The U.S. will hit 400,000 covid deaths before Tuesday and spikes are happening all over the country. Despite these deplorable numbers there are people still willing to risk it all to hang out in crowds without masks. Between the illegal superspreader parties in L.A. and a street party in Alabama that attracted thousands of non-mask wearers it is no wonder why ICUs are full in so many places. All I know is we will be in this holding pattern where we can’t see family and friends or travel because of these selfish fools.

Another celebrity is being called out for having a concert in a club with several hundred mostly unmasked people. Bow Wow was outed for doing a performance of his 2005 song “Like You” in a club in Houston, Texas this weekend. Many of those in attendance were posting videos of the performance on social media. Supposedly there were other artists performing as well but there has been no evidence to prove this claim. Below are a few deets from Page Six:

The 33-year-old is seen performing his 2005 hit “Like You” in a packed club, where most patrons are not wearing face masks. The move led social media to question both the artist and his fans who chose to risk their health for one night out.

Fans claim there were other celebrities in attendance, but it seems the rapper and “Growing Up Hip Hop” star is receiving the brunt of the backlash.

[From Page Six]

Ya’ll I am so tired of these selfish people. Like, we are ALL suffering right now. We are ALL dealing with isolation because of covid. But many of us are willing to not see friends and family for a short period of time. We want to get this virus under control so that we can get back to a normalish life. I don’t understand the people who STILL don’t believe this virus is real or just don’t care how they could be spreading it because of their irresponsible behavior.

Bow Wow and whomever was with him should have known better. I know it is difficult for artists right now because many are not working and are trying to find ways to make money. Some are taking these unnecessary risks to stay afloat. Whatever the case, the people who arranged the performance and those who showed up really need to look at their life choices. I am now expecting there to be a huge spike in covid in about two weeks that will be hitting our already exhausted medical workers.

Below are a few tweets about the performance:

Going to see Bow Wow in a pandemic, we are stuck in this for a long time.

Selfish idiots. https://t.co/YWErnFp5CN

— Scam Allardyce (@Nigerianscamsss) January 16, 2021

people really out here risking the rona for fucking bow wow https://t.co/QY5GzFBONp

— j stant (@J_Stanton15) January 17, 2021

this truly infuriates me. i hate how much yal don’t care. https://t.co/4cawUEWXvA

— monie the pony. (@theeevillain) January 16, 2021

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Photos credit: Avalon.red and via Instagram and Twitter

The anger towards Donald Trump for his fascism, authoritarianism and white supremacist BS has continued past his incitement of an insurrection on January 6th. If anything, the anger has grown. But something I don’t enjoy is the new “let’s give Mike Pence a cookie for showing a bare minimum of competence” thing. Before the insurrection, Pence held firm, consulted legal scholars and constitutional experts and he was able to successfully push back on Trump’s scheme to reject the Electoral College electors. That’s why Trump sent his MAGA terrorist army to kill Pence. But Pence rejecting Trump’s unconstitutional, undemocratic, fascist scheme doesn’t make him a hero. He literally followed the law, and if he hadn’t… well. Now people are insisting that Pence needs a cookie for calling Kamala Harris to congratulate her on the win. He called her on the 14th, last Thursday, more than two full months since Biden-Harris won the election:

Vice President Mike Pence has called his soon-to-be successor Kamala Harris to offer his congratulations, according to two people familiar with the conversation.

It’s the first known contact between the elected members of the outgoing and incoming administrations. President Donald Trump has not reached out to President-elect Joe Biden or invited him to the White House, and has instead spent the weeks since he lost the Nov. 3 election holed up at the White House, trying to undermine the legitimacy of Biden’s win with baseless claims of mass voter fraud that culminated in last week’s violent storming of the Capitol building.

Pence, who didn’t speak with Trump for days after the siege, has become an unexpected — albeit late — defender of Biden’s win. The vice president resisted enormous pressure from Trump to try to interfere in Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote count last week — even though he has no such power. And he has announced that he will attend Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration, which Trump is refusing to do — making him just the fourth president in the nation’s history to skip the symbolic passing of the torch.

Pence and Harris spoke Thursday afternoon and had a “good call,” according to one of the people familiar with the conversation, with Pence congratulating Harris and offering his assistance. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private exchange.

[From The Associated Press]

It is unlikely that Pence’s newfound diplomacy extended beyond a phone call which was two months too late. He was traveling this weekend, so the Pences probably didn’t have Kamala and Doug over to the Naval Observatory to show them around. VP Harris still hasn’t received any briefings from the outgoing administration (neither has President Biden). Just for historical context, when Obama-Biden won in 2008, both George W. Bush AND Dick Cheney contacted their successors on that night, and Cheney invited the Bidens to the Naval Observatory. Same in 2016 – Joe Biden called Mike Pence and the two families met at the Naval Observatory. Pence wouldn’t do the same for the Harris-Emhoffs. So no cookies for Mother or Mother’s Husband.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Axios has started a multi-part deep dive into Donald Trump’s Big Lie. I’ll be more specific, since Trump lies so much about everything. The Big Lie in question is the lie about the election being somehow “stolen” from Trump. In Part 1 of Axios’ reporting, they discuss how it was widely known – and widely reported – that on Election Night, there would be a “red mirage” as Republican voters had voted on Election Day, and Democrats had voted en masse by absentee ballot, which would take longer to count. Trump had time to plan for his Big Lie on Election Night. As the Red Mirage appeared in states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, Trump would get on camera and declare victory. Then, if he didn’t end up winning those states, he would say that the Democrats “stole” the election, calling into question the absentee ballots. The entire Part 1 of the Axios series is worth a read – go here.

Basically, Axios says that it was all completely premeditated and it all played out exactly as Trump wanted it to, with a few big exceptions. One exception: the media and many voters understood what the Red Mirage was and they understood how deeply weird it was that Trump waddled out after midnight that night to declare victory and to claim that states needed to “stop the count.” The second exception: Fox News calling Arizona for Biden. That threw a massive wrench into Trump’s Big Lie, and he spent hours screaming down the phone at Fox News anchors, producers, executives and people in the Mudoch family. Rupert Murdoch still owns Fox News, although the day-to-day operations are left to other people, including his son Lachlan.

Speaking of, James Murdoch is Rupert’s younger son, and the son allegedly more interested in the entertainment side of the empire, rather than the muckraking/propaganda side. He’s held positions at Murdoch newspapers, of course, but he’s barely been involved on a daily level in that side of things ever since 2012, when he was ousted from those positions following the British phone-hacking scandal (the Murdoch-owned broadsheets were deeply involved in phone-hacking). Then in July of last year, he resigned from his Board of Directors seat on News Corp, citing the sh-tty editorial decisions made in favor of Donald Trump, among other issues. It’s always been believed that the Murdoch sons are less “conservative” than their father, and they’ve shown that they don’t want the Murdoch empire to run on misogyny and fascism in the long run. Well, James has some thoughts about his family’s role in all of Trump’s Big Lie, and how it led to a g-ddamn terrorist insurrection.

“The damage is profound,” James Murdoch said, referring to the election disinformation that has circulated in the US. “The sacking of the Capitol is proof positive that what we thought was dangerous is indeed very, very much so. Those outlets that propagate lies to their audience have unleashed insidious and uncontrollable forces that will be with us for years. I hope that those people who didn’t think it was that dangerous now understand, and that they stop.’

Murdoch added that he had not “seen any evidence of that yet.”

Following the interview, he released a joint statement to the Financial Times with his wife, Kathryn Murdoch.

“Spreading disinformation — whether about the election, public health or climate change — has real world consequences,” the two said. “Many media property owners have as much responsibility for this as the elected officials who know the truth but choose instead to propagate lies. We hope the awful scenes we have all been seeing will finally convince those enablers to repudiate the toxic politics they have promoted once and forever.”

[From CNN]

Not that this makes up for ANYTHING, but I’ve never even believed that the Murdochs were ever true believers in Trump. For the Murdochs, Trump was just another useful idiot to spread their propaganda and lies. Which, in the long run, might be worse than what Trump did. Trump was an unhinged white supremacist who cultivated a death cult terrorist army. The Murdochs were the biggest propagandists in Trump’s arsenal, actively helping Trump recruit. So, yeah, whatever. James Murdoch’s crocodile tears are too little, too late, but I guess I don’t completely hate the fact that someone in the Murdoch family understands that there will be consequences for what happened on January 6th.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Mindy Kaling covers the latest issue of Vogue India, in a photoshoot which was done just six weeks after she gave birth to her son Spencer. That was her second pregnancy, the one she didn’t announce. She was just like “hey, I had a baby” one day and I was shook. Anyway, Mindy said that she was “not feeling body confident, and even considered saying no” to Vogue India but she’s glad she did the shoot anyway, and she looks lovely. Mindy is promoting all of her many projects, from a new book, to Never Have I Ever (which she writes and produces) to several film projects she’s working on, including the script for Legally Blonde 3. Some highlights from the Vogue piece:

She’s crazy busy, but she hardly feels like she’s working. “You know, it’s so trite, but I love my job so much. I feel so lucky that it’s so easy to do all the time.” She says she sleeps just five or six hours a night.

