Kanye West covers the new issue of Paper Magazine. The photoshoot is fine – a little blah, but Kanye looks nice and the editorial is mostly head shots. I was going to do highlights from the interview, but the piece is written as a stream-of-consciousness essay “as told to Paper Magazine,” and that’s just annoying. So you can read the full piece here – Kanye doesn’t sound ALL-CAPS ranty, but he’s definitely giving Paper the Full Yeezus. He talks about the importance of creativity, of innovation, how much he admires Steve Jobs, etc. Then he goes off on a tangent about the Illuminati:
“I heard a comment — a joke — about the Tidal press conference being an Illuminati moment. If there was actually an Illuminati, it would be more like the energy companies. Not celebrities that gave their life to music and who are pinpointed as decoys for people who really run the world. I’m tired of people pinpointing musicians as the Illuminati. That’s ridiculous. We don’t run anything; we’re celebrities. We’re the face of brands. We have to compromise what we say in lyrics so we don’t lose money on a contract. Madonna is in her 50s and gave everything she had to go up on an award show and get choked by her cape. She’s judged for who she adopts. F–k all of this sensationalism. We gave you our lives. We gave you our hearts. We gave you our opinions!”
[From Paper Magazine]
I’m sorry, but that’s amazing. His defense of Madonna, his claim that celebrities don’t run anything and thus cannot be part of the Illuminati… it’s just amazing. He also tells an amazing story about being on nitrous at the dentist’s office and realizing the meaning of life (“to give happiness”).
Here are some photos of Kanye and Kim leaving LA last night. Is it wrong to like her hoodie? Because I love it.
Photos courtesy of PCN, Fame/Flynet and Paper.
E! News first reported it yesterday – that Miley Cyrus and Patrick Schwarzenegger were on a break again. PEOPLE however came in late last night to confirm that it’s over, totally over, with a source telling the magazine that:
“It’s not a break. It’s done.”
Lots of little Rihanna stories are floating around. I never got around to posting her fabulous Coachella attire a week ago. Rihanna’s lipstick shade is called Purple Haze by the Free Spirit brand (owned by Rih’s pal Leandra), and it sold out instantly after Rihanna pushed it on Instagram. There’s also a new video of Rihanna raiding convenience store shelves with the munchies. The vid surfaced on 4/20 for a reason, but it could also be a nod to her recent drug video. One of Rihanna’s assistants, Jenn Rosales, got married on 4/20. Rihanna was a bridemaid (you can see photos here). She also Instagrammed a video to send a special message to the newlyweds. Here’s the video’s caption:
#davis420wedding I can’t believe this day is finally upon us!!!!! I’m so happy and so proud to see my big sis @jennnrosales and my big bro @the_aa become one today!!! A wedding is a celebration of a marriage!!! That’s what we gon do!!! Celebrate the marriage that we’ve been lucky enough to witness grow and evolve for all these years!!!! #420 will never be the same again!!! God bless you both!!! And Jen you HAVE to take the Davis name bitch!!! Pull it together (in my Jhat voice)!!! #CheersToTheDavis’
[From Rihanna on Instagram]
I had to look up the slang definition of “Jhat,”, which means “best man who ever lived.” Rihanna is happy for her friend, and she wants Jenn to take her husband’s last name. It sounds like an inside joke too, like they’ve been talking about how Davis isn’t as flourish-y as Rosales. Taking a man’s last name after marriage is more traditional, but many couples still prefer having the same surname. I think it’s also cool when a dude takes a woman’s last name, like Jack White did with Meg. Whatever works for a couple, you know? The topic remains a subject of much debate. Now we know that Rihanna Fenty will some day be Rihanna Not-Dicaprio.
Rihanna also covers the May issue of V magazine. You can see the NSFW tush-cover here.
View image | gettyimages.com
Photos courtesy of Getty, Fame/Flynet & WENN
Here are some photos of Blake Lively at the afterparty for The Age of Adeline premiere. Yes, Blake changed out of her sad showgirl look for the afterparty. But I’m not sure that this full-length sheer-with-stars bodysuit was the correct “second look.” I mean… even Blake knows that she can’t really sell this. It’s a terrible styling choice and it doesn’t even look like it’s party-appropriate. Did she walk around the party wearing that big coat so she wouldn’t be flashing her bits and pieces? Oh, and this look is Monique Lhuillier, just like Blake’s red showgirl premiere look. Maybe THAT is the problem. No more Lhuillier for Blake.
