Savannah Guthrie’s absence from “Today” has left viewers wondering if the case involving Savannah’s mom is connected. But TMZ learned this was not true.
TMZ reports that sources with first-hand knowledge confirm Savannah’s absence is not related to the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping investigation.
Laura Jarrett and Craig Melvin filled in for Savannah on the NBC Morning Show Thursday after Sheinelle took over Wednesday.
The investigation of her mother’s kidnapping is still ongoing. Nancy vanished from her Arizona house on 31 January… authorities are investigating the case as kidnapping.
The FBI has clarified the confusion that arose during the investigation regarding the ransom note.
A spokesperson for FBI Phoenix told TMZ… “The FBI and their task force partners received multiple ransom notes during this investigation. Some ransom notes have been determined to be unlegitimate extortion. Some ransom requests may be legitimate, and they are being investigated for that.
Clarification comes following a report that suggested the notes were fake. TMZ was told by law enforcement that the characterization of two ransom notes is not accurate. An FBI official told us later that it’s more likely than no that they are genuine.
TMZ received over a dozen emails claiming that someone knew the identity of Nancy’s alleged abductors, and demanding one Bitcoin as payment. Later, the sender claimed that he knew the location of the hidden phone with photos and videos connected to Nancy’s kidnapping. He demanded payment again.

This is a crossover between “Task”, “Mare of Easttown”, and other shows.
Julianne Nicholson, who won an Emmy for her role in the HBO drama detective series, Lori Ross (mother of three kids living in Easttown), has returned to reprise the Emmy award-winning role she played as Lori Ross.
The two series are both created by Brad Ingelsby, the showrunner, and they take place in Philadelphia’s working class suburbs.
There’s no way to know how Nicholson will be a part of the “Task” storyline. The Season 2 logline is vague: “Tom Brandis, played by Mark Ruffalo, takes over the leadership of a task force. But the more the mission progresses, the harder the job becomes in identifying the true target.”
Nicholson, along with Ruffalo and the previously announced Mahershala, Ali, Harry Melling Adam Nagaitis Aminah, Nieves, Ramirez, Nicholson, joins Mahershala, Harry Melling Adam Nagaitis Aminah, Edgar Ramirez.
Kate Winslet starred in “Mare of Easttown”, which premiered on HBO 2021. She played Marianne Sheehan (Mare), a detective who is investigating the murder of an adolescent mother, while also juggling her own personal life. Nicholson portrayed Lori, Mare’s best friend whose son gets involved in the investigation.
Winslet and Ingelsby teased the possibility of a second “Mare of Easttown” season, which had been designed to be a miniseries. HBO drama chief Francesca Orsi stated that there had been “early talks” in the year 2024 about a continuation of “Mare of Easttown.” Winslet, on the other hand, said earlier this summer, “I believe we will probably do it. We could even film it in 2027.” What that would look like or if Winslet were to join the “Task” world remains unknown.
Nicholson, who is also a 2-time Emmy award winner, won her other Emmy for playing Dance Mom on the HBO comedy, “Hacks”. She has also appeared in BBC’s “Dope Girls” as Kate and in the BBC series “Paradise”, as the tech-billionaire Sinatra.
Nicholson’s representatives include United Talent Agency Untitled Entertainment, and B-Side Management in the U.K.

The highly-anticipated 13th season of American Horror Story will be released on the date set.
FX’s hit horror series will be back on Thursday, September 24 at 9 pm (PT). The hit FX horror anthology will return Thursday, Sept. 24 (at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m.PT on FX and Hulu. Disney+ is streaming worldwide). This season looks to be an All-Star Reunion with Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson amongst the returning cast members, as well as Evan Peters. Angela Bassett. Kathy Bates. Emma Roberts. Billie Lourd. Gabourey Siding.
In celebration of its upcoming star-studded episode, the series will also be rolling into San Diego Comic-Con in a fleet ice-cream trucks that offer sinister treats inspired by the past chapters of Ryan Murphy’s and Brad Falchuk’s legendary anthology. American Horror Story 13 is also going to be a major presence at the SDCC from July 23-26. Teaser artwork will cover one wall of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.
