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  • NBC remains Olympics broadcaster through 2036 with new $3 billion deal

    NBC remains Olympics broadcaster through 2036 with new $3 billion deal

    NBC and the International Olympic Committee announced Thursday that they have reached a $3 billion deal to extend and expand their long-running partnership.

    The new deal, which was approved by the IOC’s executive board Wednesday, will go into effect this year and give NBC exclusive U.S. broadcasting rights across platforms − including its streaming service, Peacock, which has played a more prominent role in the network’s programming in recent Games. It also adds four more years to NBC’s previous broadcasting deal, ensuring that the network will be the U.S. television home of the Summer and Winter Olympics through at least the 2036 Summer Games.

    “There is no event like the Olympics. Its power to bring joy, and the unifying spirit it embodies, are truly unique,” Comcast chairman and chief executive officer Brian Roberts said in a statement. “We live in a time when technology is driving faster and more fundamental transformation than we’ve seen in decades. This groundbreaking, new, long-term partnership between Comcast NBCUniversal and the International Olympic Committee not only recognises this dynamic but anticipates that it will accelerate.”

    NBC has become nearly synonymous with the Games for the better part of the past three decades. The network has televised every iteration of the Summer Olympics since 1988 and added Winter Games broadcasting rights in 2002. (The network’s parent company, Comcast, is also a major sponsor of Team USA.)

    The company’s investments in Olympic coverage over the years have also come with a massive price tag. Prior to the $3 billion deal announced Thursday, NBC’s previous rights deal with the IOC, signed in 2014, was valued at $7.75 billion and had been scheduled to run through 2032.

    The new TV rights deal comes as the U.S. is slated to host two of the next five iterations of the Olympics: The 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles and the 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. And it comes on the heels of a strong performance last summer in Paris. NBC said its coverage reached an average of 67 million total viewers per day during the 2024 Summer Olympics and featured 23.5 billion minutes of streaming on Peacock, where it experimented with new approaches like a real-time highlights show and content involving non-athlete influencers.

    “The media landscape is evolving rapidly and, by partnering with one of the world’s leading media and technology companies, we will ensure that fans in the United States are able to experience the Olympic Games like never before,” outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach said in a statement.

    IOC members are due to elect Bach’s replacement as president at a session in Greece next week.

    Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on social media @tomschad.bsky.social.

  • Watch Brad Pitt as a driver in Formula One movie

    Watch Brad Pitt as a driver in Formula One movie

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    Leave it to Brad Pitt to try and steal some of Tom Cruise’s action thunder.

    The actor’s upcoming summer movie, “F1″ (in theaters and IMAX on June 27), features Pitt – teamed with “Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski – ripping around famous global racetracks at upward of 180 mph.

    Talking via radio to Pitt when he was at the wheel “mostly was me telling him to slow down,” Kosinski joked during a Zoom session on Tuesday where he answered questions from journalists.

    Kosinski’s event was aimed at promoting Thursday’s release of the second “F1” trailer, which sheds a bit more light on the plot.

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    “F1” in brief: Pitt plays washed-up Sonny Hayes, dubbed “the greatest driver that never was,” who gets a call from a former teammate-turned-struggling F1 team owner, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem). There’s an offer of a F1 ride and a shot at redemption for both. Complicating matters is Pitt’s talented and cocky teammate Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), and there’s also team engineer and potential love interest Kate (Kerry Condon).

    And F1 in brief: Though fans of NASCAR, IndyCar and various sports-car racing series might disagree, Formula 1 has long been considered the pinnacle of motor racing, a destination for the smartest engineers who leverage the finest technology to power the world’s best drivers.

    Netflix hit series ‘Drive to Survive’ was an inspiration for ‘F1’ director Joseph Kosinski

    Kosinski says his movie “has the tension you’d expect, but at the same time, real heart with Sonny’s redemption journey, plus humor and romance.”

    But mostly, judging from both the first and latest trailer, “F1” seems to promise truly epic racing sequences. No surprise that they look ripped straight out of the popular Netflix series “Drive to Survive,” which has been chronicling the real F1 drama for seven seasons: Kosinski cited his COVID-era binging of “Drive” as inspiration for “F1.”

    “I found it was a unique sport where your own teammate is in many ways your greatest competition,” he said. “The first season (of ‘Drive’) focused on the last-place teams, the underdogs. So I thought there was an interesting story to be told about the underdogs not trying to win a championship but even just one race against the titans of the sport.”

