Tina Knowles Lawson, mother of Beyonce and Solange, covers the new issue of Ebony. They styled her like old-school Pam Grier, which is pretty amazing (Pam Grier is everything). Tina is 61 years old, and she recently remarried a seemingly nice guy named Richard Lawson after she finally divorced Mathew Knowles (father to Bey and Solange) after Mathew repeatedly cheated on her and fathered at least one other child with another woman. What’s interesting to me is that Beyonce is so famous, we’re now talking about her mother as a stand-alone celebrity in her own right. Are you buying it? I guess I am. I think Bey and Tina are very, very close and I think Tina could definitely spill some major tea on her daughters, but Tina is the one who taught Bey to be so image-controlled. Tina won’t spill. Here are some random pieces of info from Tina’s Ebony profile:

Tina is not on Beyonce’s payroll: But Knowles Lawson also matter-of-factly shares that she is not—and has never been—a kept woman. She’s on no one’s payroll, thank you, and she wants it that way. Beyoncé certainly doesn’t pay her, at least not in cash.

Tina is in talks for her own TV show about “getting your groove back.”

Tina does Pilates “five days a week and has a ravishing body.”

Jay-Z “urged” Tina to date younger men following her divorce.

Tina on her sex life with her new husband: “Our sex life is active; it’s really good.”

Her relationship with her ex-husband: Matthew is “family to this day.”

Tina on Solange: “She is tough, but I have seen her completely give up her life to take care of somebody she loves.”

Ahead of Tina’s April wedding, “the family created a private, feature length movie: The Life & Times of BadAss Tenie B & ColdAss Rickey Lee. The release came complete with a red carpet event. Part blaxsploitation spoof, part anthropological family documentary.”

Tina on agreeing to the Ebony cover: “When I was asked to do the Sexy Forever ‘Ebony’ magazine cover, my first question was, ‘Me really?’ I had some reservations but as I thought of all the women who tell me daily that I have inspired them to live a wholehearted life, which includes your sexuality. I am proud to be 61 years old and to not be putting limitations on my lifestyle. We can still be sexy and vibrant, fashionable, classy and fly until the day we die!”

[From Ebony]

The only thing here that I really side-eye is that Tina is not on Beyonce’s payroll. Yeah… I don’t believe that. Tina is always with her oldest daughter, Tina and Bey tried to make House of Dereon work together, but it sucked and it was embarrassing Beyonce. I have no doubt that Tina has provided and still provides a lot of support and advice to Beyonce, and I have no doubt that Beyonce takes care of her mother generously. And why is it a big deal to admit that? I would actually think less of Beyonce if she wasn’t taking care of her mom financially.

Here’s a FIRST LOOK at sexy Miss Tina’s shoot in this month’s #SexyForever issue on @eonline! http://t.co/St4XWTZSgI pic.twitter.com/8DycpSXEHg

— EBONY (@EBONYMag) June 15, 2015

Photos courtesy of Ebony.

Congratulations to Terrence Howard and Miranda Pak.

The Empire star, 46, and his wife have welcomed their first child together – son Qirin Love Howard – in May, Access Hollywood reports.

“He’s beautiful and strong and a whirlwind and my wife is so happy,” Howard gushed of his son, who’s named after the qilin, a mythic Chinese creature.

As for life with a newborn, it sounds like the couple – who were wed in 2013 – are sharing in the parenting duties.

“She has to be up with him all throughout the day. I wasn’t born with boobs, I’ve started growing some recently,” he joked. “She has the boobage and nurses him during the day. So, I pull night duty, so that she can sleep and I keep him with me and will take some of the pre-pumped breast cheese, whatever you call it.”

The actor is also dad to Heaven, 17, Hunter, 19, and Aubrey, 21, from his first marriage. He also has one grandchild, born in 2012.

Congratulations to the Pak-Howard family.

