NEW YORK — Legendary British singer-songwriter Cat Stevens will 
release a new album of original songs this summer that took the “Peace 
Train” hitmaker over a decade to make and revisits familiar themes of 
togetherness.

The 12-song collection is called “King of a Land” 
and comes out in June on George Harrison-founded Dark Horse Records. The
 album cover illustration shows a boy playing guitar on top of the 
Earth, as a cat stretches and a train puffs along a track.

The 
first single is the cheerful, family friendly “Take the World Apart,” 
with the lyrics “I'll take the world apart/to find a place for a 
peaceful heart.”

“The source of musical inspiration for this song 
came from the 50s. The smoochy harmonies and chords have an enchanting 
effect on the ear. Life was simpler then: lonely hearts yearning for 
love," he said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The album 
reunites Stevens with producer Paul Samwell-Smith, who produced three 
Stevens albums between 1970-72 — “Tea for the Tillerman,” “Teaser and 
the Firecat” and “Catch Bull at Four.”

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/1a43c96be82d41eb8ba03e37a82fec4a">Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fame member Stevens,</a>
 who also goes by Yusuf, the name he took when he converted to Islam, 
has been a respected writer since releasing his debut in 1967. He’s had a
 string of Top 40 hits, from “Peace Train” and “Wild World” to “Morning 
Has Broken.” He was just named to Glastonbury’s coveted Legends slot 
this summer.

Associated PressNEW YORK — Legendary British singer-songwriter Cat Stevens will 
release a new album of original songs this summer that took the “Peace 
Train” hitmaker over a decade to make and revisits familiar themes of 
togetherness.The 12-song collection is called “King of a Land” 
and comes out in June on George Harrison-founded Dark Horse Records. The
 album cover illustration shows a boy playing guitar on top of the 
Earth, as a cat stretches and a train puffs along a track.The 
first single is the cheerful, family friendly “Take the World Apart,” 
with the lyrics “I'll take the world apart/to find a place for a 
peaceful heart.”“The source of musical inspiration for this song 
came from the 50s. The smoochy harmonies and chords have an enchanting 
effect on the ear. Life was simpler then: lonely hearts yearning for 
love," he said in a statement to The Associated Press.The album 
reunites Stevens with producer Paul Samwell-Smith, who produced three 
Stevens albums between 1970-72 — “Tea for the Tillerman,” “Teaser and 
the Firecat” and “Catch Bull at Four.”<a href="https://apnews.com/article/1a43c96be82d41eb8ba03e37a82fec4a">Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fame member Stevens,</a>
 who also goes by Yusuf, the name he took when he converted to Islam, 
has been a respected writer since releasing his debut in 1967. He’s had a
 string of Top 40 hits, from “Peace Train” and “Wild World” to “Morning 
Has Broken.” He was just named to Glastonbury’s coveted Legends slot 
this summer.

Cat Stevens to return this summer with a new album

By DAVID BAUDER AP Entertainment Writer

NEW
 YORK — In reimagining 40 of their best-known songs, U2 recognized 
that many fans would experience them through earphones connected to a 
device in their pockets — rather than being belted out onstage.

That was one thought behind <a href="https://www.u2.com/">“Songs of Surrender,”</a><a href="https://apnews.com/article/u2-ted-lasso-streaming-watch-week-211eb0a5b4f8606f313c523c790f49d1">coming out this week</a>.
 The four men of U2, now either 61 or 62 years old, revisit material 
written in some cases when they were little more than kids out of 
Dublin.

Particularly in those days, U2 songs were written 
primarily with concerts in mind. The Edge told The Associated Press in 
an interview that U2 wanted to catch the attention of people seeing the 
band for the first time, perhaps in a festival or as an opening act.

“There's
 a sort of gladiatorial aspect to live performances when you're in that 
situation,” he said. “The material has got to be pretty bold and even 
strident at times. With this reimagining, we thought it would be fun to 
see intimacy as a new approach, that intimacy would be the new punk 
rock, as it were.”

The Edge was the driving force behind “Songs of Surrender,” using pandemic down time to record much of the music at home.

Given
 that his electric guitar and Bono's voice are the musical signature of 
U2, there's a certain irony in the absence of that guitar being the most
 immediately noticeable feature of the new versions. He sticks primarily
 to keyboards, acoustic guitar and dulcimer.

The process began without a roadmap or commitment to see it through if it wasn't working.

“As
 we got into it and got into a groove, we really started to enjoy what 
was happening,” he said. “There was a lot of freedom in the process, it 
was joyful and fun to take these songs and sort of reimagine them and I 
think that comes across. It doesn't sound like there was a lot of hard 
work involved because it wasn't.”

Much of the intimacy comes 
through Bono's voice. There's no need to shout, so he sometimes uses 
lower registers or slips into falsetto.

Lyrics are often rewritten, sometimes extensively in even a recent song like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwZEIHTne58">“The Miracle of Joey Ramone.”</a>
 Some changes are more subtle but still noticeable: replacing the line 
“one man betrayed with a kiss” with “one boy never will be kissed” takes
 Jesus out of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHcP4MWABGY">“Pride (In the Name of Love).”</a>

At the same time, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” is rearranged to end with a question: “where is the victory Jesus won?”

Cellos replace the driving guitar of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98W9QuMq-2k">“Vertigo.”</a> Keyboards give <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzZWSrr5wFI">“Where the Streets Have No Name”</a> an ambient sound. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQiFSPboKAM">"Two Hearts Beat as One,"</a>
 the original a high-octane rock dance song, now has a slinkier, sexy 
vibe and is one of four songs where The Edge takes lead vocal.

The
 band is fairly democratic in taking songs from throughout its catalog, 
although 1981's “October” album and 2009's “No Line on the Horizon” are 
not represented. “New Year's Day,” “Angel of Harlem” and “Even Better 
Than the Real Thing” are among the songs left alone.

“We’re one of
 the only acts that has this body of work where a project like this 
would be possible, with the distance of time and experience where it 
would be interesting to revisit early songs,” The Edge said.

Throughout
 music history, bands have occasionally re-recorded material for 
contractual reasons. Taylor Swift is the most famous example, putting 
out new versions of her older songs in order to control their use. 
Squeeze's “Spot the Difference” makes sport of how they tried to make 
new recordings indistinguishable from the originals.

Live 
recordings and archive-cleaning projects like Bob Dylan's “bootleg” 
series gives fans the chance to hear familiar songs differently.

Many
 older artists don't see the point of making new music, since there's 
little opportunity to be heard and fans are partial to the familiar 
stuff, anyway, said Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone contributing editor.

“Revisiting
 your body of work in a creative way is a means of sustaining interest 
in your career,” DeCurtis said. “Older fans might not be interested in 
another collection of your hits, but reworking them in a meaningful way 
could prove enticing. Younger fans don't have the same investment in 
your classics, so these new versions offer a route into your catalog.”

The Edge encourages fans to give the new versions a try, suggesting they may even grow to prefer some of them.

“I
 don't think there's a competition between these and the original 
versions,” he said. "It's more of an additive thing than a substitution.
 If you like the new arrangements, great. If you prefer the originals, 
keep listening.

“It's no problem either way,” he said. “They're both valid.”

The Edge said he's working on new music for U2, “and we've got some great stuff in the pipeline.”

The
 quartet that met in drummer Larry Mullen Jr.'s kitchen when they 
answered an ad placed on a high school bulletin board is a remarkable 
story in longevity. A passage toward the end of Bono's book “Surrender,”
 where he talked about looking around onstage at the end of their most 
recent tour in 2019 and wondering if it was the end, raised natural 
questions about how long U2 would continue.

“There are many 
reasons why U2 has stayed together for so long, but one of the main 
reasons is that it works so well for us as individuals,” The Edge said. 
“I think we all shine the brightest as part of this collective. I 
certainly would not like to hang up the guitar.”

This year will 
provide a test for a band that can count on one hand the number of times
 it has performed without all four members. U2 has committed to a run of
 shows in Las Vegas without Mullen, who is recuperating from surgery.

Would U2 continue if one of the original quartet decides it's time to hang it up?

“I
 wouldn't rule out the possibility that we could go forward with 
different members,” The Edge said. “But also, equally, I could imagine 
us deciding not to. It would be a big challenge. But I think at the time
 we would know what felt right.”

By DAVID BAUDER AP Entertainment WriterNEW
 YORK — In reimagining 40 of their best-known songs, U2 recognized 
that many fans would experience them through earphones connected to a 
device in their pockets — rather than being belted out onstage.That was one thought behind <a href="https://www.u2.com/">“Songs of Surrender,”</a><a href="https://apnews.com/article/u2-ted-lasso-streaming-watch-week-211eb0a5b4f8606f313c523c790f49d1">coming out this week</a>.
 The four men of U2, now either 61 or 62 years old, revisit material 
written in some cases when they were little more than kids out of 
Dublin.Particularly in those days, U2 songs were written 
primarily with concerts in mind. The Edge told The Associated Press in 
an interview that U2 wanted to catch the attention of people seeing the 
band for the first time, perhaps in a festival or as an opening act.“There's
 a sort of gladiatorial aspect to live performances when you're in that 
situation,” he said. “The material has got to be pretty bold and even 
strident at times. With this reimagining, we thought it would be fun to 
see intimacy as a new approach, that intimacy would be the new punk 
rock, as it were.”The Edge was the driving force behind “Songs of Surrender,” using pandemic down time to record much of the music at home.Given
 that his electric guitar and Bono's voice are the musical signature of 
U2, there's a certain irony in the absence of that guitar being the most
 immediately noticeable feature of the new versions. He sticks primarily
 to keyboards, acoustic guitar and dulcimer.The process began without a roadmap or commitment to see it through if it wasn't working.“As
 we got into it and got into a groove, we really started to enjoy what 
was happening,” he said. “There was a lot of freedom in the process, it 
was joyful and fun to take these songs and sort of reimagine them and I 
think that comes across. It doesn't sound like there was a lot of hard 
work involved because it wasn't.”Much of the intimacy comes 
through Bono's voice. There's no need to shout, so he sometimes uses 
lower registers or slips into falsetto.Lyrics are often rewritten, sometimes extensively in even a recent song like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwZEIHTne58">“The Miracle of Joey Ramone.”</a>
 Some changes are more subtle but still noticeable: replacing the line 
“one man betrayed with a kiss” with “one boy never will be kissed” takes
 Jesus out of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHcP4MWABGY">“Pride (In the Name of Love).”</a>At the same time, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” is rearranged to end with a question: “where is the victory Jesus won?”Cellos replace the driving guitar of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98W9QuMq-2k">“Vertigo.”</a> Keyboards give <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzZWSrr5wFI">“Where the Streets Have No Name”</a> an ambient sound. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQiFSPboKAM">"Two Hearts Beat as One,"</a>
 the original a high-octane rock dance song, now has a slinkier, sexy 
vibe and is one of four songs where The Edge takes lead vocal.The
 band is fairly democratic in taking songs from throughout its catalog, 
although 1981's “October” album and 2009's “No Line on the Horizon” are 
not represented. “New Year's Day,” “Angel of Harlem” and “Even Better 
Than the Real Thing” are among the songs left alone.“We’re one of
 the only acts that has this body of work where a project like this 
would be possible, with the distance of time and experience where it 
would be interesting to revisit early songs,” The Edge said.Throughout
 music history, bands have occasionally re-recorded material for 
contractual reasons. Taylor Swift is the most famous example, putting 
out new versions of her older songs in order to control their use. 
Squeeze's “Spot the Difference” makes sport of how they tried to make 
new recordings indistinguishable from the originals.Live 
recordings and archive-cleaning projects like Bob Dylan's “bootleg” 
series gives fans the chance to hear familiar songs differently.Many
 older artists don't see the point of making new music, since there's 
little opportunity to be heard and fans are partial to the familiar 
stuff, anyway, said Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone contributing editor.“Revisiting
 your body of work in a creative way is a means of sustaining interest 
in your career,” DeCurtis said. “Older fans might not be interested in 
another collection of your hits, but reworking them in a meaningful way 
could prove enticing. Younger fans don't have the same investment in 
your classics, so these new versions offer a route into your catalog.”The Edge encourages fans to give the new versions a try, suggesting they may even grow to prefer some of them.“I
 don't think there's a competition between these and the original 
versions,” he said. "It's more of an additive thing than a substitution.
 If you like the new arrangements, great. If you prefer the originals, 
keep listening.“It's no problem either way,” he said. “They're both valid.”The Edge said he's working on new music for U2, “and we've got some great stuff in the pipeline.”The
 quartet that met in drummer Larry Mullen Jr.'s kitchen when they 
answered an ad placed on a high school bulletin board is a remarkable 
story in longevity. A passage toward the end of Bono's book “Surrender,”
 where he talked about looking around onstage at the end of their most 
recent tour in 2019 and wondering if it was the end, raised natural 
questions about how long U2 would continue.“There are many 
reasons why U2 has stayed together for so long, but one of the main 
reasons is that it works so well for us as individuals,” The Edge said. 
“I think we all shine the brightest as part of this collective. I 
certainly would not like to hang up the guitar.”This year will 
provide a test for a band that can count on one hand the number of times
 it has performed without all four members. U2 has committed to a run of
 shows in Las Vegas without Mullen, who is recuperating from surgery.Would U2 continue if one of the original quartet decides it's time to hang it up?“I
 wouldn't rule out the possibility that we could go forward with 
different members,” The Edge said. “But also, equally, I could imagine 
us deciding not to. It would be a big challenge. But I think at the time
 we would know what felt right.”

