Entertainment – Brandon Sun

This image shows a Truffle Sazerac cocktail. Looking to create a bit of winter luxury when tending bar at home this holiday season? London's top cocktail-makers have some tips. Salvatore Calabrese of the cocktail bar Velvet says to start with the right glassware. He says that if the glass looks elegant, the atmosphere is already festive. Then think about the ice, which he says is like heat for cooking. You want the drink to dilute just right, so you don't want cracked or crushed ice. Other experts suggest decorating the glasses and coming up with some beautiful and tasty garnishes. Consider a garnish platter that lets guests choose which ones they want. (AP Photo/Louise Dixon)

Holiday advice for home bartenders, plus 4 festive cocktails

Louise Dixon, The Associated Press 6 minute read Monday, Dec. 19, 2022

LONDON (AP) — Looking to create a bit of winter luxury when tending bar at home this holiday season? London's top cocktail-makers have some tips.

“Christmas is a special time when you want to join with friends and family. And sometimes, the centerpiece of any happiness is to have a good drink,” says Salvatore Calabrese, an Italian-born drinks expert and author who has been making cocktails at top hotels, bars and private clubs for over 40 years.

Currently at the cocktail bar Velvet, at London’s five-star Corinthia hotel, Calabrese goes by the nickname “The Maestro.”

And The Maestro’s advice?

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Germany’s Merkel offers her thoughts on Wagner’s Ring cycle

The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Germany’s Merkel offers her thoughts on Wagner’s Ring cycle

The Associated Press 3 minute read Monday, Dec. 19, 2022

BERLIN (AP) — Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a longtime opera fan, is offering her thoughts on Richard Wagner's Ring cycle — the latest in a series of sporadic and sometimes idiosyncratic appearances since she left office a year ago.

Merkel joined a former federal court judge, Thomas Fischer, to reflect on “greed," “revenge” and “vanity” in Wagner's epic and lengthy creation in a three-part special edition of a crime-themed audio podcast for public broadcaster SWR that went online Sunday.

The 68-year-old center-right politician, who led Germany for 16 years, said that the cycle “is so universally applicable to humanity that you keep finding things, from family life to political life, that keep happening among us humans.”

She said that “when you meet real people, there are situations where you remember — I won't name any names, but certain themes occur to you.”

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Monday, Dec. 19, 2022

FILE - Angela Merkel, former German Chancellor, and husband Joachim Sauer arrive for the opening of the Bayreuth Richard Wagner Festival at the Festspielhaus on the Gruener Huegel in Bayreuth, Germany, July 25, 2022. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a longtime opera buff, is offering her thoughts on Richard Wagner's Ring cycle in a new podcast, the latest in a series of sporadic appearances since she left office a year ago. (Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa via AP, File)

‘Avatar 2’ makes waves with $134 million domestic debut

Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

‘Avatar 2’ makes waves with $134 million domestic debut

Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press 5 minute read Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

“ Avatar: The Way of Water ” didn’t make quite as big of a splash as many assumed it would, but James Cameron’s big budget spectacle still helped breathe life into the box office this weekend. The sequel earned $134 million from North American theaters and $300.5 million internationally for a $434.5 million global debut, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

It tied with “The Batman” as the fourth highest domestic debut of the year, behind “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” ( $187.4 million in May ), “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” ( $181 million in November ) and “Thor: Love and Thunder” ($144.2 million in July).

Expectations were enormous for “Avatar 2,” which carried a reported price tag of over $350 million, the pressure of following up the highest grossing film of all time (thanks in part to various re-releases) over a decade later and the daunting task of propping up an exhibition business that’s still far from normal. Everything “Avatar” is oversized, though: the Na’vi characters, the runtime (a staggering three hours and 12 minutes), the technical advancements and the release strategy from 20th Century Studios and The Walt Disney Co.

Going into the weekend many were expecting a domestic debut of at least $150 million. Some even said $175 or higher, but tracking has also not been as reliable a metric during the pandemic.

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Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

Zoe Saldana arrives at the U.S. premiere of

Cecily Strong leaves Saturday Night Live after 11 seasons

The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Cecily Strong leaves Saturday Night Live after 11 seasons

The Associated Press 2 minute read Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

After 11 seasons, Cecily Strong has said farewell to “Saturday Night Live."