It occurred to me when I was writing today’s open about Chris Pratt and the Sexiest Man Alive that Mark Wahlberg has never been the Sexiest Man Alive. He’s a possibility, I guess. He’d probably be a popular one, for some. Not here though. Sorry. Marky Mark has never been my flavour. In fact, I ac…      

The Royal Ascot has begun! I’m sure we’ll have some good royal photos from Royal Ascot in the days to come. But for now, these photos of Damian Lewis and his wife Helen McCrory are fresh off the presses. I’m assuming Damien’s facial hair look is for a role, because he still looks like he’s in costume. He looks like he’s playing turn-of-the-century Sherlock Holmes: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Sexual Attraction.

I don’t cover Damien that much because I tend to think people aren’t really intensely interested in him, especially now that he’s left Homeland (sidenote: I haven’t watched Homeland since he left). Damien just did the miniseries Wolf Hall, which I tried to watch but got really bored. He will soon be filming To Appomattox, where he plays General Sherman. Damien works consistently and he actually is a wonderful, interesting actor. Which makes the next story a little bit weird. British bookies now believe that Damien is one of the “favorites” to take over as James Bond. Seriously.

Bookmakers have slashed odds on Damien Lewis becoming the next James Bond after a flurry of large bets on the Homeland star. William Hill now has Lewis as short as 6/4 to follow Daniel Craig as 007 amid speculation that forthcoming movie Spectre could be the 47-year-old’s final stint as the suave British spy. Lewis is now the favourite for the role ahead of Idris Elba, 42 (5/2), Tom Hardy, 37 (4/1), Henry Cavill, 32 (5/1) and Michael Fassbender, 38 (7/1).

Craig is thought to be contracted for at least one more movie after Spectre, but might choose to go out on a high if Sam Mendes’ return to the director’s chair proves as successful as his last outing, the $1bn Skyfall. The Oscar-winning British film-maker’s second 007 movie is widely predicted to be one of the year’s biggest releases.

Hackney-born Elba, best known for turns in The Wire and BBC crime drama Luther, was the previous frontrunner to play Bond. But he appeared to rule himself out in April, telling an audience at London’s British Film Institute that he had given up on getting the call from 007 production company Eon. “If there was ever any chance of me getting Bond, it’s gone,” said Elba, further suggesting the longstanding rumour was “really starting to eat itself”.

[From The Guardian]

If Daniel Craig steps down after Spectre – and that’s a big IF, considering he threatened to do the same after Skyfall – then this speculation hasn’t even started! People tend to forget that Daniel’s casting sort of came out of nowhere and that the producers will likely go with an unexpected choice to replace Craig. Damien would be “unexpected” in that his name is rarely part of any serious discussion up until this moment. Usually the conversation is about Idris Elba. Or Chiwetel Ejiofor. I’m just throwing that name out there! Chiwetel would be an amazing Bond.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Dear Gossips,

It’s official. Jurassic World has surpassed the first Avengers movie for biggest opening weekend ever, earning almost $209 million so Chris Pratt + Dinosaurs took out a team of superheroes. Chris Pratt. You go, Chris Pratt. Other than Chris Pratt, who else is going to be the Sex…      

Dear Gossips,

It’s official. Jurassic World has surpassed the first Avengers movie for biggest opening weekend ever, earning almost $209 million so Chris Pratt + Dinosaurs took out a team of superheroes. Chris Pratt. You go, Chris Pratt. Other than Chris Pratt, who else is going to be the Sex…      

During this year’s Oscar season, some celebrity women made a big deal about #AskHerMore. It was all pretty asinine and I ranted about it repeatedly – go here and here to read some of my thoughts. I’m all for asking celebrity women more questions beyond “who are you wearing?” and “how did you choose your jewelry?” but my main argument was: the actresses are getting thousands of dollars in freebies under the condition that they’ll name-drop designers, which is part of the whole red carpet ecosystem you’re signing up for when you, you know, walk a red carpet. Here’s another point: actresses don’t really want to answer the real questions. Like, Reese Witherspoon made #AskHerMore into her pet cause, but I f—king dare a red carpet reporter to ask Reese about her arrest in Georgia and what she thinks of her hammered AMERICAN CITIZEN rant now.

