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Published by AFP Ashli Babbitt is a freedom-fighting heroine to some in the United States, and a misguided conspiracy theorist to others Los Angeles (AFP) – A conspiracy-spouting extremist or a patriotic martyr? Ashli Babbitt, who was shot dead a year ago during the invasion of the US Capitol, is a Rorschach test for the deep political fault line that runs through the United States. An Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and voted for America’s first Black president, Babbitt died wrapped in a flag bearing the name of Donald Trump, the populist billionaire who still insists he won an election that he lost by a wide margin. Her journey of radical transformation mirrors that of many of the supporters of the real estate tycoon, who, on January 6, 2021, was desperately seeking to preserve his divisive presidency. That day, Congress was gathering to certify the election of Joe Biden as 46th president of the United States. Speaking to a large crowd near the White House, an angry Trump once again told supporters the election had been “stolen” and encouraged them to march on Congress. Babbitt was among the first of hundreds of people to breach the Capitol building’s security, as elected officials barricaded themselves in rooms, cowering from an angry mob. In footage filmed by one of the intruders, the 35-year-old can be seen trying to get through a broken window. “Go! Come on!” she shouts, encouraging those behind her to hoist her in. As her head appears through the window, a Capitol police officer fires his weapon, striking Babbitt in the shoulder. She would die from her injuries. – MAGA and QAnon – Babbitt was born in 1985 to a modest Southern California family in the San Diego suburbs, where politics was not particularly important, according to Roger Witthoeft, one of her four younger brothers. She enlisted in the Air Force at age 17, straight from school, and did tours of Afghanistan and Iraq. Subsequent spells in the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard led to a posting near Washington, as well as two more deployments to the Middle East. Babbitt left the military as a relatively low-ranking senior airman in 2016, several years before she would have become eligible for a pension or other benefits, and she returned to her hometown, not far from the Mexican border. There, she and her second husband took over a struggling pool maintenance company. In videos posted to social media, Babbitt raged against both the homeless and undocumented migrants, castigating Democratic elected officials for “refusing to acknowledge or even admit that we do need” a wall on the Mexican border — Trump’s signature campaign pledge. “The border is an absolute shit show,” she said. “There’s riots, there’s arrests, there’s rapes, there’s drugs… there are tons of issues. “I want my politicians to start coming down here and telling me that my reality is a lie. “You guys refuse to choose America over your stupid political party.” She attended Trump rallies wearing the red “Make America Great Again” hat that symbolized the movement, and presented herself on Twitter as a “libertarian.” It was here that she railed against the “pedophiles” and “satanists” she believed controlled the Democratic Party. To her brother, Babbitt was just “a normal Californian.” “The issues she was mad about were the things all of us are mad about,” he said. “That was one of her things — for the first time in her life, she could actually say what she wanted to say, and didn’t have to bottle it up” as she had had to do in the military. When the Covid-19 pandemic took hold of the United States, Babbitt embraced the anti-science rhetoric of the hard right. A sign posted on the door of her company read: “Mask free autonomous zone, better known as America,” where “we shake hands like men.” On January 5, she took to social media again, writing: “Nothing will stop us…they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon (Washington) DC in less than 24 hours…dark to light!” The phraseology is common among followers of QAnon, the loose amalgam of conspiracy theories that sees present-day politics as an existential fight between good and evil. For some fellow travelers, this invocation was enough to earn Babbitt immortality as a woman fighting for the soul of America, a tragic heroine who fell in battle. Babbitt’s mother told The Washington Post her daughter “made the ultimate sacrifice” to bring attention to what she said was “a stolen election.” But she acknowledged that not everyone agrees. “Half the country loves her and half the country hates her,” she told the paper. “It’s weird to have your child belong to the world.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Kim Cattrall has called for suicide prevention on her late brother Christopher’s 59th birthday. The ‘Sex and the City’ star took to Twitter on Sunday (02.01.22) to pay her respects to her younger sibling, who was just 55 when he took his own life in early 2018. Alongside an old photograph of the pair, she wrote on Instagram: “Today would have been my baby brother Chris’s 59th b’day. Happy Birthday, sweet ‘Topher’. We miss you today and everyday. RIPx #SuicidePrevention (sic)” The 65-year-old actress tragically lost her brother just days after she had asked her fans for help finding him when he went missing in Canada. It was later revealed Christopher died of suicide, and Kim admitted she will “never be the same” following his shock death. She said at the time: “I am different now and I will never be the same. No one can prepare you. He was suffering from depression but depression is a curious thing and it can be impossible to detect if someone does not want you to know. “And so I didn’t know. We [her family] didn’t know. And when you lose someone to suicide there is always the question, ‘If I could only have, if I did only, if I was only…’ and it haunts you. And you have to learn to live with those endless questions, the endless guilt, the endless frustration every day because you are in a new reality and there is nothing you can do to change it.” The British-Canadian star previously admitted she learned to “appreciate” her family and friends following the devastating loss. She said: “I think recently the thing that has taught me the most is loss. I’ve lost two family members and I think what it teaches me, I’m not there yet, but to really enjoy what you do, your family, your friends, to really appreciate … when I say goodbye to somebody I’m not going to see for a while. “The thought is now I might not see them again or for a couple of months but I want to keep those connections. I feel I value them much more, they take up more of how I want to spend my time because I realise how precious it is. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) – Late financier Jeffrey Epstein’s 2009 settlement agreement with Virginia Giuffre is expected to be made public on Monday, as part of Giuffre’s civil lawsuit accusing Britain’s Prince Andrew of sexual abuse. Giuffre’s lawsuit accuses https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/prince-andrew-is-sued-by-jeffrey-epstein-accuser-over-alleged-sexual-abuse-2021-08-09 Andrew of forcing her to have sex more than two decades ago when she was under 18 at the London home of former Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and abusing her at two of Epstein’s homes. Giuffre, 38, is seeking unspecified damages in a civil lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court. Andrew, 61, has denied Giuffre’s assertions and has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing Giuffre is seeking a “payday” from her accusations against Epstein and his associates. The prince has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing. He argues a confidential agreement Giuffre reached with Epstein, whom she has accused of trafficking her for sex when she was a teenager, shields him from liability. Andrew’s lawyer says the deal covers “royalty https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/epstein-settlement-with-giuffre-be-made-public-affects-prince-andrew-case-2021-12-29” and that Epstein intended for it to cover anyone Giuffre might sue. Giuffre’s civil case against Andrew is still in its early stages. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has said a trial could begin between September and December of 2022 if no settlement is reached. A hearing on Andrew’s motion to dismiss the case is scheduled for Tuesday morning. Andrew gave up many royal duties in November 2019, stating that his association with Epstein had become a “disruption to my family’s work.” Giuffre’s suit is separate from the criminal trial against Maxwell that concluded last week. Maxwell, 60, was convicted of recruiting and grooming girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004. Giuffre’s claims did not form the basis of any of the charges Maxwell faced and she did not testify for either side during the three-week criminal trial. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 at the age of 66 while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges. (Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Diane Craft) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Cassandra Peterson wants Dolly Parton to play her in a movie. The 70-year-old star – who is best known for playing ‘Elvira: Mistress of the dark’ in the 1988 comedy horror of the same name – claimed a movie of her life is currently in the works and she’d love to see the ‘9 to 5’ hitmaker take on the lead role. She said: “There’s a biopic, with somebody else playing me. I’m thinking like, Dolly Parton, right? They’ve got to have the right physical attributes.” Cassandra admitted she spends the whole year preparing for her favourite holiday, Halloween, which falls on October 31, and has lots of projects in the pipeline that will be out around that time. She told SFX magazine: “I’m not kidding, I’ve got projects in the works right now that will be coming out around Halloween next year and even the following year. So I prep for it all year round. I think people’s perception is that I go to sleep on November 1 and then I come back on October 1 and start working.” The actress is also keen to get a stage musical version of her most famous work established after many years of trying. She said: “And then the third thing I’m trying to do that I’ve wanted to do for years and years, and I have made little attempts here and there to do, is a Broadway musical of ‘Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark.’ It’ll be something like ‘Hairspray’ or ‘The Rocky Horror Show…” She explained that her hopes for a musical were caught up in rights issues, but being relentless means she doesn’t plan to give up. She added: “I’m pretty much like a pitbull with a bone.” Her recent appearance in 2020’s animation ‘Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!’ ignited her passion for wanting to be in animated movies – and she’d love to see an ‘Evira’ cartoon sequel. She said: “ I would love to do an animated project. I don’t know when I’m going to fit all that in… “I would freakin love to make that movie. If it takes much longer, it’s definitely going to have to be animated. Nobody is going to want to see a 90-year-old Elvira.” View the full article

Published by AFP US Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (C) is an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump and critic of how the US government is handling the pandemic Washington (AFP) – Twitter said Sunday it has permanently suspended the personal account of outspoken Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for violating the platform’s Covid-19 misinformation policy. The lawmaker from Georgia is a loud and fervent supporter of Donald Trump and his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and is also known for making outlandish anti-vaccine claims and other false statements about the coronavirus pandemic. Twitter said it was shutting down Greene’s personal account — @mtgreenee — for repeated violations of its Covid misinformation policy. She still has access to her official Twitter handle, which is @RepMTG. Greene used the personal one more frequently. “We permanently suspended the account you referenced (@mtgreenee) for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy,” Twitter said in a statement sent to AFP. “We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy,” it added. Twitter did not specify exactly what Greene said to deserve this punishment. Greene hit back after her suspension, saying in a statement on Telegram that Twitter is “an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth. That’s fine, I’ll show America we don’t need them and it’s time to defeat our enemies. “ Twitter’s Covid misinformation police employees a strike system that metes out gradually escalating sanctions for violations. One strike results in nothing, for instance; three strikes results in a 12-hour account lock, and five strikes cause permanent suspension. Twitter had sanctioned Greene before the permanent suspension. Her account was suspended for one week in August after she tweeted that the Food and Drug Administration should not approve Covid vaccines because they were “failing” to slow the spread of the virus. On Saturday, she tweeted that deaths from vaccines used to be taken seriously in America but now “extremely high amount of covid vaccine deaths are ignored and government forced vaccine mandates are increased.” A year ago, Twitter banned Trump from the platform after the January 6 riot at the US Capitol by Trump supporters, who were fired up by his claims that he was robbed of victory over Joe Biden. twitter blocks marjorie taylor greene on Towleroad bell hooks Will Never Leave Us – ‘When I Need To Be Reminded Of How To Love And Fight, I Turn To Her Work’; Start With 3 Books More Britney Spears Birds Video With Hundreds Flying Out of Cages ‘Symbolic Of My Year’ More Fauci warns of danger of hospitalization surge due to large number of COVID cases More John Travolta Pal Tells OK ‘He’s Finally Ready For The Right Person’; Says Travolta Wants True Love; Weirdly Avoids Pronouns More ‘Incredible’: Trump supporters recall Capitol siege More Jan. 6 committee ‘looking into’ subpoenas for U.S. Republican lawmakers – chairman More U.S. Chief Justice says judges need ‘rigorous’ training on stock-trading rules More Ghislaine Maxwell Helped Kill Vanity Fair Exposé Of Her Sex Crimes, Newly Resurfaced Interview Reveals More Betty White, working actress into her 90s, dies just shy of her 100th birthday More Load More View the full article

Bell hooks’ books provide a window into her hugely influential theories. Karjean Levine/Getty Images Karsonya Wise Whitehead, Loyola University Maryland I was introduced to the work of bell hooks for the first time when I was 14 years old, sitting on my Nana’s porch, complaining about the mosquitoes and the heat. My Nana, who was probably frustrated by my endless complaints about being bored, stuck a copy of “Ain’t I A Woman” in my hand and told me just to “shut up and read.” I remember that summer because after I read that book, all we talked about was bell hooks and who she was and who I wanted to be. I said then that I wanted to be a writer, like bell hooks, and change the world with my words. I took her words with me when I went off to college, and by then, I had my own dog-eared copies of some of her books. I went to her work whenever I needed to be reminded of my strength. The world felt much safer when bell hooks and Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou were on the front line, carving out a path to freedom and modeling what a Black woman’s resistance to a system hellbent on trying to make them small looked like. bell hooks’ words went with me everywhere, even while they kept taking me back to myself. I, like countless others over the past 40 years, was inspired by bell hooks, who died on Dec. 15, 2021, at 69. As a leading Black intellectual, hooks pushed the feminist movement beyond the preserve of the white and middle-class, encouraging Black and working class perspectives on gender inequality. She taught us about white supremacist capitalist patriarchal values – giving both the words to define it and the methods to dismantle it. And unlike previous generations, she prompted Black women like myself to see ourselves, claim ourselves and love ourselves with an unapologetic fierceness. “No Black woman writer in this culture can write ‘too much,’” bell hooks once wrote, “Indeed, no woman writer can write ‘too much’… No woman has ever written enough.” I used to read her words to my sons when I was holding them in my arms, determined to practice “liberative parenting” and raise my Black sons as Black feminists. I met bell hooks in person several times in my capacity as an activist, an officer of the National Women’s Studies Association and as a scholar of African American studies. I have heard her lecture and have spoken with her, and every time, I was speechless. In her presence, I was once again the 