NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Rain delayed the start of the 50th New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on Thursday but didn’t seem to dampen spirits. Zack Buda, 25, of Manhattan, was among people dancing in a huge, grassy puddle off to the side of the main stage where Earth, Wind and Fire were closing the first day. He’d come to …

NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift says she’s releasing a new single and music video called “ME!” on Friday that’s about “embracing your individuality and really celebrating it.” In an interview with Robin Roberts on Thursday — during the 2019 NFL Draft on ABC — the pop star said the song features Brendon Urie of Panic! of the Disco. “I …

LOS ANGELES (AP) — To say filmmaker Ava DuVernay is a busy woman is an understatement, but when Turner Classic Movies called and asked her to curate the channel’s “The Essentials” series, she knew she had to make it work. Usually “The Essentials” is filmed across two or three days. But the only way it would fit in with DuVernay’s …

NEW YORK (AP) — The much-anticipated sale of tickets for this summer’s Woodstock 50 anniversary concerts has been put on hold for now. Tickets for the three-day festival on Aug. 16-18 were supposed to be available on Monday. The festival released a statement Thursday, saying: “Woodstock 50 has delayed its on sale while we refine logistical plans.” The statement adds, …

NEW YORK (AP) — A documentary on Jenni Rivera with unseen concert footage from her last performance is being developed by Emilio Estefan, who hopes to show the world the person and the friend that he got to know. “I really want people to know her with the same admiration that I had for her as a human being, and …

NEW YORK (AP) — A new Prince album featuring his versions of songs he wrote for other artists will be released in June. The 15-track “Originals” will include “Nothing Compares 2 U,” the No. 1 hit for Sinéad O’Connor; “The Glamorous Life,” Sheila E.’s signature song and Top 10 pop hit; and Kenny Rogers’ “You’re My Love,” which Prince wrote …

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden has hired Symone Sanders, a prominent African American political strategist, as a senior adviser to his newly launched presidential campaign. The move adds a younger diverse voice to Biden’s cadre of top advisers, which has been dominated by older white men. It suggests Biden is seeking to broaden his appeal to a new generation of …

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press secretary Sarah Sanders held her first briefing in more than a month Thursday, but still didn’t field questions from working journalists. Instead, Sanders held what the White House called a “kids-only” press briefing for children participating in “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.” Journalists who cover President Donald Trump and the White …

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ken Kercheval, who played perennial punching bag Cliff Barnes to Larry Hagman’s scheming oil baron J.R. Ewing on the hit TV series “Dallas,” has died. He was 83. Kercheval died Sunday in the city of Clinton in his native Indiana, said Jeff Fisher, his agent. The cause of death was being kept private by family, Fisher …

NEW YORK (AP) — There’s no truth to the rumor that James Holzhauer is a cyborg created to be the perfect “Jeopardy!” contestant. But given how he’s made a level of excellence rarely seen on the television quiz show appear almost mundane, it sometimes seems that way. Holzhauer eclipsed the $1 million mark in winnings Tuesday on his 14th appearance. …

CHICAGO (AP) — Two brothers who say they helped Jussie Smollett stage a racist and homophobic attack against himself sued the “Empire” actor’s attorneys on Tuesday, accusing them of defamation by continuing to insist publicly that the brothers carried out a real, bigoted attack on Smollett despite knowing that wasn’t true. Abimbola “Abel” Osundairo and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo said in …

NEW YORK (AP) — Given all the attention it has received over the past two years, the actual release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report wasn’t exactly appointment television viewing. The ABC, CBS and NBC broadcast networks and the cable’s CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC collectively averaged 12.7 million viewers last Thursday when the redacted report on Russia’s involvement …

NEW YORK (AP) — Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO’-tuh-juhj) is the latest Democratic presidential candidate to agree to hold a town hall meeting on Fox News Channel. The May 19 event will be broadcast live from Claremont, New Hampshire. Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace will moderate. Buttigieg is a Rhodes Scholar and openly gay Afghanistan veteran serving his second term …

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Boyz N the Hood” director John Singleton is in a coma at a Los Angeles hospital eight days after suffering a major stroke, court papers filed Thursday showed. The 51-year-old director’s condition was revealed in a court filing from his mother, Shelia Ward, who is requesting she be immediately appointed his temporary conservator to make medical …

LOS ANGELES (AP) — To say filmmaker Ava DuVernay is a busy woman is an understatement, but when Turner Classic Movies called and asked her to curate the channel’s “The Essentials” series, she knew she had to make it work. Usually “The Essentials” is filmed across two or three days. But the only way it would fit in with DuVernay’s …

NEW YORK (AP) — A documentary on Jenni Rivera with unseen concert footage from her last performance is being developed by Emilio Estefan, who hopes to show the world the person and the friend that he got to know. “I really want people to know her with the same admiration that I had for her as a human being, and …

NEW YORK (AP) — The 25th James Bond movie and Daniel Craig’s fifth and final installment as 007 is heading home to Jamaica. Craig, Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, and director Cary Fukunaga on Thursday launched the film from the Caribbean island nation where Ian Fleming wrote all of his Bond novels. The still untitled movie will …

NEW YORK (AP) — The 18th Tribeca Film Festival moved uptown on Wednesday for an opening night that honored an elder New York institution: the Apollo Theater. Roger Ross Williams’ “The Apollo” premiered at the iconic Harlem music hall whose 85-year history is chronicled in Williams’ documentary. The movie and setting added up to a gala tribute to the 125th …

Mark Medoff, a provocative playwright whose “Children of a Lesser God” won Tony and Olivier awards and whose screen adaptation of his play earned an Oscar nomination, has died in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He was 79. Medoff died Tuesday in a hospice surrounded by family, according to his daughter, Jessica Bunchman. He had been battling both multiple myeloma, a …

BOSTON (AP) — John Havlicek, the Boston Celtics great whose steal of Hal Green’s inbounds pass in the final seconds of the 1965 Eastern Conference final against the Philadelphia 76ers remains one of the most famous plays in NBA history, has died. He was 79. The Celtics said the Hall of Famer died Thursday in Jupiter, Florida. The cause of …

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s high-profile attorneys normally don’t handle second-degree misdemeanors like soliciting a prostitute, but that’s only part of what he needs them to do. Their main job is to make sure the public never sees videos that police say show Kraft twice paying for sex at a Florida massage parlor. …

LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry has attended a service commemorating war dead from Australia and New Zealand as he and his wife Meghan await the birth of their first child. Meghan is due to give birth soon, though the couple hasn’t revealed the due date or their birth plans. Harry was a last-minute addition to Thursday’s Anzac Day service at …

MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors on Wednesday charged Michael Madsen with two misdemeanor counts of drunken driving after the actor drove his SUV into a pole last month. Madsen, 61, has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol within 10 years of another DUI offense and driving with .08% blood alcohol content within 10 years of another DUI, …

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ken Kercheval, who played perennial punching bag Cliff Barnes to Larry Hagman’s scheming oil baron J.R. Ewing on the hit TV series “Dallas,” has died. He was 83. Kercheval died Sunday in the city of Clinton in his native Indiana, said Jeff Fisher, his agent. The cause of death was being kept private by family, Fisher …

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s prison-bound former lawyer told actor Tom Arnold last month that he pleaded guilty to some crimes he didn’t commit so his wife wouldn’t “get dragged into the mud of this crap.” Michael Cohen told Arnold “they had me on campaign finance” for arranging hush-money payments to two women who claimed to have had …