Singers-actors Demi Lovato and Max Ehrich have called off their engagement after two months. Lovato and her former fiancé have parted ways, according to a person close to Lovato who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. The split comes after the couple announced their engagement on Instagram in July. Lovato and Ehrich began dating this year. This year, the 28-year-old Lovato released several singles, performed the national anthem at the Super Bowl and sang at the Grammys. The 29-year-old Ehrich has earned multiple Daytime Emmy nominations for his work in “The Young and the Restless."  

Pete Bevacqua has been promoted to chairman of the NBC Sports Group. He succeeds Mark Lazarus, who was named chairman of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming in May. Lazarus had been NBC Sports’ chairman since 2011 when he took over from Dick Ebersol. Bevacqua came to NBC Sports in 2018 following a six-year tenure as CEO of the PGA of America. 

A Manhattan judge has tossed out a defamation lawsuit against Fox News brought by the former Playboy model who took a $150,000 payoff to squelch her story of an affair with Donald Trump. Karen McDougal had alleged in the suit filed late last year that Fox host Tucker Carlson slandered her by calling the payout “a classic case of extortion.” The judge ruled Thursday that the remarks were “rhetorical hyperbole."

‘GRATEFUL’: GIGI HADID WELCOMES BABY GIRL WITH ZAYN MALIK

Milan designers skirted the line between the virtual and the physical, taking lessons learned in lockdown to create new collections that are relevant in a reshaped world. The most anticipated event of the week was Prada’s virtual unveiling of the Miuccia Prada-Raf Simons collaboration announced in February. Their first collaboration expanded on their mutual devotion to fashion as a uniform, something utilitarian that allows the wearer the ease to both think and work. In a similar vein, Max Mara's collection of monochrome pieces had an everyday, easy-to-wear note with neutral shades, lots of pockets and functional sleeves. 

TCU receiver Taye Barber and his teammates have been itching to get back on the field. The Horned Frogs are finally set to open their season with a Big 12 game against Iowa State. It will be their first game in 10 months because their only non-conference game was wiped out because of COVID-19. Iowa State is also motivated to play again, even though it has been only two weeks for the Cyclones. They were in the Top 25 before a 31-14 home loss to Louisiana-Lafayette. Saturday's game will be the opener of Gary Patterson's 20th season as TCU's coach.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., Sept. 24, 2020 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — MansMark Records announces the much-anticipated ỌPẸ Album, a debut by Nigerian Grammy-winning recording artist and percussionist, Sikiru Adepoju is out!

Britain’s film academy is shaking up its membership and its awards voting rules in a review prompted by the glaring lack of diversity in the nominations. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts promised to change after contenders for the 2020 awards were announced last January. No women were nominated as best director for the seventh year running, and all 20 nominees in the lead and supporting performer categories were white. The measures include recruiting 1,000 new members from under-represented groups to join the 6,700-strong academy and expanding lists of contenders for the BAFTA film awards. The 2021 awards will take place in April.

ATLANTA, Sept. 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Modern Art and Culture Podcast (MAC), the hottest new podcast to the art scene, and Atlanta Celebrates Photography (ACP), one of the country's most esteemed photography festivals, announced today the launch of ACP Studio Sessions, an exclusive collabor…

South Africans of all walks of life are dancing to “Jerusalema,” a rousing anthem to lift their spirits amid the battle against COVID-19. In response to a call from President Cyril Ramaphosa to mark the country’s Heritage Day holiday Thursday, people from townships to posh suburbs are doing line dances to the tune. In the upbeat song in the Zulu language, the singer implores to be taken away from the troubles of the world to go to Jerusalem, effectively heaven. The song, by popular DJ Master KG with vocals by Nomcebo Zikode, was a hit in South Africa last year and became even more popular this year as people saw its message as a way to cope with the tragedies of the coronavirus pandemic.

President Donald Trump's niece has followed up her best selling tell-all book with a lawsuit alleging that Trump and two of his siblings cheated her out of tens of millions of dollars. The lawsuit in Manhattan State Supreme Court Thursday sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. It alleges that Trump conspired with a sister and a brother to portray themselves to Mary Trump as protectors while they instead took her share of minority interests in the family business. Mary Trump inherited the interests when her father, Fred Trump Jr., died in 1981. Messages seeking comment were left with the Justice Department, lawyers for Trump, his sister and a lawyer for his late brother.

