Essence Magazine’s “The Black Women in Hollywood” issue hits stands today. Actress Niecy Nash and partner Jessica Betts are featured on the cover and, as previously reported, the newly-married duo are the first-ever same sex couple to do so.
Nash took to her Instagram account to promote and reveal the historical cover, captioning the post, “Making H E R S T O R Y.”
In a similar Instagram post, Essence wrote, “Niecy Nash and Jessica Betts stun on our March/April Cover. When you find ‘A Love Like This’ it keeps faith alive of what true love means…”
Philadelphia native and Abbott Elementary creator Quinta Brunson is living her best life as the star of the hit ABC show and spreading the love because of it.
After creating the show based on her former school teacher, the 32-year-old mogul-in-the-making recently surprised a Philadelphia school teacher for her work and dedication to the students.
Brunson teamed up with Good Morning America to awardXiomara Robinson and Benjamin B. Comegys Elementary School with $20,000 worth of books from Scholastic and $40,000 from Wells Fargo for supplies and equipment.
“To be a part of something like this because of the show … right now, it’s just, it feels fantastic. I feel humbled,” Brunson said.
Actress Laverne Cox is under fire for joking about “entanglements” to Jada Pinkett Smith on the SAG Awards carpet.
“Thank you for all the years of joy you brought us,” Cox said, wrapping up her interview with Jada and Will Smith. “We can’t wait for more Red Table Talk and more, more entanglements,” she added.
Fans took to social media condemning the star and her comments. Actress Vivica Fox said, “Talk about wrong place, wrong time,” on the Fox Soul show, Cocktails with Queens.
Taylor Swift shook off another lawsuit. A three-judge panel dismissed the suit filed by singer Jesse Graham, who claimed Taylor’s 2014 hit “Shake It Off” ripped off his 2013 song “Haters Gone Hate,” reports Law360. Graham sought more than $42 million in damages and claimed Taylor stole his song’s lyrics, which included, “Haters gone hate/ Haters gone hate/ Playas gone play/ Playas gone play/ Watch out for them fakers/ They’ll fake you every day.” The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning Graham cannot refile the same claim again.
Gwen Stefani celebrated her son Apollo’s eighth birthday by sharing a sweet throwback video of her little one singing “Old McDonald,” with an original twist. He sang the farmer “had a momma” on his farm, adding, “Here a momma, there a momma!” Gwen, who shares Apollo and two other sons with ex Gavin Rossdale, captioned the video, “Happy 8th birthday to our angel boy a true gift from God your family loves u Apollo.”
Pink is the latest artist to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Grammy winner is using her social media platform to tell fans how they can donate to UNICEF and help those displaced by the violence. She also shared an op-ed to her Instagram Story about why Russian President Vladimir Putin has “already lost the war.”
Justin Bieber has a new song coming out on Friday. “Attention” will feature Justin’s longtime friend DJ Tay James, whom he’s worked with for over 10 years.
Rosé from BLACKPINK tested positive for COVID-19, Billboardconfirms. It is unknown if the other members of BLACKPINK — Jisoo, Jennie and Lisa — were exposed. Rosé, who just celebrated her 25th birthday, isn’t the first K-Pop sensation to contract COVID-19. BTS members Jin, RM, Suga and V all battled the coronavirus and have fully recovered.
(NOTE LANGUAGE) In a conversation with Vanity Fair about her new skin-care line, The Outset, mom and Marvel movie star Scarlett Johansson explained what it’s like being a mother in the public eye.
Johansson, who last August welcomed baby son Cosmo with her husband, Saturday Night Live‘s Colin Jost, also has a six-year-old daughter, Rose, with her ex-spouse, journalist Romain Dauriac. ScarJo admits to Vanity Fair that she was “so protective of both pregnancies, not wanting to feel scrutinized in the public eye.”
Indeed, her baby with Jost took even showbiz reporters by surprise, with Zoom-only promotional appearances for Black Widow making it easier to hide a baby bump than pre-pandemic in-person publicity appearances.
“I wanted to be able to have my own feelings about my changing body without other people also telling me how they saw me, whether it was positive or negative,” Scarlett said. “I realized when I was pregnant with my son, it’s funny how much stuff people put on you when you’re pregnant — their hopes or their judgment or their desire, a lot of that is put on pregnant women.”
Scarlett admits, “[W]hile I was definitely excited to be pregnant in some ways, I also had a lot of not-great feelings about it, and that would be scrutinized by — I’m talking about…women that were close to me.”
She adds, laughing, “[W]hen I told [one friend] that I was pregnant — she knew I was trying — she was just like, ‘Oh s***. Great, but not great.’ And I was like, ‘You’re a true friend.'”
