MON SIX

The twice-postponed Clash is in the rearview mirror, and NASCAR's top drivers have headed to the Sunshine State for the 68th Daytona 500 on Sunday.

Two-time defending winner William Byron and Denny Hamlin arrive in Daytona Beach, Fla., on the verge of entering rarified air.

If Byron is the first to the checkers in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in Sunday's 200-lapper, he would become just the fifth driver to click off three 500 wins.

But in the previous 67 runnings, no winner has ever reeled off three straight checkered flags. Not seven-time winner Richard Petty nor four-time victor Cale Yarborough, the only wheelmen ever to elevate themselves past three career victories.

Byron, 28, is one of five drivers to ever record consecutive 500 triumphs, after Hamlin (2019, 2020), Sterling Marlin (1994, 1995), Yarborough (1983, 1984) and Petty (1973, 1974).

Byron, who enters his ninth Cup Series season with 16 total victories, would give owner Rick Hendrick his 11th in the Great American Race and allow Byron to match Hamlin, Dale Jarrett, Bobby Allison and Jeff Gordon with exactly three wins of the sport's crown jewel.

"I get reminders of the previous races, whether I see just the videos or whatnot," Byron said Wednesday. "Yeah, it's great career-defining moments that we've had. It's awesome. It's special. But I don't really think ahead too much. I just think about what it's going to take in these next couple days leading up to it."

However, Byron ran into trouble Thursday, wrecking his No. 24 in Duel No. 1, and will race with a backup car Sunday.

Meanwhile, Hamlin will try to find some sense of normalcy: in his life, with his health and on the track.

During a difficult, tragic November and December, Hamlin lost his chance at his first Cup championship in the final laps at Phoenix to Kyle Larson as Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota, which led 208 laps, was driving away on an emotional win dedicated to his ailing father.

Then, as 2025 was ending, Hamlin's father died following a house fire at the parents' home. The son is also not fully healthy, as Hamlin chose not to have surgery for a torn labrum that had been surgically repaired before but was re-injured in a fall while walking through the house's burned wreckage.

"It's just going to take a little while to kind of get back in the swing of things," said Hamlin, 45. "You know, it certainly has not been an easy offseason by any means, and I'm sure I'm probably in a different headspace than most of the competitors that have been rip-roaring, ready to go racing the last month or so.

"I'm probably in a different spot than that. I would certainly appreciate a few more months, but I don't have that. But we'll just kind of see how it goes."

So there will be another season for Hamlin to grapple with, a new Chase point system to figure out and another Daytona 500 this Sunday.

Polesitter Kyle Busch will lead the pack to green, while Joey Logano and Chase Elliott will be ones to watch after their Duel qualifying victories Thursday.

Hamlin could certainly win Sunday -- his Daytona 500 record shows it. However, that next phone call he will want to make, to the person who started it all, will be his hardest to reconcile because it can't be made.

--Field Level Media

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Rome Flynn earned MVP honors for the second straight year in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game on Friday night, scoring 17 points to lead a team coached by Giannis Antetokounmpo to a 65-58 victory.

Actor-comedian Anthony Anderson coached the losing team, led by former 7-foot-6 NBA player Tacko Fall with 20 points.

The game brought basketball back to the Forum, home of the Los Angeles Lakers' "Showtime" era until 1999, when they moved 10 miles away to downtown Los Angeles. Now, it has a different sponsor name under Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and is mostly used as a concert and entertainment venue.

K-pop made its debut at the game with boy group CORTIS performing at halftime.

Victor Wembanyama tossed up the opening tip between Team Giannis' Jenna Bandy and Team Anthony's Adrien Nunez, who got control, was fouled and missed his first throw.

Bandy was the only woman in either team's starting lineup.

Team Giannis had a huge advantage in the paint with Fall grabbing most of the rebounds. His dunk made it a one-point game in the third.

Chinese actor-singer Dylan Wang garnered the loudest screams of the night, especially after he scored back-to-back baskets in the first quarter for Team Giannis.

Two of the oldest guys on the court were Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia (age 46) and Rick Schnall (50-something), who's part of the Charlotte Hornets ownership group. Schnall fouled Ishbia in the first quarter, and Ishbia hit the free throws in a throwback to his Michigan State playing days.

Los Angeles Chargers star Keenan Allen hit a long shot from the red, white and blue line that was worth 4 points for Team Anthony. It launched a flurry of points for the wide receiver in the second quarter and he finished with 18 points.

Mascots from the Hornets and Mavericks alternated as sixth men restricted to playing in the backcourt for a bit in the third quarter.

Sidelined since Jan. 23 with a calf strain, Antetokounmpo won't be playing in the All-Star Game on Sunday.

But the two-time MVP was assisted by his brothers Thanasis and Alex on Friday. Another assistant was Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts.

Former NBA player Jeremy Lin credited Betts for an inspiring halftime speech. "He definitely knows a lot about basketball," Lin said.

The game marked the start of All-Star weekend, followed by the Rising Stars game down the street at Intuit Dome.

AP NBA:https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Tony Stewart's hopes of a win in his first NASCAR race back from retirement ended before the race was even halfway over.

