The nightmare scenario is this: Russia successfully hacks the 2020 election and gets it to the point where the electoral college is down to the wire, just a few thousand votes in a couple of swing states. Donald Trump then declares victory, says that absentee ballots should be thrown out. The Biden-Harris campaign challenges the Trump campaign and it heads to the Supreme Court for Biden v. Trump, where Justice Barbie McHatesAbortion casts the deciding vote to legitimize Trump’s stolen election. Now, do I think that’s what will happen? Eh. But 2020 is the worst, so who knows. The devil works hard but Putin works harder. This story disturbed me:

Four years ago, when Russian intelligence agencies engaged in a systematic attempt to influence the American presidential election, the disinformation they fed American voters required some real imagination at the troll farms producing the ads. There was the exaggerated Texas secession movement, a famous ad in which Satan arm-wrestles Jesus while declaring, “If I win, Clinton wins,” and an effort to recruit protesters and counterprotesters to the same, invented rally over the rapid spread of Islamic influence in the United States.

This year, their task is much easier. They are largely amplifying misleading statements from President Trump, mostly about the dangers of mail-in ballots. In interviews, a range of officials and private analysts said that Mr. Trump was feeding many of the disinformation campaigns they were struggling to halt. And rather than travel the back roads of America searching for divisive issues — as three Russians from the Internet Research Agency did in 2016 — they are staying home, grabbing screenshots of Mr. Trump’s Twitter posts, or quoting his misleading statements and then amplifying those messages.

That campaign is at the heart of the disinformation efforts that the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, warned Congress last week was meant “to both sow divisiveness and discord” and “to denigrate” former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee. Mr. Trump chastised him for his comments on Twitter.

The F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday again warned of the risk of interference in the election, this time by foreigners aiming to exploit the time it will take to sort through mail-in ballots. During that time, the agencies said, hackers could amplify “disinformation that includes reports of voter suppression, cyberattacks targeting election infrastructure, voter or ballot fraud and other problems intended to convince the public of the elections’ illegitimacy.”

[From The NY Times]

I received my requested mail-in ballot this week, but I think I’m going to pass on it and just make a plan to vote in person. I hope everyone starts making their plans right now – so many states do early voting now, and so many states are doing widespread mail-in ballots. Start to make your plans now.

I’d also like to point out that the Times sort of abdicates their own responsibility in amplifying some of the Russian interference sh-t in 2016. Yes, Russian troll farms spread crazy conspiracies, but the biggest thing Russia did was hack the DNC and then release those caches of emails to Wikileaks on Trump’s time table. The emails were widely disseminated by the mainstream media too. I 100% believe that we’re not even seeing Russia’s big play in the 2020 election. I think Putin has an October Surprise.

But Chris, you don’t see any activity from China, even though it is a FAR greater threat than Russia, Russia, Russia. They will both, plus others, be able to interfere in our 2020 Election with our totally vulnerable Unsolicited (Counterfeit?) Ballot Scam. Check it out! https://t.co/mH3vrHWvS8

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2020

Also: Trump made some comments yesterday.

“We need 9 justices. You need that. With the unsolicited millions of ballots that they’re sending … you’re gonna need 9 justices.” — Trump suggests he’s counting on SCOTUS to have his back when he makes claims of election fraud following November’s election pic.twitter.com/Ju8ShMe8MN

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2020

Q: Why haven’t you said anything about the US hitting 200,000 coronavirus deaths?

TRUMP: “Go ahead. Uhhhhh. Anybody else?” pic.twitter.com/gUv1kgG9OT

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2020

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Katie Nicholl at Vanity Fair did some coverage on this week’s updates from the Duchess of Sussex’s lawsuit against the Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday. She actually explained something which had been bugging me, which is the introduction of Finding Freedom as some kind of “defense” for the Mail publishing Meghan’s letter to her father. Nicholl says that the Mail’s lawyers applied to amend their defense, that was the whole reason for the court appearance (for the lawyers), this idea that perhaps Meghan’s copyright doesn’t really belong to her if she, say, gave an off-the-record interview to Omid Scobie. The Mail is pulling on that string not because they think it’s a winning defense – they are only trying to nitpick and smear Meghan for something literally all celebrities and royals do, which is the give-and-take of PR and media management. They’re trying to equate “a duchess giving the wink-and-nod to her friends to speak on her behalf” to “a British tabloid infringing on a duchess’s copyright.” Nicholl did have some new information too:

The hearing was the latest pretrial hearing in the duchess’s long and protracted legal action against the publisher of the Mail, which in February 2019 published the letter Meghan had written to her father after her 2018 wedding. The defense claimed yesterday that the duchess discussed the letter with the communications team at Kensington Palace and had written it “with a view to it being read by third parties and/or disclosed to the public” in a bid to improve her public image. Meghan, on the other hand, insists the letter was private and is expected to give in-person evidence when the case goes to court in January.