With bars and nightclubs limiting capacity and closing early in the St. Louis area due to the coronavirus pandemic, neighboring establishments in St. Charles are seeing so large and unruly crowds. So the city is taking a cue from the 1984 movie “Footloose” and banning dancing. St. Charles leaders met Wednesday with restaurant, bar and club operators and then announced a temporary ban on “music activities” after 11 p.m., starting Friday. Mayor Dan Borgmeyer told KTVI-TV that it does feel “a little bit like the movie ‘Footloose.’” The movie starred Kevin Bacon as a big-city teenager who moved to a small town that banned dancing, at least until he turned things around.

Missing from this year’s Florida State-Miami game will be a lot of fans and one head coach. The stakes aren’t quite like the old days, either. The Hurricanes are 2-0, and a win last week at No. 18 Louisville vaulted them to 12th in the rankings. But for the fourth year in a row, Miami will play an unranked Florida State. New Seminoles coach Mike Norvell won’t be on the sideline Saturday night because he was diagnosed last week with the coronavirus and is in quarantine. Because of the pandemic, attendance in Miami will be limited to 13,000. 

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 24, 2020--

The outcome in the case of Breonna Taylor demonstrates the vast disconnect between the public’s perception of what justice should look like and the limits of the law when police use deadly force. Activists, celebrities and others have been calling for months for the officers who shot at Taylor to be charged with murder. But in the end none of the officers were charged with Taylor’s killing, although one was indicted for shooting into a neighboring home that had people inside. The long-awaited decision came amid calls for police reform across the U.S. spurred by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other Black Americans by law enforcement. 

The global pandemic is forcing organizers behind the famous Miss Venezuela pageant to be creative. The beauty pageant that airs Thursday has had to adapt to quarantine requirements local authorities imposed since mid-March. The goal is pulling off an event filled with fanfare while avoiding infection for the 22 candidates, dozens of stagehands and the TV production crew. Miss Venezuela’s general manager, Nina Sicilia, says they’ve taken a positive approach. Miss Venezuela has produced seven Miss Universe winners, six Miss Worlds and seven Miss Internationals. Venezuela is a major player in the world of beauty pageants. This is the 67th Miss Venezuela competition.

Thailand’s government has lodged complaints with police against Facebook and Twitter, alleging they failed to comply with court orders to block hundreds of accounts judged illegal under Thai law. It says it is the first time it has taken such action against the social media companies under Thailand’s Computer Crime Act. It has prosecuted website and account owners and users in the past. It says the targeted sites contained illegal content related to online gambling, pornography, drugs or the monarchy, a highly sensitive subject. In August, the government successfully pressured Facebook to block a popular page about the monarchy.

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 24, 2020--

Model Gigi Hadid and her musician boyfriend Zayn Malik took to social media to celebrate the arrival of an infant girl, with dad saying he’s “grateful” and “thankful.” He shared a image featuring Malik and their daughter holding hands. Hadid also shared a similar photo on Instagram, with the caption: “Our girl joined us earth-side this weekend and she’s already changing our world.” Neither parent revealed the baby’s name. Hadid and Malik have been dating off-and-on for several years. She has become one of the world’s most in-demand models and he was the first to leave One Direction to strike out as a solo artist.

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 24, 2020--

An annual tribute to John Lennon held in his adopted city of New York will go online like so many other events during the coronavirus pandemic. Organizers said there was no way they'd miss it, not on what would have been the former Beatle's 80th birthday and their 40th year of gathering to pay homage. The five-hour event will be streamed for free on Lennon's birthday, October 9, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time on the LennonTribute.org website. It will feature recorded performances from Patti Smith, Rosanne Cash, Natalie Merchant, Jackson Browne, Jorma Kaukonen and others.

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

CHICAGO, Ill., Sept. 24, 2020 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — It is with great pleasure that American Friends of Capodimonte (AFC) announce the appointment of Dr. Claire Van Cleave as the AFC Senior Fellow at the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, Italy. The AFC’s unique mission places an American schola…

An enigmatic painting from Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli will go on auction next year and art watchers will be seeing if it fetches more than its eye-watering $80 million estimate, despite the pandemic. Botticelli’s 15th-century portrait of a nobleman in “Young Man Holding a Roundel” is the highlight of Sotheby’s Masters Week sale series in New York in January. Opportunities to acquire a Botticelli — behind such masterpieces as “Primavera” and “The Birth of Venus” — are very rare. The auction house believes it could get over $100 million. The last painting to achieve that level at auction was Claude Monet’s “Meules” in 2019, going for $110 million.

Sir Harold Evans, the charismatic publisher, author and muckraker who was a bold-faced name for decades for exposing wrongdoing in 1960s London to publishing such 1990s best-sellers as “Primary Colors,” has died, his wife said Thursday. He was 92. His wife, fellow author-publisher Tina Brown, said he died Wednesday in New York of congestive heart failure. A vision of British erudition and sass, Evans was a high-profile go-getter, starting in the 1960s as an editor of the Northern Echo and the Sunday Times of London and continuing into the 1990s as president of Random House. Married since 1981 to Brown, their union was a paradigm of media clout. He was knighted by his native Britain in 2004 for his contributions to journalism. 

