National Entertainment

NASHVILLE — Pop superstar Taylor Swift is helping out a Nashville record store closed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Grimey's co-owner Doyle Davis said Thursday the store got a call last week from Swift's publicist asking how Swift could help.

NEW YORK — James Patterson has a history of helping independent bookstores. The bestselling novelist has donated millions in recent years to booksellers, while also giving millions to schools and libraries and literacy programs.

From finding ways to help others cope to sheltering in place to cancelling events, here’s a look at some of the ways the entertainment industry is reacting to the spread of the coronavirus, which most people recover from but can cause severe illness

NEW YORK — Dav Pilkey is going to the cats. The million-selling author of the “Captain Underpants” and “Dog Man” series is starting the “Cat Kid Comic Club,” Scholastic announced Thursday. The first book will be released Dec. 1.

TORONTO — Organizers behind the Toronto International Film Festival say they're still planning to go ahead with the annual movie marathon from Sept. 10-21.

NEW ORLEANS — Ellis Marsalis Jr., the jazz pianist, teacher and patriarch of a New Orleans musical clan, died late Wednesday from pneumonia brought on by the new coronavirus, leaving six sons and a deep legacy. He was 85.

NEW YORK — Cooped up at her Bronx home with her daughter and a niece because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mexican writer Valeria Luiselli says she has lowered the “volume and speed” of her life.

Hamilton-raised Broadway star Nick Cordero is in hospital undergoing a test for COVID-19 after being admitted with pneumonia. His wife, dancer-turned-celebrity personal trainer Amanda Kloots, made the announcement on her Instagram account Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES — “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” star Rachel Bloom has had her first child in what she says was a harrowing experience amid the coronavirus outbreak that has struck a close friend.

Emmy and Grammy-winning musician and songwriter Adam Schlesinger, known for his work with his band Fountains of Wayne and on the TV show “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” died Wednesday after contracting the coronavirus.