breaths.” Molly Knight’s The Long Game writes smartly about sports and even admits to her clunkers, like recently revisiting her prediction that the Texas Rangers would repeat as American League champions.

Oliver Darcy left CNN to break news and offer commentary about the media on his own site, Status. Two former Washington Post journalists have set up their own shops: opinion writer Jennifer Rubin’s site, The Contrarian, boasts the tagline “Not owned by anybody,” and tech writer Taylor Lorenz’s User Mag broke its own news last week on conservative influencer Candace Owens’ new venture.

Days ago, CNN anchor Jim Acosta announced he was setting up shop at Substack after quitting the network rather than accept a transfer to a middle-of-the-night time slot.

“Independent journalism is now the way forward,” Dan Rather, the former CBS News anchor and perhaps quintessential old-school journalist, posted on Facebook Thursday. “Sadly, we can no longer rely on legacy media to hold the powerful accountable.”

Expand the definition of independent journalist more broadly, and you can include the exploding world of podcasts, many of which played a key role in the presidential election, and TikTok or YouTube influencers who comment on the news.

The more that traditional news outlets shrink or die, “something is going to fill that gap,” said Jeremy Littau, a Lehigh University journalism professor. “There is going to be a need for it.”

It’s exciting for those who seek variety and new voices, particularly with legacy media lagging in public esteem. The danger comes in figuring out who to trust in a world where a single person often performs the role of reporter, editor, sales person and business manager.

That’s particularly important with breaking news, Littau said. Who is out there cutting corners, or repackaging things they see online without the standards that a traditional news organization imposes?

Munno is skeptical about how much support there is in the marketplace.

“I don’t think the consumer’s appetite for news is high enough to support a really deep pool of independent journalists that would be able to create an audience and make a living,” he said.

Kabas cobbled together what she considered a typical journalist’s living – translation: modest – before this past week. Her earnings through the Handbasket come through subscribers who pay $8 a month or $80 annually. This week alone, she jumped from 800 paid subscribers to about 1,500.

Her scoop is making her rethink the purpose of her work, that now the pressing need is to report deeply on how the country is changing as the result of its new government. She’s even thinking of hiring another reporter to help.

“I’ve gone from very much taking my time, sitting with my thoughts and writing from a personal perspective to being a breaking news reporter,” Kabas said. “They are very different skills.”

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

Grammys 2025: When and Where to Watch the 67th Edition in India

The highly anticipated 67th edition of the Grammy Awards will soon take place, available for live streaming on an OTT platform. The ceremony will feature performances by artists such as Benson Boone, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Doechii, RAYE, Sabrina Carpenter, Shakira, and Teddy Swims.

The event will include the annual In Memoriam segment, honoring the music industry’s brightest stars and celebrating the life and legacy of Quincy Jones. Additionally, the ceremony will pay tribute to victims of the Los Angeles wildfire, raising funds for relief efforts and supporting music professionals affected by the disaster.

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How To Watch Grammy Awards in India

Music enthusiasts can tune in to one of the year’s most celebrated award shows on Monday, February 3, 2025. The 67th Grammy Awards will be live-streamed on Disney+ Hotstar, with the show airing from 6:30 am IST to 10:00 am IST, marking one of the four major annual American entertainment awards.

ALSO SEE: Salman Khan Discusses Boundaries In Forgiveness On Arhaan Khan’s Podcast

The star-studded Grammy Awards will feature performances by Brad Paisley, Brittany Howard, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Cynthia Erivo, Herbie Hancock, Jacob Collier, Janelle Monáe, John Legend, Lainey Wilson, Sheryl Crow, St. Vincent, Stevie Wonder, and more. The ceremony will take place at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, February 2, with Trevor Noah returning as host for the fifth consecutive year. The event will be held from 8:00 pm to 11:30 pm Eastern Standard Time.

Beyoncé leads the 67th Grammy Awards nominations with an impressive 11, followed by Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, and Post Malone, each with 7. Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Taylor Swift each earned 6 nominations. Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. praised the nominations, stating, “It was an incredible year in music,” and highlighting that the voting body now better represents the music community than ever before.

