Olivia Munn and comedian John Mulaney are going to be parents.
The former Saturday Night Live writer told late night host Seth Meyers on Tuesday that he began dating the actress this past spring, following a split from his ex-wife, artist Anna Marie Tendler, last year.
This will be the first child for both stars.
“I’m gonna be a dad!” Mulaney said. “I’m really, really — we’re both really, really happy.”
This past year has been a challenge for Mulaney, 39, who went to drug rehab in September 2020 and then again a few months later, following a relapse. He said he got out in February.
“Then in the spring, I went to Los Angeles and met and started to date a wonderful woman named Olivia,” he said, adding that Munn, 41, has “held my hand through that hell [of recovery].”
He added, “I got into this relationship that’s been really beautiful with someone incredible.”
Drew Barrymore reveals she’s been privately supporting Britney Spears during her conservatorship battle.
The actress and talk show host tells Entertainment Tonight that she’s been sending Britney video messages.
“I appreciate all the people that have been supporting Britney on social media,” she says. “I took a different turn. I’ve actually been sending her personal videos.”
Drew says she’s sent messages of “encouragement and just telling her that I think she is the key to her freedom.”
“[I wanted to] really show her I’m someone who has understood what a journey is like and I don’t compare myself to her, but I’m here to support her if there’s anything she needs in private,” Barrymore says.
Drew says Britney has responded to the videos with “little smoke signals.”
Meanwhile on Instagram, Britney thanked another celebrity for supporting her publicly: Iggy Azalea. She posted a photo of the two performing their song “Pretty Girls” together.
“It was so much fun working with such a strong, bada** woman like her …. I haven’t met her new baby but if she’s reading this God bless you and thank you for all your kind words,” Britney wrote.
On Tuesday, Britney’s father, Jamie, filed to end the conservatorship of the pop star’s estate that has been in place since 2008 — a huge legal victory for Britney.
Archbishop Carl Bean is greeted by church member in 2004; Carlos Chavez/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Carl Bean, the man whom Lady Gaga revealed was the true inspiration for her hit “Born This Way,” has died at age 77, reports The New York Post.
This past May, while celebrating the 10th anniversary of her album Born This Way, Lady Gaga revealed that the title track of the album was inspired by as disco song called “I Was Born This Way,” recorded by Bean in 1977.
“Born This Way, my song and album, were inspired by Carl Bean, a gay black religious activist who preached, sung and wrote about being ‘Born This Way,’” Gaga wrote on Instagram. She continued, addressing Bean, “Thank you for decades of relentless love, bravery, and a reason to sing. So we can all feel joy, because we deserve joy. Because we deserve the right to inspire tolerance, acceptance, and freedom for all.”
“I Was Born This Way” was written by Chris Spierer and Bunny Jones and released in 1975 by an artist called Valentino. Carl Bean released his own disco version in 1977. Bean’s version has since been remixed and re-released several times, both in the ’80s and the ’90s. The song’s lyrics go, “I’m happy and I’m gay/I was born this way.”
Bean became an AIDS activist and founded the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, which focused on the LGBT and Black community. His autobiography is titled I Was Born This Way: A Gay Man’s Journey through Gospel Music, Disco Stardom, and a Ministry in Christ.
According to The New York Post, the Unity Fellowship Church Movement announced that Bean died September 7 “after a lengthy illness,” and added, “Archbishop Bean worked tirelessly for the liberation of the underserved and for LGBTQ people of faith and in doing so, helped many around the world find their way back to spirituality and religion.”
Lainey Wilson never imagined being anything but a country singer. The Louisiana native moved to Nashville right out of high school, living in a camping trailer while she honed her craft as a singer and songwriter. But through all the highs and lows, she never doubted she would someday make her dreams come true.
“There’s been times when I probably should have packed my bags and went home,” Lainey told Idaho Mountain Express. “But I never had not one doubt in my mind that I was gonna be okay. I knew I was gonna find my way.”
