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Sabrina Carpenter’s new music video for “Taste” is blowing up online. It’s a wild mix of dark humor, crazy violence, and a totally unexpected kiss between Carpenter and Jenna Ortega. The video, which came out with her sixth album “Short n’ Sweet,” starts with a big warning: “graphic violence.” But what you get is a playful, gory story that’s way different from anything you’ve seen before.

Kim Nguyen, the award-winning director, throws us into a wacky world of over-the-top violence. Carpenter plays a heartbroken woman taking on her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend, played by Jenna Ortega. In a hilarious, slapstick fight, the women use everything from giant spatulas to exploding muffins as weapons. This playful but gory dance goes on throughout the video, ending with a jaw-dropping moment: both women, looking totally chill, walk away from the boyfriend’s funeral, sipping coffee together like nothing happened.

The “Taste” video, with its Tarantino-esque vibe, has been a hot topic online. Some people love how it tackles themes of female empowerment and heartbreak in a totally unexpected way, while others worry it might make people too used to violence. It’s definitely a video that’ll get people talking.

Despite mixed reactions to the video’s depiction of violence, it has undeniably garnered significant public interest. This serves as a compelling introduction to Carpenter’s newly released album, ‘Short n’ Sweet.

Carpenter’s new album, “Short n’ Sweet,” is a total vibe shift. She teamed up with some big-name songwriters like Julia Michaels and Amy Allen, and the production was fire thanks to John Ryan and Ian Kirkpatrick. We’ve already heard singles like “Please Please Please” and “Espresso,” which are totally different from her old stuff. They’re more mature, but you can still hear a bit of that dark humor from “Taste.” The rest of the album is even more diverse, with tracks like “Sharpest Tools,” “Coincidence,” and “Dumb & Poetic” promising something for everyone. It’s a solid album, and we can’t wait to hear more.

Carpenter talked about her new album in a Variety interview, saying it’s like a “hot older sister” to her hit album “Emails.” She said it’s her second “big girl” album, showing how much she’s grown as an artist. Even though it’s connected to “Emails,” it’s got a different vibe and feels fresh.

Carpenter’s not just about the music. Her “Sweet n’ Sour” tour, kicking off in Columbus on September 23rd, is gonna be a wild ride.

Carpenter’s tour is already on fire, with shows selling out at iconic places like Madison Square Garden and the Crypto.com Arena – I guess her fans are pretty psyched! Joining her for the North American leg will be a cool mix of openers: Amaarae, a rising star who’ll bring the energy, the super-talented Griff, and Declan McKenna, who always puts on a great show. If you’re catching the tour overseas, keep an eye out for Rachel Chinouriri – she’s gonna be awesome!

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Glenn Close is speaking out about her character in her new film “The Deliverance.”

The 77-year-old Oscar nominee unpacked her portrayal of Alberta, a white woman with a biracial Black daughter and Black grandchildren, in an interview with PEOPLE published on Friday. Close said she had “no clue” how to “play” the character — a cancer patient who’s only dated Black men and openly flirts with her Black male nurse — but took on the role to challenge herself.

“If I have any rule that I’ve tried to hold myself to,” Close said, it’s “never to repeat myself” in movies or films. “Just for my own sake,” she added with a laugh, “I think I’d get bored.”

“Alberta is a white woman who has lived her life in the Black community and only dated Black men,” Close explains. “[She is] a woman who has been abused and I think she has become an abuser. She has found God in a very real way, and she’s hoping that her daughter will be able to clean up as well.”

Close explained that director Lee Daniels told her that there “are white women like this in every Black community,” a comment he also shared in an interview with theGrio. 

“I was intrigued and I wanted to do her justice,” Close said, adding that Daniels told her “every Black person knows a white woman like this, but not every white person knows a white woman like this!”

Close’s comments come shortly after Daniels shared his vision for the film with theGrio. Daniels explained that audiences have “never seen this white woman before, but Black people know her.” 

“For me, that was so exciting showing that character that only Black people know,” Daniels said about Alberta. “White people don’t know her. I think part of that is the originality and the provocativeness that I try to bring to my storytelling.”

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The director also said he wants audiences to learn that they should believe Black women when they speak out. When Alberta’s daughter, Ebony, first reports supernatural occurrences happening in her home, no one believes her.

