Aug. 31:
Amazon Premieres Exclusive New 'Faith' Remix, 'Making Of' Doc

Executive Confirms Netflix 'Christmas' Film Coming In November
Dolly's Netflix holiday film, Christmas On The Square, will premiere on the streaming service in November, an executive from her co-producer's film company said last week in an interview with his hometown newspaper, the Madison County Journal in Mississippi (where your webmaster used to be the News Editor many years ago). Read the story about working with Dolly and her co-producer Sam Haskell here.

Christopher Awards Honor 'Heartstrings'
Dolly last week earned her third Christopher Award, which since 1949 have annually honored the writers, producers, directors, authors and illustrators whose work "affirms the highest values of the human spirit" and reflects the Christopher motto: "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." The "These Old Bones" episode of her Dolly Parton's Heartstrings was one of this year's six productions celebrated from the world of television alongside Return To Normandy from ABC News and Nightline, the dance documentary America Reframed: Perfectly Normal for Me from World Channel, College Behind Bars from PBS, I Am Somebody's Child: The Regina Louise Story from Lifetime and Two Turtle Doves from Hallmark Movies. Dolly has previously won the award for her NBC films Dolly Parton's Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love and Dolly Parton's Coat Of Many Colors. Read more from a press release here.

'USA Today' Interviews Dolly As Woman Of Century
You may recall it reported here several weeks ago that Dolly had been selected as one of the "Women of the Century" from USA Today in recognition of the centennial of the 19th Amendment. Last week, they released a new in-depth interview with her for the series. Take a read here.

Screenrant: Dolly's Doralee One Of '80s' Best
Movie site Screen Rant over the weekend named its 10 best comedic acting performances from films in the 1980s, ranking Dolly's debut as Doralee in 9 To 5 to start off the top 5, putting her above such notable performances as Nicholas Cage in Raising Arizona and Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's Vacation. The full list, available with commentary here, is:
10. Michael Keeton in Beetlejuice
9. John Candy in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
8. Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack
7. Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's Vacation
6. Nicholas Cage in Raising Arizona
5. Dolly Parton in 9 To 5
4. Bill Murray in Ghostbusters
3. Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller's Day Off
2. Leislie Nielsen in The Naked Gun
1. Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop

Dolly Accepts Tennessee Sports Hall Of Fame Honor
The Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday night inducted its 2020 class, including presenting Dolly with the Tennessean of the Year Award for her contributions to the state. Her profile airs around minute 27 of the remote ceremony and concludes with a brief video of her thanking them for the honor. Watch it here.

U.S, U.K., Aussie Chart Updates
Dolly and Zach Williams continue to wait and see if the duet "There Was Jesus" will top the Hot Christian Songs chart, where the track sits steady for yet another week at No. 2 on that list in the Aug. 29 Billboard tallies. The track spends a seventh week at No. 1 on Christian digital song sales, holds steady at No. 2 Christian airplay, gains nine to No. 4 Christian streaming and loses two to No. 31 overall digital song sales. Across the pond, the vinyl release of Very Best Of Dolly Parton Vol. 1 returns to the top of the British country compilation albums chart, gaining one to No. 1 in the album's 138th overall chart week, Friday's tallies revealed. It marks the project's seventh week at the pole position since being reissued on vinyl. On the same chart, The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe rises two to No. 5, while Linda Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) loses one to No. 17, and Emmylou Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) rises two to No. 12. Down Under, the "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) inches up one to No. 17 its 467th chart week on the Australian country albums chart since its original 2007 release.

Fan, Niece Put Out 'Give Me A Holler'
Cabaret artist Christopher Hamblin, whom some Dolly fans may remember as the original founder of the annual Night of 1,000 Dollys party in Knoxville and whom drag fans may know as the husband of Rupaul's Drag Race alum Latrice Royale, this weekend released a bluegrass single featuring Dolly's niece Jada Star and her musical partner Barry J, who perform together at Dollywood. Catch "Give Me A Holler" on YouTube here.

Miley Gets Kick Out Of Dolly Video
Dolly's goddaughter Miley Cyrus set Twitter ablaze last week sharing a fan-created clip from her latest music video that used the popular Reface app to replace Miley's face with Dolly's. Watch it here or below.

