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Some celebrities are notorious for their unique backstage requests, from the story of Van Halen demanding all the brown M&Ms be removed from their bowl of candy to Katy Perry reportedly asking for freeze-dried strawberries and an array of very specific flowers to be in every dressing room — but Beyoncé might take the cake. The “Single Ladies” singer’s team has to have a box of toilet seats shipped around the world while the superstar is on tour so that she never has to sit on a pre-used seat. An outlet reported photos of a large luggage box that was labeled “Beyoncé Toilet Seats” that is repor…

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Beyonce's six-year-old daughter Rumi made a rare appearance with Madonna backstage at the Renaissance World Tour.  Madonna shared a photo of her three daughters, Stella, Estere and Mercy, and her posing alongside Beyonce and Rumi.  Beyonce smiled in the photo while her long straight hair cascaded back. She was still in her stage makeup but wore a black floor-length robe.  Rumi is Beyonce and Jay-Z's second child and twin to her brother Sir. Her older sister is 11-year-oldBlue Ivy, who previously joined her mother on stage during the tour. The twins were born in June 2017 and Rumi's name was ch…

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Lady Gaga has vowed to keep “celebrating” Tony Bennett. The ‘Alejandro' hitmaker marked what would have been the 97th birthday of her late friend and collaborator – who died last month following a long battle with Alzheimer's – on Thursday (03.08.23) by declaring it a “day for smiling”, but insisted she will be honouring the legendary entertainer more than just once a year. She wrote on Instagram: “Happy Birthday Tony. August 3rd is Tony Bennett Day. A day for smiling. But I'll be celebrating you a lot more than once a year. I'll celebrate you every time I'm on stage singing jazz music, every …

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Mark Margolis, the veteran actor and Philadelphia native best known for playing former drug kingpin Hector “Tio” Salamanca on “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” had died. He was 83. Margolis' death was announced by his son, Morgan Margolis, who said his father passed away at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York “following a short illness.” Margolis, who was born in Philadelphia on Nov. 26, 1939, had a career in Hollywood that spanned decades and including films such as “Scarface,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” and “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.” He also appeared in nearly all of Darren Aronofsky's fi…

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Barbie film fans in the Middle East will breathe a sigh of relief as the UAE's main censorship body on Thursday confirmed that the highly-awaited Barbie movie would finally be arriving in the Gulf state. The UAE Media Council, the regulatory authority responsible for monitoring and censoring media content in the Emirates, announced that it had cleared the Greta Gerwig-directed comedy, which is currently the highest grossing film of the year. “The UAE Media Council has granted the Barbie movie the approval to be screened in the UAE's licensed cinemas after completing the necessary procedures in…

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Following his sentencing to 19 years in a penal camp, Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny has urged Russia's population to muster their courage and stand up to President Vladimir Putin. “Putin should not achieve his goals. Don't lose the will to resist,” Navalny said after the judge's ruling in his current prison camp in Melekhovo, 260 kilometres from Moscow. The Moscow City Court had set up a hearing room at the camp and sentenced the opposition leader for alleged extremism – with credit for his previous sentence of nine years in prison. “Nineteen years in a colony with a special regime. The numb…

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By Sharon Bernstein (Reuters) – Florida has told school superintendents that the Advanced Placement psychology course offered to high school students violates the state's new law prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, effectively banning the class, the nonprofit that develops the courses said on Thursday. The move is the latest by the administration of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to limit instruction about LGBTQ issues and race in the state. DeSantis is challenging former U.S. President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for president in 2024 and has ma…

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The movie “Oppenheimer” reminds us that a healthy society must leave room for people who face down power to pursue truth, who introduce new ways of thinking or who choose to follow alternative life paths. A brilliant but eccentric scientist, J. Robert Oppenheimer led the world into the Atomic Age only to run afoul of government investigators. He also calls to mind a similar account in Great Britain in which Alan Turing, who led the world into the computer age and helped crack the German military codes in World War II, was convicted on a morals charge and eventually took his own life. Both men …

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In the past, what was once Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District in Central Florida had strong DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs. But that changed on Tuesday, August 1, when all DEI programs were abolished in what is now the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. The Associated Press (AP) reports that the District officially announced that the programs were being eliminated along with any job duties related to them. “Also axed were initiatives left over from when the District was controlled by Disney supporters, which awarded contracts based on goals of achieving racial o…

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A fringe political group associated with Sarah Palin may have broken a string of campaign finance laws, according to a recent complaint. Alaska lawyer Scott Kendall, of the firm Cashion Gilmore, filed the complaint against the group “Alaskans for Honest Elections” that's dedicated to ending ranked-choice voting in the state, for a dizzying array of alleged violations — including attempts to get around disclosure laws, obscure its finances, manufacture tax breaks for donors and line their own pockets, reported The Daily Beast. “You turn over one rock and there's more, turn over another and the…

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MILAN (Reuters) – The city of Milan will resume registering children born abroad from male couples, its mayor said on Thursday, after challenging curbs imposed by the right-wing national government. The government took action in January to stop local authorities from registering the children of same-sex parents, in a move that has sparked protests from LGBT+ activists concerned about the conservative agenda of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. No longer able to register children born abroad to couples of two men, the city of Milan turned to the interior ministry asking if it could at least regist…

