Author: business

Amid the rapid expansion of AI and ever-growing discussions of how machine learning may upend modern life, many artists have begun to sound the alarm on what they fear may be a free-for-all of unauthorized use and theft.

No scenario better depicts that tension than the current controversy roiling OpenAI’s new image generator and the popular animation house Studio Ghibli, known for its animated movies including “Spirited Away” and “My Neighbor Totoro.”

Here’s a rundown on how it all started, and why it has creative critics of the technology up in arms.

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On Tuesday, OpenAI, perhaps the most powerful mover in the machine learning space, released a new Image generator, powered by GPT-4o.

Smith’s new album “Based on a True Story” (out now) opens with a barbershop skit mocking debates and social media chatter about everything from his shocking slap of Chris Rock to his “crazy” family and “complicated” relationship with wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

“Him and Jada both crazy, girl. What you talking about?” a hater mocked by Smith says to a faux fan played by comedian B. Simone. “You better keep his wife’s name out of your mouth,” says another detractor. Another adds: “He gon’ drop a new record like we all gon’ forget. You need to take another year and untangle some (stuff).”

At 56 – and 20 years out of the rap game – Smith is clearly having fun with it. On the project’s second track, “You Lookin’ For Me?” he shouts out his wife (“Jada got my DMs hot with bodies”) before telling people to “mind your business” about his personal life. He follows the braggadocious, fast-paced rap with a commanding, drawling pastor interlude, a character that makes regular appearances throughout the 14-track album.

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Will Smith ‘Based on a True Story’ album: Listen

The “Summertime” rapper mixes his hip-hop sensibilities (he is the first rapper to win a Grammy, after all, a fact he notes multiple times) with eclectic influences, from trap and neo-soul to flamenco, Afrobeats and gospel.

Making a movie is messy.

For as long as Hollywood has existed, there’s been many a tale of personality clashes, unfortunate events and filmmaking shenanigans. (Speaking from personal experience, having visited quite a few movie sets, there’s always a potential for chaos.) The new Apple TV+ comedy “The Studio” makes hay with that situation, starring Seth Rogen as the embattled head of a movie studio and a cavalcade of A-list cameos. If the Bible is more your jam than Tinseltown, the fifth season of the popular series “The Chosen” is upon us, focusing on the days leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. And Sofia Carson, the former Disney Channel kid and current queen of Netflix movies, goes on an epic emotional quest with the life-affirming “The Life List.”

Now on to the good stuff:

Catch Seth Rogen as a fumbling movie executive in ‘The Studio’

Apple TV+ has been my happy place lately: I finally started watching “Severance” like the rest of the world – pretty good after four episodes! – and also am enjoying “The Studio.” Seth Rogen co-directs and stars in the Hollywood satire as the newly appointed head of a movie studio who pretty much immediately is a cringey disaster. In the first two episodes, he seeks a director to make a “Barbie”-esque Kool-Aid movie and also visits the set of a film trying to capture the perfect one-shot take. (It doesn’t go well.)

U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla said L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer failed to show “substantial similarity” between “Levitating” and their song “Wiggle and Giggle All Night,” though some listeners could hear similarities.

Linzer and Brown alleged that “Levitating” copied the “signature melody” from “Wiggle” and another song to which they held a copyright.

But the judge found that melody unprotectable, drawing on a federal appeals court decision in November that ruled Ed Sheeran’s 2014 song “Thinking Out Loud” did not illegally copy Marvin Gaye’s classic “Let’s Get It On.”

The beloved comedian, whose long-running career made her a staple of American culture, was honored with her own U.S. postage, revealed in a first-day-of-issue ceremony Thursday at the Los Angeles Zoo. White worked with the zoo from its inaugural year in 1966 to her death in 2021.

Much like the spark and humor that grounded White, the stamp will not expire. A forever stamp, the postage will always represent the current price of a 1-ounce First-Class Mail postage. All commemorative stamps are forever stamps.

The stamp design shows the late “Golden Girls” star grinning on a violet background wearing a polka dot shirt, a digital illustration created by Dale Stephanos based on a 2010 photo by Kwaku Alston.