Aug. 24:
Dolly Releases 'Mary, Did You Know?'

Vanderbilt Expands Dolly COVID Treatment Study Nationwide
Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received a $34 million grant to conduct a year-long nationwide study of using plasma from COVID-19-infected patients as a potential treatment for the virus. The initial 40-patient study on which this is based was funded by Dolly's gift to the hospital for COVID research, ABC reported here.

U.K., Aussie Chart Updates
Across the pond, the vinyl release of Very Best Of Dolly Parton Vol. 1 holds steady at No. 2 on the British country compilation albums chart, the album's 137th overall chart week, Friday's tallies revealed. On the same chart, The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe inches up one to No. 7, while Linda Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) dips four to No. 16, Emmylou Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) falls four to No. 14, and Dolly's Gold collection falls back off the top 20, down from No. 20. Down Under, the "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) holds steady at No. 18 its 466th chart week on the Australian country albums chart since its original 2007 release.

YouTuber Takes 30-Day Dollywood Challenge
A YouTuber recently completed a challenge of visiting Dollywood for 30 consecutive days and documenting the experience online. He is hoping to receive some type of response from Dolly herself to the feat. Watch the series here.

Aug. 19:
'There Was Jesus' Steady Near Top Of Charts

'Mary, Did You Know?' Drops Friday
Dolly announced on social media Tuesday night that "Mary, Did You Know?", the first single from her upcoming holiday collection A Holly Dolly Christmas, will be available Friday. Look for your ability to download it from Amazon here.

Aug. 18:
Dolly Makes 'CBS This Morning' After Tech Glitches

Christmas CD, Vinyl Releases Added
It was revealed Monday that Dolly's upcoming holiday album will be released to retail stores in CD format – reserve your copy here -- and a red vinyl format – reserve your copy here -- in addition to the gold and green limited-edition vinyl editions and CD version being sold on Dolly's official website's online store and the previously-announced A Holly Dolly Christmas MP3 version which retailers have had for pre-orders since the project was announced a few days ago. The regular-edition vinyl will be released Oct. 30, while the limited edition vinyl, CD, and mp3 versions come out Oct. 2. In related news, Sony's Legacy Records has revealed plans to reissue the vinyl edition of her 1984 holiday album with Kenny Rogers, Once Upon A Christmas, on Oct. 2 as well.

Library Expands To All Of Delaware
Delaware on Monday celebrated becoming the next state to take Dolly's Imagination Library statewide. Check out a video making that announcement here.

Aug. 17:
Controversy Erupts Over Black Lives Matter Comments
Dolly fans largely spent the weekend arguing online over her comments of support for the Black Lives Matter movement and protests as reported in her cover story interview for Billboard magazine. (Nationally, roughly two-thirds of Americans support BLM and one-third oppose it, and given her very diverse fan base one can presume their split is roughly similar.) Numerous media outlets accurately reported her comments, causing an uproar from conservatives. Dolly's official website over the weekend shared a direct link to the Billboard story as its lead article without adding any comment about the controversy, seemingly endorsing the story. An essay from Esquire opined here that no one with any knowledge of her accepting outlook on others should be surprised by her endorsement of the movement, while the website God detailed some of the conservative backlash here. In related news, a new mural of her was being painted at the time in East Nashville and the artist decided to add her Black Lives Matter comments to it, The Tennessean noted here, and producers of the Cartoon Network/Adult Swim series Squidbillies announced over the weekend they had immediately fired its lead voice actor, Stuart Daniel Baker, also known as Unknown Hinson, as soon as they were informed of his social media posts condemning Dolly for her BLM support and insulting her with: "So, now this freak-tittied, old Southern bimbo is a BLM Lover? Remember, slut, Rednecks made you a Millionaire!" He had voiced the cartoon's lead character, Early Cuyler, for 15 years.

'CBS This Morning' Reminder For Monday
Don't forget to catch Dolly on CBS This Morning Monday to discuss her Imagination Library book program.