The duchess, who has switched lawyers ahead of the court case in an effort to speed up proceedings, could come face-to-face with her father if he is called as a witness by the Mail’s publisher. But while the face-to-face meeting would be deeply uncomfortable for Meghan, who has not spoken to her father for two years, she is adamant that she will have her day in court.

VF.com has also been told that the duchess has no plans to drop the legal action ahead of the hearing next year. “There’s no wavering,” a source close to Meghan said. “She is resolute that she intends to see this to the end. It’s costing a lot of money, but no one has been in the dark about the scale of this and what it’s going to cost. The duchess’s eyes were wide open when she went into this, and she feels as strongly now as she did then that she has to draw a line in the sand. The publication of the letter and how Thomas was treated by the Mail on Sunday has caused real damage to their relationship.”

[From Vanity Fair]

What surprised me a little bit in Finding Freedom was just how much Meghan tried to give her father a chance and tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. It was never going to be easy for her to admit to herself or others that her father showed he was a piece of sh-t very, very quickly. In FF, she seemingly still assumes that her relationship with her father would be much different today if only he had not been so manipulated by Samantha Markle and the British tabloids. To which I say… you can lead a horse to water, you know? Toxic Tom was always a piece of sh-t. And the Mail’s case will absolutely FALL APART as soon as they call that toxic bastard to the stand.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

The late John McCain had many friends across the aisle. While he was a diehard Republican, he enjoyed lifelong friendships with a number of Democrats, including Joe Biden. They were such good friends and their families were close as well. The late senator’s widow, Cindy McCain, is also a diehard Republican and she was particularly close to the Mike Pence wing of the party. I actually thought the fact that Pence is still vice president would mean that she would either endorse Trump-Pence or merely stay silent this election cycle. But no. Cindy McCain has endorsed Joe Biden:

My husband John lived by a code: country first. We are Republicans, yes, but Americans foremost. There’s only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is @JoeBiden.

— Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) September 22, 2020

Joe and I don’t always agree on the issues, and I know he and John certainly had some passionate arguments, but he is a good and honest man. He will lead us with dignity.

— Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) September 22, 2020

He will be a commander in chief that the finest fighting force in the history of the world can depend on, because he knows what it is like to send a child off to fight.

— Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) September 22, 2020

While Cindy McCain doesn’t reference it explicitly in her tweets, she spoke to the NY Times and said that she decided to endorse Biden after the Atlantic story came out about what Donald Trump really thinks about soldiers and veterans, namely that they’re all suckers and losers and he doesn’t understand why anyone would *want* to serve their country. That’s antithetical to the McCain family’s code. There are like four or five generations of McCains who have served in uniform. And yes, let’s not kid ourselves – if this was a Mike Pence presidency, Cindy would easily endorse him. This is all about being anti-Trump specifically.

Also: a McCain endorsement probably will make a difference in Arizona, a swing state.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

I hadn’t heard anything about Hilary Duff for a while and actually thought she’d gone quiet. It turns out, I just wasn’t paying attention. Mostly she’s been promoting the natural feminine products line, Veeda, for which she is Chief Brand Officer (that’s her actual title, I’m not making it up). Other than that, it’s been mostly her usual fare on her social media – pics of herself, her kids and husband. But while Hilary’s not making too many waves, her husband, Matthew Korma, certainly stirred the pot when he posted a shot of his posterior with what looks to be a newly minted tattoo of his wife’s signature down his left cheek. Ensuring that he got his unsolicited butt shot out to as many people as he could, Matthew tagged Hilary in the post as if maybe we didn’t know who the “Hilary” inked on his backside was. To caption his, uhm, still life, Matthew wrote:

Good luck winning a fight with your wife when her name’s tattooed on your butt cheek. #squats#gainz #laseraway