A few hours before the last episode of the season Saturday, the TV show’s Instagram account posted a cue card saying, “we’ll miss you, Cecily.” The caption read “Tonight we send off one of the best to ever do it.”

A two-time Emmy nominee for her work on the show, Strong was known for characters like the Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With At a Party and impressions of people like Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green.

During Saturday’s show, she broke character as Michael Che’s drug-addicted neighbor Cathy Anne on Weekend Update to give a personal statement.

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Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

Cecily Strong arrives at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 19, 2021, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. After 11 seasons, Cecily Strong has said farewell to Saturday Night Live. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Paid-by-the-page ebook subscription model a boon for genre writers

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

Paid-by-the-page ebook subscription model a boon for genre writers

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

Though her knitwear patterns had previously been published in books and magazines, Reagan Davis was ready to spin a different kind of yarn.

A longtime fan of the cozy mystery — wholesome whodunits more in the vein of Agatha Christie than John Grisham — the Ontario-based Davis decided to self-publish the first three books in her "Knitorious Murder Mysteries" series.

Three years and 12 entries later, the series has found an audience, mostly through Kindle Unlimited (KU), a subscription service that offers readers access to hundreds of thousands of ebooks for $10 per month.

"Cozy mystery readers are enthusiastic readers. They read a lot," Davis, who writes under a pseudonym, said. "It's not at all a competitive community. My fellow cozy authors, we all support each other, we all promote each other's books, because we all appeal to the same people."

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Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022

Oppenheimer wrongly stripped of security clearance, US says

Associated Press, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Oppenheimer wrongly stripped of security clearance, US says

Associated Press, The Associated Press 3 minute read Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has reversed a decades-old decision to revoke the security clearance of Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist called the father of the atomic bomb for his leading role in World War II’s Manhattan Project.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the 1954 decision by the Atomic Energy Commission was made using a “flawed process" that violated the commission’s own regulations.

“As time has passed, more evidence has come to light of the bias and unfairness of the process that Dr. Oppenheimer was subjected to while the evidence of his loyalty and love of country have only been further affirmed," Granholm said in a statement on Friday.

Oppenheimer, who died in 1967, led the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The theoretical physicist was later accused of having communist sympathies and his security clearance was revoked following a four-week, closed-door hearing.

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Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in a scene from the film

How a Marvel Comics artist helped give Newfoundland its own psychedelic superhero

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

How a Marvel Comics artist helped give Newfoundland its own psychedelic superhero

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - When Marvel Comics artist Danny Bulanadi died last month, fans around the world took to social media to share his illustrations of well-known and well-muscled characters including Captain America, the Fantastic Four and the Transformers.

But in Canada’s easternmost province, the Bulanadi drawings shared by fans were of a mysterious cloaked figure who sought oneness with the universe instead of fist-slinging battles.

Captain Newfoundland was the province’s very own superhero, first brought to life by Bulanadi more than 40 years ago. When Bulanadi died in San Francisco on Nov. 3 at the age of 76, he was working on new Captain Newfoundland material for the first time in decades, said Jesse Stirling, whose father and grandfather came up with the idea for Captain Newfoundland.

“So we have all these half-finished panels and artwork of Captain Newfoundland, which we might release one day,” Stirling said in a recent interview. “The Captain lives on, but it will never be the same without Danny Bulanadi.”

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Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

The character Captain Newfoundland is seen in a photograph of a frame from a comic published in the Newfoundland Herald magazine, in St. John's, Friday, Dec. 16, 2022. Captain Newfoundland was the province’s very own superhero, first brought to life by Marvel Comics artist Danny Bulanadi more than 40 years ago. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sarah Smellie

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‘Something to Talk About’ songwriter Shirley Eikhard dies

Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

‘Something to Talk About’ songwriter Shirley Eikhard dies

Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press 3 minute read Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

NEW YORK (AP) — Shirley Eikhard, the singer-songwriter who supplied songs for Cher, Emmylou Harris, Anne Murray, Chet Atkins and found lasting fame penning Bonnie Raitt‘s Grammy-winning 1991 hit “Something to Talk About,” has died. She was 67.

Eikhard died Thursday at Headwaters Health Care Centre in Orangeville, Ontario, due to complications from cancer, said publicist Eric Alper.

