Dolly Parton joked about having a threesome with Garth Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, while at the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards.

The 77-year-old country icon gave the acronym for ‘Greatest Of All Time’, G.O.A.T., a whole new X-rated meaning while co-hosting the star-studded bash at the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas, on Thursday night (11.05.23) with the 61-year-old Grammy winner.

The ‘Jolene’ hitmaker began by pulling a real goat onstage in a cart, before she told Garth: “I’ve got your G.O.A.T. right here!”

Dolly gushed: “He changed the name of country music forever. In a flash, he became one of the biggest stars of all time.”

And Garth replied: “The world … will always love you.”

She then joked: “I think it stands for ‘Garth organised a threesome!’”

Dolly – who is married to Carl Dean – took things one step further and jokingly added that she was given a “hall pass” to have sex with him and his 58-year-old spouse.

A hall pass is when a couple will allow their other half to dream about sex with another person, usually a celebrity.

After taking to the stage to perform some of her greatest hits with Carly Pearce, Trisha quipped that Dolly is both her and her husband’s “hall pass”.

She added to ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “Everybody loves Dolly. Actually, people think this is Dolce and Gabbana but it’s Dolly and Garth.

“Everybody loves Dolly. We love Dolly so much.”

Jokes aside, Lainey Wilson was the big winner of the night, after triumphing in four categories.

The 30-year-old singer scooped the Female Artist of the Year gong, as well as the Album of the Year accolade for ‘Bell Bottom Country’, and Visual Media of the Year and Music Event of the Year awards for Hardy’s ‘Wait in the Truck’, which she featured on.

After being presented with the Female Artist of the Year prize by Dolly, Lainey said: “I can’t believe I just met Dolly Parton, first of all. This is crazy.

“I want to say thank you to my father. Thank you, Jesus, for this, this is absolutely insane.”

Lainey also thanked her family, record label and team for fighting for her “every single day”, and paid tribute to Dolly, as well as her fellow nominees, Kelsea Ballerini, Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde, and Carly Pearce.

She said: “I look up to y’all so much, and I’m up here cause of y’all, cause of people like Dolly Parton paving the way.

“For the little girls watching this, this right here stands for hard work. If you’re gonna be a dreamer, you better be a doer.”

Other big winners on the night included Chris Stapleton, who landed the coveted Entertainer of the Year award.

Elliot Page has celebrated his “transjoy” by sharing a topless snap showing his gender reassignment surgery scars.

The Oscar-nominated actor and transgender campaigner, 36, posted the image on Instagram while posing shirtless on a rooftop and explained why warmer months used to be a challenge before his transition, after he came out as a trans man in 2020.

He posted alongside the image: “Dysphoria used to be especially rife in the summer. No layers, just a T-shirt – or layers and oh so sweaty – constantly looking down, readjusting my oversized T.

“It feels so f’ing good soaking in the sun now, I never thought I could experience this, the joy I feel in my body.

“I am so grateful for what gender affirming care has allowed me and I look forward to sharing more of my journey soon. #transjoy”

Elliot marked his coming out as trans three years ago with the social media announcement: “I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life.

“I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey. I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self.”

The ‘Juno’ star captioned a photo of himself posting in a bathing suit in 2021: “Trans bb’s first swim trunks #transjoy “#transisbeautiful.”

He said in an interview with Time magazine how he had undergone top surgery to remove breast tissue, saying it had “completely transformed” his life.

Elliot added the procedure did not define being transgender, but provided him with freedom from the “total hell” that was puberty and allowed him to recognise himself when he looked in the mirror.

The actor, who married dancer Emma Portner, 28, in 2018 before their divorce in 2021, is set to go on a book tour to promote his ‘Pageboy’ memoir.

Its publisher has said the book “will delve into Page’s relationship with his body” as well as “his experiences as one of the most famous trans people in the world”.

It added the memoir will “cover mental health, assault, love, relationships, sex” and ”the cesspool that Hollywood can be”.

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Scandal-plagued US congressman George Santos, indicted this week on 13 charges, has agreed to a plea deal to settle a separate case over using a stolen checkbook in Brazil in 2008, officials said Friday.

The first-term Republican from New York, who has admitted to lying about much of his biography, confessed to the crime and agreed to pay around $5,000 in fines and damages to avoid criminal prosecution, said the court hearing his case in Brazil.

Santos, the son of Brazilian parents who immigrated to the United States, was charged with fraud in Brazil for stealing the checkbook of a deceased elderly man his mother had helped care for.

He used it buy some $700 in merchandise as a 19-year-old in the city of Niteroi, near Rio de Janeiro.

Under the plea deal he agreed to pay a fine of 10,000 reais (around $2,030), plus inflation-adjusted damages of 14,121 reais ($2,865) to the shopkeeper he purchased the merchandise from, a spokeswoman for the second-circuit state criminal court for Niteroi told AFP in an e-mail.

