They also squeak! pic.twitter.com/ApJFhgRKgA
— Michelle Paul (@MichelledaBelle) May 31, 2021
Tennis star Naomi Osaka ruffled a few feathers this weekend when she refused to participate in press conferences at the French Open, for the sake of her mental health. First, she was fined, and then yesterday she pulled out of the tournament altogether. Which, you know, would suggest that she’s serious. And honestly, shouldn’t we listen when someone when they tell us what they need for their own well-being?
— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) May 31, 2021
But whaddya know, but here comes that twat Piers Morgan, trashing another woman of color who has chosen to prioritize her mental health over his entertainment. In a piece for The Daily Mail, he called Osaka an “arrogant spoiled brat” and accused her of cynically exploiting mental health issues. I am not going to link to it but it is out there.
DO NOT GIVE THIS MAN HIS JOB BACK, GOOD MORNING BRITAIN.
Good morning to Naomi Osaka and Meghan Markle only
I hope Piers Morgan has a shit one ❤️ pic.twitter.com/7nqQbHfFNz
— Myra (@SussexPrincess) June 1, 2021
*Black woman breathes*
Piers Morgan: “NEW COLUMN”
— Dionne Grant (@DionneGrant) June 1, 2021
Piers Morgan: calls people snowflakes and thinks he can hurt their feelings
Also Piers Morgan: pic.twitter.com/TUYkV0kGrs
— dan 💋 (@dantheestan) June 1, 2021
Kate Winslet did not eat real hoagies while filming Mare of Easttown and I’ve never been so disappointed. (That said, this is a wonderful interview with Winslet, and as a woman of a certain age, I found myself falling even more in love with her and her honesty and bravery. We should all be so strong.)
Alec Baldwin wanted to be the one to kill Tony Soprano.
This is unexpected: but X Factor Italia is the first of the X Factor franchises to get rid of gender and age categories. How progressive!
Antonella d’Errico, executive vice president of programming at Sky Italia, said: “By removing the historical division by categories, X Factor welcomes change and wants to become a torchbearer and, in a world that no longer needs to make distinctions of gender or age, talent is for us a neutral noun. We will ask all the contestants of this year’s edition to bring the only thing they really need: their personal, unique X Factor.”
Rachel Bilson apologized to Tate Donovan for being an asshole on the set of The O.C. He reassured her that she was fine, and then admitted he spoke out of turn on Watch What Happens Live! when he made some comment about the young cast being “ding dongs.” You gotta be careful around that Andy Cohen.
President Biden marked yesterday as a Day of Remembrance to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, and he will be in Tulsa today to deliver remarks and meet with survivors. What a difference an election makes.
#MeToo
Marilyn Manson has been sued by another ex-girlfriend for raping and threatening her. There is also an arrest warrant issued against him in New Hampshire, tied to an incident in 2019 when he assaulted a videographer at a concert and is unrelated to the multiple allegations of rape and abuse that have been levied against him.
Bill Cosby has been denied parole after he refused to participate in sex offenders and violence prevention programs. Fine. Rot in prison, you monster.
Charlie Hanson, a producer on Netflix’s Ricky Gervais series After Life, has been removed from the series and ejected from BAFTA after at least 11 women have lodged complaints against him.
Mickey Callaway, a Los Angeles Angels’ pitching coach has been fired after being accused for firing at least five female members of the media.
It sounds like other CNN personalities aren’t happy with Chris Cuomo’s nonsense.
BAFTA is pausing their special prizes and reviewing their process for rewarding them in the aftermath of the Noel Clarke controversy.
This is a good piece about how television is exploring the issue of male consent more and more and trying to dispel the myth that men can’t be assaulted by women.
It happened at Bethany College, a small Christian liberal arts school in Lindsborg, an hour north of Wichita. She had bumped into a friend, Jared Stolzenburg, while doing laundry in a dorm. They went to his room, talked some, started kissing. They progressed to sex — by mutual consent, she acknowledges.
Almost immediately, Stolzenburg began slapping her face and strangling her while continuing intercourse, according to court records.
“I tried to initially pull his hands off of my throat, and he squeezed harder every time,” Smith recounted in one court hearing. “He would strangle me for 20 to 30 seconds at a time, and I would begin to lose consciousness. When he would release his hands from my neck, the only thing I could do was gasp for air.”
She had told investigators Stolzenburg forced her to perform oral sex and tried to penetrate her anally. “I truly thought that he was going to kill me and the only way I was going to leave that room was in a body bag,” she continued in court.
Jared Stolzenburg worked out a deal with the county prosecutor and got two years probation because the prosecutor thought a rape and assault case would be too hard to win as Smith didn’t “verbally withdraw consent.”
“I think anybody could realize that if you can’t breathe, you can’t speak,” [Smith] said.
Smith took matters into her own hands. Kansas is one of six states that allows citizens to petition to empanel a grand jury. So Smith set up a tent in a parking lot, telling her story again and again to collect hundreds of the necessary signatures.
Some of the strangers she approached snatched the pen from her hands just a few minutes after she began speaking, hugging her and whispering into her ear so others nearby couldn’t hear that they had been sexually assaulted in the past themselves.
“They were very thankful that I was fighting, just fighting the justice system and trying to make a change in the world because they were too scared to fight back,” she recalled.
The grand jury will convene on September 29.
R.I.P.
Romy Walthall, Actress known for her roles in Face/Off and Fall of the House of Usher
Wayne “Buddy” Van Horn, Director of Any Which Way You Can and The Dead Pool, stunt coordinator and sometime stunt double for Clint Eastwood
WATCH THIS
America’s Got Talent: Oh hey, Simon Cowell is back after breaking his back last year. Season premiere. 7 p.m., NBC
Lego Masters: Season premiere. 7 p.m., Fox
The Legacy of Black Wall Street: A two-part special on the neighborhood that was destroyed in the Tulsa Race Massacre. 8 p.m., OWN
Late Night:
- Jimmy Kimmel Live: David Harbour, William Jackson Harper, Half Alive
- A Little Late with Lily Singh: Pride Month Celebration
| TUES. | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
| ABC | Mike Tyson: The Knockout (new) |
To Tell The Truth (repeat) |
| CBS | NCIS (repeat) |
FBI (repeat) |
FBI: Most Wanted (repeat) |
| CW | Superman & Lois (repeat) |
Superman & Lois (new) |
Local |
| FOX | Lego Masters (new) |
Master Samurai (new) |
News/Local |
| NBC | America’s Got Talent (new) |
New Amsterdam (new) |