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I had the chance to watch the Finding Your Roots episode that featured Ben Affleck and which we now know he requested be edited to remove references to his slave-owning great-great-great grandfather. That episode also included dancer/actress Khandi Alexander, a woman of color, and Benjamin Todd Jealous, who was president of the NAACP from 2008-2013. It was largely focused on activism and issues of race.

In Ben’s first segment, they spent a significant amount of time talking about his mother’s activism during the Civil Rights movement, particularly the Freedom Summer of 1964. They went on to discuss one of his third great grandfathers, who was a spiritualist in the post Civil War period. Then the show cut to Alexander, who learned that her maternal grandfather was born in Savannah, GA in 1910 at the height of Jim Crow segregation. Host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. showed photos of Alexander’s great great paternal grandparents, who were born into slavery. He went further back to Alexander’s third great grandfather and revealed that he was a white man who owned slaves. Alexander’s third great grandmother was a slave owned by her grandfather.

Alexander’s introductory segment was much more compelling than Affleck’s, but it was meant to be preceded by Affleck’s realization that, like Alexander, his third great grandfather also owned slaves, also in Savannah, where Alexander similarly had roots.

Gawker obtained a copy of the script for this episode prior to Affleck’s request that his segment be edited. As Gawker explains, the whole issue of slave owning ancestors was central to the show. Here is part of the script that was cut, with more at the source. (Note that the all-caps text is narration.)

GATES: This is the slave schedule of the 1850 Census. In 1850, they would list the owner of slaves in a separate Census.

AFFLECK: There’s Benjamin Cole, owned 25 slaves.

GATES: Your third great-grandfather owned 25 slaves. He was a slave owner.

THESE HOLDINGS PUT BENJAMIN COLE AMONG THE SOUTHERN ELITE.

ONLY ABOUT 10% OF ALL SLAVE HOLDERS OWNED 20 SLAVES OR MORE.

AFFLECK: God. It gives me kind of a sagging feeling to see, uh, a biological relationship to that. But, you know, there it is, part of our history.

GATES: But consider the irony, uh, in your family line. Your mom went back fighting for the rights of black people in Mississippi, 100 years later. That’s amazing.

AFFLECK: That’s pretty cool.

GATES: That’s pretty cool.

AFFLECK: Yeah, it is. One of the things that’s interesting about it is like we tend to separate ourselves from these things by going like, you know, oh, well, it’s just dry history, and it’s all over now, and this shows us that there’s still a living aspect to history, like a personal connection.

By the same token, I think it’s important to recognize that, um, in looking at these histories, how much work has been done by people in this country, of all kinds, to make it a better place.

GATES: People like your mother.

AFFLECK: Indeed, people like my mother and many others who have made a much better America than the one that they were handed.

[From Gawker]

Affleck came across well in this transcript, he handled the realization as you would expect, so it’s strange that he asked that this be removed. Gates even repeatedly brought it back around to Affleck’s mom’s activism.

Gawker also notes that the introductory narration initially included the detail that every guest in the episode had descended from slave owners.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE PIECE TOGETHER THE LOST FAMILY HISTORIES OF ACTOR BEN AFFLECK, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST BEN JEALOUS, AND ACTOR KHANDI ALEXANDER.

THEIR ROOTS HIGHLIGHT A UNIQUELY AMERICAN PARADOX: EACH DESCENDS FROM A PATRIOT WHO FOUGHT FOR OUR NATION’S INDEPENDENCE—BUT EACH ALSO DESCENDS FROM AN ANCESTOR WHO OWNED SLAVES.

[From Gawker]

The updated version of the narration tied the guests together by their ancestor’s involvement in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

This script disproves Affleck’s second statement, made on Facebook, that these edits were not a big deal. He wrote, in part, “when I told Skip I was uneasy about the slave owner, he told me he had not included it in his preliminary cut because there wasn’t much detail – a name and no details, so he wasn’t going with it to begin with. ”

As I mentioned yesterday, this second statement isn’t consistent with Affleck’s first statement, in which he framed the request for edits as a collaborative creative process after he felt vulnerable and embarrassed. We now know that it’s not true that this segment was already cut. It’s still possibly true that Gates told this to Affleck in order to downplay his concern. However this played out, Affleck’s slave-owning ancestor was key to this episode, and Gates was so worried about removing that part that he sought advice from the CEO of Sony pictures.

