Mitchell Tenpenny’s Dual No. 1 Country Hits in 2022 Uphold a Family Legacy Started by the Matriarch of Music Row

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic California is in the house, and will be for the next three years, at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. A major exhibition, “Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock,” has just opened and will run through 2025. The must-see walk-through traces a history of roots music in L.A. rock that expands to include the Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers and Michael Nesmith in the 1960s; the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris in the ’70s; and Dwight Yoakam, Lone Justice and Los Lobos in the ’80s, among many other influential and sometimes commercially impactful figures. Variety recently visited the museum and spoke with co-curators Michael Gray, the facility’s executive senior director of editorial and interpretation, and Michael McCall, the museum’s senior editor, about why the ’60s through ’80s were a golden age for country-inflected rock in Los Angeles. The two curators also spoke about a number of the artifacts on display, from numerous Nudie’s-tailored jackets that set the visual tone for the era to key musical instruments to handwritten scores and setlists and even band flyers — see the gallery of photos below.

BBC EastEnders' actress Emma Barton, who plays Honey Mitchell in the soap, is set to appear in a magical new role. Emma, 45, can be seen dressed in a sparkling ballgown as she prepares to star in panto this Christmas.The actress looked stunning in the promotional shot for the stage production of Beauty and the Beast.

For over two decades, Elvis Mitchell, a film critic for LA Weekly and The New York Times, has wanted to put Blaxploitation in its proper historical place. While the results of his desire would prototypically arrive from Mitchell in the form of a book, sadly, those plans went for naught.

Naman Ramachandran Ananth Narayan Mahadevan’s Busan International Film Festival selection “The Storyteller,” based on a short story by Oscar-winning Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, isn’t “just another homage” to the late master. Film enthusiast Tapobrati Das Sammaddar recommended Ray’s story “Golpo Boliye Tarini Khuro” to Mahadevan, who was “instantly fascinated by the layered social satire.” The story follows an unpublished Bengali storyteller who answers a help ad from a Gujarati businessman who suffers from insomnia, and there is a twist in the tale. Samaddar translated the story and Kireet Khurana (“T for Taj Mahal”) and Mahadevan developed it into a screenplay that was a faithful adaptation of the original. Mahadevan, who cites Ray’s “Charulata” and “Pather Panchali” as influences, says that the choice of film grammar was the tricky part of the shoot.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Although a news report went out Friday morning — and then was pulled — that Joni Mitchell had died, the story was published in error, and the singer-songwriter remains alive and well. “I can confirm all is well so this was done in error,” says a representative for Rhino, which is involved with Mitchell in an ongoing reissue series of her catalog material. The faux report went out from People magazine, with tell-tale signs of a “pre-write” obituary that was published accidentally — every major news organization’s worst nightmare. “Joni Mitchell Dies at TK AGE,” read the headline that was seen on the magazine’s website as well as in a tweet, the “TK” meaning “to come” in journalistic parlance. The story itself also included editorial notes indicating details that needed to be filled in.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The family of John Prine has signed a partnership deal with RadicalMedia (“Summer of Soul”) to develop two documentaries about the life and work about the life and work of the late singer-songwriter, the company has announced. Filming will be well underway this weekend as RadicalMedia plans to shoot the week-long series of tribute concerts taking place in Nashville under the banner of “You Got Gold,” including shows at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Saturday and at the Ryman Auditorium Sunday and Monday. The all-star lineup for these shows is not being publicly revealed in advance. Footage for the “You Got Gold” concerts is being directed by Michael John Warren, who recently helmed the HBO documentary “Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known” for RadicalMedia.

Chris Morris Music Reporter Loretta Lynn, who rose from an impoverished childhood in Kentucky’s coal fields to become a pioneering female star of country music, has died. She was 90. According to a statement from her family shared with Variety, Lynn died Tuesday in her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. Memorably portrayed in an Oscar-winning turn by Sissy Spacek in the 1980 biopic “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (drawn from Lynn’s bestselling 1976 autobiography, co-authored by George Vecsey), Lynn was one of the first women to rise to stardom as a country vocalist. She dominated the charts in the 1960s (when she was the top-charting femme country singer) and ’70s (when she was second only to Dolly Parton), ringing up 11 No. 1 country hits in her own right and another five chart-toppers with Conway Twitty, her regular duet partner of the ’70s. In all, she charted 51 top-10 country singles.