Stewart's truck was shoved into the wall when Jake Garcia's truck got loose off Turn 4 in the second stage of the 100-lap Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona. As Stewart was to his outside, Garcia overcorrected and collided with Stewart as he hit the wall.

Wrong place, wrong time for Tony Stewart.pic.twitter.com/Uy8hTwsfaf

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX)February 14, 2026

The damage to Stewart's truck was significant enough that it ended any chance he had at winning the race. After his Kaulig Racing team made repairs, it decided to take the truck to the garage.

An early end to Tony Stewart's NASCAR return at Daytona.pic.twitter.com/gTkwMbTR9I

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX)February 14, 2026

The three-time Cup Series champion and Hall of Famer was making his first start in a NASCAR event since he retired after the 2016 season. Stewart won 49 races over 618 career Cup Series starts and was one of the best drivers of the 2000s before he stepped away. He won the 2002, 2005 and 2011 Cup Series titles, and his final title is widely credited with helping createNASCAR's recently ditched winner-take-all championship race.

That season, Stewart and Carl Edwards waged one of the greatest playoff battles in NASCAR history. Stewart, who won five races in the 10-race playoffs after going winless in the regular season, won the final race of the year at Homestead-Miami Speedway to tie Edwards and win the championship via tiebreaker because he had more wins.

Stewart was back in NASCAR on Friday thanks to Ram's reentry into the Truck Series. The manufacturer returned to the NASCAR Truck Series in 2025, and Stewart, whose NHRA team fields Dodges, was chosen to run the team's No. 25 truck, which will have a rotating cast of drivers throughout the 2026 season.

The race was Stewart's first Truck Series start in more than 20 years. He had last made a Truck start in 2005 and had won twice in six starts across NASCAR's third-tier series.

SGranitz/WireImage

For Amy Yasbeck, no closure has followed the loss of her husband,John Ritter, in 2003.

"I remember talking to Craig Ferguson. He asked me on his show after his dad passed away," theWingsactress said on a recent episode of Steve Kmetko'sStill Here Hollywoodpodcast. "And that's the first time I ever thought of it, ever said it. Somebody was talking about closure — I think Dr. Drew or somebody was on — and said something about closure."

The actress recalled that she had rolled her eyes.

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with ourEW Dispatch newsletter.

"What closure?" she thought at the time. "I understand you close a relationship... but, no, it's a circle. You're still in that circle, whether you are right at the part where you're in so much pain you can't breathe, or you see it, and it's right there, that pain, that closure; that pain that people want you to have closure on."

She continued, "You still go through your life, but it affects you, like the moon, like tides. It's always gonna be there. You don't know why. Sometimes you have a bad day or something hit you, and you don't have to, for many people, you don't have to be in analysis [to ponder that]."

Advertisement

Ritter died unexpectedly on Sept. 11, 2003, after collapsing on the set of his sitcom8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, on which he costarred with Katey Sagal and Kaley Cuoco. The star of '70s sitcomThree's Companyand movies including 1996'sSling Bladeand 2004'sBad Santahad what was thought to be a heart attack but later found to an aortic dissection. The 54-year-old died at the hospital that night.

He and Yasbeck, who met in 1990, while working on the movieProblem Child, married in 1999. Together they had a son, Noah. (Ritter was also the father of three children with his first wife, Nancy Morgan.)

Yasbeck said she has found it helpful to embrace the moments when she wishes Ritter were there with her.

"That's what John and I used to always talk about: 'Can I get a witness?'" Yasbeck said. "And we were great witnesses for each other."

Following Ritter's death, Yasbeck established theJohn Ritter Foundation of Aortic Health, which focuses on preventing the unnecessary suffering caused by aortic dissection.

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

Theo Wargo/Peacock via Getty

Backstreet's not just back, they want to rock their bodies at the Super Bowl. (All right!)

Fresh off their popular ad during this year's big game, theBackstreet Boys— AJ McLean, Kevin Richardson, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, and Brian Littrell — are manifesting their next gig: Super Bowl LXI.

"What do you guys think? Backstreet Boys: 2027 Super Bowl halftime," McLean asked the crowd during their show at the Las Vegas sphere earlier this week,per E! Online. "Let's make it happen! I mean, why not? It's in Los Angeles, it's right down the street."

McLean also reiterated his manifestationin an interview the boy band did with PEOPLErecently. "I just started an online petition on behalf of the group for us to do halftime 2027," he said. "You better vote yes for us to do halftime, especially because it's gonna be in Los Angeles at SoFi next year. That's home for me and Kevin, so that would be pretty awesome."

Carter took it one step further by suggesting such a show would be a "pop explosion" full of other stars from the late '90s and early aughts. "We're bringing back Britney Spears, we're bringing back *NSYNC," Carter said, to which McLean chimed in, "They both already did it, though."

Anne Barson/FilmMagic

Undeterred in his idea, Carter added, "We're bringing back 98 Degrees, I don't care. We're headlining. We're bringing all of our pop friends back; it would be something like that."

He continued, "We're biased because we really think that our era of music, coming from the late '90s, early 2000s, is probably some of the most nostalgic for people and makes people feel good. We're part of a club of all those artists that you'd have to bring them back."

