The singer announced in an Instagram Story that she is canceling her Get in Girl tour. “This is the right decision for my family and me right now,” Trainor explained Thursday, saying that the decision came “after a lot of reflection and some really tough conversations.”
“Balancing the release of a new album, preparing for a nationwide tour and welcoming our new baby girl to our growing family of five has just been more than I can take on right now, and I need to be home and present for each and all of them at this time,” Trainor wrote.
Trainor apologized to her fans, but promised that she will be “back soon.” She also shared that she “can’t wait” for fans to hear her new album, “Toy With Me,” which will be released April 24.
“I know this will come as a disappointment to my fans, and I am so sorry to let you down,” Trainor said. “I’m endlessly grateful for your love and support always.”
Trainor announced the Get in Girl tour in November and was set to kick it off June 12 in Clarkston, Mich. The tour included stops at Madison Square Garden in New York City and the United Center in Chicago and was to conclude at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles.
Social media users speculated that the tour’s cancellation was due to low ticket sales, with Ticketmaster seating charts in some stadiums showing very few seats sold. Influencer and Trainor’s close friend Chris Olsen took to TikTok to push back against the “predictably vicious” online comments about the tour.
“This is a bigger conversation than just her and people’s feelings toward Meghan,” Olsen said. “The question that always comes up for me is ‘Why? And what is the end goal?’”
The singer welcomed her third child with her husband, Daryl Sabara, via surrogate in January. Trainor, who has been candid about her struggles during her first two pregnancies, explained on Instagram that she was “forever grateful to all the doctors, nurses, teams who made this dream possible.”
“We had endless conversations with our doctors in this journey and this was the safest way for us to be able to continue growing our family,” Trainor wrote.
Christopher Meloni has a message for Elliot Stabler fans: “Thank you … for sticking with him and welcoming him back.”
The “Law & Order: Organized Crime” star took to Instagram on Thursday to convey his appreciation for his character’s long run in the franchise after it was revealed that the NBC show had been canceled after five seasons.
“I just saw that they announced … ‘Organized Crime’ won’t be coming back,” Meloni said in his video post. “So I wanted to take this moment to say thank you to the fans who not only helped give the character of Elliot Stabler life and longevity, but for sticking with him and welcoming him back.”
Meloni’s run as the seasoned detective began in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” which debuted in 1999. Stabler investigated New York’s “especially heinous” sex-based crimes with partner Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and other detectives in his unit for the show’s first 12 seasons. (The character was written off the show in advance of the Season 13 premiere because Meloni and NBC could not come to an agreement on a new contract.)
Stabler returned to “SVU” in 2021 for a crossover event that helped launch “Organized Crime,” a “Law & Order” spinoff focused on NYPD officers who track down “vicious and violent members of the underworld.” While the character has occasionally appeared in “SVU” episodes since his return, the end of “Organized Crime” likely means Meloni is done playing Stabler full time, at least for now. “Law & Order: SVU,” meanwhile, has been renewed for a 28th season.
“I had a great time playing him,” Meloni said in his Instagram message. “It was a great ride. Thank you. You helped give me a career that I never dreamed of. Nearly 17 odd years.”
Organizers canceled the popular Wireless Festival after the United Kingdom denied its headliner, the embattled rapper Ye, a visa into the country.
The U.K. government cited Ye’s history of antisemitic outbursts as a reason for denying him a travel permit.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Tuesday that “Kanye West [Ye’s former name] should never have been invited to headline Wireless.”
“This government stands firmly with the Jewish community,” he continued, “and we will not stop in our fight to confront and defeat the poison of antisemitism. We will always take the action necessary to protect the public and uphold our values.”
As a result, the entire summer festival was scrapped and ticket holders were issued refunds.
“The Home Office has withdrawn YE’s [electronic travel visa] ETA, denying him entry into the United Kingdom. As a result, Wireless Festival is cancelled and refunds will be issued to all ticket holders,” Wireless Festival organizers said in a statement on Tuesday. “As with every Wireless Festival, multiple stakeholders were consulted in advance of booking YE and no concerns were highlighted at the time.”
“Antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent,” they continued, “and we recognise the real and personal impact these issues have had. As YE said today, he acknowledges that words alone are not enough, and in spite of this still hopes to be given the opportunity to begin a conversation with the Jewish community in the U.K.”
Ye said, in a statement reported by the BBC, that he was “following the conversation around Wireless”, and that “I know words aren’t enough…I’ll have to show change through my actions. If you’re open, I’m here.”
Ye has been mounting a comeback after years of erratic and conspiratorial remarks about Judaism and Jewish people, and openly embraced Nazi symbols in his merchandise. He recently took out an ad in the Wall Street Journal, saying he struggled with a frontal-lobe injury from a car crash and a bipolar type-1 diagnosis. “I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika…I lost touch with reality. Things got worse the longer I ignored the problem. I said and did things I deeply regret.”
He recently released a new album “Bully” and headlined SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, performing a hit-heavy set without incident. He did not address his recent behavior.
