Entertainment News Roundup: Super Bowl ads ditch politics for celebs, Taylor Swift and AI; NFL-Usher says Super Bowl halftime show will be a career crescendo and more

While high-priced Super Bowl commercials often play for laughs in trying to make an impression, the flashy productions can also reflect the national mood. NFL-What to expect from this Year's Super Bowl ads Super Bowl ads captivate audiences during the U.S. television broadcast of the event and this year's showpiece game in Las Vegas on Sunday features the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

NFL-Usher says Super Bowl halftime show will be a career crescendo

R&B superstar Usher, fresh off of a wildly successful Las Vegas residency, said his performance at Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show will be the latest peak in his 30-year career. "Las Vegas has been amazing for me," Usher, clad in a long black leather jacket, black gloves and dark sunglasses, told a packed press conference on Thursday.

Super Bowl ads ditch politics for celebs, Taylor Swift and AI

Fans can expect celebrities and more lighthearted commercials, along with glimpses of Taylor Swift, during the Super Bowl on Sunday, as corporate advertisers avoid the recent practice of using the big game to promote social causes. While high-priced Super Bowl commercials often play for laughs in trying to make an impression, the flashy productions can also reflect the national mood.

NFL-What to expect from this Year's Super Bowl ads

Super Bowl ads captivate audiences during the U.S. television broadcast of the event and this year's showpiece game in Las Vegas on Sunday features the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. Following is information about this year's ads:

Amazon's Prime Video to stream its first NFL playoff game next season - WSJ

Amazon.com's Prime Video streaming service will exclusively stream its first NFL playoff game next season, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The announcement comes ahead of Sunday's Super Bowl game, which will be available for streaming on Paramount+ and broadcast live on CBS and Nickelodeon.

‘Dune: Part Two’ director decided to tell sequel story his own way

Canadian director Denis Villeneuve is inviting audiences back to the desert planet Arrakis for “Dune: Part Two,” the second installment of the sci-fi epic starring Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya. The “Dune” franchise is based on author Frank Herbert’s highly acclaimed 1965 novel of the same name.

Christian Siriano nods to 'Dune' for fall line at New York Fashion Week

U.S. designer Christian Siriano looked to the sweeping landscapes from science fiction epic “Dune” at his Fall/Winter fashion show, presenting a collection deeply rooted in the tones of the desert. Models wore draped coats and jackets in earthy browns and reds, while frocks came in shiny metallics at the catwalk presentation on Thursday at The Plaza Hotel, held ahead of Friday's official start of New York Fashion Week: The Shows.

John Travolta's 'Chicken Dance' causes flap on Italian TV

U.S. actor John Travolta, famed for his dance routines in movies such as "Saturday Night Fever" and "Pulp Fiction", faced a flurry of poor reviews on Thursday after performing the "Chicken Dance" on Italian television. The dance, in which people flap their elbows and shake their hips to imitate a chicken, is popular with children, but also features regularly at weddings and beer festivals.

'Peaked TV': US scripted shows dropped in 2023

The number of scripted television series in the United States declined by 14% in 2023, FX network chief John Landgraf said on Friday, after a decade-long explosion of shows fueled by the streaming TV wars. The chairman of FX Content and Productions coined the term "peak TV" as he tallied the rise of programming when traditional media companies started chasing Netflix Inc in 2013.

MLK Jr., Malcolm X's parallel lives explored in 'Genius: MLK/X'

Civil rights icons Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X only met once, but their coming-of-age stories run parallel in family, community, loss and sacrifice as shown in National Geographic’s anthology series “Genius: MLK/X.” To kick off Black History Month, new weekly episodes on Disney+ and Hulu bring viewers into the homes of the two leaders from their childhood to fatherhood, glimpsing the lives that led up to the historical speeches for which they are known.

Japan's Seiji Ozawa, one of world's best-known conductors, dead at 88

Japan's Seiji Ozawa, one of the best-known orchestra conductors of his generation, died on Tuesday of heart failure at the age of 88, public broadcaster NHK announced on Friday. Ozawa, who was born in China, spent decades in the rarefied atmosphere of top orchestras around the world but wore baseball-themed ties to interviews and preferred to be called by his first name, not "maestro".

(With inputs from agencies.)