Why? Why to any of this? Why does anyone feel the need to put a name – of someone they like – on their derriere? And why would they feel compelled to post it? Honestly, Matthew could’ve have just said he’d gotten Hilary’s name on his butt and I would need no further proof. I want to believe he lost a bet, and this was his bargain. But those hashtags makes me think he’s just trying to show us how proud he is of his tooshie. Hilary commented on the post “Finest tiniest booty around #youstucknowboy”. Aw, and they say romance is dead. Except… haven’t countless tattoos of partners’ names been the harbinger of doom in relationships? I don’t actually think Matthew and Hilary are in trouble, but we will all remember this should that time ever come. Sometimes big gestures can – excuse the pun – bite you in the @$$.

Buzzfeed reminded us that Matthew brought us into their bedroom with Hilary’s first Lizzie McGuire reunion post, by bringing up Lizzie McGuire roleplaying and none of us needed that visual either. I’m sure their kids will appreciate this show of affection when schools open up again. But who knows, maybe this is practical. Maybe Matthew can trace this any time he needs her signature on something.

Photo credit: Instagram

It’s really *something* to see how little additional reporting or commentating happened around the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s legal threats towards Tatler. Four months after the publication of the “Catherine the Great” cover story, Tatler finally “succumbed” to the Cambridges’ threats and removed large chunks of the cover story online. It was meaningless given the fact that those hilariously bad sections had been out in the conversation for months. But still, it gave Will & Kate a “win.” And now they’re pretending like it never even happened and the royal reporters are letting them. If that had been Meghan and Harry… well, the commentary would have been drastically different.

So, let’s just pretend that the Tatler debacle never happened and that Kate didn’t go dark, out of nowhere, for a month and that she’s Zooming herself into an early grave and there has never been anyone as keen and hard-working as Kate. On Tuesday, Kate did an event! It’s her first solo, public event in a while, I think? She met with other parents in a London park.

Kate Middleton is continuing to support the wellbeing of parents and children amid the coronavirus pandemic. The mom of three met with a set of parents in a London park on Tuesday to hear about their experiences over the past six months and to learn how other moms and dads have been passing along their best advice to cope in challenging times.

Kate, 38, who has focused a lot of her royal work in the last few years on the needs and wellbeing of families — especially young children — wanted to highlight the parents who use their time, experience and knowledge to support other families, whether as professionals or trained volunteers or through informal parent networks.

It was fitting that the meet-up was held in Battersea Park – Kate, who was casusal in a white shirt and dark pink trousers, believes that spending time in the outside greatly benefits the wellbeing of children as well as their carers.

[From People]

In case you want an ID on the trousers, they’re from Marks & Spencer, they retailed for £29.50 and she’s worn them before. She loves a Capri cut and a cropped leg for some reason! I personally can’t stand that style, but I don’t have the ankles to pull it off. When oh when will palazzo pants come back into style?? I will say this – it’s sort of nice to see Kate in simple, inexpensive trousers and a t-shirt for an event at a park. Four years ago, she would have debuted a $2000 McQueen coatdress and a head full of sausage-curl extensions.

Across the UK there are many thousands of parents who use their time, experience and knowledge to support other parents and families.

This morning The Duchess spoke with representatives and volunteers from seven different organisations who run peer-to-peer support programmes. pic.twitter.com/1emTYGBKOB

— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) September 22, 2020

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

For a week, I’ve seen the promos for the “Time 100” special which aired last night. Time Magazine puts together their list of 100 people (around the world) who they consider the most influential, the most powerful, the biggest tastemakers, the biggest creatives, etc. This year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not appear on the Time 100 list (they were on the 2018 list) but they appeared on the TV special, in a pre-recorded bit which looks like it was filmed in their backyard in Montecito. Here you go:

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex: “Congratulations to this year’s transformative leaders and change makers. You work tirelessly to create a better world, a better global community for all of us” #TIME100 https://t.co/3aojLBhOVu pic.twitter.com/aqOkVUNFBX

— TIME (@TIME) September 23, 2020

Meghan was marking National Voter Registration Day, which was yesterday, and saying that every four years Americans are told that this is the most important election of our lifetimes and every year that’s true, especially this year. Harry chimed in and said he couldn’t vote in this year’s election, nor had he ever voted in UK elections, but he hoped Americans would remember that “it’s vital that we reject hate speech, misinformation and online negativity. When the bad outweighs the good, for many, whether we realize it or not, it erodes our ability to have compassion and our ability to put ourself in someone else’s shoes. Because when one person buys into negativity online, the effects are felt exponentially. It’s time to not only reflect, but act.”

