The 2022 event takes place at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art tonight, with a livestream of the bash kicking off at 6 p.m. ET. In honor of the famous and exclusive “fashion’s biggest night out,” here’s a list of some of the iconic looks of Black celebrities who have graced the carpet in years past.
— In 2015, for the show’s theme of “China: Through the Looking Glass”, Beyoncé wore a sheer, long-sleeve Haute Couture Givenchy dress that was adorned with colorful gemstones. No stranger to rocking Givenchy on carpets, the star also wore the French luxury brand at the 2012, 2014 and 2016 Met balls.
— Rihanna also turned heads at the 2015 show, wearing a one-of-a-kind yellow, fur-trimmed embroidered cape with matching headdress, made by Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei. Speaking about the extensively long train, Rihanna told Vanity Fair, “I can’t really walk in it without any help — but it’s so worth it.”
— Cardi B stole the show at the 2018 Met Gala, when the very pregnant rapper walked the carpet for the first time alongside fashion mogul Jeremy Scott, who designed her bejeweled, scoop-neck gown that was paired with a long, fluffy cream-colored train. The following year, she stunned the crowd in her massive red Thom Browne dress and all of its 30,000 feathers, according to Vogue.
— As no stranger to neck-breaking carpet looks, Billy Porter showed up to the 2019 gala in a custom “Sun God” ensemble by The Blonds, which included a bejeweled catsuit and 10-foot wings, according to People.
— In 2018, Zendaya dressed up as Joan of Arc with her custom metallic Versace gown and matching armored neck piece.
Some of the stars expected to attend the 2022 gala include Amanda Gorman, Megan Thee Stallion, Chloe and Halle and more.
On Monday, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were back in a Fairfax, Virginia, courtroom, where Depp’s defamation case against his ex-wife continues.
Much of the testimony in the morning session dealt with the impact Heard’s Washington Post op-ed had on Depp’s career — to establish damages, as is necessary in a defamation trial.
The article, titled “I Spoke Up Against Sexual Violence, and Faced Our Culture’s Wrath. That Has to Change” didn’t mention Depp by name, but Depp’s agent, Jack Whigham, testified remotely that the op-ed had a “catastrophic” effect on his career.
Depp’s attorneys had Whigham rattle off the salaries for movies Johnny had made before the article was published — including a $22.6 million fee he would have received for a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film.
Whigham testified that the project was a go, but both Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer stopped dealing with Depp after the article was released.
For that matter, Whigham argued, so did many others — Depp’s fee dropped to $1 million, and a film called Minimata was barely released.
For their part, Heard’s team claimed that there was no evidence Depp was to star in a sixth Pirates movie, and that Margot Robbie reportedly replacing Depp as the big star in a possible sixth Pirates film had nothing to do with the negative publicity from the op-ed.
A Depp security staffer of nine years, Travis McGivern, also testified remotely. He confirmed to Heard’s lawyers that he’d seen Depp smoke marijuana “more times than he could count” — a comment that drew a smile from Depp — but also said that Heard drank more times than he could recall.
McGivern also testified that Depp had a “chill” personality, even when sober — though Heard’s attorney implied his testimony favored Depp, as he is still employed by the star.
In a Sunday tweet, the country star reveals that she has her sights set on the bright lights of Broadway. “Gonna send an audition tape in for Wicked on Broadway. What the hell. Let’s see what happens,” Maren declares, alongside a green heart and witch emoji.
The multi-faceted singer goes on to cite her credentials, including hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live!, performing with Dolly Parton at the Newport Folk Festival, flying with the US Air Force’s Thunderbirds, and even getting her bangs cut, as examples of other dreams that have come true.
“I’m into taking things head on, fail or succeed. Might as well cut the s*** on being coy. Chase your weird dreams down,” she says.
When pressed on which lead character she’d rather play, Glinda or Elphaba, “The Middle” hitmaker says she identifies “heavily” as Elphaba, who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. “Good god her songs are high,” Maren adds.
The singer’s announcement sent fans into a frenzy, with many of them creating memes that impose her face onto the green-skinned Elphaba.
Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel originated the roles of Glinda and Elphaba, respectively, when Wicked debuted on Broadway in 2003. It’s now being adapted into a film starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, set for release in 2024.
The trailer for Don’t Worry Darling — starring Harry Styles and Florence Pugh — made headlines when it was first previewed at CinemaCon last week. Now, fans can finally see what caused the hype.
The trailer opens with Harry and Pugh — respectively playing Jack and Alice — living a perfect married life in an idyllic, experimental town housing project built to meet every resident’s need. But things quickly turn sinister as Pugh begins noticing there’s more to their picturesque ‘Victory Project’ community that meets the eye, despite being told she mustn’t question her surroundings. Her quest for clarity is met with harsh resistance from the project’s leader, played by Chris Pine, and her husband.
