Snoop Dogg to Auction Off His Own Memorabilia — Is This a Major New Revenue Opportunity for Artists? (EXCLUSIVE)

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music In one of several headline-grabbing moments from her epic set at New York’s Governors Ball festival on Sunday, fast-rising singer Chappell Roan revealed that she turned down an offer to perform at a White House Pride event. “In response to the White House, who asked me to perform for Pride,” Roan, dressed in a glammed-up Statue of Liberty costume that exposed her backside, said directly into a video camera broadcasting onto the festival’s giant screens.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Tom Verlaine — the guitar virtuoso, cofounder and “frontman” of the pioneering New York group Television, who died last year — might be the most low-key guitar hero in rock history. If he had only ever released “Marquee Moon,” Television’s galvanizing 1977 debut album, his place in history still would be assured: The album, which brought the sounds of late-period Velvet Underground and the early Rolling Stones into a musical era filled with bloated solos and every imaginable excess, is one of the great guitar albums of all time.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The Black Keys and managers Irving Azoff and Steve Moir have parted ways after the sudden and thoroughly publicized cancellation of the band’s North American arena tour previously scheduled for the fall. A rep for Azoff confirmed the split to Variety late Thursday, calling it an “amicable parting”; a rep for the group did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The news was first reported by the New York Times.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Charli XCX has been one of pop music’s leading innovators for more than a decade, and like so many innovators, she’s long since moved on by the time most of the world reaches the place she just was. She’d scored several major chart hits by her early twenties — her own “Boom Clap,” Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” — but (characteristically) got bored with it quickly and made a dramatically hard pivot by collaborating with hyper-pop patron saint Sophie on the brittle “Vroom Vroom” EP.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music For a variety of reasons, one of the biggest stories in entertainment this year has been the precarious state of Jennifer Lopez’s “This Is Me… Now” tour, which was finally put out of its misery yesterday. The tour, announced in February, came as part of “This Is Me… Now,” a massive, self-celebrating, and honestly rather hubristic album/ tour/ two-film project essentially about herself and her romantic reunion with actor Ben Affleck.

Keanu Reeves is a man of many talents. The movie star was recently photographed performing with his band in Madrid, where he showed off his skills on the bass. Keanu Reeves and his girlfriend Alexandra Grant dazzle at the LACMA GalaCameron Diaz might join Keanu Reeves in new comedyReeves was photographed in La Sala, a concert venue in Madrid.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Live Nation is a monopoly that likely will be broken up as a result of the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit filed last week, says Jay Marciano, CEO of AEG Presents, in an internal memo obtained by Variety. AEG Presents is the world’s second-largest live-entertainment company and Live Nation’s chief competitor. “AEG has long maintained that Ticketmaster has a monopoly in the U.S.

missing guitar featured in The Beatles’ 1965 film “Help!” sold at an auction at New York’s Hard Rock Cafe Wednesday for over $2.8 million.Julien’s Auctions confirmed in a statement that the Framus Hootenanny 12-string acoustic guitar became the fifth most-expensive guitar ever sold.The guitar was found in an attic after going missing 50 years ago.According to Julien’s Auctions, Lennon gave the guitar to fellow musician Gordon Waller in 1965. Lennon and Paul McCartney had been writing songs for Waller at the time.Waller later gave the guitar to his manager, who brought it home and put it in his attic.

John Lennon and George Harrison, which appeared in the movie Help!, has sold for a record-breaking amount at auction.The model in question is a 12-string Hootenanny acoustic guitar that was made in the early ’60s by Bavarian manufacturer Framus. It famously appeared in the Beatles movie Help!, with Lennon using it to play ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’.It also features on the studio version of the song, as well as on ‘Help!’s title track, ‘It’s Only Love’ and ‘I’ve Just Seen A Face’.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Amy Winslow, an artist manager, radio executive and 15-year veteran of the Manage This! firm who worked closely with Guided by Voices, Yoko Ono, Sean Ono Lennon, the Dirty Projectors, Laura Gibson, Surfer Blood, Kiwi Jr. and others, died on May 23 after a battle with breast cancer, the company confirms to Variety.

It’s been a minute since we heard from director Sam Mendes and his uber-ambitious “Beatles” film plans. Known for the Oscar-winning “American Beauty” and the Bond films, “Skyfall,” and “Spectre,” Mendes isn’t just taking the bold step of making a fictional film about the Beatles, he’s making four of them, one about each member: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Paul Mescal to play one of the Fab Four in his upcoming Beatles biopic.Mescal first gained attention for his award-winning role as Connell Waldron in the 2020 drama miniseries Normal People. He was also nominated for Best Actor at the 95th Academy Awards for his portrayal of Calum in 2022’s Aftersun.The actor is set to star as Lucius Verus in Ridley Scott’s upcoming Gladiator II. Verus is the nephew of the original film’s villain Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) but grows up idolising deceased gladiator Maximus (Russell Crowe).Now, The Hollywood Reporter has released a new feature highlighting 10 young movie stars who are taking Hollywood by storm.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “Emily in Paris” Season 5? Not so fast. During the amfAR Gala at the Cannes Film Festival, which raises money for research to end HIV and AIDS, Winnie Harlow and Paris Jackson appeared onstage to auction off a walk-on role in a previously unannounced fifth season of the Netflix series. The winner of the auction shelled out €250,000 to appear in the series as well as the chance to attend the Season 4 premiere in Los Angeles.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music As expected, the United States Department of Justice sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster for antitrust violations on Thursday, a move that could change the shape of the multibillion-company that is the world’s largest live entertainment organization and owns Ticketmaster, North America’s biggest ticket vendor. The antitrust lawsuit claims that the company has a monopoly on ticketing through its Ticketmaster division, and that it illegally uses monopoly power to dominate the ticketing business and quash competition.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment has unveiled the the full slate of free programming for its seventh annual New York Music Month, the city’s official celebration of its music community. MOME has collaborated with 25 partners to create a series of events in June, including concerts, performances, talks, and workshops to support and spotlight the industry.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Sony Music Group is sending out warnings to what sources say are around 700 AI developers and music streaming services, warning them not to use its content to train AI. These so-called “opt-out” letters, which have been obtained by Variety, state that developers will need explicit permission to use that content and warns that some may already be in violation.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Maybe it was the chilly temperatures, steady breeze and light spatterings of rain, which take a toll when a person is standing outdoors on an elevated platform — like the stage of a concert venue — for two hours. Or maybe it was just an off night.

Michael Bublé and Snoop Dogg have been announced as the latest artists to become mentors on The Voice US.The popular singing competition is set to return this autumn for its 26th season. Earlier this week, it was announced that Dogg and Bublé will join the returning coaches – country superstar Reba McEntire and pop-punk pioneer Gwen Stefani – during a presentation by US TV channel NBC at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.“Folks, we’ve got a rookie taking the chair.

shout — a lot.Ringo Starr, 83, admitted that The Beatles had their issues with one another in a new interview with Dan Rather, 92, for AXS.“No no, we didn’t get along,” the drummer said of the iconic English rock band on May 10. “We were four guys. We had rows.”But Starr said that the drama with the other Beatles — Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon — “never got in the way of the music no matter how bad the row was.”“Once the count in, we all gave our best,” Starr explained.

Ringo Starr has revealed that The Beatles wouldn’t have made as many records had it not been for “workaholic” Paul McCartney.The drummer of the legendary band sat down with journalist Dan Rather for a new interview on AXS TV. Starr opened up about how The Beatles didn’t get along and how without Macca, they wouldn’t have made nearly as many records as they did.“No no, we didn’t get along.