U.K., Aussie Chart Updates
Across the pond, after six consecutive weeks at No. 1, the vinyl release of Very Best Of Dolly Parton Vol. 1 slips one to No. 2 on the British country compilation albums chart, the album's 136th overall chart week, Friday's tallies revealed. On the same chart, The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe slips two to No. 8, while Linda Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) loses one to No. 12, Emmylou Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) dips one to No. 10, Essential Dolly Parton falls off the top 20, down from No. 20, while her Gold collection re-enters the top 20 at No. 20. Down Under, the "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) holds steady at No. 18 its 465th chart week on the Australian country albums chart since its original 2007 release.

Aug. 14:
Dolly Graces 'Billboard' Cover, Supports BLM
Dolly is on the cover of the new issue of Billboard magazine (at left) for a story on her career and how she continues to expand her "empire" even through coronavirus. Of note, it is explained she hopes to do a Dollyfest, a tour of 12 stadiums around the world where she would perform as would acts she has influenced to celebrate her 75th birthday next year. What gained the most attention in the press was her statements of support when asked about the Black Lives Matter movement for racial equity, to which she responded saying: "I understand people having to make themselves known and felt and seen. And of course Black lives matter. Do we think our little white asses are the only ones that matter? No!" When asked about changing Dixie Stampede's name to Stampede, which it notes her management said at the time was partly due to a consideration of expanding overseas where the term "Dixie" wouldn't be relevant to the chain's name, she added: "There's such a thing as innocent ignorance, and so many of us are guilty of that. When they said 'Dixie' was an offensive word, I thought, 'Well, I don't want to offend anybody. This is a business. We'll just call it The Stampede.' As soon as you realize that [something] is a problem, you should fix it. Don't be a dumbass. That's where my heart is. I would never dream of hurting anybody on purpose." Read the full article here and watch parts of the interview in the magazine's 5-minute interview video on YouTube here or in the media player below.

BMI Honors Dolly For Radio Broadcasts
Music rights performance society BMI recently recognized Dolly with seven new "Million-Air" certificates for her song catalog. "I Will Always Love You" joined the society's 30 most-performed songs of all time with a 10 Million broadcast honor, while "9 To 5" moved to 5 million, "Jolene" and "Two Doors Down" to 2 million, and new 1 million certificates for "The Seeker," "Yellow Roses" and "Coat Of Many Colors." Read more from Music Row here.

Dolly Schedules 'CBS This Morning' Appearance Monday
CBS This Morning has announced Dolly will be a special guest on their program Monday, which airs 7-9 a.m. Eastern. It features a special "School Matters" hour and notes she founded the Dollywood Foundation, so her appearance may center around her Imagination Library early childhood literacy program.

Christmas CD Bundles, Vinyl Available On Official Store
Dolly's team on Thursday posted to her official website store (here for U.S. customers and here for UK customers) several bundles for her upcoming holiday CD A Holly Dolly Christmas, including the ability to order one of 400 globally limited edition gold vinyl albums and/or one of 800 globally limited edition green vinyl albums, which are exclusive to the official online store. They are available in several of the bundles, as are physical CDs and other memorabilia, or you may order them separately by visiting the music section of the store. Amazon and a few other retailers have added pages to preorder the MP3 album, such as here on Amazon, but the preorder page for physical CDs has yet to be added at regular retailers and it has not been announced whether a regular vinyl issue will be released to other retailers either.

'USA Today' Recognizes Dolly Among 'Women of the Century'
For the centennial of ratification of the Constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, USA Today has chosen 10 historical female figures from each state to celebrate as their "Women of the Century." Although most are political figures or Civil Rights icons, Dolly and UT female basketball coach Pat Summit are among the 10 chosen for her home state of Tennessee. Read the full list here.

Aug. 13:
Holiday Album Officially Announced For Oct. 2
Dolly on Wednesday officially announced her holiday album A Holly Dolly Christmas exclusively on Billboard.com here. She released the cover art, at left, and track listing, below. The article also revealed the CD will be released Oct. 2 on Dolly's rebranded personal record label, now known as Butterfly Records, in partnership with 12Tone Music Group and was produced by Kent Wells. Her track with Michael Buble will be the first single and it will also feature her 2009 holiday single "Comin' Home For Christmas," the theme song for 2016's Dolly Parton's Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love movie and the theme song for this year's Netflix movie Christmas On The Square. The track listing is: