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  • 'Chicken jockey' movie trend causes chaosEntertainment

    'Chicken jockey' movie trend causes chaosEntertainment

    ‘Chicken jockey’ movie trend causes chaosEntertainment

  • Mariska Hargitay’s mom Jayne Mansfield is her newest case

    Mariska Hargitay’s mom Jayne Mansfield is her newest case

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    Mariska Hargitay has spent decades solving made-for-TV mysteries. Now, she’s turning to her own.

    The “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star will tackle the story of her late mother, actress Jayne Mansfield, in “My Mom Jayne,” a new documentary from HBO documentary.

    The project marks Hargitay’s directorial debut and a departure from her well-worn role in the entertainment industry as a familiar face and hallmark of network television. It also represents the first public exploration of Mansfield’s death by one of her children.

    “This movie is a labor of love and longing. It’s a search for the mother I never knew, an integration of a part of myself I’d never owned, and a reclaiming of my mother’s story and my own truth,” Hargitay said in a release Tuesday announcing the project. “I’ve always believed there is strength in vulnerability, and the process of making this film has confirmed that belief like never before.”

    Mansfield, an actress and beauty icon who reached her heyday in the 1950s and early ’60s, died at 34 in a 1967 car crash that later became the stuff of urban legend. A classic blonde bombshell, she was largely viewed as an alternative to Marilyn Monroe and wrapped the press corps around her pinky with eye-popping publicity stunts often involving a wardrobe malfunction.

    Hargitay is among Mansfield’s five children and one of three she shared with actor Mickey Hargitay. She married the former Mr. Universe winner in 1958 and starred alongside him in several films before their divorce in 1964.

    Mariska Hargitay, along with her two brothers, was in the car the night of Mansfield’s fatal crash, sleeping in the backseat. Her onscreen image as Olivia Benson, the no-nonsense detective grounding NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” for over two decades, could not be more different from her mother’s.

    Where Mansfield was bubbly and sex-forward, Hargitay is stoic and self-serious. The new documentary will aim to wed the two as the 61-year-old actress looks back on her mother’s life with a new appreciation.

    The documentary “follows Mariska as she seeks to know, understand, and embrace her mother for the first time,” the release reveals.

    “Through intimate interviews and a collection of never-before-seen photos and home movies, she grapples with her mother’s public and private legacy and discovers the layers and depth of who Jayne was, not only to her audience but to those who were closest to her,” it continues.

    How to watch Mariska Hargitay, Jayne Mansfield documentary

    The documentary will premiere in June on HBO and be available to stream after on Max. 

  • The 17-year-old YouTuber’s life post-scandal

    The 17-year-old YouTuber’s life post-scandal

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    Ring lights, camera, action! Netflix’s “Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing” (now streaming) delves into the seedier side of young YouTube personality Piper Rockelle’s rise to internet fame and more than 12 million YouTube followers.

    Rockelle, now 17, started in pageants as a toddler, Patience Rock Smith, younger sister of Piper’s mom, Tiffany Smith, says in the three-episode docuseries. Smith, a single mom, was the driving force behind Rockelle’s career. In footage of Lifetime’s reality series “Dance Twins” shown in “Bad Influence,” the momager can be seen pushing her young daughter to the top. “This is a really good time for you to get first place,” Smith said. “I would like that.”

    Producers also interviewed former members of Rockelle’s “Squad” — fellow kid influencers who collaborated on videos and skits and even feigned relationships — and their parents. “We were filming 10, 15 videos a day,” Sophie Fergi, 17, claims in “Bad Influence.” She said they’d begin filming at 11 a.m. and end at 1 or 2 a.m. “I would go to bed for, like, two to three hours, get up around 6, 7-ish and do school, close my tablet and then I would have to get ready to film,” she said. “We did not get a break at all.”

    Those who left the Squad allege they were blackballed from the group and suspect Smith was to blame when their online views and subscribers subsequently tanked. In 2022, 11 plaintiffs (ages 10 to 16) filed a civil lawsuit against Smith, Hill and Piper Rockelle Inc. describing horrifying conditions while participating in “hundreds of videos” for Rockelle’s channel from 2017-2020.

    They suffered “emotional, verbal, physical, and at times, sexual abuse” at the hands of Smith, according to the suit and claimed they were not compensated even though their appearances on Rockelle’s channel resulted in windfall income, “oftentimes upwards of several hundred thousand dollars per month.”