Do you see a problem with any of that? Because the royal commentators see a BIG problem!

While Harry and Meghan did not endorse a candidate, their intervention sparked criticism from viewers who said it was none of their business and thought it ‘obvious’ that Harry and Meghan were backing Joe Biden over Donald Trump. DailyMail.com editor-at-large Piers Morgan said: ‘Prince Harry poking his woke nose into the US election and effectively telling Americans to vote against President Trump is completely unacceptable behaviour for a member of the Royal Family.’

Royal biographer Robert Jobson told DailyMail.com that it ‘may be easier’ for Meghan and Harry to give up their royal titles altogether given the ‘business and political agenda they appear to want to pursue. Frankly, I think it would be better for Harry to withdraw, along with his son, from the line of succession to avoid further confusion,’ he said.

[From The Daily Mail]

LOL. Just… lol. Harry is literally like “reject hate speech” and everyone KNOWS it’s a not-so-subtle subtweet of Donald Trump, the most hateful POS in the country. When one candidate is literally synonymous with “hate speech” and “misinformation” and “negativity,” maybe the problem is NOT a ginger prince? Maybe the problem is that Trump lies and is full of hate and misinformation. As for the pissy-pants saying Harry needs to remove himself from the line of succession… I hope these people stay mad.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg rightly holds the cover to this week’s People magazine. I haven’t read the full piece yet, but the write up they’ve posted sounds like they’ve done her justice. One of the things that set RGB apart was her focus on the future. Even with all she’d accomplished, she never rested on her laurels. Her eye was trained on how she could make things better, and, according to People, she was very aware that she was making it easier for the next generation to continue the work.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may have only stood five-feet tall, but she was one of the fiercest fighters for equal rights. And that fierceness persisted even in the days before her death.

In this week’s PEOPLE cover story, longtime friend and neighbor Sanford Greenberg says that Ginsburg “was making plans to live” just two weeks before she died on Friday at the age of 87.

Ginsburg called Greenberg to prepare for a speech she promised to record for his upcoming End Blindness by 20/20 awards ceremony.
“She was preparing for the Court’s next term and swamped,” says Greenberg, 79, “but it was vintage Ruth— ‘Straight ahead. We’re going to get this done.’ She was making plans to live.”

Ginsburg’s life can be summed up in one word: perseverance. The women’s rights icon lost her mother when she was just 17 years old, but she pushed on and attended Cornell University, where she met Martin Ginsburg, her husband of 56 years until his death in 2010.

Despite graduating at the top of her class (at Harvard Law), Ginsburg couldn’t find a job because firms didn’t hire women lawyers. Instead, she taught law while volunteering as a litigator for the ACLU, where, in the 1970s, she took on cases — five of which she won at the Supreme Court — that led the courts, step by step, to the conclusion that laws treating men and women differently were unconstitutional.

“She was so focused on making a case that would win over courts but also eventually win over the public,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a young lawyer at the time, says now.
Ginsburg’s belief that change would only be complete with public support is part of the reason she celebrated her icon status when she gained “The Notorious RBG” nickname in 2013.

She was “very aware that she was paving the way for a new generation to take on the mantle and move forward,” says her former clerk Paul Schiff.

“Ruth didn’t think of it as work,” says Greenberg. “She always said, this is the most joyous thing I could do.”

[From People]

I am no expert on Justice Ginsburg, but I did get the impression that she absolutely adored the law and her role in it, be it a volunteering her services for the ACLU or sitting on the Supreme Court. I don’t think the significance of her appointment to the court was ever lost on her. She made decisions that would make lives better for generations, and she did not take those lightly. She obviously loved her job, and we should all be so lucky to find that kind of fulfillment in life.

Following her death, her fellow Supreme Court colleagues penned their thoughts about her, each one proving the respect she had on the bench. I think she would be touched by their words, and by those of the women she fought for. Buzzfeed compiled some thoughts from women who took their grief to the steps of the Supreme Court Building, which transformed into a public memorial for Justice Ginsburg. Many of the comments made were those of gratitude to the work Justice Ginsburg did, but there was also a lot of fear expressed about what will happen next. Each woman acknowledged that, although they were scared, they had to move forward in Justice Ginsburg’s name. This is where I am right now. I know that even though I am terrified and hopeless, I can’t give up. I don’t know where the strength will come from, but I’ll find it.