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View image | gettyimages.com

View image | gettyimages.com

A bunch of the lower-tier tabloids have stories about George and Amal Clooney this week. As you can see, OK! Magazine even put Phantom Baby Clooney on this week’s cover. For what it’s worth, I don’t think Amal is pregnant, nor will she get pregnant any time soon. That’s why the unnamed source went to People Magazine last week – Amal wants us to stop Bump Watching her. We’re only supposed to be looking at her clothes and her fabulous, brilliant life.

There are some other interesting Alamooney stories out there, like this one that combines legitimate Sony Hack information with an eye-rolling piece of gossip about George and Amal’s marriage.

George Clooney has his very own bat signal! The star of 1997?s Batman & Robin — whose batmansenior@mac.com email address surfaced April 16 in WikiLeaks’ Sony hack database — “often uses the names of his roles as pseudonyms,” a source close to the Ocean’s Eleven actor reveals to Us Weekly. “He signs emails to friends with a simple ‘Danny Ocean’ and he loves leaving voicemails saying, ‘This is Batman.’”

After all, he’s Batman forever. “George gets a kick out of the fact that he played Batman,” says the insider. “He’s so proud of all his movies.”

Wary of hackers, the 53-year-old refused to create an email account until the early 2000s — his first address was a tribute to his O Brother, Where Art Thou? character, Everett McGill! — adds the insider. “He never trusted it. He has always worried about people finding a way to access his information.”

Now, he’s especially reluctant to hit send, even when corresponding with wife of seven months, Amal, 37. “George prefers to communicate with her by phone,” adds the source. “He loves hearing her voice!”

[From Us Weekly]

I can understand the (prescient) concerns about hacked emails, but does George realize that the same government agencies reading his emails are the same ones with FISA wiretaps on his phone lines? I am enjoying the idea of George calling up Amal and saying, “This is Batman, what time is dinner?” To which she says, “I don’t cook, a—hole. We’re going out tonight.” And Batman is all, “Girl, why aren’t you capable of heating up a g—damn bowl of soup?! BATMAN OUT.”

Oh, and this week’s National Enquirer has a story which I sounds like it came from these pages. The Enquirer’s sources say that Amal is so happy now that they’re in New York, away from Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford. Apparently, Amal thinks Rande is a “frat boy” and she hasn’t “clicked” with Cindy at all. Amal wants George to spend his free time with her and her alone, but George wants to live up, singles-style with his bro Rande and Rande’s cool wife (Cindy gets it, man). The Enquirer interestingly notes all of the times that George has spent time with Rande and Cindy over the past several months while Amal is presumably at home, fuming. I really believe that George is so used to having girlfriends who just go along with whatever he wants, girls who are happy to spend every vacation with George’s circle of friends, and George doesn’t know what to do with a woman who isn’t impressed by “Cabo with Rande and Cindy yet again.” On this, I’ll give it to Amal. I hope she puts her foot down and weans Clooney off his frat-bro buddies.

Photos courtesy of PCN and WENN.

This is the first official still (from EW.com) of Johnny Depp as Bostonian gangster Whitey Bulger. The film’s first trailer dropped yesterday. It actually previewed Tuesday night for a bunch of critics to create “buzz” on Twitter. And maybe so we would stop focusing on how Johnny caused some bumps with a late return to Pirates. The tactic may have worked.

Critics were impressed at Johnny’s “cold and powerful” portrayal of Bulger. I saw it differently because this felt like Johnny slathering himself in makeup again. Bad teeth, crazy contacts (Kaiser called them “zombie contacts.”) I didn’t see “ice cold.” I saw “eccentric and wacky with effectively foreboding background music.” Kaiser and I both agree that Scarfy’s ripping off Joe Pesci in Goodfellas. It’s so obvious and sad. Plus, Scorsese’s film contained humorous and satiric elements, so Depp nipping Pesci’s vibe to play a super-scary guy is distracting. If you haven’t seen the trailer, let’s do this. Benedict Cumberbatch (who plays Whitey’s brother, Bill) makes a quickie appearance at the end. Johnny overreacts (and overacts) over a steak recipe, but it’s supposed to be intimidating.

