Category: News

A.J. Girard is using his background in art history to shine a bright light on Black art culture — from the streets to the galleries — through his showcases in Los Angeles and worldwide. Shannon Mustipher is an award-winning mixologist and author, whose work behind the bar has helped re-center the Black experience in cocktail history and the present-day bar scene. Girard and Mustipher sat down together in the latest episode of Grand Encounters to combine their backgrounds in curating Black culture, history, and art, both in the gallery and behind the bar, to make a unique Grand Marnier cocktail.

Sitting in front of the bar, Girard walks Mustipher through his work and how he uses his platform to create spaces for BIPOC artists to shine outside of the standard (and very gate-keepy) art world. Mustipher soaks it all in while slowly building a Grand Marnier cocktail that speaks to Girard’s vibe and his deeply important work in the art community.

Behind the bar, Mustipher serves Girard a neat pour of Grand Marnier Cuvee Louis-Alexandre to get things started and prime his palate with the perfect blend of fine VSOP cognac and orange liqueur. Then Mustipher picks up a jigger and gets to work building the cocktail.

Watch the episode above to learn about Mustipher’s cocktail choice, how it tastes, and how to make the drink while also learning about the impactful work that A.J. Girard is doing in the art space.

After more than eight long years, the USMNT was back on the World Cup stage for its first game of group play against Wales, a team that figured to be a fair measuring stick for the young American squad.

Early on, it was all United States, as their pace proved to be a problem for Wales, producing a pair of near-goals — one off the head of a Welsh defender and another off the head of American striker Josh Sargent — that set the early tone.

Eventually, the U.S. would cash in with a goal in the 35th minute, as Christian Pulisic would slot a pass in to Tim Weah who calmly put it in the back of the net past a charging goalie and a sliding effort from the defender behind.

It was a sensational run and while the Americans surely would’ve preferred a 2-0 lead considering some of their chances, it felt like they were in full control of the match as it arrived at halftime. The script would be flipped in the second half, as Wales was on the front foot for most of the second 45 minutes, forcing Matt Turner into a big save in the 64th minute on a header.

Wales would have a few chances to equalize, but eventually were gifted a penalty after a dreadful sliding challenge on Gareth Bale in the middle of the box.

Bale would step up and hammer the penalty past Matt Turner, despite the American goalie guessing correctly, tying the game at 1-1.

From there, Wales seemed content to try and hold on for the draw, succeeding in that goal despite what became 10 minutes of stoppage time. Given how the game started, it was a tough result for the Americans who would’ve been all-but assured of getting out of the group with a win, but now will need a win over Iran next week and, likely, a result against England on Friday if they’re to reach the Round of 16.

Alex G produced Japanese Breakfast’s Jubilee track “Savage Good Boy.” Now, he’s on the receiving end of some internet savagery. Alex G wrapped his headlining North American tour at his hometown Philadelphia’s Union Transfer over the weekend and the indie rocker should be celebrated for back-to-back sold-out shows… should be.

Are you picturing Charlie Day’s It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia meme? Good. That’s me, untangling this internet hoax for you. Last November, there was a lice outbreak at a Waterparks concert in Chicago. Yesterday (November 20), one mischievous tweeter repurposed that real lice warning as a joke about a fake lice outbreak at Alex G’s weekend Philly shows.

Union Transfer got in on it, tweeting, “don’t want everyone to go home and give their families lice at Thanksgiving!” The venue then had to clarify that it was in on the joke after confusion spread.

This brings us back to Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner.

“Yesterday Alex G told me my band was like The Cheesecake Factory and theirs was like Olive Garden,” Zauner tweeted this afternoon (November 20). “But I think you’re more likely to get lice at a Cheesecake Factory soooooo…”

We really should have seen this sort of savagery coming from J-Brekkie after she recently (and playfully) warned she was “officially starting indie beef” with Arctic Monkeys. But even The Cheesecake Factory’s obnoxiously long menu couldn’t have accounted for this unhinged sequence.