Why bring this up? Because there were some interesting admissions during a panel discussion of some of the big-name celebrity stylists a few days ago. The stylists say that at this point, it’s not even a case of the designers giving freebies to celebrities with the understanding of the quid-pro-quo of a big red carpet name-drop. No, it’s gotten to the point where celebrity women are consistently being paid to wear designers clothes and jewelry.

Celebrity stylists Jessica Paster, Erin Walsh, Brad Goreski, and Brandon Maxwell recently sat down with The Cut senior editor Isabel Wilkinson at the Vulture Festival to discuss a side of the business that is rarely talked about — the financials. Oftentimes, designers pay celebrities and their stylists for a certain dress to be worn at a big event. While stylists Goreski and Maxwell said they’ve never been offered money to dress an A-list client, Paster painted a very different picture.

“It’s prevalent across the board,” said Paster, whose clients have included Cate Blanchett, Emily Blunt, Miranda Kerr, Sandra Bullock, and Rachel McAdams, among many others. “Jewelry people are paying, shoe people are paying, tampon companies are paying, everyone is paying!”

When it comes to celebrity dressing, Paster says the financial breakdown looks something like this:

“It could be just paying the stylist and we get anywhere between $30,000 to $50,0000. Or it’s paying the actress something between $100,000 and $250,000.” But, she warns, “Nothing is ever signed, if a dress works, it works. But if the dress looks awful on a client, $250,000 or less is not worth wearing it. If it looks gorgeous on you and this is the dress we were going to pick anyway, why not be paid?” asked Paster, explaining that she prefers to call paid relationships between celebrities and brands “ambassadorships.”

“They’re ambassadorships and you start relationships with them [the brand], and then eventually, the actress often does get a campaign from them because they have a relationship with her,” explains Paster. “I don’t seek these things out, but I think you put the most beautiful dress on the girl and if you get paid that’s a plus. I’m not going to use a dress that’s not right for a girl and get paid, that’s wrong. I always tell my assistants, don’t worry about the money the money will come, just do a beautiful job.”

Celebrity stylist Goreski admits that brands often do pay to be showcased on the red carpet.

“If someone shows up to the Oscars in a black dress and huge statement necklace, chances are they’re being paid by a jewelry company,” Goreski revealed.

But as for why the topic of celebs being paid to wear certain gowns is so hush-hush, Goreski thinks it’s nobody else’s business.

“Why do any of us need to know how they’re making their money?” asked Goreski. “It’s not like they’re trafficking drugs, they’re being paid to wear a dress. So what? If someone offered me $150,000 to show up in a beautiful custom made gown by X designer, I’d be like, ‘Where do I sign?!’”

Maxwell summed it up quite nicely: “The whole point of an actress having a stylist is so you can make more money, or more people want to hire you, or the brand that you’re wearing is making more money because it’s driving sales. It’s all wrapped up in money — it’s Hollywood — we’re not at church.”

[From Business Insider]

I agree that it’s not illegal or unethical for a celebrity woman to get paid to wear a certain designer, but it’s hypocritical and rude for those women to turn their noses up at the very idea of talking about the designer who A) gave them a free dress and B) paid them to wear said dress. I wonder how much Lupita gets paid? I wonder how much Cate Blanchett gets paid? I’ve heard that Gwyneth Paltrow has gotten seven figures to wear certain jewelry too, so for some of the biggest red carpet women, something like $150,000 is on the low end. Think about that. Crazy, right? And those are the same women who have the audacity to demand that reporters NOT ask them about fashion.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

You’ve surely heard about Rachel Dolezal, the former NAACP chapter president in Spokane, WA who was recently outed as a white woman trying to pass as African American. It may have started with this local interview in which Dolezal was asked if her father was white, after revealing that her mother was also white. Dolezal has previously asserted that her father was a black man from the south who suffered discrimination and attempts on his life. Both of Dolezal’s white parents, and her adopted brothers, have spoken to the press about the fact that Dolezal has been trying to pass as black since 2007. Dolezal’s family also brings into question her many other claims, including that she had cervical cancer and has been the victim of hate crimes.

