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The Recording Academy announced five new Grammy Awards categories that will be introduced in 2023. Among them are Songwriter of the Year, Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media, Best Spoken Word Album, Best Alternative Music Performance and Best Americana Performance. In addition, the Recording Academy will present a Special Merit Award for Best Song for Social Change, which will be determined by a Blue Ribbon Committee and celebrate music that addresses timely social issues.

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said in a statement: “We’re so excited to honor these diverse communities of music creators through the newly established awards and amendments, and to continue cultivating an environment that inspires change, progress and collaboration. The Academy’s top priority is to effectively represent the music people that we serve, and each year, that entails listening to our members and ensuring our rules and guidelines reflect our ever-evolving industry.”

There will be a total of 91 trophies at next year’s Grammy Awards ceremony including the new categories. The Songwriter of the Year award will honor musicians who have written a minimum of five songs in which they are credited only as a songwriter or co-writer, and not as the artist or producer.

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Ted Lasso star and writer Brett Goldstein confirmed that Season 3 will mark the end of the hit Apple TV+ series.  Goldstein told told U.K.’s The Sunday Times when asked if the show would conclude in the third season:  “We are writing it like that. It was planned as three. Spoiler alert: everyone dies.”

Goldstein’s comments are consistent with what co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis said back in 2021, when he envisioned the series ending after three seasons. Sudeikis told Entertainment Weekly: “The story that I know is the one that I wanted to tell, and so that’s the one we’re telling with the help of numerous people in front of and behind the camera. So it’s by no means me typing every key stroke and saying every word. It’s nowhere near like that. But the story that’s being told — that three-season arc — is one that I see, know, and understood. I’m glad that they are willing to pay for those three seasons. As far as what happens after that, who knows? I don’t know.”

Ted Lasso, developed by Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly, is based on a character Sudeikis originally portrayed in a series of promos for NBC Sports’ coverage of the English Premier League. The series follows Ted Lasso, an American college football coach who is hired to coach an English soccer team in the EPL. The show premiered in August 2020 and quickly turned into a smash hit.

The third season of Ted Lasso is currently in production in the U.K. and is set to premiere later this year.

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Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle have announced a joint stand-up comedy show in London, set to take place Sept. 3 at the O2 Arena. The controversial comedians have set an age limit at their event, only welcoming guests 18 years and older. Tickets will go on sale for the general public on June 10.

Rock, 57, recently joined Chappelle onstage at West Hollywood’s “The Comedy Store,” where both poked fun at their attacks. Chappelle, 48, was attacked onstage in May while performing at the “Netflix is a Joke” show in Los Angeles. Accused attacker Isaiah Lee, 23, said he was “triggered” by the comedian’s jokes about the LGBTQ community and homelessness, and claims he was inspired to attack the comedian after seeing Will Smith slap Rock at the Academy Awards.

Smith infamously slapped Rock onstage during the televised awards show after Rock cracked a bald joke about the actor’s wife, Jada-Pinkett Smith, who’s openly discussed her struggles with alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes hair to fall out.

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Uvalde, Texas native Matthew McConaughey visited the White House on Tuesday, and emotionally urged leaders to make the loss of 19 children and two teachers in last month’s mass school shooting “matter” by enacting stricter gun laws.

McConaughey said during the White House briefing:  “So I am here today in the hopes of applying what energy, reason and passion that I have and to try and turn this moment into a reality because this moment is different. We start by making the loss of these lives matter.  We start by making laws that save lives and don’t infringe on our Second Amendment rights. We start right now by voting to pass policies that can keep us from having so many Columbine, Sandy Hooks, Parklands, Las Vegas and Uvaldes.”

McConaughey called for gun responsibility, not gun control, saying: “We need background checks. We need to raise the minimum age to purchase an AR-15 rifle to 21. We need a waiting period for those rifles. We need red flag laws and consequences for those who abuse them.”

McConaughey visited his hometown after the shooting, and as he spoke he showed photos of the children killed and described how their families pleaded with him to make sure their loss mattered.  The actor said: “We need to invest in mental health care. We need safer schools. We need to restrain sensationalized media coverage. We need to restore our family values. We need to restore American values.”

McConaughey challenged leaders in Washington, D.C. to finally enact gun laws that save lives: “Can both sides see beyond the political problem at hand and admit that we have a life preservation problem on our hands This should not be a partisan issue. As divided as our country is, this gun responsibility issue is one that we agree on more than we don’t Find the middle ground, a place where most of us Americans live anyway, especially on this issue, because I promise you, America, you and me, we are not as divided as we are being told we are.”

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Lionsgate Films has released a 90-second teaser for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.  The preview shows a snowy landscape where frozen, golden birds and snakes appear to be defrosting, and the words “In 2023, the world will discover who is a songbird and who is a snake,” appear on the screen before a snake strikes at the camera.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes stars Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler, and is based on Suzanne Collin’s best-selling young adult novel. A film synopsis reads: “Years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) is the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the girl tribute from impoverished District 12. But, after Lucy Gray commands all of Panem’s attention by defiantly singing during the reaping ceremony, Snow thinks he might be able to turn the odds in their favor.”

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set for release Nov. 17, 2023.

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Comedian Sarah Silverman has signed on to co-star in the Netflix film Maestro, joining previously announced cast members Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Matt Bomer and Maya Hawke.  Cooper co-wrote the script for Maestro with Josh Singer, and is also on board to direct — marking his second time in the director’s chair following A Star is Born.

A film synopsis reads: “Maestro tells the complex love story of Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein, a story that spans over 30 years — from the time they met in 1946 at a party and continuing through two engagements, a 25-year marriage, and three children: Jamie Bernstein, Alexander Bernstein and Nina Bernstein Simmons.”  Cooper is working closely with the Bernstein family and estate on the project.

As of press time, no release date has been announced.

Sarah Silverman Joins Bradley Cooper’s ‘Maestro’ At Netflix

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