Scroll below to catch up on the spiraling reactions. Alex G, meanwhile, has not acknowledged any of this.

Last year, Miley Cyrus and Pete Davidson threw a New Year’s Eve party where Davidson swore his resolution would be to “read three books.” It seems like that never happened, so he has effectively been fired as the host of Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party.

In reality, the comedian is probably just too busy promoting electric trimming products, but the point here is that he’s not coming back for the second year. Instead, he is being replaced with an actual legend and icon Dolly Parton, so things are looking up!

The two announced their joint celebration in a new commercial where Cyrus says, “Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party is about getting glamorous and dressing your best,” to which Parton replied, “Well, we do that every day, don’t we Miley?” This seems a lot tamer than last year when Cyrus promoted her event by bringing Davidson to a gay bar.

Cyrus and Parton have a long history together as Parton is literally Cyrus’ godmother. Parton used to guest star on Hannah Montana while Cyrus would cover “Jolene” on tour over the years.

Jen Neal, Executive VP of NBCUniversal live events and specials said in a statement, “The inaugural Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party was an unqualified success and we know this year’s show will be just as spectacular, with plenty of surprises and lots of fun. We can’t wait to get the party started.” We know that Dolly loves to party just as much as Pete, if not more.

Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party will air live from Miami on Dec. 31 from 10:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET. The special will also be streaming on Peacock.

(Via Deadline)

Quentin Tarantino just took another swing at Marvel. The iconic director is on a press tour promoting his new book, Cinema Speculation, and with that comes his penchant for delivering hot takes on Hollywood. Earlier in the month, Tarantino revealed that he and his fellow filmmakers can’t wait for the superhero trend to fade away like the boom of musical films in the 1960s. Although, he admits the “writing is not on the wall yet.”

This time around, Tarantino stopped by Tom Segura’s podcast where he lamented that are no “real movie stars” anymore, which he blames on the “Marvel-ization of Hollywood.” While taking pains to note that he doesn’t hate the Marvel films, nor does he love them, Tarantino is not a fan of how they’re over-crowding theaters. He also doesn’t think highly of the stars coming out of them. Via Mediaite:

“Part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood is… you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters. But they’re not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Or Thor is the star. I mean, I’m not the first person to say that. I think that’s been said a zillion times, you know, but, you know, but it’s like, you know, it’s these franchise characters that become a star.”

Tarantino criticizing the actors considerably ups the ante on the attacks on Marvel. Not even Martin Scorsese went that far. However, Tarantino has been quick to admit that he’s getting old and he knows his views are “out of touch.” He brought up turning 60 to Segura, which echoed his recent comments to CNN on exiting the industry gracefully before he becomes too crotchety.

“I don’t want to become this old man who’s out of touch,” Tarantino told Chris Wallace. “When already, I’m feeling a bit like an old man who’s out of touch with the current movies that are out right now. And that’s what happens, that’s exactly what happens.”

(Via Mediaite)

In case you forgot, the past couple days have been full of reminders that we are still in Taylor Swift season. Last night (November 20), she was nominated for six awards at the 2022 American Music Awards and won every single one. It was also revealed over the weekend that Midnights is No. 1 on the latest Billboard 200 chart for a third total week. Now, her success continues on the singles chart, too: On the new Hot 100 dated November 26, “Anti-Hero” is No. 1 for a fourth week.

The single is now tied with “Shake It Off” for Swift’s second-longest run at No. 1. Both tunes are second to only “Blank Space,” which was on top for seven total weeks in 2014 and 2015.

Meanwhile, Drake and 21 Savage are still doing well, as four songs from Her Loss remain in the top 10: “Rich Flex” at No. 2, “Major Distribution” at No. 6, “Spin Bout U” at No. 9, and “On BS” at No. 10. Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ former leader “Unholy” also had a major bounce-back, rising from No. 10 up to No. 3 this week. This comes after last week, when that song and “Anti-Hero” were the only top-10 tracks not from Her Loss, as songs from the LP held all eight spots between and including No. 2 and No. 9.