“So often, Black women aren’t believed. Look at Kamala Harris today, you know what I mean?” Daniels says. “It’s incredible. We don’t believe Black women. And for me, it was about making sure that our women were believed. That was really a crucial part of [the film]. I work so well with Black women. They grew me. They protected me. My aunts protected me as a kid. And so, I celebrate them, and their flaws, and their beauties, and their complications. I’m fascinated. For me, I was in a playground [on set].”

As a high schooler, Jereme Peterson probably had no idea his future would hold a series of agonizing dialysis sessions, extreme weight loss and waiting on the brink of death for a kidney donor.

However, he didn’t know that 25 years later, it would be one of his classmates that came to his rescue.

The 42-year-old federal corrections officer tells KHOU that after three years of 10-hour daily dialysis treatments, his health was not improving. When he asked his doctors what would happen if he stopped his appointments, he told reporters the doctors replied, “You got two months to live. Get your affairs in order.”

Peterson said he had no choice but to seek his only option left: join the lengthy waiting list for a kidney transplant. According to the American Kidney Fund, most Americans wait three to five years for a donor. Peterson said he wasn’t sure how much time he had left. At the time he weighed 315 pounds and his kidney function had declined to two percent.

In desperation, Peterson said he took to social media pleading for help in locating a donor. Unbeknownst to him, the post happened to come upon the algorithm of a person he hadn’t seen in over two decades, a white woman named Angelina Attaway.

Attaway told KHOU she recognized Peterson as her high school classmate from Blountstown, Fla. She said she anonymously contacted Medical City Dallas with her interest in donating her kidney and made her arrangements for the procedure. By complete coincidence, or what some would call divine timing, she ran into Peterson the day before the surgery in the hospital lobby.

“I’m like, ‘What are you in Dallas for?” said Peterson to KHOU. Attaway said she told him she had his kidney.

“Time just stopped and then when she told me she was my donor, time really stopped,” Peterson told reporters.

Dr. Tiffany Anthony conducted procedure which she said went smoothly, especially because Peterson was able to locate a living donor, per KHOU’s report. The other reason, of course, is the fact we don’t see many white people donating organs to Black people. A 2022 report from The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found Black people are three times more likely to suffer from kidney failure, wait longer for donors and are even less likely to receive transplants.

Given the documented disparities, Peterson’s story gives hope. The report said he is responding well to his new organ and Attaway checks in on him from time to time. Now, the two aren’t just reconnected by social media. They share a part of each other.

“It’s like we’ve become family in a way. We share a body part, you know, so, we always say, ‘How’s our kidney doing?’” said Attaway via KHOU.

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The pop culture world has been buzzing with whispers and speculations surrounding a possible love triangle involving Sabrina Carpenter, Shawn Mendes, and Camila Cabello. From secretive dates to cryptic lyrics, the narrative between these three stars has kept fans glued to every detail.

The Beginning: Sabrina and Shawn

Rumors of Sabrina Carpenter and Shawn Mendes dating began swirling in early 2023. In February, they were spotted on a casual stroll through Los Angeles, seemingly confirming their relationship. This came after they were seen enjoying a horse-riding date together. They were later seen leaving an album listening party, with Shawn purposely entering the car after Sabrina, signaling their desire to keep things under wraps. Further fueling the speculation, the duo was spotted chatting at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, sparking more rumors of a budding romance.

A source close to the situation confirmed to Entertainment Tonight, “Shawn and Sabrina are seeing each other. They have been hanging out a lot and trying to keep things low-key.” However, in March, Shawn surprisingly denied the rumors during an interview, choosing to deflect the question rather than confirm or deny anything.

Coachella Reunion: Shawn and Camila

In a surprising twist, Shawn and his ex-girlfriend, Camila Cabello, were spotted kissing at Coachella in April. The rekindled romance captured headlines as the pair seemed to be back together. In May, they attended Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, where Shawn was seen holding Camila in his arms. Fans were hopeful for a successful reconciliation, but by June, the couple had broken up once again, signaling that their second attempt at love had failed.

Sabrina’s Musical Response

Following the publicized reunion and subsequent breakup of Shawn and Camila, Sabrina released “opposite” on the deluxe edition of her album emails i can’t send. The track is believed to be directed at Camila, hinting at the tension between the two women. In November, Sabrina dropped her holiday EP, Fruitcake, which included a biting song seemingly inspired by the love triangle.

