Grand Ole Opry power struggle over use of “racist” Confederate flag takes new twist

An urgent search is underway for a kidnapped baby who was snatched from her cot while wrapped in a Minnie Mouse blanket.

EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, has acquired North American rights to the romantic comedy The Zombie Wedding. The film is based on the eponymous interactive play and is the first title to launch the Weekly World News IP-driven studio slate of movie projects. Freestyle Digital Media is planning a fall 2024 release date.

Cat Deeley was all smiles ahead of her major UK television return as the 47 year old was photographed at Fox Studios in New York, as she headed for a meeting. The TV presenter presumably visited the network's offices to talk about all things So You Think You Can Dance, the US reality show she has hosted since 2006.

They say that conflict is the essence of drama, and in this handsome but impossibly somber biopic there is almost nothing but conflict. Following up last year’s surprise hit Sound of Freedom, director Alejandro Monteverde neatly sidesteps a repeat of that film’s controversy with a story that cannot remotely be interpreted as a QAnon allegory. Based on the true story of Frances Xavier Cabrini — literally the first American saint — this takes a most un-MAGA viewpoint on immigration, painting an unvarnished portrait of racism in a country that is supposed to embrace the tired and the poor.

Viewers of Celebrity Big Brother have told the housemates to 'chill' as they expressed their confusion over their behaviour. The first nominations took place during the latest visit to the iconic house on Thursday night (March 7).

TikTok users have reported getting push notifications urging them to contact their members of Congress to protest newly proposed legislation that would require that parent Chinese-owned ByteDance divest the app.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief New Zealand’s funniest export Jackie Van Beek ( (“Nude Tuesday,” “What We Do in the Shadows”) returns to SXSW atop the cast of “Audrey,” an Australian dark comedy that is headed to SXSW. Van Beek, whose 2018 “The Breaker Upperers,” was a previous SXSW hit, portrays a forgotten former soap star whose career and life have been derailed by motherhood and suburban boredom.

Christopher Vourlias Grasshopper Film has acquired North American distribution rights to “Holding Back the Tide,” Emily Packer’s meditation on New York’s oysters and their transformations in the face of an uncertain future. The film, which world premiered at DOC NYC last fall, plays this week at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

EXCLUSIVE: Abramorama has acquired North American rights to Little Empty Boxes, a documentary marking the directorial debut of New York Times bestselling health journalist Max Lugavere. Following a week-long engagement at Look Cinema in NYC beginning April 19, the film unspools at Laemmle Santa Monica in Los Angeles beginning April 26, expanding to select theaters nationwide thereafter.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Will Shortz, the longtime crossword puzzle editor of the New York Times and NPR’s “puzzlemaster” for more than three decades, suffered a stroke last month and has spent the last several weeks rehabilitating. Shortz revealed the injury in a recorded message aired on on NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” on March 5. He has been absent from the show in recent weeks, and at the end today’s puzzle segment, “Weekend Edition Sunday” host Ayesha Rascoe shared an audio clip from Shortz to let fans know the situation.

It’s like a regular slalom out here! Meri Brown is dodging red flags!

Fred Again.. has joined forces with Lil Yachty and Overmono to share the new track ‘stayinit’.

Kate Winslet and the stars of HBO’s The Regime are celebrating the show’s premiere!

As U.S. policymakers try to bolster defense for Taiwan vis a vis mainland China, S. Leo Chiang, director of the Oscar-nominated documentary short Island in Between, talks of the “crazy gymnastics” that the country finds itself in between the two world superpowers.

Eric Ramsay is set to become the latest British coach to join Major League Soccer (MLS) as he takes on a new role at Minnesota United.

a summons against the music executive was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York County by attorneys for a woman identified as Jane Doe (per reports from Rolling Stone and Pitchfork). Now, the unnamed woman has dropped the case according to a document filed in New York court on Thursday, February 15.

By any indicator, filmmaker Sean Wang has had a career year–and we’re only in Month Two. His narrative feature debut, Dìdi, captured the Audience Award and a Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble in the US Dramatic Competition at the recently concluded Sundance Film Festival, and that same week, he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Short Subject for Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (Grandma & Grandma). What’s more, Focus Features acquired Dìdi for a mid-summer release, and Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó just premiered on Disney+ as part of the streamer’s “People & Places” series.

John Avlon, who recently departed CNN, has officially launched his bid for a New York congressional seat.

Filmmaker Sean Wang‘s endearing live-action short Năi Nai & Wài Pó might seem to be perhaps the lightest of all the Oscar nominees in the category, but he had more on his mind in chronicling the lives of his inseparable grandmothers, the 94-year-old Năi Nai (Yi Yan Fuei) and 83-year-old Wài Pó (Zhang Li Hua) as they go about their daily lives, even sleeping in the same bed in their Bay Area home.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Vampire Weekend has announced a 2024 tour in support of their forthcoming album “Only God Above Us,” in addition to releasing the album’s first two singles “Capricorn” and “Gen-X Cops.” After the album’s arrival on April 5, the North American jaunt will kick off on Apr. 8 in Austin, TX, and make stops in more than 35 cities such as Los Angeles, Berkeley, Seattle, Cincinnati, Toronto, Boston, New York and Atlanta.