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There is always, locals say, something going on in New Orleans. This weekend, it’s the Super Bowl. For the 11th time, the Big Easy will play host to the Big Game, adding another chapter in a long legacy of on-field drama and off-field debauchery.

New Orleans hosted its first Super Bowl on Jan. 11, 1970: Super Bowl IV, featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and the Minnesota Vikings. The Super Bowl was a new invention at the time, a true crossover event between the dueling American Football League and National Football Leagues.

Major League star “Mr. Baseball” Bob Uecker died at the age of 90 on Thursday, Jan. 16 (per the Milwaukee Brewers X account). The Major League Baseball player, film, and TV star was diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer back in 2023, which he’d been battling in private. Unfortunately, though, the Hall of Fame broadcaster for the Brewers finally succumbed to the disease today, according to his family, who made the following statement (via NBC News):

Even in the face of this challenge, his enthusiasm for life was always present, never allowing his spirit to falter.

Most modern-day movie fans will remember Uecker for his incomparable performance as the hilarious, straight-shooting broadcaster for the Cleveland Indians, Harry Doyle, in the must-see comedy Major League (1989) and its less memorable sequels. However, Uecker also starred in the ABC sitcom Mr. Belvedere, which ran for six seasons (1985-1990), but his road to fame started humbly...

Bob Uecker, who parlayed six laughable seasons as a light-hitting catcher into a second career in comedy highlighted by hilarious turns in the Major League movies, on The Tonight Show and in beer commercials, died Thursday. He was 90.

A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Uecker was a popular play-by-play man for his hometown Milwaukee Brewers since 1971, and it was the team that announced his death.

On the 1985-90 ABC sitcom Mr. Belvedere, Uecker starred as sportswriter/sportscaster George Owens, who contends with the antics of his three kids (Rob Stone, Tracy Wells, Brice Beckham) and the title character, a sophisticated English butler (Christopher Hewitt) hired to bring order to a suburban Pittsburgh household.

As Harry Doyle, the eternally optimistic (and inebriated) play-by-play announcer for the beleaguered Cleveland Indians in Major League (1989), he tried to put an upbeat spin on the dismal play he was witnessing. When bespectacled rookie...

Jerry Fuller, the songwriter and producer whose stellar career included such hits as “Travelin’ Man” for Ricky Nelson, “Young Girl” for Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, “Show and Tell” for Al Wilson and “Little Green Apples” for O.C. Smith, has died. He was 85.

Fuller died Thursday at his home in Sherman Oaks of complications from lung cancer, publicist Bobbi Marcus told The Hollywood Reporter.

Fuller’s first production for Puckett was the million-selling “Woman, Woman,” which was released in 1967 and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. He then wrote and produced the band’s next three multimillion sellers, “Young Girl,” “Lady Willpower” and “Over You” — all top 10 songs, too — as the band outsold The Beatles in 1968.

“What can I say about a guy whose vision defined my musical identity and destiny,” Puckett wrote in a statement. “What can Anyone say about a man who gave So much to...

Tarantino's eclectic music choices in the Kill Bill Vol. 1 soundtrack enhance the energy and excitement of the action-packed set pieces. Uma Thurman's thrilling sword fights as the Bride become more exhilarating with the perfect songs playing in the background. The Kill Bill Vol. 1 soundtrack, filled with classic songs and original compositions, adds depth and emotion to the martial arts epic storyline.

The Kill Bill soundtrack remains one of Quentin Tarantino’s most eclectic and enjoyable releases. Ever since Mr. Blonde tortured a police officer to the tune of “Stuck in the Middle with You” in Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino has been known for his movie's needle drops. His music choices are as integral to his signature filmmaking style as his snappy dialogue and graphic violence. Music isn’t usually a priority for action movies, but Tarantino proved with Kill Bill that the right song can enhance the...

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has revealed its 2024 lineup featuring The Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, The Killers, Chris Stapleton, Jon Batiste, and Queen Latifah as among the headliners.

Other notable acts set to play include Vampire Weekend, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Hozier, Heart, Greta Van Fleet, Widespread Panic, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Bonnie Raitt, Earth Wind & Fire, The Beach Boys, Fantasia, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The Wallflowers, Joe Bonamassa, Big Freedia, Rhiannon Giddens, Nickel Creek, Juvenile with Mannie Fresh, George Thorogood & The Destroyers, The Allman Betts Band, Bomba Estéreo, Stephen Marley, Steel Pulse, Tower of Power, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Charles Lloyd, Pj Morton, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Béla Fleck, Samara Joy, The Soul Rebels, and more. Additionally, Jazz Fest will honor the legacy of Jimmy Buffett with a special tribute set.

