NEW YORK (AP) — Federal authorities are pushing back on R. Kelly's claims that he was placed on suicide watch as a form of punishment last week after a judge sentenced him to 30 years behind bars for using his fame to sexually abuse young girls.
Families went bananas for Minions this weekend at the movie theater. “ Minions: The Rise of Gru ” brought in an estimated $108.5 million in ticket sales from 4,391 screens in North America, Universal Pictures said Sunday.
LONDON (AP) — Peter Brook, a British theater and film director known for an influential and distinguished career which saw him garner worldwide acclaim, has died. He was 97.
The two-time Tony Award winner, who had settled in France decades ago, directed the film adaptations of his best stage works as well as the 1963 movie “Lord of the Flies.”
HONG KONG (AP) — China's famed Palace Museum began displaying artifacts in Hong Kong on Sunday amid a drive to build loyalty to Beijing in the former British colony that reverted to Chinese rule 25 years ago.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A judge has issued a restraining order against Puerto Rican superstar Ricky Martin, police said Saturday.
The order was signed Friday, and authorities visited an upscale neighborhood in the north coastal town of Dorado where the singer lives to try to serve the order, police spokesman Axel Valencia told The Associated Press.
NEW YORK (AP) — Actress Lindsay Lohan is celebrating her 36th birthday on Saturday as a married woman.
The “Freaky Friday” star said she was the “luckiest woman in the world” in an Instagram post Friday that pictured her with financier Bader Shammas, who had been her fiance.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rican superstar Ricky Martin on Sunday denied allegations that led to a restraining order against him, with police noting that he has not been charged with any crime.
TOKYO (AP) — Canadian rock legend Randy Bachman’s long search came to an end Friday when he was reunited in Tokyo with a cherished guitar 45 years after it was stolen from a Toronto hotel.
“My girlfriend is right there,” said Bachman, 78, a former member of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, as the Gretsch guitar on which he wrote “American Woman” and other hits was handed to him by a Japanese musician who had bought it at a Tokyo store in 2014 without knowing its history.
NEW YORK (AP) — A 35-year-old New York man is facing trespassing and stalking charges after authorities said he entered two New York City residences linked to the famed singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will present the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to 17 people, including actor Denzel Washington, gymnast Simone Biles and the late John McCain, the Arizona Republican with whom Biden served in the U.S.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Singer-songwriter Luke Combs is making big leaps this year in his unprecedented rise to the top of country music, both personally and professionally.
The North Carolina-born singer, who holds a Billboard record with 14 consecutive No.
MOSCOW (AP) — American basketball star Brittney Griner went on trial Friday, 4 1/2 months after her arrest on charges of possessing cannabis oil while returning to play for a Russian team, in a case that has unfolded amid tense relations between Moscow and Washington.
Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.
MOVIES
— Netflix’s “The Sea Beast” brings a “Moby Dick”-like tale down to kid size.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany and Nigeria on Friday signed an agreement paving the way for the return of hundreds of artifacts known as the Benin Bronzes that were taken from Africa more than 120 years ago — an accord that Nigerian officials hope will prompt other countries to follow suit.
NEW YORK (AP) — Despite a growing recognition of the problem, the United States continues to see newspapers die at the rate of two per week, according to a report issued Wednesday on the state of local news.
PRAGUE (AP) — An international film festival in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary kicked off Friday amid controversy following a protest by Ukraine over the screening of a Russian film alongside Ukrainian-made movies.
CHICAGO (AP) — R. Kelly could be in his 80s before the singer is free again, based on a 30-year prison term imposed this week by a New York federal judge for parlaying his fame to sexually abuse young fans, including some who were children.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — The main union for Atlantic City casino workers reached agreements on new contracts with four casinos on Thursday, providing for what one its president called “the best contract we've ever had” and labor peace that will avoid a strike on Fourth of July weekend, one of the casinos’ busiest of the year.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nipsey Hussle was a hip-hop star who sought to raise up his neighborhood with him until a friend from the same streets gunned him down, a prosecutor said in his closing argument Thursday.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Essence's chief executive officer said she's been asked multiple times whether the Essence Festival of Culture is staying in New Orleans. On Thursday, Caroline Wanga ended any speculation, making the answer to that question very clear.
LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) — Sonny Barger, the leather-clad fixture of 1960s counterculture and figurehead of the Hells Angels motorcycle club who was at the notorious Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway, has died.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged,” goes one of the more famous opening lines in English literature, “that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
That’s Jane Austen, beginning her 1813 “Pride and Prejudice.” Austen herself has nothing to do with “Mr.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — “Tiger King” star Bhagavan “Doc” Antle has been charged with buying or selling endangered lemurs, cheetahs, and a chimpanzee without the proper paperwork, federal prosecutors in South Carolina said Thursday.
Years before “Bridgerton” and the Regency-era fashion moment it helped inspire, director Emma Holly Jones was dreaming of an early 19th century romantic comedy with a diverse cast.
Inspiration isn’t always easy to pinpoint, but in this instance, Jones can trace the spark back to a fortuitous week in 2015.
“Mercury — Act 2,” Imagine Dragons (Interscope)
If you were hiding under your bed after listening to the last album by Imagine Dragons, it's time to come out. The second volume of “Mercury” is upbeat, often Caribbean-spiced and throbbing.
LONDON (AP) — After light years in space, actors Sonequa Martin-Green and Kate Mulgrew are meeting up on Earth to compare “Star Trek” stories.
Martin-Green, as Michael Burnham, is at the helm of “Star Trek: Discovery” which is headed for a fifth season.
NEW YORK (AP) — Mary J. Blige’s 2022 is going pretty well. Her new album landed in the top 10 of Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and she was featured at the Super Bowl halftime show. Now she's been tapped for a concert like no other.
The 2022 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction has gone to Jesmyn Ward, who at 45, is the youngest person to receive the library’s fiction award and is being honored for her lifetime of work examining racism and social injustice.
LONDON (AP) — The British monarchy's publicly-funded spending rose by 17% to 102.4 million pounds ($124 million) in the past year, with the renovation of Buckingham Palace taking up a large part of the expenses, royal accounts published Thursday showed.
LONDON (AP) — Buckingham Palace has investigated how staff handled allegations of bullying made against Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex — but the findings will remain private.
Palace officials told reporters Wednesday that the details of the independent review were not being released to protect the confidentiality of those who took part.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Both sides rested their cases Wednesday in the trial of a man charged with the killing of rapper Nipsey Hussle after a day's delay because of an assault on the defendant by fellow jail inmates.
NEW YORK (AP) — Disgraced R&B superstar R. Kelly was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for using his fame to sexually abuse young fans, including some who were just children, in a systematic scheme that went on for decades.
V is for vaccine.
Elmo got a COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, according to Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind “Sesame Street."
In a public service announcement posted to YouTube, the beloved 3-and-a-half-year-old “Sesame Street” star talked with his dad about what it was like to get the shot.
For a not small segment of the audience for “Minions: Rise of Gru,” only one thing really needs to be said. The Minions are in it. That's enough.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News Channel is airing the Jan. 6 committee hearings when they occur in daytime hours and a striking number of the network's viewers have made clear they'd rather be doing something else.
R. Kelly's musical accomplishments have been accompanied by a long history of allegations that he sexually abused women and children. Now the R&B singer has been sentenced to spend the next three decades behind bars.
NEW YORK (AP) — “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” writer-director Rian Johnson’s follow-up to his whodunit hit “Knives Out,” will premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
The Canadian festival announced Wednesday that “Glass Onion” will make its world premiere at the 47th edition of TIFF, running Sept.