“Little House on the Prairie” alumna Melissa Gilbert remains steadfast in her support for husband Timothy Busfield, the Emmy-winning actor who has been embroiled in a child sex abuse scandal since earlier this year.
Gilbert, in her first sit-down interview since Busfield’s indictment in February, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos she trusts her husband “with my children’s lives, my grandchildren’s lives, my nieces and nephews” and said she expects the “Thirtysomething” star will be exonerated at trial next year.
“Believe me, if I thought for a second that Tim Busfield hurt a child, he’d have a lot more to worry about than prison,” she said in part of the interview that aired Monday on “Good Morning America.”
In February, a New Mexico grand jury indicted 68-year-old Busfield on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child. A month prior, New Mexico officials accused Busfield of of inappropriately touching two child actors, who are brothers, during his time as an actor, director and producer on the Fox crime drama “The Cleaning Lady.”
One child actor alleged that Busfield had first touched his “private areas” multiple times on set when he was 7, according to the complaint. He said Busfield touched him inappropriately again several times when he was 8. The affidavit also detailed a police interview with Busfield in which he suggested that the boys’ mother might have sought “revenge” on the director for “not bringing her kids back for the final season.”
Busfield turned himself in to law enforcement days after the warrant was issued and denied the accusations. He was jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque but was released on his own recognizance Jan. 20.
For Gilbert, 61, the allegations and ensuing chain of events have been “hell.” Recent months have brought “the most traumatizing experiences of our lives,” she told Stephanopoulos, adding, “Our life as we knew it is done.”
The couple married in 2013. “The West Wing” actor Busfield has three adult children from two previous marriages and is the stepfather to Gilbert’s two adult sons from her two previous marriages. When the allegations first surfaced, a publicist for Gilbert said the actor would not comment on her husband’s case, denounced “any purported statements” and said that Gilbert was focused on caring for her and Busfield’s family.
During the Monday interview Gilbert said she and her husband are “grieving what we had: all of our plans, all of our dreams, all of our ideas, all of our projects.” She said her husband has become persona non grata — “canceled,” in her words — and that the allegations will continue to cast a shade over his career “even if he’s exonerated.” Busfield’s lawyer Larry Stein and Gilbert both told Stephanopoulos they are confident that will be the case.
When asked what justice for her husband might look like, Gilbert replied: “Exoneration and apology. Free him from this cloud.”
Elsewhere in the interview, attorney Stein doubled down on his belief that the child actors and their parents are “absolutely” making false allegations against Busfield. The actors’ parents did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Gilbert also told Stephanopoulos that before she married Busfield, she was aware he had been accused of sexual harassment twice by different women, once in 1994 and another time in 2012. Those two cases were mentioned in the January complaint against Busfield.
“I didn’t go into my relationship with him blind. I am neither naive nor am I complicit,” she said, adding she and her husband discussed those claims. “I heard his side of the story which no one has ever heard which is the truth. And when the time is right, and that is not now, Tim will tell the truth of all of these past allegations when he needs to.”
The United Farm Workers said it would not participate in celebrations of its founder Cesar Chavez amid what the labor union described as “troubling allegations” against the iconic Chicano figure.
The union, in a statement released Tuesday, did not detail the accusations against Chavez but said they were concerning enough for the organization to take action. But several events around the country honoring Chavez including events in Tucson, Houston, Corpus Christi, San Antonio and San Bernardino have been canceled in recent weeks, with little explanation given by organizers.
The claims against Chavez “are incompatible with our organization’s values. Some of the reports are family issues, and not our story to tell or our place to comment on. Far more troubling are allegations involving abuse of young women or minors. Allegations that very young women or girls may have been victimized are crushing. We have not received any direct reports, and we do not have any firsthand knowledge of these allegations,” the union said.
Canceling events, the union said, would “provide space for people who may have been victimized to find support and to share their stories if that is what they choose.”
Chavez is a towering national figure credited with organizing and raising the lives of migrant farmworkers in California and beyond and giving voice to the struggles of Mexican Americans.
Bursting into national prominence in the mid-1960s in the San Joaquin Valley, Chavez galvanized public support on behalf of them after organizing community groups across Central and Southern California. For decades, agricultural laborers had lived in substandard housing and were paid terrible wages. Efforts to organize migrant laborers were usually crushed violently by farmers and local law enforcement.
Chavez and his associates joined a grape pickers’ strike in 1965 launched by Filipino organizers centered around Delano, the heart of California’s table grape crop. Those early years were marked by bitter and sometimes brutal incidents involving picketing farmworkers who screamed “Huelga!” — “Strike!”—and growers who vowed never to give in to Chavez and his movement.
Sen. Robert Kennedy and Cesar Chavez as Chavez ended a 25-day fast.
(Bettmann Archive)
That eventually transformed into a boycott that earned international attention. Chavez, drawing on his Catholic faith, fasted for 25 days in 1968 to draw attention to the violence swirling around the effort, ending it by sharing bread with then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. Two years later, the UFW was able to secure contracts for more than 10,000 grape pickers.