In unusual step, U2 reinterprets 40 of its best-known songs

On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times, host Gary Shorman speaks with Dare2tri executive director Keri Serota.

<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_mCgRqySF6Q" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>On this episode of Forward Ever: Leading in Challenging Times, host Gary Shorman speaks with Dare2tri executive director Keri Serota.

🎤 Forward Ever: Dare2tri executive director Keri Serota

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Country singer Lainey Wilson is a fan favorite at this year’s <a href="https://www.cmt.com/cmt-music-awards">CMT Music Awards</a>, where she is the leading nominee including for “Video of the Year.”

The
 “Heart Like a Truck” singer earned four nominations when nominees were 
announced Wednesday ahead of the April 2 show airing on CBS.

Other
 leading nominees including Cody Johnson, CMT co-host Kane Brown and 
first-time nominee Jelly Roll, who all have three nominations each. 
Brown and Kelsea Ballerini return to host the show from Austin, Texas.

There are 16 nominees for the show's top prize, video of the year, a category that Carrie Underwood <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-anthony-mackie-kelsea-ballerini-nashville-tennessee-b8d1e13ad2888abd891dab8da439b620">holds the record</a> in with 25 awards. She's nominated again for her video “Hate My Heart” and will also perform.

The winners will be selected by fan voting, which is open now at <a href="http://vote.cmt.com">vote.cmt.com</a>.

Wynonna
 Judd earned two nominations in the CMT performance of the year 
category, one with her late mother Naomi for their last performance 
together on last year's CMT Music Awards and one for her performance of 
“The Rose” with Brandi Carlile during <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-country-nashville-28c4ce0f989a4ceb3276fac8a570c434">a memorial show</a> after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/naomi-judd-dead-29302bc273e57c174ea9ecbea606f668">Naomi Judd's death.</a>

This
 year, CMT is splitting their breakthrough video of the year award into 
separate male and female subcategories, which increases the total number
 of nominees.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Country singer Lainey Wilson is a fan favorite at this year’s <a href="https://www.cmt.com/cmt-music-awards">CMT Music Awards</a>, where she is the leading nominee including for “Video of the Year.”The
 “Heart Like a Truck” singer earned four nominations when nominees were 
announced Wednesday ahead of the April 2 show airing on CBS.Other
 leading nominees including Cody Johnson, CMT co-host Kane Brown and 
first-time nominee Jelly Roll, who all have three nominations each. 
Brown and Kelsea Ballerini return to host the show from Austin, Texas.There are 16 nominees for the show's top prize, video of the year, a category that Carrie Underwood <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-anthony-mackie-kelsea-ballerini-nashville-tennessee-b8d1e13ad2888abd891dab8da439b620">holds the record</a> in with 25 awards. She's nominated again for her video “Hate My Heart” and will also perform.The winners will be selected by fan voting, which is open now at <a href="http://vote.cmt.com">vote.cmt.com</a>.Wynonna
 Judd earned two nominations in the CMT performance of the year 
category, one with her late mother Naomi for their last performance 
together on last year's CMT Music Awards and one for her performance of 
“The Rose” with Brandi Carlile during <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-country-nashville-28c4ce0f989a4ceb3276fac8a570c434">a memorial show</a> after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/naomi-judd-dead-29302bc273e57c174ea9ecbea606f668">Naomi Judd's death.</a>This
 year, CMT is splitting their breakthrough video of the year award into 
separate male and female subcategories, which increases the total number
 of nominees.

Fan favorite Lainey Wilson leads CMT Music Awards nominees

NEW YORK — Hollywood is gearing up for the 95th Academy Awards, where <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2023-oscar-nominations-f10835dc948d9a1b5535e8da9aaab8fb">“Everything Everywhere All at Once” comes in the lead nominee</a> and the film industry will hope to move past “the slap” of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-oscars-show-9a69424884de11649b68a12a284353a1">last year’s ceremony.</a> Here’s everything you need to know about <a href="https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2023">the 2023 Oscars,</a> including when they are, where to watch the live show and this year’s controversies.

The
 Oscars will be held Sunday, March 12, at the Dolby Theatre in Los 
Angeles. The ceremony is set to begin at 8 p.m. EST and be broadcast 
live on ABC.

The broadcast can be
 streamed with a subscription to Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&amp;T TV 
and Fubo TV. Some of these services offer brief free trials. You can 
also stream the show on ABC.com and on the ABC app by authenticating 
your provider.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/oscars-host-jimmy-kimmel-3147af73bf0e205152c6375f14067e3a">Jimmy Kimmel will host for the third time</a>
 and his first time since 2018. That was also the last Oscars to feature
 a solo host. The show went hostless for several years after Kimmel's 
last outing. Last year, Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes hosted 
as a trio. In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGsXh_loS7k">an ad for this year’s show</a>
 styled after “Top Gun: Maverick,” Kimmel made his humble case for being
 the right person for the job while noting that he can’t get slapped 
because “I cry a lot.”

WHAT’S NOMINATED FOR BEST PICTURE AT THE 2023 OSCARS?

The
 10 movies competing for best picture are: “All Quiet on the Western 
Front,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” 
“Elvis,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” 
“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Women Talking.” Here's <a href="https://apnews.com/article/how-to-watch-2023-oscar-nominations-movies-364aca2fdaa51eae34307c3b02446ae8">a guide to how you can watch them.</a>

The
 first announced round of presenters are: Riz Ahmed, Emily Blunt, Glenn 
Close, Jennifer Connelly, Ariana DeBose, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne 
Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Troy Kotsur, Jonathan Majors, Melissa 
McCarthy, Janelle Monáe, Deepika Padukone, Questlove, Zoe Saldaña and 
Donnie Yen.

The Academy 
of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has said that winners to all 
categories will be announced live on the show. (Last year, some 
categories were taped in a pre-show, something that caused an uproar 
among academy members.) All signs point to a full slate of musical 
performances, with <a href="https://apnews.com/article/rihanna-oscars-2023-performance-lift-me-up-8f0080a8701ed56fd7f5995bb15995da">Rihanna performing “Lift Me Up”</a> from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and Kala Bhairava singing M.M. Keeravaani's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsU0CGZoV8E">“Naatu Naatu”</a>
 from “RRR." No official word yet on whether Lady Gaga will sing “Hold 
My Hand,” from “Top Gun: Maverick,” during the show. On Monday, show 
producers announced that Lenny Kravitz will deliver the “In Memoriam” 
performance.

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/michelle-yeoh-movie-92b9737f7ef574ea62dec51ba12516fd">indie sci-fi hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once”</a> comes in with a leading 11 nominations. Close on its heels, though, is the Irish friends-falling-out dark comedy <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-plays-martin-mcdonagh-colin-farrell-f5304b75bb64127e080e94e8736b8377">“The Banshees of Inisherin,”</a>
 with nine nods, a total matched by Netflix’s WWI film “All Quiet on the
 Western Front.” Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) may
 have a slight edge on <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-plays-martin-mcdonagh-colin-farrell-f5304b75bb64127e080e94e8736b8377">Cate Blanchett (“Tár”)</a> for best actress. Best actor is harder to call, with <a href="https://apnews.com/article/brendan-fraser-the-whale-darren-aronofsky-1b3e71f1022f11b26b764f238b421363">Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”)</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elvis-movie-review-b18e59c1b13c603e0fdd55adcea53f4d">Austin Butler (“Elvis”)</a> in the mix. In the supporting categories, Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ke-huy-quan-interview-everything-everywhere-spielberg-ab2601e87b405370853ce1ab12bf5dc2">Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)</a>
 are the frontrunners, though Jamie Lee Curtis' Screen Actors Guild 
Awards win may have thrown a wrench into the supporting actress 
category. Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) may win his third best 
director Oscar, though the Daniels may have emerged as the favorites.

Aside from the usual <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2023-oscar-nominations-snubs-d3108e53d062ee923d14f31c9de7c3ca">snubs and surprises,</a> this year’s biggest to-do has been <a href="https://apnews.com/article/oscars-andrea-riseborough-celebrity-austin-butler-tom-cruise-01ce502c5a987ee2603a56b3fb82e065">the debate surrounding Andrea Riseborough’s unexpected nomination for best actress.</a>
 Riseborough was nominated for the little-seen Texas-set drama “To 
Leslie” after many A-list stars rallied around her performance. When two
 other best-actress contenders — Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”) and Viola 
Davis (“Woman King”) — were snubbed, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/danielle-deadwyler-oscars-snub-12db71a080acf7a4bb3b1407f497e79e">some saw that as a reflection of racial bias in the film industry</a>. The academy launched an inquiry into the star-studded, grassroots campaign for Riseborough <a href="https://apnews.com/article/oscars-andrea-riseborough-best-actress-campaign-review-31573db31b522287339733ed9d2956f3">but found no reason to rescind her nomination.</a>

Just the reading of the title to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/my-year-of-dicks-oscars-b8a6cb7089a580da4dbae0b16571bb25">one of this year’s short film nominees</a> should prompt a wave of giggles. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/john-williams-indiana-jones-star-wars-music-af541b3979fd6c0ea624bb200c322f42">John Williams</a>
 (“The Fabelmans”), up for best score, is the oldest nominee ever, at 90
 years old. After historic back-to-back best-director wins by <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2021-oscars-best-director-chloe-zhao-539cda398d2dd5abcf7a92d87b685994">Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”)</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-oscars-best-director-winner-744abe46744ceb4180ce6ffb4210453e">Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”)</a>,
 no women were nominated this year for best director. Also don’t expect 
to see Will Smith at the Oscars anytime soon. After striking Chris Rock 
at last year’s ceremony, Smith was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/will-smith-oscars-ban-664346ac2d2441939764f35be2d8026b">banned by the film academy from attending for 10 years</a>. In a live Netflix special on Saturday, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/chris-rock-netflix-oscars-slap-b13e372ea8f01bacb39da49fd1bd0415">Rock finally punched back at Smith with a blistering stand-up set</a> about the incident.

