Sometimes, I feel like anti-Asian racism is seen as more “acceptable” in America than racism against other groups. Like, people feel like it’s more socially acceptable to stereotype and mock Asians and Asian-Americans for some reason. Most of it probably falls under the banner of racial microaggressions, but I’m not sure if this is that.

You might have seen the headlines already: “Gigi Hadid hates Asian people” or “Gigi Hadid mocks Asian people.” And I thought, “Oh, this could be interesting.” Bella Hadid posted a video (which Bella later deleted) of Gigi at a birthday party-dinner. Gigi is handed a cookie in the shape of Buddha’s face, and Gigi holds the cookie up to her face and mimics his expression while “squinting.” One of Zayn’s fan-accounts grabbed the video so you can see it for yourself:

this is y’all woke palestine queen? Gigi out here mocking Asian people. i would say she’s cancelled but she never started. rat @GiGiHadid pic.twitter.com/b6wj5k1sXE

— z (@zainzayns) February 5, 2017

I’ve been reading the tweets about this on that video and elsewhere, and Gigi is being slammed hard. As she should be, even though I think many of the people doing the slamming are Zayn’s ride-or-die fans or 1Ders who can’t let it go. As for what we should call this… yes, it’s racist and mostly ignorant. It’s what I would expect from someone who thinks Pakistan is in the Middle East.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

The Duchess of Cambridge did three work events within about thirty hours. She went on a work spree! And I’m enjoying all of the conspiracies about it too. I’m also wondering if Kate has decided to “look busy” just as Prince Harry draws closer to possibly proposing to Meghan Markle. Kate will want to position herself as the humble, modest, hard-working English girl, as compared to Meghan’s actress career and Americanism. Will it work? Probably not, because Meghan is actually a lot more media savvy than William and Kate put together.

Anyway, these photos are of William and Kate last night in London. They attended the Guild Of Health Writers conference at Chandos House. For the outing, Kate chose a new-to-us frock. This is an Oscar de la Renta two-piece ensemble, a seemingly separate skirt and jacket, likely from the 2015 fall/winter collection. The Daily Mail says the pieces are sold out now, but the retail on the skirt alone was $1290. For that? Really? And you’ve got to figure that Kate had it specially tailored, which is why everything looks off-kilter. This is one of Kate’s favorite silhouettes though – she loves a full skirt in stiff fabric, and she loves a close-cut jacket, preferably with ruffles and buttons. She has like three dozen coatdresses and two-piece suits that look just like this, just in different colors. That being said, I love the color. Also note: The Telegraph is wondering if Kate is taking “style tips” from Ivanka Trump, because Ivanka loves Oscar de la Renta. I hope Kate isn’t taking any tips from Ivanka. Please, no.

As for the Cambridges’ appearance at this conference, luckily the writers weren’t gifted with another Kate speech about how only poor kids from single-parent families have mental health issues. Instead, William gave a speech about how hard his air-ambulance-piloting job is and how his employer “knows about the value of normalizing mental health, and treating it with the same respect that we confer on physical health. This should be the norm.”

PS… I’m obsessed with figuring out if she’s wearing a “fall,” or a wiglet in the back. I can see the “line” where I think the fake hair starts.

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, WENN and Getty.

Embed from Getty Images

Suffice it to say that, as an Atlanta resident, I am very disappointed at the outcome of the Super Bowl. And I lost a chili cook-off to Kevin, so Sunday was not a good night for me. Someone else who had some big game-induced issues was Chrissy Teigen – but she obviously had a way better time than I did.

The model/Lip Sync Battle color commentator attended the choke heard ‘round the world (side eye to Matt Ryan) with hubby John Legend. Chalk it up to Chrissy being Chrissy, the 31-year-old wore a sheer top under a jacket to the game. Because that’s what a model would wear to a football game. When cameras caught John and Chrissy intently watching the game, Chrissy experienced a little nip slip. The camera quickly panned away, but not before viewers got a quick glimpse. A fan tweeted the clip to Chrissy, who not only owned the moment but also responded in typical Teigen fashion, sharing the clip on Twitter with the hilarious caption, “boom goes the dynamite.”