For the unversed, Renowned sitarist Anoushka Shankar has been selected as a presenter at the 67th Grammy Premiere Ceremony. This milestone adds to her illustrious career as she represents India on one of the world’s most prestigious music stages.

ALSO SEE: Aamir Khan Stuns As Caveman In Viral Mumbai Streets Video; Fans React

Beyoncé announces ‘Cowboy Carter’ tour via Netflix but questions remain

The superstar has finally revealed that she will be going on tour for her eighth studio album “Cowboy Carter” via Netflix. Saturday night, ahead of Sunday’s Grammy Awards, fans noticed the end of her “Beyoncé Bowl” special on Netflix now says, “Cowboy Carter Tour.”

Netflix teased up the “Beyoncé Bowl” on Instagram around midnight while sharing a snippet of her performance. The caption read, “tonight seems like the perfect night to rewatch Beyoncé Bowl on Netflix.”

It’s unclear when Beyoncé will release more details regarding the tour such as dates, locations and when tickets will go on sale.

Beyoncé first teased the announcement by posting a cryptic Instagram post with the date Jan. 14 after her Christmas Day halftime performance, dubbed the Beyoncé Bowl. However, she postposed the big surprise due to the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.

As fans know, the announcement tease first came after Beyoncé put on a stellar halftime show during the Ravens vs. Texans game at NRG Stadium in her hometown of Houston on Dec. 25. The show was the first time Beyoncé performed songs live from her eighth studio album “Cowboy Carter.” Immediately after, she posted the January date with the caption “Look at that horse” and went radio silent.

Fans instantly begin speculating about the news that was to follow. And after a delay, the day has finally come.

Beyoncé first announced “Cowboy Carter” during a surprise Super Bowl commercial in February when she released singles “16 Carriages” and “Texas Hold ‘Em.” The 27-track project has been huge catalyst for the recent spotlight on Black country artists and the genre’s roots.

Prior to sharing the album with the rest of the world, Beyoncé got candid about creating the five-year project and alluded to her 2016 performance at the CMA Awards.

“This album has been over five years in the making. It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t,” she wrote on Instagram. “The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me. Act ii is a result of challenging myself and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work.”

In July 2022, Beyoncé released her seventh studio album, “Renaissance.” The project earned her four Grammys in 2023 including best dance/electronic music album, making her the most decorated artist in the awards’ history. She later announced the album was the first part of a three-act project, making “Cowboy Carter” the second.

The following year, she announced her Renaissance World Tour and kicked off the record-breaking tour. It began May 10, 2023, in Stockholm, Sweden, and concluded Oct. 1, 2023, in Kansas City, Missouri, with Beyoncé performing a total of 56 shows.

The 32-time Grammy winning singer followed up the massive tour with her concert-film titled “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.” The movie documented the inner workings of the tour and debuted in theaters in November 2023.

Justin Baldoni Accuses Blake Lively, New York Times of ‘Colluding’ in Amended $400 Million Lawsuit

Baldoni’s lawyers filed the 224-page amended counterclaim on Friday, and a website, which launched on Saturday, hosts the complaint as well as a timeline.

Among the new allegations, it claims that Lively’s complaint against Baldoni was filed only after Lively and her team “spent months feeding falsehoods to the New York Times.” It alleges that the paper had access to Lively’s civil rights lawsuit at least 11 days prior to The Times report entitled “We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” published on Dec. 21. The report accused Baldoni and his publicists of trying to hurt Lively’s reputation in an apparent retaliation for Lively making sexual harassment complaints on the film’s set. Lively filed a federal court lawsuit against Baldoni on Dec. 31.

Baldoni has sued Lively and The Times for defamation, alleging that they “‘cherry picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.” The amended suit claims that The Times may have been working on the story as early as Oct. 31. In addition, the suit claims that a companion video to The Times story was created on Dec. 12, nine days prior to the story’s publication. The suit alleges that the newspaper first reached out for comment from Baldoni’s team on the evening of Dec. 20, with a deadline of noon the next day. The story was posted at 10:11 a.m. on Dec. 21 and included a comment from Freedman.

