Chris Willman Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Chris Willman Music Writer5 Seconds of Summer has inked a new label deal with BMG, following four albums with Universal Music Group.

Chris Willman Music Writer“The Jesus Music,” a film about the Christian music scene that earned more than half a million dollars over its opening weekend, is about as friendly and far removed from being an expose as a documentary can get, but that doesn’t mean the filmmakers want fans to think they’re getting anything but unvarnished truth.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Can’t shake this feeling that I have / The worst is just around the bend,” go the lyrics of Billie Eilish’s new song. Or, a least, of “Sally’s Song,” the number Eilish will be singing when she joins the cast of a live-to-picture concert/screening of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” in the Los Angeles area Halloween weekend.Eilish was announced Friday as an additional cast member for the two “Nightmare” shows at Banc of California Stadium Oct.

Chris Willman Music Writer“The Activist,” a CBS series that had itself become the target of online activism in recent days, is being reconfigured in response to the firestorm of criticism, and will now become a one-time documentary special instead of a five-episode competition series, Variety has learned.Although footage for the original incarnation of the series had already been shot, this version of “The Activist” will be entirely new, with filming expected to begin from scratch.The show,

Chris Willman Music Writer“The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains” has just opened at the Vogue Multicultural Museum, making its first U.S. stop on an international tour in the heart of Hollywood.

Chris Willman Music Writer“God’s not finished,” Kanye West sings repeatedly at the end of one of his new songs, “24.” Being made in God’s image, West very much relates to that; he doesn’t like being done with things, either. Yet here we have the miracle, a true, blue spectacle, of a finished “Donda,” the album that until this weekend seemed poised to challenge Guns N’ Roses’ “Chinese Democracy” as the most mythologically delayed major music release ever.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Let It Be,” the final release of the Beatles’ original catalog, wasn’t about to get memorialized in film and book form this fall without getting a boxed set of the actual music, too. And so months after fans got firm news about “Get Back,” the Peter Jackson documentary, and “Get Back,” the expansive hardback book, there’s finally confirmation that the album whose making those projects chronicle will officially get the deluxe treatment, come Oct.

Chris Willman Music Writer“We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert,” the Clive Davis-programmed concert in Central Park, was called off just past its halfway point Saturday due to lightning strikes occurring within a 10-mile radius of the Great Lawn.Barry Manilow was mid-medley at 8:37 p.m. — with more than two hours left to go in the five-hour concert — when he was interrupted by an announcer saying: “Attention.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Head Over Heels,” the Broadway production that put the song catalog of the Go-Go’s to use as the basis of a narrative musical-comedy, is finally reaching the band’s hometown of Los Angeles this fall, just in time to roughly coincide with the group getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.The show’s production at the Pasadena Playhouse, though, where it’s slated as the storied venue’s reopening attraction Nov.

Chris Willman Music Writer“You know I won an Oscar, right?” H.E.R. asked at the Hollywood Bowl — reminding the audience that however blessed she was to be selling out two nights at the nation’s most storied venue, and anxious at the idea of performing with Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A.

Jordan Moreau Variety has been nominated for 62 Southern California Journalism Awards, including two for entertainment journalist of the year, one for print journalist of the year, best traditional news website and best in-house or corporate publication.The awards, given out by the Los Angeles Press Club, honor outstanding journalism in the region across print, digital, radio and broadcast platforms.Features editor Chris Willman and chief film critic Owen Gleiberman are both up for

Chris Willman Music Writer“Her voice — it’s just like butter,” said a patron of the Hollywood Bowl Friday night, using the familiar “SNL”-derived description of Barbra Streisand’s voice and applying it to the weekend’s headliner, Christina Aguilera. Not to critique the critiques of esteemed season ticket-holders, but this comparison seemed exactly wrong.

Chris Willman Music Writer“A love letter to cinema” was the tired-but-true trope that everyone trotted out when Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” the movie, hit theaters two years ago. But it’s now clear just how insufficient a mere mash note to the movies was for Tarantino.

Variety music critics Jem Aswad and Chris Willman found a lot to love across genres, from hip-hop (Tyler, the Creator, Madlib, Topaz Jones) to rock (St. Vincent, Wolf Alice, Liz Phair, Dirty Laundry) to global music (Mdou Moctar, Altin Gun) to indie singer-songwriters (Julien Baker, Lucy Dacas, Girl in Red) to even mid-20th-century jazz standards (Mandy Barnett).