Meanwhile, I have some bits and bobs of Blake info/quotes/interviews for you today. The Age of Adeline comes out on Friday, so Blake is going to be saturating the media this week. While at the premiere on Sunday, Blake tried to play it like her three-year absence from film was all her doing, because she’s so choosy. She told Variety: “I look for a movie that I can’t not do.” Variety notes that Blake was “in the running” for Silver Linings Playbook, the part that won Jennifer Lawrence an Oscar (LOL, never stop hustling, Blake). The director of Adeline, Toland Krieger, described Blake to Variety, saying: “She’s a bit of an old soul herself. She’d rather be baking on a Friday night than out partying. She’s a statuesque timeless beauty a la Veronica Lake.” A statuesque timeless beauty? Nope. Don’t get me wrong, I think Blake is pretty/sexy. Her prettiness is very accessible, like she’s “the pretty girl” in your college dorm.
What else? Blake has been talking about motherhood a lot and how much she loves everything about her baby. Of course. She told You Magazine:
“Being a parent is both exhausting and all-consuming but it is the greatest gift in the world. I never feel as though I am giving up anything being a young mother – there’s no sacrifice. I feel like I’ve won the lottery. The only thing I am giving up is sleep. Whenever I’m away from the baby, even for a few hours, I miss her. Not sleeping through the night is the one thing you dread leading up to giving birth. But the thing you’re not told is that you miss your baby, or at least I do. Even when I wake up in the middle of the night and I’m tired, I see her and feel glad. I’m already mourning her going off to college and getting married!”
[From You Magazine via The Hamilton Spectator]
Blake also told the magazine that they don’t have a nanny or night nurse, but her parents have been staying and “they do the job of 30 nannies, so we are very lucky.” Sure, I believe that. Much like Duchess Kate, I suspect Blake is very, very close to her family.
Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News.
Yesterday we covered the news, revealed after the Sony hack email dump on Wikileaks, that Ben Affleck had asked the PBS show Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. to edit out segments revealing that he had a slave owning ancestor. Many of you noted that Affleck has political aspirations and that may be why he doesn’t want the negative parts of his ancestry to be made public. That could be the case, but I don’t understand that reasoning at all. We can’t help who our ancestors are. Of course Affleck could have been getting bad advice, as Gates noted in his email to Sony CEO Michael Lynton, but he chose to follow it and to strong arm PBS.
Many people have noted that this news compromises PBS’s integrity, as Gates brought up in his emails to Lynton. I listen to NPR and watch PBS and while I do think that I get much higher quality, in-depth programming from those nonprofit sources, I know they’re not unbiased. I think most people know this, and aren’t faulting PBS or Gates for giving in to Affleck’s demands. He’s a powerful Hollywood player and he dangled the carrot of getting Matt Damon on the show. PBS is not immune to pressure from Hollywood, and this story illustrates that.
Ultimately this is a much bigger PR debacle for Affleck than the non-issue of having a slave owning ancestor. It shows that he’s more concerned with covering up any and all negativity rather than being honest with the public. If he’s this controlling about a minor issue, imagine how slippery he’d be as a politician (especially if the issue at hand is Ben’s gambling or the rumors about his personal life). This speaks to his character. Anderson Cooper and and Bill Paxton (among others) were confronted with the news that they had distant slave-owning relatives, and both dealt with it head-on, as you would expect from celebrities on genealogy shows.
Here’s the segment of Finding Your Roots where Cooper is told that his fourth great grandfather was beaten to death by a slave. Anderson said the guy probably deserved it.
In contrast to Cooper, did Affleck react poorly when confronted with the news that he had a slave-owning ancestor? We’ve seen him have knee jerk reactions to issues rather than consider them thoughtfully. He is a committed philanthropist, but I do question whether he’s cut out for politics, if that’s his intention. As of now, Affleck has not responded to this issue on social media or with a statement. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and PBS issued comprehensive statements defending their editorial choice, as we covered yesterday.