In September, Trevor Noah revealed that he would step down as host of The Daily Show, effective December 8th. That’s pretty soon! Unless you’re reading this in the future, in which case, how was Avatar: The Way of Water? Is it good? I hope it’s good. Anyway, during his departure announcement, Noah said, “I realized that after the seven years, my time is up.” He expanded upon his decision to leave (not the movie) in a new interview with the Hollywood Repoter.

“Maybe this comes with not being raised in America, but I believe that everything should end,” Noah said. “A lot of American business and American media is just like, ‘Keep it going as long as possible,’ but I think it’s healthy for things to end when they’re still in a good place. I want to leave before I’m burnt out, because there are many other things I’d like to do.”

One of Noah’s managers, Derek Van Pelt, prefers to look at his client’s entire career, not just the seven years he hosted the Comedy Central series. “He’s Trevor Noah and, yes, he hosted The Daily Show, whereas if you host The Daily Show for 25 years, you’re The Daily Show‘s Trevor Noah, which is not what he is or what we wanted him to be,” he said.

No replacement host for The Daily Show host has been announced — but Stephen Colbert hopes it’s Roy Wood Jr.

(Via the Hollywood Repoter)

María Becerra‘s highly-anticipated album La Nena De Argentina is arriving next month. On Sunday night (November 20), the Argentine pop star revealed the LP’s release date and teased a few new songs.

Becerra is the most-streamed female artist from Argentina on Spotify. She has a staggering 21 million monthly listeners on the platform. Becerra’s success has led to collaborations with many global artists. Camila Cabello enlisted her for this year’s “Hasta Los Dientes” on her Familia album and she performed her hit “Qué Más Pues?” with J Balvin at the 2022 Grammy Awards.

Becerra started teasing her La Nena De Argentina back in June with the the kiss-off anthem “Ojala.” In September, Becerra shifted her music career into the next gear with the reggaeton romp “Automático.” The post-apocalyptic music video has amassed over 71 million views on YouTube.

On TikTok, Becerra made the announcement of when to expect her next album. La Nena De Argentina will be released on December 8. The video also featured Becerra dancing to a preview of a new song on the beach.

While she was in Las Vegas for the Latin Grammy Awards last week, Becerra teased new music from the album. As a guest on TikTok’s #Rompiendo LIVE, she performed the new songs titled “Hacemos El Amor” and “Desafiando El Destino.” At a listening party for Remezcla Studios, she also played previews of the bachata-infused track “Hasta Que La Muerte Nos Separe” and the cumbia bop “Adios.”

Did Donald Trump win a presidential election in 2016 because Jerry Falwell Jr. liked to watch a Miami pool boy have sex with his wife? This is the genuinely insane, and genuinely compelling question at the heart of God Forbid, a new Hulu documentary from Billy Corben (The U, Cocaine Cowboys, Screwball, 537 Votes).

Ostensibly it’s a movie about the scandal that brought down Jerry Falwell Jr., whose life is a Righteous Gemstones plot, as the head of Liberty University. But the hypotheticals are seemingly endless. As the head of his father’s flagship university, Falwell, who officially endorsed Trump for president, was wildly influential with evangelicals, who voted for Trump in record numbers. Michael Cohen, Trump’s attorney and fixer, knew that Falwell Jr. and his wife, Becki, were involved in a three-way relationship and real estate deal with Giancarlo Granda, who they’d met while Granda was working at the Fontainebleu Hotel pool in Miami. Cohen has claimed he used this knowledge (as well as photographic evidence) as leverage in Falwell’s Trump endorsement.

Beyond that, God Forbid is also about how, as Giancarlo Granda’s sister puts it, “you never want to be the least powerful person in a scandal.”

