Judge dismisses one of the song-theft lawsuits over Dua Lipa’s Levitating

Taylor Swift is looking back at one of her most iconic breakup songs – “Dear John.”

A mystery band will take to Glastonbury's famous Pyramid Stage on Friday night - and festival fans are in a frenzy trying to work out who it will be.

The Match Factory has posted fresh deals of for veteran Italian director Marco Bellocchio’s Cannes 2023 Palme d’Or contender Kidnapped about the true story of the kidnapping of a young Jewish boy.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Following the announcement of the North American acquisition by Cohen Media, The Match Factory has revealed further sales in key territories for Marco Bellocchio’s Cannes Competition title “Kidnapped.” The film adapts the true story of the kidnapping of the young Jewish boy Edgardo Mortara, starring Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi, Barbara Ronchi, Enea Sala and Leonardo Maltese. The film has its release secured in the following territories: U.K. and Ireland (Curzon), Australia and New Zealand (Palace Entertainment), Japan (Fine Films), Latin America (Cine Video y TV), Spain (Vertigo Films), Benelux (Cherry Pickers), Switzerland (Agora Films), Poland (Best Film), Portugal (Alambique), Greece and Cyprus (Rosebud.21), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aerofilms), Ex-Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), Hungary (Vertigo Media), Baltics (Kino Pavasaris), Bulgaria (Art Fest), Israel (United King Video), Ukraine (Traffic Films), Taiwan (Light Year Images) and Indonesia (Falcon Pictures). Further territories are in negotiation.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Musical tag-teaming doesn’t have results much more fruitful than what came about when the showrunners of “A Small Light” picked Ariel Marx to compose the score for the limited series and Este Haim to serve as executive music producer. Neither Haim nor Marx was in a position to take anything about the job lightly, given that the eight-episode series for National Geographic and Disney+ tells the story of a Dutch woman, Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis. Yet, in their very separate roles, both found ways to bring musical light or even levity into a drama that inevitably skews toward tension. Este Haim took on the EMP job for the first time with “A Small Light” after previously scoring or co-composing “Maid” and “Cha Cha Smooth” — on top of her day job as one-third of the rocking sister trio Haim. For “A Small Light,” she produced episode-ending covers of songs from the first half of the 20th century, performed by Angel Olsen, Moses Sumney, Kamasi Washington, Sharon Van Etten with Michael Imperioli, Remi Wolf, Weyes Blood, duet partners Orville Peck and King Princess, and her sister Danielle.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large We’ve all made the “Cop Rock” jokes. The Steven Bochco musical drama, which premiered in fall 1990, was a big swing: marrying original music with procedural storytelling. It was a colossal flop that we still talk about three decades later, and a reminder that musicals are hard. Music has been a part of the TV landscape going back to the 1950s and shows like “Your Hit Parade.” But few series have successfully integrated regular music performances into their storytelling: “The Monkees” and “The Partridge Family” worked in the 1960s and ’70s. “Fame” did it in the early ’80s. And then “Cop Rock” scared people off the concept.

Donald Trump is at it again, y’all.

The adventures of “Queen of the Universe” season 2 are about to get bigger and better than ever before.

The positive response to the Dutch reality series De Verraders has brought different versions of The Traitors to many countries, but executive producer Toni Ireland says the biggest challenge for her was to ensure that the U.S. production stood out in the crowd. Peacock’s The Traitors brings together a group of everyday people and reality TV stars in an elaborate murder-mystery competition hosted by Alan Cumming. Perhaps the biggest change in the U.S. series was in how the game ended, which led to a shocking finale where the group needed to unanimously decide to either trust their fellow finalists and split the money or call for another elimination vote if they believe a traitor is still among them.

EXCLUSIVE: Ramsey Naito, President, Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation, has a big remit, overseeing all of the groups’ operations from development through release. The respected veteran also has big hopes for an upcoming slate of franchise installments as well as original features. 

Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has hit out at the Glazer family, accusing them of sucking the energy out of "everything they do".

Peter Caranicas Deputy Editor The Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, an annual showcase that brings films and filmmakers from Greece, Cyprus and other countries in the region to the United States, announced the winners of its 2023 Orpheus Awards at a ceremony on Sunday night at the Silver Screen Theatre in the Pacific Design Center. Toplining the honors: “Listen,” directed by Maria Douza, which won for best fiction feature film. “Iman,” helmed Corina Avramidou and Kyriakos Tofarides, took home the special jury award for best film, and Panos Koutras won the best director award for “Dodo.” Spiros Jacovides won an honorable mention for best director for “Black Stone,” and Efthalia Papacosta was awarded the best performance trophy for “Listen.” “Black Stone” also won the audience award for feature film, and an honorable mention for best performance went to Stephanie Atala for “Iman.”

