Latest news with #M.I.A.
Black America Web
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
Work Don't Stop: Celeb Moms Who've Performed Pregnant
Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE Source: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Motherhood is a full-time job on its own, but some women make it look effortless even while growing a whole human. Some women go into full rest mode when they're pregnant (and rightfully so). But these mommas? They were booked, busy, and glowing while doing it. RELATED: Sing to Me: 13 R&B Songs About Momma for Mother's Day From powerhouse vocals, belly reveals, and high-energy performances, these ladies didn't let pregnancy slow their stride. Women like Bey, M.I.A., and Cardi B proved that being pregnant doesn't mean you have to pause the grind. Shoutout to these moms who made pregnancy look like just another day at the office. Here are a few moms who've hit the stage mic in hand, heels on, belly out. Let's get into it. Work Don't Stop: Celeb Moms Who've Performed Pregnant was originally published on Source:Getty Source:Getty Source:Getty Source:Getty Source:Getty Source:Getty Source:Getty Source:Getty Source:Getty Source:Getty
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fire Country: Why Are Gabriela & Chief Leone Leaving Before Season 4?
Curious why Gabriela Perez and Chief Vince Leone are leaving Fire Country before Season 4? The CBS drama's explosive Season 3 finale set the stage for major cast changes, leaving fans speculating about the fate of two original characters. Here's what we know about Stephanie Arcila and Billy Burke's exits and what it means for the series moving forward. Stephanie Arcila will not return as a series regular in Fire Country Season 4. According to the show's producers, the decision was creative and not driven by budget cuts. Executive producer Tony Phelan confirmed, 'We are committed to saying that the Bode-Gabriela story does not end here,' while co-creator Tia Napolitano added, 'We hope to see her back very soon' (via Deadline). Arcila learned of her exit while filming the Season 3 finale, which concluded with her character Gabriela surviving a stalker attack. She described the timing as 'serendipitous,' saying, 'I believe in fate and that we're put where we're supposed to be' (via Deadline). She emphasized that this is part of what actors sign up for. Arcila also said, 'I never say never,' when asked about a return. Her departure creates space for a pause in Gabriela and Bode's relationship, especially since Bode is currently seeing someone else. Billy Burke, who plays Chief Vince Leone, will exit the series ahead of Season 4. The producers did not confirm his departure in pre-finale interviews. However, the Season 3 finale set up a possible character death by placing Vince inside a memory care facility that collapsed during a wildfire. The show built Vince's exit arc around his reconciliation with his father Walter and a major rescue mission. The finale left his fate unclear, as the building collapsed before anyone confirmed his survival. Burke has since joined Peacock's M.I.A. in a guest role. He and other cast members reportedly declined requests to reduce their episode count for next season. Executive producers denied a connection, stating, 'It's really coming out of us wanting to be exciting storytellers,' according to Joan Rater. The post Fire Country: Why Are Gabriela & Chief Leone Leaving Before Season 4? appeared first on - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Express Tribune
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Fire Country cast shakeup: Stephanie Arcila and Billy Burke leave after three seasons
CBS' Fire Country will head into its fourth season without two of its original cast members, marking a significant change for the firefighter drama. The show, which has kept its main seven-member cast intact since its premiere, will part ways with Stephanie Arcila and Billy Burke. Arcila played Gabriela Perez, a firefighter and paramedic who shared an on-and-off romance with Bode Leone (Max Thieriot), while Burke portrayed Vince Leone, the Cal Fire Battalion Chief and Bode's father. The news comes after a possible exit storyline for Jordan Calloway's character, Station 42 Captain Jake Crawford, was hinted at earlier in the season. However, it will be Arcila and Burke who are leaving the series, with Arcila confirmed as a former series regular. While the departure of Burke has not been officially confirmed by the show's creators, they have refrained from commenting to keep fans intrigued about the future of the character. The announcement comes after a tense season finale that left fans on edge. In the April 25, 2025, two-part Season 3 finale, the show ended with three key characters — Vince, his wife Sharon (Diane Farr), and his father Walter (Jeff Fahey) — trapped in a collapsing building engulfed by wildfire. Despite the fiery chaos, Gabriela survived a recent stalker arc, which had raised concerns for her fate. The finale also featured a cliffhanger, leaving the characters' lives in the balance. In a joint interview with Deadline, Fire Country co-creators Joan Rater and Tony Phelan, along with executive producer Tia Napolitano, explained that the decision to part ways with Arcila and Burke was creatively driven rather than financially motivated. Rater stated, "It really just comes down to what's the best creatively," with Napolitano adding that the show wanted to honor the dangers of the firefighter profession by increasing stakes and authenticity. Arcila's character will not be fully written off. The producers expressed their commitment to keeping her involved in future episodes as a guest star. Napolitano added, 'We hope to see her back very soon, to give her a proper not goodbye, but see you later.' Arcila herself expressed openness to returning, stating, 'I never say never.' Burke, meanwhile, has taken on a guest role in Peacock's M.I.A. and is believed to have been offered reduced episode counts for the upcoming season, a move that many cast members reportedly rejected earlier this year. The show remains one of CBS' most popular series, and Fire Country continues to hold its place as a significant part of the network's Friday lineup, with a spinoff, Sheriff Country, starring Morena Baccarin, set to premiere in the fall. Fire Country follows Bode Leone, a young convict seeking redemption by joining a prison-release firefighting program in his rural Northern California hometown. The series is inspired by Thieriot's experiences growing up in fire country and co-created with Phelan and Rater.