Singer-songwriter Ellis Hall performed parts of “Thank You for Being a Friend,” the theme song to “The Golden Girls,” at the ceremony and fans got a dose of the wildlife that White so loved.

“Obviously, we’ll be celebrating ‘Wicked’ tonight,” host Michael Urie said during his opening speech at the awards show ceremony. “Or as we call it at my house, every night!”

All eyes were on Erivo inside the Beverly Hilton hotel ballroom − and the half a dozen security guards surrounding her − as she walked over to find her seat right as the lights dimmed before the night officially began.

She was the woman of the night, after all: Erivo was there to accept the Stephen F. Kolzak Award, honoring an LGBTQ media professional who has made a lasting impact in raising visibility and empowering the community.

All aboard the crazy train!

Nicole Kidman stars in “Holland” as Nancy Vandergroot, the kind of woman you might envy (and not just because she has Kidman’s flawless complexion). The life skills teacher is a devoted mom to her son Harry (Jude Hill) and wife to a successful optometrist Fred (Matthew Macfadyen). She lives in the idyllic, Dutch-influenced town of Holland, Michigan, which gives a no-need-to-lock-your-door vibe. But below the surface, Nancy is dying.

“My life is like carbon monoxide,” she tells Dave Delgado (Gael García Bernal), the woodshop teacher she’s in love with. “It’s so sleepy and comfortable, I don’t even know that I’m suffocating.” Nancy feels like she isn’t living, “just existing.”

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Seated between Macfadyen and García Bernal for an interview, Kidman says she loves “how relatable that was in terms of people at different times in their lives.”

Nancy “presents this very bubbly thing,” Kidman adds. “But there’s so many twists and turns in this, which is the thing that I loved when I was reading it. I didn’t know what was going to happen next.”

Nancy enlists Dave’s help when she suspects Fred is having an affair. If only! Fred is actually a serial killer who memorializes his slayings by creating replicas of his victims’ homes in his creepy train set village.

“Really, life is very complex,” García Bernal says. “Whenever there’s this construct of many aspects of perfection, there’s always something behind that. It’s not real.”

“And that’s why it’s exciting when something comes in and sort of explodes,” Kidman says − in this case, life as Nancy knows it.

By director Mimi Cave’s design, you might have questions about the film’s mysterious ending. Here’s what Cave and the cast had to say.

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Is Fred dead, finally?

If your nervous system did celebratory backflips when you thought Dave fatally stabbed Fred after finding out Fred is a murderer, you’re not alone. Like so many villains before him, Fred returned from the dead (and the lake where Dave left him) to Holland to be with his wife and son. As Fred was driving the trio home, Nancy pretended to go along with the plan, only so Harry could flee to safety.

She then shot Fred in the face, but that didn’t kill him, naturally. She had to beat him to death with a clog, a move that Kidman calls “crazy” in an “Isn’t that delicious?” way.

Viewers can rest assured Fred is actually dead, for real this time, Cave says.

“I wanted Nancy to not only literally be the one to create real safety for herself and her son − which is sort of like eliminating the murderer that she’s married to,” says Cave, laughing, “but also, symbolically. She’s finally arriving in her life, and she’s taking agency and action.”

‘Holland’: Nicole Kidman is embroiled in a Midwestern mystery

A bored Michigan woman (Nicole Kidman) begins to think her optometrist hubby (Matthew Macfadyen) might be living a double life in “Holland.”

‘Holland’ ending explained: Was any of it real?

At the end of “Holland,” audiences hear Nancy and Dave say that sometimes they question if any of the saga was even real. Well, was it?

Macfadyen loves the film’s “ambiguous and odd” conclusion. “It’s just great,” he says.

“Was it real?” Kidman asks her castmates.

“I don’t know,” García Bernal responds, causing Kidman to burst into laughter.

The director is less coy and hints that Dave could’ve been a figment of Nancy’s imagination.

“Maybe Dave was never there, maybe Nancy fantasized this whole relationship, and her fantasy was a catalyst toward the truth,” Cave says. “If you look back in the film, it actually makes a lot of sense.”

She encourages her audience to really analyze the facts given to them. “’Let me look at it from a few different angles, and I might find a different meaning or a different truth,’” she says.