    Smith countersued for $30 million. In October, the parties settled the lawsuit for $1.85 million. According to filmmakers, Smith, Rockelle and Hill denied the allegations raised in the docuseries and lawsuit and refused interview requests.

    Rockelle shot down accusations against her mother in a statement emailed to USA TODAY Monday.

    “Honestly, I just want to move on from all of this because it’s really painful to deal with every day. And not surprisingly, my mental health has suffered more than anyone knows,” she said. She claimed the accusations are “mean, untrue, and honestly all about money. My mom did not do any of those things that they said. And I’ll stand by my mom to the end.”

    USA TODAY also reached out to a representative for Hill, but was unable to identify a rep for Smith. Here’s what the trio has been up to lately.

    Piper Rockelle now: ‘It takes a lot out of me’

    Piper Rockelle is still maintaining a livelihood from social media with 6.1 million followers on Instagram and 14.7 million on TikTok, where she films herself dancing and with her boyfriend, a fellow influencer who goes by the name Capri.

    Though YouTube demonetized her channel in 2022, shortly after the lawsuit was filed against Smith, Rockelle still adds videos for her 12.1 million subscribers. One uploaded in November gave viewers a behind the scenes look of her life as an influencer.

    “Obviously I film vlogs like this, but I don’t really get a lot out of it besides the satisfaction from knowing you guys enjoy watching them…” she said, explaining that she pays her bills with brand deals and TikToks.

    “I have no room to complain about my life because things could be a lot worse,” she said in the video. “But what I do have to say is it is hard work on my end. I’ve never had a normal job, but whatever I’m doing right now, it feels like a job. It takes a lot out of me.”

    Tiffany Smith and Hunter Hill now

    Compared to her daughter, Smith leads a much more private life.

    “I do not want to be in a TikTok,” Smith objected in the prank video for Hill’s YouTube channel. “I do not want people making little edits of me and making fun of me.”

    For the video, uploaded on December 16, 2022, Hill attempted to flirt with Smith to capture her discomfort on camera. “Flirting with Tiffany is going to be very awkward,” he said. Hill was positioned as Rockelle’s brother on social media, but Smith and Hill, now 28, were in a relationship.

    Hill last uploaded a YouTube video for his 656,000 subscribers in May 2024. He has 339,000 followers on Instagram.

  • ‘White Lotus’ star Walton Goggins reflects on wife’s death by suicide

    ‘White Lotus’ star Walton Goggins reflects on wife’s death by suicide

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    Walton Goggins’ stint in Thailand to film “White Lotus” brought up heartbreaking memories and a full circle moment.

    The actor, whose wife Leanne Knight died by suicide in 2004, told Vulture in an interview published this week that he visited Thailand 18 years prior “after a trauma in my life.”

    Goggins, who plays vengeance-seeking Rick Hatchett on the hit HBO series, said he took the trip “looking for peace, looking for some resolution that was not so dissimilar from what Rick was looking for.”

    “White Lotus,” which wrapped Season 3 Sunday, follows wayward Rick, as he looks to avenge his father’s death. The parallel to his own life wasn’t lost on Goggins.

    “I was a year into a relationship with my now-wife, and I was as lost as Rick is lost. I understood, intimately, Rick’s frame of mind. I read it on the page and I thought, ‘The universe brought this to me for a reason, because I understand him, and I love him, and I love people like him. I don’t think he’s alone in the world.’”

    He called the loss of his first wife a “complicated story” in a GQ story first published in February. “I thought it was really unrecoverable for me,” he told the outlet. “Life on the other side of that.”

    Goggins married the dog-walking business owner three years before her disappearance and death. Coping with her loss led Goggins to travel to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and India, but he said he would often put himself into troubling circumstances during this time.

    “I spent the next three years looking for an excuse – not to end it, but certainly putting myself in situations that were questionable, not with drugs or anything like that, just life experiences and traveling,” he continued. “I really went all over the world.”

    The actor said during filming for the series, he started to recognize many of the Thai locations as places he’d traveled to 20 years earlier.

    “I realized, ‘I’ve definitely been on this beach before. I know this boardwalk.’ And all of the things kept coming back,” he told the magazine.

    Then, on the last night of shooting in Bangkok, the crew pulled up to a dock and hotel that Goggins had stayed in two decades before.