Kaiser is worried about how this film will affect Bendy’s career, and I can see why she’s concerned. Bendy will be fine, Depp notsomuch. This truly feels like Johnny’s make-or-break effort at legitimate acting. Especially after Transcendence and Mortdecai, he needs a non-Disney hit (although he pretends to not give a f***). This film’s box-office performance will determine whether studios will want anything to do with the Scarfmonster again.

Warner Bros chose a September release date, which means they’re semi-confident. They know audiences see Johnny as a gimmicky joke. His personal life has eclipsed his professional one, and he’s a messy cliché now. The studio didn’t want this film to compete with summer blockbusters, but they felt good enough to not dump it in January or February. I’d love for Johnny to make a real comeback. We’ll see what happens.

Movie still courtesy of EW.com/Warner Bros, photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet

Promised myself I would not let exercise be the first thing to go by the wayside when I got busy with Girls Season 5 and here is why: it has helped with my anxiety in ways I never dreamed possible. To those struggling with anxiety, OCD, depression: I know it’s mad annoying when people tell you to exercise, and it took me about 16 medicated years to listen. I’m glad I did. It ain’t about the ass, it’s about the brain. Thank you @tracyandersonmethod for showing me the light (and @bandierfit is where I bought my Florida mom inspired workout look.) #notsponsored #stillmedicated

A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Apr 11, 2015 at 4:47pm PDT

Lena Dunham and Taylor Swift have been “BFFs” for more than a year now. Basically, Taylor Swift moved to New York and developed a super-close group of girlfriends, and Lena is “geeky smart girl” in a group that consists mainly of models, dancers and pop stars. How to put this delicately? Lena doesn’t look like the rest of Swifty’s friends. I doubt Lena really cares that much about it in general. Except she has started to care more about her appearance lately, and she’s been posting Instagrams (like the one above) about her workouts, and she’s been talking about how she’s trying to change her body. This is where Star Magazine developed a theory – what if Taylor Swift was the one nudging Lena to make that kind of change in her life?

Every woman has that one friend who loves to complain about her life – but won’t do anything about it. And for Taylor Swift, that ranting bestie is Lena Dunham, who has become self-conscious of her full-figure.

“Lena has really confided in Taylor about her insecurities,” says an unnamed pal. “And Taylor was sympathetic at first but finally got tired of Lena’s constant pity party and told her that if she was so unhappy with her weight, she needed to get a trainer and do something to make a change!”

Sure enough, Taylor’s straight talk worked, and Lena has admitted recently to being on “a physical fitness kick.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

I think this is the kind of thing that could be true. I like that Swifty isn’t positioned as some kind of Gwyneth Paltrow-esque figure, telling peasants that they’re “fat” as soon as she sees them. I imagine if any of us had to listen to Lena Dunham complain about her life/body/career/whatever for hours on end, we would snap and tell Lena to get off her ass and do something about it. Incidentally, I don’t think Lena is “selling out” by getting a trainer or suddenly wanting to change her body/appearance after years of pushing a body-positive, love-who-you-are message. Then again, I don’t think much of Lena’s ethics – I think she will do, say or write anything for attention, so there’s nothing really to “sell out.”

Oh, and Lena has a feature in May issue of Seventeen – go here to read. I was going to write this up separately, but quite honestly… Lena just grates on my last nerve these days. I used to be able to take her in small doses, but I can’t anymore. The piece is all about how it’s cool to be “weird” and you should never feel the need to “fit in” or “dress like the cool kids” or whatever. Which is an okay message for teenagers, I suppose, except that Lena is a rich, privileged woman who went to private schools and now hangs out with Taylor Swift and Lorde and she works out at Tracy Anderson’s studio. Some of the kids she’s trying to talk to have real problems, you know? Problems that go beyond “wanting to wear ugly clothes and still wanting to be accepted by the cool kids.”

Photos courtesy of Instagram, Fame/Flynet.

Here are some photos of Christina Aguilera from one week ago, as she was hostessing the two-year anniversary celebrations of Hakkasan Nightclub at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Vegas. I glanced through the photos last weekend and I didn’t notice anything particularly noteworthy, other than the fact that Christina seemed more pulled-together since her last major red carpet, at the Vanity Fair Oscar party. Back then – it was late February – Christina still seemed to be carrying some post-baby weight (which is absolutely normal) and she seemed to have a bit more “junk in the trunk” than I remembered. Well, guess what? Sources claim Christina might have had Khloe Kardashian-esque butt implants!!