The blues-rock smash hit “Something to Talk About” was written in 1985 and Eikhard had offered it to Murray and other artists, who all declined to record it. Then years later Raitt left a message on Eikhard’s phone saying she she’d just recorded it. Raitt said later she’d discovered the song on a demo Eikhard had sent and admired it.

The song was the first single from Raitt’s 1991 album “Luck of the Draw” and spent 20 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 5. It would win Raitt the best pop vocal performance at the 1992 Grammy Awards and was also nominated in the record of the year category.

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Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

This undated photo provided by Eric Alper shows Shirley Eikhard. The singer-songwriter who supplied songs for Cher, Emmylou Harris, Anne Murray, Chet Atkins and found lasting fame penning Bonnie Raitt‘s Grammy-winning 1991 hit “Something to Talk About,” has died. She was 67. Eikhard died Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022 at Headwaters Health Care Centre in Orangeville, Ontario, due to complications from cancer, said publicist Eric Alper. (Courtesy of Eric Alper via AP)

Woman injured in London concert crowd crush dies in hospital

The Associated Press 2 minute read Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

LONDON (AP) — A woman injured in a crush outside a London concert venue has died, police said Saturday.

London resident Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, was one of eight people hospitalized after being caught in mayhem outside the O2 Brixton Academy on Thursday night, where Nigerian singer Asake was due to perform.

The Metropolitan Police force said she died on Saturday morning. Two other women, aged 21 and 23, remain in critical condition.

Asake said he was “overwhelmed with grief" at Ikumelo's death.

Part of haul from 2019 German museum jewelry heist recovered

The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Part of haul from 2019 German museum jewelry heist recovered

The Associated Press 3 minute read Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

BERLIN (AP) — German authorities said Saturday that they have recovered a significant part of the 18th-century treasures stolen from Dresden's Green Vault museum in a spectacular break-in more than three years ago.

Prosecutors and police said in a statement that they secured 31 items in Berlin overnight, including “several pieces that appear to be complete.” They were taken to Dresden, more than 160 kilometers (100 miles) away, where police and then officials from the authority that oversees the city's art collections plan to check their authenticity and examine whether they are intact.

Some prominent items are still missing, authorities said.

Saturday's statement gave no details of where exactly the items were found and in what circumstances.

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Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

FILE - Visitors stand in the Jewel Room during the reopening of the Green Vault Museum in Dresden's Royal Palace of the Dresden State Art Collections (SKD) in Dresden, Germany, May 30, 2020. German authorities said Saturday Dec. 17, 2022, that they have recovered a significant part of the 18th-century treasures stolen from Dresden's Green Vault museum in a spectacular break-in more than three years ago. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, file)

Dreams of Chinese fame persist at Vancouver pageant, where stars are born

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press 7 minute read Preview

Dreams of Chinese fame persist at Vancouver pageant, where stars are born

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press 7 minute read Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

VANCOUVER - The eight women lining up to take questions included a pediatrician, a legal assistant and a piano teacher.

But standing on stage in their bikinis at the River Rock Casino in Richmond, B.C., they had one goal — to become the next Miss Chinese Vancouver.

The popularity of the 27-year-old pageant is testament to both the ongoing lure of celebrity in Hong Kong and Chinese show business, and what one expert called the "aura" surrounding Chinese Canadian entertainers across the Pacific.

Vancouver has long served as a talent source for the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese entertainment scenes, and the mutual attraction persists in spite of recent political tensions over the crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong and allegations of Chinese political interference in Canada.

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Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

Competitors, including eventual winner Yi Yi Wang, front centre, dance during the Miss Chinese Vancouver Pageant, in Richmond, B.C., on Wednesday, November 30, 2022. The popularity of the 27-year-old pageant is testament to both the ongoing lure of celebrity in Hong Kong and Chinese show business, and what one expert calls the

Guest lineups for the Sunday news shows

The Associated Press 2 minute read Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — ABC’s “This Week” — Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas; Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.; Dr. Ashish Jha, White House COVID-19 response coordinator; Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova.

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NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Gov. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark.; Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

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Witness on tape says she saw Lanez shoot Megan Thee Stallion

Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Witness on tape says she saw Lanez shoot Megan Thee Stallion

Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press 5 minute read Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Megan Thee Stallion 's former close friend and assistant said in a recorded interview played for jurors Friday that she saw rapper Tory Lanez fire a gun at Megan's feet.

