May 6:
Dolly Celebrates 40th Season Of Dollywood Homecoming

Dolly returned home over the weekend to celebrate the anniversary of her Dollywood theme park's opening as it observed its 40th season. At a media event on Friday, she emerged from a cake wearing an updated version of the dress she had on while standing on top of a cake at the park's first anniversary (although she mistakenly said it was the dress she wore at the park's opening). She introduced a video of the past 40 seasons and then participated in a panel discussion about the park's history with former Silver Dollar City Tennessee General Manager (and current Dolly Parton Productions President) Ted Miller, Pete Herschend of co-owner Herschend Family Entertainment, and Dollywood President Eugene Norton, moderated by former WBIR anchor Beth Haynes. The event ended with the cast of the new park entertainment history retrospective show "Play On" singing "Hooray for Dollywood!" She also that day released a digital album of songs from Dollywood and the off-park dinner theater shows called The Dollywood Collection: Celebrating 40 Years of Music & Memories, and announced a new I Heart Radio Dollywood channel for the year as well as free tickets to the park for all foster children in Tennessee. She toured the park on Friday afternoon, including a photo op stop at the park's new Hollywood-style Dollywood sign, but unfortunately weather cancelled her planned appearances on Saturday. Check out your official Dollymania video of the media event here or in the first media player above and clips from the premiere of Play On here or in the second media player above. The official event feed from the park's Facebook page is available here or in the first media player below, an interview Friday morning from NBC's Today where she not only talked about the park's milestone but also how she is handling her husband's recent passing here or in the second media player below, and the new park documentary The Dollywood Dream which premiered for employees Thursday and aired on local television Friday here or in the third media player below. Look for more coverage, including photo galleries, here next week and from other media including WJHL here and here, People here, Theme Park Insider here, WBIR here and here, WCYB here, The Knoxville News Sentinel here and here, and WATE here.

New Biography Special Coming Saturday
Details remain scant at this time, but Lifetime cable network has announced it will premiere a new, updated, two-hour Biography episode titled "Dolly Parton: Journey of a Seeker" at 6 p.m. Eastern Saturday, May 10, with a repeat at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 11. Given its title, it appears to be a tie-in to her Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit of the same name opening May 20. Promotional materials only say: "An updated look at the songwriter behind the rhinestones as she reveals everything in the lyrics of her songs, featuring exclusive interviews with Dolly Parton herself, her musicians, co-writers and producers."

Third 'Billy The Kid' Book Coming In December
Dolly announced last week her third installment in her children's book series about her goddog Billy the Kid (who belongs to her manager's daughter), Dolly Parton's Billy the Kid Dances His Heart Out, will be released for the holiday season on Dec. 2. Reserve your copy here.

Nashville's Dollys Revealed For Musical
Dolly on Monday announced the three lead actresses to play her in the out of town tryouts for her Broadway-bound bio-musical Dolly: An Original Musical: Merrily We Roll Along star Katie Rose Clark, Kinky Boots' Carrie St. Louis, and young Quinn Titcomb, who has appeared in the tourof Waitress and the film Theater Camp. Read more from Dateline here. The show has also been extended througfh Aug. 31 in Nashville. In addition, Belmont University, which partnered with Dolly to develop the show, is expanding its DollyU offerings to include a class creating a feature documentary about making the Broadway show, a class on market research around the production, and a class on Dolly's songwriting, according to Axios here.

Dolly Hotel Designs Released
Renderings of Dolly's upcoming 12-story Songteller hotel in Nashville were released last week showing a large guitar-shaped entrance topped with a signature butterfly on the front of the building and Dolly's museum with a 46-foot-tall metal art installation of Dolly outside and a "shimmer wall" of backlit iridescent material behind it. Check out coverage from The Tennessean here.

Library Loses Washington State Funding
First it was Republicans in Indiana and now it's Democrats in Washington state that have changed their minds and cancelled funding for the statewide expansion of Dolly's Imagination Library early childhood literacy program with state funding. The legislature there killed its $2 million second year allocation just one year after approving it, My Bellingham Now reports here.

'Very Best' Regains No. 1 Overseas
Across the pond, Very Best Of Dolly Parton Vol. 1 recaptures the pole position for the British country compilation albums chart, advancing one to No. 1, while her Diamonds & Rhinestones, The Greatest Hits Collection holds steady at No. 6 and Dolly Parton & Family: Smoky Mountain DNA -- Family, Faith & Fables falls out of the top 20, down from No. 19. Re-entering the top 20 is Linda Ronstadt's entry in the Original Album Series featuring a couple of Dolly appearances at No. 13, while Emmylou Harris' Original Album Series also featuring Dolly appearances sees Volume 1 rise four to No. 11 and Volume 2 slip two to No. 20. Elsewhere on the U.K. charts, Sabrina Carpenter's Short & Sweet Deluxe Edition, with its Dolly duet, dips two to No. 4 U.K. pop, seven to No. 14 Scottish albums, six to No. 12 album sales, nine to No. 15 physical album sales, and eight to No. 52 downloads, remaining steady at No. 1 streaming albums. Post Malone's F 1 Trillion, with its Dolly duet, inches down one to No. 6 country albums. Beyonce's Cowboy Carter, with its Dolly appearances, dips one to No. 7 British country albums and holds steady at No. 7 Americana albums.