Since his scandal-plagued departure from Liberty, Falwell Jr. has “opened up,” or at least pretended to, claiming all that fire-and-brimstone culture war stuff he preached was more his father’s bag. Yet even in the midst of these supposed admissions, he still claims not to have known about Granda and his wife’s “affair,” calling it a “fatal attraction” situation.

Which puts Giancarlo, who is still co-owner of some Miami real estate with the Falwells, in a weird position — of being disparaged by a family he lied for for years, and of being known to the public as a “pool boy,” a job he had for one year when he was 20.

The direct and secondary consequences of things the Falwells have promoted are almost endless (Trump, Trumpism, the Dobbs decision), and yet the ripples, in this case, can be traced back to a sketchy Miami real estate deal and lawsuit. Which makes it a perfect subject for Corben, the documentarian laureate of South Florida. It was hard to talk about all the players in God Forbid without a cork wall and a roll of thread, but I did my best when I spoke to Corben recently.

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So is there a siren that goes off in your office every time there’s a Miami Cuban involved in a scandal of some kind?

Since about 2018, since Aram Roston wrote that first Buzzfeed article about Jerry Falwell Jr. and the pool attendant — that he and his wife had met at the Fontainebleu, who less than a year later is a real estate millionaire in this $4.65 million dollar property eight blocks away from our office — we were obviously intrigued. No one really knew what the truth was back in 2018. So for two years before Giancarlo came forward, the blogosphere and the Twitterverse filled in those blanks with the most sensational salacious version — which was actually not far from the truth, as it turned out.

But we thought that this would definitely be an onion that would continue to peel over time, and we would obviously keep an eye on it. I had been to that liquor store, that was one of their three tenants. The Italian restaurant, which is still there, is extremely popular in South Beach. And the upstairs there was what Politico referred to as the “gay-friendly flophouse,” which was the hostel that Giancarlo was running over several years. At first, we thought we were dealing with a story of sexual hypocrisy and abuse of power, and another “only in Miami” butterfly effect kind of story, where a butterfly flaps its wings, and the course of history is changed, and we were excited about all of those prospects.

Then when January 6th happened, I think shit got dark, and when we started to hear this buzzword, “Christian nationalism.” All of a sudden it was everywhere, and we realized that we could tell that micro story about this bizarre coupled threesome, and how it may have impacted the last two presidential elections, but also, set it against the macro of this 50-year evangelical dynasty with this outsized influence on political power.

So in this case, the butterfly that flaps its wings is this poolboy f*cking Jerry Falwell Jr.’s wife, and then–

That is the butterfly, yes.

–and then, Michael Cohen, somehow. Was it through the lawsuit that he got access to the photographic evidence of the affair? And then, supposedly, that became his potential blackmail fuel, in order to make sure that the Falwells endorsed Trump in the election?

Four months after Giancarlo met “this cougar,” Becki Falwell, he’s getting an invite, from her, to fly to Lynchburg, Virginia, to Liberty University, to meet Donald Trump in September of 2012. Trump was coming to give a speech at the convocation. Giancarlo had been raised a conservative Republican, went to Catholic school, was a fan of Trump, The Apprentice, had read The Art of the Deal, and was very excited about the prospect of getting his book autographed, which he did. But he’s also in the green room, he’s on a private tour with Donald Trump and his entourage, which included his right-hand man, attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, who Giancarlo has very distinct memories of. Of his gaze, of him looking through him, and just looking sideways and wondering, “Who’s this guy?”

I don’t know if it was Giancarlo’s own guilt or whatever, or anxiety, but he thought that Michael Cohen had some idea that there was more than meets the eye here, and he was right. So Michael Cohen was aware that this man could be of some use to the boss, and so he maintained a relationship with Jerry, knowing full well that somewhere down the line this relationship would be of some use. And he was right. In 2014, this real estate transaction that the Falwells had gotten into with Giancarlo leads to this litigation. A friend of Giancarlo’s, who he had been brought in to help them locate a property, who received a real estate commission for his help, was now claiming that he was owed more.