The logline of season 13 is: “An unparalleled 13th installment which will pay homage to the number that everyone fears.” American Horror Story: 13 brings together an all star cast with many reprising their fan favorites roles. The anthology has a long history that spans over 30 years and is streamed for more than 700,000,000 hours around the world. It also has a loyal following of fans. American HorrorStory redefined genres with its various episodes featuring a creepy house of murder, a witch coven, a travelling freak show, haunted hotels, and even the apocalypse. What new horrors are in store for the 13th floor and which iconic horrors return? Prepare for the ultimate surprise. Light candles and draw pentagrams.
Executive producers are Murphy, Falchuk and Ned Martel. Also, Charlie Carver Eric Kovtun Nissa Dasderich Scott Robertson TanasePopa Crystleroberson Dorsey Jennifer Salt Tim Minear. Produced by 20th Television, the series has a cast of over 100.

Bonnie Tyler has passed away. The Grammy nominated Welsh singer with a gravelly voice, whose chart-topping 1983 power ballad, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, captivated generations to come during the solar and lunar eclipses. Bonnie Tyler was 75.
Tyler’s family announced on Thursday that she died suddenly in Portugal while being treated in the hospital for a serious illness. In May, she was admitted to the hospital in Faro for an emergency intestinal operation. After being placed in a coma, she was reported to be improving and making a full recovery last month.
Bonnie’s family is heartbroken. She died unexpectedly last night at a hospital in Portugal due to the illness she was treated for.
Tyler was nominated for three Grammys in 2013, and represented Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013. She placed 19th. In 2022, Queen Elizabeth II awarded Tyler the title of Member of the British Empire for her contributions to music. This was largely due to the success of “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, which had over 1 billion streams.
The song spent 4 weeks on No. Stereogum’s 2020 re-evaluation of the song declared that it was “an extinction event in music form”.
It’s pop as a heart-thumping passion explosion. This is a spectacle. There are fireworks, lasers, lightning and thunder. The site says that it soars, swoops, and barrel rolls.
It was covered in 1996 by Westlife and in 1995 by English singer Nicki France. Cate Blanchett sung it when she hit Billy Bob Thornton’s car with it in the 2001 film “Bandits,” and it was featured in a scene of a wedding in 2003’s Old School. In 2010, One Direction performed it on a U.K. edition of “The X Factor.”
Early Life
Tyler, born Gaynor Hopkins, was raised in Skewen in Wales in a public housing complex with an outdoor toilet. It is located about 11 kilometers (7 miles) from Swansea. She was raised with two sisters and three brothers.
According to “Straight From the Heart”, her autobiography, she loved the Beatles, and bought her first album “A Hard Day’s Night” at the age of 13. She also watched “Top of the Pops,” religiously.
She recorded “Top of the Pops”, on reel-toreel, and wrote down the lyrics of the songs she liked. Janis Joplin was her favorite artist, followed by Nina Simone and Tina Turner. Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, and Nina Simone were also favorites.
I used to sing into my hairbrush hours and hours. That’s where it all began for me. Just by singing into my hairbrush, I was hooked. Even then, my voice had an husky quality, which I did not notice. “I thought that everyone had a different voice,” wrote the woman.
She had surgery in 1976 to remove the nodules from her throat. This left her with her trademark voice. Sherene was in a soul group when Roger Bell discovered her. He brought her to London to do demos. She waited until RCA expressed interest in her before signing with a record label.
Bonnie Tyler’s debut album, The World Starts Tonight, in 1977, contained “Lost in France,” her first hit on the charts. She was also nominated at the Brit Awards for a Breakthrough Artist Award. Then, she had a number one. She had a No. 3 hit with “It’s a Heartache” in 1978, but drifted. After signing with Sony, she saw Meat Loaf performing “Bat Out of Hell”, on BBC. She was so impressed that she asked to collaborate with Meat Loaf’s songwriter and producer Jim Steinman.
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Steinman told her that the song was from a musical version of “Nosferatu”. The song, he told her, was from an upcoming musical adaptation of “Nosferatu”.