    Once he had the idea, Kosinski went looking for stars of both Hollywood and F1 to join in, and quickly found both.

    Driving ground-based missiles that pull multiple Gs and boast upward of 1,000-hp sounds a bit like the world of “Top Gun.” Pitt, 61, like Cruise, 62, had to stay fit for the role.

    But Pitt proved a natural behind the wheel of a high-powered racing car. Says who? None other than F1 deity Lewis Hamilton, seven-time world champion driver for Mercedes (and next year Ferrari). He not only appears in “F1,” along with other real drivers, but also is a producer on the film (as are Pitt and Hollywood action-film staple Jerry Bruckheimer).

    “One of the first things we did was go out on the track in sports cars, because Lewis wanted to see if Brad could drive, because if not, this won’t work,” said Kosinski. “When Lewis saw that he was naturally gifted at the wheel, it gave him confidence.”

    Hamilton also helped shape the script, said Kosinski, offering insights into “what drives these guys day in and day out … I couldn’t have made this film without him.”

    Hollywood has a tough time selling racing movies, but Lewis Hamilton vows victory with ‘F1’

    Hamilton is promising that “F1” will be “the most authentic racing film ever experienced in the cinema.” That’s no small promise. Hollywood has a history of making racing movies that offer plenty of story but don’t quite deliver that in-the-driver’s-seat feeling.

    Among the best recent efforts are 2013’s “Rush,” the story of Niki Lauda and James Hunt’s rivalry and friendship, and 2019’s “Ford v Ferrari,” the tale of Carroll Shelby’s attack on Ferrari’s dominance. But Kosinski assures that “F1” will significantly up the ante.

    “We bought six Formula 2 cars and worked with the Mercedes-Benz AMG F1 team to build real race cars that could carry our cameras,” he said.

    What’s more, he worked with Sony to miniaturize the high-definition cameras he had used on “Top Gun: Maverick” because he needed small, light units to mount on F1 cars. The cameras also were remotely maneuverable, something that was not available on Kosinski’s fighter pilot film.

    In addition to tech innovations, shooting “F1” at actual Formula 1 races at tracks everywhere from England to Abu Dhabi promises to help the film’s authenticity.

    “We would be at these races with hundreds of thousands of people, shooting between practice and qualifying (laps),” Kosinski said. “Instead of having a whole day (to shoot scenes), we’d have 9- or 10-minute slots. We’re literally shooting at 180 mph. It’s an adrenaline rush. What we captured, you can’t fake.”

    Did Kosinski get to take out a F1 car to see what all the fuss is about?

    The director just laughs: “There’s no way they’d let me near one, not the insurance company, no way.”

  • Gene Simmons reveals details about KISS future, solo tour

    Gene Simmons reveals details about KISS future, solo tour

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    Gene Simmons leans toward the camera and holds his hand sideways.

    “You see my hand?” he asks. “It does not shake and I’m 75. Kids, don’t do drugs and booze, and stop smoking.”

    This advice from the God of Thunder, a man who spent five decades encased in face paint, dragon boots and the battle armor of a rock star, might sound contradictory. But Simmons’ preaching has a point that proves his longevity.

    Though KISS wrapped touring for good in December 2023, the band behind foot stompers “I Love It Loud,” “Lick It Up,” “Rock and Roll All Nite” and more than 50 other singles that inspired many an air guitarist, will live on. Because how can it not?

    The 50th anniversary of KISS’ “Dressed to Kill” album will be celebrated March 22 with a free audio tour on kissonline.com of band-related landmarks in their New York City hometown (those in the city can visit a KISS pop-up store at Generation Records).

    Simmons, meanwhile, is packing up his bass and returning to the road April 3 with his solo band comprised of Brent Woods on lead guitar, Jason Walker on guitar and Brian Tichy on drums, for more than a month of shows in theaters, clubs and casinos. The trio also shares lead vocals with Simmons, who crafted a set list stocked with KISS hits (“Cold Gin,” “Deuce,” “Calling Dr. Love”) and the original version of Van Halen’s “House of Pain,” which he produced for the band’s demo in 1976.  