The interview with prosecutors from September was played at Lanez's Los Angeles assault trial after Kelsey Harris said on the stand Wednesday that she did not see Lanez firing the gun that left her former friend and boss wounded, and didn't remember other key details.

“He was shooting the gun,” Harris says on the recording, describing seeing Lanez standing beside an SUV in the Hollywood Hills, leaning over the front passenger-side door and pointing the gun at the ground near Megan.

The Canadian rapper Lanez, 30, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, has pleaded not guilty to discharging a firearm with gross negligence, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle.

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Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

Rapper Tory Lanez, 30, places his his 5-year-old son Kai'Lon into the back of sports car after walking out of the courthouse, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, in Los Angeles. Megan Thee Stallion took the stand Tuesday and told jurors that Lanez fired five shots at her feet, yelled at her to dance and wounded her as she tried to walk away from him in the Hollywood Hills more than two years ago. The Canadian rapper has pleaded not guilty to discharging a firearm with gross negligence, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Noah Centineo moves away from rom-coms with ‘The Recruit’

Alicia Rancilio, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Noah Centineo moves away from rom-coms with ‘The Recruit’

Alicia Rancilio, The Associated Press 4 minute read Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

There's a moment in the new Netflix series “ The Recruit,” starring Noah Centineo, when his character, Owen, finds himself in the middle of a shootout.

As he ducks from a hail of bullets, Owen recognizes one of the people working for the other side as a woman he met in a bar. He momentarily forgets about the life-threatening situation at hand and gives a small wave of acknowledgement to her. The woman responds by shooting at him. How rude!

It's moments like these that make “The Recruit” an atypical CIA drama. Yes, Centineo's Owen is a CIA employee who finds himself in the field à la Jack Ryan, but instead of immediately knowing what to do and how to defend himself, this CIA employee is an attorney who is immediately in over his head.

“That’s a differentiation between our show, ‘The Recruit’ and many other spy genre shows and films,” said Centineo. “Usually, the lead is an accomplished spy, you know, someone that is very experienced and very good at what they do.” Owen, he says, is “fresh out of law school.”

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Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

This image released by Netflix shows Noah Centineo as Owen Hendricks in a scene from the series

CBC and HBO Max renew TV comedy ‘Sort Of’ for third season

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

CBC and HBO Max renew TV comedy ‘Sort Of’ for third season

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

TORONTO - The TV comedy series "Sort Of" has been renewed for a third season by CBC and HBO Max.

Created by the Toronto-raised duo Bilal Baig and Fab Filippo, the Peabody and Canadian Screen Award-winning series follows a genderfluid millennial as they navigate work ambitions and personal relationships.

The second season wrapped up earlier this month.

"Sort Of" received critical acclaim in Canada and U.S. and was named one of Rolling Stone's 20 best TV shows of 2022.

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Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

Bilal Baig arrives on the red carpet for the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize, in Toronto, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. The TV comedy series

Q&A: Bethenny Frankel on giving advice on all platforms

Brooke Lefferts, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

Q&A: Bethenny Frankel on giving advice on all platforms

Brooke Lefferts, The Associated Press 6 minute read Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

NEW YORK (AP) — Bethenny Frankel has never been shy about offering her opinion, but lately, giving advice has become her business. The reality TV star and producer, entrepreneur, and bestselling author has a new CNBC show, “Money Court,” where she and co-host Kevin O’Leary hear business dilemmas and come up with solutions.

On the show, Frankel and O’Leary hear disputes or problems in small businesses, including pricing strategies, work culture issues and ways to expand. The hosts make a ruling on the best way to proceed. Frankel has also recently built a large following on her Instagram feed for her brutally honest posts about food and beauty products. On the same day, she could be testing who makes the best pasta sauce, and whether a high-end end night cream is better than a drugstore brand.

Frankel, who may be best known for her role in the Bravo reality series “Real Housewives of New York City,'' recently talked to The Associated Press about her new hosting duties, social feeds and advising her daughter. Answers have been abbreviated for clarity and brevity.

AP: You and Kevin have strong personalities. How do you get along?

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Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

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