Celebrity

Naya Rivera starred in six seasons of Ryan Murphy’s musical comedy Glee as the witty cheerleader Santana Lopez. On Wednesday (July 8), the 33-year-old actress went missing at Southern California’s Lake Piru while apparently on a boating trip with her 4-year-old son. According to The New York Times, Ventura County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Eric Buschow said in a news conference that Rivera had rented a boat on Wednesday afternoon. Approximately three hours after the two left the dock, another boater found a boat drifting with a child, reportedly Rivera’s son, asleep. CNN reports that the child “said they went swimming but the mother didn’t get back on the boat.” The child was wearing a life vest, while an adult-sized life vest was discove...

By Aaron Cooley When director Joel Schumacher died at the age of 80 last week, the lion’s share of the media attention focused on his iconic four-decade filmography, from St. Elmo’s Fire and The Lost Boys in the 1980s, to two John Grisham adaptations and two Batmans in the ’90s, to Phone Booth and Phantom of the Opera in this century. And of course, his resumé includes his own personal stamp on the music video era of early MTV, with videos for INXS, Seal, U2, and Bush. But left largely anonymous — just the way he wanted it — was the work he actually considered the most important of his life. This was work he also did for MTV, and he did it all for free. When I started working for Joel as his assistant in 2002, there was no better perk of the job than traveling to New York at his side. Joel...

“I dedicate this award to all of my brothers out there, all of my sisters out there inspiring me, marching and fighting for change. Your voices are being heard, and you’re proving to our ancestors that their struggles were not in vain.” That’s how Beyoncé made the most of her moment accepting the Humanitarian Award near the end of the night on Sunday (June 28) at the socially distant BET Awards. The prize honored her accomplishments aiding her hometown of Houston, raising up young artists in the music industry, helping Black and brown communities get ample COVID-19 testing and mental-health care during the pandemic, and more. As Michelle Obama explained as she introduced the award and its 2020 recipient, Bey’s contributions to the world spanned lifting up...

“I dedicate this award to all of my brothers out there, all of my sisters out there inspiring me, marching and fighting for change. Your voices are being heard, and you’re proving to our ancestors that their struggles were not in vain.” That’s how Beyoncé made the most of her moment accepting the Humanitarian Award near the end of the night on Sunday (June 28) at the socially distant BET Awards. The prize honored her accomplishments aiding her hometown of Houston, raising up young artists in the music industry, helping Black and brown communities get ample COVID-19 testing and mental-health care during the pandemic, and more. As Michelle Obama explained as she introduced the award and its 2020 recipient, Bey’s contributions to the world spanned lifting up...

June 2020 has been no ordinary Pride Month. What is typically a colorful commemoration of love, community, and the richness of LGBTQ+ identity has been largely overshadowed by an ongoing pandemic, which has forced gay bars to close, parades to be canceled, and people to celebrate from home. But in many ways, it has also been a return to the holiday’s protest roots, with many people around the country taking to the streets to demand justice for Black lives. Pop idol Katy Perry spoke to the complexities of these intersecting movements in a somber, yet hopeful, address during Stonewall Day, the star-studded Pride Live event honoring the anniversary and legacy of the six-day riots in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in New York that spawned the gay liberation movement. Wearing dangling, ra...

“I want everyone in the LGBTQIA+ community to know that I treasure everything that you are, and everything you do to make this world more inclusive, more creative, and more beautiful.” That’s how Demi Lovato put her personal message of hope, optimism, and resilience while addressing the virtual crowd for Stonewall Day, the superstar Pride Live event honoring the anniversary and legacy of the 1969 Stonewall Inn Uprising and the continued fight for LGBTQ+ equality. “As a member of the queer community, I feel so much pride joining you to celebrate Stonewall Day, a day we celebrate to honor the spirit of rebellion and to continue the conversation of equality,” she said to kick off her message. In the minute-long address that followed, Lovato called for people to d...

“The Stonewall Inn has been such a symbol of rebellion in the face of oppression, and such a safe place for people,” Taylor Swift said on Friday (June 26), addressing a virtual audience during Stonewall Day. The celeb-stacked Pride Live event honored the legacy of the six-day riots that took place at the New York gay bar in 1969, which launched the gay liberation movement — and today, Pride Month. In recent weeks, Swift has been especially vocal about her support of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as those taking to the streets to demand justice for Black lives in the wake of the police killings of unarmed Black citizens George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and many more. In her candid, nearly two-minute-long speech, she reiterated her excitement about the Supreme Cour...

HBO’s Euphoria found Zendaya tapping into a much darker, grittier role than her Disney Channel beginnings on Shake It Up would have forecasted. But as she revealed in a new roundtable interview for The Hollywood Reporter, that evolution was only one piece of the other stress she felt in making her next acting move. “Being a young Disney actor, that’s one level, being a young Black woman is one level, and then being very hard on myself is another level,”she said. The roundtable, which found her in conversation with Janelle Monáe, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Rose Byrne, and Helena Bonham Carter, also allowed Zendaya to explain how those fears about making the so-called “right” decision can dissipate in time. “It’s also just a personal ...

Over the weekend, two women accused Justin Bieber of sexual assault. They posted their accounts to Twitter, one to an anonymous account and one on an accuser’s own page, where the stories were widely circulated. On Sunday (June 21), Bieber responded on his own page in a series of 15 tweets denying the first allegation and providing screenshots of emails and hotel receipts that aimed to disprove the accuser’s story. “I don’t normally address things as I have dealt with random accusations my entire career but after talking with my wife and team I have decided to speak up on an issue tonight,” he tweeted. “Rumors are rumors but sexual abuse is something I don’t take lightly. I wanted to speak out right away but out of respect to so many victims who de...

Long before he was the Billboard Hot 100 record-breaking, Grammy- and VMA-winning megastar maestro behind “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X was a Barb. Still is, in fact. The difference is now he’s a Barb with influence — and on Tuesday night (June 16), he used it to tweet at Nicki Minaj herself to ask if she’d appear on a song of his. This led a fellow Barb to ask, “How come you never claimed her when people asked if you were a barb?? We all knew who you were.” The question digs back into Lil Nas X’s past as the voice behind a popular Twitter account, one he was able to utilize to help “Old Town Road” go stratospheric. As Intelligencer’s Brian Feldman noted in 2019, “By trafficking in memes, viral threads, engagement bait, and Nic...

This morning (June 15), the Supreme Court ruled that LGBTQ+ employees are protected from workplace discrimination, and that the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s Title VII does indeed extend its protections against sex-based discrimination to transgender workers. This is a huge win for the LGBTQ+ community, and one that underscores how trans people had continued to be targeted for workplace discrimination, as GLAAD pointed out on Twitter. “The Supreme Court’s historic decision affirms what shouldn’t have even been a debate: LGBTQ Americans should be able to work without fear of losing jobs because of who we are,” a message from the organization’s account read. Naturally, there’s been much celebration on social media from both LGBTQ+ celebs as well as alli...

In the days after J.K. Rowling, the author behind the hugely popular fantasy series Harry Potter, published a slew of transphobic tweets, many celebrities and organizations have responded by doubling down on their support for the transgender community. And one particularly powerful response came by way of genderqueer pop vocalist King Princess. Previously, on Saturday (June 6), Rowling shared a Devex article detailing the structural health care issues that people who have periods may face, and which have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Responding to the story’s headline, which referred to “people who menstruate” in inclusively non-gendered terms, the British writer tweeted, “I’m sure there used to be a word for those...