Chrissy was burning up social media during the game, mostly keeping count of how much she ate . Before the game, she boasted that she managed to get down six hot dogs last year before getting ill, and musing, “Let’s see how much I’ve grown.”

6 hot dogs before projectile vomiting last year. Let’s see how much I’ve grown

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) February 5, 2017

I don’t know if she managed to plow through six hot dogs this year, but girl was definitely getting her grub on, lovingly photographing her first hot dog with a side of nachos.

HD 1 pic.twitter.com/jFvXyETDzg

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) February 5, 2017

Later, responding to a fan who joked that of course she was caught eating on camera, Chrissy replied, “I had such big jumbo plans but god dammit I love nachos.” Who doesn’t? She’s a woman after my own stomach.

I had such big jumbo plans but god dammit I love nachos https://t.co/JZS87dnDgd

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) February 6, 2017

I do love Chrissy for her candor, and the fact that she’s not afraid to chow down in public. Of course, she probably has personal trainers/nutritionists/a whole army of people dedicated to keeping her model physique in check. Chrissy’s tweets from the big game also demonstrated that she should stick to the modeling and maybe not look into a career in sports broadcasting – but it would be funny if sports commentators got progressively drunker during the game. Watch Chrissy’s slide through a series of tweets. First, what she dubbed her audition tape:

Sports person audition pic.twitter.com/Q7xLrsWUoO

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) February 6, 2017

Next, pizza and commentary…

THINGS ARE HAPPENING pic.twitter.com/XCFaHBwV8C

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) February 6, 2017

And then…

pic.twitter.com/VGuB9PX6Mu

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) February 6, 2017

In Chrissy’s last (NSFW) video clip of the evening, she’s about as drunk as I should have been at the end of the game. Hey, at least she had a good time. Up until the last quarter, I was having a good time too – although I ate significantly less. And, if nothing else, Lady Gaga was entertaining.

Photo credit: WENN.com, Fame Flynet, Getty Images

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Post-election, Kanye West seemed to have some kind of nervous breakdown, although the official story is still that he was just really tired and needed a good rest. My theory is that he stopped taking his meds, plus he got really stressed out dealing with Kim Kardashian’s Paris robbery. Kim was his rock, and when she fell apart, he had nothing to hold onto. In any case, his alleged nervous breakdown manifested itself in some strange ways. Kanye made bold proclamations during his last few concerts, claiming that Donald Trump is a political genius, and if Kanye had decided to vote, he would have voted for Trump. Kanye also tweeted about Trump, and he ended up flying to New York to meet with Trump at Trump Tower. It was all pretty awful. I was actually wondering if we would hear anything more about Yeezy’s Trump affection now that Blob McTurd is Making Fascism Great Again. As it turns out, Yeezy has some regrets.

Kanye West has scrubbed his Twitter account of all things Trump, and it’s because he’s super unhappy with the president’s performance over his first 2 weeks in office. Kanye had tweeted about Trump in a positive light after the election. In December, the day he met with Trump in NYC, he wrote, “I feel it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future President if we truly want change.”

Kanye also wrote about issues on which he felt he could influence Trump, writing, “These issues include bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculums, and violence in Chicago.”

Kanye’s decision to remove the tweets were all his. The “Muslim ban” and other actions were the catalyst for his decision.

[From TMZ]

Does anyone else wonder if Yeezy sort of represents a certain demographic niche within the “Trump coalition”? It’s not even about race or money – although Kanye certainly has the entitlement and privilege of a white guy – it’s about a certain demographic of people who willfully chose ignorance. There was a sizeable group of people who listened to some or most of the deplorable sh-t Trump said during the campaign and they thought, “Oh, he doesn’t mean it, he’s so presidential and baller.” And they’re SHOCKED that he did mean it. #YeezyRegrets. If that hashtag ever becomes a thing, it really will go on for a while. Yeezy has a lot to regret.

Oh, and Kim Kardashian is making noise about how Kanye should get the Super Bowl Half-time gig for 2018. Yeah… probably not?

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, Getty.