Associated PressNEW YORK — Hollywood is gearing up for the 95th Academy Awards, where <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2023-oscar-nominations-f10835dc948d9a1b5535e8da9aaab8fb">“Everything Everywhere All at Once” comes in the lead nominee</a> and the film industry will hope to move past “the slap” of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-oscars-show-9a69424884de11649b68a12a284353a1">last year’s ceremony.</a> Here’s everything you need to know about <a href="https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2023">the 2023 Oscars,</a> including when they are, where to watch the live show and this year’s controversies.___WHEN ARE THE OSCARS?The
 Oscars will be held Sunday, March 12, at the Dolby Theatre in Los 
Angeles. The ceremony is set to begin at 8 p.m. EST and be broadcast 
live on ABC.CAN YOU STREAM THE OSCARS?The broadcast can be
 streamed with a subscription to Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&amp;T TV 
and Fubo TV. Some of these services offer brief free trials. You can 
also stream the show on ABC.com and on the ABC app by authenticating 
your provider.WHO’S HOSTING?<a href="https://apnews.com/article/oscars-host-jimmy-kimmel-3147af73bf0e205152c6375f14067e3a">Jimmy Kimmel will host for the third time</a>
 and his first time since 2018. That was also the last Oscars to feature
 a solo host. The show went hostless for several years after Kimmel's 
last outing. Last year, Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes hosted 
as a trio. In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGsXh_loS7k">an ad for this year’s show</a>
 styled after “Top Gun: Maverick,” Kimmel made his humble case for being
 the right person for the job while noting that he can’t get slapped 
because “I cry a lot.”WHAT’S NOMINATED FOR BEST PICTURE AT THE 2023 OSCARS?The
 10 movies competing for best picture are: “All Quiet on the Western 
Front,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” 
“Elvis,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” 
“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Women Talking.” Here's <a href="https://apnews.com/article/how-to-watch-2023-oscar-nominations-movies-364aca2fdaa51eae34307c3b02446ae8">a guide to how you can watch them.</a>WHO'S PRESENTING?The
 first announced round of presenters are: Riz Ahmed, Emily Blunt, Glenn 
Close, Jennifer Connelly, Ariana DeBose, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne 
Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Troy Kotsur, Jonathan Majors, Melissa 
McCarthy, Janelle Monáe, Deepika Padukone, Questlove, Zoe Saldaña and 
Donnie Yen.WHAT ELSE IS IN STORE FOR THE SHOW?The Academy 
of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has said that winners to all 
categories will be announced live on the show. (Last year, some 
categories were taped in a pre-show, something that caused an uproar 
among academy members.) All signs point to a full slate of musical 
performances, with <a href="https://apnews.com/article/rihanna-oscars-2023-performance-lift-me-up-8f0080a8701ed56fd7f5995bb15995da">Rihanna performing “Lift Me Up”</a> from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and Kala Bhairava singing M.M. Keeravaani's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsU0CGZoV8E">“Naatu Naatu”</a>
 from “RRR." No official word yet on whether Lady Gaga will sing “Hold 
My Hand,” from “Top Gun: Maverick,” during the show. On Monday, show 
producers announced that Lenny Kravitz will deliver the “In Memoriam” 
performance.WHO ARE THE FAVORITES?Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/michelle-yeoh-movie-92b9737f7ef574ea62dec51ba12516fd">indie sci-fi hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once”</a> comes in with a leading 11 nominations. Close on its heels, though, is the Irish friends-falling-out dark comedy <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-plays-martin-mcdonagh-colin-farrell-f5304b75bb64127e080e94e8736b8377">“The Banshees of Inisherin,”</a>
 with nine nods, a total matched by Netflix’s WWI film “All Quiet on the
 Western Front.” Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) may
 have a slight edge on <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-plays-martin-mcdonagh-colin-farrell-f5304b75bb64127e080e94e8736b8377">Cate Blanchett (“Tár”)</a> for best actress. Best actor is harder to call, with <a href="https://apnews.com/article/brendan-fraser-the-whale-darren-aronofsky-1b3e71f1022f11b26b764f238b421363">Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”)</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elvis-movie-review-b18e59c1b13c603e0fdd55adcea53f4d">Austin Butler (“Elvis”)</a> in the mix. In the supporting categories, Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ke-huy-quan-interview-everything-everywhere-spielberg-ab2601e87b405370853ce1ab12bf5dc2">Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)</a>
 are the frontrunners, though Jamie Lee Curtis' Screen Actors Guild 
Awards win may have thrown a wrench into the supporting actress 
category. Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) may win his third best 
director Oscar, though the Daniels may have emerged as the favorites.WHAT’S BEEN CONTROVERSIAL THIS YEAR?Aside from the usual <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2023-oscar-nominations-snubs-d3108e53d062ee923d14f31c9de7c3ca">snubs and surprises,</a> this year’s biggest to-do has been <a href="https://apnews.com/article/oscars-andrea-riseborough-celebrity-austin-butler-tom-cruise-01ce502c5a987ee2603a56b3fb82e065">the debate surrounding Andrea Riseborough’s unexpected nomination for best actress.</a>
 Riseborough was nominated for the little-seen Texas-set drama “To 
Leslie” after many A-list stars rallied around her performance. When two
 other best-actress contenders — Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”) and Viola 
Davis (“Woman King”) — were snubbed, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/danielle-deadwyler-oscars-snub-12db71a080acf7a4bb3b1407f497e79e">some saw that as a reflection of racial bias in the film industry</a>. The academy launched an inquiry into the star-studded, grassroots campaign for Riseborough <a href="https://apnews.com/article/oscars-andrea-riseborough-best-actress-campaign-review-31573db31b522287339733ed9d2956f3">but found no reason to rescind her nomination.</a>WHAT ELSE SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR?Just the reading of the title to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/my-year-of-dicks-oscars-b8a6cb7089a580da4dbae0b16571bb25">one of this year’s short film nominees</a> should prompt a wave of giggles. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/john-williams-indiana-jones-star-wars-music-af541b3979fd6c0ea624bb200c322f42">John Williams</a>
 (“The Fabelmans”), up for best score, is the oldest nominee ever, at 90
 years old. After historic back-to-back best-director wins by <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2021-oscars-best-director-chloe-zhao-539cda398d2dd5abcf7a92d87b685994">Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”)</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-oscars-best-director-winner-744abe46744ceb4180ce6ffb4210453e">Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”)</a>,
 no women were nominated this year for best director. Also don’t expect 
to see Will Smith at the Oscars anytime soon. After striking Chris Rock 
at last year’s ceremony, Smith was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/will-smith-oscars-ban-664346ac2d2441939764f35be2d8026b">banned by the film academy from attending for 10 years</a>. In a live Netflix special on Saturday, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/chris-rock-netflix-oscars-slap-b13e372ea8f01bacb39da49fd1bd0415">Rock finally punched back at Smith with a blistering stand-up set</a> about the incident.

Everything you need to know about the 2023 Academy Awards

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer

NEW YORK — On Dec. 22, 1985, The Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/1aa23991920be67a37fcb1908001dc0a">reported the following from Blue Ridge, Georgia:</a>

“Investigators
 searching for cocaine dropped by an airborne smuggler have found a 
ripped-up shipment of the sweet-smelling powder and the remains of a 
bear that apparently died of a multimillion-dollar high.”

Police 
found a sad scene. A 175-lb. black bear dead near a duffle bag and some 
$2 million worth of cocaine that had been opened and scattered over a 
hillside. The parachutist, a former Kentucky narcotics investigator, had
 fallen to his death in a backyard in Knoxville, Tennessee. His unmanned
 airplane crashed into a North Carolina mountain. Back in Georgia, the 
bear, examiners said, had overdosed.

The story is in many ways too
 much. Too absurd. Too ’80s. Even the screenwriters of the “Fast &amp; 
Furious” movies would think it far-fetched. The stranger-than-fiction 
tale quickly receded from the headlines and, before some began to stoke 
the myth of “Pablo Escobear,” it mostly stayed buried in news media 
archives.

That changed when screenwriter Jimmy Warden delivered to
 producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller a script titled “Cocaine 
Bear.” They were on board from page one.

“When the movie’s 
pitched, you hear the word ‘Cocaine,’ you’re like I’m not sure what to 
think of this,” Lord says. “Then when you hear the word ‘Bear,’ you’re 
like: I’m all in.”

Yes, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuWEEKeJLMI">“Cocaine Bear”</a>
 is a real movie. And after it opens in theaters Friday, it might even 
be a hit. Since the trailer first debuted for Elizabeth Banks’ very, 
very loosely based-on-a-true-story R-rated comedy has stoked a rabid 
zeitgeist. At a time when much in Hollywood can feel pre-packaged, the 
makers of “Cocaine Bear” think it can be an untamed exception.

“Hopefully the film lives up to the title,” Banks says, smiling. “That was the goal.”

Little
 on the movie calendar has captured the public imagination quite like 
“Cocaine Bear.” Its trailer, watched more than 25 million times, 
immediately went viral. The movie, itself, is like a meme sprung to life
 — a kind of spiritual heir to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkckhcqiwM8">“Snakes on a Plane”</a>
 crossed with a Paddington Bear fever dream. Everything about it is 
propelled by a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor and 
can-you-believe-this-is-a-real-movie wink. “I’m the bear who ate 
cocaine,” reads <a href="https://twitter.com/cocainebear?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">one of the film's official tweets</a>. “This is my story.”

While
 most studio movies are driven by well-known intellectual property and 
few original comedies manage to attract audiences in theaters, “Cocaine 
Bear” is here to strike a blow to business-as-usual in Hollywood. 
“Cocaine Bear” is here to be bold. “Cocaine Bear” is here to party.

“You
 have to demonstrate theatricality to get the greenlight. It just means 
you have to swing the bat a little harder,” Lord says. “In this world 
that’s increasingly mechanized, things that don’t feel mechanized have 
really special value.”

Miller and Lord have in recent years shepherded some of the most vibrant and irreverent films to the screen, including <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ed131a86a96848228dd1c58ac29c0f99">“The Lego Movie,”</a><a href="https://apnews.com/article/caf272445f4c426797e6093b2b3c7945">“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/reviews-technology-entertainment-arts-and-entertainment-d0fe967abc7b9e6ac51979b7bbfe3679">“The Mitchells vs the Machines.”</a> They like to take apart old conventions and give them an absurdist, post-modern spin.

“Certainly,
 this movie was not mandated by a corporation,” Miller says, laughing. 
“It’s a thing we somehow snuck through the system. That’s how we love to
 make all our movies, like: ‘I can’t believe they let us get away with 
this.’”

Warden had been a production assistant on their 2012 
action comedy “21 Jump Street." After hearing about the 1985 story, 
Warden wrote the script on spec and hoped his old bosses would like it. 
Intrigued at the screenplay's possibility, the producers found an 
unexpectedly open reception from Universal Pictures chief Donna Langley.

“What’s
 funny is that we thought it would be difficult because of the subject 
matter. But surprisingly, they were excited right from the jump and 
didn’t shy away from the movie, its tone or even its title,” says 
Miller. “We thought at some point, someone was going to say, ‘Well you 
can’t call it ‘Cocaine Bear.’ You have to call it ‘A Walk in the 
Woods.’"

Since her directorial debut in 2015's “Pitch Perfect 2,” 
Banks has carved out a second career behind the camera. She last helmed 
2019's “Charlie's Angels." With Universal's backing and Lord and Miller 
producing, “Cocaine Bear” struck her as not just a viable, 
actually-happening project but one where she could marry a gory animal 
attack movie with comedy.

“Most people are surprised that it is a 
real thing, and very surprised that I’m the person that made it,” says 
Banks, laughing. “I just got a text from someone who was like, ‘I’ve 
been hearing about this movie and I had no idea you made it.’”

Though
 the title meant “Cocaine Bear” would be limited from some advertising 
platforms, the filmmakers describe the studio as interested in leaning 
into what made the film distinct from the all the options viewers are 
inundated with. Nothing, it turned out, could cut through all the noise 
like “Cocaine Bear.”

“They love things with strong flavor. That’s 
the word I hear a lot in my marketing meetings," Banks says. “It’s 
harder and harder to find things that are theatrically exciting. The 
hope was that we were making something people needed to leave their 
house to see.”