A spokesperson for The New York Times did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment. “The Baldoni/Wayfarer legal filings are rife with inaccuracies about The New York Times, including, for example, the bogus claim that The Times had early access to Ms. Lively’s state civil rights complaint,” a Times’ spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “Mr. Baldoni’s lawyers base their erroneous claim on postings by amateur internet sleuths, who, not surprisingly, are wrong. The sleuths have noted that a version of the Lively state complaint published by The Times carries the date ‘December 10’ even though the complaint wasn’t filed until more than a week later. The problem: that date is generated by Google software and is unrelated to the date when The Times received it and posted it.”

Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.

The amended lawsuit also raises new allegations about Lively’s husband Reynolds and his portrayal of Nicepool in Deadpool & Wolverine, accusing the actor of “mocking and bullying” him via the character.

“Reynolds portrayed Nicepool as a vicious caricature of a ‘woke’ feminist before concluding the character’s arc with his violent shooting death at the hands of ‘Ladypool,’ a character voiced by Blake Lively,” the suit alleges, adding that Nicepool was “intended to be a transparent and mocking portrayal of Reynolds’ warped perception of Baldoni.”

Reps for Lively and Reynolds did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s requests for comment.

The amended complaint, which seeks at least $400,000,000 in compensatory damages, comes two days before the first hearing on the federal lawsuits. The trial over Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, has been scheduled to commence on March 9.

‘Emilia Pérez’ Star Karla Sofía Gascón Says ‘I Am Not a Racist’ Amid Backlash Over Offensive Tweets: ‘I Have Been Judged and Condemned Without Trial’

American Film Market Returns to Los Angeles for 46th Edition 3 days ago

“Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón took to Instagram early Saturday morning to write a lengthy response after a series of controversial social media posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, resurfaced on Thursday.

Accompanied by an image of a Nichiren Buddhist symbol and the words, “As with ‘Emilia Pérez’: We can all do better. Me too,” Gascón wrote, “THEY ALREADY WON. The first thing I’d like to do is ask for the most sincere forgiveness from those who feel bad about the way I’ve expressed myself at any stage of my life. I have many things to learn in this world, the forms [in which I learn] are my biggest defect. Life has taught me something I never wanted to learn: it’s clear to me that no matter how much my message is my message, without using the proper words, [the message] can convert into another.”

She continued, “I have gone from living a normal life to a life at the top of my profession in just six months, now my responsibility is very great because my voice not only belongs to me but to many people who feel represented and hopeful by or with me.”

Gascón wrote that in recent years, she has relied heavily on “Nichiren Buddhism” as a guiding principle in her life, and believes it has changed her and “those who surround me for the better.” She admitted that she’s “not the same person” she was a decade ago due to the religious shift, adding, “Although I have not committed any crimes I was not perfect either, I am not even perfect now. I just try to learn and be a better person every day.”

After starting with a more apologetic tone, Gascón repeated the opening statement of her response, writing, “They have already won, they have achieved their objective, to stain my existence with lies or things taken out of context. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a racist (you will be surprised when you find out that one of the most important people in my current life and that I love the most is Muslim) nor any of the things for which I have been judged and condemned without trial and without option to explain true intention; I have always fought for a more just society and for a world of freedom, peace and love. I will never support wars, religious extremism or the oppression of races and peoples.”

“They have created posts as if it were me insulting even my colleagues,” she added. “Things that I wrote to glorify as if they were criticisms, jokes as if they were reality, words that without the background only seem like hate. Everything as long as I don’t win anything and I sink.”

Gascón closed with a quote from her mother, who told her, “I care very little whether you win anything, I just care about you being okay and that no one will harm you.” Gascón then shared her response: “‘Mother, this life has put me here to send a message of hope and love to this world, I will do it.’”

Once the favorite to win best actress in a leading role at this year’s Academy Awards, Gascón came under fire Thursday after journalist Sarah Hagi discovered the posts which have now largely been deleted. In them, Gascón shared contentious views on Gergoge Floyd, Muslims and diversity at the Oscars.