The endings with room for interpretation are the kind that Cave enjoys most. “This storyteller is giving me options of the truth,” she says. “It’s an engaging way to entertain people and keep them thinking about something.”

Host Michael Urie (“Goodrich,” “Shrinking” and “Ugly Betty”) kicked off the festivities Thursday with both a powerful and hysterical monologue, channeling his inner Elphaba and Glinda and donning a pink-and-green suit designed by Christian Siriano.

Urie acknowledged it was a night to “give flowers” to the movies, TV, music, video games, podcasts and journalism that provide “fair, accurate and inclusive representation of LGBTQ people and issues.”

“I am confident that if we keep fighting, loving and showing up, we can change minds and we will get that ‘T’ and that ‘Q’ back in the Stonewall National Monument,” Urie said, referring to the Trump administration’s erasure of references to transgender people from the New York monument website.

The megastar first released the 27-track project March 29, 2024. As Beyoncé’s first country album, she made sure to feature country legends such as Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and country music pioneer Linda Martell. She also collaborated with crossover artists such as Miley Cyrus and Post Malone, as well as emerging Black country artists such as Shaboozey, Willie Jones, Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts and Tiera Kennedy.

The album became a catalyst for the renewed spotlight on Black country artists and the genre’s Black roots. “Cowboy Carter” has challenged music industry norms and sparked important conversations pertaining to the intersection of race and country music.

On the one-year anniversary of “Cowboy Carter,” here’s a look back at 19 significant moments from its trailblazing year.

‘Blackbird’ contributors speak about Beyonce and country music

‘Blackbiird’ contributors speak about Beyoncé’s impact on country music

1. Beyoncé shocked fans by announcing the album and releasing singles “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” in a surprise Super Bowl commercial in February 2024.
2. Beyoncé became first Black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart after her single “Texas Hold ‘Em” debuted at No. 1.
3. Simultaneously, the song held the No. 1 spot on seven of Billboard’s charts: Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Hot Gospel Songs, Hot Latin Songs, Hot R&B Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
4. Within a week of its release, “Texas Hold ‘Em” debuted at No. 54 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.
5. Beyoncé also became the first woman to top both Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs since the lists’ inception.
6. Beyoncé made history again as the first Black woman to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s top country albums chart.
7. “Cowboy Carter” also reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Americana/folk albums and top album sales charts.
8. “Cowboy Carter” was snubbed at the 2024 Country Music Association Awards, receiving zero nominations. However, the album earned 12 nominations at the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards, making Beyoncé the leading nominee.
9. Beyoncé then took home her first country music award for top country female artist at the 2024 Billboard Music Awards.
10. Beyoncé put on an NFL halftime performance during the Texans-Ravens game on Christmas Day, dubbed “A Cowboy Carter Christmas.” The live performance drew 27 million U.S. viewers, according to Netflix.
11. Beyoncé became the leading nominee at the 2025 Grammy Awards after the album scored 11 nominations.
12. The “Cowboy Carter” nominations also allowed Beyoncé to become the most nominated artist in the show’s history with a total of 99 career nods.
13. Her nominations included five awards in the country and American roots field — her first in that category.
14. Country music pioneer Linda Martell earned her first Grammy nomination for her feature on “Spaghettii.”
15. Beyoncé won the award for best country duo/group performance for “II Most Wanted” with Miley Cyrus, making history as the first Black female solo artist to win a Grammy for a country song. The Pointer Sisters won in a similar category in 1975.
16. Beyoncé took home best country album at the Grammy Awards. It was the first time a Black woman was nominated and won in the category.
17. The “Cowboy Carter” creator also took home the top prize of the evening, album of the year. She joined only three other Black women in the show’s history to earn the honor.
18. Beyoncé announced her highly anticipated Cowboy Carter and the Rodeo Chitlin’ Circuit Tour for the award-winning album.
19. She quickly made history with the tour. She stands to set the record for most shows by any artist on a single run at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. She’ll also become the act with the most performances at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

The Cowboy Carter and the Rodeo Chitlin’ Circuit Tour will kick off April 28 in Los Angeles. Since the initial announcement, Beyoncé has added a handful of shows including final shows in Las Vegas.

Follow Caché McClay, the USA TODAY Network’s Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @cachemcclay.