    “That’s where I was the very first day I came here, 20 years ago, and in so much … pain, man,” he said. “That’s where we were filming, man – all of the equipment was literally right in front of the hotel that I’d picked 20 years ago on the internet, on this little bitty road in this little bitty neighborhood.”

    The “Fallout” star remarried in 2011, to writer and filmmaker Nadia Conners. The pair share a son, Augustus.

    He added that he was still processing the gravity of the moment. “I haven’t had the time to fully unpack the symmetry between those two people showing up at the same place, separated by 20 years,” he said. “And a wife and a kid and peace and all the rest of it.”

    Goggins continued: “I thought, God, I wish I could hug that guy. I wish I could whisper in his ear, ‘You’re going to be OK. Life continues, and it continues for everybody if you can just hold on and lean into it and keep walking the walk that you’re walking, and keep looking for the answers.’”

    If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call 988 any time day or night, or chat online. Crisis Text Line also provides free, 24/7, confidential support via text message to people in crisis when they dial 741741.

  • Music of the 1960sEntertainment

    Music of the 1960sEntertainment

  • 'Warfare': Alex Garland re-creates Iraqi town for battle scenesMovies

    'Warfare': Alex Garland re-creates Iraqi town for battle scenesMovies

    ‘Warfare’: Alex Garland re-creates Iraqi town for battle scenesMovies

  • Carrie Underwood admits it's 'difficult' to be open about her faithEntertainment

    Carrie Underwood admits it’s ‘difficult’ to be open about her faithEntertainment

  • Release date, episode count, cast and more

    Release date, episode count, cast and more

    “Severance” Season 2 may have concluded but fans of science fiction television still have something to look forward to from the genre.

    Netflix’s mind-bending “Black Mirror” returns this week with its seventh season, delivering more twisted and intricate storylines. The new season will include a sequel episode to the Season 4 premiere titled “USS Callister,” with actors Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson and Billy Magnussen reprising their 2017 roles.

    The new season will also see many A-list stars making their “Black Mirror” debut including Peter Capaldi, Will Poulter, Paul Giamatti, Issa Rae and Awkwafina.

    In an interview The Hollywood Reporter published Monday, series creator Charlie Brooker said has no plans to stop after Season 7, adding that he is consistently excited by the show’s unique format.

    “We’ve done a sequel for the first time this season. We’re now looking at old episodes and thinking, ‘How could you revisit that idea?’” he told the outlet. “As long as it’s interesting, I’m allowed to make it and people continue to [expletive] watch, I’d like to keep making the show.”

    Here’s what to know about Season 7.

    When does ‘Black Mirror’ season 7 come out?

    Black Mirror” Season 7 will drop on Thursday, April 10 only on Netflix.

    ‘Black Mirror’ Season 7 episodes

    Black Mirror’ Season 7 will consist of six episodes, all dropping on Netflix on Thursday, April 10.

    ‘Black Mirror’ Season 7 cast

    The Season 7 cast of “Black Mirror” includes the following:

    • Peter Capaldi
    • Paul Giamatti
    • Jimmi Simpson
    • Michele Austin
    • Harriet Walter
    • Rashida Jones
    • Tracee Ellis Ross
    • Will Poulter
    • Chris O’Dowd
    • Billy Magnussen
    • Cristin Milioti
    • Osy Ikhile
    • Asim Chaudhry
    • Issa Rae
    • Awkwafina
    • Siena Kelly
    • Patsy Ferran
    • Emma Corrin
    • Ben Bailey Smith
    • Paul G Raymond
    • Rosy McEwen
    • Lewis Gribben
    • Milanka Brooks
    • Michael Workeye
    • Amber Grappy
    • James Nelson Joyce
    • Josh Finan
    • Jay Simpson

    Watch the ‘Black Mirror’ Season 7 trailer

    How to watch ‘Black Mirror’

    All seasons of sci-fi thriller “Black Mirror” are available to stream on Netflix.

    What has creator Charlie Brooker said about Season 7?

    Brooker teased that the new season will feel nostalgic to longtime viewers by offering a taste of “OG Black Mirror,” according to Netflix.

    “They’re all sci-fi stories, but there’s definitely some horrifying things that occur, but maybe not in an overt horror movie way,” Brooker told Netflix. “There’s definitely some disturbing content in it.”