He wanted an equity stake?

Yes. He claimed he was entitled to 50% of Giancarlo’s end.

I read that Vanity Fair piece that Gabe Sherman wrote about the Falwells, which I thought was interesting. That was the most I’d heard about Jerry Jr. at the time. But it was all about the Falwell’s perspective on this story. Was this movie your attempt to tell Giancarlo’s end of this?

Well, Giancarlo had come to us well before that. In fact, Jerry told Megan K. Stack that the reason why they were doing the publicity at the time was to attempt to kill — his word — the book and the documentary. Because I think when Gabe Sherman reached out to Giancarlo to try to get comment, Giancarlo said, “I’m writing a book and participating in this documentary, so that’ll be my side.” So that’s how the Falwells, I think, became aware of the book and the documentary.

Is that annoying to you, as a documentarian, that it seems like the way things work now is that you get access to Giancarlo, and therefore, the Falwells don’t talk to you, and then the guy doing the Falwell profile, the Falwells talk to him, and then Giancarlo won’t talk to him? It feels like there’s this thing now where you have subjects that will see a project as their side of the story, and thus, they won’t speak to other people.

Obviously, ideally, you have all sides, you’re creating the most objective piece of history. I think what we’ve also learned from recent history, however, is that both sidesism can be toxic to journalism. And there’s a couple of things to say about it, and the first thing to say about it is that we put Giancarlo through the ringer. This wasn’t about taking Giancarlo’s word for it or telling his side of the story. From the moment he first reached out to basically two years later, all throughout, we were constantly demanding corroboration, receiving copious amounts of text messages, only a tiny fraction of which feature in the doc. Emails, photographs, videos. We work to corroborate, to ensure that the material that does wind up in the story is as accurate as we can. A lot of stuff that may be true, or that we may believe, doesn’t make the cut. Sometimes for time, but sometimes simply because we can’t corroborate. And the attorneys are like, “This just doesn’t pass muster.” And rest assured, lawyers were ever present, if not physically in the editing room, certainly spiritually in the editing room.

So when the story came out, the Falwells’ attempt to deny the story was to say that this was just an affair, and a “fatal attraction” situation, between Becki and Giancarlo. Why do you think it was so important for Jerry Falwell Jr. to deny the fact that he was a swinger? From a non-religious, whatever perspective, the idea that he likes to watch a young dude have sex with his wife is one of the least distasteful things about him.

It’s arguably almost likable. Because at least there’s humanity there, there’s fetishes. It’s not my fetish. And that’s the important thing about this doc, too, is that this is not to kink-shame anyone, because honestly, as a Miamian, we love it down here. Live your best life. Avail yourself of our amenities, our nightclub, our hotels, our pool attendants, have consensual sex with adults.

Obviously, the rub here is who they are, and this holier-than-thou hypocrisy. That’s what makes it distasteful. The fetish, in and of itself, shows some humanity. But you can’t go to Liberty University as the leader, and exploit Christians and Christianity for power and profit from the pulpit, and then punish those students and faculty for engaging in drinking, in premarital sex, in cohabitation, in cursing, in dancing, when you’re doing all of those things. Are you Christians or are the Ten Commandments just your bucket list? And that’s certainly how they treated them down here.

Are you able to see the sort of Shakespearean tragedy of Jerry Falwell Jr., or has he done too much harm to be sympathetic? Because it seems… his luxurious lifestyle has locked him into this culture warrior position, in some ways. He was born into it.

I’m a storyteller. I think he’s an incredibly, profoundly compelling figure, and a complicated figure, and a conflicted figure, and it’s convenient now for him to cast himself as like, “Well, I was never very religious. That was my brother and my dad and my mom, especially.” That’s very convenient.