Those successes made Chavez an almost mythic figure. The UFW flag — a stylized black Aztec eagle against a red background — became synonymous with the Chicano movement that was emerging at the same time. Posters and murals featuring Chavez’s beatific face sprouted in the Southwest and beyond. He traveled across the United States espousing his philosophy of nonviolence, union and dignity for farmworkers.
But Chavez’s legacy became increasingly tarnished as the years went on. Labor victories became fewer and fewer. His fierce criticism of illegal immigration — Chavez argued that they undercut his unionization efforts — put him at odds with immigration activists. A 2006 Times investigation detailed how dozens of former associates and workers left the UFW because of what they described as Chavez’s increasingly autocratic ways.
Cesar Chavez talks to striking Salinas Valley farmworkers.
(Sakuma / Associated Press )
When the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors decided to change the name of Brooklyn Avenue in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights to Cesar Chavez Avenue after the labor leader’s death in 1993, many in the community opposed it, citing the economic burden businesses would undergo to update their addresses and the erasure of the community’s history on the street.
Yet his standing among Latinos nationwide was such that schools, streets and parks were renamed in his honor in the years after his death. In 2012, President Obama went to tiny Keene, Calif. — where Chavez had set up both his home and the operational headquarters of the United Farm Workers — to dedicate the César E. Chávez National Monument.
It’s unclear the source of the new allegations or when they might become public. But there has been rumbling for weeks among activists that something about Chavez was coming.
Huerta is not commenting on the issue at this time, said Eric Olvera, spokesperson for Huerta.
The news comes two weeks before Cesar Chavez Day, observed March 31.
Local organizers in Los Angeles haven’t announced whether they will cancel their events.
The UFW was vague about the claims but suggested they were serious enough for extreme action.
“These allegations have been profoundly shocking. We need some time to get this right, including to ensure robust, trauma-informed services are available to those who may need it.
“We understand this will be tremendously painful for many and we encourage our community to seek mental health support if they experience distress.”
Tuesday morning, the Cesar Chavez Foundation said in a statement that it had “become aware of disturbing allegations that Cesar Chavez engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with women and minors during his time as President of the United Farm Workers of America.”
The foundation said it was working with leaders in the farmworker movement to be responsive to these allegations and support the people who might have been harmed.
“In partnership with the UFW, we are establishing a safe and confidential process for those who wish to share their experiences of historic harm, and, if they choose to, participate in efforts toward repair and reconciliation,” the statement said. “In addition, we are investing time and resources to ensure the Foundation promotes and strengthens a workplace culture that is safe and welcoming for all.”
In the 48 hours before the UFW and Cesar Chavez Foundation made their statements, La Unión del Pueblo Entero, a community-based union and nonprofit in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, which was founded by Huerta and Chavez, erased the names and affiliation with the leaders from its website.
The new allegations could have implications beyond Chavez’s place in history. If he has been accused of sexual abuse, a legal expert said it could spark legal claims against the union he ran for so long.
In California, Assembly Bill 250 opened a two-year window to file sex assault claims beyond a previous statute of limitations. The Catholic Church, Scouting and public school districts, as a result, have been hit hard with lawsuits.
“It is [a] matter [of] who knew what and when,” said John Manly, a sexual abuse attorney, adding that Chavez’s leadership role could create liability for the UFW.
NBCUniversal is cutting “Access Hollywood” and several other of its daytime talk shows, effectively ending its first-run syndication business as daytime television atrophies.
The company confirmed that “Access Hollywood,” and its counterpart “Access Live,” will be coming to an end in September. The shows, produced in Los Angeles, are currently hosted by Mario Lopez, Kit Hoover, Scott Evans and Zuri Hall.
Talk shows “Karamo” and “The Steve Wilkos Show,” produced out of NBC’s facility in Stamford, Conn., are also shutting down. The programs have already completed their production for the season and will run through the summer.
NBC previously announced that “The Kelly Clarkson Show” is also ending later this year after seven seasons.
“The Steve Wilkos Show” ran for 19 seasons. The host is a former bouncer for “The Jerry Springer Show.”
Francis Berwick, chairman of Bravo and Peacock unscripted, said in a statement that the company will continue to distribute library episodes of its talk programs and network shows such as “Law & Order.” But NBCU’s days of launching series for daytime and the hour before prime time are over.
“NBCUniversal is making changes to our first-run syndication division to better align with the programming preferences of local stations,” Berwick said. “The company will remain active in the distribution of our existing program library and other off-network titles, while winding down production of our first-run shows.”
“Access Hollywood” was first launched by NBC in 1996 as a competitor to CBS Media Ventures’ “Entertainment Tonight.”
First-run syndication allows producers to sell TV shows to stations on a market-by-market basis, instead of distributing them through a single network. This model was a major success for talk show staples such as Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres.
But streaming has pulled viewers away from traditional television, as viewers can watch their favorite shows and movies anytime on demand. The audience levels needed to generate enough ad revenue to support first-run programming in daytime no longer exists.
Many TV stations are filling their hours with more local news as daytime talk goes away.
