By Wonderwall.com Editors
1:59pm PDT, Jun 24, 2020
Megyn Kelly takes a dig at NBC as '30 Rock' episodes featuring blackface come down
This week, streaming services are removing four "30 Rock" episodes that feature characters in blackface at the request of Tina Fey, who wrote a letter apologizing for "the pain they have caused." Co-signing the request was NBCUniversal — a fact Megyn Kelly found interesting two years after her own comments about white people donning blackface for Halloween resulted in her removal from "Today." On Tuesday, Kelly shared Variety's post about the Fey/NBC ask, adding sarcastically, "Wait — what network aired those episodes again?" While the original Variety tweet earned plenty of comments to the effect of, "Fey knew those images were offensive all along," Kelly's tweet found users giving her some advice: "You might want to sit this one out, Megyn."
Keep reading to see which piece of Cardi B pop culture history is headed to the auction block …
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Cardi B's Bonnaroo jumpsuit has been repaired and is hitting the auction block
Last summer at Bonnaroo, Cardi B's set was memorable for at least one unintended reason: Her striped, Creamiscle-esque beaded jumpsuit split right down the back seam, revealing a good part of her backside — while she was was shaking her enviable curves all over the main stage. The custom, Yousef Aljasmi-designed number is getting a second chance at public life, though, starting Thursday, when it heads to auction at the Nate D. Sanders auction house. Page Six reports the piece has been repaired since Cardi's wardrobe malfunction, which she brushed off at the time by donning a fluffy white robe, peeled down to reveal her bra, and finishing out her set. Bidding starts at $8,000.
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Britney Spears celebrates Pride with a big 'thank you' to her LGBTQ+ fans
Britney Spears took a moment on Tuesday to shout-out all her fans celebrating Pride this June with a quick video on Twitter. "Happy Pride Month 🌈🌈🌈🌈 !!!! I love my LGBTQ+ fans so much …. you all bring me so much joy and I am proud to support you ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 !!!!" she captioned the video, before tsk-ing her boyfriend, Sam Asghari, with Emojis ("🤫🤫🙄😂😜💋 !!!!") for yelling "Go LGBTQ" from off-camera at the end of the video. The short clip shows Spears in a frilly, lacy black number as she greets her pals "at the LGBTQ community. "You guys bring so much heart, passion, and articulate everything you do," she says, almost bouncing with energy. "Because of you I've had the best nights of my life. I love you so much it hurts," she adds, before yelling, "Baby! Be quiet!" after Asghari's interruption. The comment section was quickly flooded with praise for the singer, long held up as an icon for the gay community. "Thanks, B," wrote one user. "You're responsible for some of the best nights of my life too." Spears was the 2018 of the GLAAD Media Awards' Vanguard Award, which goes to an entertainer proving the utmost dedication to promoting equality, according to the New York Times. "I feel like our society has always put such an emphasis on what's normal," Spears said during her acceptance speech, "and to be different is unusual or seen as strange. But to be accepted unconditionally and to be able to express yourself as an individual through art is such a blessing."
RELATED: Take a look back at how your favorite LGBTQ+ stars came out
Kendrick Sampson, Viola Davis and hundreds more artist demand industry change in 'Hollywood 4 Black Lives' letter
More than 300 Black artists have teamed up to demand Hollywood power players "prove that Black Lives Matter to Hollywood by taking bold moves to affirm, defend and invest in Black lives." In an open letter from "Insecure" star Kendrick Sampson, stars including Viola Davis, Billy Porter, Michael B. Jordan, Janelle Monae and hundreds of others lay out how, "as a creative industry," everyone in Hollywood has "the ability to use our influence to imagine and create a better world. Yet, historically and currently, Hollywood encourages the epidemic of police violence and culture of anti-Blackness. The letter goes on to call for execs to "divest from police" on sets and at industry events, "divest from anti-Black content, invest in anti-racist content, invest in Black people's careers by giving more power and financial resources to Black artists and executives, and invest in the Black community, including Black-owned businesses," according to a summary from EW. "We know these changes have the power to change Black lives in America," Sampson writes at the end. "It is time for Hollywood to acknowledge its role and take on the responsibility of repairing the damage and being a proactive part of the change."
Billie Eilish just unfollowed everyone on Instagram
Billie Eilish just made a major change to the way she deals with social media. On Wednesday, ET reported the singer had unfollowed everyone on her Instagram without warning or explanation. The 18-year-old has spent much of her recent social media energy focused on supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, but in the past, she has posted — and sung — about the detrimental effects bullying and body-shaming have had on her on various platforms.
Jon Stewart admits he got 'defensive' when confronted about 'The Daily Show's lack of diversity
Jon Stewart has joined a growing list of stars who are coming to grips with the fact that they've been less than inclusive when it comes to minorities in the workplace. The former Comedy Central star hosted "The Daily Show" from 1999 until 2015, and as he admitted to Charlamagne tha God on "The Breakfast Club" this week, he used to "get defensive" when he was criticized for what he admitted was "pretty much an all-white staff, all white correspondents, mostly male." Referencing a 2010 Jezebel article that called out the show for its seemingly "sexist" hiring practices, he recalled taking it, "back to the writer's room and being like, 'Do you believe this s—? Kevin? Steve? Mike? Bob? Donald?' Oh. Uh oh." Stewart explained that The Daily Show used a blind hiring policy. "But we still kept just hiring white dudes. White dudes from a certain background," he said. "What we realized is the river that we were getting the material from, the tributary was also polluted by the same inertia. Finally, he acknowledged how the fact that Wyatt Cenac was the only Black writer on the staff meant Cenac "felt like [he was] carrying the weight of representation" for the whole show — something that came up when Cenac slammed Stewart for "a racist bit" in which the host "adopted Herman Cain's accent." To Stewart, it was just an accent impression, he said. "We think we're doing the right thing, but we're not doing it in the right way," he said. "Those were hard lessons for me, and they were humbling lessons. And I was defensive about them and still didn't do it all right."