The film, itself, takes the basis of the real story
 and imagines what might have transpired if the bear didn't quickly die 
but went on a coke-fueled rampage through a national forest, terrorizing
 park wardens, campers and drug dealers seeking the lost shipment. After
 an initial taste, the bear goes after more cocaine with all the zeal of
 Yogi pursuing a picnic basket.

The bear, named Cokie, was a CGI 
concoction created by Weta FX with Allen Henry, a stunt man and student 
of Andy Serkis, performing motion capture. He wore all black and walked 
on all fours with prosthetic arms. The rest of the cast includes Keri 
Russell, Margo Martindale, Alden Ehrenreich, O'Shea Jackson and Ray 
Liotta. It's one of Liotta's final performances before his <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ray-liotta-dead-46f9582dce224a3e51d3bba1663b3c05">death last May</a>, and one that connects back to his similarly cocaine-laced performance in “Goodfellas."

“I’ve
 said that this film felt very risky. The risk was: I was never going to
 have the lead character of the movie on the set of the movie,” Banks 
says. “That was truly what scared me the most. If the bear didn’t work, 
the movie falls apart.”

Lord and Miller hope that there's a rising
 realization within the film industry that movies that are audaciously 
original can pack theaters. Lord points to the Academy Awards favorite 
"Everything Everywhere All at Once” as recent proof.

“It could win
 best picture and it’s the zaniest idea out there,” Lord says. “For the 
scale of that movie, it’s a huge hit. What we’re after is demonstrating 
that these movies can be original and fun and surprising and they can be
 hits.”

“I can’t think of a movie that came out last year that 
wouldn’t have been maybe a little bit better if there had a been a 
cocaine-fueled bear on a rampage as part of it," adds Miller. "Imagine 
if ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ had a big bear just running through 
biting that guy’s fingers off.”

If it's successful, “Cocaine Bear”
 could, of course, become a franchise of its own. A sequel isn't out the
 question. “LSD Armadillo”? “Quaalude Tortoise”? Banks, for now, is 
deferring.

“Somebody will put something into the AI chat bot and 
it will spit out something ridiculous and the internet will write it for
 us.”

By JAKE COYLE AP Film WriterNEW YORK — On Dec. 22, 1985, The Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/1aa23991920be67a37fcb1908001dc0a">reported the following from Blue Ridge, Georgia:</a>“Investigators
 searching for cocaine dropped by an airborne smuggler have found a 
ripped-up shipment of the sweet-smelling powder and the remains of a 
bear that apparently died of a multimillion-dollar high.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/11/1572956883313.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Police 
found a sad scene. A 175-lb. black bear dead near a duffle bag and some 
$2 million worth of cocaine that had been opened and scattered over a 
hillside. The parachutist, a former Kentucky narcotics investigator, had
 fallen to his death in a backyard in Knoxville, Tennessee. His unmanned
 airplane crashed into a North Carolina mountain. Back in Georgia, the 
bear, examiners said, had overdosed.The story is in many ways too
 much. Too absurd. Too ’80s. Even the screenwriters of the “Fast &amp; 
Furious” movies would think it far-fetched. The stranger-than-fiction 
tale quickly receded from the headlines and, before some began to stoke 
the myth of “Pablo Escobear,” it mostly stayed buried in news media 
archives.That changed when screenwriter Jimmy Warden delivered to
 producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller a script titled “Cocaine 
Bear.” They were on board from page one.“When the movie’s 
pitched, you hear the word ‘Cocaine,’ you’re like I’m not sure what to 
think of this,” Lord says. “Then when you hear the word ‘Bear,’ you’re 
like: I’m all in.”Yes, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuWEEKeJLMI">“Cocaine Bear”</a>
 is a real movie. And after it opens in theaters Friday, it might even 
be a hit. Since the trailer first debuted for Elizabeth Banks’ very, 
very loosely based-on-a-true-story R-rated comedy has stoked a rabid 
zeitgeist. At a time when much in Hollywood can feel pre-packaged, the 
makers of “Cocaine Bear” think it can be an untamed exception.“Hopefully the film lives up to the title,” Banks says, smiling. “That was the goal.”Little
 on the movie calendar has captured the public imagination quite like 
“Cocaine Bear.” Its trailer, watched more than 25 million times, 
immediately went viral. The movie, itself, is like a meme sprung to life
 — a kind of spiritual heir to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkckhcqiwM8">“Snakes on a Plane”</a>
 crossed with a Paddington Bear fever dream. Everything about it is 
propelled by a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor and 
can-you-believe-this-is-a-real-movie wink. “I’m the bear who ate 
cocaine,” reads <a href="https://twitter.com/cocainebear?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">one of the film's official tweets</a>. “This is my story.”While
 most studio movies are driven by well-known intellectual property and 
few original comedies manage to attract audiences in theaters, “Cocaine 
Bear” is here to strike a blow to business-as-usual in Hollywood. 
“Cocaine Bear” is here to be bold. “Cocaine Bear” is here to party.“You
 have to demonstrate theatricality to get the greenlight. It just means 
you have to swing the bat a little harder,” Lord says. “In this world 
that’s increasingly mechanized, things that don’t feel mechanized have 
really special value.”Miller and Lord have in recent years shepherded some of the most vibrant and irreverent films to the screen, including <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ed131a86a96848228dd1c58ac29c0f99">“The Lego Movie,”</a><a href="https://apnews.com/article/caf272445f4c426797e6093b2b3c7945">“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/reviews-technology-entertainment-arts-and-entertainment-d0fe967abc7b9e6ac51979b7bbfe3679">“The Mitchells vs the Machines.”</a> They like to take apart old conventions and give them an absurdist, post-modern spin.“Certainly,
 this movie was not mandated by a corporation,” Miller says, laughing. 
“It’s a thing we somehow snuck through the system. That’s how we love to
 make all our movies, like: ‘I can’t believe they let us get away with 
this.’”Warden had been a production assistant on their 2012 
action comedy “21 Jump Street." After hearing about the 1985 story, 
Warden wrote the script on spec and hoped his old bosses would like it. 
Intrigued at the screenplay's possibility, the producers found an 
unexpectedly open reception from Universal Pictures chief Donna Langley.“What’s
 funny is that we thought it would be difficult because of the subject 
matter. But surprisingly, they were excited right from the jump and 
didn’t shy away from the movie, its tone or even its title,” says 
Miller. “We thought at some point, someone was going to say, ‘Well you 
can’t call it ‘Cocaine Bear.’ You have to call it ‘A Walk in the 
Woods.’"Since her directorial debut in 2015's “Pitch Perfect 2,” 
Banks has carved out a second career behind the camera. She last helmed 
2019's “Charlie's Angels." With Universal's backing and Lord and Miller 
producing, “Cocaine Bear” struck her as not just a viable, 
actually-happening project but one where she could marry a gory animal 
attack movie with comedy.“Most people are surprised that it is a 
real thing, and very surprised that I’m the person that made it,” says 
Banks, laughing. “I just got a text from someone who was like, ‘I’ve 
been hearing about this movie and I had no idea you made it.’”Though
 the title meant “Cocaine Bear” would be limited from some advertising 
platforms, the filmmakers describe the studio as interested in leaning 
into what made the film distinct from the all the options viewers are 
inundated with. Nothing, it turned out, could cut through all the noise 
like “Cocaine Bear.”“They love things with strong flavor. That’s 
the word I hear a lot in my marketing meetings," Banks says. “It’s 
harder and harder to find things that are theatrically exciting. The 
hope was that we were making something people needed to leave their 
house to see.”The film, itself, takes the basis of the real story
 and imagines what might have transpired if the bear didn't quickly die 
but went on a coke-fueled rampage through a national forest, terrorizing
 park wardens, campers and drug dealers seeking the lost shipment. After
 an initial taste, the bear goes after more cocaine with all the zeal of
 Yogi pursuing a picnic basket.The bear, named Cokie, was a CGI 
concoction created by Weta FX with Allen Henry, a stunt man and student 
of Andy Serkis, performing motion capture. He wore all black and walked 
on all fours with prosthetic arms. The rest of the cast includes Keri 
Russell, Margo Martindale, Alden Ehrenreich, O'Shea Jackson and Ray 
Liotta. It's one of Liotta's final performances before his <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ray-liotta-dead-46f9582dce224a3e51d3bba1663b3c05">death last May</a>, and one that connects back to his similarly cocaine-laced performance in “Goodfellas."“I’ve
 said that this film felt very risky. The risk was: I was never going to
 have the lead character of the movie on the set of the movie,” Banks 
says. “That was truly what scared me the most. If the bear didn’t work, 
the movie falls apart.”Lord and Miller hope that there's a rising
 realization within the film industry that movies that are audaciously 
original can pack theaters. Lord points to the Academy Awards favorite 
"Everything Everywhere All at Once” as recent proof.“It could win
 best picture and it’s the zaniest idea out there,” Lord says. “For the 
scale of that movie, it’s a huge hit. What we’re after is demonstrating 
that these movies can be original and fun and surprising and they can be
 hits.”“I can’t think of a movie that came out last year that 
wouldn’t have been maybe a little bit better if there had a been a 
cocaine-fueled bear on a rampage as part of it," adds Miller. "Imagine 
if ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ had a big bear just running through 
biting that guy’s fingers off.”If it's successful, “Cocaine Bear”
 could, of course, become a franchise of its own. A sequel isn't out the
 question. “LSD Armadillo”? “Quaalude Tortoise”? Banks, for now, is 
deferring.“Somebody will put something into the AI chat bot and 
it will spit out something ridiculous and the internet will write it for
 us.”

REVIEW: 'Cocaine Bear' is here to strike a blow to staid Hollywood

<a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search/?query=byline:%22DAVID%20BAUDER%22&amp;mediaType=text&amp;st=keyword&amp;sortOrder=newest">By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer</a>

NEW YORK (AP) — Half of Americans in a recent survey indicated they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.

The survey, released Wednesday by Gallup and the Knight Foundation, goes beyond others that have shown a low level of trust in the media to the startling point where many believe there is an intent to deceive.

Asked whether they agreed with the statement that national news organizations do not intend to mislead, 50% said they disagreed. Only 25% agreed, the study found.

Similarly, 52% disagreed with a statement that disseminators of national news “care about the best interests of their readers, viewers and listeners,” the study found. It said 23% of respondents believed the journalists were acting in the public's best interests.

“That was pretty striking for us,” said Sarah Fioroni, a consultant for Gallup. The findings showed a depth of distrust and bad feeling that go beyond the foundations and processes of journalism, she said.

Journalists need to go beyond emphasizing transparency and accuracy to show the impact of their reporting on the public, the study said.

“Americans don’t seem to think that the national news organizations care about the overall impact of their reporting on the society,” said John Sands, Knight’s senior director for media and democracy.

In one small consolation, in both cases Americans had more trust in local news.

The ability of many people to instantly learn news from a device they hold in their hand, the rapid pace of the news cycle and an increased number of news sources would indicate that more Americans are on top of the news than ever before.

Instead, an information overload appears to have had the opposite effect. The survey said 61% of American believe these factors make it harder to stay informed, while 37% said it's easier.

Like with many other studies, Knight and Gallup found Democrats trust news more than Republicans. Over the past five years, the level of distrust has particularly spiked among independents. Overall, 55% of respondents said there was a great deal of political bias in coverage, compared to 45% in 2017.

In a finding reflected in the financial struggles of some news organizations and declining ratings of television news networks, the survey found 32% of Americans said they pay a great deal of attention to local news, compared to 56% in early 2020. That was at the outset of a presidential election year and the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In a picture of how people get their news, 58% said online, 31% said television, 7% said radio and 3% mentioned printed newspapers or magazines.

For members of Gen Z, aged 18- to 25-years-old, 88% said they got their news online, the survey found.

In one olive branch, if Americans believed local news organizations didn't have the resources or opportunities to cover the news, they would be more likely to pay for it.

