THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with JOHN HUGHES! The sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, buds, wasteoids, dweebies and dickheads, they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude. The writer/director behind Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Weird Science, National Lampoon's Vacation movies, Home Alone, Planes, Trains & Automobiles and many more died Aug 6, 2009.  Hughes masterfully married music to movies, so I pay video tribute to him today, starting (of course) with "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds from The Breakfast Club (the drumming o­n this song is impeccable), and Karla DeVito's "We Are Not Alone," along with the Ramones playing "Blitzkrieg Bop" (from National Lampoon's Vacation), David Bowie's "Young Americans" and The Vapors o­ne-hit wonder, "Turning Japanese" and Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" (all from Sixteen Candles, which opens to a clip of veteran WLS DJs Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards), Van Halen's cover of "(Oh) Pretty Woman" and General Public's "Tenderness" (both from Weird Science), the Psychedelic Furs re-recorded title track from Pretty In Pink, which also featured Jon Cryer lip-synching to Otis Redding's "Try A Little Tenderness" (that last clip is a blistering live take from the 1967 Stax tour -- and excellent, btw), The Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" (a Hughes perennial; here, the Dream Academy cover from FBDO), and OMD's "If You Leave," plus two more from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, "Danke Schoen" and "Twist and Shout" (which was shot o­n Dearborn and Randolph Streets in Chicago, with International Polka Queen Vlasta atop the float, though Cameron and Sloane were in front of the Post Office down the street), plus Yello's unforgettable-no-matter-how-you-try "Oh, Yeah." Videos are scarce for Some Kind of Wonderful, but I found Flesh for Lulu's "I Go Crazy" and the March Violets' take on the Stones' "Miss Amanda Jones."  BONUS: Molly Ringwald's post-MeToo re-evaluation of the films that made her career.

FRIKO plays a mini-concert for World Cafe, by way of Metro.

SOCCER MOMMY shares "M."

MC5 shares “Can’t Be Found,” ft Venon Reid.

PRINCE was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

JOURNEY: Neal Schon is suing keyboardist Jonathan Cain again.

TEGAN & SARA feature in a documentary about the hacking of Tegan's files in what became a complex catfishing scheme.

TOM CRUISE is engineering an epic stunt to close out the Paris Olympics, according to TMZ.

THE ROCK's 11MM deal with the US Army did not go well.

BILL & TED are Waiting For Godot.

VINCE VAUGHN feels Hollywood executives “overthink it” when it comes to developing the types of R-rated comedies the actor is famously known for.

CARRIE UNDERWOOD is replacing Katy Perry on American Idol.

BRITNEY SPEARS is getting a biopic.

MEGXIT: Harry & Megan are interviewed for CBS, perhaps to demand their privacy again.

ORANGUTAN vs OTTERS: Who You Got?

A DOG catches a fish while his owner is away.

A BABY ELEPHANT befriends a baby Zebra.

PILOT works their "Magic" on TOTP.

MRCY plays World Cafe.

GUIDED BY VOICES shares a hi-fi version of their lo-fi classic "I Am A Scientist."

BRYAN FERRY covers Dylan's "She Belongs To Me."

FATHER JOHN MISTY shares “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All.”

CARIBOU shares "Volume," based on M|A|R|R|S‘ smash 1987 hit “Pump Up the Volume.”

STEVEN VAN ZANDT, on the new documentary about him, and the future of the E Street Band.

JEFF PORCARO wrote two more songs with MICHAEL JACKSON: Will they ever come out of the vault?

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA was falsely accused of inappropriate behavior on the Megalopolis set, according to the supposed victim.

ALAN SILVESTRI is coming back to score those new Avengers movies.

JONATHAN MAJORS is bummed out that Marvel is turning from Kang to Doctor Doom.

HARRISON FORD, delightfully confused about the Marvel Multiverse.

THE PENGUIN's showrunner is comparing it to Scarface.

MEGXIT: Why Harry and King Charles aren't speaking.

PETE DAVIDSON checked into a facility for mental health treatment.

LISA KUDROW tells how she was fired from Frasier.

ELEPHANTS have learned how to stop trucks and steal snacks.

FLIES can accidentally twist their own heads off.

DUDE saves a raccoon from choking.

FATBOY SLIM: When your "Weapon of Choice" is Walken.

JULIA HOLTER visits World Cafe.

