The Canadian Press – May 19, 2021 / 7:21 pm | Story: 334485

Billy Porter has broken his silence over his HIV diagnosis, saying he told nearly no one for 14 years out of shame and fear of retaliation and marginalization in his industry.

“The truth is the healing. And I hope this frees me. I hope this frees me so that I can experience real, unadulterated joy, so that I can experience peace, so that I can experience intimacy, so that I can have sex without shame. This is for me,” the award-winning “Pose” star told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Wednesday.

The 51-year-old Porter, who won an Emmy for his HIV-positive character Pray Tell on the FX series, said the isolation of the pandemic led him to reflect on his secret, kept from his mother and those involved with his ballroom drama set in New York at the height of the AIDS crisis in the ’80s.

Telling his mother was the most difficult. Having grown up in the Pentecostal church, in an intensely religious family, the stage and screen star said the shame of being queer was compounded by his HIV status.

“She said, ‘You’ve been carrying this around for 14 years? Don’t ever do this again. I’m your mother, I love you no matter what. And I know I didn’t understand how to do that early on, but it’s been decades now,’” Porter recalled.

He said he’s now the “healthiest I’ve ever been.”

Porter called 2007, the year he was diagnosed, the worst year of his life. In addition to his HIV status, he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes that year, and he signed bankruptcy papers.

“I survived so that I could tell the story. That’s what I’m here for,” he said. “I’m the vessel, and emotionally that was sufficient — until it wasn’t. Until I got married (in 2017). Now I’m trying to have a family; now it’s not just me. It’s time to grow up and move on because shame is destructive — and if not dealt with, it can destroy everything in its path.”

The LGBTQ watchdog group GLAAD praised Porter for his candor.

“The tremendous levels of stigma facing people living with HIV today can only be broken by icons like Billy Porter showing the world that HIV is not at all a barrier to a healthy and successful life,” said DaShawn Usher, the group’s associate director for communities of color.

Porter’s series is in its third season, the final round for the show. He’s writing a memoir, working on a Netflix documentary about his life and will play a genderless Fairy Godmother this year in a new film take on “Cinderella,” scheduled for release in September on Amazon Prime.

WENN – May 19, 2021 / 12:19 pm | Story: 334429

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The Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival World Premiere of Citizens of Boomtown at Cineworld, Dublin.

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Irish pop star Sinead O’Connor was once allegedly “chastised” by Prince for her swearing and thumped during a pillow fight after she was invited to his Hollywood home.

The singer, aka Shuhada’ Sadaqat, claims she was summoned to Prince’s “macabre Hollywood mansion” back in 1991, a year after scoring the biggest hit of her career with a cover of the Purple Rain icon’s song, Nothing Compares 2 U, but the meeting was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Sinead details the encounter in her upcoming memoir, Rememberings, and according to an excerpt obtained by The New York Times, she alleges Prince “chastised her for swearing in interviews, harangued his butler to serve her soup though she repeatedly refused it, and sweetly suggested a pillow fight, only to thump her with something hard he’d slipped into his pillowcase”.

She was so shocked by the way she was reportedly being treated, Sinead “escaped on foot in the middle of the night”, only for Prince to stalk her with his car, ultimately leaping out of the vehicle and chasing her down the highway.

Recalling the purported experience with Prince, who died in 2016, Sinead told the newspaper: “You’ve got to be crazy to be a musician, but there’s a difference between being crazy and being a violent abuser of women.”

Although the two didn’t get along, Sinead is proud of her version of Nothing Compares 2 U, and takes full ownership of the track’s success, stating, “As far as I’m concerned, it’s my song.”

However, she believes the single’s huge popularity actually harmed her music career, because it turned her into a pop star, when she considered herself to be a punk protest singer.

The musician, who famously tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II when she appeared as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live in 1992, writes in her book: “I feel that having a No. 1 record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track.”

Explaining how she felt after topping the charts, she told the Times: “The media was making me out to be crazy because I wasn’t acting like a pop star was supposed to act.

“It seems to me that being a pop star is almost like being in a type of prison. You have to be a good girl.”

WENN – May 19, 2021 / 12:18 pm | Story: 334428

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“Changeland” Premiere at ArcLight Hollywood on June 3, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA

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Dax Shepard was banned from a talk show after a “disaster” interview.

The 46-year-old actor appeared on CONAN in 2004 in the middle of his addiction and he ended up doing the pre-interview in a blackout and having to be “shaken awake” by a security guard.

“Professionally, the only wreckage I really had while I was an addict was I went on Conan,” speaking on Blake Griffin’s The Pursuit of Healthiness podcast. “I had done the pre-interview in a blackout, and I woke up to the hotel security shaking me awake, and I was with a stranger, and the stranger had peed the bed, or I had peed the bed – someone had peed the bed.”

And when the interview itself took place, Dax admitted he was a “mess” and even broke a coffee table, leading him to be “banned” from the show until he got sober.

“I show up on the show. I don’t know what he’s talking about,” he added. “I can tell he’s queuing me up for stories I’ve told, but I don’t know any of the stories. So, I’m just doing what I can to be funny out there, and I am a mess.

“But for him, what a disaster. I didn’t know any of the stories. I broke a coffee table. So I was banned from that show for some years, until I got sober and I got myself back on it, and now I’ve been on it a bazillion times, but that was probably the only career wreckage-y thing I did.”

Dax is father to daughters Delta, six, and Lincoln, eight, with his wife Kristen Bell.

WENN – May 19, 2021 / 12:18 pm | Story: 334427

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2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony – at Barclays Center – Red Carpet Arrivals

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Duran Duran have announced their first album in six years, Future Past.

Simon Le Bon and his bandmates have returned with their first new music since their 2015 LP Paper Gods, Invisible, the first track taken from their upcoming studio effort, which features the likes of Blur’s Graham Coxon and Lykke Li.

On their official store, the Wild Boys hitmakers – who are set to debut the single live at the Billboard Music Awards on 23 May (21) – have

teased that the 12-track collection “features special guests Graham Coxon” of” Blur” on guitar, Mike Garson from David Bowie’s band on piano,” and”guest vocals from”Lykke Li,” with more “exciting” collaborations” to be announced.”

The group has worked with studio wizards Giorgio Moroder, Mark Ronson and Erol Alkan on the new tunes, which suggests fans can expect music to dance to as they are all from the dance scene.

Simon appeared on BBC Radio 2’s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on Wednesday morning (19May21) and explained they didn’t feel it was

the appropriate time to release a “party tune” due to the global pandemic, but teased that fans can expect one on the record.

“We haven’t decided what order they are in yet and we haven’t finished some of them yet,” he said. “But there is some really good music on there.

“Invisible is a great way to start, I think, because it’s not a party tune. We didn’t feel it was right these days to come out with a party banger because we are still in these hard times, and I think Invisible is the right opener for us – but we’ve got the party banger coming.”

A full track-listing will be confirmed in due course.

Future Past is released on 22 October.

WENN – May 19, 2021 / 12:17 pm | Story: 334426

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ASAP Rocky aka Rakim Mayers Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2013 – Alexander Wang – Celebrity Sightings

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A$AP Rocky has declared Bajan superstar Rihanna the “love of his life”.

The Wild for the Night rapper, real name Rakim Mayers, started dating the chart-topping singer last year (21), with the couple spending Christmas together in Barbados. Although they have never publicly confirmed their relationship, in an interview with GQ magazine, the 32-year-old New Yorker, couldn’t help but gush about dating the Work hitmaker, describing her as, “The love of my life” and “My lady.”

When asked what’s it like to be in a relationship he told GQ Magazine: “So much better. So much better when you got the One.”

He continued: “She amounts to probably, like, a million of the other ones. I think when you know, you know. She’s the One.”