Photo credit: WENN/Avalon and via Wikipedia

A post shared by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on Sep 22, 2020 at 9:02am PDT

Lady Gaga released her new album, Chromatica, in May. Her single Rain On Me, a duet with Ariana Grande, is a return to Gaga’s pop-techno origins. The song is a real bop and the video won an MTV Award.

The lyrics to Rain On Me give fans a peek into the rest of the album. Gaga even penned a song called “911,” which is a reference to her anxiety medication. The video for the song was released last week. Gaga, in an interview with CBS’s Lee Cowan, said writing the album was therapeutic and a way of coming back to herself. Gaga also spoke about the PTSD she suffers from after being sexually assaulted at 19. For several years she was suicidal, all while she put out upbeat-sounding music. Here are a few excerpts from the interview:

She had just hit 30. “Joanne” hit #1, but Gaga had hit a wall. “It’s not always easy, if you have mental issues, to let other people see,” she said. “I used to show. I used to self-harm. I used to say, ‘Look. I cut myself. See, I’m hurt,’ ’cause I didn’t think anyone could see. ‘Cause mental health, it’s invisible.”

Invisible and insidious. Combined with the PTSD from being sexually assaulted at 19 – something she didn’t even talk about until a few years ago – those close to her knew the dangers.

“The people around me, they lifted me up, and they said, ‘You think you’re drowning, but you’re not. You’re still amazing.’ And I used to go, ‘I’m not amazing. I’m over.’”

“You really felt like it was over?” asked Cowan.

“I didn’t really understand why I should live other than to be there for my family.” She replied. “That was an actual real thought and feeling: Why should I stick around?”

“Did you think about suicide?”

“Oh, yeah. Every day.”

“Every day?”

“Yeah. I lived in this house while people watched me for a couple years, to make sure that I was safe,” she said.

Her mental anguish presented physical pain, too. In her 2017 Netflix documentary, “Gaga: 5 Foot Two,” it was on full display.

She said, “Most of the time it is triggered by objectification. If I’m at the grocery store, and somebody comes up very close to me and puts a cellphone right in my face, and just starts taking pictures … ”

“That triggers it?”

“Oh, just total panic, full body pain,” Gaga said. “I’m braced because I’m so afraid. It’s like I’m an object, I’m not a person.”

[From CBS News]

I am someone very open about my PTSD, anxiety and chronic depression, but not because I want sympathy. I hope that my being open will reach someone in their moment of need. Depression in itself can feel very isolating and like a perpetual dark cloud enveloping you. I cannot imagine having that experience while in the very critical and sometimes mean-spirited public eye.

I have loved Gaga’s extremely Drag Queenesque style and music since Just Dance. We would play her continuously at the Mac counters at that time. Her music had a way of just transporting me to a happy place when I was feeling low. To me she is somewhat a national treasure, especially in the queer community which I support. It makes me truly sad that her greatest gift comes with the most extreme pain. And that she cannot just be the creative weirdo that she is without having to fend off judgmental people.

I am glad that she has embraced her alter ego Lady Gaga while integrating that part of her personality with her true self. It is hard enough out there to keep it together without feeling fragmented. Hopefully Gaga’s openness will help help others seek help as well as normalize the conversation around depression, anxiety, PTSD and suicide. It is a very much needed conversation to have globally. I also hope she continues to get the support she needs because a world without Gaga would be quite bleak in my opinion.

? Holdin’ on so tight to this status, it’s not real but I’ll try to grab it ?

A post shared by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on Sep 20, 2020 at 12:00pm PDT

? My biggest enemy is me, pop a 911 ?

A post shared by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on Sep 20, 2020 at 9:00am PDT

Hello NEEEEW YOOORK!!! ???