X shares "Ruby Church."

CHRISTOPHER OWENS (Girls) returns after seven years with “I Think About Heaven.”

THE HARD QUARTET: Emmett Kelly, Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, and Jim White share “Earth Hater.”

GOAT shares “Ouroboros.”

ROBBIE ROBERTSON will be remembered with an all-star concert.

DAVE NAVARRO struggled to play his guitar after the passing of Foo Fighters drummer and close friend Taylor Hawkins.

HALSEY regrets coming back, blames her toxic fans.

ROBERT DOWNEY JR & THE RUSSO BROS are getting Mega-Marvel paydays.

TIM ALLEN & KAT DENNINGS are teaming up for a sitcom.

JIMMY KIMMEL won't host the Oscars. Neither will John Mulaney.

ROB LOWE says a St Elmo's Fire sequel is in the early stages.

JOHNNY DEPP paid tribute to his co-star from Pirates Of The Caribbean, Tamayo Perry, who was killed in a shark attack last month.

HAROLD & KUMAR: An Oral History.

FRANCNE PASCAL, the author best known for creating hit teen book series “Sweet Valley High,” has died. She was 92.

A HUSKY smells his first durian fruit.

A CAMOUFLAGED HIPPO startles a leopard.

DON'T PRANK Your Doggo.

THE CHESTERFIELD KINGS cover the Moving Sidewalks' "99th Floor" (introed by Martha Quinn) and psych up even more on "Sunrise (Turn On)" for Twofer Tuesday.

THE DECEMBERISTS visit World Cafe.

WET LEG covers Charli XCX's "360."

JACK WHITE joined CONAN O'BRIEN at the Newport Folk Festival.

THE CHILLS' Martin Phillipps has died aged 61.

PAT COLLIER, the celebrated record producer and former bassist for punk band The Vibrators, has died at the age of 72.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at The Weeknd's rise from shadowy online cult favorite to real-deal pop superstar and at "Can't Feel My Face."

GWYNETH PALTROW was just as confused as anyone that RDJr is returning to the MCU as Dr. Doom.

IS THE MCU Becoming a Nostalgia Act?

JOKER Won't Be Gotham's Clown Prince Of Crime In Folie À Deux.

LADY GAGA has been sectertly engaged to Michael Polansky for months.

THE ROYALS: Prince William once dumped Kate over the phone.

GLADIATOR II features the biggest action sequence Ridley Scott has ever done.

JOSH HARTNETT, on walking away from Hollywood, for a while.

MONKEY CLANS at War.

A RESCUED BABY FOX sees itself for the first time.

A WHALE SHARK, helped by fishermen.

THE PIPETTES: "Your Kisses are Wasted On Me." Before it all went wrong. Sigh.

NEW RELEASES: Paste will point you to Cults, Wand, and more.

BILL'S INDIE BASEMENT has Crack Cloud, Robber Robber, and more.

KATE PIERSON shares "Evil Love."

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE cancelled more live shows as frontman Josh Homme remains under “medical care”.

PINK FLOYD's Nick Mason wants to use AI to create new songs.

SINEAD O'CONNOR's cause of death has been revealed.

ROD STEWART faces his mortality.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Deadpool & Wolverine shatters all sorts of records with a 205MM debut, the eighth-highest opening of all-time.  Twisters places with 35.3MM on a 57 percent drop, obviously affected by the superheroes in town. Despicable Me 4 shows with 14.2MM on a 42 percent drop. Here are those records.  Below the fold, Longlegs becomes A24s highest-grossing film, surpassing Parasite.

ROBERT DOWNEY JR is returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Doctor Doom in a new “Avengers” movie titled “Avengers: Doomsday,” which will be directed by Joe and Anthony Russo in their own return to Marvel.

HARRISON FORD wanted a piece of the MCU.

THE PENGUIN has another trailer online.

CREATURE COMMANDOS has a trailer online.

BENNIFER: Affleck has purchased a new multi-million dollar L.A. estate.

JAMES WOODS kept quiet about being an executive producer of Oppenheimer.

SAORISE RONAN married actor Jack Lowden in a secret ceremony.

A SQUIRREL MAMA wants to show off her babies.

A GIANT PHANTOM JELLYFISH that traps its prey with 33 feet-long mouth-arms was spotted off California coast.

A MERGANSER, running on water.