Lainey, who released Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’ earlier this year, was also not dissuaded by the reign of male artists on the charts. Growing up listening to artists like Lee Ann Womack and Dolly Parton, the 29-year-old knew her time would one day come as well.
“I think it’s a great time for female country singers like myself,” Lainey maintained. “No matter what the sound is, people want a good story. That’s what country music has been from the beginning. A dang good story.”
Lainey’s instincts seem to be paying off. Her single, “Things a Man Oughta Know,” is currently in the top 5.
“I just wanna tell real stories,” Lainey said. “I want it to be raw and honest. Even if that makes your skin crawl a little bit, my goal is to make you feel something.”
Real Housewives of Atlanta stars Phaedra Parks, Marlo Hampton, Porsha Williams, Eva Marcille and Lisa Wu reunited with Nene Leakes Monday at a celebration of life in Atlanta for Nene’s late husband, Gregg Leakes.
“I am grateful to all of you. Thank you for the bottom of my heart,” Leakes commented on Instagram as she posted a photo from the event on Wednesday. “I love Gregg so much and I miss him a lot,” she added. “I will continue to be strong and celebrate his life.”
With a photo of the couple kissing, she wrote, “Today we celebrate you Gregg with love, just the way you wanted it.”
Keke Wyatt, Yolanda Adams, Kim Burrell and Le’Andria Johnson performed at the memorial service, held at the Linnethia Lounge in ATL, according to Us Magazine.
Gregg Leakes lost his three-year battle with cancer on September 1. He was 66. The couple married in 1997, divorced 14 years later, then remarried in 2013.
(WASHINGTON) — The number of job openings hit a record high of 10.9 million on the last day of July, the Department of Labor said Wednesday, as businesses struggle to lure back workers in the wake of COVID-19’s shock to the economy.
The latest figure on job openings beats the record high of 10.1 million that was just set the previous month in June, but may not yet reflect the impact of the delta variant’s spread on the labor market. Still, the fresh data paints a complicated picture of economic recovery as job openings soar despite unemployment levels remaining elevated.
Job openings increased across the economy, with major increases in health care and social assistance, finance and insurance, as well as accommodation and food services, the DOL said.
In addition to job openings reaching a high, the number of people leaving their jobs is also at record high levels. The quits rate in July was 2.7%, the BLS said Wednesday, tying with June and April of 2021 for the highest on record.
Economists have attributed the recent labor crunch to lingering health concerns over the virus that may have some workers not wanting to return to the workplace, a child care crisis that has disproportionately impacted working women, as well as harder-to-quantify factors as many Americans reassess what they want from a job after living through a once-in-a-century pandemic that has left more than 600,000 Americans dead.
The unemployment rate in August was 5.2%, a reflection of major improvements in the labor market compared to before the vaccine rollout, but still above the pre-pandemic 3.5% seen in February 2020. Broken down further, employment has risen by some 17 million jobs since April 2020, but the economy is still down some 5.3 million jobs compared to February 2020.
Despite the unemployment rate remaining elevated, many firms have reported struggles hiring staff — which has resulted in average wages rising, especially among service industries or jobs requiring face-to-face contact. The average hourly earnings for workers in August was some $30.73.
The latest data from the DOL also comes as enhanced pandemic-era unemployment benefits expired this week for millions of Americans. Despite the rhetoric from many Republican lawmakers, however, data indicates that yanking pandemic unemployment benefits — as a handful of states have already done — did not contribute to job growth. Researchers at JPMorgan found “zero correlation” between job growth and state decisions to drop the federal unemployment aid, the Associated Press reported.
(AFGHANISTAN) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called on the Taliban to allow chartered aircraft to depart Afghanistan with Americans and Afghans ready to board, but said there were “limits” to what the U.S. can do to ensure they fly out.
For over a week now, the Taliban have not permitted at least six chartered flights to leave, saying some evacuees do not have the proper documents to depart. The standoff is turning dire for some passengers, with one aid group organizing a group of Afghan women and girls telling ABC News the situation is “uncontrolled” and “uncomfortable.”
