1. FACEBOOK CANCELS MAJOR DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS: In the wake of the growing coronavirus threat, Facebook has canceled its upcoming F8 developer conference, which was scheduled for May 5-6. The social media giant Thursday announced it was changing plans for its yearly gathering, which generally draws an estimated 5,000 developers. Ad Age: “‘We need to prioritize the health and safety of our developer partners, employees, and everyone who helps put F8 on,’ said Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, Facebook’s director of platform partnerships, in a blog post. ‘We explored other ways to keep the in-person part of F8, but it’s important to us to host an inclusive event and it didn’t feel right to have F8 without our international developers in attendance.’”
2. MET GALA THEME IS REVEALED: The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Thursday that the theme of this year's Costume Institute exhibition—and therefore the Met Gala—will be About Time: Fashion and Duration. Inspired by Virginia Woolf and 20th-century French philosopher Henri Bergson, the exhibit will spotlight the timeline of women's fashion from 1870 to today, in order to coincide with the Met's 150th anniversary. The Gala will take place on May 4. Harper’s Bazaar: “Given the range of a 150-year timeline of fashion, it may be one of the most abstract and eclectic Met Gala red carpets ever—with celebrities being able to time-travel back through several centuries of fashion. Or, of course, they technically could opt for something that's ‘timeless.’”
3. GARTH BROOKS WILL RECEIVE BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS’ TOP PRIZE: It was announced this week that the 2020 Billboard Music Awards’ Icon Award will go to Garth Brooks. The country music legend is the only artist who can boast having eight diamond-certified albums, with each one selling over 10 million units. The ceremony will air live on April 29 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The Hollywood Reporter: “Brooks, a 19-time Billboard Music Award winner and the ninth recipient of the Icon prize, will also perform during the 2020 awards ceremony. Past Icon recipients include Cher, Neil Diamond, Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Janet Jackson, and Mariah Carey.”