The daily gossip: Britney Spears' memoir is reportedly making A-listers nervous, The Weeknd is 'getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter,' and more

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1. Britney Spears' memoir is reportedly making A-listers nervous
2. The Weeknd is 'getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter'
3. Richard Dreyfuss suggests he should be able to play a Black man
4. Sum 41 to disband after 27 years
5. Taylor Swift and Matty Healy spotted together amid dating rumors

published 8 May 2023

1. Britney Spears' memoir is reportedly making A-listers nervous

Oh baby, baby. Britney Spears' tell-all memoir is on hold due to legal concerns regarding claims that "she had affairs with two Hollywood stars," according to The Sun. "Britney is brutally honest in the book — there are a lot of nervous A-listers," a source told the outlet, adding that "strongly worded legal letters have been sent to the publishers by people who know Britney and who fear what she has written." The book, which is being published by Simon & Schuster, is reportedly now expected at the end of 2023 after previously targeting a February debut. Last year, the pop star said writing her memoir has been "healing and therapeutic," but it has also been "hard bringing up past events in my life," and Page Six promised it will be a "bombshell" book. According to The Sun's source, there are "relationships and people she had encounters with who she managed to keep under the radar." Consult your lawyer, Kermit the Frog.

Ladies and gentlemen … Monday. The Weeknd revealed to W magazine his next album is "probably my last hurrah as The Weeknd," indicating he plans to retire his stage name. "This is something that I have to do," the singer, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, explained. "As The Weeknd, I've said everything I can say." This comes ahead of the premiere of the controversial HBO show The Idol, in which Tesfaye stars opposite Lily-Rose Depp. With the premiere in sight, he told W that he's "getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter," and while he will "still make music, maybe as Abel, maybe as The Weeknd," he aims to "kill The Weeknd," adding, "I'm definitely trying to shed that skin and be reborn." In other words, using his famous moniker is no longer working for The Weeknd.

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You're gonna need a bigger Notes app apology. Oscar-winner Richard Dreyfuss is facing backlash after appearing to defend blackface on PBS' Firing Line. "You know, Laurence Olivier was the last white actor to play Othello, and he did it in 1965, and he did it in blackface, and he played a Black man brilliantly," the Close Encounters of the Third Kind star said. "Am I being told that I will never have a chance to play a Black man?" The comment came after Dreyfuss slammed the Oscars' new requirements that Best Picture nominees meet certain inclusion standards. These rules "make me vomit," he said. When PBS' Margaret Hoover suggested there's a difference between "the question of representation" and the use of blackface, Dreyfuss replied, "There shouldn't be." Spoken like a guy still bitter that being a human prevented him from playing the shark in Jaws.

They're going under. Sum 41 "will be disbanding" after 27 years, the rock band announced Monday, reminding everyone they were, in fact, still together before this. They plan to release one last album called Heaven :x: Hell and go out with "a final worldwide headlining tour to celebrate," so it will be a fairly extended farwell. Sum 41 formed in 1996, and the band's most recent studio album, Order in Decline, dropped in 2019. "We are forever grateful to our fans both old and new, who have supported us in every way," a statement said. "It is hard to articulate the love and respect we have for all of you and we wanted you to hear this from us first." The statement added that the band's members are "excited for what the future will bring for each of us," but they won't be more than the sum of their parts for much longer.

It certainly looks like Taylor Swift has a new lover. After The Sun claimed last week that Swift was dating The 1975 frontman Matty Healy and they were "ready to go public with their romance in Nashville," he did, in fact, attend several of her Nashville concerts and even performed with Phoebe Bridgers. The Daily Mail then published (extremely blurry) photos of Swift and Healy reportedly arriving at her condo at 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, while Entertainment Tonight reported they have been spending time together after Jack Antonoff reconnected them. "Taylor has a crush on Matty and they are having a good time hanging out," a source told ET. "Matty also thinks Taylor is awesome and incredibly talented, too. They dated briefly in the past." But given you might recognize Healy from recent headlines like "Matty Healy appears to do Nazi salute on stage at The 1975 show," Swifties aren't taking any of this all too well.

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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.