Chris Willman Music Writer“Elfman sings!” It’s almost as grabby a potential catchphrase as “Garbo speaks.” But of course, Danny Elfman has participated in the talkies before… or, to put it in plainer terms, his new album, “Big Mess,” does not mark the first time he’s stood in front of a rock ‘n’ roll band in the studio to make a vocal record.

Chris Willman Music Writer+ Nick Petropoulos, who joined Arista Records early last year after an 11-year run at Glassnote Records, has been upped by Arista to oversee the label’s promotion department.

Chris Willman Music Writer“The garbage people are going to come by the house,” Liz Phair says suddenly over a Zoom call. While it might seem like she’s declaring an impending hard out, with Shirley Manson and Butch Vig perhaps set to swing through, she’s referencing actual Manhattan Beach trash collectors.

Chris Willman Music Writer“American Idol” has set no fewer than a dozen music stars for the series’ grand finale May 23 — three of whom may be fairly predictable, given that Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Katy Perry are the show’s judges.Not quite as foreseeable in the final show’s performing pecking order: Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan, Luke Combs, Mickey Guyton, Lindsey Buckingham, Fall Out Boy, Alessia Cara, Leona Lewis and Macklemore.The show will air on ABC live across time zones May 23 at 8 p.m.

Chris Willman Music Writer+ Finneas doesn’t keep it all in the family with his mentoring. He’ll be providing guidance to the top five as a mentor on the May 16 episode of “American Idol,” which will air live in all time zones.

Chris Willman Music Writer“This is a rock concert!” Dave Grohl kept repeating, over and over, with and without the F-word inserted, at Sunday night’s filming of Global Citizen’s “Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World” at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

Chris Willman Music Writer‘Twas the night before Earth Day, and all through houses tuned in to National Geographic’s website or YouTube channel will be the sounds of artists including Willie Nelson, Valerie June, Ziggy Marley and My Morning Jacket, all performing for “Earth Day Eve 2021: A Virtual Celebration.”Others joining in in song for the 90-minute webcast include Maggie Rogers, Yo-Yo Ma, Angélique Kidjo, Aurora, José González and Rostam.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Dorothy, I don’t think we’re on the Old Town Road anymore,” as the saying goes.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Alone Together,” a documentary about the creation of Charli XCX’s 2020 album “How I’m Feeling Now,” aims to show how the singer pulled together a full-fledged project last year under quarantine conditions and an arbitrarily fast, self-imposed deadline. But, in truth, the film is really the second time the album’s creation has been documented.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Life Is Beautiful” is hopeful — very hopeful — that life will be carefree for festival-goers by September, when Las Vegas will host what could be the first major post-quarantining music festival in the West. Ticket buyers returned that optimism in major numbers by selling out three-day passes for the annual festival “in record time” Friday, organizers reported.The possibly immunized herd is set to gather Sept.

Chris Willman Music Writer“It’s just a number,” says Ray Benson, waxing modest about a couple of big ones that are arriving this year for himself and his group, “but as you know, being in the business, publicists need something to hang their hat on.” Then again, honoring significant round numbers feels appropriate for someone who invented the Wheel — Asleep at the Wheel, that is, the progressive Western-swing group that will be commemorating its 50th anniversary with an all-star show, God and

Chris Willman Music Writer“Turntables” is not, as you might guess from its placement in the documentary “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” a song written to extol vinyl. It uses that film’s exploration of the historical and recent suppression of Black voters’ rights in Georgia as a launchpad to explore “what’s goin’ on” in a nation still not done turning away from racial inequities.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Could Taylor Swift’s remake of ‘Fearless’ be nominated for the Grammys?” It’s a question that has arisen repeatedly in the short time since Swift released “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” and promised that her full-length recreation of the blockbuster 2008 “Fearless” album would arrive in April.It’s an interesting question… in a completely theoretical, “Who’d win in a fight, Santa Claus or Jesus?” kind of way, in that it will never have any serious real-world

Chris Willman Music Writer“Taylor’s Version” of the 2008 Taylor Swift hit “Love Story” was greeted as a new hit by much of her fan base. The re-recording has entered the Rolling Stone songs chart at No.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Buffalo, you’ve been so kind to us,” Todd Rundgren said toward the end of his tour-opening show Sunday night. He was actually performing in Chicago, as most fans watching the pay-per-view livestream knew, but this was not a senior/Spinal Tap “Hello Cleveland!” moment.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Well, this may seem like déjà vu…” wrote filmmaker Tamara Saviano on her Facebook page this week, alerting friends that her documentary about musician Guy Clark, “Without Getting Killed or Caught” was being announced Thursday as premiering at this year’s South By Southwest Film Festival… just as  it was announced for last year.