Katie Reul editor Individuals seeking advice from self-help guide Cathy Heller are usually met with a daunting waitlist, but after signing her first Simon & Schuster book deal, nuggets of wisdom from the L.A.-based life coach will become far more accessible. Titled “Abundant Ever After: Building the Future You Can’t Stop Dreaming About,” Heller’s new book outlines the steps to align with one’s truest, most personal self — from filtering intrusive thoughts to matching the vibrational energy of your surroundings. The novel will be released in hard cover on Aug. 22, 2023. As explored in her novel, Heller theorizes that all humans have the capacity to change their lives for the better and rewrite the narrative they’ve been given — a journey she’s experienced first-hand.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In a clear vote of confidence for Colombian director Juan Sebastián Mesa, Bordeaux-based Dublin Films has boarded his third film “Lovers Go Home!” The company also co-produced Mesa’s lauded sophomore pic, “The Rust.” “Lovers Go Home!” centers on a Colombian single mom who leads a double life as a webcammer. One day she meets a U.S. veteran online who becomes obsessed with her. He flies to Colombia to meet her in person. Their meeting makes them reflect on who they truly are. In development, the project participated in this year’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, one of San Sebastian Film Festival’s key industry events, which ran over Sept. 19-21. 

Phillip Schofield's £1million We Buy Any Car deal has been dropped after five years.

Billy Ray Cyrus has gotten back to dating. The "Achy Breaky Heart" singer and his wife of 28 years, Tish Cyrus, announced their separation in April. Five months later, Billy Ray is in a relationship with Australian singer-songwriter Firerose.

There were a lot of celebs in attendance at Versace‘s fashion show in Milan, including Vanessa Hudgens and Lily James!

Billboard Latin America Music Awards are next week on September 29th. What is sure to be an epic night of music has to have amazing hosts, and this year Jaime Camil and Kate del Castillo will share the stage to lead the night full of celebration.

Noah Cyrus has teamed up with her famous father, Billy Ray Cyrus, for a new, emotional duet version of her song «Noah (Stand Still).»The heartfelt and resonant tune — the solo version of which serves as the first track on her recently released debut album — marks her first collaboration with her dad.The tune details advice Noah got from her dad amid her secret battle with Xanax addiction, which she only recently opened up about earlier this year.“Death upon my doorstep, if I took just one more step/ There’d be nothin’ left of me except these songs," Noah sings in the powerful track. «And my father told me, ‘Noah/ When you don’t know where you’re goin’/ Just stand still/ Soon enough you will.'»Billy Ray croons the second verse, before the duo harmonize for the remainder of the song, recalling the powerful guidance her father shared with her amid he battle with addiction and her recovery journey. -- a 10-track album — dropped earlier this month, and Cyrus' North American headlining tour kicks off Oct.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic When Fox’s “Monarch” premiered to strong ratings following an NFL game on Sept. 11, there was a big sort-of-maybe cliffhanger: Can the Susan Sarandon character, touted as a series lead, really be as dead as she appeared to be at the end of the pilot? But there were other questions, too. Like: Will this be a series in which the characters are portrayed as having originated a lot of the big hits of country and pop, from “Family Tradition” to “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” to “Born This Way”? Will the middle American audience be completely down with a story that has an out lesbian character vying to become a country superstar? Do parallels with Naomi Judd’s story feel as eerie as we think they do? And did the pilot make all those millions of viewers want to come back when there’s no NFL lead-in?

EXCLUSIVE: Open Road Films has acquired North American rights to Gerard Butler action thriller Kandahar in a splashy eight-figure deal (low teens, we understand).

A few weeks ago the Cleveland Cavaliers made a massive trade and it could be the most significant move of this offseason.  The Cleveland Cavaliers sent Lauri Markanen, Collin Sexton, 3 first-round picks, and 2 pick swaps to the Utah Jaxx for their 3-time all-star Donovan Mitchell. Mitchell had his press day on Wednesday and was introduced to the media as a Cavalier for the first time. Mitchell was shown a lot of love as fans crowded the bus he arrived on with signs and cheers.