Scarlet says she “feels like a lot of things have moved forward in the past five years in terms of women’s empowerment, but that thing remains sort of in the Dark Ages. So much judgment, it’s crazy.”
(AUSTIN, Texas) — The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department for Family and Protective Services and Governor Greg Abbott for implementing a directive to investigate parents that provide gender-affirming care to transgender children.
In a Feb. 22 letter, Abbott ordered the DFPS to investigate gender-affirming care among youths in the state following an official declaration from state Attorney General Ken Paxton who also called it “child abuse.”
The DFPS promptly announced that it would comply with Paxton and Abbott’s directive. The department told ABC affiliate KVUE there were no investigations into such alleged “child abuse” before Abbott’s directive.
DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters is also listed as a defendant in the complaint.
Representatives for DFPS, Masters and Abbott did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
The lawsuit, led by the ACLU and Lambda Legal, calls the move “lawless and dangerous.”
According to the complaint, Jane Doe, a DFPS employee, allegedly “was placed on leave from her employment because she has a transgender daughter with a medical need for treatment of gender dysphoria.”
Following the issuance of the gender-affirming care directive, Jane Doe had allegedly asked for clarification from her supervisor about how the Abbott letter would affect DFPS policy, the complaint read.
Jane and John Doe are the parents of 16-year-old Mary Doe, who is transgender.
According to the ACLU’s complaint, “some doctors and other providers have discontinued prescribing medically necessary treatment for gender dysphoria to transgender youth” as a result of Abbott’s directive.
“The actions taken by Defendants have already caused severe and irreparable harm to families across the state of Texas, including the Doe family, and have put medical and mental health providers in the impossible position of either following their legal and ethical professional responsibilities or facing criminal prosecution or civil and professional repercussions under Texas law,” the complaint reads.
The Texas legislature has previously tried to limit gender-affirming care and legally declare it “child abuse” but it has failed to pass any of its bills into law.
“There is no doubt that these procedures are ‘abuse’ under Texas law, and thus must be halted,” Paxton said previously in a statement.
He added, “The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) has a responsibility to act accordingly. I’ll do everything I can to protect against those who take advantage of and harm young Texans.”
Organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, Texas Pediatric Society, National Association of Social Workers and more have denounced the governor’s directive.
“This harmful directive leaves families seeking gender-affirming care in Texas with nowhere to turn,” Moira Szilagyi, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement following Abbott’s announcement. “Pediatricians could be investigated for child abuse by simply providing evidence-based, medically necessary services. Gender affirming care is not abuse. Politics has no place in the exam room. All children deserve access to the care they need.”
Five Texas district attorneys also pushed back on Abbott’s directive in a signed letter, saying they “will not irrationally and unjustifiably interfere with medical decisions made between children, their parents, and their medical physicians.”
The White House has also slammed Abbott’s decisions.
“The Texas Attorney General’s attack on loving parents who seek medical care for their transgender children is dangerous to the health of kids in Texas and part of much larger trend of conservative officials cynically attacking LGBTQI+ youth to score political points,” a White House spokesperson told ABC News last week.
The former Slayer drummer has rejoined Chuck Billy and company after previously playing with the thrash metallers on their 1999 album, The Gathering.
“I’ll state the obvious,” Billy says in a statement. “We are more than overwhelmed to welcome back Dave Lombardo to play drums with Testament…Dave added immense power when he joined the band for The Gathering, and we are ecstatic to see what new flavor he will bring back to Testament.”
Lombardo adds, “This is a long-awaited reunion that was bound to happen. Once upon a time, we created a thrash masterpiece. I have no doubt that our musical chemistry will pick up exactly where we left off. I love the Testament family and am very excited to be joining them once again. Pure brutality awaits.”
Lombardo takes the place of longtime Testament drummer Gene Hoglan, who left the band earlier this year.
You can catch Lombardo live with Testament on their upcoming The Bay Strikes Back tour, which launches in April.
“The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act,” designating lynching as a federal hate crime, was passed by the House on Monday and is now on its way to the Senate to possibly be signed into law.
The historic bill was approved on the last day of Black History Month and 65 years after Till, a 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago, was murdered in a brutal lynching in Mississippi in 1955.
Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush, who authored the House bill, said its passage marked “a day of enormous consequence for our nation.”
“I was eight years old when my mother put the photograph of Emmett Till’s brutalized body that ran in Jet magazine on our living room coffee table, pointed to it, and said, ‘This is why I brought my boys out of Albany, Georgia,'” Rush said. “That photograph shaped my consciousness as a Black man in America, changed the course of my life, and changed our nation.”
This is not the first time the lynching bill was introduced; according to the Washington Post, passage of the bill failed nearly 200 times. In 2020, GOP Sen. Rand Paul blocked the bill from passing, worried it would “conflate lesser crimes with lynching.”