So basically, that’s what he’s confessing to having done, to have enjoyed the trappings of being a part of this dynasty, but yet not really believed in any of this bullshit. Come on, dude. But that cynicism, and that thirst for power and control defined his family. His father was not pro-life, his father was pro-power. And now Jerry Jr. is like, “I’m going to be candid.” Come on. Convenient.

One of the most interesting parts of the movie to me was when Giancarlo was talking about that it fell apart because he couldn’t live with the level of lying that was of part of the Falwells’ lifestyle. To have this public persona which was basically a total lie and then their private lives would be something completely different. That was not something that he was capable of doing, and that was part of how they split apart.

He was capable of doing it, in fact, and, I think, he said, “I started to hate myself. I started to hate who I was becoming,” because he was doing it, and the way he tells it, it was eating him alive. He did it, he lied, and he lived that double life, and he lied for them. He lied to people about them, and he, ultimately, felt pretty shitty about it. He’s had a lot of conflicting feelings. He, by his own description, is a pretty simple dude. Comes from this working class family, in Westchester, this very popular suburb, here in mainland Miami-Dade, and this is a guy, that pre-2018 Buzzfeed story, if you Googled his name, you get three hits. His Twitter, his Insta, his LinkedIn. That’s it. Simple, private dude, and after that, you got hundreds of thousands of “pool boy” hits, and this ruined his life, ruined his name, ruined what he thought were any kind of future prospects, either romantically, or economically.

He just thought the second you Google me, I’m just like, “I’m fucking toxic.” And that ate at him for two years, along with him being trapped in this, which he still is, this real estate venture. All the while being teased with the prospect of a buyout, from either the Falwells, or an outside buyer, being promised this $600,000 net, which is all the kid really wanted, was like to be able to walk away from this, after taxes, and attorneys’ fees, with 600 grand, to continue his real estate venture. He wanted to start the rest of his life, separate from the Falwells. He had a series of two or three failed relationships with women his own age, which he, at least in hindsight or at the time, blamed on the dysfunctionality of this coupled threesome/business relationship he had with the Falwells. And the liar he had to be in order to maintain that and protect these women from that. So he just got to wit’s end.

So when it comes out that [he’s the pool boy in this Falwell saga], the Falwells didn’t initially put that out, right? That was a byproduct of Giancarlo’s shady friend suing?

That’s right. So this litigation in Miami-Dade over this real estate dispute, was that the Falwells meet this kid while he is working as a pool attendant at the Fontainebleu, and then they get into this real estate thing, and he reaches out to me for help, and I help them. And I understand that there’s more to this relationship than just the business partnership, and there’s something romantic going on. And, by the way, not in the complaint itself, but offline lawyer to lawyer, they go, “We have photos to prove what we’re insinuating in this complaint,” in order to incentivize Jerry to settle this matter and to write a check.

And Giancarlo freaked the fuck out. His sister likens it to the Lewinsky situation. She’s like, “You don’t want to be the least powerful person in a scandal.”

This power disparity — you mentioned it yourself, the “fatal attraction” story, that was the Clinton playbook. What the Falwells tried to do a little late in the game to Giancarlo, was brand him a stalker. He was obsessed, he was a blackmailer, an extortionist, a fatal attraction, this and that. That’s exactly what Hillary Clinton said about Monica Lewinsky. And so not only does it ruin the reputation of these young people, but they also get branded for life as the job they held for one year in their young adult life. Monica Lewinsky is “the intern,” and Giancarlo Granda is “the pool boy.” And that can be incredibly demoralizing.

So before Falwells endorsed Trump, wasn’t Ted Cruz was sort of the evangelical candidate of choice? Was there any inkling of why Jerry Falwell didn’t like Ted Cruz, that made him inclined towards Donald Trump from the beginning?

