Billboard Music Awards 2015: Little Big Town to Perform "Girl Crush" With Faith Hill

 Looks like we've found out who Little Big Town's "Girl Crush" is. The band will perform the Hot Country Songs chart-topping single with Faith Hill at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday, May 17.
 In addition to the just-announced performance from Van Halen, Little Big Town and Hill will join Kelly Clarkson, Hozier, Nick Jonas, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, along with special duet performances by Empire's Jussie Smollett and Bryshere "Yazz" Gray with Estelle, Fall Out Boy featuring Wiz Khalifa, Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea and Meghan Trainor featuring John Legend.
 While early stories said "Girl Crush" wasn't getting support from country radio because of its assumed "lesbian theme," that's been far from the case: The track topped Hot Country Songs this week and lands at No. 19 on the Country Airplay chart.
 The Billboard Music Awards -- produced by Dick Clark Productions -- will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 17, from 8-11 p.m. ET on ABC. The show will be co-hosted by Ludacris and Chrissy Teigen, and Taylor Swift and Sam Smith lead all finalists with 14 and 13 entries, respectively.
 This article originally appeared on Billboard.com.

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Tonys: Broadway Stars Gather to Celebrate Nominations

“This is my own version of hell.”

Surprisingly, Kristin Chenoweth is not talking about the media deluge at the Tony Awards press junket on Wednesday morning at New York's Paramount Hotel, where hundreds of reporters with cameras and recorders descend on the newly minted nominees. Actually, she's not talking at all. She has written this quote on a whiteboard, as she wants to celebrate her nomination for best leading actress in On the 20th Century and her co-hosting gig with Alan Cumming for the ceremony on June 7. But she’s on vocal rest, saving her voice for a two-performance day.

“Is this a first for y’all?” she writes, asking a small semi-circle of reporters if they have ever received written responses. "I want to kill it with Alan. Broadway all the way!”

Not all the nominees were constrained by vocal restrictions. Newcomer and featured actor nominee Micah Stock started to cry as he described his co-star Nathan Lane holding the curtain at the prior evening’s performance of It’s Only a Play to acknowledge Stock's accomplishment, which is the show’s only nod. “I’ll never forget this, and Nathan just said, ‘We are so proud of Micah Stock,’” he explained. “If nothing else happens to me, that’s fine. I’ll remember that.”

Geneva Carr also got a little teary. But even though her nomination in the leading actress in a play category for Hand to God puts her alongside Helen Mirren, Elisabeth Moss, Carey Mulligan and Ruth Wilson, she isn't intimidated by all that star power.

“Elisabeth Moss was a child actor in L.A. and then she came for a millisecond to New York before she booked Mad Men and left," said Carr. "She was the sweetest girl in the world. She’d say, ‘Oh you do commercials, can you help me? Can you advise me?’ I cannot wait to see her and tell her how happy I am for her success."

"I can’t wait to meet Helen," she added, explaining that the demonic sock puppet from Hand to God had already made overtures to Mirren, who is nominated for The Audience. "Tyrone’s already sent her flowers. And she sent him a thank you note. But I don’t think she gathered who he was. She better get ready.”

And how is Tyrone enjoying his nomination? Or rather, the nomination for his master Steven Boyer. The actor plays a Texas teenager whose sock puppet takes over his hand and his mother’s Sunday school puppet ministry. “Tyrone is doing rails as we speak in the dressing room. He’s getting ready for the two-show day,” says Boyer. “He’s enjoying the nomination as only he can.”

Alessandro Nivola, Bradley Cooper and Patricia Clarkson are gearing up to take their Tony-nominated revival of The Elephant Man to London, where it begins performances May 19 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. But the cast is relieved that all three of them are nominated for their work in the show on Broadway. Otherwise, it could get awkward.

