SM Entertainment CEO alleges Lee Soo-man delayed release of new aespa music with insistence on lyrics about sustainability

Peter Caranicas Deputy Editor Things are moving fast at Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard. The bicoastal law firm has announced a new co-head of its entertainment practice, new co-heads in the Los Angeles office, a partner promotion, and further development of its art law group.   Caitlin S. DiMotta (above right) has joined Frederick P. Bimbler (above left) in heading up the firm’s entertainment practice. Based in Los Angeles, DiMotta joined the firm in 2021 and works with clients in all areas of development and publishing in the television, literary, comic book/graphic novel, and motion picture industries.   With almost 30 years’ experience in entertainment law, Bimbler has long advised clients in the areas of motion picture, television, theater, and performance art. His portfolio includes clients on both coasts, and he will co-head management of the firm’s Los Angeles office with partner Sarah Conley Odenkirk.  

Lala Kent had her suspicions about Raquel Leviss all along. On Wednesday's all-new episode of which comes on the tail of Leviss' alleged affair with Tom Sandoval --- Kent voiced her concerns over Leviss «stealing men» during a girls trip to Las Vegas.The girls arrive at Burbank airport for their flight to Vegas, ready to get the party started.

U2‘s The Edge has said that he and Bono are “anxious” to release a new guitar-driven album – and has confirmed that the band will play ‘Achtung Baby’ in full at their Las Vegas residency.The band’s guitarist said in a new interview that they have “an embarrassment of riches of new material” in addition to the reimagined originals appearing on their forthcoming album ‘Songs Of Surrender‘ (out March 17).The Edge told Rolling Stone that fans can expect new songs, which Bono recently said will make up “a noisy, uncompromising, unreasonable guitar album”, in the near future.“As soon as possible,” The Edge told the publication of the album’s expected release window. “But, of course, that’s just who I am.

Florida Man,” which premieres April 13. With creator, showrunner and executive producer Donald Todd (“This is Us”), the show depicts an ex-cop (Edgar Ramírez) who has to come home to Florida and find a runaway girlfriend. The quick gig turns into a long journey that uncovers family secrets. In addition to Ramírez, the show stars Anthony LaPaglia, Abbey Lee, Otmara Marrero, Lex Scott Davis, Emory Cohen, Clark Gregg, Isaiah Johnson, Paul Schneider and Lauren Buglioli. Jason Bateman and Michael Costigan executive produced the series for Aggregate.

Fred Again.. has released a new track featuring a verse from The Streets‘ Mike Skinner and original vocals from singer Dermot Kennedy. Listen to ‘Mike (Desert Island Duvet)’ below.The new release is a club-reworking of ‘Berwyn (All That I Got Is You)’ from Fred Again..’s album ‘Actual Life 3’, updated with Skinner and Kennedy’s contributions.

Denise Richards' daughter Sami Sheen has shared another glamorous photo which highlights her amazing likeness to her mother.The elder daughter of the Wild Things and Real Housewives star and her ex-husband Charlie Sheen posted the photo to her Instagram on Thursday evening. See Denise's own amazing style in the video below.WATCH: Denise Richards' video which Sami called 'so pretty'In her selfie, Sami was wearing a tight-fitting matching sports bra and shorts, and looked ready to tackle a workout of some kind.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A court in Seoul on Friday blocked a proposed move to issue new shares in K-pop talent agency SM Entertainment to Korean tech giant Kakao Corp. and its Kakao Entertainment subsidiary. An injunction was sought by Lee Soo-man, one of the pioneers of the Korean contemporary music industry, but who is recently at the center of a storm of controversy. Lee, who has fallen out with his company’s current management team, announced at the beginning of February his plans to sell a 14.8% stake in SM to HYBE Corp., the firm behind hit group BTS and a rival to SM. It then emerged that SM’s management was proposing to issue new shares to the Kakao pair, giving them a 9.05% holding, and sign an exclusive distribution contract. The share stake would make Kakao the second biggest shareholder in the firm after HYBE and dilute its influence.

Julia MacCary editor Ed Sheeran announced his fifth studio album, “-,” will drop May 5, detailing his personal journey through “fear, depression and anxiety.” Pronounced “subtract,” the acoustic album will conclude his mathematical album era, which began over a decade ago with “+.” The album was produced and written with Aaron Dessner of the National and follows his latest release “F64,” which dropped Jan. 19 and memorialized his friend and SBTV founder Jamal Edwards, who died last year at 31. “I had been working on ‘Subtract’ for a decade, trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album, writing and recording hundreds of songs with a clear vision of what I thought it should be,” Sheeran said in a statement. “Then at the start of 2022, a series of events changed my life, my mental health.”