The lyrics leave little to the imagination:

“I saw you laughing in one of his pictures / But you’ll be the one with his ring on your finger / There’s red and green everywhere, but I’m so blue / Cindy Lou Who / Maybe he met you somewhere in the desert / While he was soul searching, he found someone better / Guess you make him happy like I couldn’t do / Cindy Lou Who / With your hair so long, lips so red / Ooh, maybe we met once, I forget / Ooh, scrolling five years back, I’m obsessed / Breaking my heart, ’tis the season, I guess.”

The Cindy Lou Who references, paired with lines about someone meeting their partner “in the desert,” appeared to be a thinly veiled nod to Coachella, where Shawn and Camila reconnected.

Camila’s Clapback and a New Era

By February 2024, Camila launched a rebrand, which fans quickly pointed out bore striking similarities to Sabrina’s style. Her album featured a track titled “June Gloom,” seemingly shading Sabrina:

“If she’s so amazing, why are you on this side of town / Does she get this wet for you, baby? / Talk to you in poems and songs, huh, baby? / Little kiss make your head go hazy.”

But it didn’t stop there. Another song, “BOAT,” included scathing lyrics that seemed aimed directly at Shawn:

“Lying in bed, replaying the shit you said / Ever regret all the messing with my head? / ‘Cause I’ve been thinking / You’d never give me peace of mind, so I had to give it to myself / You never think it’s the right time until I’m good with someone else.”

Sabrina’s “Short n’ Sweet”: More Drama?

In a move that had fans reeling, Sabrina released Short n’ Sweet shortly after Camila’s rebrand. The song included lines rumored to be directed at both Shawn and Camila:

“What a surprise, your phone just died / Your car drove itself from LA to her thighs / Palm Springs looks nice, but who’s playing sides? / Damn it, she looks kinda like the girl you outgrew / Least that’s what you said (That’s what you said) / What a coincidence / Ooh, wow, you just broke up again / What a coincidence.”

Sabrina didn’t hold back in another track either, taking another apparent dig at Shawn:

“Save all your breath for your form meditation / You’re so empathetic, you’d make a great wife / And I promise the mushrooms aren’t changing your life / Will you crash the car in a bend in the wreckage? / Fuck with my head like it’s some kind of fetish.”

The lyrics touch on rumors of Shawn experimenting with psychedelics and “faking sex” during an intimate show in London, adding yet another layer to the complex web of emotions between the trio.

Where Do They Stand?

As of now, fans are left wondering what will come next in this ongoing saga. With each new song release, public appearance, and cryptic lyric, it’s clear that the dynamics between Sabrina Carpenter, Camila Cabello, and Shawn Mendes are anything but straightforward. Whether it’s a case of art imitating life or life-inspiring art, this love triangle has captured the attention of pop culture enthusiasts everywhere.

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Updated as of 8/23/2024 at 5:30 p.m. ET

The Missouri Supreme Court offered a Black Missouri man a get-out-execution-free pass. However, he refused the deal and opted to risk his life to prove his innocence.

Wednesday’s hearing threw a wrench in Marcellus Williams’ innocence claim. Experts testified that the knife used in the 1998 killing of Felicia Gayle was mishandled following the crime, per The Associated Press. Therefore, Williams’ argument that his DNA was not on the knife could not be confirmed due to contamination from previous prosecutors and law enforcement.

In response, St. Louis County County Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton offered Williams an option to enter an Alford plea to first-degree murder in the 1998 of a white woman. While the plea is not an admission of guilt, it is agreeing there is enough evidence to sustain a conviction.

The decision would have allowed him to be moved from death row to a life sentence in prison without parole.

However, an attorney tells The AP Williams declined the offer, maintaining his innocence claim. Instead, he’s putting all of his hope in a hearing scheduled for Aug. 28 to present any more evidence to prove he did not hold the murder weapon used in the crime.

With that being said, his execution date is still set for Sept. 24 and Williams has 32 days to see if this Hail Mary attempt that will be enough to send him home.

What Happened in 1998?

The 55-year-old was accused of killing Gayle inside her St. Louis home in August 1998. Police said she was stabbed a total of 43 times with a kitchen knife. The following year, an informant told authorities Williams confessed to the murder in exchange for a monetary reward offered for any information pointing to a potential suspect, according to a motion filed by St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell.

William’s ex-girlfriend also told police he confessed to the crime and claimed she saw him the afternoon of the incident with blood on his shirt and scratches on his neck, per the motion filing.