“In all honesty, the day that the three of us agreed to go to London with the show, the first thought that we all had was, ‘What if two of us get Tony nominations and one doesn’t?’” Nivola told The Hollywood Reporter. “And we have to go to London and start this all over again. Won’t that be sad and awkward?”

Fun Home received 12 nominations, leading the field with An American in Paris. When composer Jeanine Tesori and writer-lyricist Lisa Kron learned that they could be the first all-female team to have a show win best musical, they were unfazed.

“If that happens, it’s about time,” Kron said.

“Our line on our Fun Home T-shirts should be, Fun Home: It’s about time,” added Tesori.

Other nominees in attendance at Wednesday's Tonys event included, among others, Sting, Bill Nighy, Matthew Beard, Victoria Clark, Michael Cerveris, Julie White, Chita Rivera, Alex Sharp, Robert Fairchild, Kelli O’Hara, Brian d’Arcy James and Christian Borle. 

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Tonys: 'Hedwig' Creator John Cameron Mitchell to Receive Special Award

 John Cameron Mitchell, the co-creator and original star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch; and Stephen Schwartz, the veteran composer behind such iconic musicals as Godspell, Pippin and Wicked, have both been tapped to receive special Tony Awards at the June 7 ceremony.
Mitchell will be presented with the 2015 Special Tony Award, fresh off his return to the role of the transgender rocker in the cult musical that he co-wrote with composer-lyricist Stephen Trask. Following in the heels of Neil Patrick Harris, Andrew Rannells and Michael C. Hall, Mitchell played Hedwig in a triumphant three-month stint that wrapped on Sunday. Darren Criss steps into the role this week.
 The Hedwig production won four Tonys last year, including best musical revival, lead actor for Harris and featured actress for Lena Hall.
 Prior to his recent stint in Hedwig, Mitchell's Broadway credits include roles in The Secret Garden, Big River and Six Degrees of Separation. He is currently preparing to direct his next feature, the Neil Gaiman adaptation How to Talk to Girls at Parties, with Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman.
 Schwartz will receive this year's Isabelle Stevenson Award, presented annually to a member of the Broadway community who has made a substantial contribution in humanitarian, social services or charitable areas. The composer is being honored for his commitment to serving artists and fostering new talent through his work with ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop and ASCAP Foundation, and for developing new partnerships during his six-year tenure as president of the Dramatists Guild.
 The recent revival of his show Pippin won Tonys in 2013 for best musical revival, lead and featured actress and director. His blockbuster hit Wicked has been playing to capacity houses on Broadway since 2003, grossing $921 million to date.
 Nominations in the competitive fields for the 69th Annual Tony Awards will be announced tomorrow morning by Mary-Louise Parker and Bruce Willis. The awards presentation will take place Sunday June 7, broadcast live on CBS from Radio City Music Hall. The host for this year's ceremony has not yet been announced.

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NewFronts: Arianna Huffington Explains Why Video Strategy Is Key for HuffPost

The Huffington Post made up a large part of AOL's new slate of programming, announced on Tuesday evening at its NewFront event in New York.
The website has plans for 11 new shows in addition to weekly live news program The HuffPost Show, which premiered on March 27. They include docuseriesNow What with Ryan Duffy, workplace-centered series Culture Shock, unscripted series 16 and President and cooking demo series You're Doing it Wrong.
"Our next big expansion is on video," says The Huffington Post founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington. "That means capturing everything from short clips to longform series to documentaries and fiction."
Among the new shows is Now What, which Huffington describes as a show that will "search for solutions." The 10-episode series will follow the former Vice correspondent as he travels the world to spotlight crises and how people are solving them.
Huffington points to recent media coverage of the riots in Baltimore of an example of problems on which Duffy could provide perspective. "The coverage is not giving an accurate picture," she says. "It's an incredibly important story, but it's being presented in a completely voyeuristic way that creates copycat crimes instead of copycat solutions."
Another new series is The HuffPost 10. Launched in conjunction with the media company's tenth anniversary, it will feature 10 short films from 10 different storytellers, which will focus on 10 people who have made an impact on the world.
Nathan Brown, svp video at The Huffington Post, says the series is reflective of the new types of programming that the company is developing. "What we're doing moving forward is working with the creative community," he says. "We want to really be on the bleeding edge in working with these creators."
The Huffington Post is also finding ways to integrate editorial and video. For example, the launch of series Fabulous Stay-at-Home Dads, which will profile the men behind powerful women, will coincide with an editorial series about the topic. "It's not just about taking a story and making a video about it," Brown says. "It begins at conception."

