Billy Porter is sharing his life with the world with his deeply personal memoir, Unprotected.
In the book, Porter candidly speaks about being bullied, surviving sexual abuse at the hands of his stepfather, and making arts his safe haven. He says the purpose of the memoir wasn’t to bring anyone down, but rather to serve as an outlet for healing.
“It was about how do I write about it from my perspective without exposing other people in sort of a possible negative light,” Porter tells ABC Audio. “Like that was not something that I ever wanted this to be about. This was not for me. This was not a book about shaming anybody or calling anybody out or revenge or, you know, some sort of tell-all. It’s not that.”
Instead, the Tony, Emmy and Grammy winner says the book was written so others could learn from his experiences and know that there was hope. Porter believes that his biggest challenge wasn’t just sharing his journey and perspective on race, sexuality, art and healing — it was finding the best way to tell it without judgment.
“What I was met with oftentimes was how do I tell this story with compassion and grace,” he adds.
Unprotected: A Memoir is now available for purchase.
Tom Morello is officially joining the Fourth Estate.
The Rage Against the Machine guitarist is writing a series of Opinion columns for The New York Times. In each piece, published weekly starting this Wednesday, October 20, Morello will “examine his own music, as well as the music of others, offering insight into the ideas and arguments shaping the world today,” a press release says.
“Through the lens of music, Morello will write substantive commentary based on his manifold experiences and interests, to help Times subscribers make sense of our current era,” the announcement reads.
“I was the only Black kid in an all white town,” Morello says. “The only anarcho-syndicalist at a conservative high school, the only spandex clad heavy metal guitarist at Harvard University, and the only Star Trek loving Ivy League nerd rocking some of the world’s biggest stages and on off days dodging tear gas at the barricades.”
He adds, “I firmly believe that both the pen and the guitar can serve as a battering ram for justice.”
Meanwhile, Morello just dropped his new solo album, The Atlas Underground Fire, last Friday. It features guest spots from artists including Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder, Bruce Springsteen, Bring Me the Horizon, Phantogram and grandson.
Denise Truscello/Resorts World Las Vegas/Concerts West/AEG Presents
Celine Dion’s brand new Las Vegas residency at Resorts World Theatre has been delayed for medical reasons — but it has nothing to do with COVID-19.
The show was due to open November 5 and run through November 20, and then from January 19 to February 5, 2022, but all those performances have now been canceled. Celine is suffering from what’s described as “severe and persistent muscle spasms,” which have left her unable to perform or participate in rehearsals.
“I’m heartbroken by this,” Celine said in a statement. “My team and I have been working on our new show for the past eight months, and to not be able to open this November saddens me beyond words.”
“My partners at Resorts World Las Vegas and AEG have been working around the clock to get this brand-new state-of-the-art theatre ready, and it’s absolutely beautiful,” Celine continued. “I feel so bad that I’m letting them down, and I’m especially sorry for disappointing all the fans who’ve been making their plans to come to Las Vegas. Now, I have to focus on getting better…I want to get through this as soon as I can.”
The president of Resorts World said, “If there’s anything these trying times have taught us, it’s that nothing is more important than your well being…we wish [Celine] a speedy recovery and look forward to welcoming her to her new home when she feels ready and able to perform again.”
Fans who bought tickets to Celine’s residency via a credit card will get refunds automatically. Ticket holders will get first access to tickets for the rescheduled show dates when they are announced. Meanwhile, Celine still plans to resume her Courage World Tour in March of 2022.
On his Instagram, Sylvester Stallone bade farewell to his hit Expendables franchise.
The actor, writer, and producer posted a video shot on the European set after he’d wrapped his last scene as mercenary Barney Ross in the fourth film in the series.
“It’s been about 12 years,” the 75-year-old star noted, adding, “it’s time to be moving on.”
“It’s always bittersweet,” Stallone said, explaining he’s “ready to pass the baton to Jason [co-star Jason Statham] in his capable hands.”
Statham played Ross’ buddy Lee Christmas in the successful series that debuted in 2010, and which has highlighted action stars of a certain age, including now-74-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger; Stallone’s Rocky IV nemesis Dolph Lundgren, who is 65; Mickey Rourke, now 69; former MMA fighter Randy Couture and martial artist Jet Li, who are 58; 66-year-old Bruce Willis; 65-year-old Mel Gibson; and Terry Crews, who is a relatively young 53.