14-year-old, sitting on the porch, diving into her words and finding myself on the other side. Her words, like my Nana’s hugs, always bought me back to myself, telling me, coaxing me, pushing me to become who I was meant to be in this world. I remember speaking her words to the wind, hoping that if I ever forgot who I was, the wind would remind me. Whenever I am hungry for truth, I turn to her work. When I need support or encouragement, I turn to her work. When I need to be reminded of how to love and fight, I turn to her work. So when I heard, read, realized and finally accepted that bell hooks – genius, scholar, cultural critic, truth speaker, one who had the strength to call out and challenge white supremacy and racism time and time again – had run on ahead to see how the end is going to be, all I could do was sit and breathe. I am not OK. None of us – feminists, scholars, activists, truth seekers, survivors – who have ever been touched by her work and her words are OK. Not today. Not at this moment, and not for a minute. It is not enough to say she saved me from cutting off my tongue, because unless you know her genius, you will think that this is just about violence and not about salvation. It is not enough to say that she saved me from burning it all down, because unless you know her brilliance, you will never understand how her words taught me how to come through the fire and be better and stronger on the other side. Because she wrote and published extensively, “bell hooks” the writer – a pen name that she borrowed from her maternal great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks – will never leave us, but Gloria Jean Watkins, did. The sun is not shining as bright as when she was still with us. My son called to mourn with me and wanted to know which books I would recommend to someone who did not know who bell hooks was and did not understand why we were in mourning. I told him that they should start with these three, and once they have recovered from the truth of her words, they should then read her other 30-plus books and scholarly articles. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981) The cover work for the first edition of ‘Ain’t I A Woman’ Wikimedia commons In perhaps one of her most provocative works, hooks provides a true and clear analysis of what it means to live and be a Black woman in a racist, misogynist world. If you want to understand what it means to be Black and a woman, you start here and then keep going. “It is obvious that many women have appropriated feminism to serve their own ends, especially those white women who have been at the forefront of the movement; but rather than resigning myself to this appropriation I choose to re-appropriate the term ‘feminism’, to focus on the fact that to be ‘feminist’ in any authentic sense of the term is to want for all people, female and male, liberation from sexist role patterns, domination, and oppression.” – Ain’t I a Woman Feminist Theory: from margin to center (1984) Cover art for Feminist Theory: from margin to center. Wikimedia Commons When I was in college and struggling with understanding and defining what it meant to be a feminist, my professor Jane Bond Moore gave me her copy of “Feminist Theory” and told me to use it as a blueprint and a guide. This book is bell hooks at her best, wielding her pen as a weapon and using it to call out and critique white feminism and white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy. “Our emphasis must be on cultural transformation: destroying dualism, eradicating systems of domination. Our feminist revolution here can be aided by the example of liberation struggles led by oppressed peoples globally who resist formidable powers. The formation of an oppositional world view is necessary for feminist struggle.” – Feminist Theory Teaching to Transgress (1994) Cover art for Teaching to Transgress. Routledge As a former middle school teacher and current professor, my goal was to learn how to teach students how to transgress and why they should transgress against racial, sexual and class boundaries. “Teaching to Transgress” lights the way for anyone who wants to use the classroom as a starting place to help our students claim agency over their own learning. “We must continually claim theory as necessary practice within a holistic framework of liberatory activism.” – Teaching to Transgress [Understand what’s going on in Washington. Sign up for The Conversation’s Politics Weekly.] Karsonya Wise Whitehead, Executive Director, Karson Institute for Race, Peace, & Social Justice, Loyola University Maryland This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. bell hooks : Love and fight on Towleroad Britney Spears Birds Video With Hundreds Flying Out of Cages ‘Symbolic Of My Year’ More Fauci warns of danger of hospitalization surge due to large number of COVID cases More John Travolta Pal Tells OK ‘He’s Finally Ready For The Right Person’; Says Travolta Wants True Love; Weirdly Avoids Pronouns More ‘Incredible’: Trump supporters recall Capitol siege More Jan. 6 committee ‘looking into’ subpoenas for U.S. Republican lawmakers – chairman More U.S. Chief Justice says judges need ‘rigorous’ training on stock-trading rules More Ghislaine Maxwell Helped Kill Vanity Fair Exposé Of Her Sex Crimes, Newly Resurfaced Interview Reveals More Betty White, working actress into her 90s, dies just shy of her 100th birthday More Violence against women insults God, pope says in New Year’s message More Load More View the full article

https://www.instagram.com/tv/cyior-pvq4u/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Published by OK Magazine MEGA Britney Spears is reflecting on her whirlwind year. 2021 was full of major events for the Princess of Pop, most notably being the termination of the restrictive conservatorship that has taken over her life since 2008. As the year draws to a close, Britney is looking back at her newly-regained freedom. In a cryptic video posted to her Instagram page on Thursday, December 30, the 40-year-old pop star shared a clip of hundreds of birds being released from their cages and flying away into the open sky, which clearly resonated with her in a special way. MEGA “SYMBOLIC of my year this year,” she wrote in the caption, seemingly alluding to the major legal victory that finally liberated her from the “abusive” arrangement under her father Jamie Spears and other conservators. BRITNEY SPEARS’ BEAU SAM ASGHARI SPILLS HE AUDITIONED FOR ‘AND JUST LIKE THAT…’ AS SEASON 2 REPORTEDLY SCRAPPED AFTER CHRIS NOTH SCANDAL Back in November, the judge presiding over Britney’s case decided to terminate the conservatorship, giving the “Toxic” singer the ability to rule her own life again. While she has been celebrating her new freedom alongside her handsome fiancé Sam Asghari, the singing sensation still has a few bones to pick with her family over their involvement in the conservatorship. MEGA “From every angle I was being hurt for no reason and my family was hurting me,” she stated in an Instagram post earlier this week. “They say go to the source for healing …. the person who hurt you … go to them and tell them … I’ve never gotten to do that. I wanted to be nice but what they did to my heart was unforgivable.” “I asked for 13 years to perform new songs and remixes of my old songs …. I had two months off in between each show settings for four years in Vegas … and every time I asked I was told ‘No…’ !!!!!” she explained. “It was a set up to make me fail yet I knew exactly what I wanted my fans to see.” BRITNEY SPEARS WAS AN ‘AMAZING MOM AND SUPER INVOLVED WITH HER KIDS’ AT ART EXHIBIT, FOUNDER SAYS She also insisted that her sister Jamie Lynn Spears was given remixes of Britney’s songs, but “the person who owns the music is told no.” MEGA She went on to say that her family wasted so much of her time “only to embarrass and humiliate” her, which is why she has no interest in producing music anymore. “I’m scared of people and the business,” she added. However, Britney’s fans are still hoping that she will make her return to the music world soon, especially after she previously hinted at having a new song in the works. “Pssss new song in the works … I’m gonna let you know what I mean !!!!!” she cryptically concluded in an Instagram post, as OK! previously reported. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Kanishka Singh (Reuters) -Top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said there was still a danger of a surge in hospitalization due to a large number of coronavirus cases even as early data suggests the Omicron COVID-19 variant is less severe. “The only difficulty is that if you have so many cases, even if the rate of hospitalization is lower with Omicron than it is with Delta, there is still the danger that you will have a surging of hospitalizations that might stress the healthcare system,” Fauci said in an interview on Sunday with CNN. The Omicron variant was estimated to be 58.6% of the coronavirus variants circulating in the United States as of Dec. 25, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The sudden arrival of Omicron has brought record-setting case counts to countries around the world and dampened New Year festivities around the world.. “There will certainly be a lot more cases because this is a much more transmissible virus than Delta is,” Fauci said on CNN. However, “It looks, in fact, that it (Omicron) might be less severe, at least from data that we’ve gathered from South Africa, from the UK and even some from preliminary data from here in the United States,” Fauci said. Fauci added that the CDC will soon be coming out with a clarification on whether people with COVID-19 should test negative to leave isolation, after confusion last week over guidance that would let people leave after five days without symptoms. The CDC had reduced the recommended isolation period for people with asymptomatic COVID to five days, down from 10. The policy does not require testing to confirm that a person is no longer infectious before they go back to work or socialize, causing some experts to raise questions. “You’re right. There has been some concern about why we don’t ask people at that five-day period to get tested. That is something that is now under consideration”, Fauci told ABC News in a separate interview on Sunday. “I think we’re going to be hearing more about that in the next day or so from the CDC.” U.S. authorities registered at least 346,869 new coronavirus on Saturday, according to a Reuters tally. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 rose by at least 377 to 828,562. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Mark Porter) View the full article

=Buck SlipJohn Travolta’s Love life and not a single pronoun in referring to the gender of the love he seeks? But why? In any case we’re pleased to hear he’s coming out of his grief. It’s hard to believe that neither the magazine nor his family and friends used a single pronoun or reference to someone of a specific gender in this entire post (other than in reference to all the women he’s rejected, an army of them.). They must have heard the rumors and seen the photos…but no matter if it’s the magazine or those close to him trying to set the stage for something to happen… we’re glad to hear it and hope he finds a special someone to love for a long time. –Editor Published by OK Magazine MEGA Aiming high! John Travolta is heading into the new year vowing to be the healthiest he’s ever been, but a friend says he’s got an even bigger resolution for 2022 — finding love again. Since losing his wife,Kelly Preston, to breast cancer in 2020, “John has had a hard time with his grief,” shares the pal, “but he’s finally coming around and is taking better care of himself.” MEGA According to the friend, the Pulp Fiction star, 67, has been working out daily with a team of trainers, mixing it up between martial arts, cardio, and yoga. He is also paying attention to his diet by swapping out steak and potatoes for fish and smoothies. “John’s determined to live a long and happy life for his kids,” Ella, 21, and Benjamin, 11. JOHN TRAVOLTA ‘DOING EVERYTHING HE CAN TO HONOR’ LATE WIFE KELLY PRESTON WHILE ‘TAKING IMPORTANT STEPS TOWARD MOVING ON’: SOURCE “He’s really going the extra mile because he’s finally ready for the right person to come into his life,” adds the pal. “Everyone has noticed the positive change in John, and they’re so relieved. They’re crossing their fingers that he’ll find true love again, because he deserves it!” MEGA As OK! previously reported, the Grease alum has become more open to the idea of dipping his toes back into the dating pool since initially being hesitant to date following the tragic loss of his wife. Even though he first “turned down an army of interested women” while still grieving Preston’s death, he “slowly but surely” came around to the idea of finding love again. “John is starting to warm up to the idea of sharing his life with someone special,” a source claimed at the time. “Of course, he’s not going to rush into anything serious so soon, but going on a few dates and sharing a meal and conversation sounds good to him for now.” MEGA ELLA TRAVOLTA ENCOURAGES DAD JOHN TRAVOLTA TO ‘START LIVING LIFE IN FULL AGAIN’ FOLLOWING KELLY PRESTON’S DEATH, CLAIMS INSIDER Another insider insisted that Travolta and Preston previously discussed the topic during one of their final conversations, adding that Preston “lovingly gave John approval to find someone else.” “She told him she didn’t want him to go through life alone. She knew the kids would always be there for him, but she wanted to have a companion and she trusted him to use his judgement.” Travolta was reportedly “touched” by his wife’s words, and a source claimed “they came from the heart. She loved John that much and wanted him to continue living his life.” John Travolta Wants True Love on Towleroad ‘Incredible’: Trump supporters recall Capitol siege More Jan. 6 committee ‘looking into’ subpoenas for U.S. Republican lawmakers – chairman More U.S. Chief Justice says judges need ‘rigorous’ training on stock-trading rules More Ghislaine Maxwell Helped Kill Vanity Fair Exposé Of Her Sex Crimes, Newly Resurfaced Interview Reveals More Betty White, working actress into her 90s, dies just shy of her 100th birthday More Violence against women insults God, pope says in New Year’s message More North Korea’s Kim talks food not nukes for 2022 More Omicron dampens global New Year celebrations, fewer watch ball drop in Times Square More Steve Martin pays tribute to Betty White before 100th birthday and recalls first time meeting legend More Load More View the full article

Published by AFP Thousands of Trump supporters gathered in Washington on January 6, 2021 Washington (AFP) – They descended upon Washington in the thousands, gathering to protest the result of a presidential election they still claim was “rigged.” The US Capitol came under attack, leaving the country wounded. One year after January 6, 2021, three participants recall the events of a day that shocked the world. ‘Euphoria’ “January 6 was incredible,” says Samson Racioppi, a 40-year-old Republican Party stalwart who rented several buses to drive people to Washington from his home state of Massachusetts. The day began with outgoing Republican president Donald Trump addressing a sea of supporters waving “Trump 2020” flags in the biting cold near the White House. Trump fired up the crowd with a defiant speech, repeating his false claims that he won the November election over Democrat Joe Biden. “I remember the actual feeling of that day of euphoria,” said Jim Wood, who came to Washington from New Hampshire. “Seeing all the people.” Before Trump finished speaking, Wood, who is in his 60s, headed towards the Capitol, where Congress was certifying Biden’s election victory. Thousands of others did the same and an enormous crowd quickly assembled around the brilliant white dome of the Capitol building. ‘Let’s go!’ “Then all of a sudden, you heard, I guess, from my remembrance, screams of, you know, ‘Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,'” said Glen Montfalcone, who also came to Washington from Massachusetts. “And then kind of anarchy started happening,” Montfalcone added. “People were pushing, pushing, pushing. ‘Go go, forge forward, forge forward,'” he said. “And so we all did, we all forged forward and just started entering into the area, and then up the stairs.” All three men insist they did not enter the Capitol itself. They could be risking prison if they admitted they did. Hundreds of people did swarm the building, however, including a tattooed, half-naked man wearing horns and a fur hat. One protestor was shot dead by police. The world watched live, aghast, as the citadel of American democracy came under assault. Wood said the televised images he saw broadcast the next day at breakfast were “demonizing” and that the vast majority of the protestors remained outside the Capitol. During the next few months, two competing narratives would arise. Trump supporters claim it was a peaceful protest against a “stolen” election. Police officers who fought with the mob, Democratic lawmakers and even some Republicans called it “terrorism.” FBI at the door In the wake of January 6, law enforcement launched a nationwide sweep for participants in the assault on the Capitol. Montfalcone has had FBI agents turn up at his door. Several friends have been arrested. At his law school, students unsuccessfully attempted to have Racioppi thrown out. In Washington, a House of Representatives committee is investigating what has been described as an insurrection or a coup attempt. The January 6 participants reject this characterization of the day. On the contrary, Racioppi says proudly, “this is something I’m going to tell my grandkids about.” He remains convinced, like many Republicans, that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump, despite the absence of any credible evidence this occurred. The law student said January 6 was just a skirmish in an ongoing conflict. “We’re looking at it as if it’s a war, right?” Racioppi said. “And the war is the elections in November. “And leading up to that war, we’re going to create a series of battles,” he said. “We’re going to cause as much political damage to the left and the people who support tyranny as possible.” Would he do it again? “Of course I would do it again,” he said. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jan Wolfe (Reuters) – The congressional committee investigating last year’s Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is “looking into” issuing subpoenas to Republican members of Congress to force their cooperation, the panel’s chairman said on Sunday. Representative Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” that the committee is examining whether it can lawfully issue subpoenas to sitting members of Congress. “I think there are some questions of whether we have the authority to do it,” Thompson said, according to an interview transcript. “We’re looking at it. If the authorities are there, there’ll be no reluctance on our part.” Thompson is chairman of the House of Representatives Select Committee on Jan. 6, which is expected to hold public hearings and issue reports in the coming months. The Select Committee is trying to establish then-President Donald Trump’s actions while thousands of his supporters attacked police, vandalized the Capitol and sent members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence running for their lives. Congress had been meeting to count the electoral votes giving Democrat Joe Biden the victory in the November 2020 presidential election. Multiple people close to Trump, including conservative media TV hosts, urged him during the riot to make a televised speech telling his supporters to stop the attack. Trump waited hours before releasing a prerecorded message. The committee on Dec. 22 sent a letter to Representative Jim Jordan, a Republican and ardent Trump ally, asking for testimony about his telephone conversations with Trump on Jan. 6. Jordan said in a recent Fox News interview that he had “real concerns” about the committee’s credibility, but was reviewing its letter to him. The request comes two days after a similar letter to Republican Representative Scott Perry. The committee requested Perry’s testimony about Trump’s attempts to oust Jeffrey Rosen, who was acting head of the U.S. Justice Department during the closing weeks of his presidency, and replace him with Jeffrey Clark, an official at the time who tried to help Trump overturn his election defeat. Perry declined to cooperate, posting on Twitter that the committee “is illegitimate, and not duly constituted.” An appeals court ruled earlier in 2021 that the committee was legitimate and entitled to see White House records Trump has tried to shield from public view. (Reporting by Jan Wolfe in Boston; editing by Jonathan Oatis) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jan Wolfe (Reuters) – U.S. federal judges need “more rigorous” ethics training to ensure they are not hearing disputes in which they have a financial interest, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts said in a year-end report published on Friday, citing a recent Wall Street Journal investigation. The newspaper reported in September that 131 federal judges broke disqualification rules and the judicial ethics code by presiding over cases involving companies in which they or family members owned stock. In his annual report on the federal judiciary, Roberts said most judges scrupulously follow the rules, and the violations identified by the Wall Street Journal were mostly “isolated” and “unintentional” oversights caused by conflict-checking procedures failing to reveal a financial conflict. “But for those judges who had multiple violations, or professed ignorance of the ethics rule, there is a more serious problem of inadequate ethics training,” Roberts said in the report. Roberts said the federal judiciary’s policymaking body has already begun to enhance ethics training courses for judges to ensure they are aware of their obligations. “Collectively, our ethics training programs need to be more rigorous,” Roberts said. “That means more classtime, webinars, and consultations. But it also requires greater attention to promoting a culture of compliance, even when busy dockets keep judicial calendars full.” The House of Representatives on Dec. 1 voted 422-4 in favor of a bipartisan bill imposing more stringent public financial reporting requirements on federal district and appellate court judges. The Senate has not yet acted on a companion bill. The Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act, spurred by the Wall Street Journal’s investigation, would set a 45-day window for judges to report stock trades of more than $1,000 and also require the judiciary to post disclosure forms online. (Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien) View the full article

Published by Radar Online SOURCE: US DOJ/MEGA British socialite turned convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell reportedly helped kill a damning Vanity Fair exposé of her sex crimes, according to a newly revealed interview transcript from 2002. According to the newly released transcript, the 60-year-old former lover and confidante of late billionaire and fellow sex offender Jeffrey Epstein pressured a Vanity Fair reporter to kill a scheduled magazine exposé revealing her then-alleged sex crimes nearly 20 years ago. Besides persuading the reporter to kill the exposé, Maxwell also reportedly claimed that Epstein was “very, very good” to his accusers, according to the newly released transcript of the 2002 interview. SOURCE: US DOJ/MEGA Now, days after Maxwell was found guilty of five out of six charges of grooming and trafficking underage girls for her “partner in crime” Jeffrey Epstein in a Manhattan federal court, Vanity Fair reporter Vicky Ward is speaking out regarding both the planned exposé and her subsequent interview with Maxwell from 2002. “We never got to hear from Maxwell herself this whole trial. Her defense’s strategy was to undermine the credibility of the accusers, not to explain her narrative,” Ward says before sharing the 2002 interview transcript with Maxwell on her Substack, an online publishing platform for journalists. “So I went back and looked over the transcript of my 2002 interview with Maxwell about Maria and Annie Farmer, the latter who so bravely testified a couple of weeks ago. It was the one and only conversation I had with her on the topic of Annie and Maria Farmer,” Ward writes, regarding two of Maxwell’s victims who testified during the four-week trial. What follows in the transcript with Maxwell is nothing less than saddening, especially following what was revealed regarding Maxwell, Epstein, and Maria and Annie Farmer during the recent trial. In fact, Ward herself says it was her “eternal regret” that Vanity Fair did not run the 2002 accusations by the Farmer sisters, whose testimony was crucial to Maxwell’s guilty conviction on Thursday. SOURCE: US DOJ/MEGA “These are two girls that benefited greatly from Jeffrey’s generosity, and absolutely nothing untoward in any stretch of the imagination ever took place with them,” Maxwell told Ward during the interview. “You’re going to believe her over me? Is that what you’re saying to me?” Maxwell later asks Ward, according to the transcript as she tries her best to discredit not only the victims but the exposé itself. While the transcript of the interview goes on, perhaps the biggest bombshell Ward recently revealed was how both the exposé, and her interview with Maxwell, were ultimately cut from the magazine following a meeting between Epstein and her Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. “But Vanity Fair had other plans,” Ward writes. “Carter had said I didn’t have sufficient reporting. I disagree.” Now, nearly 20 years after Maxwell allegedly killed a story shining a bright light onto her sex crimes, she has been found guilty by a jury of her peers for the very things she claimed never even occurred. SOURCE: US DOJ/MEGA View the full article