Discussing the couple’s winter trip to Barbados, where Rihanna’s family live and Rocky’s father hailed from, before he emigrated to the U.S., he explained how he immediately felt a sense of belonging.

“It was like a homecoming thing,” he said. “It was crazy. I always imagined what it would be like for my dad, before he came to America. And I got to visit those places, and believe it or not, there was something nostalgic about it. It was foreign but familiar.”

Now the star, a self-confessed sex addict who admitted to taking part in orgies as a teenager, claimed he might be ready to embrace fatherhood.

“If that’s in my destiny, absolutely,” when asked if he is ready to be a father. “I think I’m already a dad! All these motherf**kers (his rivals) are already my sons”whatchu talkin’ ’bout!

“Nah, but like, I think I’d be an incredible, remarkably, overall amazing dad. I would have a very fly child. Very.”

Rocky also shared he and Rihanna went on a road trip last summer, traveling in a massive tour bus from L.A. to N.Y.C, with stops in Memphis and other cities, and a few national parks along the way.

“Being able to drive and do a tour without feeling like it was an occupation or an obligated job agreement, I feel like that experience is like none other,” Rocky recalled. “I never experienced nothing like it.”

WENN – May 19, 2021 / 12:16 pm | Story: 334425

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2016 Grammys Radio Row presented by Westwood One held at Staples Center – Day 2 – Arrivals

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Tragic dance superstar Avicii has been saluted in his native Sweden by having a Stockhom arena renamed in his honor.

Originally named Ericsson Globe when it first launched in 1989 – the year of Avicii’s birth, it was later revamped as the Stockholm Globe Arena, and will now be known as Avicii Arena in memory of the Levels hitmaker, real name Tim Bergling.

The indoor live music venue, which is shaped like a large white ball, is one of the country’s largest, with a capacity of 16,000, and was the site of one of the DJ’s breakthrough gigs.

“It was a significant milestone in Tim’s career when he played here nine years ago, and he would be extremely proud that this iconic building from today will bear his name,” Avicii’s father, Klas Bergling, shared in a statement.

The musician took his own life in April, 2018, aged 28, and his parents subsequently launched the Tim Bergling Foundation to raise awareness about mental health issues.

Klas added that Avicii Arena will serve as “the hub for sharing ideas and host activities with the focus on young peoples’ mental health”.

In celebration of the venue renaming, members of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra have shared a classical revamp of the late star’s song For a Better Day, performed by teenage Swedish singer Ella Tiritiello.

WENN – May 19, 2021 / 12:16 pm | Story: 334424

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2019 MTV Movie And TV Awards

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Actress Mischa Barton has blamed “general bullying” behind the scenes of The O.C. for her exit from the hit teen drama.

Barton played Marissa Cooper for three seasons on the popular TV series, which catapulted her and her co-stars, Rachel Bilson, Adam Brody, and Ben McKenzie, to fame, but her time on set wasn’t the best experience, because there were times when she felt “very unprotected”.

She said: “It’s a bit complicated. It started pretty early on because it had a lot to do with them adding Rachel in last minute as, after the first season, a series regular and evening out everybody’s pay – and sort of general bullying from some of the men on set that kind of felt really s**tty.

“But, you know, I also loved the show and had to build up my own walls and ways of getting around dealing with that and the fame that was thrust specifically at me. Just dealing with like, the amount of invasion I was having in my personal life, I just felt very unprotected, I guess is the best way to put it.”

Mischa admits she had previously shied away from publicly discussing what had happened because she was embarrassed.

“I’ve always felt ashamed in a way to really talk about what went on behind the scenes because I’ve always been a very private person and very aware of people’s feelings,” she said. “Now that we’re living in this era where we do speak out about our experiences and women do come clean about what was really going on behind the scenes and how they were treated, it’s a slightly different thing.”

Mischa insists leaving the show after its third season was the “best thing” for her and her health.