New Orleans Jazz Fest 2024 takes place over eight...

Shecky Greene, the legendary Las Vegas headliner and stand-up comedian who entertained audiences for years while battling demons that included stage fright, alcoholism, prescription-drug abuse and gambling, died Sunday. He was 97.

Greene died on New Year’s Eve of natural causes at his home in Las Vegas, his wife of 41 years, Marie Musso Greene, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

He also was known for his dozens of appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where he served as an occasional guest host.

Greene’s garrulous act in the 1950s and ‘60s helped transform the hotel lounge into another place for patrons to be entertained, turning Vegas into a 24-hour party town. His specialty was improvisation, and he could take virtually any situation and make it funny.

The stocky Chicago native sang, did impressions, told stories and often went off on wild tangents, and his brand of comedy was quite...

Alessandro Nivola as Dickie Moltisanti with his father’s (Ray Liotta) wife Giuseppina (Michela De Rossi) and his nephew Tony Soprano (Michael Gandolfini) in The Many Saints Of Newark

In the second instalment with Alessandro Nivola, star of Alan Taylor’s The Many Saints Of Newark we discuss how Chase and Taylor ended up deciding to have Ray Liotta play his own brother, the need for Dickie Moltisanti (Nivola) to unburden himself as Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, had in The Sopranos series, Al Hirt versus Miles Davis, Alessandro’s longtime double Carl Paoli, the David O Russell technique, and why he wanted to be an actor since he was a kid.

'Hollywood Dick' Moltisanti (Ray Liotta), Buddha (Joey Diaz), Junior Soprano (Corey Stoll), Pussy Bonpensiero (Samson Moeakiola), and Paulie Walnuts (Billy Magnussen)

From New York City, Alessandro Nivola joined me on Zoom for an in-depth conversation on The Many Saints Of Newark...

Demi Lovato, who was announced this week as a performer at the Grammy Awards, will sing the National Anthem a week later as part of Super Bowl Liv pregame festivities at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Sunday, February 2, the NFL and the Fox network announced today.

The pregame show, including the National Anthem, will be broadcast live worldwide.

Lovato will join a prestigious line up of Super Bowl National Anthem performers that includes Gladys Knight, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Luke Bryan, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Jennifer Hudson, Billy Joel, P!Nk, Jordin Sparks, Idina Menzel, Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, and Neil Diamond.

In addition, on behalf of the National Association of the Deaf (Nad), Christine Sun Kim, internationally renowned sound artist and performer, will sign the National Anthem in American Sign Language.

The appearance, combined with the Grammy performance, marks a big return for Lovato, who has been recovering from...

Composer-arranger Sid Ramin, a longtime associate of Leonard Bernstein who won an Oscar, an Emmy and a Grammy for his work in film, TV and theater, died of natural causes Monday (July 1) at his home in New York City. He was 100.

Ramin won a 1961 Academy Award for adapting the music of “West Side Story,” which he had originally orchestrated for composer Leonard Bernstein on Broadway in 1957 (with fellow arranger Irwin Kostal). He won a 1961 Grammy for the “West Side Story” soundtrack album, and a 1983 Daytime Emmy for music for TV’s “All My Children.”

Ramin’s musical career encompassed every aspect of show business. He started in the early days of live television, arranging for Milton Berle’s “Texaco Star Theatre” from 1948 to 1956. “There was no second take,” Ramin once reminisced about the insane pace of live TV. “What you did was on the air, good or bad.”

He began...

After the power, presence and flash of Prince, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime performances — not to mention the controversy of this weekend’s Maroon 5-Travis Scott spot — it’s hard to believe that the big game’s intermission show used to consist of college marching bands along with performers like the lily-white singing/dancing troupe Up with People and the late, great Carol Channing.

In retrospect, it’s surprising that it took 26 Super Bowls for people to realize the marketing potential a 12-minute show with an audience that is now estimated to be 100 million people — the single biggest audience for any musical performance on Earth. As the Stones, McCartney, Gaga and others have learned, it might be the best possible way to promote an upcoming tour.

The turning point came on Jan. 31, 1993, with Super Bowl Xxvii, when Michael Jackson stood silently at center-stage for...