How she’s dealt with isolation during the pandemic: “Not great. I’m very hard-working, but I’m also very social. It was a lot of growing pains at the beginning of the pandemic. It made it easier that my daughter was here because she’s so fun and funny. In the beginning, it was a lot of just us staring at each other, but I got to know her better.”

Her dad lives nearby: When the lockdowns were announced, he didn’t come into the house for three months, but, “Every day he would drive by and wear a mask and gloves and talk to Katherine through the car window.”

She invites her writers out on socially distanced walks around the neighbourhood. “I love my house, but it feels so small to me now. Doing everything, like writing in my bedroom and also sleeping there, and exercising—the house feels much smaller.”

On Kamala Harris: “I understand now what representation means. To see her up there, to see someone who looks like her.”

How the characters she writes are very rarely identified solely by ethnicity: “It’s hard because it has to mean so much to so many people. The Mindy Project wasn’t ethnicity-driven. For a lot of white executives at the TV networks, they kind of wanted it to be. They felt more comfortable with it being about an Indian woman who felt out of place in America educating white people. And it’s not that I haven’t felt out of place in America as a dark-skinned Indian woman, but it was not the most interesting thing, coming from The Office. Had I had different training it might have been. I love those kinds of stories, and I think there should be more of them, and I might even do a show like that, but I do think people are surprised and put off that I didn’t embrace those kinds of stories early on in my career.”

[From Vogue India]

I know a lot of people love her for The Office – where she was a writer and supporting character – but I’m still waiting for a revival interest in The Mindy Project. Sure, there were some uneven episodes and plotlines, but no more so than any other sitcom. And Mindy dealt with the character’s Indian-ness in a really great way, while still mining a million other things about the character. Anyway, I love her and I love that she’s her own industry now, a mega-producer/writer, show runner, director, mom. *heart emoji*

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Cover courtesy of Vogue India.

Just before Christmas, Ariana Grande announced her engagement to Dalton Gomez. Ari and Dalton had dated throughout most of 2020 – they were in the early stages of their relationship in March when they decided to go into lockdown together in LA, with several other people, all in the same house. In lockdown, their love grew stronger and they seem to be loved-up and happy. But will a quarantine romance still flourish post-corona? I don’t know. Ari’s friends don’t know either – they think Ari and Dalton rushed their engagement.

Ariana Grande and Dalton Gomez had a whirlwind romance that resulted in the two getting engaged at the end of last year. While the couple is “very in love,” a source tells ET that some of their friends think their engagement was “rushed.”

“Ariana and Dalton have been spending a ton of time together since getting engaged and keeping things pretty low key and private,” the source says. “They’re mainly keeping to themselves and just enjoying their time together.” However, the source adds, “They’re very in love right now, but friends think the engagement was somewhat rushed and are skeptical that the relationship will ultimately be short lived.”

Grande and the luxury real estate agent got engaged nine months after news broke that they were dating. The “Thank U, Next” singer shared the news on Dec. 20, showing off her diamond and pearl engagement ring.

[From ET]

I mean, I’m skeptical that the relationship will ultimately be short lived, but that’s not because of a “rushed” engagement. I just think Ari is like Jennifer Lopez, she’s one of those “I always need a boyfriend” women, and she’s always in a perpetual cycle of “getting super-serious” and “getting over a super-serious relationship by finding someone new to get super-serious with.” That being said, Ari isn’t a kid anymore. She’s 27 years old, the same age as Miley Cyrus, and just a year younger than Cardi B and Selena Gomez. Ari is two years older than Megan Thee Stallion! My point is that we don’t have to cover Ari in bubble wrap and try to save her from relationship mistakes. She’s a grown ass woman and she knows what she’s doing. Also: I don’t even consider an engagement after roughly ten months of dating (including living together) to be all that rushed?

Photos courtesy of Ariana’s Instagram.

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On the Pop Chat podcast earlier this week with Elamin Abdelmahmoud and Sarah Hagi, one the questions that came up as a lookback on 2020 was…which celebrities did not do well in 2020 and which ones came out good? A lot of celebrities sucked in 2020 but there were a few who not only didn’t make us hat…

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