Stephen King is collaborating on his next book with a DEAD GUY . . . which seems fitting.  On September 2nd, he’s releasing a new version of “Hansel and Gretel” with Maurice Sendak . . . author and illustrator of “Where the Wild Things Are”. Sendak died in 2012, but in the late ’90s, he drew a series of sketches for a stage production of “Hansel and Gretel”.  So King wrote the text to go along with them.

“Captain America: Brave New World” did better than expected when it hit theaters this past weekend.  But Sam Wilson, the new Captain, only came in 30th in a poll to determine the most popular Marvel characters.  #1?!?!?  Stan Lee.  He’s followed by Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Thor. This list goes to 178, and there’s one GLARING omission.  Wolverine doesn’t appear ANYWHERE on it. For the record, this list is ONLY for characters in the official Marvel Cinematic Universe.  But “Deadpool and Wolverine” WAS an official MCU movie . . . which is how Deadpool ended up on the list.

Back in November, Post Malone announced the Big [Butt] Stadium Tour with Jelly Roll and Sierra Ferrell, that will run from April to July in stadiums across the United States . . . plus one show in Toronto. Well now Posty is taking his tour GLOBAL with 18 international dates starting on August 8th in Romania . . . and ending on September 14th in Portugal. (You can check out Posty’s announcement, here.)

Well, this is what they call nice timing.  Lainey Wilson finally got engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Duck Hodges, last week.  And if you didn’t know, her song “4X4XU” is all about their relationship, now “4X4XU” has gone to #1. Especially because she released it seven months ago. So, this might be a winning formula. Write a song about your boyfriend, wait awhile till he proposes, and then that song goes to #1. Easy peasy. Congratulations to Lainey . . . and Duck!

Cody Johnson just played two sold-out shows at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, and it’s hard to find anyone online that didn’t think the show was incredible. But it was his surprise guests that really made news.  First, he brought out Carrie Underwood and they sang their duet, “I’m Gonna Love You”. (You can check out video of that, here.) And then to close it down, Cody brought out Luke Combs and they sang a very rowdy, “Beer Never Broke My Heart”.  The crowd went nuts . . . what a way to end the show. (You can check out Cody and Luke singing, here.)

Conservatives are upset about the MAGA hat-wearing character Tom Hanks played on Sunday’s “SNL50” anniversary special.

RadarOnline.com says Robert De Niro is under fire for not changing diapers for his 19-month-old daughter Gia. A source says, “It’s pretty insensitive to brag about being a deadbeat diaper changer, but he’s an old-school guy. He insists he changed diapers with his older kids, but clearly doesn’t see it as all that important now. He likes to be the Disneyland dad and swan in and out and leave the heavy lifting to Tiffany. Some of their pals think it’s lousy and feel he would bond better with Gia and strengthen his relationship with Tiffany as well if he stepped up. The feeling among his pals is he needs to man up about the messy stuff with little Gia.”

Tinsel Town Talk – Tue 02/18/2025