Jared Leto’s ‘Morbius’ Pushed to Spring Amid Omicron Surge

Morbius is on the move.

The movie, starring Jared Leto, has set a new release date of April 1 amid the omicron surge. It had been set to open in theaters on Jan. 28.

The Sony and Marvel film had already been delayed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In January, Sony announced that the film would move from October 2021 to early 2022.

Morbius stars Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, a scientist who suffered from a rare blood disease and turned himself into a living vampire during an attempt to cure himself.

Adria Arjona, Matt Smith, Tyrese Gibson and Jared Harris also star in the film, which is directed by Daniel Espinosa.

Michael Keaton, who played The Vulture in Sony and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Homecoming, also appears in some capacity in the film, apparently reprising his role.

The first trailer for Morbius suggested for the first time that Sony Pictures’ Universe of Marvel Characters is connected to Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, not only by the inclusion of Keaton, but also by street signs calling Spider-Man a murderer.

The Morbius news comes as Sony and Marvel celebrate the blockbuster performance of Spider-Man: Far From Home.

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

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Jimmy Fallon Reveals Breakthrough COVID-19 Diagnosis

Jimmy Fallon revealed that he tested positive for COVID-19 over holiday break.

Taking to Instagram Monday (Jan. 3), the late-night host shared a photo of himself masked in an isolation room. “Hey guys, on the first day of our holiday break I tested positive for Covid. I was vaccinated and boostered which made me lucky enough to only have mild symptoms,” he wrote.

He went on to thank the medical professionals who “work so hard around the clock to get everyone vaxxed.” “Thank you to NBC for taking the testing protocols so seriously and doing a great job,” he continued before joking, “and also thanks for putting me in the ‘What ‘chu talkin’ about Willis?’ isolation room when they told me the news.”

The host has since recovered in time for The Tonight Show’s Monday return from break.

After Reese Witherspoon left a comment on the post telling Fallon, “Hope you had a speedy recovery,” Fallon confirmed he was “back to 100%!”

When a social media user asked whether the diagnosis would impact the show, Fallon offered more insight: “The positive test came back on 12/18. Back at work today and feeling 100%!”

Anthony Anderson, Adam Devine and Carly Pearce are set to appear on the late-night show Monday.

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

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The Weeknd Collaborator Jim Carrey Calls Singer’s ‘Dawn FM’ Album ‘Deep and Elegant’: ‘It Danced Me Around the Room’

Jim Carrey is a huge fan of The Weeknd‘s upcoming album, Dawn FM.

Shortly after the R&B singer-songwriter officially announced the album’s title and release date on Monday (Jan. 3), the famed actor and comedian — who is listed as a collaborator in a cryptic video teaser for the project — praised the forthcoming release on social media.

“I listened to Dawn FM with my good friend Abel @theweeknd last night. It was deep and elegant and it danced me around the room. I’m thrilled to play a part in his symphony,” Carrey tweeted in response to The Weeknd’s announcement.

The Weeknd, born Abel Tesfaye, then thanked Carey for his mysterious involvement in Dawn FM. “It’s kismet. Full circle,” the singer replied, adding a smiling face with a tear emoji.

Billed as “A new sonic universe from the mind of The Weeknd,” Dawn FM also features collaborations in some form with Quincy Jones, Tyler, the Creator, Lil Wayne and Oneohtrix Point Never. Further details about the guest appearances were not provided.

The Weeknd opened up about his friendship with Carrey during an interview with Variety in April 2020. The mutual fans were introduced through text and the singer later invited the actor to his home to hear some music.

“I texted him the address of my condo in L.A., and he said, ‘I can literally see your place from my balcony,’ and we got out telescopes and were waving to each other,” The Weeknd told Variety, noting that he was a huge fan of Carrey’s 1994 film The Mask. “Jim Carrey was my first inspiration to be any kind of performer, and I went to breakfast with him on my first day of being 30.”