To date, the modestly-budgeted Expendables movies have made $800 million worldwide.
The fourth installment, coming out in 2022, adds martial arts legend Tony Jaa, Andy Garcia and Megan Fox to the mix.
Rebel Wilson shared her honest thoughts about how the world reacted to her dramatic weight loss and expressed discomfort that her physique overshadowed her other accomplishments.
Speaking recently to Australia’s Daily Telegraph, the 41-year-old actress explained that she starred in four movies in 2019, adding she produced two of them while another, Jojo Rabbit, was nominated the the Best Picture Academy Award.
“Yet I get more press the following year when I do nothing except lose weight,” the Pitch Perfect star lamented, adding, “When I was at my heaviest, I also had the most international attention on me.”
Wilson acknowledged, “People are so obsessed with [weight],” but insisted she wasn’t pressured by the headlines to get in shape. Instead, she embarked on a fitness journey in order to address her emotional eating struggles that manifested along with her rising star status.
“Because I’m not a natural performer, my natural personality is very introverted; the way I dealt with that pressure was to eat,” she recalled. “I would reward myself with a block of chocolate.”
“For the first time in my life I’ve lost weight and maintained it,” she added, noting that her weight loss was a result of a total lifestyle change.
Saying she was “proud” of her hard work, Wilson admitted, “I’m not totally cured. I don’t think you can be. But I’ve learnt to manage it — and it’s not by reaching for a bowl of ice cream.”
Wilson also reflected on how her fitness journey improved her relationship with her body, adding, “It’s just about loving yourself and loving the journey that you’re on. And to me, the women I think are most beautiful are those who step into their own power.”
This week, Coldplay is doing a residency on The Late Late Show with James Corden, and they kicked it off Monday night with the first-ever performance of “Let Somebody Go,” their duet with Selena Gomez from their new album, Music of the Spheres.
Chris Martin and company began playing the tune on a darkened stage, before Selena stepped into the light to join them for the ballad, which is about either the end of a relationship or, perhaps, a life. “It hurts like so/to let somebody go,” they sang.
In addition to Selena, Coldplay also teamed up with BTS, Jacob Collier and the duo We Are King for Music of the Spheres. In 2022, they’ll kick off a stadium tour, which they promise will be powered by 100% renewable energy.
(NEW YORK) — The strained supply chain and worldwide shipping crunch has had an impact on everything from holiday shopping to every day goods and services.
Good Morning America assembled an expert panel to explain what’s happening and shopping strategies to know.
ABC News’ chief business correspondent Rebecca Jarvis, ABC News’ consumer correspondent Becky Worley and GMA e-commerce editor Tory Johnson answer questions related to the supply issue and offer shopping tips for the holiday season.
What’s causing the issue?
“This goes back a long time — back to the beginning of the pandemic when everything shut down,” Jarvis said. “Factories all over the world weren’t working, but Americans were sitting on their couches and started shopping and they started buying so much stuff. Suddenly there was this giant backlog because factories hadn’t created items, people weren’t working, there weren’t enough people to bring the items to our homes.”
“Now we find ourselves in the most important season of all — holiday shopping season when we buy more ever and not enough stuff has been created. It’s sitting in those backlogs and you see those cargo ships — it’s waiting to get into stores and there isn’t enough of it as it stands,” she continued.
What should consumers expect moving forward?
Some retailers like Costco and Home Depot have comissioned their own cargo ships, but Jarvis explained that medium and smaller comanies don’t have that same level of control.
“They’re getting cancellations for orders that were supposed to come in November. They’re being told it’s not coming until February,” she said of many orders that consumers hoped to have in time for Christmas.
What can shoppers do as we head into the holidays?
Worley said to “start with how you find it.”
“Many big chains like Best Buy, Target, they may be sold out of an item online, but remember that’s the stock they have in their online warehouse,” she said. “Every store is a mini- warehouse. So the item you want could be sitting on a shelf.”
Worley suggested using website tools like “pickup in store” and change the location to see if it’s available anywhere around you. “But one big caveat before you drive a long distance, call to make sure the item is actually there — trust but verify.”
Any items easier to get than others?
“This time of year it’s all about tech,” she said, and that anything with a computer chip,”has been harder to find.”
Worley also advises using apps that check stock from big stores such as the HotStock app, which is advertised as able to seek out prouct availability in real-time.