According to ABC News, the senator now supports the bill, saying in a statement, “I’m pleased to have worked with Senators Cory Booker and Tim Scott to strengthen the final product and ensure the language of this bill defines lynching as the absolutely heinous crime that it is, and I’m glad to cosponsor this bipartisan effort.”
The bill passed in a 422-3 House vote, with Republican leaders Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, and Chip Roy of Texas all on the opposing side.
If signed into law, the hate crime is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
In a real-life moment that seems exactly like a move “TV Larry” pulled in the 1999 mockumentary Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David has instructed HBO to pull a documentary about him hours before it was to premiere.
Tonight’s The Larry David Story was to take a look at the creative mind behind Curb and Seinfeld, including the 74-year-old reminiscing about his early life and first years in the spotlight. Set to debut tonight at 9 p.m., HBO sent out a surprise tweet today, noting, “Larry has decided he wants to do it in front of an audience. Stay tuned for more info.”
Deadline reports the mercurial David “wasn’t satisfied” with the finished product, in which he spoke, long-form interview style with Larry Charles, a fellow Emmy winner and a key figure behind both hit shows.
In Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, David was to mount a comeback special on HBO, but then cooks up an excuse to get out of it at the last minute.
(WASHINGTON) — While President Joe Biden is laying out his agenda for the U.S., he and some members of Congress will be sending a message of support to Ukraine as it fights back invading Russian forces.
Several House and Senate members will be wearing a ribbon in the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag on their congressional pins during the speech.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be wearing a pin with a combination of the Ukrainian and U.S. flag.
Some of those in Congress will demonstrate their support beyond their lapels.
Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., sported a blue suit and yellow blouse on Tuesday. She told reporters that more members will be wearing those colors during the president’s speech.
“We must do everything we can to preserve our democracies from those that wish to hurt them,” Bustos tweeted.
Earlier in the day, the White House tweeted a photo of Biden on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Biden wore a blue and yellow tie.
There will be at least one Ukrainian official on hand during the president’s remarks, according to the White House.
First lady Jill Biden invited Oksana Markarova, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, as a guest. She will be sitting in the viewing box with the first lady; the second gentleman, Douglas Emhoff; the president’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens; and eight other VIPs.
ABC News’ Mariam Khan and Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.
(NOTE LANGUAGE) Following the season-two finale of HBO’s Euphoria, superstar actress Zendaya and show composer Labrinth released the full version of the gospel-inspired track “I’m Tired.”
A snippet of the track was first heard in the season’s second episode, during an emotional church scene with Zendaya’s character, Rue, who struggles with sobriety. At the end of the season finale, the last minute of the song — and Zendaya’s vocals — are heard while Rue reflects on her sobriety journey.
Zendaya sings, “Hey Lord, you know I’m trying. Hey Lord, you know I’m trying. It’s all I got, is this enough? Hey Lord, I wanna stay.”
The star expressed gratitude to Labrinth in a Monday Instagram story, saying, “Thank you bro for allowing me to write, create and share space with you on this very special song. I learn so much from you every time we work. Excited for what’s to come.”
In an interview with Variety, Labrinth discussed what it was like writing the track and even appearing in the final episode.
“I [sang], ‘Hey lord, you know I’m tired.’ And then she was like, ‘Oh s***!’ And we just started writing the song,” the singer, songwriter said. “It was all of that impulsive inspiration, you know? And then being in the scene, I was like, ‘I haven’t performed for a while and I’ve not been on American TV before or been an actor before… I [was] like, just be in the moment.”
“I’m Tired” isn’t the first track produced by the duo. Labrinth started contributing music to the show during season one, composing “All for Us” for the season’s finale.
Considering Euphoria was greenlit for season three, fans may get much more of the Zendaya-Labrinth dynamic combo. The show is available to stream on HBO and HBO Max.
Blink-182‘s Travis Barker has a new reality TV show in the works.
According to Deadline, the series will be called Inked and Iced, and will explore Barker’s passion for tattoos and diamond dental implants alongside so-called “diamond dentist” Dr. TomConnelly.
Episodes of Inked and Iced will feature “celebrities and musicians undergoing high-end diamond dental implants while simultaneously receiving full-body tattoos, all while under anesthesia,” Deadline reports.
“Inked and Iced is about self-expression, the human body as an art canvas, capitalism, eccentricity and entrepreneurship,” says Aengus James of This Is Just a Test Media, one of the entertainment companies developing the show with Barker.
The premiere date for Inked and Iced has yet to be announced.
Barker previously starred in the reality show Meet the Barkers — alongside his two kids and then-wife Shanna Moakler — which aired 2005-2006 on MTV.
