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Mavis Staples & Levon Helm, “Carry Me Home” (ANTI-Records)Some efforts to bring musical legends together feel contrived, like they were cooked up for a between-albums payoff. Occasionally, though, when the convergence isn't calculated, the moment just needs to be preserved.Such is the case with “Carry Me Home," a newly-released recording of a memorable encounter between Mavis Staples and Levon Helm during the summer of 2011.

NEW YORK -- In the summer of 2011, two American iconic musicians met and jammed up a storm. Very few people heard what they created — until now.The 12-track live album “Carry Me Home” is the long-awaited record of what happened when Grammy-winning soul and gospel star Mavis Staples visited her good friend Levon Helm, the Grammy-winning drummer and singer of The Band.“We were very close friends.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Country stars Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood, Brandi Carlile, Little Big Town, Martina McBride and Ashley McBryde will join Wynonna Judd on tour this fall after the sudden death of her mother and musical partner, Naomi Judd.The mother-daughter duo's final tour together was scheduled to start in September.

CANNES, France -- One of the most memorable lines — and Rob Reiner's personal favorite — of “This Is Spinal Tap” goes: “There’s a fine line between stupid and clever.”You could say the same thing about the classic 1984 mockumentary. It could have so easily not panned out. No one in Hollywood thought it was a good idea.

Jill Biden and U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy at the White House on Wednesday for a conversation about youth mental health.The singer/actor has been public about her struggles and revealed in 2020 that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.Biden, Murthy and Gomez held a conversation in the East Room with several young people, including a mother and a recent Rutgers college graduate, who shared how they had improved their mental outlook.The strategies they shared ranged from going through multiple therapists to find one who is right for you to using baking as a way to encourage conversation with others facing similar challenges.“Mental health is very personal for me and I hope that by using my platform to share my own story ...

LOS ANGELES -- Jack and Rebecca. Randall, Kate and Kevin.

One wedding and a funeral — and a birth. That gorgeous house, never mind the leaky roof. Some sunshine, too! More bone-dry quips from Maggie Smith.

Academy Awards in 2023 were approved by the organization’s board of governors at their most recent meeting, where they determined the eligibility window would return to the standard calendar year. The board also said that individual films may submit no more than three songs for the best original song award.The organization also distributed updated guidelines for award campaigns to “maintain a high degree of fairness and transparency” in how film companies and individuals promote eligible films for awards.

NEW YORK -- Chris Wallace will host a Sunday night interview show for CNN starting this fall, the network said Wednesday in announcing a new home for the best-known personality from the since-imploded CNN+ streaming service.“Look Who's Talking to Chris Wallace,” which will also air on HBO Max, was the program he was doing for CNN+ before new corporate owners Warner Bros. Discovery shut the service down after only a month.Wallace, formerly of Fox News Channel, has made some appearances on the television network, including on primary coverage Tuesday night.Actor Eva Longoria, who had also signed up for the streaming service, will do a series for CNN where she travels in Mexico to sample the cuisine and culture.

CANNES, France -- Tom Cruise mania descended Wednesday in Cannes where the actor made a whirlwind appearance at the French film festival to screen “Top Gun: Maverick," exalt the big screen and sit for a rare interview.Cruise brought a palpable buzz to the Croisette, where throngs gathered around the Palais des Festivals to get a glimpse of the 59-year-old star. Cruise hadn't been to the festival in three decades.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- A friend of actor Amber Heard testified Wednesday that she saw the bruises and cuts left in the aftermath of multiple incidents of abuse inflicted by Heard's ex-husband, Johnny Depp.In a recorded deposition played for jurors, Raquel Pennington said she never personally witnessed Depp strike Heard.

CANNES, France -- The last two times the Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov had films playing at the Cannes Film Festival, he couldn't attend. He was under a travel ban in Russia as part of a conviction for fraud in what was widely protested as unwarranted repression of the arts in Russia.

coronavirus vaccines and pandemic restrictions, has tested positive for COVID-19 and canceled two upcoming European gigs.Clapton’s upcoming shows in Zurich on Tuesday and Milan on Wednesday will be rescheduled, he announced on his Facebook page and official online site. The 77-year-old rocker tested positive following his concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall on May 8.“Eric is also anxious to avoid passing on any infection to any of his band, crew, promoters, their staff and of course, the fans,” the statement reads.