    In between his tour planning, overseeing a chain of Rock & Brews restaurants, making movies with his Simmons/Hamilton Productions company and fielding “a lot of phone calls,” the ever-candid and interminably cheeky Simmons chatted from his Malibu home (one of six he owns) about his solo shows, his family and why “50 years was enough” for KISS.

    Question: You went back on the road a few months after KISS’ last show. Apparently, you don’t like to rest.

    Gene Simmons: When I was growing up, I always thought (success) was about money and chicks and fame. (Whispers conspiratorially) And I love it! I have more fun onstage than the pope. The magic of this band is, I just take the guitar and a guitar pick and that’s it. I can get up on stage like this (points to his denim shirt). I don’t have to walk around in dragon boots and wear more makeup and higher heels than you ever wore.

    Do you ever miss the outfits and the makeup and the theater that accompanied KISS shows?

    You have to have dignity and respect for the fans who made your life possible in the first place. If you’re a surfer and you’re blessed enough to ride this giant tsunami of a wave successfully, stop. You’ve reached it. Have a little self-respect and go out when you look good. And let’s be honest, 50 years is enough. The Beatles lasted seven – and we ain’t The Beatles – but the magic of them or Marilyn Monroe is they will be iconic forever. All respect to the rock god Elvis, but I don’t want to be fat and bloated and naked on the bathroom floor.

    Mötley Crüe postpones Vegas residency: Singer Vince Neil undergoes medical procedure

    Do you still talk to (KISS mates) Paul (Stanley) and Tommy (Thayer) and Eric (Singer) on a regular basis?

    Sure, of course. Paul is like the brother I never had. I’ve known him longer than anyone except my mother. It goes deeper than friendship. He and I don’t agree on lots of things, but it’s like going to a restaurant and ordering off a menu. We don’t have to order the same thing. It’s about having a work ethic, responsibility and respecting the person you’re with and realizing you don’t know it all. Without Paul, I’d be asking the next person in line, “Would you like fries with that?” ‒ and that’s an honorable job as well. And Paul says the same thing about me. If you get into the right company of people, one and one equals three.

    At the end of the last KISS show, the band debuted avatars. What’s the status of that project?

    A caterpillar goes into a cocoon and what looks like the casket of its life. And shortly after the casket opens up, this beautiful butterfly (comes out). That’s what’s about to happen with KISS. The avatars are just a placeholder. We’re working with the amazing company Pophouse and (what we’re doing) is closer to virtual reality. We’ve already been to George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic to do motion capture. We dressed up like X-Men and we had cameras all over.

    What is the time frame to see the results?

    Two years.

    ‘See you this summer’: Lollapalooza reveals dates for 2025 festival

    It must be gratifying for you and Paul to see your sons, Nick and Evan, collaborating on music.

    Nick has his own band, Sym Fera, and Evan spent his life committed to songwriting and learning the craft and has his own band. They were always pals. If you look up their names (online), the first thing they did was strum guitar and sing “The Sound of Silence.” There was a look, a sound and it’s real.

    Tell me about the dynamic among you and the guys in your solo band and the difference playing with them compared to decades with KISS.

    With KISS, you have to be well-rehearsed because you have light cues and pyro. Here, there’s no Auto-Tune, no one backstage singing harmonies … If you’re in front of me in the audience, you bet your sweet bippy I’m gonna pull you up to sing “I Was Made for Lovin’ You.” And at the end, do I dare bring 20, 30, 50 people onstage to sing “Rock and Roll All Nite” with me? You betcha.

  • Meghan Markle announces new podcast ‘Confessions of a Female Founder’

    Meghan Markle announces new podcast ‘Confessions of a Female Founder’

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    Move over King Charles, another royal needs room for her podcast equipment.

    Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will launch a new audio series next month, the actress-turned-royal-turned-lifestyle guru revealed Monday.

    The show, entitled “Confessions of a Female Founder,” will premiere April 8 with Lemonada Media − a podcast empire also home to “Wiser Than Me,” Julia Louis Dreyfus’ popular interview series. Lemonada also distributed “Archetypes,” Meghan’s first podcast venture, which ran for eight episodes in 2022, originally on Spotify.

    USA TODAY has reached out to Meghan’s reps for comment.

    The show is expected to highlight conversations between Meghan, a female founder herself, and other women in business as they discuss their struggles and triumphs on the way to success. It comes as she gears up for the launch of As Ever, a lifestyle brand and product line expected to be fully available some time in March.