  • All the songs we hope she sings

    All the songs we hope she sings

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    Lady Gaga vowed “a massive night of chaos” for her Coachella headliner performance, an apt complement to her newest album christened “Mayhem.”

    Her festival shows on April 11 and April 18 will give fans the first glimpses of what grandiose staging she might be preparing for the 45-date tour to support “Mayhem,” which kicks off July 16 in Las Vegas.

    This will be Gaga’s second time playing the iconic desert gathering in Indio, California (officially called Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival). In 2017 she stepped in at the 11th hour to replace a pregnant Beyoncé a few months after the release of her “Joanne” album.

    But while festival performances are often a mere appetizer to a full production, we have some thoughts about which songs – and other musical callbacks – we’d relish hearing when this current Goth-i-cized iteration of Gaga hits the stage.

    With her chameleonic range and style, Gaga could easily shift her artsy approaches to reinvention from the slicked-blond hair iciness from her Chromatica Ball tour to the retro-Western air affiliated with “Die with a Smile” to the inky-black bangs and avant garde steam-punk-meets-grunge palette hooked to “Mayhem.”

    Let’s hope we see all of the facets.

    As for the songs, it’s inevitable that the staples that have defined her career – “Just Dance,” “Bad Romance,” “Born This Way,” “Poker Face” and “The Edge of Glory” – will be represented. But here are other Lady Gaga songs we’re wishing are on her Coachella setlist:

    ‘Abracadabra’ and ‘Killah’

    Her thoroughly Gaga March performances on “Saturday Night Live” were captivating in their weirdness and artistic audacity – especially commandeering most of Studio 8A to unwrap “Killah.”

    As presented in video and on (small) stage, the “Thriller”-esque dance moves and alien eyebrows employed by Gaga and her dancers – looking like Dr. Frankenstein’s chic assistants – pair well with the soaring chorus of “Abracadabra” and disjointed funk of “Killah.”

    But given Gaga’s unrepentant idolization of David Bowie and Prince – and their undeniable influence on these two tracks – it would be cool to hear a little “Fashion” or “Kiss” inserted into the songs, even if just a bass line. We’re also hoping to still hear a reference to Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga,” the origin of her stage name, woven into an instrumental during the inevitable act changes in the show.

    And will the stage floor be on fire during “Abracadabra”? Yes, please.

    ‘Die With a Smile’ and ‘Shallow’

    Although both ballads paired her with a male accomplice – Bruno Mars and Bradley Cooper, respectively – we know there is nothing Gaga can’t accomplish with just her voice and a piano. She proved as much with her inclusion of “Shallow” in the Chromatica Ball setlists and during her sweetly effective performance at January’s FireAid benefit concert.

    Her Grammy-winning “Die” might be a more complicated endeavor solo, but if it provides a reason for her to don that Dolly Parton-styled updo, we’re sold.

    ‘Stupid Love’ and ‘Rain on Me’

    Bold hair, metallic fashion and lyrics you can scream-shout? These “Chromatica” songs were made for music festival glory. And as the closing songs on her Chromatica Ball tour – Gaga’s first all-stadium outing – they’re proven crowd pleasers. Of course we’d love it if Ariana Grande joined Gaga onstage for their best pop duo Grammy-winning “Rain on Me,” but all we ask is for Gaga to show us a real good time.

    ‘Steppin’ Out With My Baby’ and ‘La Vie En Rose’

    OK, we concede that throwing in some big band or classic French vocals would present a jarring tonal shift.

    But consider: Gaga’s dear friend and mentor, Tony Bennett, has died since her last tour and she continues to tout his influence. She also nodded to her jazz-swing period nurtured by Bennett with last fall’s “Harlequin” album, which, unfortunately, was too tied to her “Joker: Folie à Deux” film flop to receive its due.

    And if you caught her Jazz & Piano residency in Las Vegas, you are well aware that she can shake a fringed skirt through Irving Berlin’s “Steppin’ Out With My Baby’ – popularized by Bennett – as effortlessly as she can slip into the velvety belting required for “La Vie En Rose,” as she showcased in “A Star in Born” as well as in her Vegas shows.

    ‘Telephone featuring Beyoncé’

    Look, we know the likelihood of Beyoncé showing up at Gaga’s Coachella set to sing a 15-year-old song is about as high as a teenager knowing how to use a rotary phone. But we can dream, and seeing two inimitable musicians reprise their gloriously unhinged 2009 music video for “Telephone” in any capacity is it.