Over the weekend, right around the time that the news broke that Affleck had censored his genealogy, the new teaser trailer for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice conveniently “leaked.” Then, Warner Brothers put out the official version. It does seem like good timing to change focus from Affleck’s scandal. Yesterday, director Zach Snyder put out a new photo of the Batsuit. The official reasoning for the photo release was to thank fans for coming to IMAX theaters to screen the teaser trailer last night. (That was meant to be the first viewing of the trailer, but it “leaked” ahead of time. Slashfilm reports that Snyder added six additional seconds to the IMAX version of the trailer to thank fans.) If anything, this photo shows that the Batsuit can be worn by just about any tall, filled out actor.
Ben Affleck is shown at the Farmer’s Market on Sunday with his daughter, Seraphina, and out with his wife, Jennifer Garner, and their son, Samuel on April 7. Credit: FameFlynet
To celebrate her directorial film debut, Cougar Town star Courteney Cox attended the special screening of Just Before I Go in Hollywood, Calif. on Monday (April 20).
Donning a red V-neckline mini dress and black heels, the Friends alum, 50, was joined by her 10-year-old daughter Coco, fiancé Johnny McDaid as well as ex-husband David Arquette and his newlywed wife Christina McLarty.
Coco nearly stole the fashion spotlight in a textured sparrow printed jacket, black T-shirt, distressed denim jeans and teal colored strappy heels.
Once inside the ArcLight theater, Courteney was joined by Friends costar Jennifer Aniston, who proudly posed for photos with her longtime pal. The pretty pair were also photographed with Jennifer Meyer-Maguire and Laura Dern.
Just Before I Go – starring David Arquette, Elisha Cuthbert, Kate Walsh and Missi Pyle – tells the story of a man (actor Seann William Scott) on the verge of giving up on life who travels to his hometown to make amends.
The actress-director took to Twitter after the Hollywood event.
So grateful to my girls For hosting last night’s special screening of @JBIGmovie pic.twitter.com/pHpHiQj1Eq
— Courteney Cox (@CourteneyCox) April 21, 2015
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Have you heard about Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash-success Broadway musical Hamilton? Miranda wrote, directed and stars in the epic life story – told through hip-hop-based musical numbers – of Alexander Hamilton, the original gangster/Founding Father. The show has gotten rave reviews and Miranda is being called a genius. Go here to see Chris Hayes’ wonderful interview with Miranda. Anyway, the show successfully transitioned from off-Broadway to Broadway this year and Miranda is getting even more heat. So of course Death Eater Madonna had to stop by the show. Except that Madge is such a pill, she texted all the way though Act 2. Miranda called her out on it too.
Madonna reportedly has a hard time separating herself from her phone. The singer, 56, got into hot water when she allegedly started texting during a performance of Hamilton at New York City’s Public Theater on Saturday, The New York Daily News first reported.
Tony winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, the star, author and composer for the show, made a pointed reference to an unnamed celebrity audience member who practiced poor theater-going etiquette.
“Tonight was the first time I asked stage management NOT to allow a celebrity (who was texting all through Act 2) backstage #noselfieforyou,” Miranda Tweeted on Saturday night. It was later deleted, but a source in the audience tells PEOPLE that Madonna was at the performance and texting throughout the night.
“It was definitely her,” a source says. “She was texting, I believe, although at one point she also pulled out a Blackberry. She was also 20 minutes late and caused quite a stir getting to her seat.”
The source adds that Madonna’s behavior was “extra distracting” because the show is in such an intimate theater. Eventually, the pop star did stop texting, the source says – after someone else in the audience “finally hissed ‘Shut it off!’” during the finale. “To her credit, she did,” the source adds.
[From People]
People Mag also had a reminder of another incident, back in 2013, when Madonna attended a screening of 12 Years a Slave and she texted throughout the film. When someone in the audience told her to put it away that time, Madonna yelled, “It’s for business … ENSLAVER!”
Yeah… it’s not cute. I don’t understand how people can talk on the phone or text through a movie or a Broadway show. Beyond the fact that it’s rude as hell, how do you even concentrate on one or the other? How can focus on the conversation you’re rudely having or the show/film? But this is just further evidence that no one matters but Madonna.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.