Ask Al Franken, everybody hates Ted Cruz. Most of all his Republican colleagues. But this is why the Jerry Falwell Jr. endorsement was such a shock. Not simply because he was endorsing this twice-divorced playboy from New York City, with five children from three different women, it wasn’t just that — and a Democrat, no less — an abortionist. It was also because Ted Cruz was in this primary, and Ted Cruz was literally the evangelical candidate. His father is a pastor. He chose Liberty University, introduced by Jerry Falwell Jr., to announce his presidential campaign. He thought he had that in the bag. Rick Tyler, who was on his campaign and helped set up that event at Liberty and was in touch with Jerry Jr., we interviewed him, it didn’t make the cut, but he said he absolutely thought that the Jerry Jr. endorsement was in the bag. That Cruz was going to garner a precious evangelical voting block that had helped elect every Republican president since Reagan, and as it turned out, turned out in record numbers, upwards of 80%, for Donald Trump, more so than any previous Republican presidential winner.

Jerry Jr. liked Donald Trump. I think Giancarlo makes it clear, Jerry was always going to endorse Trump, no matter what Cruz and his campaign believed. He didn’t like Ted Cruz. He really liked Donald Trump. He wanted to be Donald Trump when he grew up just like Giancarlo did. He wanted to be a billionaire real estate playboy. That’s how he conducted himself in most of his life. There was a quote from a student, a Liberty student, in a political article a couple years ago saying, “We are not a university, we are a real estate hedge fund for Jerry Falwell, Jr.”

And that’s a not unfair assessment of the business model of that school.

So Donald Trump — evangelicals, turns out, they love him, even though he was obviously not practicing what they preach. Jerry Falwell Jr., they loved him, even though he had this whole secret private life. Is it one of the things that we don’t understand as non-evangelicals? Do we misunderstand hypocrisy as a flaw when it’s actually a thing that they like? To have this sort of public persona and private life that’s completely different?

I think it’s a really fair question. I don’t know the answer to it. I will tell you that most of the people we interviewed in this documentary are Christians. Most of them are evangelicals. One of them, Randal Baumer, is an evangelical pastor. I think he’s a second-generation or third-generation, in fact. And these people seem to think that that is not Christianity, and that is a perversion of Christianity. Not unique to evangelicals, by any stretch of the imagination, but not consistent with what they as Christians believe their values to be. And if it has through the years somehow been baked in, it doesn’t belong there, and it’s a cancer on their faith.

‘God Forbid’ is available now, only on Hulu. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

It’s been a huge week for Disney and it’s only Monday. First, news broke late on Sunday night that Bob Iger would return to his (metaphorical) Disney castle as CEO. Then today it was announced that Brandy would return to her (real) Disney castle as Cinderella, nearly 25 years after playing the iconic princess. Now, all we need is that Freaky Friday reboot greenlit and things will be going swell.

Brandy will return as Cinderella in an upcoming installment in The Descendants franchise, The Pocketwatch. Singer Rita Ora will also make an appearance in the film as the Queen Of Hearts. Ora almost became a Disney princess earlier this year before her Beauty and the Beast reboot was killed by Disney+. But the Queen of Hearts is a nice placeholder!

The Descendants is a deceptively popular franchise that has spawned several sequels and even a TV show that stars the children of various Disney villains and princesses living together in harmony and chaos. The Pocketwatch will debut on Disney+ and take audiences “through the rabbit hole to the hostile unincorporated territory of Wonderland, a magical, mysterious place made famous in Alice in Wonderland.”

The 1997 adaptation of Cinderella also starred Whitney Houston as the iconic fairy godmother alongside Whoopi Goldberg, Bernadette Peters, and Jason Alexander in what has to be the most late-90s cast to ever exist. The movie is currently streaming on Disney+.

Obviously, fans are excited that Brandy will take a stroll in her glass slippers once again, especially since that other Cinderella incarnation didn’t land very well among fans and mad Los Angeles drivers.