Dolezal has since resigned her post at the NAACP in a statement which did not acknowledge her deception or apologize. We can now piece together more of her origin story, as it’s come out that Dolezal both attended Howard University as a white person and sued the college for discrimination. The Smoking Gun uncovered the lawsuit, which was dismissed with Dolezal ordered to pay costs to Howard U.

Rachel Dolezal, 37, who headed the NAACP’s Spokane, Washington chapter, sued Howard for discrimination in 2002, the year she graduated from the historically black college with a Master of Fine Arts degree.

Dolezal, then known as Rachel Moore, named the university and Professor Alfred Smith as defendants in a lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C.’s Superior Court. During the pendency of the civil case, Smith was chairman of Howard’s Department of Art.

According to a Court of Appeals opinion, Dolezal’s lawsuit “claimed discrimination based on race, pregnancy, family responsibilities and gender.” She alleged that Smith and other school officials improperly blocked her appointment to a teaching assistant post, rejected her application for a post-graduate instructorship, and denied her scholarship aid while she was a student.

The court opinion also noted that Dolezal claimed that the university’s decision to remove some of her artworks from a February 2001 student exhibition was “motivated by a discriminatory purpose to favor African-American students over” her.

As detailed in the court opinion, Dolezal’s lawsuit contended that Howard was “permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult.”

Judge Zoe Bush dismissed Dolezal’s complaint in February 2004, 18 months after the lawsuit was filed and Dolezal was deposed on several occasions. Bush found no evidence that Dolezal was discriminated on the basis of race or other factors. The D.C. Court of Appeals subsequently affirmed Bush’s decision.

Following the dismissal of Dolezal’s lawsuit (and the Court of Appeals decision), she was ordered to reimburse Howard for a “Bill of Costs” totaling $2728.50. During the case, she was also ordered to pay the university nearly $1000 in connection with an “obstructive and vexatious” court filing that sought to improperly delay her examination by an independent doctor.

[From The Smoking Gun]

Dolezal’s art featured African American subjects, and her thesis at Howard, which she “presented from the perspective of a black man,” involved “a three dimensional piece of a man was being consumed by a fire all the way into the ground,” according to a source who attended school with her. Dolezal was a white woman with blonde hair who was “several shades lighter” at the time. Some of her art was plagiarized, or at least highly derivative without acknowledging the source piece.

This lady is a grifter and a clever con artist. She lied about her past, her family and her experiences. This may be opening up a conversation about race, as so many outlets have claimed, but to me it’s more about the unveiling of a sociopath in blackface. When you look at the facts of this case, you have a person who openly faked their identity. If she identified with the African American community, she could have supported the same causes as a white woman. If she wanted to change her hair to be closer to her adopted sister, she could have done that – as a white woman. The NAACP has said as much in response.

Dolezal did an interview with Matt Lauer on The Today Show this morning (video below) where she said “I identify as black”. She portrayed herself as a victim of the media and touted her work with the NAACP. She claimed that she’s felt black since she was five. She also said that she takes exception to the question of whether she deceived people. She has lied about her father’s racial identity and her experiences in interviews and her responses were slippery. I do think she’s very smart, but the fact remains that she’s made up an entire backstory for herself and lied about the details. She said she hasn’t “put on blackface as a performance.” ORLY?

I have complicated thoughts on public education, especially here in America. My education was entirely public, but I matriculated before No Child Left Behind turned many public schools into factories for teachers teaching to the standardized test. I’m proud of my public education – I had great teachers K-12 and great professors at my small liberal-arts state college. But I know many people see the system as broken and (just my opinion) No Child Left Behind isn’t helping.

Why bring this up? Because The Guardian has an interesting profile of a school in Scotland, partially started by Tilda Swinton and some of her friends. The school is called Drumduan Upper School and Tilda’s kids go there. There are no grades, no tests, no desks and “no hierarchies.” Students call their teachers by their first names. Students go outside to sit in a circle and talk about politics and bees. Singing is encouraged whenever possible. And for what it’s worth, cell phones are not allowed. You can read the full piece here. Some assorted quotes from Tilda:

Tilda on the art-based school: “There’s no grading, no testing at all. My children are now 17, and they will go through this school without any tests at any time, so it’s incredibly art-based, practical learning. For example, they learn their science by building a Canadian canoe, or making a knife, or caramelising onions. And they’re all happy 17-year-olds. I can’t believe it – happy and inspired.”

