Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Apr 12, 2021

Is bigger really better? Brazilian people are building a brand-new statue of Christ which will reportedly be taller than the famous Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro. The new Brazilian statue will be 140 feet tall when it's finished, making it the world's third tallest Jesus statue, behind the Jesus Buntu Burake statue in Indonesia, (which is 172 1/2 feet tall including its pedestal), and Christ the King in Poland (which is 172 feet tall including the mound it sits on). The new Brazilian statue will "only" cost $350-thousand dollars in donations from individuals and companies.

If you're headed to the United Arab Emirates it might be smart not to smoke pot several days before your trip. That's because a guy from Las Vegas who allegedly smoked or ingested pot before he left for the UAE could get three years in prison after traces of marijuana were found days later in his urine. That's considered possession in the UAE.

How did they find it? He apparently had to go to the hospital after an attack of pancreatitis, and docs there took a urine sample... whoops!

EDDIE VAN HALEN is gone but one of his ‘Frankenstrat’ guitars --which he gave to one of his guitar heroes, MOUNTAIN’s LESLIE WEST-- was reportedly auctioned off Sunday. Leslie gave the guitar in 1990 to his bodyguard, who was auctioning it off by the folks at Heritage Auctions. No word on how much it went for, but back in 2020 after Eddie died, three of his other guitars were auctioned off for a combined $422-thousand dollars.

Also on sale yesterday: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN's 1965 Martin Acoustic Guitar, and KIRK HAMMETT's Electric Guitar, used in the METALLICA 'One' Music Video.

You may have heard that the folks at Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams were launching a new ice cream flavor named after DOLLY PARTON. There were just 10-thousand pints of the Strawberry Pretzel Pie ice cream which went on sale last Thursday, with some of them immediately listed on eBay for as much as $1000... but apparently with no takers. Jeni's donated the money from the sales to Imagination Library, a program Dolly founded which gives free books to children from birth to age 5.

Page Six of the NY Post reports SYLVESTER STALLONE has joined DONALD TRUMP’s Mar-a-Lago club. Sly bought a $35 million compound near the club in Palm Beach, FL back in December, with seven bedrooms, and access to the waterfront, a beach and 13,241 square feet. But apparently the Mar-a-Lago house wasn't enough for Sly, who was spotted at the club last month. And he needs a place to relax, since he told the Hollywood Reporter last month he won’t be in a third "Rocky" spinoff film, "Creed III," due out in 2022.

More movies: Paramount Studios said Friday the next “Star Trek” movie will be out in mid-2023. No word on casting or plot at this point.

COVID update #1: Over in England, pub gardens will be allowed to reopen for the first time in months today, along with restaurants, cafes, pubs and hair salons, barbers and hairdressers for the first time since December.

COVID update #2: And some bad news --a new study, released on Saturday, claims the South African coronavirus variant can "break through" the Pfizer vaccine to some extent. The study, done in Israel, had only a small sample size, however.