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NBC Picks Up Three Dramas: Dick Wolf's 'Chicago Med,' 'Heartbreaker' and 'Blindspot'

A little over a week ahead of broadcast's annual upfront week, NBC has begun making series orders.

Of the 19 pilots — excluding Coach, Shades of Blue and Telenovela, which were granted straight-to-series orders — that the network ordered this season, NBC is doling out series commitments to two medical dramas, Chicago Med and newly titled Heartbreaker, along with FBI drama Blindspot. The news comes some two months after it granted its Jerrod Carmichael comedy pilot a six-episode series order. More will trickle out as the network continues with its closed-door discussions and screenings ahead of its presentation for Madison Avenue buyers May 11.

NBC has many needs as it rounds out a lackluster season, with several ambitious bets, including State of Affairs, Allegiance and star-studded The Slap, falling short. More problematic: the net's comedy efforts, which included Bad Judge, A to Z and since-abandoned Mission Control. (NBC shrewdly let its own Universal TV-owned Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt go to Netflix, where it earned a two season order.) Among the few bright spots has been Dick Wolf's Chicago Fire and spinoff Chicago P.D., which have been competitive on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, respectively. For that reason, it's no surprise that the network is expanding the Windy City franchise, and adding Chicago Med to its 2015-16 portfolio. The backdoor pilot, which was introduced on Chicago Fire, performed well earlier this season and arrives as medical dramas have been in demand once again this season. In making the order, the network has entrusted Wolf, the Law & Order mastermind, with four series on its schedule. (The last time Wolf had as many shows on NBC was 2005 when Law & Order: Trial by Jury debuted and joined the mothership series, SVU and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.) Even more impressive, a producer with two back-to-back hit franchises is believed to be unprecedented.

Moving forward, Chicago Med is being billed as an emotional thrill ride through the day-to-day chaos of the city’s most explosive hospital and the courageous team of doctors who hold it together. They will tackle unique new cases inspired by topical events, forging fiery relationships in the pulse-pounding pandemonium of the emergency room, and through it all, familiar faces from the Chicago police and fire departments will intertwine as this third team of Chicago heroes hits the ground running. The cast includes Oliver Platt, S. Epatha Merkerson, Laurie Holden, Nick Gehlfuss and Yaya Dacosta, with Wolf, Matt Olmstead, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas attached as writers and executive producers. Danielle Gelber, Peter Jankowski and cross-over pilot director Joe Chappelle joining them as executive producers on the Universal TV and Wolf Films produced entry. 