Among those allegations were suspicions that Williams was in possession of some of Gayle’s missing belongings. However, the motion said the forensic evidence found at the scene of the murder did not match to him. Therefore, Williams’ trial weighed mainly on the two statements against him, leading to a swift conviction on first-degree murder and a near lifetime on death row.

Williams was originally set to be executed back in August 2017. However, hours before the execution, a new discovery saved his life.

Read more from CBS News:

He was hours away from execution in August 2017 when then-Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, granted a stay after DNA testing unavailable at the time of the killing showed that DNA on the knife matched someone else, not Williams.

That evidence prompted Bell to reexamine the case.

“This never-before-considered evidence, when paired with the relative paucity of other, credible evidence supporting guilt, as well as additional considerations of ineffective assistance of counsel and racial discrimination in jury selection, casts inexorable doubt on Mr. Williams’s conviction and sentence,” Bell’s motion states.

Williams’ case is the first to go before a judge since the passing of the 2021 Missouri law allowing prosecutors to seek to vacate a wrongful conviction. CNN reports that the judge’s decision usually comes after almost two months after evidence is presented.

However, Williams’ next execution date still looms.

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In a world where doppelgängers abound, we may have just stumbled upon the ultimate Hollywood parallel universe pair: Rochelle Aytes and Margot Robbie. One is a stunning actress known for her role in S.W.A.T., while the other is Hollywood’s favorite Aussie, best known for playing Harley Quinn and recently, Barbie. But have you ever noticed these two could practically be the black-and-white versions of each other?

A glance at their photos side by side, and you start to wonder if the casting gods simply ran the same template through two different filters. Rochelle Aytes, with her radiant smile, elegant bone structure, and smooth mocha complexion, could easily be Margot Robbie if someone just dialed up the melanin levels and swapped out the accent. On the flip side, Margot’s classic features and blond waves might just be Rochelle with a filter that screams “vintage Hollywood glam, but make it platinum.”

Social media sleuths, ever vigilant in their quest for lookalikes, have already begun circulating memes with captions like, “When you can’t decide between vanilla and chocolate, so you get both.” Others have affectionately dubbed them “Twilight Zone twins,” sparking a lighthearted debate over which of them would win in a smile-off (spoiler: it’s a tie).

This isn’t the first time fans have gone down the rabbit hole of celebrity lookalikes, but it’s rare to find such a strong cross-racial resemblance that feels more “separated at birth” than mere coincidence. It’s like the universe took one glance at Margot Robbie and thought, “Let’s make a Rochelle Aytes version,” and vice versa.

The internet is buzzing with suggestions for a multiverse buddy comedy where Rochelle and Margot play long-lost sisters—one navigating the Hollywood hills, the other solving crimes with the LAPD’s finest. Let’s be real: we’d all watch that.

Until that dream project happens (or at least a TikTok deepfake collaboration), fans will continue to speculate and argue over whether this resemblance is the result of some cosmic cloning accident or just an incredible coincidence. Either way, next time you see them on screen, you might find yourself doing a double take, wondering if Rochelle Aytes and Margot Robbie were indeed destined to be the black-and-white versions of each other in some parallel universe where everything just…makes sense.

Hollywood, we’re waiting for the crossover. Don’t let us down!

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Alt-pop sensation Caroline Romano has released her latest single, “Body Bag,” today on all streaming platforms. Co-written and produced by Danen Reed Rector, the track delves into the complexities of growing up and confronting life’s harsh realities.

With its dreamy vocals, fuzzy guitars, and energetic percussion, “Body Bag” showcases Romano’s ability to transform raw emotions into anthemic bliss. Similar to her previous singles, “Doesn’t Matter” and “Used By You,” this track serves as another stunning example of her artistry.

“I always had this idealized picture of what my life would be like at this age,” Romano shares. “But ‘Body Bag’ is a glimpse into the reality of modern romance and the feeling of being both young and old at the same time. The song’s ups and downs mirror the rollercoaster of emotions I’ve experienced during this stage of my life.”

At just 22, Caroline Romano has already made a significant impact on the music scene. Her debut album, Oddities and Prodigies, and subsequent EP, A Brief Epic, have showcased her versatility and growth as an artist. Her music resonates with listeners as she explores themes of young womanhood, anguish, hedonism, and introspection.

Romano’s high-energy live performances have also gained her a dedicated following. She has graced iconic Nashville venues like The Basement East and The End and recently completed her first US tour supporting Grayscale and Smallpools.

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