Dawn FM is the follow-up to The Weeknd’s fourth album, After Hours, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 in March 2020. The blockbuster set featured the record-breaking single “Blinding Lights,” which recently became the top Billboard Hot 100 song of all time, surpassing Chubby Checker‘s “The Twist.”

See The Weeknd’s response to Carrey’s flattering tweet about Dawn FM below.

 

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Adele’s ‘30’ Spends Sixth Week at No. 1 on Billboard 200, ‘Encanto’ Hits Top 10

Adele’s 30 holds court atop the Billboard 200 albums chart for a sixth consecutive, and total, week at No. 1 (chart dated Jan. 8, 2022). The effort earned 99,000 equivalent album units (down 53%) in the U.S. in the week of Dec. 24-30, according to MRC Data.

30 is the second album released in 2021 to spend at least six weeks at No. 1 in total on the Billboard 200, following Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album (with 10 weeks atop the tally).

Also in the new top 10, a pair of albums hit the region for the first time: the new Encanto film soundtrack bounds 110-7, while the classic holiday compilation A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector jumps 11-10.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Jan 8, 2022-dated chart (where 30 spends a sixth week at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Jan. 5 (one day later than usual, owed to the holiday week). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of 30’s 99,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 30, album sales comprise 71,500 (down 60%), SEA units comprise 26,000 (down 13%; equaling 35.45 million on-demand streams of the set’s tracks) and TEA units comprise 1,500 units (up less than 1%).

30 debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated Dec. 4 with 839,000 units earned. It then saw its second through sixth weeks tally 288,000; 193,000; 183,000; 212,000 and 99,000 units, respectively.

30 logs the biggest sixth week for any album since Roddy Ricch’s Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial logged 110,000 units in its sixth frame on the Jan. 25, 2020-dated tally.

Michael Bublé’s former No. 1 Christmas holds at No. 2 with 53,000 equivalent album units earned (down 31%). The set also spends its 100th nonconsecutive week on the chart, Bublé’s third album to reach that threshold, following 2007’s Call Me Irresponsible (113 weeks) and 2005’s It’s Time (143).

Three more former No. 1s round out the top five, as Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) is a non-mover at No. 3 with 47,000 units (down 39%), Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour rises 5-4 with 46,000 units (down 25%) and Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double album returns to the top 10 after a one-week dip outside the region. It climbs 12-5 with 43,000 units (down 10%).

Dangerous spent its first 49 weeks on the chart in the top 10, after debuting at No. 1 on the list dated Jan. 23, 2021. It fell out of the top 10 in its 50th chart week, when it dropped 6-12 on the Jan. 1, 2022-dated list. With its climb back to the top 10, Dangerous now has a total of 50 weeks in the top 10. It’s one of only four country albums with at least 50 weeks in the region in the 65-year history of the chart. Among country sets, Taylor Swift’s Fearless has the most weeks in the top 10, with 58, followed by Shania Twain’s Come On Over (53), Dangerous and Garth Brooks’ Ropin’ the Wind (the latter two each with 50). (Country albums are defined as those that have hit Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart).

Among all genres, Dangerous is just the seventh album released since 2000 to spend 50 weeks in the top 10. Among all albums released since 2000, only Adele’s 21 (84 weeks), Swift’s 1989 (59), Swift’s Fearless (58), Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (Divide) (53), Lady Gaga’s The Fame (51), Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding (50) and Dangerous have logged at least 50 weeks in the top 10.

Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song climbs 8-6, matching its peak first achieved on the Jan. 2, 2021-dated chart. The set earned 42,000 equivalent album units in the latest tracking week (down 23%).

The soundtrack to the Walt Disney animated film Encanto vaults 110-7 for its first week in the top 10. The set earned 41,000 equivalent album units (up 220%) in its fifth week on the chart. The soundtrack album, with songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, was released on Nov. 19, before the film arrived in U.S. theaters on Nov. 24. The movie was released via the Disney+ streaming service a month later (Dec. 24, the first day of the chart’s latest tracking week). Encanto is the most recently released soundtrack to reach the top 10 since Frozen II jumped 15-3 on the Dec. 7, 2019 chart, on its way to No. 1 a week later.

Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack to the animated TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas dips 6-8 with 41,000 equivalent album units earned (down 33%), and Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas falls 7-9 with 39,000 units (down 30%).

The classic holiday compilation A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector, released in 1963, reaches the top 10 for the first time, as it steps 11-10. The set earned 39,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Dec. 30 (down 21%). The album, produced by Spector, includes familiar favorites heard during the holiday season – and featured prominently in playlists on streaming services – such as The Ronettes’ “Sleigh Ride” and Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home.”

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Supergroup GOT the Beat Debuts ‘Step Back’ at Record-Breaking SMTOWN Live Concert

GOT the Beat, a new seven-member supergroup made up of BoA, Girls’ Generation‘s Taeyeon and Hyoyeon, Red Velvet’s Seulgi and Wendy and Aespa’s Karina and Winter, rang in 2022 with their debut single, “Step Back.”

The group brought the song, which has Yoo Young Jin and Dem Jointz among its producers, to the stage for a special performance at SMTOWN Live 2022 on New Year’s Eve. “Step Back” was officially released as a single on Jan. 3.

GOT the Beat is the “first unit” of a new SM Entertainment project known as Girls on Top, set to bring together and highlight the company’s female artists in various groups.

SMTOWN Live 2022, a free event for fans around the world that took place at the “SMCU Express Station” in a virtual space known as “KWANGYA,” featured a big lineup from SM Entertainment’s roster. A 40-song setlist featured “Step Back” and had a number of other collaborative performances, like “Ordinary Day” by Super Junior’s Kyuhyun, SHINee’s Onew and NCT’s Taeil, and “Zoo” by NCT’s Taeyong, Jeno, Hendery and Yangyang and Aespa’s Giselle.

SM Entertainment reports the concert set a new record with the highest number of views for a Korean concert online, with 51 million global streams, surpassing their own record for last year’s SMTOWN concert.

Soo-Man Lee, the event’s chief producer, gave an opening speech that explained, “SMCU [SM Culture Universe] shares stories of each artist across the virtual space and reality. In other words, it is a concept that encompasses the worldview and the universe containing the identity of each team. KWANGYA, therefore, represents a new world that transcends and coexists without boundaries. This worldview is being newly named and developed as ‘Metaversal Origin Story’ and each artist’s ‘Metaversal Origin Story’ comes together, intersects and coexists with each other in KWANGYA, which will unfold a new world.”

Watch GOT the Beat perform “Step Back” below.

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Stephen J. Lawrence, ‘Sesame Street’ Composer, Dies at 82

Stephen J. Lawrence, a Daytime-Emmy-winning composer for Sesame Street, has died. He was 82.

Lawrence died on Dec. 30 at Clara Maas Medical Center in Belleville, N.J., his wife Cantor Cathy Lawrence confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. A cause of death was not provided.

Born on Sept. 5, 1939, Lawrence served as a composer, music director, arranger and conductor on the longtime children’s television series Sesame Street for more than 30 years. He composed over 300 songs and scores for the program, including “Fuzzy and Blue (and Orange),” co-written with David Axelrod. He received three Daytime Emmy awards for outstanding achievement in music direction and composition for his work on the show.

With an interest in children’s education, Lawrence also collaborated with The Jim Henson Company when composing the score for The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss. He later co-founded the nonprofit Quill Entertainment Company with Granville Burgess in 1998.

In addition to Sesame Street, Lawrence is also recognized as the musical director and co-music producer on the 1972 album Free to Be You and Me — the album was certified gold — in which he composed the title song, as well as “When We Grow Up” and “Sisters and Brothers.”