Leaning into the medical genre, NBC has also ordered Heartbreaker, which went through pilot season as Heart Matters. The series, based on the real life and achievements of Dr. Kathy Magliato, is being described as a unique character-driven medical drama that follows Dr. Alex Panttiere (Melissa George), an outspoken world-renowned heart-transplant surgeon and one of the few women in her field. Stubborn and fearless, Alex always operates on her own terms. She revels in a racy personal life that’s a full-time job in itself, manages the daily demands of skeptical faculty and dutiful interns, and pushes the boundaries of medical science to impressive new heights. The cast is rounded out by Dave Annable, Don Hany, Shelley Conn, D.L. Hughley, Jamie Kennedy, Maya Erskine, J. Louis Mills and Joshua Leonard. Jill Gordon serves as writer and executive producer on the Universal TV-produced hour, with Amy Brenneman, Brad Silberling and director Robbie Duncan McNeill also executive producing.
For its part, Blindspot hails from prolific producer Greg Berlanti, who's also behind bubble drama The Mysteries of Laura at NBC. The Warner Bros.-produced drama centers on a vast international plot, which explodes when a beautiful Jane Doe is discovered naked in Times Square, completely covered in mysterious, intricate tattoos with no memory of who she is or how she got there. There’s one that’s very clear, however: the name of FBI agent Kurt Weller, emblazoned across her back. “Jane,” Agent Weller and rest of the FBI quickly realize that each mark on her body is a crime to solve, leading them closer to the truth about her identity and the mysteries to be revealed. The cast features Sullivan Stapleton, Jaimie Alexander, Audrey Esparza, Rob Brown, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Ukweli Roach and Ashley Johnson. Martin Gero penned the pilot and will executive produce alongside Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and pilot director Mark Pellington.

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Bill Cosby: Actress Who Appeared on 'Cosby Show' Is New Accuser (Report)

 Lili Bernard, a former actress who is listed as having appeared on The Cosby Show, has reportedly stepped forward as a new accuser with rape claims leveled against Bill Cosby. 

Bernard was mentored by the comedian, USA Today reported, and made an appearance on the show in 1992 as Mrs. Minifield in the episode "Bring Me the Lip Gloss of Deirdre Arpelle." The former actress is one of two women that made public claims at a New York press conference on Friday alleging that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them in the 1990s.

 According to the newspaper's report, another accuser, Sammie Mays, also appeared at the press conference and said she met Cosby in the late 1980s while covering a convention in New Orleans. She claims she was sexually assaulted during an interview in his hotel room after he gave her a drink and she lost consciousness, USA Today reported. 

 Gloria Allred represented the women at the press conference.

 "Unlike most other states, New Jersey has no statue of limitations for rape, which means that law enforcement is not prevented from prosecuting a case because of an arbitrary time period set by law," Allred said, as quoted by the newspaper. 

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Sony Film Unit Full-Year Profit Up Due to Weak Yen

Sony Corp.'s film unit recorded a full-year operating profit of $488 million (￥58.5
billion) on Thursday, up 13.4 percent on the previous year in yen terms
- driven by the weakening of the Japanese currency against the U.S.
dollar.

The result came on a 5.9 percent revenue gain for Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) in yen, or a 4 percent drop on a constant dollar basis, to $7.3 billion (￥879 billion), with the weak yen again playing a key role.

Michael Lynton, CEO of SPE,
said in November 2013 that the entertainment operations would generate
$8.4 billion in the fiscal year that ended in March, with operating
income of around $630 million.

Hits such as The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and 22 Jump Street helped boost Sony Pictures earnings following major flops such as After Earth and White House Down that hit its revenue and bottom line in the previous financial year.

Overall, Sony Corp recorded a full-year loss of $1.05 billion (￥126
billion) on revenue of $68.5 billion, compared to a loss of $1.25
billion in the previous year. Sales fell more sharply on a dollar basis,
but the effect was reduced by the weak yen.

Operating
income at Sony Music jumped 17 percent to $491 million on revenue of
$4.5 billion, but flat in dollar terms. Strong sales of albums from One
Direction and AC/DC helped maintain revenue.

The games division logged operating income of $401 million (￥48
billion) boosted by strong sales of the PlayStation 4 console, which
has comfortably outperformed its rivals from Microsoft and Nintendo.

The conglomerate predicted profits of $568 million (￥68 billion) for the year to March 2016, which would be its best results since 2008.

Sony shares closed down 1.4 percent at ￥3,640 ($30.68) on the Tokyo market, compared to a 2.5 percent drop for the Nikkei 225 index, before the earnings announcement.

More to come…

Twitter: @GavinJBlair

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