Samantha Bee’s Rejected ‘CATS’ Audition Tape Was Purrfect: WATCH
Yes, Samantha Bee auditioned for the ‘CATS’ movie. But unlike fellow late night host James Corden, she wasn’t cast. Sam Bee laments the cat that could have been in a new clip from Full Frontal.
Said Bee: “There’s just a language of a cat that I understand, with my tool. What would I have brought to the role? Stupid question! Authenticity. I’ll pee in a box. I will barf on your wooden kitchen spoons. I’ll only seem to know my name 40 percent of the time. That is the Sam Bee promise.”
Earlier this week, the Mirror published an investigative report into what really caused the British boy band, who has sold an astounding 50 million records worldwide, to split up in 2016.
According to reporter Frances Kindon, there were several factors that led to the band’s demise, including gaysex rumors that the guys could never seem to shake.
Fans first began speculating that Styles and Tomlinson were an item, nicknaming them “Larry Stylinson,” in 2012. For whatever reason, Tomlinson always found the rumors especially bothersome.
After the band broke up, he told an interviewer the false reports “created this atmosphere … where everyone was looking into everything we did.” He went on to say that the intense scrutiny between him and Style “took away the vibe” they had and made “everything a little bit more unapproachable.”
But evidently, Tomlinson didn’t appreciate the Mirror’s speculations that that was the reason the band broke up, and he took to Twitter yesterday to say so.
“Biggest load of bullsh*t I’ve seen in a while,” he wrote. “Typical unprovoked venom from The Mirror. Couldn’t be further from the truth!”
Biggest load of bullshit I’ve seen in a while. Typical unprovoked venom from The Mirror. Couldn’t be further from the truth! pic.twitter.com/AJUVvm8LPx
One Direction announced they were going on an 18 month hiatus in January 2016. The band has yet to announce any plans of getting back together.
In February 2018, they officially folded their touring company, which, just a few years earlier, had produced the highest-grossing tour by a vocal group in history, and the 20th highest-grossing concert tour of all time, pulling in almost $300 million.
Attorney General Bill Barr Orders Reinstatement of Federal Death Penalty, Schedules 5 Executions
Attorney General William Barr ordered the federal death penalty to be reinstated after a 16-year suspension.
NBC News reports: “Barr also directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to schedule the executions of five death-row inmates convicted of murder, the Justice Department said in a news release. The executions are slated to take place in December 2019 and January 2020.”
CNBC reports: ‘The last federal execution was carried out in 2003. There are 62 individuals on federal death row, according to a tracker maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center. The Supreme Court outlawed state and federal death penalty laws in the 1972 decision Furman v. Georgia. The decision invalidated the laws then on the books, but did not outlaw the death penalty under all circumstances, leading states and the federal government to draft new legislation. The federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988, and expanded by Congress in 1994. No federal executions took place, however, until 2001, according to to the Bureau of Prisons website.’
This morning, the Department of Justice announced they would resume capital punishment. Let me be clear: capital punishment is immoral and deeply flawed. Too many innocent people have been put to death. We need a national moratorium on the death penalty, not a resurrection.
Ben DeLaCreme wants to be on an upcoming season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” but…
(image via Wikipedia: hinnk)
Drag Race veteran Ben DeLaCreme is perhaps best known as the queen who willingly eliminated herself during season three of RuPaul‘s Drag Race All Stars after she got tired of the show’s competitive nature.
But in a recent interview with The Gay Times, the accomplished drag performer mentioned that she would actually like to reappear on the show under certain conditions:
“I would not compete on Drag Race again, but I would love to appear on Drag Race again. I’ve sort of made my stance clear in terms of the competition aspect and how I want to engage in it. I would love to come back on. I love when queens from the past come on to coach for the challenges. I want World of Wonder producers to hear me when I say: I am the only queen in your history who has won two Snatch Games! So bring me in to coach!
Yeah Jinkx [came back last season to help with Snatch Game], and obviously her Snatch Game was absolutely iconic. And then Bianca came in, and I beat Bianca! So I would love to appear back on the show in that capacity or something similar. There’s so many things I love about Drag Race, so while competing again wouldn’t be for me, I’d love to be involved in other ways.
You may recall that DeLaCreme impersonated Maggie Smith for Snatch Game in season six and Paul Lynde in All Stars 3.
After DeLaCreme’s surprise self-elimination after dominating All-Stars 3, she posted a lengthy Facebook rant in which she said “[Drag Race] provides amazing opportunities for both cast members and viewers. The culture surrounding it also takes some things away.”
She clarified that she didn’t leave the show as a favor to her other competitors, for her mental health, under producer pressure or because she “couldn’t hack it,” but rather because she didn’t like that its conception of “success” involved compromising her values and causing pain and sadness by pushing others down to lift herself up. Despite what the show’s “authorities” and its fans demanded, she wanted to question that system.
But because she did that, we don’t think Ru will invite her back. Her departure effectively compromised All Stars 3, a development that only worsened when the show’s eliminated competitors chose Trixie Mattel over Shangela as the season’s deserving winner.
Not what the facts imply, not our response to them, but what the facts are.
Founding Father John Adams once said, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
But this is no longer Adams’ America, where facts were unalterable.
But did President Trump invite or otherwise cooperate with this interference? And, once an investigation into these questions was taken up by Mueller’s Office of Special Counsel, did the president attempt to interfere with it?