A tiny but playable Rubik’s Cube, so little it fits on your fingertip, has gone on sale in Japan for 198,000 yen, or about $1,900, for delivery starting in December. Billed as a “super-small” Rubik’s Cube, it was created to mark the 40th anniversary of when the original 3-D puzzle went on sale in Japan. The cube measures just 9.9 millimeters, or O.39 inch, by 9.9 millimeters, and weighs 2 grams (less than a tenth of an ounce). Mega-House, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based toymaker Bandai, say it is made of “ultra-precision metal,” and comes with a box for its display. Rubik’s Cube was invented by Hungarian architecture professor Erno Rubik.

CELEBRITIES REACT IN ANGER ON DECISION IN BREONNA TAYLOR CASE

DOLLY PARTON EXPLAINS HER TATTOOS

President Donald Trump took a swipe at the Duchess of Sussex on Wednesday after the former Meghan Markle and Prince Harry participated in a Time 100 video urging Americans to vote. Neither mentioned Trump or his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, by name, but some have interpreted their comments as critical of Trump. Trump was asked about the video during a White House press conference, with the reporter saying the couple “essentially encouraged people to vote for Joe Biden.” The president says he's not a fan of Meghan and wishes Harry luck, adding, “He's going to need it."

Authorities are investigating the latest shooting outside a Las Vegas Strip resort while police say a spike in violent crime in and around the city’s marquee tourist area has led to at least 1,100 arrests since Aug. 1. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo on Wednesday blamed a surge of recent violence on out-of-town visitors who can't go to nightclubs and entertainment venues that remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Police say a woman suffered a minor leg wound in a shooting late Tuesday while a rap music figure celebrated his birthday in the valet area of the Aria hotel and casino.

A career government records professional says Trump administration officials at the White House repeatedly exerted political pressure in an unsuccessful effort to block the release of former national security adviser John Bolton’s tell-all book. The person tasked with scrutinizing Bolton's manuscript for classified material, Ellen Knight, described the monthslong review in a 19-page court filing Wednesday. She says the White House used delay tactics, legal maneuverings and a shadow review by a political appointee who had no experience with prepublication reviews to try to block publication. A Justice Department spokesperson says Knight’s court filing confirms that Bolton did not receive written, prepublication approval before publishing his book.

CMT MUSIC AWARDS NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

For months, actors, sports stars, musicians and other celebrities have been using their platforms to call for justice in the police shooting death of Breonna Taylor. After a grand jury Wednesday indicted one of the Kentucky police officers on criminal charges, but not for her death, celebrities reacted to the news mostly negatively. Actor Kerry Washington urged people to vote, while actor and recording artist Common used quotes from James Baldwin to express his feelings. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron referenced the calls from stars and their likely reaction during his remarks, and urged people to keep protests peaceful.

Carole Baskin of “Tiger King” fame is being sued for defamation by a former assistant. As part of the lawsuit, the daughters of Baskin’s former husband are seeking more information about what happened to their father, who disappeared mysteriously more than two decades ago. The amended complaint to an earlier lawsuit was filed Tuesday in state court in Tampa by Don Lewis’ three daughters as well as his former assistant, Anne McQueen. The lawsuit says Baskin defamed McQueen by posting a video diary entry on YouTube earlier this month in which she says McQueen played a role in Lewis’ disappearance. Lawyers for Baskin said they couldn’t comment on pending litigation.

French media say Juliette Greco, singer, actress, cultural icon and muse to existentialist philosophers of France’s post-War period, has died. She was 93. They said Wednesday that Greco died in her Ramatuelle house in the south of France, near Saint Tropez. The mayor of Nice tweeted that “a very grand lady, an immense artist has gone.” With expressive eyes inherited from her Greek ancestors and a deep, raspy voice -- acquired from years of cigarette-smoking -- Greco immortalized some of France’s most recognizable songs in an enduring seven-decade career, including the classics “Soul le ciel de Paris,” and “Je hais les dimanches.”

The Metropolitan Opera will skip an entire season for the first time in its nearly 140-year history and intends to return from the pandemic layoff next September. It will be with the company’s first presentation of a Black composer, Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” This season was to have started on Monday this week, but the company announced June 1 it had pushed back opening night until Dec. 31. In all, 218 performances of 23 operas were lost, raising total cancellations to 276 since the 2019-20 season was cut short by the novel coronavirus on March 12.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 23, 2020--