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Nicole Taylor, one of Christian country band Taylor Red’s identical triplets, has died. The singer and musician succumbed to breast cancer on Sept. 28 in Nashville. She was 35.

“We are shocked and heartbroken to announce the passing of our sister Nicole Taylor. This isn’t the video we thought we’d ever be making,” Natalie said in a video posted to YouTube.

Nika continued, “We thought she would be here sharing her story of earthly healing, but instead we’re here sharing her story of heavenly healing, and she’s at peace and no longer suffering, so we’re thankful for that.”

The surviving sisters explained that Nicole was diagnosed in 2022 with Stage 3 breast cancer. Treatment put the disease into remission, but it returned as Stage 4 cancer. Eventually, doctors said Nicole had three months, Nika recalled in the video with Natalie revealing, “She lived around a year later after that prognosis.”

In between telling their sister’s story, Nika and Natalie read Bible verses they turned to in their grief.

“Nicole told us even before she passed that she had peace, and we were really thankful for that,” Natalie shared.

Nika continued, “Yes, things did not turn out as we hoped. We lived every day expecting full miraculous healing here on Earth and lived every day in hopes of that. Of course, we all had our moments of fear and doubt, but we fought it and fought it. And God gave us so much peace and hope in him along the way. We were so shocked and still shocked of her passing.”

The Mississippi natives are also known for their social media presence, with 16.7 million subscribers on YouTube and 13.5 million followers on TikTok.

The sisters created viral videos capitalizing on their red-haired identical-triplets identity. Using humor and social trends, the sisters filmed themselves wearing matching outfits, dancing in sync or playing instruments, including the guitar, banjo, fiddle and mandolin. They appeared in a national Sonic Drive-In commercial and also partnered with major commercial brands, including Crocs, Lipton, Skittles, Redken and Frito Lay.

“Country Money,” released in 2021, became one of the band’s most well-known songs with more than 810,000 streams on Spotify, while “Rent Free” has surpassed 664,000 streams. “Fresh off the Farm,” “Bringing Country Back” and “What They Seem” each have over 345,000 streams on the music site.

Nicole was also a Taste of Country morning radio show host. In a tribute on the country music-focused website, her colleague Evan Paul related the story of first meeting Nicole and her sisters and his later interactions with her at the media outlet.

“Nicole was such a warm soul. She was so smart and so talented that it was hard to even share a room with her. Her light was so bright. I am convinced that when you see a star shooting across the sky at night, it’s Nicole giving us a wink and letting us know she’s all right,” Paul said.

“Nicole, the oldest of us three sisters, will be greatly missed,” Nika and Natalie posted on their official site. “She was our leader and our best friend. We are heartbroken, but we know she is in Heaven and will see her again.”

Put away the holochess board, C-3PO is going to the 2027 Super Bowl!

An animated “Star Wars” version of Super Bowl LXI featuring characters from the galaxy far, far away will air live, simultaneously with the game, on Feb. 14 on Disney Channel and Disney XD, the NFL announced Monday along with partners ESPN, Lucasfilm and Disney. “Star Wars Funday Football” will also be available on Disney+ and the ESPN app.

Anthony Daniels, who has portrayed C-3PO since the original “Star Wars” trilogy, will voice the worry-prone protocol droid in the live alternate telecast. If the brief teaser video is any indication, C-3PO will be joined by his favorite astromech, R2-D2.

“Star Wars Funday Football” will feature live-animated avatars of all of the players on the field as they play the game. Viewers can expect “Star Wars” characters to sub in during special moments, as well as various Easter eggs to appear throughout the game.

The “Star Wars” themed telecast follows previous “Funday Football” installments that were themed to “Toy Story,” “The Simpsons,” and “Monsters, Inc.” This marks the first time that the Super Bowl is getting the “Funday Football” treatment.

The traditional telecast, featuring announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman with reporters Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge, will be available on ESPN, ABC and Disney+.

Super Bowl LXI will be held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Details for the halftime performance have not officially been announced, but Jay-Z is rumored to be the headliner.

Following “Star Wars Funday Football” and Super Bowl LXI, a newly restored version of “A New Hope” will return to theaters on Feb. 19. “Star Wars: Starfighter,” a new standalone film starring Ryan Gosling as Kade Auberon, is slated to hit theaters May 28.

Maurisio “Mauri” Tapia, the frontman of the popular SoCal indie rock act Los Retros, has been charged with four felony counts of unlawful acts with a child under the age of 10.

Tapia, a 26-year-old Moorpark resident was arrested on Oct. 8 and booked with bail set at $3 million. He was charged in Ventura County Superior Court on Monday, according to court records, and did not enter a plea.

The charges come with additional special allegations, around the victim’s vulnerability and that Tapia abused a trustworthy position. His next court date is Thursday.

Los Retros became an influential act in a wave of Latino bands drawing from vintage Mexican balladeers, American oldies and modern indie rock. Tapia played the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival this year, and singles like “Someone to Spend Time With” and “Amtrak” have millions of streams and monthly listeners.

The project was a prominent act on Stones Throw Records, which had initially booked Los Retros to co-headline its 30th anniversary festival.

In a statement posted to social media, Stones Throw said that “Yesterday we learned of extremely serious and disturbing allegations against Mauri Tapia, professionally known as Los Retros. We had previously announced the cancellation of his scheduled performance at Stones Throw 30 before we were aware of these circumstances. In light of this information, we are taking steps to disassociate ourselves from Tapia and his work. We take these allegations extremely seriously and will continue to assess the situation as more information becomes available.”

The Super Bowl is coming to Disney+.

The Walt Disney Co. announced Wednesday that ESPN’s telecast of the NFL’s marquee event on Feb. 14 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. will be available to Disney+ subscribers. The company also said Disney+ will carry two ESPN “Monday Night Football” games in the current season.

ESPN is producing the Super Bowl for the first time in its history. The game is airing on Disney’s broadcast network ABC which last carried the game in 2006, and on ESPN and the ESPN app.

The addition of Disney+ makes the game available to casual fans who may not have cable or subscribe to a sports TV channel. The Super Bowl is the most-watched TV event of the year, with audiences exceeding 120 million viewers in recent years.

Streaming platforms are bringing in additional advertising revenue for the networks that carry the game.

In 2025, the Fox telecast of Super Bowl LIX averaged 13.6 million viewers on Tubi, the ad-supported streaming service owned by the network’s parent company. Fox was able to sell streaming-only ads on the telecast at around $2 million for a 30-second commercial. The spots aired in the commercial breaks for local Fox TV affiliates.

Disney is offering advertisers the opportunity to buy streaming-only ads across Disney+, the ESPN app, Hulu Live and Fubo. The company has already sold out the commercial time on the ESPN and ABC telecasts with some 30-second spots going for $10 million.

As a lead-up to the game, Disney+ will carry ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” match-up between the Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles on Oct. 26 and another contest later in the season.

Disney+ has been adding sports to its lineup, with select ESPN college football games and Formula E races now available on the platform.