The militant group, which has publicly said it will allow safe passage to foreigners trying to leave the country, unveiled an “interim” government on Tuesday that includes several top leaders already under U.S. and United Nations sanctions.
Blinken said the new Taliban cabinet “certainly does not meet the test of inclusivity,” but would only say its top members had “very challenging track records.”
The Biden administration has struggled to evacuate U.S. citizens and at-risk Afghan partners in the eight days since U.S. military and diplomatic personnel withdrew from the country, ending America’s 20 years of war in Afghanistan.
That includes for at least 19 U.S. citizens and hundreds of Afghans in the northern city Mazar-e-Sharif, where chartered aircraft have been waiting at the airport for over a week now, according to aid groups involved in organizing them.
“Those flights need to be able to leave and the United States government, the State Department – we are doing everything we can to help make that happen,” Blinken told reporters Wednesday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he met some of the thousands of Afghan refugees evacuated by the U.S.-led operation that ended on Aug. 30.
Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sunday that the flights were being held “hostage” as the Taliban demanded concessions from the U.S., while some advocates blamed the U.S. for not clearing the flights. Blinken said Wednesday there was “a fair amount of confusion” about the situation — with State Department officials saying the U.S. is not involved in approving landing or overflight rights and doing what it can to help the chartered flights get approvals.
“While there are limits to what we can do without personnel on the ground, without an airport with normal security procedures in place, we are doing everything in our power to support those flights and to get them off the ground. That’s what we’ve done, that’s what we’ll continue to do,” Blinken said alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
State Department officials said U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been sending urgent messages to the Taliban’s leadership to demand that they abide by their commitments on safe passage, and that the U.S. has so far no security concerns based on the manifests provided by advocacy groups.
But Marina LeGree, the founder and executive director of Ascend, a U.S.-based nonprofit seeking to empower Afghan women and girls through mountain climbing, blamed the State Department for standing in the way at times.
“We’ve given you all the details of these people and you cleared them and call them to come, and now you’re saying, ‘You have to have travel documents and don’t worry if you do, you get to go’? That’s a complete abdication of responsibility, and it’s just – it’s morally repugnant,” LeGree told ABC News Wednesday.
In total, there are more than 1,000 people now seeking a seat on these chartered flights, she added, complicating efforts to ensure Americans and vulnerable Afghans can safely evacuate first and degrading conditions at the airport itself where many have been waiting for days.
One hundred and ninety miles to the southeast, some conditions in Kabul are deteriorating as well. A top U.N. official said Wednesday her office is receiving daily reports of women’s rights being rolled back, including barring them from leaving home without a man or going to work.
“With the announcement yesterday, the Taliban have missed a critical opportunity to show the world that is truly committed to building an inclusive and prosperous society,” said Alison Davidian, the deputy representative in Afghanistan for U.N. Women, the global agency’s entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women.
That announcement is the formation of an “interim” government, led by Taliban commanders that played prominent roles in its previous government that ruled much of Afghanistan in the late 1990’s.
Instead of naming a woman to any position, the Taliban also dissolved the previous U.S.-backed government’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs and reinstated its Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which acted as a religious enforcement force.
Blinken said the U.S. was still “assessing the announcement,” but expressed concern that the list of ministers “consists exclusively of individuals who are members of the Taliban and their close associates and no women” and that some have ties to other terrorist organizations like al Qaeda and the Haqqani Network.
“It certainly does not meet the test of inclusivity,” he added, noting some individuals have “very challenging track records.”
Challenging is an understatement. Sirajuddin Haqqani, for example, has been put in charge of domestic affairs as acting Interior Minister. The leader of the sanctioned Haqqani Network, which is responsible for ruthless terror attacks across Afghanistan, he has a $10 million bounty on his head by the FBI.
