Is Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ an Unstoppable Frontrunner for the Album of the Year Grammy?

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift usually writes either an essay or poem to be included in her album packaging, but for “The Tortured Poets Department,” she used the buddy system. Stevie Nicks contributed a handwritten poem she wrote for Swift, which is the first thing fans will see when they open the LP gatefolds or CD booklets Friday morning. That doesn’t mean Swift skipped out on her usual duties, as the album packaging also includes a long handwritten poem she penned herself, placed after the lyrics in the booklets as a sort of epilogue.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Would you be surprised to know (or be reminded) that Taylor Swift hasn’t really released a breakup album in a decade? For a gal who’s never really shorn that as her songwriting reputation, it’s funny to think that she’s spent the better part of the last 10 years being off-brand, in a manner of thinking, with most of her new material. Granted, it became hard to think of her as anything but the queen of bust-ups when “All Too Well” got transformed from a 2012 also-ran album track into the Song of the 2020s.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Returning for its 15th annual edition this weekend, the TCM Classic Film Festival will turn Hollywood Blvd. into the center of the movie universe again for four days, for that very obsessive and loving subset of film fans that has the network’s vintage fare as part of their weekly and daily lives. And just what time span “classics” falls into is exemplified by the big opening and closing night films.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Barbra Streisand has recorded a new song, “Love Will Survive,” to serve as the end-title theme for “The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” a six-part, Holocaust-themedseries that premieres on Peacock in the U.S. and Sky in other territories on May 2. The song will come out globally via her longtime label, Columbia Records, on April 25.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Library of Congress has released its annual list of 25 audio recordings earmarked for celebration and preservation as part of the National Recording Registry, and the musical artists selected for inclusion run the historical gamut from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” to “Ready to Die.” Benny Goodman, Gene Autry and Perry Como are among the mid-20th-century icons making the list, which extends to ’70s and ’80s releases by ABBA, the Cars, Doug E. Fresh and Blondie, and is rounded out on the latter end by such artists as Green Day, the Chicks and the Notorious B.I.G.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Lana Del Rey had a couple of heavily favored cameos during her Coachella performance, welcoming recent collaborators Jack Antonoff and Jon Batiste, both of whom will be fronting their own sets later in the weekend — but also one far less easily guessed guest, in the form of Billie Eilish, who turned up for a surprise pair of duets. Taking to a terrace overlooking the massive stage, the duo first joined forces on Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes,” then turned their voices to “Video Games.” Both songs represent the first real breakout hits in these artists’ respective careers.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic She is still Shelby Lynne. That may sound like it’s saying it’s a little, but it’s really saying a lot, for anyone who holds a special place for the landmark album “I Am Shelby Lynne,” a turn-of-the-millennium masterpiece that put its bearer on the artistic map for good.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Paul McCartney was the obvious headliner of the bill Thursday at the Hollywood Bowl. But it was Buffett-mania that was in full sway, as a cast of dozens of singers and celebrity presenters — from Jane Fonda to Snoop Dogg — saluted or parroted a fallen musical hero for the three-and-a-half-hour “Keep The Party Going: A Tribute to Jimmy Buffett.” Most of the night’s entertainers covered Buffett classics or obscurities, although McCartney, the Eagles and Snoop Dogg broke with that to regale the full Bowl house with their own material, while Zac Brown and (sending in a video contribution) Dave Matthews debuted brand new songs saluting Buffett.

It has only been one month since the 96th Academy Awards ended, but this week it looks like the race for the 97th has (un)officially begun.

Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar will be re-released in cinemas later this year in honour of the film’s 10th anniversary.The film, starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Matt Damon is set in a dystopian future and sees a group of astronauts travelling into outer space to find a new planet for humans to colonise.Paramount Pictures announced the re-release during its presentation to cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas this week.Interstellar will arrive in cinemas on September 27 and will be shown in 70mm IMAX prints, as well as on digital screens.Nolan filmed Interstellar with a combination of 35mm anamorphic film and 65mm IMAX. At the time of release, he encouraged cinema goers to see the movie in 70mm IMAX – something that led to weeks of sold-out showings.Warner Bros., who co-produced the movie, will work with Paramount on the revival screenings (as per Variety).Meanwhile, Nolan’s Oppenheimer continues to break records around the world, and this week became Nolan’s biggest Box Office hit overseas.The biopic profiles Robert J.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” will be re-released in theaters in honor of the sci-fi epic’s 10th anniversary. The film, which earned an impressive $731 million globally when it debuted in 2014, stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Matt Damon and is set in a dystopian future in which a group of astronauts must travel to the far reaches of space to find a new planet for humankind to colonize. Paramount Pictures announced the re-release during its presentation to theater owners and executives at CinemaCon, the exhibition industry conference taking place this week in Las Vegas.