The results are based on a Gallup study of 5,593 Americans aged 18 and older conducted between May 31 and July 21, 2022.

<a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/home/search/?query=byline:%22DAVID%20BAUDER%22&amp;mediaType=text&amp;st=keyword&amp;sortOrder=newest">By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer</a>NEW YORK (AP) — Half of Americans in a recent survey indicated they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.The survey, released Wednesday by Gallup and the Knight Foundation, goes beyond others that have shown a low level of trust in the media to the startling point where many believe there is an intent to deceive.Asked whether they agreed with the statement that national news organizations do not intend to mislead, 50% said they disagreed. Only 25% agreed, the study found.Similarly, 52% disagreed with a statement that disseminators of national news “care about the best interests of their readers, viewers and listeners,” the study found. It said 23% of respondents believed the journalists were acting in the public's best interests.“That was pretty striking for us,” said Sarah Fioroni, a consultant for Gallup. The findings showed a depth of distrust and bad feeling that go beyond the foundations and processes of journalism, she said.Journalists need to go beyond emphasizing transparency and accuracy to show the impact of their reporting on the public, the study said.“Americans don’t seem to think that the national news organizations care about the overall impact of their reporting on the society,” said John Sands, Knight’s senior director for media and democracy.In one small consolation, in both cases Americans had more trust in local news.The ability of many people to instantly learn news from a device they hold in their hand, the rapid pace of the news cycle and an increased number of news sources would indicate that more Americans are on top of the news than ever before.Instead, an information overload appears to have had the opposite effect. The survey said 61% of American believe these factors make it harder to stay informed, while 37% said it's easier.Like with many other studies, Knight and Gallup found Democrats trust news more than Republicans. Over the past five years, the level of distrust has particularly spiked among independents. Overall, 55% of respondents said there was a great deal of political bias in coverage, compared to 45% in 2017.In a finding reflected in the financial struggles of some news organizations and declining ratings of television news networks, the survey found 32% of Americans said they pay a great deal of attention to local news, compared to 56% in early 2020. That was at the outset of a presidential election year and the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak.In a picture of how people get their news, 58% said online, 31% said television, 7% said radio and 3% mentioned printed newspapers or magazines.For members of Gen Z, aged 18- to 25-years-old, 88% said they got their news online, the survey found.In one olive branch, if Americans believed local news organizations didn't have the resources or opportunities to cover the news, they would be more likely to pay for it.The results are based on a Gallup study of 5,593 Americans aged 18 and older conducted between May 31 and July 21, 2022.

Study shows 'striking' number who believe news misinforms

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer

Peyton Reed’s “Ant-Man” films have generally served as a kind of 
palate cleanser to the world-ending stakes of the larger Marvel 
Cinematic Universe. Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang is just an ordinary dude, or 
so they keep telling us, who still can’t really believe that he’s part 
of the Avengers at all. He gets to be the wide-eyed middle-aged fanboy 
of the group in those films. In his own films, he’s just living a 
blue-sky life in San Francisco as an affable single dad and ex-con who 
was once fired from Baskin Robbins and who has occasional enemies to 
defeat.

In this third film, “ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNFpri-Y40">Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania</a>,”
 in theaters Thursday, he’s coasting on his own post-Blip celebrity with
 a best-selling memoir out, lots of fans around town and a generally 
sunny disposition — when he’s not breaking his teenage daughter Cassie 
(now played by Kathryn Newton, always an enjoyable presence) out of jail
 for civil disobedience.

There is a fun, light, sitcom-y touch to 
these early scenes in which he and his makeshift family, Hope Van Dyne 
(Evangeline Lilly), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym 
(Michael Douglas) sit around the table for takeout pizza. They use their
 particle technology to blow up the tiny pie.

“I just saved us $8,” Pym declares proudly.

But
 Ant-Man is part of the larger chess board of the MCU, so naturally he’s
 doomed to be sucked into the multiverse mess, setting up pieces for 
more Avengers films to come with the introduction of a new villain, Kang
 (played with a maniacal sorrow by the great Jonathan Majors). And the 
results are mixed. Reed has returned to direct with a new writer, Jeff 
Loveness, who has also been tapped to write “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty”
 and it’s hard not to empathize with both for the logic gymnastics 
required to back Ant-Man and his gang into this conflict.

Loveness,
 who cut his teeth in comedy and has an affinity for comic book and 
B-movie absurdities, gives Ant-Man his own “Star Wars”-adjacent 
adventure. There’s quite a bit of unrest in the Quantum Realm, with 
scrappy rebels battling against a powerful ruler with an army of 
faceless soldiers. But he takes that conceit further and gives the 
rebels some personality and humor, including William Jackson Harper as 
the mind-reading Quaz. The villain's a killing machine, M.O.D.O.K., that
 looks (knowingly) straight out of a “Mystery Science Theater 3000” 
movie and it is quite entertaining. It’s both a nod to the fun of the 
ridiculousness in sci-fi and a reminder that Serious Superhero Films are
 sometimes just one crazy special effect away from being Silly Superhero
 Films.

“Quantumania” also gives Pfeiffer a lot more to do as we, 
and Hank and Hope, learn a little bit more about Janet’s 30 years in the
 Quantum Realm and the various compromises and allegiances she made to 
stay alive. Pfeiffer is an unambiguous delight and the real center of 
the movie despite what the title might claim. Ant-Man just finds himself
 in the middle of the mess, which starts to drag on in a muddle of 
sci-fi furnishings that individually are probably quite inspired and 
interesting but together just blend into a dreary mess.

It’s a 
shame because Reed’s films are generally so crisp and styled and are 
best when focused on characters, not worlds and Quantum Realms. 
“Quantumania” shines when it is keeping things light and quippy.

But
 Kang, for what we can assume are bigger story needs, needs to be more 
serious. Majors is certainly chilling and captivating, but Kang seems 
like a mismatched foe for a standalone Ant-Man film and the result is a 
“Quantumania” that is trying to be too many things. One thing it is not 
is a Wasp movie, though. Lilly gets a lot to do but not a lot of — or 
any — character development.

“Quantumania” sticks the ending, 
however. Without giving anything away, we'll just say that Reed and Rudd
 get to return to their sweet spot, with a bit of a twist.

“Ant-Man
 and the Wasp: Quantumania,” a Walt Disney release in theaters Thursday,
 is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “some sci-fi 
action violence.” Running time: 122 minutes. Two and a half stars out of
 four.

MPA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film WriterPeyton Reed’s “Ant-Man” films have generally served as a kind of 
palate cleanser to the world-ending stakes of the larger Marvel 
Cinematic Universe. Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang is just an ordinary dude, or 
so they keep telling us, who still can’t really believe that he’s part 
of the Avengers at all. He gets to be the wide-eyed middle-aged fanboy 
of the group in those films. In his own films, he’s just living a 
blue-sky life in San Francisco as an affable single dad and ex-con who 
was once fired from Baskin Robbins and who has occasional enemies to 
defeat.In this third film, “ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNFpri-Y40">Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania</a>,”
 in theaters Thursday, he’s coasting on his own post-Blip celebrity with
 a best-selling memoir out, lots of fans around town and a generally 
sunny disposition — when he’s not breaking his teenage daughter Cassie 
(now played by Kathryn Newton, always an enjoyable presence) out of jail
 for civil disobedience.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667933757340.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>There is a fun, light, sitcom-y touch to 
these early scenes in which he and his makeshift family, Hope Van Dyne 
(Evangeline Lilly), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym 
(Michael Douglas) sit around the table for takeout pizza. They use their
 particle technology to blow up the tiny pie.“I just saved us $8,” Pym declares proudly.But
 Ant-Man is part of the larger chess board of the MCU, so naturally he’s
 doomed to be sucked into the multiverse mess, setting up pieces for 
more Avengers films to come with the introduction of a new villain, Kang
 (played with a maniacal sorrow by the great Jonathan Majors). And the 
results are mixed. Reed has returned to direct with a new writer, Jeff 
Loveness, who has also been tapped to write “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty”
 and it’s hard not to empathize with both for the logic gymnastics 
required to back Ant-Man and his gang into this conflict.Loveness,
 who cut his teeth in comedy and has an affinity for comic book and 
B-movie absurdities, gives Ant-Man his own “Star Wars”-adjacent 
adventure. There’s quite a bit of unrest in the Quantum Realm, with 
scrappy rebels battling against a powerful ruler with an army of 
faceless soldiers. But he takes that conceit further and gives the 
rebels some personality and humor, including William Jackson Harper as 
the mind-reading Quaz. The villain's a killing machine, M.O.D.O.K., that
 looks (knowingly) straight out of a “Mystery Science Theater 3000” 
movie and it is quite entertaining. It’s both a nod to the fun of the 
ridiculousness in sci-fi and a reminder that Serious Superhero Films are
 sometimes just one crazy special effect away from being Silly Superhero
 Films.“Quantumania” also gives Pfeiffer a lot more to do as we, 
and Hank and Hope, learn a little bit more about Janet’s 30 years in the
 Quantum Realm and the various compromises and allegiances she made to 
stay alive. Pfeiffer is an unambiguous delight and the real center of 
the movie despite what the title might claim. Ant-Man just finds himself
 in the middle of the mess, which starts to drag on in a muddle of 
sci-fi furnishings that individually are probably quite inspired and 
interesting but together just blend into a dreary mess.It’s a 
shame because Reed’s films are generally so crisp and styled and are 
best when focused on characters, not worlds and Quantum Realms. 
“Quantumania” shines when it is keeping things light and quippy.But
 Kang, for what we can assume are bigger story needs, needs to be more 
serious. Majors is certainly chilling and captivating, but Kang seems 
like a mismatched foe for a standalone Ant-Man film and the result is a 
“Quantumania” that is trying to be too many things. One thing it is not 
is a Wasp movie, though. Lilly gets a lot to do but not a lot of — or 
any — character development.“Quantumania” sticks the ending, 
however. Without giving anything away, we'll just say that Reed and Rudd
 get to return to their sweet spot, with a bit of a twist.“Ant-Man
 and the Wasp: Quantumania,” a Walt Disney release in theaters Thursday,
 is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “some sci-fi 
action violence.” Running time: 122 minutes. Two and a half stars out of
 four.MPA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Review: A Marvel villain comes into focus in ‘Ant-Man 3’

NEW YORK (AP) —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/burt-bacharach">Burt Bacharach,</a>&nbsp;the singularly gifted and popular composer who delighted millions with the quirky arrangements and unforgettable melodies of "Walk on By," "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" and dozens of other hits, has died at 94.

The Grammy, Oscar and Tony-winning Bacharach died Wednesday at home in Los Angeles of natural causes, publicist Tina Brausam said Thursday.

Over the past 70 years, only Lennon-McCartney, Carole King and a handful of others rivaled his genius for instantly catchy songs that remained performed, played and hummed long after they were written. He had a run of top 10 hits from the 1950s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-virus-outbreak-burt-bacharach-3c75337777bf897b635fbf518d200a13">into the 21st century,</a>&nbsp;and his music was heard everywhere from movie soundtracks and radios to home stereo systems and iPods, whether “Alfie” and “I Say a Little Prayer” or “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” and “This Guy’s in Love with You.”

Dionne Warwick was his favorite interpreter, but Bacharach, usually in tandem with lyricist Hal David, also created prime material for Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and many others. Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Frank Sinatra were among the countless artists who covered his songs, with more recent performers who sung or sampled him including White Stripes, Twista and Ashanti. “Walk On By” alone was covered by everyone from Warwick and Isaac Hayes to the British punk band the Stranglers and Cyndi Lauper.

Bacharach was both an innovator and throwback, and his career seemed to run parallel to the rock era. He grew up on jazz and classical music and had little taste for rock when he was breaking into the business in the 1950s. His sensibility often seemed more aligned with Tin Pan Alley than with Bob Dylan, John Lennon and other writers who later emerged, but rock composers appreciated the depth of his seemingly old-fashioned sensibility.