Santos, who appeared via WhatsApp video call at the closed-door hearing Thursday, has one month to comply.

It is the latest drama around the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress, whose fabrications have made him fodder for late-night comedy shows and landed him in big legal trouble in the US.

Santos, 34, was arrested and charged Wednesday by US prosecutors with wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.

The lawmaker, who pleaded not guilty, was released on bail of $500,000.

Santos is accused of stealing money from donors who contributed to his campaign, lying on financial disclosure forms and collecting unemployment benefits while earning $120,000 a year at a Florida-based investment firm.

The congressman has admitted to lying about much of his life story, including claims he graduated from university, worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, and is Jewish.

The case against him in Brazil had been shelved for years after investigators were unable to locate him.

But prosecutors reinstated the charges after Santos was elected to Congress last year, saying that meant he now had a verified address.

Dannii Minogue doesn’t think of herself as a gay icon.

The 51-year-old pop star has developed a big following among the gay community during her career, but Dannii doesn’t see herself as a gay icon.

She told the BBC: “I’ve heard Cher say ‘you don’t wake up thinking you’re a gay icon.’ You don’t think about yourself like that.”

Dannii launched her debut album in the early 1990s, and she admits that the social landscape was very different at the time.

She explained: “It was drilled into [artists] by record companies and management that you can’t be gay, that will ruin your career.”

Dannii has been amazed by the support she’s received from the gay community over the years.

Asked when she first noticed that she had a lot of gay fans, Dannii replied: “It’s when people come up and start recounting stories. ‘I met my partner when your song was playing in the club’ or ‘this album was the soundtrack to me getting through difficult times.’ It’s also spending time over the years being involved with people in the community and charities and stuff. You start to feel accepted by the community, which feels amazing.”

Dannii’s career reached a crossroads in the mid-1990s, and she admits that posing for Playboy magazine changed her life.

The pop star stands by her decision to pose for the magazine, calling it a “complete feminist move”.

Danni – who has Ethan, 12, with model Kris Smith – told the Guardian newspaper: “It was personally empowering to me.

“I still stand by those photos. I still think it’s awesome. My son’s 12, he and his friends are all on their phones, they’ll be Googling, pictures will come up – but I still absolutely 100 percent stand by that as a complete feminist move.

“Anyone can look at those pictures and you can say whatever you want about them. My body, my choice, my space. I controlled everything about the photos, the shoot, everything. And it just made me feel powerful.”

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – A day after being arrested on 13 charges in the United States, Congressman George Santos faced more legal headaches in Brazil, where a court hearing was scheduled for Thursday in a fraud case against him.

The first-term Republican from New York, who has been embroiled in scandal for lying about much of his biography, has been summoned for a hearing over accusations he used a stolen checkbook to buy some $700 in merchandise from a clothing store outside Rio de Janeiro in 2008.

The closed-door hearing will be held by video conference, but it is not known whether Santos, 34, will participate, a court spokesman told AFP.

The congressman, who has admitted to lying about his name, religion, education and work resume, was arrested and charged Wednesday by US federal prosecutors with wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.

Santos, who pleaded not guilty, was released on bail of $500,000.

He was ordered to appear in court again on June 30 to face accusations he stole money from donors who contributed to his campaign, lied on his financial disclosure and collected unemployment benefits while earning $120,000 a year at a Florida-based investment firm.

In Brazil, Santos, the son of Brazilian parents who immigrated to the United States, is accused of stealing the checkbook of a deceased elderly man his mother had helped care for and using it to go on a spending spree when he was staying with her as a 19-year-old in the city of Niteroi.

The case had been shelved when investigators were unable to locate Santos.

But prosecutors reinstated the charges after Santos was elected to Congress last year, saying that meant he now had a verified address.

They will offer him a plea bargain at Thursday’s hearing, enabling him to avoid criminal prosecution, given that his crime was non-violent and carries a minimum sentence of less than four years, according to court filings.

Convicts are typically given alternative sentences such as community service in such cases.

Santos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Washington (AFP) – The US Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a California animal cruelty law that bans the sale in America’s most-populous state of pork from pigs raised in confined conditions.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, in the 5-4 majority opinion, said “companies that choose to sell products in various states must normally comply with the laws of those various states.”

Pork producers who brought the legal challenge against the California law were asking the nation’s highest court to impose “constitutional restrictions on the ability of states to regulate goods sold within their borders,” Gorsuch said.

“We decline that invitation,” he said. “While the Constitution addresses many weighty issues, the type of pork chops California merchants may sell is not on that list.”

Californians passed an animal welfare measure, Proposition 12, in a referendum in 2018 that bans the sale of pork from pigs raised in overly confined pens.

The pork industry went to court accusing California — which produces little of the pork it consumes — of restricting interstate commerce and claiming that the state’s animal welfare standards would raise ham and bacon prices for consumers.