    “I’m so proud of what we’re creating, and the candid conversations that I’m able to have with other female founders as we unpack the twists and turns of building a business,” Meghan said in a release announcing the show. “Through my friendships and relationships, we’re able to dive into the type of insights that everyone wants to know as they’re building a business, and that I’m able to tap into as I’m building my own business with As Ever.”

    Those twists and turns come from real-life experience. Meghan’s journey to launch As Ever has been plagued with roadblocks, as the duchess ran into trademark issues and jabs from familiar celebrity critics.

    “I appreciate everyone who gave me the grace to make mistakes and figure it out and also to be forgiving with myself through that,” she told People in an interview earlier this month. “It’s a learning curve.”

    A double-pronged return to public life, the duchess also released a show on Netflix earlier this month, “With Love, Meghan,” which saw her doling out cooking and hosting tips.

    The show was met with mixed reactions as a bevy of critics ripped it to shreds, chiding Meghan for being unrelatable and failing to be as authentic or revelatory as they had hoped. Others, however, heralded the show as an aspirational escape, and hit back at detractors for continuing to hound a woman who has been open about the effects of public bullying.

    “We can be hypercritical, and we need to look at, ‘What is that doing to us, when we feel such a high level of judgment of other people?’” psychotherapist Stephanie Sarkis previously told USA TODAY. “It seems that whatever (Meghan) does, she’s going to be under a microscope.”

    For now, Meghan’s approach appears to be: If you’re under the microscope, you might as well make the best of it. With Season 2 of “With Love, Meghan” already announced and both the podcast and brand launches impending, the duchess doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.

  • Jack Quaid has his action hero moment with 'Novocaine'Movies

    Jack Quaid has his action hero moment with 'Novocaine'Movies

    Jack Quaid has his action hero moment with ‘Novocaine’Movies

  • Jack Quaid makes mark as a Hollywood action hero

    Jack Quaid makes mark as a Hollywood action hero

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    Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid might have been his mom and dad, yet for Jack Quaid, Bruce Willis was the man.

    Kid Quaid grew up a huge action-movie fan, renting “Die Hard” as well as other hard-hitting hits like “Lethal Weapon” at the local Blockbuster. It’s carried over into his adult life, where he had “a religious experience” watching “John Wick: Chapter 4” (“Keanu Reeves deserves an Academy Award for his stunt work,” he says emphatically) and routinely is in peril as a member of TV’s “The Boys.” 

    His latest movie “Novocaine” (in theaters Friday) gives Quaid, 32, a chance to put a signature spin on an archetype: a reluctant hero who can’t feel pain. When assistant bank manager Nathan Caine witnesses his crush Sherry (Amber Midthunder) get kidnapped during a robbery, the very unprepared Nate gets punched, kicked, fried, stabbed, shot and impaled trying to rescue his love.

    Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY’s movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox.

    Because of Nate’s rare genetic condition, “he’s a balloon in a world of pins. He has to live this very safe, controlled life,” Quaid says. But the movie is ultimately about “a guy discovering the world for the first time.”

    While “Novocaine” puts Quaid in the stratosphere of big-screen action star, he’s also got the fifth and final season of Amazon’s “Boys” in production and action comedy “Heads of State” coming later this year. (He calls it “a movie I would watch with my friends at a sleepover in middle school.”) Quaid talks with USA TODAY about bad pain, worse nicknames and why villainy sometimes suits him.

    (Edited and condensed for clarity.)

    Question: Why was “Novocaine” the best fit for your first big star vehicle?

    Jack Quaid: I don’t think I’m someone that you would look at and be like, “Oh, that guy kicks so much ass. He could take me in a fight.” But it’s not about how much ass I can kick, it’s how much my ass can get kicked. And I just love that the movie, yes, is very gory and extreme and violent, but also has a lot of heart to it.

    Was it tricky filming fight scenes but not showing pain?

    When I first started doing fight scenes back in “The Hunger Games” days, they would tell me if you get hit, you really need to sell that pain because it makes the punch look way better. That was a really hard thing to unlearn.

    The moment it really clicked for me was I started thinking about Buster Keaton. He was known as “The Great Stone Face,” and his whole schtick was there was so much insanity happening around him, and he would not react. The second I clued into, oh, I can use this for comedy, that really helped.