“The shorthand version of him is that he’s something to do with easy listening,” Elvis Costello, who wrote the 1998 album “Painted from Memory” with Bacharach, said in a 2018 interview with The Associated Press. “It may be agreeable to listen to these songs, but there’s nothing easy about them. Try playing them. Try singing them.”

A box set, “The Songs of Bacharach &amp; Costello,” is due to come out March 3.

He triumphed in many artforms. He was an eight-time Grammy winner, a prize-winning&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-lifestyle-arts-and-entertainment-theater-music-3075cfa46c71a754a41d382b81a51c63">Broadway composer</a>&nbsp;for “Promises, Promises” and a three-time Oscar winner. He received two Academy Awards in 1970, for the score of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and for the song “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (shared with David). In 1982, he and his then-wife, lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, won for “Best That You Can Do,” the theme from “Arthur. His other movie soundtracks included “What’s New, Pussycat?”, “Alfie” and the 1967 James Bond spoof “Casino Royale.”

Bacharach was well rewarded, and well connected. He was a frequent guest at the White House, whether the president was Republican or Democrat. And in 2012, he was presented the Gershwin Prize by Barack Obama, who had sung a few seconds of “Walk on By” during a campaign appearance.

In his life, and in his music, he stood apart. Fellow songwriter Sammy Cahn liked to joke that the smiling, wavy-haired Bacharach was the first composer he ever knew who didn’t look like a dentist. Bacharach was a “swinger,” as they called such men in his time, whose many romances included actor Angie Dickinson, to whom he was married from 1965-80, and Sager, his wife from 1982-1991.

Married four times, he formed his most lasting ties to work. He was a perfectionist who took three weeks to write “Alfie” and might spend hours tweaking a single chord. Sager once observed that Bacharach’s life routines essentially stayed the same — only the wives changed.

It began with the melodies — strong yet interspersed with changing rhythms and surprising harmonics. He credited much of his style to his love of bebop and to his classical education, especially under the tutelage of Darius Milhaud, the famed composer. He once played a piece for piano, violin and oboe for Milhaud that contained a melody he was ashamed to have written, as 12-point atonal music was in vogue at the time. Milhaud, who liked the piece, advised the young man, "Never be afraid of the melody."

"That was a great affirmation for me," Bacharach recalled in 2004.

Bacharach was essentially a pop composer, but his songs became hits for country artists (Marty Robbins), rhythm and blues performers (Chuck Jackson), soul (Franklin, Luther Vandross) and synth-pop (Naked Eyes). He reached a new generation of listeners in the 1990s with the help of Costello and others.

Mike Myers would recall hearing the sultry “The Look of Love” on the radio and finding fast inspiration for his “Austin Powers” retro spy comedies, in which Bacharach made cameos.

In the 21st century, he was still testing new ground, writing his own lyrics and recording with rapper Dr. Dre.

He was married to his first wife, Paula Stewart, from 1953-58, and married for a fourth time, to Jane Hansen, in 1993. He is survived by Hansen, as well as his children Oliver, Raleigh and Cristopher, Brausam said. He was preceded in death by his daughter with Dickinson, Nikki Bacharach.

Bacharach knew the very heights of acclaim, but he remembered himself as a loner growing up, a short and self-conscious boy so uncomfortable with being Jewish he even taunted other Jews. His favorite book as a kid was Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises”; he related to the sexually impotent Jake Barnes, regarding himself as “socially impotent.”

He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but soon moved to New York City. His father was a syndicated columnist, his mother a pianist who encouraged the boy to study music. Although he was more interested in sports, he practiced piano every day after school, not wanting to disappoint his mother. While still a minor, he would sneak into jazz clubs, bearing a fake ID, and hear such greats as Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie.

“They were just so incredibly exciting that all of a sudden, I got into music in a way I never had before,” he recalled in the memoir “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” published in 2013. “What I heard in those clubs turned my head around.”

He was a poor student, but managed to gain a spot at the music conservatory at McGill University in Montreal. He wrote his first song at McGill and listened for months to Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song.” Music also may have saved Bacharach’s life. He was drafted into the Army in the late 1940s and was still on active duty during the Korean War. But officers stateside soon learned of his gifts and wanted him around. When he did go overseas, it was to Germany, where he wrote orchestrations for a recreation center on the local military base.

After his discharge, he returned to New York and tried to break into the music business. He had little success at first as a songwriter, but he became a popular arranger and accompanist, touring with Vic Damone, the Ames Brothers and Stewart, his eventual first wife. When a friend who had been touring with Marlene Dietrich was unable to make a show in Las Vegas, he asked Bacharach to step in.

The young musician and ageless singer quickly clicked and Bacharach traveled the world with her in the late 1950s and early '60s. During each performance, she would introduce him in grand style: “I would like you to meet the man, he’s my arranger, he’s my accompanist, he’s my conductor, and I wish I could say he’s my composer. But that isn’t true. He’s everybody’s composer ... Burt Bacharach!”

Meanwhile, he had met his ideal songwriter partner — David, as businesslike as Bacharach was mercurial, so domesticated that he would leave each night at 5 to catch the train back to his family on Long Island. Working in a tiny office in Broadway’s celebrated Brill Building, they produced their first million-seller, "Magic Moments," sung in 1958 by Perry Como. In 1962, they spotted a backup singer for the Drifters, Warwick, who had a “very special kind of grace and elegance,” Bacharach recalled.

The trio produced hit after hit. The songs were as complicated to record as they were easy to hear. Bacharach liked to experiment with time signatures and arrangements, such as having two pianists play on “Walk on By,” their performances just slightly out of sync to give the song “a jagged kind of feeling,” he wrote in his memoir.

The Bacharach-David partnership ended with the dismal failure of a 1973 musical remake of "Lost Horizon." Bacharach became so depressed he isolated himself in his Del Mar vacation home and refused to work.

"I didn't want to write with Hal or anybody," he told the AP in 2004. Nor did he want to fulfill a commitment to record Warwick. She and David both sued him.

Bacharach and David eventually reconciled. When David died in 2012, Bacharach praised him for writing lyrics “like a miniature movie.”

Meanwhile, Bacharach kept working, vowing never to retire, always believing that a good song could make a difference.

“Music softens the heart, makes you feel something if it’s good, brings in emotion that you might not have felt before,” he told the AP in 2018. “It’s a very powerful thing if you’re able to do to it, if you have it in your heart to do something like that.”

NEW YORK (AP) —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/burt-bacharach">Burt Bacharach,</a>&nbsp;the singularly gifted and popular composer who delighted millions with the quirky arrangements and unforgettable melodies of "Walk on By," "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" and dozens of other hits, has died at 94.The Grammy, Oscar and Tony-winning Bacharach died Wednesday at home in Los Angeles of natural causes, publicist Tina Brausam said Thursday.Over the past 70 years, only Lennon-McCartney, Carole King and a handful of others rivaled his genius for instantly catchy songs that remained performed, played and hummed long after they were written. He had a run of top 10 hits from the 1950s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-virus-outbreak-burt-bacharach-3c75337777bf897b635fbf518d200a13">into the 21st century,</a>&nbsp;and his music was heard everywhere from movie soundtracks and radios to home stereo systems and iPods, whether “Alfie” and “I Say a Little Prayer” or “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” and “This Guy’s in Love with You.”Dionne Warwick was his favorite interpreter, but Bacharach, usually in tandem with lyricist Hal David, also created prime material for Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and many others. Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Frank Sinatra were among the countless artists who covered his songs, with more recent performers who sung or sampled him including White Stripes, Twista and Ashanti. “Walk On By” alone was covered by everyone from Warwick and Isaac Hayes to the British punk band the Stranglers and Cyndi Lauper.Bacharach was both an innovator and throwback, and his career seemed to run parallel to the rock era. He grew up on jazz and classical music and had little taste for rock when he was breaking into the business in the 1950s. His sensibility often seemed more aligned with Tin Pan Alley than with Bob Dylan, John Lennon and other writers who later emerged, but rock composers appreciated the depth of his seemingly old-fashioned sensibility.“The shorthand version of him is that he’s something to do with easy listening,” Elvis Costello, who wrote the 1998 album “Painted from Memory” with Bacharach, said in a 2018 interview with The Associated Press. “It may be agreeable to listen to these songs, but there’s nothing easy about them. Try playing them. Try singing them.”A box set, “The Songs of Bacharach &amp; Costello,” is due to come out March 3.He triumphed in many artforms. He was an eight-time Grammy winner, a prize-winning&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-lifestyle-arts-and-entertainment-theater-music-3075cfa46c71a754a41d382b81a51c63">Broadway composer</a>&nbsp;for “Promises, Promises” and a three-time Oscar winner. He received two Academy Awards in 1970, for the score of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and for the song “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (shared with David). In 1982, he and his then-wife, lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, won for “Best That You Can Do,” the theme from “Arthur. His other movie soundtracks included “What’s New, Pussycat?”, “Alfie” and the 1967 James Bond spoof “Casino Royale.”Bacharach was well rewarded, and well connected. He was a frequent guest at the White House, whether the president was Republican or Democrat. And in 2012, he was presented the Gershwin Prize by Barack Obama, who had sung a few seconds of “Walk on By” during a campaign appearance.In his life, and in his music, he stood apart. Fellow songwriter Sammy Cahn liked to joke that the smiling, wavy-haired Bacharach was the first composer he ever knew who didn’t look like a dentist. Bacharach was a “swinger,” as they called such men in his time, whose many romances included actor Angie Dickinson, to whom he was married from 1965-80, and Sager, his wife from 1982-1991.Married four times, he formed his most lasting ties to work. He was a perfectionist who took three weeks to write “Alfie” and might spend hours tweaking a single chord. Sager once observed that Bacharach’s life routines essentially stayed the same — only the wives changed.It began with the melodies — strong yet interspersed with changing rhythms and surprising harmonics. He credited much of his style to his love of bebop and to his classical education, especially under the tutelage of Darius Milhaud, the famed composer. He once played a piece for piano, violin and oboe for Milhaud that contained a melody he was ashamed to have written, as 12-point atonal music was in vogue at the time. Milhaud, who liked the piece, advised the young man, "Never be afraid of the melody.""That was a great affirmation for me," Bacharach recalled in 2004.Bacharach was essentially a pop composer, but his songs became hits for country artists (Marty Robbins), rhythm and blues performers (Chuck Jackson), soul (Franklin, Luther Vandross) and synth-pop (Naked Eyes). He reached a new generation of listeners in the 1990s with the help of Costello and others.Mike Myers would recall hearing the sultry “The Look of Love” on the radio and finding fast inspiration for his “Austin Powers” retro spy comedies, in which Bacharach made cameos.In the 21st century, he was still testing new ground, writing his own lyrics and recording with rapper Dr. Dre.He was married to his first wife, Paula Stewart, from 1953-58, and married for a fourth time, to Jane Hansen, in 1993. He is survived by Hansen, as well as his children Oliver, Raleigh and Cristopher, Brausam said. He was preceded in death by his daughter with Dickinson, Nikki Bacharach.Bacharach knew the very heights of acclaim, but he remembered himself as a loner growing up, a short and self-conscious boy so uncomfortable with being Jewish he even taunted other Jews. His favorite book as a kid was Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises”; he related to the sexually impotent Jake Barnes, regarding himself as “socially impotent.”He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but soon moved to New York City. His father was a syndicated columnist, his mother a pianist who encouraged the boy to study music. Although he was more interested in sports, he practiced piano every day after school, not wanting to disappoint his mother. While still a minor, he would sneak into jazz clubs, bearing a fake ID, and hear such greats as Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie.“They were just so incredibly exciting that all of a sudden, I got into music in a way I never had before,” he recalled in the memoir “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” published in 2013. “What I heard in those clubs turned my head around.”He was a poor student, but managed to gain a spot at the music conservatory at McGill University in Montreal. He wrote his first song at McGill and listened for months to Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song.” Music also may have saved Bacharach’s life. He was drafted into the Army in the late 1940s and was still on active duty during the Korean War. But officers stateside soon learned of his gifts and wanted him around. When he did go overseas, it was to Germany, where he wrote orchestrations for a recreation center on the local military base.After his discharge, he returned to New York and tried to break into the music business. He had little success at first as a songwriter, but he became a popular arranger and accompanist, touring with Vic Damone, the Ames Brothers and Stewart, his eventual first wife. When a friend who had been touring with Marlene Dietrich was unable to make a show in Las Vegas, he asked Bacharach to step in.The young musician and ageless singer quickly clicked and Bacharach traveled the world with her in the late 1950s and early '60s. During each performance, she would introduce him in grand style: “I would like you to meet the man, he’s my arranger, he’s my accompanist, he’s my conductor, and I wish I could say he’s my composer. But that isn’t true. He’s everybody’s composer ... Burt Bacharach!”Meanwhile, he had met his ideal songwriter partner — David, as businesslike as Bacharach was mercurial, so domesticated that he would leave each night at 5 to catch the train back to his family on Long Island. Working in a tiny office in Broadway’s celebrated Brill Building, they produced their first million-seller, "Magic Moments," sung in 1958 by Perry Como. In 1962, they spotted a backup singer for the Drifters, Warwick, who had a “very special kind of grace and elegance,” Bacharach recalled.The trio produced hit after hit. The songs were as complicated to record as they were easy to hear. Bacharach liked to experiment with time signatures and arrangements, such as having two pianists play on “Walk on By,” their performances just slightly out of sync to give the song “a jagged kind of feeling,” he wrote in his memoir.The Bacharach-David partnership ended with the dismal failure of a 1973 musical remake of "Lost Horizon." Bacharach became so depressed he isolated himself in his Del Mar vacation home and refused to work."I didn't want to write with Hal or anybody," he told the AP in 2004. Nor did he want to fulfill a commitment to record Warwick. She and David both sued him.Bacharach and David eventually reconciled. When David died in 2012, Bacharach praised him for writing lyrics “like a miniature movie.”Meanwhile, Bacharach kept working, vowing never to retire, always believing that a good song could make a difference.“Music softens the heart, makes you feel something if it’s good, brings in emotion that you might not have felt before,” he told the AP in 2018. “It’s a very powerful thing if you’re able to do to it, if you have it in your heart to do something like that.”___