After being rejected by state courts, the pork producers turned to the Supreme Court, which heard arguments in the case in October.

Geneva (AFP) – The World Health Organization declared that mpox no longer constitutes a global health emergency on Thursday, almost exactly a year after the disease formerly known as monkeypox started spreading globally.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the decision was prompted by sharply falling case numbers worldwide, but emphasised that the disease remains a threat, particularly in areas of Africa where it has long been endemic.

The announcement comes a week after the UN agency also declared that Covid-19 no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), its highest level of alarm.

“However, as with Covid-19, that does not mean that the work is over,” Tedros told an online press conference.

“While the emergencies of mpox and Covid-19 are both over, the threat of resurgent waves remains for both. Both viruses continue to circulate and both continue to kill,” he added.

Though some countries in Central and West Africa have suffered local outbreaks for decades, in May last year mpox cases started emerging in Europe, North America then elsewhere, mostly among men who have sex with men.

The WHO declared mpox was a PHEIC in July. The number of people infected with the disease — which causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions — has consistently fallen since.

More than 87,000 cases and 140 deaths have been reported from 111 countries during the global outbreak, according to a WHO count.

The countries with the most cases during the global outbreak have been the United States, Brazil, Spain, France, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and the UK, according to the count.

‘Steady progress’

Almost 90 percent fewer cases were recorded over the last three months compared to the previous three-month period, Tedros said.

“We now see steady progress in controlling the outbreak based on the lessons of HIV and working closely with the most affected communities,” Tedros said.

Because the global cases were overwhelmingly among men who have sex with men, there were fears that discrimination would mar the response to the outbreak.

“While stigma has been a driving concern in managing this epidemic and continues to hamper access to care for mpox, the feared backlash against the most affected communities has largely not materialised,” Tedros said.

“For that, we are thankful.”

For non-endemic countries, infections spread by travellers represent an ongoing threat, Tedros said, calling on countries to maintain surveillance of the disease and access to tests and vaccines.

People who have untreated HIV are at particular risk of severe forms of mpox, he added.

“While we welcome the downward trend of mpox cases globally, the virus continues to affect communities in all regions, including in Africa, where transmission is still not well understood,” Tedros said.

Mpox continues in Africa

The monkeypox virus — which causes mpox disease — was first discovered in humans in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970.

Until a year ago, its spread among humans had been mainly limited to certain West and Central African nations, where local outbreaks are thought to be caused by the virus jumping over to humans from small animals.

Rosamund Lewis, the WHO’s technical lead on monkeypox, said these countries “were dealing with mpox long before this outbreak began and will continue dealing with it for some time to come”.

WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan said he was “shocked” that little international funding had been donated for the fight against mpox in the African countries where it is endemic. 

“Maybe it’s an issue of the continued prejudices that exist in this world,” he said. 

The virus is transmitted through close contact with infected humans or animals, as well as via materials such as contaminated sheets.

After the emergency status was lifted for Covid and mpox, there is now just one WHO-declared PHEIC — for poliovirus, which was declared in May 2014.

Charlize Theron has threatened to “f*** up” anyone who criticises drag queens.

The 47-year-old actress, whose adopted child Jackson, 11, was born male but identifies as female, issued the warning while appearing at the ‘Drag isn’t Dangerous’ telethon, designed to oppose laws attempting to block children from viewing cross-dressing performances.

She said: “We love you queens! We’re in your corner, and we’ve got you, and I will f*** anybody up who is, like, trying to f*** with anything with you guys.

“In all seriousness, there are so many things that are hurting and really, killing our kids right, and we all know what I’m talking about right now… if you’ve ever seen a drag queen lip sync for her life, it only makes you happier, it only makes you love more. It makes you a better person.”

Referencing a popular drag move, Charlize – who also has seven-year-old daughter August– went on: “F***, if I could do a death drop right now I would, but I would probably like, break my hip.”

The ‘Prometheus’ star also appealed for viewers to back “all the great organisations that are out there” helping “all of this nonsense” go away “like it should” and branded attempts to stop children watching drag acts part of a set of “incredibly stupid policies”.

Charlize was joined at the ‘Drag isn’t Dangerous’ event by drag acts including Bob the Drag Queen, Divina De Campo and Jinkx Monsoon, as well as a raft of celebrities such as Elizabeth Banks, Margaret Cho, Whitney Cummings, Marcia Gay Harden, Melissa McCarthy, Kelly Osbourne, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman and Ali Wong.

Anti-drag bills have been introduced in at least 15 US states, from Tennessee to Kentucky, Texas and Missouri, with Tennessee defining “adult cabaret” as “adult-oriented” performances”.

Charlize previously revealed Jackson first declared she was “not a boy” when she was just three years old.

She told DailyMail.com about Jackson identifying as female: “Yes, I thought she was a boy, too.

“Until she looked at me when she was three years old and said, ‘I am not a boy!’

“So there you go! I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive.”