Shop small and local
Johnson offered a handful of tips for small business operators to be ready for more business and also protect themselves from the same supply issues.
Communicate with all partners with up to date information
Share up-to-date status reports
Make contingency plans
Try local pop-ups, trunk shows and holiday markets to move merchandise
Partner with complementary brands for cross-promotion and marketing opportunities
Leverage social media and e-commerce tools to sell direct to consumers
(NOTE LANGUAGE)Channing Tatum has waded into the Dave Chappelle Netflix/trans comments controversy, saying that while he does “understand” and “hate” that the comedian hurt so many people with his problematic comments about the trans and LGBTQ+ communities, he can’t turn his back on the man whose words comforted him in the past.
“Any human can hurt someone (usually cause they’re hurt) but any human can heal and heal others just the same,” Channing wrote on his Instagram Stories, according to Buzzfeed, saying Chappelle’s 2019 speech while accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center “healed” him.
“I can’t forget that,” he insisted.
Dave noted in the speech how his personality differs from the one he presents to the public, and how comedy saved his life. “I was a soft kid. I was sensitive, I’d cry easy and I would be scared to fistfigh,” said Chappelle at the time. “My mother used to tell me this thing… ‘Son, sometimes you have to be a lion so you can be the lamb you really are.’ I talk this s*** like a lion. I’m not afraid of any of you. When it comes word to word, I will gab with the best of them, just so I can chill and be me.”
“And that’s why I love my art form, because I understand every practitioner of it,” Chappelle continued. “Whether I agree with them or not, I know where they’re coming from. They want to be heard. They’ve got something to say. There’s something they noticed. They just want to be understood. I loved this genre. It saved my life.”
While the speech was meaningful to Channing, he noted that it “does not excuse anything hurtful tho to be clear.”
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for WarnerMedia — Jim Spellman/Getty Images
Black Panther star Michael B. Jordan and tennis legend Serena Williams are paying it forward to one lucky entrepreneur to the tune of one million dollars.
AfroTech reports that the two stars have teamed up to assist students and graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, by launching a Startup Pitch Competition, which is aimed to inspire future business leaders who may not have equal access to opportunity.
Jordan’s Invesco QQQ Legacy Classic competition invites HBCU alumni and students to submit their business proposals and innovative ideas for a chance to win a million-dollar jackpot. The competition is now open and is accepting applications.
The actor partnered with Williams’ Serena Ventures as well as MaC Venture Capital, two investment firms, to get the contest off the ground and “will work together to identify the most promising early-stage startup companies founded by current HBCU students or alumni.”
Three finalists will be chosen, who will then have to make a final pitch to the two firms, as well as Harlem Capital and Cake Ventures, who are also serving as advisors to the competition.
The $1 million winner will be announced December 18 during TNT’s broadcast of an HBCU college basketball showcase featuring four institutions: Howard University, Hampton University, North Carolina A&T University and North Carolina Central University.
The showcase, called the Invesco QQQ Legacy Classic Basketball Showcase Finals, is a double header between Hampton vs NC Central and Howard vs NC A&T.
You’ll see some veteran music stars in the ABC drama Queens, premiering tonight. Rapper Eve stars alongside singer Brandy and former 3LW member Naturi Naughton, playing a group of women rappers who were popular 20 years ago, but for whom that success and lifestyle is now a distant memory.
For Brandy, joining the show was a no-brainer, telling ABC Audio, “I just loved the fact that it was a 90s hip hop legendary group of women. I’ve never seen that even in hip hop today.”
“Then, it was never a hip hop girls group, ever. And so I was like, this is different,” she continued. “This is deep. I love it. I want to be a part of it. What do I sign up?”
Additionally, the Queens script was one that Brandy says that she could really relate to.
“The entire struggle of being, at the top of your game and then kind of losing it and getting an opportunity to do it again. Like I could relate to that,” she shares.
Included in that script is some original music and rhymes, which Eve reveals she didn’t pen herself and jokes, “If I had to it would be “Old McDonald had a farm” over and over again.”
As for Naughton, it wasn’t so much coming up with lyrics that intimidated her as much as having to rap in front of one of the most successful female rappers of all time.
“I was a little bit scared when Eve was next to me,” she says. “Whenever my verse comes after hers I’m like God daggit I really have to kill it! I can’t come after Eve and not kill it!”
