CBS Cancels Rihanna's Song Before Thursday Night Football Game

CBS has (WISELY) opted to cancel an opening theme song performed by Rihanna during tonight’s Thursday Night Football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. Instead, the opening will feature comments from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about Ray Rice. Oh boy, this should be good.

People were not thrilled about the decision to feature a song from Rihanna before a Ravens game. CBS finally decided to cancel the whole thing altogether. Via TMZ:

The opening features Rihanna performing a version of her hit “Run This Town” — while Don Cheadle introduces the teams and dramatically asks who will “run this town” when the game is over. But with the Ray Rice scandal in full swing, it’s clear CBS didn’t want to feature another celebrity who was involved in a high-profile domestic violence incident.

“We thought journalistically and from a tone standpoint, we needed to have the appropriate tone coverage,” CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus said in a statement. (The buzzword of the day is “tone,” apparently.)

Sad news; Richard Kiel, who played the iconic James Bond villain known as Jaws died at the age of 74 in Los Angeles on Wednesday. [Washington Post]

George Clooney is doing a cameo on Downton Abbey! AHHHHHHHHHHHHif only I actually still watched this show.[People]

Elizabeth Olsen will join Tom Hiddleston in the highly anticipated Hank Williams biopic I Saw the Light. Olsen will play Williams’ wife, Audrey Mae. The part of Hiddleston’s imaginary real-life wife will continue to be played by me and 12,000,000 other women. [First Showing]

Hannibal fans, get ready to freak out a little bit: Gillian Anderson has been promoted to a series regular for the third season. I look forward to a healthy exchange of resting bitch face between her and Mads Mikkelsen (his is kind of perfect, you have to admit). [The Mary Sue]

Abel Ferrara, director of such films as King of New York and Bad Lieutenant is furious with “punks” at IFC Films who want him to make cuts to his film Welcome to New York. He is basically a character in one of his own films. [Indie Wire]