    What’s the worst physical pain you’ve ever felt? Extra points if it was on a film set.

    Well, I’m going to get those extra points! It was a freak accident. I had to run down one narrow hallway and make a sharp right turn, and then go down another narrow hallway. I had to grab onto this pillar to swing myself around. On the eighth time when I grabbed the pillar, it came off the wall. My momentum took me into the camera dolly, and I bruised a rib. Everyone was kind of nervously clapping, and I’m just holding my ribs. There’s no cast for a rib. You just have to wait that out. That was bad for weeks.

    “Novocaine” utilizes romantic comedy and action. You’re a longtime action guy – what movie made you a romance fan?

    “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is like the entire spectrum of what romance can be. It’s a very sad movie, but also kind of uplifting, depending on how you look at it. It’s less rom-com and more just like hard rom.

    “Novocaine” is Nate’s middle-school nickname. What was yours?

    I wasn’t too proud of it. I was in eighth grade, so of course all the middle-school boys called me “Jackoff,” just to get under my skin. But I will say Karl Urban on “The Boys” gave me my favorite nickname I’ve ever had, which is “Quaido.” It just makes me sound like a smuggler in the “Star Wars” universe, and I’m all about it.

    Have you wrapped your head emotionally around “The Boys” coming to an end?

    I know I’m just going to cry like a baby when it’s all over. Before this, I had never been on a show that lasted more than one season, so a lot of firsts were on the show. I’m just eternally grateful to everything the show’s done for me.

    Between Nate and Hughie (on “The Boys”), you’ve got good guys down. The recent horror movie “Companion,” plus “Hunger Games” and “Scream,” show you can be a good villain, too. Do you have a preference? 

    (Beware: This answer is a little spoilery!)

    The fun in the villain is you’re unburdened by the idea of likability. You don’t have to get the audience on your side. I remember going to the premiere of “Companion” and people were cheering when I died. And I was like, “Yes!” I’ve never been happier to have an entire crowd cheer for my death because I knew that I was doing my job. 

    But there’s something so fun about being a hero, too. Especially someone like Nate, who is more complicated than your average nervous action hero. The movie’s so violent, I need to make him this sweetie pie. He can’t be dark or brooding or angry, really. He has to be a cupcake of a human.

  • Donatella Versace stepping back from role at Versace

    Donatella Versace stepping back from role at Versace

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    Donatella Versace is stepping back from her longtime role at Versace.

    The younger sister of the luxury fashion brand’s founder, the late Gianni Versace, announced her departure as Versace’s creative director in an Instagram post Thursday.

    “It has been the greatest honor of my life to carry on my brother Gianni’s legacy,” Versace, 69, captioned the post. “He was the true genius, but I hope I have some of his spirit and tenacity.” During her time at Versace, she has strengthened the brand’s reputation globally because of her close friendships with A-list celebrities.

    Versace’s intersection with the world of celebrity has led to iconic pop culture moments.

    Jennifer Lopez wore a famous Versace dress to the 2000 Grammy Awards, cementing her as a fashion star, and later re-wore a version of the dress for Milan Fashion Week in 2019, nearly 20 years after the original moment. The brand also has a long-standing relationship with British singer Dua Lipa, which culminated in marketing campaigns and a subsequent dress collection. Donatella Versace is also a close friend of the Kardashian-Jenner family.

    “Championing the next generation of designers has always been important to me. I am thrilled that Dario Vitale will be joining us, and excited to see Versace through new eyes. I want to thank my incredible design team and all the employees at Versace that I have had the privilege of working with for over three decades,” Versace wrote.

    How we covered the real assassination of Gianni Versace

    She concluded the caption, writing, “In my new role as Chief Brand Ambassador, I will remain Versace’s most passionate supporter. Versace is in my DNA and always in my heart.”

    In a Versace Instagram story, Vitale said he’s “truly honored” to be replacing Versace in his new role. Versace took the reins of her family’s eponymous fashion brand after the July 1997 murder of her brother Gianni Versace in Miami.

    The move comes amid reports that Prada is moving closer to a deal to buy Versace from luxury fashion group Capri — which owns Michael Kors, Versace and Jimmy Choo — after agreeing to a price of nearly $1.6 billion.

    Versace was bought by Capri Holdings for $1.87 billion in 2018. However, the brand has struggled in recent months, reporting a 6.6% drop in revenues to $1.03 billion for the fiscal year ending March 2024. Sales are seen to fall further to $810 million in 2025, before returning to growth in 2027.