Speaking to E! News, she shared: “I was getting offers from big films at the time and having to turn them down. I had always been (in) supporting (roles) in The Sixth Sense and any of those things. My dream was to be offered those lead roles, so that’s what happened. It just felt like it was the best thing for me and my health and just in terms of not really feeling protected by my cast and crew at that point.”

WENN – May 19, 2021 / 12:15 pm | Story: 334423

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LACMA Art + Film Gala held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, California.

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Naomi Campbell has told fans she’s “humbled and honored” by their well-wishes after her surprise news that she’s a first-time mother..

The 50-year-old model took to Instagram on Tuesday (18May21) to reveal she’s welcomed a “beautiful little blessing”, adding: “So honored to have this gentle soul in my life there are no words to describe the lifelong bond that I now share with you my angel. There is no greater love.”

She was inundated with messages of congratulations from her devotees and, as she took part in a YouTube streaming of her No Filter interview with Diane von Furstenberg, Naomi wrote: “Hello my darlings , thank you so much for the pre birthday wishes …and for my new chapter as a mother I’m honored and humbled. BLESS YOU ALL.”

When one fan commented they were “surprised” to see Naomi participate in the chat, she replied: “IM HANDS ON ,NO FILTER IS MY OTHER. BABY.”

Naomi’s remarks come as it’s been reported that she’s been living in New York with her “secret boyfriend”.

“Naomi has really mellowed in the past year and is in a wonderful place in life,” a source told Britain’s The Sun newspaper. “She has been living in America with her boyfriend and is really happy. It finally felt like the ­perfect time to become a mother and she is over the moon.”

The supermodel’s previous beaus include Skepta and Liam Payne.

Following Naomi’s baby announcement on Tuesday, her mom Valerie was quick to offer her congratulations, writing: “Congratulations to my daughter Naomi on the birth of her daughter, I’m beyond thrilled as I’ve waited a longtime (sic) to be grandmother. @naomi.”

Naomi then replied: “We love you Mom.”

WENN – May 18, 2021 / 8:08 pm | Story: 334374

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World premiere of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures ‘Avengers: Endgame’ – Arrivals

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A Texas man is suing Gwyneth Paltrow and her Goop partners after one of her vagina candles allegedly flared up.

Colby Watson purchased the This Smells Like My Vagina candle online in January (21) and lit it up for the first time weeks later, before placing it on his nightstand.

He claims that after burning for “an estimated three hours or less”, the candle became engulfed in high flames and exploded soon afterward… and the room was filled with smoke”.

He alleges the candle also left a nasty black burn ring on his nightstand.

According to legal documents obtained by TMZ, Watson acknowledges the candle comes with a warning, which cautions users not to burn it for more than two hours at a time, but he insists that is insufficient.

He claims Goop failed to warn customers the candle could cause significant injuries, calling it “inherently dangerous”.

He’s suing Paltrow’s company for breach of warranty and products liability and is trying to put together a class action lawsuit seeking damages exceeding $5 million .

A spokesperson for Goop tells the outlet: “We’re confident this claim is frivolous and an attempt to secure an outsized payout from a press-heavy product.

“We stand behind the brands we carry and the safety of the products we sell. Here, Heretic – the brand that supplies the candle – has substantiated the product’s performance and safety through industry standard testing.”

Paltrow launched the popular line of This Smells Like My Vagina candles in early 2020, and it has become one of the company’s bestselling items.

WENN – May 18, 2021 / 8:07 pm | Story: 334373

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The Art Of Elysium’s 11th Annual Black Tie Artistic Experience HEAVEN at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California.

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Actress Bonnie Somerville has been cited for driving under the influence.

The NYPD Blue star was found sitting behind the wheel of her Mercedes-Benz on the shoulder of the Interstate 405 near Inglewood, Los Angeles on Sunday night (16May21), when she told police she had run out of petrol.

