Out Magazine listed at least seven LGBTQ+-related characters and projects that were unveiled at San Diego Comic Con. Some of them include Michaela Coel (from TV's I May Destroy You) as a queer character in the film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; the gay teens in the horror TV series Chucky; the upcoming Anne Rice adaptation, Interview With the Vampire, which is going to be even more queer than the original movie; and Dream's genderqueer sibling Desire, played by non-binary actor Mason Alexander Park in the upcoming series The Sandman.
Diana Taurasi scored 30 points in Phoenix's 90-80 win over the Los Angeles Sparks, becoming the first WNBA player in league history to score 30 or more at age 40 or older, ESPN noted. The out player also joined Michael Jordan and Dirk Nowitzki as only the third to do it in NBA/WNBA history. It was also Taurasi's 52nd career 30-point game—20 more than any other player in WNBA history.
Oscar-nominated actor Timothee Chalamet is starring in director Luca Guadagnino's new coming-of-age/romance/horror film Bones & All, reuniting him with the Call Me By Your Name helmer, Out Magazine noted. The film, which is going to be making its grand debut in Venice later this summer and which will be released Nov. 23, is described as a cannibal-themed love story between two young people in Reagan-era America, and co-stars fellow "Call Me" alum Michael Stuhlbarg as well as Taylor Russell, Mark Rylance, Chloe Sevigny and more.
Kate McKinnon revealed why she quit Saturday Night Live after 10 years on the hit sketch show, Page Six noted. "I thought about it for a very long time, and it was very, very hard," McKinnon told Ryan Seacrest and Kelly Ripa on Live With Kelly and Ryan. "I loved it, I had the best decade, and then I was just like, my body was tired, and I felt like it was time."
Sarah Paulson is set to star in Searchlight Pictures' Dust, a horror thriller that was originally intended as a vehicle for Claire Foy, Variety reported. The film—about a mother who is haunted by her past and who encounters a threatening presence and takes extraordinary measures to protect her family—will stream on Disney's DTC platforms as a Hulu Original in the United States, with additional release plans to be announced.
Grammy-winning, RIAA multi-platinum-certified superstar Lizzo is celebrating her second Billboard Hot 100 #1 and fourth top 10 with the ascension of her song "About Damn Time" to the top of the Hot 100 chart, per a press release. Her new album, Special, also just debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 album chart, making it the highest Billboard 200 charting album released this year by any female artist.
Adele announced rescheduled dates for her "Weekends With Adele" Las Vegas residency, which was abruptly postponed the day before it was scheduled to begin in January, per Variety. The new dates—including one on Christmas Eve—will take place at the Colosseum at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, and will run Nov. 18, 2022-March 25, 2023. Recently, she seemed to lend credence to reports that the show was called off over creative differences with designer Esmeralda Devlin and the venue, Caesars Palace, rather than crew members testing positive for COVID-19, as she'd originally stated.
MTV unveiled the nominations for the 2022 VMAs. Variety noted that the leading the pack are Jack Harlow, Kendrick Lamar and Lil Nas X, with seven nods each. They're closely followed by Doja Cat and Harry Styles, with six; and Billie Eilish, Drake, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and the Weeknd, with five each. Madonna—the most-awarded artist in MTV history, with 20 wins—became the only artist to be nominated in each of the VMAs five decades (1980s-2020s), as she earned her 69th nomination for Madame X. Voting for Best New Artist (with nominees Baby Keem, Dove Cameron, GAYLE, Latto, Maneskin and SEVENTEEN) will remain active into the show on Sunday, Aug. 28.
Pop singer Shawn Mendes has canceled the rest of his tour, weeks after he postponed concert dates to tend to his mental health, CNN noted. The Grammy nominee "wasn't totally prepared for the toll that being back on the road would take on [him]" and decided to cancel the tour after consulting with "an incredible group of health professionals," he told fans in a statement shared to his social media accounts. Mendes performed a number of shows already, appearing in Sacramento, California, as well as cities around Canada. However, after the initial run of shows, Mendes told fans earlier this month in a now-deleted post that he was taking time off from tour to address mental-health concerns.
Ruth Buzzi's husband said that the legendary comedienne is "bedridden and incapacitated" after suffering a series of strokes, per Page Six. Karl Perkins, who married Buzzi in 1978, said on Facebook, "She wants you to know she is not in pain and is aware you are sending your best wishes her way as she battles the results of devastating strokes that have left her bedridden and incapacitated. She can still speak and understand, she still recognizes all her friends and loved ones. I am reading to her your wonderful comments and she smiles."
Peacock announced the straight-to-series U.S. order for Those About To Die, a large-scale ancient Rome gladiatorial epic inspired by the nonfiction classic of the same name, a press release noted. Renowned out filmmaker Roland Emmerich (Moonfall; Independence Day; The Day After Tomorrow) is set to direct and executive-produce. See www.PeacockTV.com .
Alyssa Farah Griffin—the former Trump White House director of strategic communications—is in final talks to join The View as the new conservative co-host of the daytime talk show, according to Variety. She has sat at the table regularly this season, auditioning for one of the most high-profile jobs on TV. Meghan McCain served as the conservative co-host from 2017 through 2021, bringing a rating surge as she got into heated debates with the other co-hosts during the Trump era.