Asked whether the U.S. government is still pursuing his capture, Blinken didn’t directly address the question – instead saying the U.S. will engage the Taliban “for purposes of advancing the national interests” of the U.S. and its allies and “in ways that are fully consistent with our laws,” including U.S. sanctions on the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and Haqqani himself and others.
As he and other U.S. officials have said repeatedly, Blinken reiterated that the U.S. will judge the new government “by its action.”
But he was pressed by an Afghan journalist Tuesday on that. After Taliban fighters have beaten female protesters and journalists covering demonstrations against them, shut down media outlets and raided homes, and more, TOLO News’s Lotfullah Najafizada asked Blinken, “What else do you want to see?”
“We will see by its actions whether it corrects course on any of these incidents of abusive conduct,” Blinken said.
Walker Hayes’ song, “Fancy Like,” quickly became the hit heard around the world, after a dance Walker and his daughter, Lela, did to the song on TikTok, which mentions Applebee’s, went viral. Walker and his wife, Laney, even filmed a commercial for the restaurant chain, but Walker doesn’t need to get paid to profess his love of Appleee’s.
“We grew up in Mobile, Alabama, a Southern town,” Walker tells Ad Age. “And as a family, we didn’t eat at home a lot. I was usually getting out of basketball or track or some sport and we would go to dinner as a family and Applebee’s is one of the regular ones. On most nights we would go to a cheap Mexican restaurant or a cheap Chinese buffet, but on a fancier night, it was Applebee’s.”
Walker’s love of Applebee’s even carried through to his dating relationship with his now-wife, when the restaurant became a popular date-night destination.
“If we went to prom or something like that, Applebee’s was definitely on the list of ‘where are we going to go grab a bite?'” Walker says. “That’s what people like me did, and we still do. I guess it’s a testament to how simple we are, but we just love chain restaurants.”
Now, thanks to Applebee’s generosity, Walker and Laney and their six children get to visit the restaurant as well — and often.
“Applebee’s has hooked my family with some sick gift cards, so we’ve been putting those to use. I mean, why would I go anywhere else?”
Maroon 5 will be one of the artists performing onShine a Light, a special that will air on CNN on Saturday, September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“We feel deeply moved by this opportunity to use our music to help shine a light and support a broadcast that is coming from and for the 9/11 community,” the band says in a statement.
Other acts that’ll be performing on the special include country star Brad Paisley, and Oscar and Grammy-winning musicians H.E.R. and Common.
Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, who appeared on stage together at the all-star Concert for New York City the month after the attacks, will team up to deliver a message of support on the special, while ex-New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning will be a presenter.
In addition to the musical performances, the Shine a Light special will feature films and interviews with those directly affected by the attacks, who’ll share their stories. Viewers will be encouraged to visit 911day.org during the broadcast to post and share simple acts of kindness, charity and service in tribute to those killed and injured, and to the first responders to rushed to help.
In other Maroon 5 news, the band had been set to perform at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Friday, but that show has been canceled with no explanation.
Anita Baker has won her long legal battle with her record label, and the eight-time Grammy winner has proudly announced she now owns her own music masters and has full control of her songs.
“They no longer ‘Own, My Name & Likeness,’” Baker wrote on her private Twitter account, as captured by Essence. “And, by Law…30 yr old, Mstrs are 2B Returned, 2 Me Unfortunately, They’re gonna make me Fight 4 it. I’m Prepared, 2 do that.”
The “Giving You the Best That I Got” singer previously asked fans not to stream or buy any of her music because of her legal fight.
“All My Children Are Coming Home,” Anita wrote with a photo of her first five studio albums: 1983’s The Songstress, The Rapture from 1986, 1988’s Giving You the Best That I Got, Compositions from 1990, and her 1994 release, Rhythm of Love.
When a follower asked if now she wants fans to stream her music, Anita replied, “Yes. Chil’ren…Stream.”
Baker also announced that a new compilation of her music will be available soon on Rhino Records.