NEW YORK -- Playwright and actor Tracy Letts was inspired to write his latest Tony Award-nominated play while watching one of those old black-and-white Frankenstein movies.It wasn't the hideous monster or its wide-eyed creator that drew his attention. It was the single-mindedness of the town's angry villagers.“The villagers always appear with their pitchforks and torches and they’re completely unified.

NEW YORK -- With the broadcast television season winding down and most scripted series about to go into hibernation for the summer, it's instructive to look at the power of network franchises.Of the Nielsen company's 20 most popular scripted series on the air last week, 12 were parts of franchises — the three “Chicago” dramas on NBC, the three “FBI” shows on CBS, for example. That's without counting the CBS comedy “Young Sheldon,” even though it began life as a spinoff to “The Big Bang Theory.”At a time viewers are inundated with choices, particularly on the streaming services, broadcast networks have taken the power of these ideas to heart, knowing that their viewers will be attracted to familiar concepts and storylines.That's primed to continue, since ABC announced on Tuesday they will be trying to create a new franchise out of their drama “The Rookie,” with a spinoff due in the fall.CBS won the week in prime time television, averaging 4.2 million viewers.

Bill Cosby’s civil trial over allegations that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl at the Playboy mansion nearly 50 years ago.Plaintiff Judy Huth said in a recent court filing that she now believes the assault happened in 1975 when she was 16, not in 1974 when she was 15 as she had long alleged, spurring cries of foul and a request to dismiss the case from Cosby’s attorneys, who said the change has upended their defense on the eve of trial.“It's not fair,” Cosby's lawyer Jennifer Bonjean said outside court. “It's called trial by ambush.”Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan gave no indication he planned to throw out the 8-year-old case just before a trial that he is determined to have start as scheduled on Monday, and forged ahead in preparations.Cosby, 85, will not attend any of it, his attorneys said.

LOS ANGELES -- Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford will bring their combined star power to the newest addition to the “Yellowstone” TV franchise.The pair will headline a Paramount+ series with the working title “1932,” which joins “1883” as part of what the streaming service called the “origin story” of its “Yellowstone” drama series.The latest chapter in the Dutton family saga will be set in an early 20th century and a Mountain West beset by drought and the Great Depression, among other ills, Paramount+ said. It will debut in December.Writer-producer Sheridan Taylor is the creative force behind the hit franchise, which began with the contemporary drama “Yellowstone," led by Kevin Costner.

NEW YORK -- Author and journalist Wesley Morgan is this year's winner of the William E. Colby Award for military and intelligence writing.

If you must reboot an over 30-year-old Disney Channel cartoon like “ Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers,” you could do much worse than looking to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” for inspiration. But it is a high bar and though “Chip ‘n Dale” might not reach the heights of that Robert Zemeckis film, it is still a pleasant surprise stuffed to the brim with pop culture references that children of the “Chip ‘n Dale” era may enjoy.Now, wait, you may be thinking: Aren’t children of the “Chip ‘n Dale” era in their 30s and 40s at this point? And was “Chip ‘n Dale” even that beloved enough to warrant a reboot? The answers are yes and no, but the minds behind this movie know that and aren’t pretending otherwise.

Somewhere in the southwest of England is a sprawling stone estate nestled along hedge-lined lanes that you can rent, complete with wood fireplaces, low oak beams, an apple tree in the yard and a room for a baby grand piano. But the listing on Airbnb, Vrbo or Booking.com might not mention one small complication: It comes with a naked dude in the yard.This is where Alex Garland’s sophisticated horror film “Men” is set. All the action takes place in and around this estate, a countryside both sublimely beautiful and yet also grimy and filthy.

ABC is bringing actress Hilary Swank and the writer of the 2015 Oscar-winning film “Spotlight” together for a new drama about a journalist working in Alaska.The Thursday series “Alaska” headlines a fall schedule announced Tuesday that also includes an hourlong celebrity version of “Jeopardy!” and leans heavily on returning favorites.Swank will play Eileen Fitzgerald, described as a “recently disgraced” reporter who leaves a high-profile New York life behind to seek personal and professional redemption up north. The creator is Tom McCarthy, who wrote the film about the Boston Globe's investigation of sexual abuse by Catholic priests.Craig Erwich, ABC entertainment president, calls it a brave show for this era.“Telling stories about journalists as heroes is something that's going to get a lot of conversation,” Erwich said in an interview Tuesday.