“Our life together, we could lose this,” Harry’s character warns, but it’s not enough to sway his wife, who sees her neighbors mentally unraveling around her.
Don’t Worry Darling is directed by Olivia Wilde, who said during CinemaCon the movie is “a love letter to movies that push the boundaries of our imagination.” Wilde said it also borrows elements from The Matrix, Inception and The Truman Show.
“What would it take for you to give up that life, that perfect life. What are you really willing to sacrifice to do what’s right?” she teased. “Are you willing to dismantle the system that’s designed to serve you?”
She also said Harry’s performance in the film “is nothing short of a revelation.”
(NEW YORK) — New Mexico is expanding a program that waives the cost of child care, an initiative that could make child care free for many families in the southwestern state.
The announcement from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last Thursday said the state’s Early Childhood Education and Care Department estimates that over 30,000 more families will be able to take advantage of New Mexico’s Childcare Assistance Program starting this May, doubling the number of families who were already participating.
“Beginning May 1, 2022, all families enrolled in the state’s Childcare Assistance Program will no longer owe copays for child care services, making child care cost-free,” the announcement said.
The New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department announcement notes that the expansion will run until June 30, 2023.
Families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or $111,000 for a family of four, qualify to have their child care copayments waived. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services determines poverty levels, and for 2022, the federal department set the poverty guideline in the District of Columbia and the 48 contiguous states as $27,750 for a family of four.
The cost of child care in the U.S. is a significant burden for American families.
New survey data from 2019 from the HHS’s Administration for Children and Families shows that many families spend anywhere between 10% to 20% of their household budget on child care, including early child education. Amid the pandemic, many women also stopped working to take care of their kids at home, leading to a slowdown of employees returning to the national workforce.
In New Mexico specifically, think tank Economic Policy Institute estimates that the average cost of child care is approximately $8,617 a year.
Child care workers are also in short supply, and along with the expansion of copay waivers for families, New Mexico will also provide stipends to students who are pursuing higher education in early education.
Eligible students can apply for $2,000 each semester to help pay for their schooling at a New Mexico college or university.
The state is also pledging $10 million in grants to child care establishments to build or expand child care centers in underserved communities.
New Mexicans who are interested in joining the Childcare Assistance Program can visit the state’s “Am I Eligible?” site for more information.
In the latest of legal woes for Tory Lanez, the rapper was briefly detained at a Las Vegas airport on Sunday for traveling with a “large” amount of marijuana, according to police.
Authorities told ABC News that Las Vegas officers responded to a security checkpoint after TSA found the marijuana, which was then impounded before Lanez was released.
Earlier this month Lanez, born Daystar Peterson, was arrested temporarily following the judge’s verdict that the rapper violated a pre-trial protective orders that should have prevented him from contacting, speaking to or harassing Megan Thee Stallion, the victim of a 2020 shooting incident in which Lanez is named the shooter.
On October 8, 2020, Peterson was charged with one count of assault and one count of carrying a concealed, loaded and unregistered firearm in a vehicle. The trial date for the ongoing case is set for September 14 of this year.
Oliver Tree feels that The Kid LAROI‘s new video for the track “Thousand Miles” steals from his own video for his collaboration with Lil Yachty, “A**hole.”
In a tweet last week, Tree posted multiple clips from the “Thousand Miles” video that seem to be copied exactly from the “A**hole,” including shots of both Tree and LAROI being dragged down the street on their backs and being hit by an ambulance. Both visuals also feature a falling piano, and shots of both Tree and LAROI sprawled on the ground in near-identical poses.
Tree, who directed the “A**hole” video, further expands on the copying allegations in a new interview with Rolling Stone.
“The exact same frame, the exact same ambulance, the exact same thing,” Tree says. “It just seemed a little bit odd that even the framing is exactly the same.”
Tree feels the fault lies with “Thousand Miles” director Christian Breslauer, who Tree notes follows him on Instagram. Breslaur, who’s directed videos for artists including Doja Cat and Lil Nas X, wrote in his own Instagram post last week that he “only had a week” to create the “Thousand Miles” video, which makes Tree even more suspicious.
“It’s a lot easier to just build off the things that already exist and flipping it than doing something new,” Tree says.
Tree says he hasn’t heard from either LAROI or Breslauer, and neither responded to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment. The “Life Goes On” artist adds that he’s not planning to take legal action, but wanted to speak out in support of other smaller artists who also feel they’ve been copied.
“My contributions just get buried under the rug, which is something smaller artists feel all the time,” he says.
(NEW YORK) — As the country music world mourns the loss of Naomi Judd, the legendary singer is being remembered for the way she spoke publicly about her battle with mental health, opening up about a struggle that is often kept private.
Judd’s death at the age of 76 was announced Saturday by her daughters, Ashley Judd, an actress and activist, and Wynonna Judd, with whom she performed as part of the duo The Judds.
The sisters wrote in a statement that they “lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness.”