Even if Mueller did not introduce any new information beyond the confines of his report – which he did not – the hope was that simply by seeing and hearing his report come to life, Americans could finally agree that even if there was insufficient evidence to conclude that Trump conspired with the Russians, the country could at least understand that he threatened, lied, enticed and otherwise interfered with the investigation. It would be like seeing the movie rather than reading the book.
The problem with facts these days is not that they do not exist. It’s that with a steady stream of propaganda fed to the electorate on a daily basis, the facts are beholden to your political point of view.
At the break in the Mueller hearings, here were the top three headlines from Fox News:
The problem is not that any of these headlines are technically false. It’s that cherry picking what “facts” get reported creates a skewed perception of reality.
In May, Rep. Justin Amash, a Republican (who became an Independent in July), held a series of town halls on why he favored Trump’s impeachment. Several media outlets reported one of the attendees didn’t even know what all the fuss was about.
“I was surprised to hear there was anything negative in the Mueller report at all about President Trump,” Cathy Garnaat said. “I hadn’t heard that before. I’ve mainly listened to conservative news and I hadn’t heard anything negative about that report, and President Trump has been exonerated.”
With polls showing that fewer than 10% of Americans have read any part of Robert Mueller’s report, it’s possible that many rely on news coverage to tell them what it said. Indeed, when the report was released back in April, a poll showed that only “46% of Americans had heard something about the Mueller Report.”
Democrats appear to be nursing the hope that once something happens, people will wake up and care about the facts again. Once the report is released … once people read the report … once Mueller testifies … facts will matter again.
The death of facts
But to watch the spin by both Republicans and Democrats about the hearing – “Republicans and Democrats filtered Robert Mueller’s Capitol Hill testimony through their own prisms Wednesday,” wrote ABC News – one wonders if this is a false hope.
Perhaps, in order to promote an agenda, you need not offer “alternative facts,” but simply discredit the other side’s fact finders. Or, as Trump once put it – in response to a question about why he attacks the media so much, “I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you.”
Shortly after Mueller concluded his testimony, Trump stepped out onto the South Lawn to talk to reporters.
Once again, he called the Russia investigation a “ridiculous hoax” and a “witch hunt” – after Robert Mueller had explicitly told lawmakers that the Russia investigation was neither a witch hunt nor a hoax. In a final tweet, before departing for a fundraiser in West Virginia, Trump tweeted “TRUTH IS A FORCE OF NATURE.”
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA TO FIRE 13 POLICE OFFICERS FOLLOWING RACIST, VIOLENT SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS: “Our police officers are entrusted to serve and protect the people of Philadelphia — everybody, all the people of Philadelphia,” said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney. The people of Philadelphia, including LGBTQ people, deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. More from The Washington Post.
NEW REPORT DOCUMENTS HOW PAID LEAVE STATE PROGRAMS IMPROVE LIVES OF WORKING AMERICANS: The report, from the National Partnership for Women & Families, reveals that people of color and LGBTQ workers and their families often face additional hurdles to accessing leave. We urgently need an inclusive employer-paid family and medical leave federal program. Read the report here.
THROWBACK THURSDAY — “DEAR GENTLEMEN, YOUR 60-YEAR-OLD WEDDING PICS ARE READY”: In 1957, a photo shop owner in Philadelphia withheld photos of two men who shared a commitment ceremony because he deemed them “inappropriate.” Thankfully, a shop employee kept the photos and now the search is on for the couple so the photos can finally be delivered. More from Nick Fiorellini (@NickFiorellini) at The Philadelphia Citizen.
Decades after having photos from their same-sex Philly-area ceremony confiscated, a search is on for the owners of a historic set of prints. Can they be found before it’s too late? @WayGay@NickFiorellinit.co/E11riOMA74
— The Philadelphia Citizen (@thephilacitizen) July 21, 2019
HELD ACCOUNTABLE — PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR RICARDO ROSSELLO RESIGNS: After the release of anti-LGBTQ and sexist text messages, Gov. Rossello resigned effective August 2. More from The Washington Blade.
The divisive and anti-LGBTQ comments from Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló & members of his administration are disappointing and unacceptable. Puerto Rico deserves a leader they can trust & elected officials who will look out for everyone. #RickyRenunciat.co/esViPhnv4J
NEW STUDY FINDS LGBTQ COMMUNITY MORE LIKELY TO EXPERIENCE MEMORY LOSS, DEMENTIA DUE TO CULTURAL STRESSORS, LACK OF HEALTH CARE ACCESS: Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco believe this to be due to “higher rates of depression, inability to work, high stress, and a lack of regular access to healthcare.” More fromSTAT.
HOW THE CINCINNATI VA MEDICAL CENTER IS SUPPORTING LGBTQ PATIENTS: More from The Cincinnati Enquirer.
ACTOR BELLA THORNE COMES OUT AS PANSEXUAL: Thorne (@bellathorne), who came out as bisexual in 2016, noted she now uses pan to describe her sexual orientation during an interview with Good Morning America.
LGBTQ-INCLUSIVE BANNER AT CLARK COUNTY, ORE. CHURCH REPEATEDLY VANDALIZED, STOLEN: “We’re not going to let anybody silence us,” said Battle Ground Community United Methodist Church Reverend Susan Boegli. “Just because somebody takes our banners, it isn’t going to change who we are and what our core message is. We made a firm decision that if and when it happens again, we’ll just put up another one and another one.” More from The Oregonian.
GLOBAL EQUALITY NEWS
JAPAN’S FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO SERVE AS LEGISLATOR ADVOCATES FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY: More from Advocate.
READING RAINBOW – Bookmark now to read on your lunch break!
