Weekend box office news… Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame voting… Elon Musk’s $43 billion buyout…Britney Spears’s new book… and Surprise guest at Coachella

Listen to “Showbiz – Apr 25, 2022” on Spreaker.

The animated comedy “The Bad Guys” debuted in first place over the weekend, taking in $24M. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” took second with $15.2M. In its second weekend of release, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” tumbled from first to third with $14M. “The Northman” opened in fourth with $12M, with “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” rounding out the top five with $7.1M.

DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures’ “The Bad Guys” debuted atop the domestic box office this weekend with $24 million.https://t.co/qfqR2I2MBy
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) April 25, 2022

There are just a few days of voting left for the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction fan ballot. The top five artists, as selected by us — the public — will make up a “fans’ ballot” that will be tallied along with the other ballots to choose the 2022 inductees. As of this morning, Duran Duran is leading the pack with over 900K fan votes. Eminem is second with 672K, followed by Pat Benatar with 604K, Eurythmics with 423K and Dolly Parton with 382K. Dolly had asked to be removed from the ballot, saying she’s not worthy. Obviously, she is more than worthy and she’s still on the ballot. There are 17 total artists on this fan ballot, including artists like Lionel Richie and DEVO. Voting closes this Friday at vote.rockhall.com.

.@MTV megastars and pioneering synthesizers. YOUR CURRENT FAN VOTE LEADERS….#RockHall2022 Nominee @duranduran. pic.twitter.com/5AHY17P8Na
— Rock Hall (@rockhall) April 19, 2022

Elon Musk could seize Twitter TODAY….as early as this morning. As word spread that the board is preparing to accept Elon’s offer of $54.20 per share, pre-market trading sent Twitter shares up by 5% to $51.50 per share. Reportedly, both sides were working all night and into the early morning hours, hammering out all the conditions. Elon has said Twitter needs to be taken private to become a true free speech platform.

Twitter set to accept Elon Musk’s $43 billion buyout offer: report https://t.co/Kq02mVHmSZ pic.twitter.com/hvjgfu19zW
— New York Post (@nypost) April 25, 2022

Britney Spears has been working on a tell-all book, saying it’s “actually hard after speaking for 2 hours each time to this lovely lady trying to create drafts…I cry for 2 days afterwards…” Apparently, it’s stirring up a lot of long-buried emotions. In a now-deleted Instagram post, Britney went off on her ex-husband Kevin Federline. It was looooong, with lots of emojis and her favorite ellipses…(I love them, too, Britney…) She rambled a bit about Sam Asghari being messy and how her mom never held her first-born son Person and only held her youngest, Jayden, “for literally 5 seconds.” But then Britney said she was pregnant when she flew to NY but Kevin wouldn’t see her because he was shooting a video in Vegas. She also said that she’d gotten a text from someone saying, “If you don’t divorce Kevin he will publicly do it to you.” She added, “Since I hadn’t seem him in a while I already knew it was over…” Kevin’s lawyers issued a statement saying Britney’s post is “completely the opposite of what’s true, she knows that. She should be very careful about pursuing a dialogue that’s based on revisionist history.” The lawyers said, “That story about Kevin in Las Vegas and Britney is completely erroneous, and he’s not going to stand by and let that story besmirch what he did and his support of her back in the day…Kevin is not going to let that stand by and let that be the portrayal of fact.” Perhaps that’s why Britney just announced that she’s “going on a social media hiatus for a little while!!!”

Britney Spears is BLASTED by ex Kevin Federline over claims he refused to see her when pregnant https://t.co/M5Dc4HMOMd
— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) April 22, 2022

Coachella 2022, over and out! There were a handful of surprises during the second weekend. Last weekend, Friday night headliner Harry Styles brought out Shania Twain. This weekend, he brought out Lizzo, who joined Harry for One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful” and Gloria Gaynor’s 1978 disco classic, “I Will Survive.” On Saturday, Billie Eilish teased the audience with an empty stool and then introduced…..Hayley Williams from Paramore! Believe it or not, this was Hayley’s first appearance at Coachella. She and Billie sang Paramore’s 2007 hit “Misery Business.”

Billie Eilish Teams Up with Hayley Williams at Coachella for Surprise ‘Misery Business’ Duet https://t.co/XBFSm8D3zX
— People (@people) April 25, 2022