Tyler, in The Guardian, 2023, said that Jim liked to lay down a rhythmic track and do nine takes, then choose the best take, before adding everything else, just like Phil Spector did. He gave me a tape to listen to at my hotel, and both of us preferred Take Two.
The song “Total Eclipse”, featuring Roy Bittan, Max Weinberg and the E Street Band on piano, is about a lost love. “Once there was light/Now there’s just love in darkness,” she sings.
This video was a classic of the early days of MTV. It was filmed in an old gothic asylum in Surrey where guard dogs wouldn’t let anyone down in the basement rooms where people used to receive electric shock treatments. Tyler wore frighteningly large shoulder pads and a slow-motion dove thrown in the air. There were also dancing ninjas dancing greasers as well as fencers wearing goggles, gymnasts with wind machines, and boys without shirt who wore swim goggles getting doused by water.
Tyler received a Grammy nod in the category of best pop vocal performance for his song “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, losing out to Irene Cara for her “Flashdance – What a feeling.”
The ‘Eclipse” and the aftermath
Tyler’s career never reached the same heights, but his movie soundtracks such as “Holding out for a Hero”, from 1984’s “Footloose”, and “Here She Comes”, from ‘Metropolis’ in 1984 also remained current.
She performed a Vatican concert at the end of the year, performing duets before Pope Francis. Her album “Between the Earth and the Stars”, released in 2019, featured Rod Stewart, Cliff Richard and Status Quo’s Francis Rossi.
She switched to a more country sound in Nashville in 2013, releasing “Rocks and Honey”, which featured the Vince Gill duo “What You Want From Me” and “Believe in Me,” a ballad written by American Desmond Child and British writers Lauren Christy and Christopher Braide. The song “Believe in Me”, written by American songwriter Desmond Child and British songwriters Lauren Christy and Christopher Braide, was chosen to represent Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden that year.
She told The San Francisco Examiner, in 2023: “It had a wonderful atmosphere.” “I was interviewed every 15, 20, minutes and I was so nervous when I went on stage behind the British flag that I was afraid the roof would fall off!” “It was amazing, simply awesome!”
She performed “Total Eclipse of the Heart” with Joe Jonas and DNCE on the Oasis of the seas in 2017 as part of a cruise called “Total Eclipse Cruise.”
Tyler married Robert Sullivan, a former Olympic judo athlete and property developer.
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Brian Melley, a writer for the Associated Press in London, contributed to this article.
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The story was corrected so that Tyler received the Queen Elizabeth II Award in 2022 and not 2023.

The micro-dramas trend is so big that almost every company working in the space of the attention economy — whether it’s social media titans like TikTok or Instagram, streaming services such as Peacock and Amazon Prime, or even India’s JioHotstar — has a product designed to take advantage.
Character.AI, a company that lets users chat with AI avatars they create themselves, has also tapped into this market, producing microdramas based on AI characters. There’s a twist to the product that allows users older than 18 years old to chat, roleplay, or ask questions of these characters.
The company will launch three microdramas in the beginning: “Last Summer” a romantic series, “The Nighttime Game”, a horror microdrama titled “Eden Fall”, and “The Nighttime Game” a survival drama similar to Hunger Games.
Character.AI claims that these dramas have been created with AI production tools. In the future, they hope to assist users in creating their own series and characters.
“C.ai series, starting with a studio model, lets our production staff develop the format and refine the workflow. It also allows us to understand the audience’s expectations for Character-native Microdrama Entertainment. The goal over time is to convert those workflows and learnings into creators tools that allow users to create their own original series and share them to a worldwide audience,” said a spokesperson for the company.
This is the latest in a slew of recent features from the startup following its shift toward entertainment-focused features last year. It teased in April a tool named Lorebook, which users could use to build worlds that characters would reference. Another feature, called Books, allows users to insert themselves or play as characters into classic literature.
On Thursday, the company announced that they are also testing two features, one called c.ai Reads, which allows users to create fictional stories, as well as c.aiFM, an audio-series feature. Select users can access the audio series under the experimental c.ai labs program. Professional writers, according to the company, are creating serialized audio dramas using this feature.