Burt Bacharach, KC native, legendary composer of pop songs, dies

Disney
 is working on sequels for “Toy Story,” “Frozen” and “Zootopia,” three 
huge hits as the entertainment powerhouse attempts to find its footing 
under newly returned CEO Bob Iger.

The Walt Disney Co. is undergoing a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/walt-disney-co-bob-iger-earnings-business-28f75af4037890243412412f1c501682">“strategic transformation,”</a> Iger said on Wednesday. That includes 7,000 job cuts announced this week and a renewed focus on core brands and franchises.

Iger, who <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-bob-iger-chapek-susan-arnold-81f76a4a34c1e902fbd639af843cf84a">returned as CEO</a>
 in November following a challenging two-year tenure by his handpicked 
successor, Bob Chapek, announced the plans for the new movies during 
Disney's first-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

Disney owns Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar. Its latest Marvel movie, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” opens on Feb. 17.

The
 Burbank, California, company said it wants to make sure that executives
 in charge of content creation have a prominent say in what movies, TV 
shows or other content to produce, as well as the marketing and 
distribution of those products.

“Toy Story” is a long-time movie 
franchise for Disney. The original film, which was the first 
computer-animated feature film and the debut feature release from Pixar 
Animation Studios, came out in 1995. It received a Special Achievement 
Academy Award in 1996, as there was no best animated feature film 
category at the time.

The most recent sequel, “Toy Story 4” released in 2019 and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/academy-awards-tim-allen-tom-hanks-randy-newman-movies-addec9fd40a18623a6d26dc26df94af2">won two animated film Oscars</a>
 in 2020, becoming the first franchise to accomplish that. Predecessor 
“Toy Story 3” won the best animated feature Academy Award in 2011.

A prequel film, called “Lightyear,” was in theaters last year.

The original “ <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bba4cf20d2ea42ed863288b7c7b69f2c">Frozen</a>
 ” film released in 2013 and won the Academy Award for best animated 
feature film in 2014. The sequel, “Frozen II,” was in theaters in 2019.

Disney made about <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-us-news-ap-top-news-canada-movies-1eef5653bdf27f2cb1a99b56ba18cfc5">$13 billion in worldwide box office</a> in 2019, helped by a strong slate of movies that included “Toy Story 4," “Frozen II,” “Avengers: Endgame” and others.

Unlike “Toy Story” and “Frozen,” “Zootopia" has yet to have a sequel. The original movie came out in 2016 and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ede550a2b4aa688c004f9bbb49fe8759">won an Academy Award</a> for best animated film in 2017.

Associated PressDisney
 is working on sequels for “Toy Story,” “Frozen” and “Zootopia,” three 
huge hits as the entertainment powerhouse attempts to find its footing 
under newly returned CEO Bob Iger.The Walt Disney Co. is undergoing a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/walt-disney-co-bob-iger-earnings-business-28f75af4037890243412412f1c501682">“strategic transformation,”</a> Iger said on Wednesday. That includes 7,000 job cuts announced this week and a renewed focus on core brands and franchises.Iger, who <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-bob-iger-chapek-susan-arnold-81f76a4a34c1e902fbd639af843cf84a">returned as CEO</a>
 in November following a challenging two-year tenure by his handpicked 
successor, Bob Chapek, announced the plans for the new movies during 
Disney's first-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.Disney owns Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar. Its latest Marvel movie, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” opens on Feb. 17.The
 Burbank, California, company said it wants to make sure that executives
 in charge of content creation have a prominent say in what movies, TV 
shows or other content to produce, as well as the marketing and 
distribution of those products.“Toy Story” is a long-time movie 
franchise for Disney. The original film, which was the first 
computer-animated feature film and the debut feature release from Pixar 
Animation Studios, came out in 1995. It received a Special Achievement 
Academy Award in 1996, as there was no best animated feature film 
category at the time.The most recent sequel, “Toy Story 4” released in 2019 and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/academy-awards-tim-allen-tom-hanks-randy-newman-movies-addec9fd40a18623a6d26dc26df94af2">won two animated film Oscars</a>
 in 2020, becoming the first franchise to accomplish that. Predecessor 
“Toy Story 3” won the best animated feature Academy Award in 2011.A prequel film, called “Lightyear,” was in theaters last year.The original “ <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bba4cf20d2ea42ed863288b7c7b69f2c">Frozen</a>
 ” film released in 2013 and won the Academy Award for best animated 
feature film in 2014. The sequel, “Frozen II,” was in theaters in 2019.Disney made about <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-us-news-ap-top-news-canada-movies-1eef5653bdf27f2cb1a99b56ba18cfc5">$13 billion in worldwide box office</a> in 2019, helped by a strong slate of movies that included “Toy Story 4," “Frozen II,” “Avengers: Endgame” and others.Unlike “Toy Story” and “Frozen,” “Zootopia" has yet to have a sequel. The original movie came out in 2016 and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ede550a2b4aa688c004f9bbb49fe8759">won an Academy Award</a> for best animated film in 2017.

New 'Toy Story,' 'Frozen,' 'Zootopia' movies on tap

NEW YORK (AP) — A bevy of booze brands will be in the Super Bowl ad lineup this year, now that Anheuser-Busch has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-philadelphia-eagles-super-bowl-sports-fox-corp-5d9922047c7fb640ddbf8caf5100ece2">ended its exclusive advertising sponsorship</a> after more than 30 years.

In addition to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-buffalo-bills-philadelphia-eagles-nfl-super-bowl-221469a7596a194eefe5f56e539ed8ed">celebrities</a>
 hawking Budweiser and Michelob Ultra, viewers will see some famous 
folks touting the qualities of Heineken and Coors, and even suggesting 
they drink cognac or whiskey — responsibly, of course.

Anheuser-Busch,
 parent of the Bud, Ultra and Busch beer brands, said in June it would 
end the exclusivity deal it first struck in 1989. The company is still a
 big presence at NFL games, sponsoring all major NFL moments during the 
offseason, such as the 2022 NFL Draft in Las Vegas.

And the St. 
Louis, Missouri beverage giant is still the largest alcohol advertiser 
during the game, with three minutes of national airtime and a 30-second 
regional Budweiser spot.

On A-B's roster this year: A <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azCNwGnxq0s">Bud Light ad</a> shows actor Miles Teller and his wife Keleigh dancing to on-hold music. A regional <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dChVB7iKSg8">Budweiser ad</a> focuses on people connecting with a six-pack. A <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDGwwVki13Q">Michelob Ultra ad</a>
 spotlights actor Brian Cox and tennis star Serena Williams at a new 
members day at the Bushwood Country Club, the golf club in “Caddyshack.”
 And a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGZRMC3S9Ic">Busch Light ad</a> shows singer Sarah McLachlan sharing a tent with a wolf spoofing her well-known animal-advocacy ad.

The
 other alcohol brands running ads include beer brands Heineken and 
Molson Coors and liquor brands Remy Martin and Crown Royal, all eager to
 make their mark on advertising's largest stage.

Brands pay premium dollars to advertise during the gridiron classic, which draws about 100 million viewers each year. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-philadelphia-eagles-super-bowl-sports-fox-corp-5d9922047c7fb640ddbf8caf5100ece2">This year, most 30-second ad blocks sold for between $6 million and $7 million</a> — for the ad space alone. Companies spend millions more to create the ads themselves and book celebrity sponsors.

Heineken
 is promoting its alcohol-free beer Heineken 0.0 with an ad that's part 
of its larger partnership with Marvel — the ad, under wraps until the 
game, will feature actor Paul Rudd as his Marvel character “Ant Man.”

“We
 were really excited to hear that category opened up, and almost 
immediately we thought, you know, what a great way to really blow out 
Heineken 0.0 momentum and share that brand and that product with the 
wider market,” said Heineken chief marketing officer Jonnie Cahill in an
 interview with the AP.

Beer sales have held steady in the U.S., 
but the beer category has been losing market share to other types of 
alcoholic drinks, said Bart Watson, chief economist for trade group 
Brewers Association.

Beer's share in the alcohol market had 
dropped from 58% in 2000 to about 46% in 2022, while other alcoholic 
beverages, particularly spirits, have gained share. But overall beer 
barrel shipments are still up during the same time frame because the 
overall category has grown, according to figures tallied by the Beer 
Institute and Brewers Association.

For Anheuser-Busch, the 
decision to end its Super Bowl exclusivity is likely about putting 
marketing dollars elsewhere, Watson said.

“You have a new 
generation that consumes alcohol differently and beer differently. (For 
A-B), to put all their eggs in this basket isn’t getting the return that
 maybe it once did.”

Molson Coors is also keeping its ad for the 
big game under wraps. But it is attempting to make a splash as a 
first-time national advertiser by letting fans bet on what the ad will 
have in it — such as whether the game will feature its Coors Light or 
Miller Lite brand — via betting site DraftKings.

Other alcohol ads
 have enlisted celebrities: Diageo's ad for its Crown Royal whisky will 
feature musician Dave Grohl. Rémy Cointreau is also using Serena 
Williams, in an ad that spotlights its Rémy Martin cognac.

Not all alcohol makers are jumping to the national stage. Boston Beer Co. is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDo0wX1pK4c">sticking to a regional spot</a>
 for its Samuel Adams beer — the third year it has run a regional ad. 
The ad shows Bostonians imagining what would happen if everyone in the 
city was nice and polite.

“Samuel Adams is a relatively small 
player in the beer category, so a regional approach enables us to be 
part of the Super Bowl conversation without having to pay the huge price
 tag of a national ad," said Lesya Lysyj, chief marketing officer. A cut
 of the ad will run nationally beginning the week after the Super Bowl, 
she added.