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” kicked off at the international box office with $110 million from 68 markets, including a decent $40 million start in China. The seventh installment in Paramount’s action franchise also pulled in $60 million in its North American debut, bringing its worldwide tally to a solid $170 million. Overseas audiences will be key to the theatrical success of “Transformers,” which cost $200 million. Prior entries in the 16-year-old series have earned as much as 70% of overall box office returns outside of the U.S. and Canada. At the international box office, ticket sales for “Rise of the Beasts” are pacing 32% below “Bumblebee,” which is the most recent entry in the series. The newest chapter has managed to set franchise records in eight smaller markets, including Indonesia, Argentina and Peru. The Autobots will take the box office milestones where they can get them.

2023 BET Awards are ready to celebrate Black excellence across music, television, film and sports, and the nominations are stacked.This year's list of nominees — announced by the network on Thursday — is led by Drake, who scored the prize of most nominated with seven nods, including Best Male Hip Hop Artist, Best Male R&B/Pop Artist, Best Group with 21 Savage and Best Collaboration with Future and Tems. GloRilla reigns as the most nominated woman of the night with six nominations, including Best Female Hip Hop Artist, Best New Artist, Album of the Year for  and Video of the Year for «Tomorrow 2» with Cardi B.21 Savage and Lizzo earned the third-highest number of nods, with five nominations each, followed by Beyoncé, Burna Boy, Chris Brown, Ice Spice and SZA with four nominations each. Cardi B, Coco Jones, FLO, Future, Jack Harlow, Kendrick Lamar, Maverick City Music & Kirk Franklin and Tems round out the rest of the list of multiple nominations, tied with three nods each.While «culture's biggest night» hasn't named a host yet, last year's show was hosted by Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actress Taraji P.

The exciting first trailer for Paramount+’s new spy drama “Special Ops: Lioness” has been out and it features megastar Zoe Saldana prominently.

Selome Hailu The Native American and Indigenous Writers committee is “one of the smallest committees in the Writers Guild, but [with] one of the loudest voices ever” according to its vice chair Aiko Little — which was evidenced by the turnout of some 100 picketers who joined the NAIWC for a strike event in front of Walt Disney Studios on Wednesday. The NAIWC’s Disney picket was the most recent of a string of of WGA strike events over the past several weeks that have gathered writers from specific marginalized backgrounds — Trans Takeover Thursday, for example — to highlight how current working conditions are affecting them while celebrating storytellers from their communities.

Paloma Cuevas and Luis Miguel, the ‘it’ couple of the moment, entered a new chapter in their relationship by attending the wedding of Rosa Clará’s son, Daniel, with the American economist Anne-Marie Colling, in Paris. Their trip to the capital of the Seine by the businesswoman and designer with the singer known as the “Sun of Mexico” (El Sol de México) was an open secret, as the rumors spread through newsrooms.

Dua Lipa has temporarily won a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against her for her 2020 hit track ‘Levitating’.Filed in March last year by Florida reggae band Artikal Sound System, the lawsuit alleged that Lipa’s ‘Levitating’ copied the hook of their 2017 track ‘Live Your Life’. While their initial filing did not include explicit evidence as to how Lipa copied ‘Live Your Life’, the band alleged that she had “access” to the track.Now, per a Billboard report, US District Judge Sunshine Sykes has temporarily dismissed the case in favour of Dua Lipa, saying that Artikal Sound System have been unable to substantiate their accusations.In their lawsuit, the reggae band offered up one theory that claims one of Dua Lipa’s co-writers had in the past worked with someone who was reportedly taught the guitar by a brother-in-law of one of the band’s members.“These attenuated links, which bear little connection to either of the two musical compositions at issue here, also do not suggest a reasonable likelihood that defendants actually encountered plaintiffs’ song,” Judge Sykes wrote, per Billboard.However, the case isn’t completely closed, as Judge Sykes has ruled that Artikal Sound System have until June 16 to refile their complaint if they are able to provide substantial evidence to back up their accusations.NME has reached to the respective management for both Dua Lipa and Artikal Sound System for comment.Earlier this month, Dua Lipa criticised the British government’s “small-minded and shortsighted” attitude to migrants.

Accused fraudster Hargobind Tahilramani, dubbed the “con queen of Hollywood” after allegedly impersonating movie executives in an extensive fraud scheme, can be extradited to face charges in the US, a UK judge ruled Tuesday morning.

Louis Tomlinson is traversing North America on the latest leg of his Faith in the Future World Tour, and we’ve got the setlist from his first few shows.