A post shared by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on Sep 20, 2020 at 3:38pm PDT

I feel like stylists and photographers are starting to come around to how to style and photograph Megan Thee Stallion. She’s got some great angles and, in my opinion, she’s very styling dependent in still photos. When you can see her dance and talk, there’s never an issue – you can see how sexy and sweet and beautiful she is. But still photography took a minute to catch up. That being said, I friggin’ love this W Magazine editorial with Megan. She looks amazing here. She was photographed months ago, and the interview took place just days before Trey Lanez shot her in both feet. Some of the quotes feel so prescient in a horrific way. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

On being criticized: “It’s really mind-blowing to see the nasty things that people say to you. I don’t know if people think you not gon’ see it… I feel like just being an artist, waking up every day, voicing your own opinions is a risk… Just talking. Being real is a risk.”

On the lockdown: “I’m not an introvert, but I do like to sit down and take some time to myself.”

Inspiring girls & women: “I love the fact that I have a voice, and I love the fact that I do inspire a lot of girls, and I didn’t realize it at first. I was just being me. Some of the things I say, I realized that some women might really wanna say them. So I just keep all of these things in the back of my mind when I’m writing. I’m not gon’ say I feel pressure, but sometimes I will get a little tingly because I just want to put out the best music for my fans as possible. I don’t like to disappoint them. So when I’m recording, I’m super hard on myself. I’m just always like, Okay, I need to go harder than that. I’ll write and rewrite a verse about eight times.”

Naturally sexy: “I feel like I’m just naturally kinda like a sexy person. Like, I’m not trying to be. But now it’s, like, a public thing. And I’m always dancing. I always got on shorts. So it’s like, ‘Look at her, dancing again.’ Well, I was gon’ do that anyway… Twerking was supposed to be a thing that was sneaky fun—like, bad. And now it’s a thing where it’s supernormal, it’s very casual, you see everybody doing it. Let me say this: Different body types offend different people. So if you are maybe smaller, twerking doesn’t come off as offensive, but when you got the assets, then that’s when it comes off as, Oh my God, what the hell is going on? It becomes a sexual thing. But I can’t help it that I got this body. I’ma twerk, and it’s gon’ look this way, and it might be offensive to you because I look like this, but I can’t help it. And I don’t care. I don’t care that you feel that way.”

On racism & BLM: “The moment does feel different because it feels bigger—people have been able to hide a lot of racism, but now that we have social media, we see everything… I really like how we’re able to catch these people doing these disgusting things and put ’em on blast, and people are getting fired from their jobs. You getting your scholarship taken away from whatever school you thought you was about to go to. It’s like, Yeah, we see you. You like to be disgusting in private, so let us show you how to keep that same energy in public. I like that we get to call everybody out now….Why would you not speak out, or why would you not do everything you could to make a change if you know this is just wrong, in general? I shouldn’t have to tell you how to fix racism. I shouldn’t have to tell you not to be racist. I shouldn’t have to tell you how to help us.Like, you should just genuinely feel that way. The color of your skin does not dictate the function of your brain.”

[From W Magazine]

I feel like people consistently forget how young Megan is – she’s 25 years old, very much a woman, yet she’s a different generation from someone like Nicki Minaj (37), Beyonce (“38”) or Katy Perry (35). Megan is younger than Cardi B (she’s another one people think is older, but she’s only 27). Megan is younger than Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande (both 27). My point is that Megan is still figuring out a lot of stuff and she’s going through it in public, the good and the bad. Also, yes, she’s just a naturally sexy person. And I love what she says about twerking too.

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THE MUSIC ISSUE I “I feel like right now, you just cannot forget to be happy,” @theestallion told @clovito for our latest cover story. “It’s all this bad going on. You just really have to remember, ‘What did I like to do? What makes me smile?’ Dancing really makes me smile, and I know dancing makes a lot of people happy. That’s my outlet. That’s the way I express myself. Whatever you want to do to stay positive, do that.” Read the full interview at the link in bio.

A post shared by W Magazine (@wmag) on Aug 13, 2020 at 5:00pm PDT

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THE MUSIC ISSUE I @theestallion’s number-one song “Savage” flooded TikTok when 19-year-old @queen.kekeeee created the #SavageChallenge, a choreographed dance she posted on the app (and the @naenaetwins updated with new moves once the remix with @beyonce came out). Since then, nearly everyone from TikTok star @addisonraee to @haileybieber and @justinbieber, and even Megan Thee Stallion herself, has embraced the trend. Here, a compilation of some of the best and most creative takes on the “Savage” dance. – Edit: @brian__lynch, @pier59studios Videos: @theestallion, @justmaiko, @queen.kekeeee, @jamescharles, @addisonraee, @marsaimartin, @charlidamelio, @lizakoshy, @loren, @normani, @jessicaalba, @ondreazlopez, @lopez_tony, @tinashenow, @keke, @emmachamberlain, @chanteljeffries, @haileybieber, @justinbieber, @lilhuddy, @arod, @ashleytisdale, @wearegoodgirl, @syncladies, @analisseworld, @dearra, @lianev, @keyondre.forreal, @stassiebaby

A post shared by W Magazine (@wmag) on Aug 13, 2020 at 6:00pm PDT

Cover & IGs courtesy of W Magazine.