Aside from alcohol, big brands including Pepsi Zero 
Sugar, Doritos, M&amp;Ms, Google, Downy and Kia will all be advertising 
during Super Bowl LVII, which airs Sunday on Fox.

NEW YORK (AP) — A bevy of booze brands will be in the Super Bowl ad lineup this year, now that Anheuser-Busch has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-philadelphia-eagles-super-bowl-sports-fox-corp-5d9922047c7fb640ddbf8caf5100ece2">ended its exclusive advertising sponsorship</a> after more than 30 years.In addition to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-buffalo-bills-philadelphia-eagles-nfl-super-bowl-221469a7596a194eefe5f56e539ed8ed">celebrities</a>
 hawking Budweiser and Michelob Ultra, viewers will see some famous 
folks touting the qualities of Heineken and Coors, and even suggesting 
they drink cognac or whiskey — responsibly, of course.Anheuser-Busch,
 parent of the Bud, Ultra and Busch beer brands, said in June it would 
end the exclusivity deal it first struck in 1989. The company is still a
 big presence at NFL games, sponsoring all major NFL moments during the 
offseason, such as the 2022 NFL Draft in Las Vegas.And the St. 
Louis, Missouri beverage giant is still the largest alcohol advertiser 
during the game, with three minutes of national airtime and a 30-second 
regional Budweiser spot.On A-B's roster this year: A <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azCNwGnxq0s">Bud Light ad</a> shows actor Miles Teller and his wife Keleigh dancing to on-hold music. A regional <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dChVB7iKSg8">Budweiser ad</a> focuses on people connecting with a six-pack. A <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDGwwVki13Q">Michelob Ultra ad</a>
 spotlights actor Brian Cox and tennis star Serena Williams at a new 
members day at the Bushwood Country Club, the golf club in “Caddyshack.”
 And a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGZRMC3S9Ic">Busch Light ad</a> shows singer Sarah McLachlan sharing a tent with a wolf spoofing her well-known animal-advocacy ad.The
 other alcohol brands running ads include beer brands Heineken and 
Molson Coors and liquor brands Remy Martin and Crown Royal, all eager to
 make their mark on advertising's largest stage.Brands pay premium dollars to advertise during the gridiron classic, which draws about 100 million viewers each year. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-philadelphia-eagles-super-bowl-sports-fox-corp-5d9922047c7fb640ddbf8caf5100ece2">This year, most 30-second ad blocks sold for between $6 million and $7 million</a> — for the ad space alone. Companies spend millions more to create the ads themselves and book celebrity sponsors.Heineken
 is promoting its alcohol-free beer Heineken 0.0 with an ad that's part 
of its larger partnership with Marvel — the ad, under wraps until the 
game, will feature actor Paul Rudd as his Marvel character “Ant Man.”“We
 were really excited to hear that category opened up, and almost 
immediately we thought, you know, what a great way to really blow out 
Heineken 0.0 momentum and share that brand and that product with the 
wider market,” said Heineken chief marketing officer Jonnie Cahill in an
 interview with the AP.Beer sales have held steady in the U.S., 
but the beer category has been losing market share to other types of 
alcoholic drinks, said Bart Watson, chief economist for trade group 
Brewers Association.Beer's share in the alcohol market had 
dropped from 58% in 2000 to about 46% in 2022, while other alcoholic 
beverages, particularly spirits, have gained share. But overall beer 
barrel shipments are still up during the same time frame because the 
overall category has grown, according to figures tallied by the Beer 
Institute and Brewers Association.For Anheuser-Busch, the 
decision to end its Super Bowl exclusivity is likely about putting 
marketing dollars elsewhere, Watson said.“You have a new 
generation that consumes alcohol differently and beer differently. (For 
A-B), to put all their eggs in this basket isn’t getting the return that
 maybe it once did.”Molson Coors is also keeping its ad for the 
big game under wraps. But it is attempting to make a splash as a 
first-time national advertiser by letting fans bet on what the ad will 
have in it — such as whether the game will feature its Coors Light or 
Miller Lite brand — via betting site DraftKings.Other alcohol ads
 have enlisted celebrities: Diageo's ad for its Crown Royal whisky will 
feature musician Dave Grohl. Rémy Cointreau is also using Serena 
Williams, in an ad that spotlights its Rémy Martin cognac.Not all alcohol makers are jumping to the national stage. Boston Beer Co. is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDo0wX1pK4c">sticking to a regional spot</a>
 for its Samuel Adams beer — the third year it has run a regional ad. 
The ad shows Bostonians imagining what would happen if everyone in the 
city was nice and polite.“Samuel Adams is a relatively small 
player in the beer category, so a regional approach enables us to be 
part of the Super Bowl conversation without having to pay the huge price
 tag of a national ad," said Lesya Lysyj, chief marketing officer. A cut
 of the ad will run nationally beginning the week after the Super Bowl, 
she added.Aside from alcohol, big brands including Pepsi Zero 
Sugar, Doritos, M&amp;Ms, Google, Downy and Kia will all be advertising 
during Super Bowl LVII, which airs Sunday on Fox.Cover image courtesy Pixabay

Here's why this year's Super Bowl beer ads go beyond Bud

By PETER A. JOY <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-involuntary-manslaughter-a-law-professor-explains-the-charge-facing-alec-baldwin-for-rust-shooting-death-198218">The Conversation</a>

A prosecutor in New Mexico <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/arts/rust-shooting-charges-alec-baldwin.html">intends to charge Alec Baldwin</a> with two counts of involuntary manslaughter it was announced on Jan. 19, 2023, over the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/us/alec-baldwin-shooting-rust-movie.html">deadly shooting</a>
 on the set of the film “Rust” in 2021. The shooting occurred while 
Baldwin was rehearsing a scene with a gun that had been loaded with live
 ammunition instead of blanks. The prosecutor also intends to charge 
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the <a href="https://www.careersinfilm.com/armorer/">armorer</a> responsible for <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-rust-shooting-industry-veterans-say-buck-stops-armorers-movie-n1282743">overseeing the safety of firearms</a> on the set, with two counts of involuntary manslaughter as well.

As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X8tNfOsAAAAJ&amp;hl=en&amp;oi=ao">professor of law</a>,
 my job is to understand the nuance of the U.S. legal system. 
Involuntary manslaughter occurs when a person unintentionally, but still
 unlawfully, kills another person. And a prosecutor will need to show 
the unlawful nature of either Baldwin’s or Gutierrez-Reed’s actions to 
get a conviction in this case.

To convict someone of involuntary manslaughter, a prosecutor has to prove that the defendant <a href="https://www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-charges/involuntary-manslaughter-overview.html">acted either recklessly or with criminal negligence</a>.

To prove someone acted recklessly, a prosecutor has to show that the 
defendant was aware of the risk they were creating with their actions – 
like a drunk driver crashing into a car and <a href="https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime/driver-convicted-involuntary-manslaughter-killed-baby-2-parents-jefferson-co/63-e9d29793-5187-446e-9067-96e8f29e0806">killing a baby and her parents</a>.
 In contrast, the charge of criminal negligence is filed when a 
defendant is not aware of the risk, but a reasonable person in the 
position of the defendant would have been aware of the risk. For 
example, if someone rents out an apartment without smoke detectors and 
there is a fire that kills the occupants, the owner of the apartment 
could be charged with involuntary manslaughter.

The question for a potential jury is whether Baldwin was guilty of 
either reckless or criminally negligent actions that resulted in the 
death of <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/halyna-hutchins-in-her-own-words/ar-AA16wWuh">Halyna Hutchins</a>, the cinematographer on the “Rust” set.

The prosecutor is alleging that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/arts/rust-shooting-charges-alec-baldwin.html?">Baldwin had a duty</a>
 to ensure that the gun and the ammunition he used were properly checked
 and that without doing that check himself, Baldwin should never have 
pointed the gun at anyone. Although that is what the prosecutor is 
claiming, a complicating factor is that there was another person, an 
on-set safety person responsible for the weapons and ammunition.

To convict Baldwin of manslaughter – assuming the case goes to trial –
 the prosecutor will have to convince a jury of two things. First, that 
Baldwin could not reasonably rely on Gutierrez-Reed to do her job and 
ensure that the gun did not have any live ammunition in it. And second, 
that Baldwin acted recklessly, or at least with criminal negligence, by 
not checking the gun and the ammunition himself before pointing the gun 
at the person he killed.

By PETER A. JOY <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-involuntary-manslaughter-a-law-professor-explains-the-charge-facing-alec-baldwin-for-rust-shooting-death-198218">The Conversation</a>A prosecutor in New Mexico <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/arts/rust-shooting-charges-alec-baldwin.html">intends to charge Alec Baldwin</a> with two counts of involuntary manslaughter it was announced on Jan. 19, 2023, over the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/us/alec-baldwin-shooting-rust-movie.html">deadly shooting</a>
 on the set of the film “Rust” in 2021. The shooting occurred while 
Baldwin was rehearsing a scene with a gun that had been loaded with live
 ammunition instead of blanks. The prosecutor also intends to charge 
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the <a href="https://www.careersinfilm.com/armorer/">armorer</a> responsible for <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-rust-shooting-industry-veterans-say-buck-stops-armorers-movie-n1282743">overseeing the safety of firearms</a> on the set, with two counts of involuntary manslaughter as well. As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X8tNfOsAAAAJ&amp;hl=en&amp;oi=ao">professor of law</a>,
 my job is to understand the nuance of the U.S. legal system. 
Involuntary manslaughter occurs when a person unintentionally, but still
 unlawfully, kills another person. And a prosecutor will need to show 
the unlawful nature of either Baldwin’s or Gutierrez-Reed’s actions to 
get a conviction in this case.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1674247011938.jpg" alt="Baldwin thought the gun was loaded with blanks, ammunition that contains powder but not a bullet. Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Baldwin thought the gun was loaded with blanks, ammunition that contains powder but not a bullet. Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>A reckless or negligent accident</h2>To convict someone of involuntary manslaughter, a prosecutor has to prove that the defendant <a href="https://www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-charges/involuntary-manslaughter-overview.html">acted either recklessly or with criminal negligence</a>.To prove someone acted recklessly, a prosecutor has to show that the 
defendant was aware of the risk they were creating with their actions – 
like a drunk driver crashing into a car and <a href="https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime/driver-convicted-involuntary-manslaughter-killed-baby-2-parents-jefferson-co/63-e9d29793-5187-446e-9067-96e8f29e0806">killing a baby and her parents</a>.
 In contrast, the charge of criminal negligence is filed when a 
defendant is not aware of the risk, but a reasonable person in the 
position of the defendant would have been aware of the risk. For 
example, if someone rents out an apartment without smoke detectors and 
there is a fire that kills the occupants, the owner of the apartment 
could be charged with involuntary manslaughter.The question for a potential jury is whether Baldwin was guilty of 
either reckless or criminally negligent actions that resulted in the 
death of <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/halyna-hutchins-in-her-own-words/ar-AA16wWuh">Halyna Hutchins</a>, the cinematographer on the “Rust” set. The prosecutor is alleging that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/arts/rust-shooting-charges-alec-baldwin.html?">Baldwin had a duty</a>
 to ensure that the gun and the ammunition he used were properly checked
 and that without doing that check himself, Baldwin should never have 
pointed the gun at anyone. Although that is what the prosecutor is 
claiming, a complicating factor is that there was another person, an 
on-set safety person responsible for the weapons and ammunition. To convict Baldwin of manslaughter – assuming the case goes to trial –
 the prosecutor will have to convince a jury of two things. First, that 
Baldwin could not reasonably rely on Gutierrez-Reed to do her job and 
ensure that the gun did not have any live ammunition in it. And second, 
that Baldwin acted recklessly, or at least with criminal negligence, by 
not checking the gun and the ammunition himself before pointing the gun 
at the person he killed.