“Today, we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness,” they said in a statement. “We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.”
Naomi Judd, who was to be inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame, a recognition her daughters received on her behalf, told ABC News’ Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts in 2016 about her battle with what she called treatment-resistant depression and anxiety.
“When people meet me, they think, because they see me in rhinestones, you know, with glitter in my hair, that really is who I am,” Naomi Judd said, speaking of her fans. “I’m sort of a fantasy ’cause I want to provide that for them, but then I would come home and not leave the house for three weeks and not get out of my pajamas, not practice normal hygiene. It was really bad.”
The “Love Can Build a Bridge” singer said her battle with depression began six years prior, in 2011, during The Judds’ encore tour and the airing of their reality TV show. Two decades earlier, in 1991, the mother-daughter duo had stopped performing together after Naomi Judd was diagnosed with hepatitis C.
Judd told Roberts she battled a “completely debilitating and life-threatening” depression that led to several stints in psychiatric wards, where she was treated with a heavy regimen of medication and electro-convulsive therapy.
Another part of Judd’s treatment for depression was to confront a difficult past that she said includes being molested by a member of her family at the age of 3.
“Nobody was there for me. In a way, I had to parent myself,” she told Roberts. “I realized that I got a raw deal, OK, now I’m a big girl. Put on your big girl pants and deal with it, and I started in therapy.”
Judd told Roberts her treatment got her to a place where she practiced “radical acceptance” and found joy in her everyday life.
She wrote about her mental health journey in the 2016 book, River of Time.
“I want someone to be able to see that they can survive,” she said. “It’s not just to help the people that have depression. It’s so the people around them can understand this is a disease.”
In addition to her daughters, Judd is survived by her husband of over three decades, Larry Strickland.
He told Roberts in 2016 that his advice for a person with a loved one with depression is to “get ready to walk that path with them because they’re going to need it. They’re going to need you every minute.”
Reading from her own book in the interview with Roberts, Judd spoke about being “still here” after her battle with depression.
“My everyday life is not only manageable, it’s even enjoyable once more. I laugh a lot. I have told my story and you can tell yours. You’re not alone. I am still here,” she said.
In their acceptance speech Sunday at the Country Music Hall of Fame, Judd’s daughters said they were sorry their mom “couldn’t hang on” to accept the honor.
“My mama loved you so much, and she appreciated your love for her. And I’m sorry that she couldn’t hang on until today,” Ashley Judd said through tears while accepting on her mom’s behalf. “Your esteem for her and your regard for her really penetrated her heart and it was your affection for her that did keep her going in these last years.”
“This is the first time I’ve talked since saying goodbye to her,” said Wynonna Judd, describing herself as both “broken” and “blessed.” “At 2:20, I kissed her on the forehead, and I walked away … the last thing we did together as a family with her is…we all gathered around her and we said ‘The Lord is my shepherd…'” before continuing to recite the 23rd Psalm.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. You can reach Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada) and The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386.
Tim McGraw was showered with love on his birthday.
The singer and actor turned 55 on Sunday, and to celebrate, his family, friends and tour mates honored the occasion with cake and sing-a-longs.
Tim shared a video that shows tour opener Russell Dickerson leading the crowd in a group sing-a-long of “Happy Birthday.” Meanwhile backstage, Tim’s wife, Faith Hill, surprised him during soundcheck with a candle-adorned cake, and led another rendition of “Happy Birthday” alongside all his crew members.
“This is going to be your best year yet my man,” Russell shares in a compilation video of tributes to the country legend.
Faith also used her husband’s birthday as an opportunity to share a screen grab from the couple’s steamy bathtub scene on 1883. ”Oh, you say it’s your birthday Tim McGraw? Um……What a about a date tonight? K…see ya later. Love you, too,” she writes alongside the photo.
“Wow, thanx for all the birthday love out there!” Tim replies to the influx messages.
Tim is currently headlining the McGraw Tour as his current single, “7500 OBO,” rises through the country charts.
Jack Harlow was a good sport after a video of two referees admitting they had no idea who he was went viral.
The exchange between the two refs happened during the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics game on Sunday, where the “First Class” rapper was spotted in the crowd. ESPN SportsCenter caught the hot mic moment and captioned it, “Scott Foster and Ed Malloy trying to figure out who Jack Harlow is,” along with a crying laughing emoji.
The hilarious exchange ends with both men admitting they never heard of him, with Foster encouraging Malloy to “go ask him.”
Harlow retweeted the video and joked, “clearly these [guys] have never seen Narnia,” a reference to him looking like a character in the 2005 film Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The joke is he looks a lot like like the faun Mr. Tumnus, who was played by James McAvoy, because of his curly brown hair and beard.
The “Industry Baby” rapper is getting ready to drop his next album, Come Home the Kids Miss You, on May 6, the follow up of 2020’s That’s What They All Say.
