JENNIFER LOPEZ and BEN AFFLECK are engaged again. Jennifer teased a “major announcement” Saturday on Instagram, pointing fans to her online newsletter, OnTheJLo.com . . . where she posted a video of herself wearing her new engagement ring. It has a green stone with a silver band. One jeweler estimates it could be worth more than $5 million, maybe even $10 million. Ben and Jennifer were engaged once before, in 2002, but they called it off less than two years later. Jennifer has been married THREE TIMES already, and has twins Max and Emme with ex-husband MARC ANTHONY. Ben has been married once, to JENNIFER GARNER. They have three kids: Violet, Seraphina, and Samuel.
WILL SMITH has been banned from the Oscars for the next 10 years, although he can still be nominated and win awards. He says, “I accept and respect the Academy’s decision
AMBER HEARD is going offline amid her court trial against ex-husband JOHNNY DEPP, whom she claims she’s “always maintained a love for.” She’s hoping she and Johnny can move on after this.
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback DWAYNE HASKINS was hit and killed by a dump truck Saturday morning when he tried to cross a highway on foot near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He had apparently gotten out of his own car, possibly because he ran out of gas.
If you HAD to describe KELSEA BALLERINI’s music, it wouldn’t be traditional country. And that’s fine with her, because she hates limitations. This came up when “People” asked how she navigates the boundaries in country music. “I wonder why the boundaries are there in the first place. Who put them there? Why are they still there? Those are questions I’m always asking myself. As a woman in country music I think it’s my duty to challenge everything. Why not have one song with a banjo, one song with a beat drop? Who cares? Music is music, and I do think there’s space for all of it.” Kelsea is co-hosting the CMT’s tonight with Marvel star ANTHONY MACKIE, and if you see her having a blast up there, it’s because she is. “I love hosting. It lets me be involved in the show in not just an artist’s way but also in a fan way. I get to celebrate my peers. I get to be side stage when they’re performing, I get to hand them their awards. I get to wear both hats, and that’s where I’m happiest, when I get to be an artist and fan at the same time. It’s where I feel the most like myself.”
We know exactly how tonight’s “CMTs” are going to end. With KENNY CHESNEY. He’s been rehearsing for his tour and was itching to get back on stage. “I asked if they could find space for us to debut this band, [and] they said, ‘C’mon.'” It’ll be his first appearance on the show in seven years.
MIRANDA LAMBERT and ELLE KING’s “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)” has reached Number One on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. That’s the first solo female duet to top that chart since Reba McEntire and Linda Davis did it in 1993 with “Does He Love You”.
RILEY GREEN threw out the first pitch at the Ole Miss – Alabama baseball game on Saturday in Oxford, Mississippi. He was in town doing a concert.
The Tortuga Music Festival went down over the weekend, and country stars are sharing memories. THOMAS RHETT posted a clip of himself being joined on stage by LUKE COMBS who walked out wearing shorts and flip-flops. Cheering, music, and more cheering followed. MORGAN WALLEN posted a bunch of pics of the event, and wrote, “This is what headlining my first festival looks like. Tortuga, y’all were incredible.”
MAREN MORRIS was on an episode of “Beat Bobby Flay” last week. She called it “a dream come true.”
GARTH BROOKS and TRISHA YEARWOOD are Standing Up For Ukraine, and they’re hoping you will too. The posted a clip on Facebook asking you to “dig in your pockets” and be part of the global relief plan.
LADY GAGA’s dog walker is “deeply concerned,” because the guy who shot him was apparently released from prison on some kind of technicality.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER won the Masters this weekend. TIGER WOODS finished well off the leaderboard, but said he was thankful just to have made it this far. And he committed to playing The Open at St. Andrews in July.
Would-be Reagan assassin JOHN HINCKLEY JR. thinks he’s a musician now. And he actually has a concert booked for July 8th at the Market Hotel in Brooklyn.
Joel Grey is 90