    Vitale, the former design and image director at Miu Miu, a smaller brand within the Prada group, will take Donatella’s role as chief creative officer effective on April 1.

    Contributing: Reuters

  • Amanda Seyfried on ‘Long Bright River,’ husband and kids

    Amanda Seyfried on ‘Long Bright River,’ husband and kids

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    For Amanda Seyfried, making a cop show set in Philadelphia was more than just a job. It was her civic duty.

    The actress grew up about an hour north of the city in Allentown, Pennsylvania, but some of her most “magical experiences as a kid” were in Philly. So when she got the call about Peacock’s “Long Bright River” (all episodes now streaming), she was “overwhelmed” with a desire to get it right. After all, the series would shoot in Brooklyn, and it was up to her to determine how much or how little she’d lean into a regional dialect.

    “I felt like I owed it to Philly, and I trusted that my own Philly pride would show through,” Seyfried says, sipping rosé and eating whole-grain Cheez-Its as she chats over Zoom. Her fears were quickly assuaged after going on a ride-along with local police: “They were like, ‘You’re one of ours!’ I was like, ‘I’m not, but thank you.’ And they said, ‘Nah, it’s close enough!’”

    ‘Long Bright River’ was ‘eye-opening’ for Emmy winner Amanda Seyfried

    “Long Bright River” follows Mickey (Seyfried), an empathetic officer who patrols the low-income neighborhood of Kensington and strives to raise her young son, Thomas (Callum Vinson), as a single mom. But when several sex workers turn up dead, Mickey begins to suspect it’s not just drugs but a serial killer befalling these women.

    The show continues a dramatic streak of roles for Seyfried, 39, who made her movie debut in 2004’s “Mean Girls” and endeared herself to audiences in comedies and musicals such as “Jennifer’s Body,” “Les Misérables” and the “Mamma Mia!” franchise. In 2021, she earned her first Oscar nomination for David Fincher’s Old Hollywood throwback “Mank,” and a year later, she picked up an Emmy Award for playing disgraced biotech star Elizabeth Holmes in the Hulu series “The Dropout.”

    Seyfried always vaguely recognized Kensington as an “epicenter of the opioid epidemic.” However, in the leadup to filming “Long Bright River,” she met with volunteer programs and harm-reduction services in the neighborhood and discovered “a community that supports each other and is incredibly resilient.” As someone who lost an uncle to addiction, she hopes the series can help “breed compassion” for those struggling with substance abuse.

    “If I was going to leave my family five nights a week, it was going to be for something that was really important,” says Seyfried, who has two kids ‒ Nina, 7, and Thomas, 4 ‒ with actor husband Thomas Sadoski. “Would I rather do comedy? Of course. The levity and challenge of that is really fun. But this strikes so close to home for so many people with the addiction storyline, including me.”

    After two decades in Hollywood, the ‘Dropout’ star knows her worth

    Seyfried recently reunited with filmmaker Atom Egoyan for the haunting thriller “Seven Veils” (now in theaters), portraying an opera director who wrestles with repressed trauma. The duo previously collaborated on 2009’s “Chloe,” which Seyfried considers the first time she truly had a say on set.

    “I remember Atom asking me questions and really creating a rapport that made me feel like I was a peer at that age,” recalls Seyfried, who was 24 at the time. “I look back and I didn’t feel like a kid on that film; I felt like I had an opinion that mattered.”

    Seyfried has continued to use her voice as an executive producer on “The Dropout,” “Long Bright River” and the upcoming “The Housemaid” with Sydney Sweeney. She’s also never shied away from speaking up about inequity: While promoting 2018’s “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again,” the actress called out the studio for playing hard to get in negotiating a new contract and suggesting they could simply recast her for the sequel.

    “The ‘Mamma Mia!’ thing felt very personal because it was someone I had worked with for years,” Seyfried says. “It felt dirty because I don’t work that way; what you see is what you get with me. But for the most part, I try not to go into situations where I think it’s even possible to be undermined. Life’s too short. I can see it from a mile away and I don’t need to be part of it.”

    Now, “I definitely know my value, and what space I want to fill and hang out in. At the end of the day, it’s all about principle, and I feel very respected at this moment.”