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Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is fast becoming a household name with his portrayal of iconic roles. Sunday he won an Emmy for his role as Doctor Manhattan in HBO’s Watchmen. Wearing a Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton suit, Yahya accepted his Emmy by shouting out the black women in his life for believing and investing in him. He dedicated his statue to black women as a whole.

Yahya has two more projects slated for release in the coming months. Yahya will star in Netflix’s The Chicago 7, out in October, as famed Black Panther activist Bobby Seale. The Candyman Reboot is finally going to be released in 2021 after it’s original release date was delayed. Yahya did an interview with EW from his Berlin where he is filming another project. He opened up about how he got into acting and how acting and his original passion for architecture is connected. Here are a few excerpts:

Walking that tightrope has served him well in his short yet successful career: He made his screen debut just four years ago, stealing every scene in Baz Luhrmann’s hip-hop drama The Get Down, and on Sunday he won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series for his role as the godlike superhero Dr. Manhattan on HBO’s Watchmen, a searing exploration of white supremacy. This fall was primed to mark that aforementioned moment with his turn as the tragic heart of Aaron Sorkin’s awards hopeful The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix, Oct. 16) and his ascension to leading-man status in Nia DaCosta’s buzzy Candyman reboot. Unfortunately, the latter’s release date was pushed back to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abdul-Mateen uses the word impressionable to describe himself repeatedly. His openness to other people’s ideas is a crucial component of his character. In his sophomore year at UC Berkeley, where he majored in architecture, a track teammate suggested he enroll in acting class after he performed impressions of the coaches at a team-building variety show. So he did, and caught the acting bug. After graduation, he worked for the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development by day and took acting classes at night. When he was laid off during the 2008 recession, he decided to survive on his unemployment check and concentrate on honing his craft in the hope that he would eventually move to Los Angeles and book a McDonald’s commercial, which would hopefully lead to him being cast on a soap opera, which is what happened to someone he knew. But ultimately, the combination of seeing his classmates enroll in graduate school and his mentors’ encouragement inspired him to pursue his M.F.A. at Yale School of Drama instead.

Looking back on his journey, he does recognize a connection between his two passions. “It’s all creativity,” he says. “[I’m drawn] to step into something that’s still art, that still allows me to create the world around me.” That said, succeeding in graduate school meant learning how to turn off the plan-loving architectural part of his brain and “open up for more possibility and for more space. To know when to be a thinker and to know when to just let go and let my body take control.”

With their focus on racial injustice, Candyman and Chicago 7 complement this deeply resonant moment — and satisfy the hunger Abdul-Mateen keeps going back to. “Right now, I have an appetite for stories rooted in historical experiences,” he says. “It’s important to be a voice that represents the stories that need to be told right now.” So maybe it’s less about being present for him. Maybe it’s more about prescience.

[From EW]

Yahya has quickly become one of my favorite up and coming actors and I cannot believe he has only been in the game for four years. The man is hella sexy. The roles he chooses are extremely profound for a new comer. He continues to impress with his thoughtfulness. His retelling of Doctor Manhattan’s arc as a god who comes to earth in the body of a black man to give a black woman the love she deserves just made my heart melt.

I hope that Yahya continues to be guided by his love of art and insatiable desire to tell stories that transcends. I will continue to be invested in his storytelling and projects. I hope in the future he decides to go behind the camera as well because I believe that he could create beautiful and compelling stories. Until then, I will continue to drool over him in this black suit because that man is beautiful.

Best seat in the house! It’s a Celebration! #EMMYS

A post shared by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (@yahya) on Sep 20, 2020 at 4:53pm PDT

BLESSED!!! #EMMYS2020

A post shared by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (@yahya) on Sep 20, 2020 at 7:42pm PDT

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images