Frank Ocean attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" exhibition on May 2, 2022, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
From a Coachella controversy to a comeback kid, here are your top entertainment headlines.
Frank Ocean Fallout
Frank Ocean has been feeling the backlash for his 2023 Coachella performance — or lack thereof in the opinion of some attendees — but now he's getting some uplifting support from Justin Bieber.
The Biebs took to Instagram to offer some kind words to his former Bigger collaborator and said he was "blown away" by the performance. "His artistry is simply unmatched, his style, his taste, his voice, his attention to detail… I was deeply moved. It made me want to keep going and get better as an artist. He continues to set the bar high and gave me a night I will never forget," he said.
Fans had not seen Ocean take to the stage in about six years so the hype around the set was high. The overall takeaway from his performance apparently was that it was low energy, lacked crowd engagement as he performed a significant portion of his set with his back turned to the crowd, and got started way too late.
Apparently the singer made a number of changes to the set just hours ahead of the live show, which was because he suffered an ankle injury, according to Rolling Stone. There is a chance that fans that plan to attend the Coachella festival this upcoming weekend will have a different experience as Ocean is slated to headline once again.
Writers Authorize Strike
Would you be able to cope if some of your favorite shows like Euphoria, Snowfall, or The Last of Us were delayed? Well, there is a possibility that scripted TV and films could experience a production stoppage.
The Writer's Guild of America, the union that represents TV and film writers, has voted to authorize a strike in an effort to pressure Hollywood into offering better contracts. Nearly 98 percent of its membership voted on it with their current three-year contracts coming to an end.
The union is looking to negotiate better pay, regulate the use of artificial intelligence, and standardize the compensation and residuals for feature scripts regardless of if they were released in theaters or sent directly to a streaming platform, among other demands.
Hamlin Cleared
For the first time since suffering cardiac arrest earlier this year, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin has been cleared to make his return to the football field. The star athlete was thrust frighteningly into the spotlight after collapsing in the middle of a game. Hamlin noted that experts agree the cardiac arrest resulted from commotio cordis, which occurs when the chest suffers a severe impact timed at the right moment of a heartbeat.
In an interview with ABC's Michael Strahan, Hamlin said he'd be making his way back to playing.
"Eventually. That's always the goal, but I'm allowing that to be in God's hands."
Hamlin was present at the Bills' offseason voluntary workouts on Monday, according to ESPN.
Catching you up on today’s entertainment headlines with CBS in the works to replace James Corden on the "The Late Late Show," "Top Gun: Maverick" facing a copyright lawsuit, Neve Campbell not returning to "Scream 6" over a disagreement about her salary, and more.
A survey by the BMO Real Financial Progress Index found that 25 percent of Americans are pulling back on retirement contributions to offset the cost of inflation. This comes as market volatility reduced retirement savings with the S&P 500 shedding more than 12 percent this year alone.
Catching you up on entertainment headlines with Johnny Depp winning more damages in his defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard, Jada Pinkett Smith addressing the infamous Oscars slap that her husband Will Smith laid on Chris Rock, Queen Elizabeth II celebrating her platinum jubilee on the throne, and more.
Eric Cervini, executive producer of 'The Book of Queer,' joins Cheddar News to talk about the new show on Discovery+ that's celebrating LGBTQ+ history.
New York drag queen DD Fuego, joined Cheddar News to discuss her journey to drag, sharing the coloring book "Find Your Fuego" to explain to kids and adults alike what drag is all about, and describing the Big Apple scene. "It's incredible because you're meeting people for the first time, and you're also sharing a piece of you, and they're sharing with you back, and it's instant, and it's so intimate, but it's also art," she said. "It's theater!" In celebrating this spirit, Cheddar employee Shannon also received a "fantastic" makeover from DD Fuego.
Memorial Day rang in the unofficial start of summer here in the United States -- and with it, the unofficial start of summer travel. Whether consumers traveled by air or by land, they probably experienced some form of frustration over the weekend. Flyers faced delays and cancellations, and drivers faced the most expensive gas prices ever recorded on Memorial Day. Zach Griff, Senior Aviation Reporter for the Points Guy, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Next-generation gaming ecosystem Joystick recently raised $8 million in a seed round and is in the process of raising a $110 million Series A funding round. Gaming ecosystems are a relatively new type of platform in the Web3 space, allowing users to maximize their play-to-earn gaming opportunities, exchange crypto-currencies, and sell their digital assets. Joystick says its platform is flipping the current model on its head by giving players the opportunity to keep 100% of the revenue they earn. Robin Defay, co-founder and CEO of Joystick, and Michael Le, co-founder of Joystick and TikTok content creator, join Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The dating app Bumble has sponsored bills and pushed lawmakers to criminalize the online practice of sending unsolicited nudes or “cyberflashing." Payton Iheme, Bumble's head of public policy for the Americas, joined Cheddar News to discuss why the app was going after the harassing behavior beyond its own platform. "Now, while we went to work internally in the company, and we created something called private detector to automatically blur those images so the user can decide if they want to see them, there's nothing for the rest of the internet," she said. "And so that's why we went to work with these laws."
