Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Mar 8, 2022

Like you really care: Ed Sheeran was in court yesterday in England over claims that he "borrowed" ideas from two other songwriters and used them to copy parts of his 2017 hit, "Shape Of You." Ed denied the claim that he is a "magpie" who lifts other people's work without acknowledgment. his trial is expected to last another three weeks.

McDonald's and Coca-Cola have been criticized on social media for failing to speak out about the Ukraine attacks by Russia and continuing to operate in the country. Some other firms, including Netflix, have already suspended sales or stopped providing services in Russia. But there's also a number of other firms including KFC, Pepsi and Starbucks and Burger King which continue to stay open there.

Meanwhile, Levis has announced they'll stop selling jeans in Russia, and said they'd be donating more than $300-thousand dollars to nonprofit organizations helping Ukrainian refugees. Nissan has also suspended vehicle exports to Russia and plans to cease production at its factory in St. Petersburg soon. They are also donating $2.75 million dollars to relief efforts in Ukraine.

Wanna see a Broadway show? Pamela Anderson will be making her Broadway debut April 12th when she takes over the role of Roxie Hart in the show, “Chicago.” She will have to sing in the role and Producer Barry Weissler told the NY Post “The woman has acting chops. She certainly can dance, and her singing voice is quite good. So here we go.” Her gig will run a couple of months through June 5th.

Lady Gaga, whose latest tour was postponed because of the pandemic, has announced her rescheduled tour backing her latest album, "Chromatica." Her new tour will begin overseas in Europe in July. The North American concerts begin in August. Find the dates for your location at Ticketmaster. But good luck --there's a 9-night stint in Las Vegas as well as single concerts in DC, New Jersey, Chicago, Boston, Arlington, TV, Atlanta, San Francisco and Los Angeles. That's it.

No surprise: Dolly Parton's book with James Patterson, called "Run, Rose, Run" debuted at Number One on Amazon.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said yesterday the coronavirus will 'probably' become a seasonal virus, like the flu. The U.S. is averaging just below 50-thousand new Covid cases per day, with deaths averaging around 15-hundred a day. But experts believe there'll be more variants and more reasons to start wearing masks again.