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with ourEW Dispatch newsletter.

Dorough added he simply would want to do "some kind of flying in the stadium."

The Backstreet Boys didn't always want it that way, though.Carter revealed toEntertainmentTonightin 2021that the band declined to take part in the 2001 Super Bowl halftime show and opted to sing the national anthem instead.

"At the time, we loved the Whitney Houston rendition of the national anthem. And for us, we got the choice and we passed on the halftime," he said. "But it was a memorable experience for everyone, and I like to say we did a really good job at the national anthem."

During this year's Super Bowl, the boy band starred alongside comedian Druski and musician MGK in a T-Mobile commercial, where they did a version of their hit "I Want It That Way" to tout the benefits of the cellular service.

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

Food Network

NEED TO KNOW

• Kardea Brown says Gen Alpha contestants taught her new slang like "the ick"

• Her background as a teacher and social worker shapes her hosting style on Baking Championship: Next Gen

• The Food Network star shuts down online hate to protect young contestants

WhenKardea Brownstepped onto the set of her newest baking competition, she didn't realize she'd also be getting a crash course in Gen Alpha slang.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the Food Network star, 38, opens up about filmingBaking Championship: Next Gen— and the unexpected joy that came from working with a new generation of young bakers.

"Listen, these kids had me learning new words every day," Brown says with a laugh. "They'd say something and I'd be like, 'Wait — what does that mean?'"

Food Network

From calling something "mid" to declaring a dessert "ate," the sibling duos competing on the Food Network series kept her on her toes. "I was like, okay, I need a translator," she jokes. "But I loved it. They were teaching me."

Her personal favorite? "The ick," Brown says, laughing. "I didn't know what that was."

Now, she admits, "I do use ick a lot in my vocabulary."

For theMake Do with What You Haveauthor, the playful language was part of the show's charm.

"They're so confident," she says of the contestants. "So creative, and they know exactly who they are."

Working with kids, she adds, feels deeply familiar. Before becoming a household name in food television, Brown worked as both a school teacher and a social worker — experiences she says naturally inform her presence on set.

"Working with the kids is something totally different because it takes me back to my time where I was a school teacher and social worker," she explains. "So it just puts me right back in my element with food and children."

That background also fuels her protective instincts — especially when challenges don't go a contestant's way.

Food Network

"Even though I'm not a mom yet, I feel like I'm always in mom or auntie mode where I want to protect them from things," she say, also admitting that she cries every time (yes every time) a child was eliminated on the show and co-hostDuff Goldmanhas to be her voice of reason.

"He's like, 'All right, suck it up, Kardea. You can't cry every time.' And I'm like, 'I'm going to cry!' That's one thing about it. I'm going to cry," says Brown.

That instinct also extends beyond the kitchen and onto her social media feeds.

As fans may recall, Brown was announced asthe new co-host ofKids Baking Championshipalongside Goldman in October 2025, followingValerie Bertinelli's decade-long tenure on the series. While many viewers embraced the transition, others directed harsh criticism at Brown online — commentary that sometimes appeared on posts visible to the young contestants and their parents.

"You can feel however you feel about me," Brown says firmly, "but what you won't do is hurt these children."

However, Brown says she understands that public life invites opinions — and she's taking it all with grace, all in an effort to protect the kids. "As long as I'm doing well in life, I'm going to get the hate, and I know i,t and that's fine," she says. Of course, when negativity begins to affect kids, she draws a hard line and pledges to continue doing so.

"They're innocent," Brown says. "They haven't experienced [that kind of hate] yet. Allow them to be children."

Food Network'sBaking Championship: Next Genis now streaming on HBO.

Read the original article onPeople

Feb 13 (Reuters) - U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Makary, in an interview on Friday, urged Americans to ‌get vaccinated for measles, as the country faces its ‌largest measles surge in more than three decades.

"When we hear about cases of ​measles in an outbreak in South Carolina, that should serve as a good reminder for parents to make sure that their kids are vaccinated," Makary said during an appearance on MS NOW's "Chris Jansing ‌Reports".

The measles, mumps ⁠and rubella (MMR) two-shot protocol remains recommended at the federal level starting at 12 months of age, with ⁠a second at 4 to 6 years of age.

South Carolina reported 950 measles cases on Friday, including 17 new infections since Tuesday, ​according to ​state health officials. No deaths ​have been reported by the ‌state.

Among those infected, a significant majority of 883 individuals were unvaccinated, and 19 were partially vaccinated with one of the recommended two-dose measles-mumps-rubella vaccines.

Advertisement

"I think everyone in this administration has been pretty clear that the best way to prevent measles is to ‌get your kid vaccinated against measles," ​Makary added.

Earlier this week, National Institutes of ​Health Director Jay Bhattacharya ​also expressed his support for Americans getting vaccinated ‌against measles.

"The answer is yes," Bhattacharya ​said about the ​vaccines when asked by Reuters about recent outbreaks.

On Sunday, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz also ​urged Americans to ‌take the measles vaccine in an interview with CNN. "Take the ​vaccine, please," he said.

(Reporting by Sneha S K in ​Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)