New York Times
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Jennifer Weiner Goes Behind the Music in a Tale of Estranged Sisters
Twenty years ago, the music industry was still fairly flush. There were big budgets for videos, wardrobe and the wooing of press and radio programmers. Stars were made on the road and cemented their followings via monoliths like MTV's 'Total Request Live.' It's an era Jennifer Weiner revisits with nostalgia and a touch of sourness in her latest novel, 'The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits.' Cherry is a 2024 teen with rock-star dreams who believes her destiny will be fulfilled if she can appear on a reality-TV singing competition called 'The Next Stage.' She knows her mother, Zoe, has a past in music — one she refuses to discuss — in a beloved, short-lived 2000s band called the Griffin Sisters, and that the other sister, Cassie, has been M.I.A. for years. In chunks dedicated mainly to that trio that hop around from the 1980s to nearly today, the sisters' stories are revealed. Zoe was the pretty one; Cassie, the talented one, and Weiner hammers the note underscoring her physical unattractiveness until it's tuneless. Zoe lures her prodigy of a younger sibling out of the house to perform at a battle of the bands, and the nephew of a record label executive happens to catch their set. The sisters are swiftly signed, given a new name (Grossberg was a little too Jewish) and paired with a songwriter named Russell D'Angelo who joins their band, uniting them in song while dividing them in lust for his attention. As the Griffin Sisters hit larger stages and their profile swells, Zoe claims Russell and their relationship generates tabloid headlines, but she's increasingly relegated to a backing role in the group. Cassie, who is continually described as a 'fat girl' with untamed hair, is outfitted in a series of bulky pantsuits with 'absurd shoulder pads,' but it's her poetic lyrics that entrance their zealous fans. So what does this mind-blowing music sound like? This is where Weiner, a steadily best-selling writer who can easily coax the reader along despite the sneaking suspicion we know where this 'Behind the Music' is headed, falls off. We're told the band's only album, 'Night Ride,' sold 13 million copies in the year following its 2003 release, and its sound is described in magazine and newspaper reviews dotted throughout. The group's aesthetic 'walks the line between pop and rock,' The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. (Hmm.) Cassie's voice is a revelation, melding Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Chrissie Hynde and Liz Phair (but she 'has a sound all her own'). Her lyrics are so raw, they capture fans' fears and desires in couplets worthy of tattoos. (One can only hope that even in this fictional world, nobody inked 'You're a star / You're a scar / And you tore me apart' onto their flesh.) Sarah Seltzer's 2024 'The Singer Sisters' also spins a novel out of the secrets and songwriting of a family band, including a daughter trying to make a name for herself while leaning on its legacy. The sisters there were '70s folkies; the daughter a '90s alt-rocker; and the lyrics a whole lot stronger. Songwriting is not easy! Cass Elliot, a seeming analogue for Cassie, does come up in Weiner's book, but the Mamas & the Papas singer was outgoing and unrestrained. Cassie (and everyone else) is punished after she finally pursues pleasure beyond her art. And as Zoe's selfishness meets increasing self-doubt, she becomes the ugly one. When the band blows up amid tragedy, Zoe shoves her once-starry persona aside and embraces suburban life with a well-meaning husband and his creepy son, who leers at Cherry. Cassie splits for rural Alaska. Though she goes to extreme lengths to preserve her anonymity, the gifted sister is guilted into singing to an employee at a grocery store celebrating a lonely birthday, and a video briefly ends up on Facebook. Cherry seizes on the digital breadcrumb and hunts down the aunt she's never met to bolster her chances on 'The Next Stage,' and everyone is forced to confront their pasts, and their present. Weiner has a clear affection for music, and a strong enough sense of the currents undergirding the business — at least, in the early 2000s. (Why Cherry would be hoping for TV fame rather than a viral TikTok moment is unclear.) But 'The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits' isn't grimy like a rock 'n' roll novel, or a deep meditation on the ways creative personalities and egos can clash, like the Broadway hit 'Stereophonic.' Still, familiar tunes that go down easy often turn into big hits.