Speaking of The View, LGBTQ+ dancer, singer and YouTube personality Jojo Siwa (participating in a viral TikTok trend) crowned Full House star and onetime The View co-host Candace Cameron Bure as the rudest celebrity she's encountered in Hollywood, according to Entertainment Weekly. She went on to dub Miley Cyrus the nicest and Elton John the coolest, with Zendaya being identified as Siwa's celebrity crush. Bure later said that she and Siwa cleared the air, with the teen saying the incident happened when she was 11.
As everyone knows, Beyonce has released her newest album, Renaissance (and Out noted that she dedicates the album to her gay uncle Johnny, among others)—but fellow singer Kelis said she was not made aware that her music was going to be sampled on the album, calling the act disrespectful, according to Pitchfork. (Update: Upon the release of Renaissance, the full credits revealed that it was not a sample after all, but an interpolation/re-recording of Kelis' "Milkshake.") While "Milkshake" is formally a Kelis song, she is not listed as one of its producers, composers or lyricists, per Tidal credits; the track's producers are Chad Hugo, Pharrell Williams, Rob Walker and the Neptunes.
During a performance, rapper Machine Gun Kelly was violated by a male fan who grabbed the artist's privates, The New York Post noted. The fan wrapped his arm around the rest of Machine Gun Kelly's waist and eventually reached to his groin area—with the star trying to break free from the grip. The man held onto Kelly's crotch until his hand was removed by the singer. Moments after, someone else pushed him away and security appears to get involved.
Below Deck chef Rachel Hargrove called out Tyra Banks for referring to her as a "plus-size model" when she auditioned for America's Next Top Model in 2005, Page Six noted. "Hey @Tyrabanks remember when you called me a plus size model when I was a size 2?" Hargove tweeted alongside a recent photo of Banks. However, one follower pointed out that it was actually Banks' "ANTM" co-judge Jay Manuel who made the comment about Hargrove's body.
Mary Alice—the Tony- and Emmy-winning actress who starred in the original Broadway production of Fences, portrayed the mother of three singing daughters in Sparkle and appeared as The Oracle in The Matrix Revolutions—has died at age 85, per The Hollywood Reporter. The onetime Chicago schoolteacher received back-to-back Emmy nominations in 1992 and '93—winning in the second year—for her supporting turn as Marguerite Peck, whose child is murdered, on the Atlanta-set NBC legal drama I'll Fly Away that starred Sam Waterston and Regina Taylor.
Glee and Shadowhunters alum Harry Shum Jr. rounds out the group of five new resident cast additions for the upcoming 19th season of the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy, per Deadline. He joins recently cast Adelaide Kane (who identifies as bi), Alexis Floyd, Niko Terho and Midori Francis. All five will play first-year surgical residents at Grey Sloan, which was ordered to disband and rebuild its teaching program in the season-18 finale.
In an almost six-minute-long video, Will Smith broke his silence about the regrettable "slap heard around the world," in which he struck Oscar presenter Chris Rock after he made fun of Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith, Deadline noted. Smith apologized to Rock and to the nominees whose Oscars went unnoticed because viewers were so stunned by the slap (who included Jessica Chastain and the cast of CODA). He also said, in part, "I hate when I let people down, so it hurts me psychologically and emotionally that I didn't live up to peoples' image and impression of me."
British supermodel Kate Moss admitted she has "not very good memories" of her famous Calvin Klein photoshoot with Mark Wahlberg in 1992, per The Daily Mail. The pair posed for a memorable campaign together when she was at the beginning of her modeling career and he was the rapper known as Marky Mark. Speaking on Desert Island Discs with Lauren Laverne, Moss said Wahlberg made the photo shoot "all about him" and she also felt "objectified" by the crew. Wahlberg himself told The Guardian he "wasn't very… worldly" on the shoot.
Martha Stewart mourned the loss of six peacocks killed by a group of coyotes that has been hanging around her Connecticut compound, The New York Post noted. "RIP beautiful BlueBoy," Stewart wrote on Instagram. "The coyotes came in broad daylight and devoured him and five others, including the magnificent White Boy." Connecticut's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection warns that coyotes are common throughout the state, and advises homeowners to be wary of attacks.
Sony Pictures Entertainment has entered into long-term deals that will have Jeopardy! co-hosts Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings continue to split duties on the popular syndicated game show, Variety noted. Bialik continues to work on the Fox sitcom Call Me Kat, which has been scheduled for a second season.
R. Kelly's manager was convicted of making a phone threat that gunfire was about to occur at a crowded Manhattan theater preparing to show a documentary about the singer's sexual abuse of women and girls, USA Today noted. The jury convicted Donnell Russell of threatening physical harm through interstate communication, but it exonerated him on a conspiracy count. Russell has also pled guilty to interstate stalking for his participation in a scheme to harass, intimidate, and cause substantial emotional distress to Jane Doe, a victim in the racketeering case against Robert Sylvester Kelly, also known as "R. Kelly," and Jane Doe's mother, the Department of Justice announced.