However, officers claim they could smell alcohol on her breath and asked her to complete a field sobriety test, which she failed.

She was taken into custody and booked for DUI, and was subsequently released, reports TMZ.

Somerville’s representatives have yet to comment on the incident.

The Canadian Press – May 18, 2021 / 4:26 pm | Story: 334346

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Rapper T.I.

Rapper T.I. and his wife Tameka “Tiny” Harris are under investigation by police in Los Angeles after a sexual abuse allegation.

Los Angeles Police Officer Rosario Cervantes said Tuesday that an active investigation is underway. The investigation comes after a woman in Los Angeles and another in Las Vegas filed a police report that accused the couple of sexual assault.

A report was taken April 8 for a sexual assault involving the couple that occurred in 2005, Cervantes said. The police did not provide any additional details.

Las Vegas police received a report this month of a sexual assault incident in 2010 involving the couple. But the case was closed because it was reported outside the statute of limitations.

Steve Sadow, the attorney for T.I. and his wife, said his clients “steadfastly deny and repudiate” all the allegations. He said the couple has not spoken or been contacted by police in Los Angeles, Las Vegas or any other jurisdiction in the country.

“The LAPD ‘accuser’ once again remains anonymous, thereby preventing us from being in a position to disprove or refute her allegations — or even examine them,” Sadow said. “Meanwhile, although we now have for the first time a name of an ‘accuser,’ who apparently filed a police report with (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police), we have essentially no specifics about her or her claim, and her attorney has thus far refused to disclose a copy of the report for public scrutiny.”

The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted.

In March, attorney Tyrone A. Blackburn said more than 30 women contacted him accusing T.I. and his wife of “forced drugging, kidnapping, rape and intimidation” in at least two states, including California and Georgia. He said the allegations span more than 15 years.

A spokesperson for T.I. and Tiny denied those accusations.

Production for the VH1 reality series “T.I. & Tiny: Friends & Family Hustle” was suspended in February amid the sexual abuse allegations.

WENN – May 18, 2021 / 12:58 pm | Story: 334319

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Photo: Laura Villani

Bella Hadid has been slammed by the state of Israel after attending a rally in support of Palestine on Saturday (15May21).

The catwalk favorite, whose father Mohamed Hadid is from Palestine, wore a traditional Keffiyeh dress and a face mask as she waved a large Palestinian flag during the demonstration in Brooklyn, New York.

An image of her at the rally taken from Instagram Live was shared on Twitter by Israel’s official page, which captioned the shot: “When celebrities like @BellaHadid advocate for throwing Jews into the sea, they are advocating for the elimination of the Jewish State.

“This shouldn’t be an Israeli-Palestinian issue. This should be a human issue. Shame on you. #IsraelUnderAttack.”

The demonstration comes a week after decades-old tensions in Gaza between Israeli and Palestinian forces flared up again amid missile attacks in the West Bank. Things escalated at the start of the holy Muslim period of Ramadan last month (Apr21).

Writing alongside an image of herself at the rally on her Instagram page on Saturday, Bella wrote: “The way my heart feels… To be around this many beautiful, smart, respectful, loving , kind and generous Palestinians all in one place… it feels whole! We are a rare breed…!!

“I have a lot to say about this but for now, please read and educate yourself. This is not about religion. This is not about spewing hate on one or the other. This is about Israeli colonisation, ethnic cleansing, military occupation and apartheid over the Palestinian people that has been going on for YEARS!

“I stand with my Palestinian brothers and sisters, I will protect and support you as best as I can. I LOVE YOU. I feel for you. And I cry for you. I wish I could take away your pain… I see you. I hear you. I cry for you. And I am in pain for you. I have been told my entire life that who I am: a Palestinian woman – is not real. I’ve been told my father does not have a birth place if he is from Palestine. And I am here to say Palestine is very much real and the Palestinian people are here to stay and coexist. As they always have. And we will always come together as a family. Always.”