    What’s next for Seyfried? ‘Mamma Mia 3’ and a Target birthday party

    In conversation, Seyfried is drolly funny and easygoing. She muses about what ABBA tune she’d like to hear in the long-gestating “Mamma Mia 3” (“The joke was always to crowbar something crazy in, like ‘King Kong Song’”). She’s continually shocked by how many people love her early aughts rom-coms (“I meet ‘Letters to Juliet’ fans more than you could possibly imagine”). And while she’s flattered by all the raves for her viral “Tonight Show” performance of Joni Mitchell’s “California,” she handwaves away any notion of portraying the folk icon in a biopic (“That’s immense pressure on an actor”).

    The actress, who lives on a farm in upstate New York, already has big plans for her 40th birthday in December, which include brunching with friends and wandering around Target. “I have it all mapped out,” she jokes. “Get drunk, grab a double espresso, stand around Spot’s Corner (discount aisle), don’t put anything in the cart, and move on to the crafts section.”

    As she goes into her 40s, “I’m excited about knowing as much as I can about menopause before it hits me. I want to know everything,” she says. “I want to build more trails on the land, and I just want to be around for my kids. It’s hard to think about the future ‒ I’m where I want to be, truly. I’ve got a lot of balls in the air, but that’s never going to change.”

    The other night, she had a dream she was in Budapest again, shooting a project “that wasn’t very good. Then I was like, ‘I don’t want to be away from my kids for this! Seems dumb!’ So I had to tell everybody I was leaving and they’d have to recast me, but I stood by my decision.

    “That shows you where you are in life when you’re dreaming about it!”

  • KISS singer Gene Simmons talks touring, moreEntertain This!

    KISS singer Gene Simmons talks touring, moreEntertain This!

    KISS singer Gene Simmons talks touring, moreEntertain This!

  • John Mulaney’s Netflix show sees Joan Baez blast Trump administration

    John Mulaney’s Netflix show sees Joan Baez blast Trump administration

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    Joan Baez, long an outspoken advocate for civil rights, isn’t going to start holding her tongue now.

    In an appearance on John Mulaney’s new Netflix talk show, the singer-songwriter took aim at the “incompetent billionaires” whom she accused of taking over the U.S. government.

    “You said I could say anything I want out here,” Baez, 84, told Mulaney during the Wednesday night premiere of “Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney.” “We’re all here to be silly and have fun, and as long as we recognize the fact that our democracy is going up in flames … we’re being run by a bunch of really incompetent billionaires.”

    John Mulaney opens up about life with infant son Malcolm during Hollywood Bowl show

    While Baez did not name drop, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has taken an outsized role in President Donald Trump’s administration. Musk, who was not elected to public office, has been designated a special employee by Trump and has begun to slash large swaths of the federal government through his Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE. Multiple tech billionaires, including Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon head Jeff Bezos, were present at Trump’s inauguration, and Trump himself has been reported to have a net worth of $4.6 billion, according to Forbes.

    Baez, whose anthems helped to score the 1960s civil rights movement, has long combined her music career with activism. From the Vietnam and Iraq Wars to the struggle for LGBTQ rights, the songstress has signed her name to several anti-violent causes.

    Her role in the success of Bob Dylan, another folk hero, was recently dramatized in the Oscar-nominated biopic “A Complete Unknown.” Baez’s character was played by Monica Barbaro.

    “At first, he was that protest voice also, and then he didn’t want to do that anymore,” Barbaro told USA TODAY of Baez’s insights on Dylan. “She was also in love with his potential.”

    Baez’s seeming distaste for Musk resurfaced later in the show when she shared an anecdote about crashing a Tesla car shortly after purchasing it.

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    Tesla, one of Musk’s many business ventures, has taken a hit in sales in recent months, as his ties to Trump scare off some buyers. As a remedy, the president hosted a quasi-car show in front of the White House this week and agreed to buy one of the models.

    “I hated that thing,” Baez said of the Tesla her assistant had encouraged her to buy. “But I thought I was supposed to like it. So I drove off in it. Within 45 minutes I had smashed it into an oak tree on my property. … I was thinking, ‘That’s a sign.’”

    Mulaney’s show, a new venture for Netflix, sees the wildly popular comedian host other comics and actors for live interviews every Wednesday.

    Baez was joined by Michael Keaton and Fred Armisen as the inaugural guests.