  • National Recording Registry 2025 includes Elton John, Minecraft

    National Recording Registry 2025 includes Elton John, Minecraft

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    From Celine Dion’s “Titanic” ballad soaked in sentimentality to “Hamilton”’s revolutionary marriage of rap with Broadway bravado, the 25 songs, albums and sounds chosen for 2025’s induction into the National Recording Registry cover a cultural expanse.

    This year’s class also includes Elton John’s seventh album that launched him to superstardom (“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”); Chicago’s groundbreaking jazz-infused rock debut “Chicago Transit Authority”; and Mary J. Blige’s 1994 soul-funk standout “My Life.”

    Calling the new entries “the sounds of America,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden praised the National Recording Registry as “our evolving nation’s playlist.”

    These songs span from 1913’s “Aloha ‘Oe” by the Hawaiian Quintette to 2015, when Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of “Hamilton” unleashed the groundbreaking soundtrack to the theatrical juggernaut, making it the newest recording to join the registry.

    In addition to other contemporary music selections from Amy Winehouse (“Back to Black”), Steve Miller Band (“Fly Like an Eagle”) and Tracy Chapman (her self-titled debut), the offerings also include jazz (Miles Davis’ “Bitches Brew”), country (Roy Rogers and Dale Evans’ “Happy Trails”) and ranchera (Vicente Fernandez’s “El Rey”).

    A couple of non-songs also made the cut: Microsoft’s reboot chime and the soundtrack to “Minecraft,” making it only the second video game soundtrack to join the registry after Super Mario Brothers in 2023.

    John, who in 2024 was honored with the Library’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song with songwriting partner Bernie Taupin, told the Library of 1973’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”: “Nobody really knows what a hit record is. I’m not a formula writer. I didn’t think ‘Bennie and the Jets’ was a hit. I didn’t think ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’ was a hit. And that’s what makes writing so special. You do not know what you’re coming up with and how special it might become.”

    How are songs chosen for the National Recording Registry?

    The Librarian of Congress heeds advice from the National Recording Preservation Board to select the 25 sound recordings that are at least 10 years old and deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”

    But that list is whittled from the 2,600 nominations made by the public this year for recordings to be considered.

    “Chicago Transit Authority” finished first in the public nominations, with “Happy Trails,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “My Life” also landing in the Top 10.

    With these new inclusions, the number of titles on the registry is 675, still a small portion of the national library’s recorded sound collection of nearly 4 million items.

    The public can submit nominations for next year on the Library’s website through Oct. 1.  

    2025 National Recording Registry full list

    Recordings are listed in chronological order:

    • “Aloha ‘Oe” – Hawaiian Quintette (1913) (single)
    • “Sweet Georgia Brown” – Brother Bones & His Shadows (1949) (single)
    • “Happy Trails” – Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (1952) (single)
    • Radio Broadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series – Chuck Thompson (1960)
    • Harry Urata Field Recordings (1960-1980)
    • “Hello Dummy!” – Don Rickles (1968) (album)
    • “Chicago Transit Authority” – Chicago (1969) (album)
    • “Bitches Brew” – Miles Davis (1970) (album)
    • “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’” – Charley Pride (1971) (single)
    • “I Am Woman” – Helen Reddy (1972) (single)
    • “El Rey” – Vicente Fernandez (1973) (single)
    • “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” – Elton John (1973) (album)
    • “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” – Freddy Fender (1975) (single)
    • “I’ve Got the Music in Me” – Thelma Houston & Pressure Cooker (1975) (album)
    • “The Kӧln Concert” – Keith Jarrett (1975) (album)
    • “Fly Like an Eagle” – Steve Miller Band (1976) (album)
    • Nimrod Workman Collection (1973-1994)
    • “Tracy Chapman” – Tracy Chapman (1988) (album)
    • “My Life” – Mary J. Blige (1994) (album)
    • Microsoft Windows Reboot Chime – Brian Eno (1995)
    • “My Heart Will Go On” – Celine Dion (1997) (single)
    • “Our American Journey” – Chanticleer (2002) (album)
    • “Back to Black” – Amy Winehouse (2006) (album)
    • “Minecraft: Volume Alpha” – Daniel Rosenfeld (2011) (album)
    • “Hamilton” – Original Broadway Cast Album (2015) (album)