There’s something different about Christina Aguilera and it’s not her coaching style on The Voice. Aguilera sported a much curvier figure while celebrating the second anniversary of the Hakkasan Nightclub in Las Vegas. It’s unknown how Xtina’s backside got so much bigger, but fans speculated online that her extra junk in the trunk came from butt implants.

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

PopDust spoke to a plastic surgeon who theorized that Christina got the Brazilian Butt Lift, the surgery where they suck the fat out of other body parts and inject them into your butt. Christina’s booty does look suspiciously round, so I’m going with “butt implants.” I have to give her some begrudging praise too, because she got them in an appropriate size, as opposed to the Khloe Kardashian-esque freakshow butt implants, which are comically oversized.

So, what do you think? Butt implants or nah?

View image | gettyimages.com

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet, Getty.

Academy Award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon stepped out with daughter Ava, 15, in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Thursday (April 23). The pretty pair were seen shopping together.

The mom-of-three, 39, has recently returned from a press tour with Sofia Vergara, while promoting their upcoming film Hot Pursuit.

First, the lovely ladies traveled to Texas for the AMC Awards.

“Uno más!! @sofiavergara and I at the #ACMs yesterday getting our sparkle on… (P.S. How’s my Spanish ??!! ) #ACMAwards50,” Reese Instagrammed a red carpet shot Monday.

Next, the dynamic duo hit Miami.

“Today, @sofiavergara introduced me to a little, teeny weeny secret weapon called Cuban coffee!!!!! Apparently it makes you put exclamations on everything!!!!!!! #CoffeeTalk #Miami #HotPursuit,” Reese captioned the cute pic Monday.

Then the gorgeous costars hit Sin City.

“Vegas Baby!! #Outtakes #CinemaCon #HotPursuit @sofiavergara,” Reese posted Wednesday.

Watch for Hot Pursuit to hit theaters on May 8.

Vegas Baby!! ?? #Outtakes #CinemaCon #HotPursuit @sofiavergara

A photo posted by Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon) on Apr 22, 2015 at 8:58am PDT

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Congratulations are in order for Daphne Oz and John Jovanovic.

The Chew co-host, 29, and her husband are expecting their second child, she revealed during a special segment on Thursday’s show.

When it came time for Oz to share a secret, she smiled and said, “This may or may not be something you know about me,” before holding up a sign that read “I’m Pregnant.”

Oz and Jovanovic are already parents to 13-month-old daughter Philomena Bijou.

After welcoming her first child in Feb. 2014, Oz – daughter of television star Dr. Mehmet Oz – opened up to Celebrity Baby Scoop about her struggles with breastfeeding.

“I am not a first-generation breastfeeder,” she shared. “My mother breastfed all of her kids, but I did see a lactation consultant because I still think you give birth, and you think, or at least I did, that breastfeeding would be intuitive.”

She added: “I thought, the baby would know how to do it and I would know how to do it and know how to get that good latch and know out how to do breast massage. These were all things that I didn’t know how to do properly, so I did see a lactation consultant and it was so helpful.”

See how this Ben Affleck story keeps going and going? (Dlisted)

Fantastic Four selfies (Just Jared)

Ariana Grande got dumped because…Ariana Grande (Cele|bitchy)

Are the Middletons pimping the baby? (Celeb Dirty Laundry)

Spandex on a 21 year old (Hollywood Tuna)

Green…      

See how this Ben Affleck story keeps going and going? (Dlisted)

Fantastic Four selfies (Just Jared)

Ariana Grande got dumped because…Ariana Grande (Cele|bitchy)

Are the Middletons pimping the baby? (Celeb Dirty Laundry)

Spandex on a 21 year old (Hollywood Tuna)

Green…      

See how this Ben Affleck story keeps going and going? (Dlisted)

Fantastic Four selfies (Just Jared)

Ariana Grande got dumped because…Ariana Grande (Cele|bitchy)

Are the Middletons pimping the baby? (Celeb Dirty Laundry)

Spandex on a 21 year old (Hollywood Tuna)

Green…