Published by Reuters By Bill Trott (Reuters) -Comedic actress Betty White, who capped a career of more than 80 years by becoming America’s geriatric sweetheart after Emmy-winning roles on television sitcoms “The Golden Girls” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” died on Friday, less than three weeks shy of her 100th birthday. The agent, Jeff Witjas, told People magazine: “Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever.” No cause was cited. In a youth-driven entertainment industry where an actress over 40 faces career twilight, White was an anomaly who was a star in her 60s and a pop culture phenomenon in her 80s and 90s. Playing on her eminent likability, White was still starring in a TV sitcom, “Hot in Cleveland,” at age 92 until it was canceled in late 2014. White said her longevity was a result of good health, good fortune and loving her work. “It’s incredible that I’m still in this business and that you are still putting up with me,” White said in an appearance at the 2018 Emmy Awards ceremony, where she was honored for her long career. “It’s incredible that you can stay in a career this long and still have people put up with you. I wish they did that at home.” White was not afraid to mock herself and throw out a joke about her sex life or a snarky crack that one would not expect from a sweet-smiling, white-haired elderly woman. She was frequently asked if, after such a long career, there was anything she still wanted to do and the standard response was “Robert Redford.” “She was great at defying expectation. She managed to grow very old and somehow, not old enough. We’ll miss you, Betty,” former costar and friend Ryan Reynolds wrote in a Twitter post. “Old age hasn’t diminished her,” the New York Times wrote in 2013. “It has given her a second wind.” Minutes after news emerged of her death, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters: “That’s a shame. She was a lovely lady.” His wife Jill Biden said: “Who didn’t love Betty White? We’re so sad about her death.” Betty Marion White was born on Jan. 17, 1922, in Oak Park, Illinois, and her family moved to Los Angeles during the Great Depression, where she attended Beverly Hills High School. A DEBUT IN THE 1930s White started her entertainment career in radio in the late 1930s and by 1939 had made her TV debut singing on an experimental channel in Los Angeles. After serving in the American Women’s Voluntary Service, which helped the U.S. effort during World War Two, she was a regular on “Hollywood on Television,” a daily five-hour live variety show, in 1949. A few years later she became a pioneering woman in television by co-founding a production company and serving as a co-creator, producer and star of the 1950s sitcom “Life with Elizabeth.” Through the 1960s and early ’70s White was seen regularly on television, hosting coverage of the annual Tournament of Rose Parade and appearing on game shows such as “Match Game” and “Password.” She married “Password” host Allen Ludden, her third and final husband, in 1963. White reached a new level of success on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” playing the host of a home-making television show, the snide, lusty Sue Ann Nivens, whose credo was “a woman who does a good job in the kitchen is sure to reap her rewards in other parts of the house.” White won best-supporting actress Emmys for the role in 1975 and 1976. She won another Emmy in 1986 for “The Golden Girls,” a sitcom about four older women living together in Miami that featured an age demographic rarely highlighted on American television. White also was nominated for an Emmy six other times for her portrayal of the widowed Rose Nylund, a sweet, naive and ditzy Midwesterner, on the show, which ran from 1985 to 1992 and was one of the top-rated series of its time. After a less successful sequel to “The Golden Girls” came a series of small movie parts, talk-show appearances and one-off television roles, including one that won her an Emmy for a guest appearance on “The John Larroquette Show.” By 2009 she was becoming ubiquitous with more frequent television appearances and a role in the Sandra Bullock film “The Proposal.” She starred in a popular Snickers candy commercial that aired during the Super Bowl, taking a brutal hit in a mud puddle in a football game. A young fan started a Facebook campaign to have White host “Saturday Night Live” and she ended up appearing in every sketch on the show and winning still another Emmy for it. The Associated Press voted her entertainer of the year in 2010 and a 2011 Reuters/Ipsos poll found that White, then 89, was the most popular and trusted celebrity in America with an 86% favorability rating. White’s witty and brassy demeanor came in handy as host of “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers,” a hidden-camera show in which elderly actors pulled pranks on younger people. “Who would ever dream that I would not only be this healthy, but still be invited to work?” White said in a 2015 interview with Oprah Winfrey. White, who had no children, worked for animal causes. She once turned down a role in the movie “As Good as It Gets” because of a scene in which a dog was thrown in a garbage chute. She looked forward to her milestone birthday, writing on Twitter just three days before her death, “My 100th birthday … I cannot believe it is coming up.” (Writing by Bill Trott; Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Diane Craft, Howard Goller and Lisa Shumaker) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Francis used his New Year’s message on Saturday to issue a clarion call for an end to violence against women, saying it was insulting to God. Francis, 85, celebrated a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on the day the Roman Catholic Church marks both the solemnity of Holy Mary Mother of God as well as its annual World Day of Peace. Francis appeared to be in good form on Saturday following an unexplained incident on New Year’s Eve where he attended a service but at the last minute did not preside over it as he had been expected to. At the start of the Mass on Saturday, he walked the entire length of the central aisle of basilica, as opposed to Friday night, when he emerged from a side entrance close to the altar and watched from the sidelines. Francis suffers from a sciatica condition that causes pain in the legs, and sometimes a flare up prevents him from standing for long periods. Francis wove his New Year’s homily around the themes of motherhood and women – saying it was they who kept together the threads of life – and used it to make one of his strongest calls yet for an end to violence against them. “And since mothers bestow life, and women keep the world (together), let us all make greater efforts to promote mothers and to protect women,” Francis said. “How much violence is directed against women! Enough! To hurt a woman is to insult God, who from a woman took on our humanity – not through an angel, not directly, but through a woman,” he said, in a reference to Jesus’s mother Mary. During an Italian television programme last month, Francis told a woman who had been beaten by her ex-husband that men who commit violence against women engage in something that is “almost satanic”. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began nearly two years ago, Francis has several times spoken out against domestic violence, which has increased in many countries since lockdowns left many women trapped with their abusers. Public participation at the Mass was lower than in some past years because of COVID restrictions. Italy, which surrounds Vatican City, reported https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italy-reports-record-144243-coronavirus-cases-155-deaths-2021-12-31 a record 144,243 coronavirus related cases on Friday and has recently imposed new measures such as an obligation to wear masks outdoors. In the text of his Message for the World Day of Peace, issued last month, Francis said nations should divert money spent on armaments to invest in education, and decried growing military costs at the expense of social services. The annual peace message is sent to heads of state and international organisations, and the pope gives a signed copy to leaders who make official visits to him at the Vatican during the upcoming year. (Reporting by Philip PullellaEditing by Peter Graff) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Josh Smith SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korean leader Kim Jong Un capped off his 10th year in power with a speech that made more mention of tractor factories and school uniforms than nuclear weapons or the United States, according to summaries by state media on Saturday. North Korea’s main goals for 2022 will be jump starting economic development and improving people’s lives as it faces a “great life-and-death struggle,” Kim said in a speech on Friday at the end of the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), which began on Monday. The meetings coincided with the 10-year anniversary of Kim https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/nkorea-after-10-years-kim-jong-un-better-armed-more-isolated-than-ever-2021-12-15 effectively assuming leadership of the country after the death of his father in 2011. Kim has used previous speeches around the New Year to make major policy announcements, including launching significant diplomatic engagements with South Korea and the United States. But summaries of his speech published in North Korean state media made no specific mention of the United States, with only a passing reference to unspecified discussions of inter-Korean relations and “external affairs.” The domestic focus of the speech underscored the economic problems Kim faces at home, where self-imposed anti-pandemic border lockdowns have left North Korea more isolated than ever before, with international aid organisations warning of possible food shortages and a humanitarian crisis. “The main task facing our Party and people next year is to provide a sure guarantee for the implementation of the five-year plan and bring about a remarkable change in the state development and the people’s standard of living,” Kim was quoted as saying. Kim spent the majority of his speech detailing domestic issues from an ambitious plan for rural development to people’s diets, school uniforms and the need to crack down on “non-socialist practices.” The big focus on rural development is likely a populist strategy, said Chad O’Carroll, founder of NK News, a Seoul-based website that tracks North Korea. “Overall, Kim might be aware that revealing sophisticated military development plans while people are suffering food shortages and harsh conditions outside of Pyongyang might not be such a good idea this year,” he wrote on Twitter. Saturday’s state media report cited the development of “one ultra-modern weapon system after another” as a major achievement of the past year and said Kim called for bolstering the national defence to face an unstable international situation. A tractor factory he discussed in the speech was likely used to build launch vehicles for missiles, foreign analysts have said, and North Korea is believed to have expanded its arsenal despite the lockdowns. The reports of Kim’s speech did not mention the United States’ call for denuclearisation talks, or South Korea’s push for a declaration to formally end the 1950-1953 Korean War as a way to restart those negotiations. North Korea has previously said it is open to diplomacy, but that the American overtures appear hollow while “hostile acts” such as military drills and sanctions continue. (Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Chris Reese and Neil Fullick) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Daniel Trotta (Reuters) – The Omicron coronavirus variant dampened New Year festivities around much of the world, with Paris cancelling its fireworks show, London relegating its to television, and New York City scaling down its famous ball drop celebration in Times Square. The illuminated ball made of Waterford crystal panels slid down its pole at the midnight hour in Times Square, but only 15,000 spectators were allowed into the official viewing area instead of the usual 58,000. A year ago, the newly available vaccine offered hope that the COVID-19 pandemic may be under control by the start of 2022. Instead, the sudden arrival of Omicron has brought a surge in coronavirus cases across the globe. Worldwide infections hit a record high over the past seven-day period, with an average of just over a million cases detected a day between Dec. 24 and 30, up some 100,000 on the previous peak posted on Wednesday, according to Reuters data. Deaths, however, have not risen in kind, bringing hope the new variant is less lethal. New York City reported a record 44,000 cases on Wednesday and another 43,000 on Thursday, leading some critics to question whether the celebrations should go ahead at all. But officials decided an outdoor party of vaccinated, masked and socially distant revellers was safe, and a better option than the virtually vacant celebration that rung in 2021. “I would be lying if I said I’m not concerned,” said Sue Park, a Columbia University student who was one of the 15,000 allowed to watch in person. “Definitely I think it’s worth it to come and celebrate. It will just be more meaningful to be in the crowd.” Elsewhere around the globe, events were scaled back or cancelled outright, such as with the traditional fireworks over the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Midnight passed in Paris without a planned fireworks display or DJ sets, as city officials cancelled events planned on the Champs-Elysees following the advice of a scientific panel that declared mass gatherings would be too risky. In the Netherlands, where outside groupings of more than four people are banned, police dispersed several thousand people who had defiantly gathered at Amsterdam’s central Dam Square, ANP news agency reported. But in London, where a fireworks display and light show had been cancelled in October, officials announced on Friday the spectacle would come to life on the television screen, as Big Ben rang in the New Year for the first time since 2017 following a restoration. BBC images of the fireworks showed very light vehicle traffic and virtually no in-person spectators. Earlier, Britain a study of a million cases that found those with Omicron were around a third as likely to need hospitalisation as those with the previously dominant Delta variant. The results were “in keeping with the encouraging signs we have already seen,” said Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency. In the wake of encouraging data, Cape Town abruptly lifted a curfew just in time for the New Year, after South Africa became the first country to declare its Omicron wave had crested – and with no huge surge in deaths. South Africa had first raised the alarm about the new fast-spreading coronavirus variant racing around the world. “I’m just hoping that Cape Town goes back to the old Cape Town that we all knew about,” said Michael Mchede, manager of a Hard Rock cafe by the white sands of Camps Bay Beach, who was thrilled to get the place ready to host an unexpected bash. Hours earlier, the Australian city of Sydney also feted the New Year with something like full swagger, as spectacular fireworks glittered in the harbour above the Opera House. People in Madrid queued for hours to get into the main Puerta del Sol square where celebrations went ahead with multiple security checkpoints, mandatory masks and capacity at 60% of normal levels. Saul Pedrero, a 34-year old clerk, made the trip from Barcelona, which has some of Spain’s strictest controls, including a 1 a.m. curfew. “It seems like another country. Here you can do everything and nobody says anything,” he said. A lavish firework display lit up the festivities, which Spaniards mark by stuffing 12 grapes into their mouths to accompany each chime of the clock striking midnight. In Asia, celebrations were mostly abridged or cancelled. In South Korea, a traditional midnight bell-ringing ceremony was cancelled for the second year, while festivities were banned in Tokyo’s glittering Shibuya entertainment district, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida took to YouTube to urge people to wear masks and limit numbers at parties. China, where the coronavirus first emerged in late 2019, was on high alert, with the city of Xian under lockdown and New Year events in other cities cancelled. (This story was refiled to fix spelling of “pole” in second paragraph.) (Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Nick Macfie, Rosalba O’Brien, Chris Reese and Neil Fullick) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Steve Martin was “elated” the first time he met Betty White. The ‘Only Murders in the Building’ actor – who first met the ‘Golden Girls’ legend almost 50 years ago – shared a sweet anecdote as he paid tribute in the run up to her 100th birthday on January 17th. The 76-year-old comedian wrote on Twitter: “In 1974, I was an obscure opening act for Linda Ronstadt at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Passing through the lobby before the show, I saw Betty White and her husband Allen Ludden waiting in line.” In another tweet, the ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ star gushed about how much he “loved” the iconic actress – who featured in the 1970s classic sitcom ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ and her own programme ‘The Betty White Show’ – and how he was “elated” she and Allen had come to see him. He tweeted: “I loved Betty White, so I went up to them: ‘I’m so honored to meet you both.’ And then I said, ‘Isn’t Linda great?’ “She said, ‘We came to see you.’ I said, ‘Why?’ ‘Because we heard you were funny.’ I was elated.” He’s not the only celebrity to wish the ‘Hot in Cleveland’ actress – who has worked in Hollywood since the 1940s and was inducted to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 1995 – an early birthday. Ryan Reynolds – who Betty collaborated with on the 2009 romantic comedy ‘The Proposal’ alongside Sandra Bullock – revealed he has been an admirer of her’s “for as long as I can remember” and opined about her comic timing. The 45-year-old actor added: “I heard that scripts for Golden Girls were only 35 pages, which makes sense because so many of the laughs come from Betty simply looking at her castmates.” Speaking to PEOPLE magazine, he joked Betty is “a typical Capricorn” as she “sleeps all day” and is “out all night boozing and snacking on men.” Responding to his words, she joked to the publication: “I’ve heard Ryan can’t get over his thing for me but Robert Redford is The One.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Brad Brooks (Reuters) -Dana Fenner’s hands were full of New Year’s Eve hats and horns as she perused an aisle at a Party City store in Texas, not hesitating for a second when asked about her hopes for 2022. “Normalcy. I want everything to get back to normal,” Fenner said, as she shopped for the low-key, homespun festivities that she, her husband and three children planned on Friday. Pandemic-weary Americans shared Fenner’s desire as they prepared to send off 2021 amid a sharp increase in coronavirus cases as the Omicron variant rapidly spreads https://www.reuters.com/world/us/experts-warn-omicron-blizzard-disrupt-us-next-month-2021-12-30 and pushes the U.S. to record case levels. In some spots, including Los Angeles, the latest virus wave shattered official New Year’s Eve bash plans. But New York and several other cities say the party will go on, even if in a curtailed fashion. New York City’s bash – the biggest and most iconic in the United States – will once again be carried out in a scaled-down way https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-york-city-scale-down-new-years-eve-celebrations-times-square-2021-12-23, city officials said. But it will be far larger than a year ago when only a few dozen people https://www.reuters.com/world/us/after-year-like-no-other-new-yorks-times-square-empties-out-new-years-eve-2020-12-31 were invited to watch the ball drop in Times Square. For decades, partygoers have filled the streets around Times Square on New Year’s Eve, standing for hours in the cold waiting to see a glittering crystal ball glide down a pole mounted atop a building in the year’s final seconds. When the ball reaches the bottom, the crowds erupt in hugs, kisses and good cheer. About 15,000 people who show proof of full vaccination will be allowed inside a fenced area to witness the ball drop this year – about a fourth of a pre-pandemic year. But it’s still a world away from where the city was a year ago, said Paul Warshaw, a co-founder of balldrop.com https://www.balldrop.com, who has spent two decades producing parties largely focused on New Year’s Eve celebrations. After having no events last year, Warshaw said that he’s producing about 40 events catering to upward of 25,000 people on Friday in New York. That’s in line with pre-pandemic levels. “There is a good amount of excitement, though people are proceeding with caution,” Warshaw said, stressing that all his indoor events would adhere to strict proof-of-vaccination and other safety policies. Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci urged people to avoid large gatherings to celebrate the arrival of 2022. Speaking on CNN this week, Fauci told people to stay away from big parties, saying “there will be other years to do that, but not this year.” Fauci said family gatherings of people who are vaccinated and had received the booster shot were safe. Chris Beyrer, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said stubbornly low levels of vaccine coverage in the U.S., which stand at about 63% fully vaccinated, make this New Year’s Eve far more dangerous than it should have to be. “It’s one of the coldest times of the year, so that means the celebrations are happening inside,” he said. “And it’s those indoor celebrations that we worry about, especially those mixing generations.” Adding to the worry, Beyrer said, are the frustratingly inadequate levels of testing available for people who want to take one to ensure parties they host or attend are as safe as possible. Despite a livelier atmosphere this year as compared to a year ago, the realities of the Omicron wave of cases has hit some cities and high-level names hard. Los Angeles earlier this month reversed plans for an outdoor countdown party in Grand Park, opting to stream the celebration for the second year in a row. Rapper LL Cool J on Wednesday said he had tested positive for COVID-19 and had to step down as a headliner on ABC’s annual ball drop show, “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.” And TMZ reported this week that Sean “Diddy” Combs had canceled his star-studded bash in Miami, telling 500 invitees that coronavirus made it an untenable party for the second straight year. (Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock, TexasEditing by Diane Craft) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Billy Joel says Taylor Swift is “this generation’s Beatles”. The ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ legend compared the country-turned-pop singer to iconic ‘Hey Jude’ band as he weighed in on both the ‘Shake If Off’ star and ‘Easy On Me’ hitmaker. Adele. Asked for his opinion on current artists, he told USA Today: “Adele is a phenomenal singer, kind of a [Barbra] Streisand throwback. “Taylor [Swift] is also a very talented girl and she’s productive and keeps coming up with great concepts and songs and she’s huge. You have to give her high marks. She knows music and she knows how to write. She’s like that generation’s Beatles.” Meanwhile, the 73-year-old father of two – who has daughters Remy, four, and Della Rose, six, with wife Alexis Roderick – admitted while he doesn’t listen to much pop music nowadays, his kids keep him up to date and they love hearing contemporary stars referencing the ‘Piano Man’ legend. He added: “My kids listen to pop music – I really don’t too much – and I’ll be in the car with them when they make me turn (the radio) on and I might hear a reference to me. Della came home from school one day and said, “Daddy, everybody knows who you are!” And Billy explained that despite the younger generation knowing who he is, as a child he never listened to “his parents’ music”. He said: “When I was a kid, my generation didn’t take to my parents’ music. They liked classical but also Sinatra and probably Perry Como and those kinds of singers. We kind of left them in the past and moved on to the new stuff, the Elvis generation and the Beatles generation and disco and the ’80s. “We weren’t a back-looking generation and there are a lot of younger people now looking backward and they like their parents’ music, which is a strange phenomenon. I look out (in the crowd) and see so many young people. I’m grateful for it, especially because they make more noise. It’s a great mix.” View the full article