Has it been ten years? Yes, it’s been ten and thus, Paramount will re-release Christopher Nolan‘s 2014 fall tentpole, Interstellar. The Warner Bros. co-production will hit theaters this fall. The movie grossed $188M stateside, north of $733M worldwide. Prints for Interstellar will include 70M and Imax.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Prime Video’s “Fallout,” inspired by the video game series, is launching an awards campaign ahead of this year’s Emmys, with the streamer eyeing nominations for outstanding drama series among others. Variety has exclusively learned the Emmy campaign strategies for its main actors: Walton Goggins, Ella Purnell and Aaron Moten. Goggins, portraying the mutated gunslinger Cooper Howard, aka The Ghoul, and Purnell, playing young Vault Dweller Lucy, are both in the running for lead acting categories.

Christopher Nolan wasn’t initially sold on the idea of directing The Dark Knight.

Jonathan Nolan (“Westworld”) is out in the world promoting his upcoming post-apocalyptic Amazon series “Fallout” and, of course, his time working on “The Dark Knight” trilogy with his brother Christopher Nolan is still a topic that journalists are insatiable curious about. While speaking with Josh Horowitz on his podcast, Happy Sad Confused, Nolan took a tour down memory lane, reflecting on all things Batman.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Helping cement his status as country music’s newest superstar, Jelly Roll swept all three categories in which he was nominated Sunday night at the CMT Music Awards, including music video of the year for his gospel-flavored “Need a Favor.” Likely having seen it coming, but also knowing Jelly Roll is a tough act to follow, the show’s producers saved his performance of his current country radio single “Halfway to Heaven” until the last five minutes of the telecast, coming right after his climactic win. Other winners in the all-fan-voted results included fellow frontrunner Lainey Wilson for female video of the year for “Watermelon Moonshine” and Dan + Shay for duo/group video for “Save Me the Trouble.” Warren Zeiders picked up breakthrough male video for “Pretty Little Poison,” while Ashley Cooke won equivalent honors for breakthrough female video for “Your Place.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The last time Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played Los Angeles, back in 2016, it was to formally close down the venerable Sports Arena — “The Dump That Jumps,” as he famously dubbed the about-to-be-demolished venue he’d played so often. His song “Wrecking Ball” had a special resonance, then, in association with that dive that it can’t now: Springsteen’s current home in L.A., the Kia (nee: Fabulous) Forum, which he goes back to the ‘70s with, does jump, but no one’s going to go all Bette Davis and utter “What a dump!” about it in its refurbished state.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor When Jason Reitman announced that he’d bought the Fox Village Theatre in Westwood, film fans were stunned that some of the world’s most prominent directors, from Steven Spielberg to Chloé Zhao to Christopher Nolan, wanted a stake in the classic movie palace. But it’s a strange time for the theatrical exhibition business. Moviegoing always sees an uptick when blockbusters come to town, but for independent theaters, the past four years have been dreadful.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken,” a docuseries focusing on bonds the singer forms with incarcerated women over addiction issues that have affected their lives, will hit Paramount+ later this year, the network announced Thursday. The two-part series will follow Etheridge as she writes a new song inspired by her communication with five women locked up at a prison in her Kansas hometown, the Topeka Correctional Facility.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Anyone who was hoping to pay to hear the “Vultures” album played back in an arena in the near future may be out of luck. The next round of “listening sessions” with Kanye West, aka Ye, and Ty Dolla Sign for the album project has been called off, as the arenas that were scheduled to host the next round of large-scale playbacks in April announced over the weekend that the dates were canceled or otherwise quietly pulled the plug.