Tilda thinks kids need the freedom to be bored: Tilda refers to this as “each chain on each moving bicycle” in contrast to the widespread practice of teaching children as if they’re all on the same bike. “I didn’t have a particularly toxic education, but my chain was not on my bicycle. I managed to coast down a few hills and got off and walked the rest of the way. Whenever we have a bit of a distilling of what it is we want these years to be for these young people we end up saying the same thing, which is: ‘Know thyself, number one.’”

Her 17-year-old kids, Xavier and Honor: “I said to these two at the beginning of the school: ‘You’ve got three years – just try it all on for size.’ Honor’s school project is interpretative dance – she’s never done dance in her life. It’s going to be really interesting.”

[From The Guardian]

I pursed my lips and shook my head at several times during this piece. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with many of the sentiments – children should have the freedom to be bored, the time to simply think, “chillax” (as Tilda says) and reflect without the incessant buzz of technology. I’m also all for field trips and Socratic seminar-esque classrooms. But singing all the time? NO GRADES? No tests? Yes, kids should be encouraged to embrace the artistic side of life. But they should also know trigonometry and how to code. It feels like these kids will never get STEM jobs, which is a choice made for them by their parents who wanted their kids to get an artsy-fartsy “education.”

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

MAJOR SPOILERS for the season finale of Game of Thrones

Unsurprisingly, people are still talking about the season finale of Game of Thrones. Specifically, they are talking about the death of Jon Snow and what it really means and if Jon is really dead and if Kit Harington is lying his ass off. As Kit told Entertainment Weekly flat-out, Jon Snow is dead and Kit will not be returning next season. OR WILL HE? I was reading lots of GoT conspiracies and some think that yes, Melisandre will resurrect him somehow and he will no longer go by Jon Snow (perhaps Jon Targaryen), that Kit and Carice have already shot those scenes and maybe Kit’s involvement will be minimal next season. I don’t know, we’re really grasping now, aren’t we? Anyway, Kit Harington Says (More) Words about the Death of Jon Snow.

What he wants for the audience reaction: “I hope it’s a real shock and a heartbreak, I really hope it is. It’s like Joffrey’s death or the Red Wedding. It’s a scene that we want to have that kind of impact; I found it to be really disturbing to shoot.”

Jon Snow was like Ned Stark? “Jon was very much like his father, very withheld. Very kind of, in the Old World sense, what a man should be.”

How Jon died: “I had wanted it to be a beautiful death, a release. But the way it unfolded, it was a huge betrayal and a gruesome death. It was an abrupt and brutal finish with no absolutely no peace for Jon in the end. He dies sad understanding that the last person to stab him is Olly, his steward…Jon had taken him under his wing and mentored the boy, but he forgets that this boy’s family has been murdered by wildlings. There’s a real loneliness at the end for Jon Snow. His greatest fault lies in that fact, that while he’s trying to deal with the horror headed in their direction, he’s neglected to see the politics around him. He was looking too much at the big picture and not paying enough attention to the small one — and that’s what got him killed.”

Jon Snow is really dead: “I’m quite dead. It’s over for Jon Snow — at the very least, he gets to join his family and kin and leave this terrible world behind.”

Why Jon died: “He makes the humanitarian choice. And just like his father, the moral choice gets him killed.”

[From the NYDN]

STOP REFERRING TO NED STARK AS YOUR FATHER. He was your uncle at best! I mean, in the sense that Ned loved him and raised him, yes, Ned was his father. But paternity is such a tricky thing in Westeros. Anyway, Kit is really selling the sadness, isn’t he? Damn him.

Variety also has a new interview with David Nutter, who directed “Mother’s Mercy” – go here to read. Nutter says, “I can say emphatically that Jon Snow is definitely dead.” But will he be resurrected? Nutter also says that Stannis is totally dead but they just didn’t want to show the death blow. And finally, he says it would be safe to assume that Sansa and Theon survived the jump. Sure.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.