Last week Angelina Jolie published an op-ed in the NY Times detailing the plight of refugees. She outlined the facts including that most refugees are vulnerable women and children, and that statistics show that only 1% of the 65 million displaced people worldwide will achieve resettlement in another country. She explained that prior to the travel ban there was already an extensive and lengthy vetting system in the US for refugees, who go through more background checks and screening than any other visitors. Jolie can write so eloquently about these issues because she’s a special envoy to the UN High Commissioner on Refugees, she’s visited countless camps and she’s done advocacy and humanitarian work for the UN over 15 years. What about celebrities that are just starting to get involved with these issues? Ben Stiller has been involved with UNHCR since early 2016, when he visited refugee families resettled in Berlin. Late last month he visited the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan and has published a first person essay for Time Magazine about his experiences and the people he met there. I have to say that he sounds humbled by what he learned and that he truly wants to help. We do too, that’s why we’re reporting this.

Like a lot of us, I am trying to reconcile how to be open-hearted and empathetic to the plight of our fellow human beings while also being concerned about our national security. The problem is complicated, and sometimes the easiest way to deal with it, which I have personally been guilty of, is to ignore it. We become anesthetized to the constant news of suffering children in Aleppo and horrific violence and destruction in the region. How do we help those in need in a way that makes a difference and doesn’t compromise our safety here and abroad?

I, Ben Stiller, star of Dodgeball, do not have the answer. But by meeting with refugees and those assisting them, I was able to get a better sense of some of the realities.

This was the running theme at Azraq Camp, which sits in the middle of the Jordanian desert. Approximately 54,000 of the 655,000 registered refugees in Jordan from Syria are here. Over half are children. They live in small, anonymous shelters with no electricity (though the solar grid comes online soon), no running water and dirt floors.

This is where I talked to Mohamed and Alaa Salah and their two children. Mohamed is a veterinarian; Alaa, an agricultural engineer. They are both young and vivacious. They fled the carnage when bombs hit their neighborhood in Homs and the trauma damaged their 4-year-old son Hussain’s vision. They are grateful for safety, but stunned by their plight. “I miss my family so much,” Alaa said. “But right now I can’t take my children back to death…”

Every family I met shared a pride for their home country and the hope to live a normal life. While a few were ready to move on to wherever the resettlement process might take them, all professed a profound desire to eventually return home. These are sentiments we — the public — can all connect with. UNHCR’s #WithRefugees campaign is one way in which communities can reflect their compassion.

I hope the new Trump Administration will conclude that compassion and security are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they are mutually reinforcing. The roots of the Syria refugee problems are complicated, and so are the solutions. While a resolution of the conflict should be a priority, we must support the humanitarian programs of UNHCR. We need to support our allies like Jordan, who, with an astonishing 20 percent of their population made up of fleeing Syrians, cannot carry the burden alone. What countries like Jordan do profoundly affects us.

In this time of unrest in the Middle East and change in our country, when frustration and xenophobia seem to dominate our news cycle and social media, I hope we can all look at the faces of those we fear and see what is sometimes hardest of all to recognize: ourselves.

[From Time via People]

I don’t understand how anyone could see the videos of mothers in Aleppo crying for their children who have been murdered, or see the little orphan children shellshocked and looking confused, and not want to help. Those are families and children and people just like us. They’ve gone through hell and they don’t have a place to live or basic necessities. We need to not only lift the Muslim ban, we need to accept and help refugees from war torn countries. As Stiller writes, it’s actually safer to help refugees and people in crisis than to turn them away. You can donate to the UNHCR here and the International Rescue Community here.

Photos credit: UNHCR

Half of my beautiful family ???? missing my twins! @kroybiermann @kroyjaggerbiermann @kashbiermann @briellebiermann @arianabiermann

A photo posted by Kim Zolciak-Biermann (@kimzolciakbiermann) on Feb 4, 2017 at 2:09pm PST

Kim Zolciak-Biermann tussled with a fellow vacationer during her recent getaway to the Turks and Caicos. Kim and husband Kroy Bierman slipped away for a little romantic rendezvous. While there, their four oldest children “surprised” them by arriving unexpectedly to join in the fun. I have to pause here because if I went away without my children, the point would likely be to be without my children. So if they showed up to surprise me on my dime, I’m not sure I would be as elated as Kim and Kroy were. But I digress because the point of this post is that Kim and crew were just enjoying themselves on the beach, being model tourists, when some horrible, wretched witch told them to shush! So Kim, with her usual diplomacy, basically told her to f–k off.

