Cher arrives at the premiere of "Chevalier" in Los Angeles on April 16, 2023. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, Filer)
By Mark Kennedy
Cher is obviously a superstar but even a superstar can be the opening act when it comes to Santa.
Organizers of this year's Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade have nabbed the Oscar-, Emmy- and Grammy Award-winner for their 97th annual event. Cher will make her appearance just before the parade's end, signaled by the arrival of Santa’s sleigh, parade organizers said.
This year’s parade will feature 16 giant character balloons, 26 floats, 32 novelty and heritage inflatables, 12 marching bands, 700 clowns and eight performance groups.
It's a busy time for Cher, who is preparing to release a 25th-anniversary edition of her Grammy-winning album “Believe” and just dropped her first new album in five years, “Christmas.”
For the first time in its long history, the holiday tradition will begin at 8:30 a.m. ET, half an hour earlier than previous years, kicked off by multi-instrumentalist and Grammy-winner Jon Batiste.
There will be appearances by Bell Biv DeVoe, Brandy, Chicago, En Vogue, ENHYPEN, David Foster and Katharine McPhee, Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors, Jessie James Decker, Ashley Park with some Muppets from “Sesame Street,” Pentatonix, Paul Russell, Amanda Shaw and Alex Smith, and Manuel Turizo.
U.S. Olympic gymnastics silver medalist Jordan Chiles, U.S. track and field Paralympian Ezra Frech and U.S. Paralympic swimming gold medalist Jessica Long and Miss America 2023 Grace Stanke will also join the festivities.
Seven new balloon giants will join the lineup: “Beagle Scout Snoopy,” “Blue Cat & Chugs,” “Kung Fu Panda’s Po,” “Leo,” “Monkey D. Luffy,” “Pillsbury Doughboy” and “Uncle Dan.”
Broadway will be represented by performances from “& Juliet,” “Back to the Future: The Musical,” “How To Dance In Ohio,” “Shucked” and “Spamalot,” with an appearance by Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells of “Gutenberg! The Musical!"
Returning giant balloons include “Bluey,” “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” “Paw Patrol,” “Ryan's World,” “Pikachu,” “Ronald McDonald,” "Stuart the Minion" and “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
The Macy’s parade has been a traditional holiday season kickoff and spectators often line up a half-dozen deep along the route to cheer the marchers, floats, entertainers and marching bands. The parade has lately asked icons to be the last guest before Santa, with last year Mariah Carey fitting the bill.
A marching band from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the scene of one of the nation's worst school shootings, will represent Florida. Other marching bands this year will represent Alabama, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington, New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Texas.
Floats include ones from brands like Lego, “Peanuts,” “Baby Shark,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Sesame Street.”
The parade airs on NBC and streams on Peacock. Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker from “Today” will host and a Spanish language simulcast on Telemundo will be hosted by Carlos Adyan and Andrea Meza.
As of 2020, there were some 270 million registered vehicles in the United States, each one adorned with a mandatory license plate or two. And while plates appear standardized within states, when you zoom out to the whole country, the system get well, downright chaotic.
European plates vary by country, but look similar. While that’s certainly less visually interesting, it's a whole lot more effective. Back here in the States, our lack of license plate standardization can cause real headaches
The March consumer price index showed a 1.2 percent month-over-month increase and 8.5 percent increase from a year ago, which was the highest reading since 1981.
Police are looking for a U-Haul truck in connection to the Brooklyn subway shooting. At least 10 people were shot and seven others injured in the Tuesday morning shooting.
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April is Alcohol Awareness Month, and while COVID-19 has not made it easy for people who deal with addiction, Marci Hopkins, the author of the upcoming "Chaos to Clarity: Seeing the Signs and Breaking the Cycles," joined Cheddar News to talk about ways people can break out of a bad cycle of bad habits. “Things that have helped me; move a muscle change a thought," she said. "If you start thinking about having that drink or whatever it is that you have turned to, get up. Move. That's really, really important," she said.
U.S. stocks saw a jump in the final hour of Thursday's session, and ultimately closed slightly higher for the day. Tim Pagliara, Chief Investment Officer of CapWealth, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss. "The markets have had to digest a lot of action from the federal reserve this quarter and it's affecting everything from mortgage rates to how they value stocks," he said.
Herold Meyerson, Editor at Large of 'The American Prospect,' joined Closing Bell to discuss the recent uptick in unionization efforts across the U.S. and what it might mean for large corporations like Amazon and Starbucks, where workers are increasingly pushing to unionize.
Seth Schachner, a digital business executive and the managing director of the consultancy Strat Americas, joined Closing Bell to talk all about the mega-merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery, combining to form Warner Bros. Discovery (Nasdaq: WBD), and what it means for the streaming space going forward. “I think unlike some of the other mergers that you've seen out there. I think this one has actually got a real chance to be successful and to really further the cause of streaming," he said.