Derby but left at the age of 21 to pursue a career overseas, passed away aged 83 on January 25, and has donated his body to science. John has been described by those closest to him as an "amazing man" who loved Derby County and "had the habit of keeping up with his friends forever. " His niece, Elaine Dunnicliff, 67 from Melbourne, said: "He was an amazing man.

Thania Garcia J-hope of BTS has become the second member of the K-pop group to begin his mandatory military service in South Korea. The 29-year-old singer had previously applied for an enlistment postponement but a new statement from Big Hit Music (the band’s label) explains that he has since pulled that request and will enlist in the military. “We would like to inform our fans that j-hope has initiated the military enlistment process by applying for the termination of his enlistment postponement,” said the note posted to Weverse, Hybe’s global fan community platform.

BTS‘ J-hope is set to release a new solo single, with ‘on the street’ coming later this week.The news was confirmed by Big Hit in a note published to fans on Weverse. The post also revealed that the single is set to drop on Friday (March 3) at 2pm Korean time.“J-hope wrote the track wrote the track to share his candid feelings towards his fans,” the post read.

Bring Me The Horizon‘s Matt Nicholls has said the band are set to release new music “pretty soon.”The drummer confirmed in a new interview, that BMTH wrote and recorded “a bunch of stuff” during their tour of the US at the end of 2022, and “hopefully” a new single will be arriving in the near future.The band have been working on new music in a studio built into the back of their tour bus with producer Zakk Cervini (who also produced their last release, 2020’s ‘Post Human: Survival Horror’).“New songs coming? Yeah,” the drummer told Impericon. “We’re actually working on them at the minute. We’ve got a studio on our bus.

Brad Paisley is marking one year since Russia invaded Ukraine.

(G)I-DLE‘s Minnie and Anne-Marie have joined forces on a new single titled ‘Expectations’, due out for release next month.The announcement was made earlier today (February 23) via both (G)I-DLE’s and Anne-Marie’s official Twitter pages, where a title and release date were revealed alongside what appears to be track art for the new song. ‘Expectations’ is set to be released on March 9 at 6pm KST / 9am GMT.It comes after reports from South Korean media last week (February 15) claiming that the two singers had recently wrapped up work on an upcoming collaborative single, which included the filming of its accompanying video treatment.

Despite battling a medical condition, Alan Jackson vows to make more music for his fans.  The 64-year-old country music star revealed his creative gears are always turning as he brainstorms new tracks. "I’m always scribbling down ideas and thinking about melodies… I feel like there’ll be some more music to come, yes," Jackson said during his daughter Mattie Jackson’s "In Joy Life" podcast.

HYBE Labels CEO Park Ji-won has issued a new open letter addressing the K-pop company’s recent acquisition of the majority stake in competing label SM Entertainment.The statement was published in Korean, English and Japanese earlier today (February 22) via HYBE’s official Twitter. It announced the completion of HYBE’s acquisition of a 14.8 per cent stake in SM, a deal which the company struck with SM founder and former chief producer Lee Soo-man earlier this month.This officially makes HYBE, home to the likes of BTS, SEVENTEEN, NewJeans and more K-pop acts, the single largest shareholder in SM.

Yard Act and Confidence Man are among 50 new names added to this year’s Latitude Festival – see the full line-up below.The festival will return to Suffolk’s Henham Park from July 20-23 and be headlined by Pulp, Paolo Nutini and George Ezra, with a special performance from Siouxsie Sioux also set to feature.Others in the latest announcement include James, who will perform with an orchestra and choir, alongside Dry Cleaning, Men I Trust, Wunderhorse, The Murder Capital, Do Nothing, Bob Vylan and more.The festival’s comedy line-up has also been revealed, with Sara Pascoe, Romesh Ranganathan, Ed Gamble and more all playing.See the full and updated Latitude line-up below.

Black Country, New Road have released a new live film featuring eight brand new songs.“We didn’t want to do a studio album”, says pianist May Kershaw. “We wrote the new tracks specifically to perform live, so we thought it might be a nice idea to put out a performance”.Filmed over three nights at Bush Hall in London in December, the band decided against the convention of cutting together multiple performances to look like one and instead gave each show a distinct visual style, which they cut between throughout the film.“We had concerns from live sessions we’ve seen or done in the past”, says guitarist Luke Mark. “They are very obviously clumped together visually from multiple performances.

K-pop agency SM Entertainment has previewed its upcoming music release plans for the first half of 2023.On February 20, SM uploaded a report of its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2022 to its official website for investors. In the new report, SM also shared the line-up of comebacks it has scheduled for the first half of 2023.According to the report, April will see the release of Girls’ Generation leader and soloist Taeyeon’s fifth mini-album, the debut of a new NCT sub-unit with their first mini-album as well as girl group aespa’s first-ever full-length album.Meanwhile, veteran boyband SHINee are scheduled to make a comeback with their eighth studio album in May, marking their first group release since their seventh repackaged  album ‘Atlantis’ in April 2021.