Kim Zolciak-Biermann‘s idyllic Turks and Caicos vacation with her husband Kroy Biermann turned into a family affair after four of their six kids joined them as a surprise.

The Don’t Be Tardy star took to Instagram and Snapchat to document the family fun on Sunday with kids Brielle, 19, Ariana, 15, KJ, 5, and Kash, 4 — and a little oceanfront drama that unfolded.

“This lady on the beach came up to me and said: ‘Could you keep you and your kids quiet? It’s a very quiet peaceful beach,’ ” Zolciak-Biermann, 38, recounted on Snapchat. “Bitch, what? They’re 4 and 5.”

“We’ve been nothing but respectful,” she continued. “I told her: ‘Well, why are you always sitting next to me? Move your f—ing chair to the other end of the beach!’ ”

The argument appeared to escalate, as Zolciak-Biermann explained she told the fellow beachgoer they would be checking out of the hotel soon enough.

“I said: ‘That’s ok, bitch, because we’re leaving.’ She’s like: ‘I’m not asking you to leave.’ I honestly told her: ‘You might want to f—ing loosen up, lady,’ ” she continued. ” ‘This is a beach that a lot of people pay a lot of money to stay here and enjoy the beach and if you don’t like it, f—ing go somewhere else. It’s life.’ ”

“So KJ’s trying to be really quiet and respectful, but his feelings are hurt, which makes me really mad,” she said in another video of her son looking downcast on the beach — to which her eldest daughter, Brielle, shouted, “F— her!”

[From People]

So it’s Kim’s word against the lady’s. Either Kim’s kids were so raucous and unchecked that they were bothering the people around them or they were just being kids and the lady is overly sensitive. I am basing my opinion solely off what I have read here (and the fact that Kim’s version of the truth can be less than truthful) but I’m inclined to think the lady was probably on to something. If someone told me my kids were being too loud, my defense would be, ‘no they aren’t,’ not cite their age as justification for their actions. My favorite part is where Kim backs up her claim that they were being nothing but respectful by calling this woman a b—ch and telling her to, “Move your f—ing chair to the other end of the beach!” For me, it boils down to where they were staying. This was a romantic trip, right? So if the kids showing up was a surprise, it’s likely Kim and Kroy chose and intimate resort that probably was more kisses and champagne in the cabana as opposed to fart noises and water noodles to the noggin. In every pic Kim posted there’s not a person in sight, let alone a kid. I am sorry KJ’s feeling got hurt because it isn’t his fault that someone other than his parents had to ask him to be quiet but my assumption is that maybe it was high time he heard it? Feel free to correct me in the comments if you watch their show and KJ is a saint. Also explain to me why these kids keep crashing their parents vacations, Brielle did the same thing last May.

Oh, and Kim very much wants us to know that she and Kroy are going strong with this oh-so-subtle love note:

So incredibly thankful for the MOST incredible man that has ever walked this planet. My rock, my best friend, my confidante, my lover, my strength, my Inspiration. You amaze me @kroybiermann ? you daily are a perfect example to our children of how selfless, nurturing, and generous a human should be. Your discipline, your structure, your determination is incredible to me. I love you so much and there isn’t a second that goes by in a day that I don’t look at you and smile and feel so loved, so respected, so cherished and so honored to be your wife. ? #ThankYouGod #APerfectExampleOfARealMan #BlessedAndIknowIt

A photo posted by Kim Zolciak-Biermann (@kimzolciakbiermann) on Jan 31, 2017 at 2:18pm PST

Photo credit: Instagram and Fame/Flynet Photos

Chris Evans is just as excited as Gisele.

I definitely kept my cool when we scored in OT to win the game @thescottevans @Renner4Real @LOZOg @peck_j pic.twitter.com/2LXfcgx8dE
— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) February 6, 2017

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