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By Colin Salao Stephen A. Smith has been a staunch critic of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on his podcast, and he addressed recent news tying the presidential candidate with Smith's usual topic of discussion: sports. Smith took to his podcast “The Stephen A. Smith Show” on Aug. 2 to react to news that the NBA's Orlando Magic donated $50,000 to Never Back Down, a political action committee supporting DeSantis and his presidential campaign. DON'T MISS: Stephen A. Smith Gives Diplomatic Response to Joe Rogan's Comments On January 6th But Smith said he wasn't trying to “excoriate” the Orlando Magi…

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A new season of the Netflix production “Heartstopper” – the series famed for the best ever coming-out scene in television history – is set for release on Thursday. For those who are new to the series, it tells of a group of queer teenagers and their problems and feelings. The stars are Charlie and Nick, who fall in love with each other at school. The sweetest parts of the show are the playful comic elements, in emotional, intense moments. The romantic live-action series made in Britain is based on webcomics and the graphic novel by Alice Oseman. The story begins with lanky and melancholy Charl…

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A Catholic school near Kansas City has expelled an A-student because his mother objected to a ban on LGBTQ+ books, according to a report. The Kansas City Star reported that St. John LaLande Catholic School in Blue Springs disenrolled Hollee Muller's 11-year-old son Hunter after “prayerful consideration.” A July letter from the school said both parents “stated both verbally and in writing you do not agree with nor do you support the teachings of the Catholic Church. After prayerful consideration and discussion among our school administration it is obvious we no longer have a partnership with yo…

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Were he still alive, today would be American writer James Baldwin's birthday. Born on this day in 1924 New York City, Baldwin rose to fame as one of the most talented writers of a generation. His perspective as a gay Black man living through segregation, as well as his travels abroad, brought lucid insight into matters of sexuality, politics and race to his broad range of work across novels, poetry and non-fiction. Baldwin grew up in Harlem but moved south to the Greenwich Village in his early 20s where he met actors and artists. Disillusioned by the racism of the US, he moved to Paris in 1948…

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Beyonce has paid tribute to a fan who was stabbed and killed over the weekend. O'Shae Sibley was vogueing to one of the ‘Formation' singer's songs while at a gas station in Brooklyn with friends when he was attacked by a group of men who shouted gay slurs before things turned more hostile, video footage shot by the dancer's pal Otis Pena as part of a Facebook Live post showed, and now the 41-year-old megastar has publicly mourned the passing of the 28 year old. Beyonce wrote on her official website: “REST IN POWER O'SHAE SIBLEY.” After being stabbed, O'Shae was taken to Maimonides Medical Cent…

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Indiana students must have access to bathrooms and locker rooms that are consistent with their gender identity, an appeals court ruled Tuesday night. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals left in place a temporary injunction requiring the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville and the Vigo County School Corporation to provide equal treatment to trans students. The case involves three young trans students who sued their school districts after they were blocked from using the boy's restrooms. At the time of the complaint, one of the teens attended a middle school in Martinsville. The other two,…

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Sinéad O’Connor felt “on fire” when she sang but despised the music business. The tragic performer, found dead in London on 26 July in London after relocating to the city from her native Ireland to polish off what turned out to be her last album, said she wrapped herself in a “character” when singing. She said in quotes from her brutally honest 2021 autobiography ‘Rememberings’ – in which she detailed years of abuse at the hands of her mum and her mental health struggles – that have resurfaced since her shock passing: “I’m on fire when I’m singing, I’m completely in character. I use my sense m…

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San Francisco (AFP) – Users on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, will now be allowed to hide their once-prized blue check marks, the company says. A coveted status symbol at Twitter before Elon Musk bought the company, the blue checks have been mocked by some as a sign that the user is willing to pay for special treatment. “As a subscriber, you can choose to hide your checkmark on your account,” an X help page said on Wednesday. “The checkmark will be hidden on your profile and posts.” Blue ticks, long free at Twitter, were intended to signal the identity of certain users…

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Madonna couldn't have done it without her kids. On Sunday, July 30, the Queen of Pop took to Instagram to share a heartfelt post with her 19 million followers after she was hospitalized with a “serious bacterial infection” at the end of June. “Love from family and friends is the best Medicine. One month out of the hospital and I can reflect,” the 64-year-old wrote, before thanking her six children — Lourdes Leon, 26, Rocco Ritchie, 22, David Banda, 17, Mercy James, 17, and twins Estere and Stelle Ciccone, 10 — for their support throughout her intense health scare. “As a mother you can really g…

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O’Shae Sibley, the Brooklyn dancer slain in a clash with a group of Muslim men who said that they were offended by his voguing, used his art of movement to affirm his identity as a gay man and as an advocate for social justice. The 28-year-old Brownsville resident was murdered Saturday night in Midwood after fight with a group of men who said his dancing offended their faith, but to those who knew him and his talents, he was awe-inspiring. Sibley was a favorite of director and choregrapher Kemar Jewel, who has worked with the Philidelphia-born dancer for more than a decade and described him as…

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Former President Donald Trump's supporters appear to be sticking with him no matter how many times he gets indicted or how many winnable elections he costs the Republican Party. Marcel Danesi, a professor of semiotics and linguistic anthropology at the University of Toronto, explained to MSNBC's “Morning Joe” on Monday that getting Trump supporters to abandon their idol is extremely difficult, and he drew an analogy to the Dan Brown novel “The Da Vinci Code” to explain why. “I call it the ‘Da Vinci Code effect,” he said in describing Trump's ability to pump his followers full of falsehoods and…

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