Other composer credits include the 1973 Robert DeNiro-starrer Bang the Drum Slowly, One Summer Love (1976), cult horror film Alice, Sweet Alice (1976), live-action musical Red Riding Hood and the 1991 HBO animated musical The Tale of Peter Rabbit, starring Carol Burnett. He also composed the film score for AKA Communion (1976), which received the Music Award from the Paris Festival of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1977. Lawrence was the music director and the co-writer of four songs for the film Sooner or Later (1979), including the gold single “You Take My Breath Away.”

He also served as the Music Director of Temple Sinai from 2002 to 2012.

Lawrence is survived by his wife, Cantor Cathy Lawrence; brother Robert; daughter Hannah Jones Anderson; son-in-law Seth Anderson; grandson Arthur, and stepsons Sam and Nick Kline.

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

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Broadway’s ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ Going on 9-Week Hiatus in Attempt to Stay Open

Mrs. Doubtfire is taking unusual measures to hopefully avoid a permanent closure amid a surge in COVID-19 cases linked to the omicron variant.

Producers behind the Broadway show, which opened Dec. 5 at New York City’s Stephen Sondheim Theatre, announced Sunday (Jan. 2) that the project would go on a nine-week hiatus. The break will run from Jan. 10 through March 14.

“With the pervasiveness of the omicron variant of COVID-19, Mrs. Doubtfire would have to close permanently if the production didn’t take drastic, proactive measures,” a statement read, in part. “Mrs. Doubtfire has been in development for six years. We are doing everything in our power to keep the virus from prematurely ending our run on Broadway. By taking this break, we can afford to launch an extended run starting in March.”

The statement went on to praise the show’s “extraordinary” team for their resilience throughout the ongoing pandemic. The show, starring Rob McClure in the title role, is based on director Chris Columbus’ 1993 comedy film that featured Robin Williams and Sally Field.

“They embody the indomitable spirit of Broadway,” the message continued about the live show’s team. “I cannot wait for audiences to continue to enjoy what they have created in March!”

In a review for The Hollywood Reporter, critic Frank Scheck said Broadway’s Mrs. Doubtfire “delivers enough solid laughs to compensate for it being yet another in a seemingly endless procession of uninspired screen-to-stage musical adaptations.”

Broadway productions have been upended by the spread of the omicron variant. Five shows announced plans in December to unexpectedly close, including musicals Ain’t Too Proud, Diana, Jagged Little Pill and Waitress, along with the play Thoughts of a Colored Man.

Numerous other shows have temporarily gone dark in recent weeks due to health reasons stemming from the COVID-19 situation. Last month, Broadway League president Charlotte St. Martin told The Hollywood Reporter that Broadway as a whole has no plans to shut down but would work with epidemiologists to potentially adjust current protocols.

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

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Miley Cyrus Debuts New Song ‘You’ on New Year’s Eve: ‘Haven’t Even Recorded It Yet’

Miley Cyrus debuted a new song on her New Year’s Eve special with Pete Davidson, Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party — so new that she hasn’t even recorded it yet.

Ringing in 2022 on the NBC telecast — where she seamlessly endured a slight wardrobe malfunction — Cyrus closed the night with an earnest ballad called “You.”

“I got some baggage/ Let’s do some damage/ I am not made for no horsey and carriage/ You know I’m savage/ You’re looking past it/ I want that late night sweet magic/ That forever lasting love/ But only if it’s with you,” she sang.

She shared the performance in a Jan. 1 post on Instagram. and was bombarded with questions about where people could stream the song. One fan account commented “NEED THIS ON SPOTIFY IMMEDIATELY,” and the singer explained why it wasn’t available there.

Cyrus responded: “This song is so new I haven’t even recorded it yet. Just wanted to do something special for YOU all!”

Her most recent studio album, Plastic Hearts, was released on Nov. 27, 2020 and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and No. 1 on the Top Rock Albums chart. In October 2021, she told fans she was “in the studio working on the next album.”

Watch her perform “You” live below.

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