Keanu Reeves' girlfriend Alexandra Grant joins him in Berlin as Winona Ryder gives us yet another reason to swoon over 'The Matrix' star
Studios are slowly resuming production on some of the many projects that have been delayed by this year's coronavirus pandemic, including "The Matrix 4," which had cast and crew members including Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Ann Moss and Neil Patrick Harris back on set in Berlin this week. While he works, Reeves is in Germany with his girlfriend, artist Alexandra Grant, who was spotted by his side in photos published by the Daily Mail. Reeves is still making headlines back in the States this week, as well, thanks to a story shared by his longtime friend and frequent costar through the years, Winona Ryder. Speaking to The Sunday Times recently, Ryder revealed how comfortable people can be verbal abusing other actors on set. Her case in point involved Reeves and Francis Ford Coppola on the set of 1992's "Bram Stoker's Dracula." Apparently, Coppola's approach to getting an emotional performance out of Ryder for one scene involved screaming things at her from off-camera such as, "You whore!" "To put it in context I'm supposed to be crying," Ryder says (via EW). "Literally, Richard E. Grant, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu … Francis was trying to get all of them to yell things that would make me cry. But Keanu wouldn't, Anthony wouldn't … the more it happened, I was like… It just didn't work." Cue the Internet's Keanu love-fest, version 10 million in 3 … 2 … 1.
Lin-Manuel Miranda is 'proud' to see lines from 'Hamilton' being used at Black Lives Matter protests
At the protests and marches against racial injustice around the country in recent weeks, demonstrators have often looked to lines from "Hamilton" for inspiration. That fact's not lost on Lin-Manuel Miranda as his Pulitzer Prize winning musical heads to Disney+ for what's likely to be its largest audience yet. "I'm incredibly proud when I see 'This is not a moment, it's a movement' or 'History has its eyes on you' at a Black Lives Matter protest," Miranda told Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday's "Tonight Show," according to The Hollywood Reporter. "What's weird about the show is, because it brushes up against sort of the origins of our country, it just hits differently depending on where we are as a country," he explained, reflecting on the ties between the Founding Fathers' story and that of the Black Lives Matter movement happening today. "We're never done with the past," Miranda cautioned. "We're never done with the sins of the founders, we're never done with the flaws and the contradiction in the founding, so it hits differently depending on where we are." The film version of "Hamilton" arrives on Disney+ on July 3.
Jennifer Aniston says she 'could not get Rachel Green of my back' after 'Friends'
Whenever the "Friends" reunion finally gets shot following its extended COVID-19 delay, the powers that be may want to be extra appreciative that Jennifer Aniston agreed to participate. Because it took her an awful long time to start landing roles that weren't related to or inspired by Rachel Green. During THR's Drama Actress Roundtable, published Wednesday, Aniston and her peers were asked who has "struggled with wanting to be seen in ways that the industry didn't want to see them." She was the first to respond. "Oh my God, yes," she said. Asked what she does to keep the typecasting at bay, she continued: "You just exhaust yourself. I mean, I could not get Rachel Green off of my back for the life of me. I could not escape 'Rachel from Friends,' and it's on all the time and you're like, 'Stop playing that f——- show!'" She laughed, but admitted how important it was to her to move on. "'The Good Girl' was the first time I got to really shed whatever the Rachel character was, and to be able to disappear into someone who wasn't that was such a relief to me," she said. "But I remember the panic that set over me, thinking, 'Oh God, I don't know if I can do this. Maybe they're right. Maybe everybody else is seeing something I'm not seeing, which is you are only that girl in the New York apartment with the purple walls.' So, I was almost doing it for myself just to see if I could do something other than that. And it was terrifying because you're doing it in front of the world." This year, Aniston took home the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance By a Female Actor in a Drama Series for her work on "The Morning Show."
A few years ago, when Jon Hamm's split from his partner of 18 years, Jennifer Westfeldt, was still fresh, he admitted being single was "really hard" after "being together for a long time." Things might be looking up, though. The 49-year-old actor has been spotted with actress Anna Osceola, 32, a number of times since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, Us Weekly claims to have confirmed the two are a couple, though the outlet has no further details on the confirmation. Osceola played Clementine in the finale of "Mad Men," which aired back in 2015. (If the name doesn't ring a bell, Clementine was the girl in braids at the counter at the Esalen Institute when Don Draper was working out how to get home — and back to work.) According to Us, she and Hamm have been spotted hanging out occasionally since about 2017, the same year he was briefly linked to producer Lindsay Shookus. Most recently, the two hit the court for some tennis in Los Angeles in late May. The next day, a Twitter noticed them grabbing takeout together in the Loz Feliz neighborhood. In addition to returning to "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" for the movie, Hamm is slated to appear in the forthcoming "Tom Gun: Maverick," due out in December … if the pandemic allows.
