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Kim Petras made history last month when she and Sam Smith’s hit single “Unholy” rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the process, Petras became the first publicly transgender solo artist to top the Hot 100, while Smith is now the first publicly non-binary solo artist with a No. 1 song. A pretty amazing accomplishment for the two LGBTQ+ artists.

Petras is expectedly getting some much-deserved attention and in a new interview with i-D, she spoke about the plans for her next album. The release will follow both her first No. 1 hit in “Unholy” and her latest EP, Slut Pop, which came out this past February. Petras explained that work has already begun on her next album and in her delightfully risqué manner, says that it’s currently, “A really pretty skeleton.” Adding that, “It’s got the wig on. Braids with ribbons, but it’s still a skeleton — a hot slutty skeleton!”

She went on to say, “I know the songs, and I know the order of them, but I just have to go finish them. It’s a very eclectic world of new people that I’ve worked with, so it’s [a case of] fitting into their schedule.” Those new people include superproducer Max Martin and Dua Lipa producer Ian Kirkpatrick as well. She called Martin her “idol” and spoke more about their collaboration throughout the interview. Check out the whole thing here.

The Chair, Killing Eve and Grey’s Anatomy star Sandra Oh is returning to television soon. Deadline reports that the Golden Globe-winning actor who is also a 13-time Emmy nominee has joined a drama series adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2015 novel The Sympathizer in a recurring role alongside actors Kieuh Chinh and Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen.

The project is produced by and will also co-star Robert Downey Jr. The series is a collaboration with HBO and A24. HBO ordered the series in July 2021, and the series is currently in production. The story is an espionage thriller and satire that follows the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his exile in the United States. It is described as a “blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping spy novel and a powerful story of love and friendship.”

Deadline reports that Oh will play Ms. Sofia Mori, “a liberated feminist who in the midst of a love triangle begins to awaken to the complexity of her own Asian American identity.” Downey, Jr. is set to play multiple roles that will serve as the main antagonists that all represent the different forms of the American, white establishment. The main cast also includes Hoa Xuande (Cowboy Bepop), Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Vy Le, and Alan Trong.

(Via Deadline)

Unless you’ve been living in the wine cellar of Dr. Oz’s temporarily abandoned New Jersey mansion, you’ve likely heard that the much-predicted “red wave” everyone was talking about ahead of Election Day never materialized for the Republicans. And if you’re anything like Seth Meyers, you likely have a favorite GOP villain whose race you were watching with particular morbid interest. In The Late Night host’s case, that candidate happened to be gun-lovin’ Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who may soon be dusting off her resume and looking for work.

In the midst of sharing all the biggest stories from the midterms, Meyers admitted that “By far the most dramatic — and my favorite — example of how poorly things went for Republicans [Tuesday] night is the shocking development in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, where Lauren Boebert is, as of this taping, trailing her Democratic opponent in a race that absolutely no one thought would be competitive.”

Meyers went on to describe his totally understandable reaction to this news:

I’m not saying I was excited last night when I saw those results. But I did rush into my kids’ room at 3 a.m. to shake them and scream, ‘Wake up! Lauren Boebert is losing!’ And they know who she is because I tell them if they don’t eat their vegetables, they’ll get a visit from The Boeberdook.

By the way: If you’re confusing her with Sarah Palin, who’s also running for congress this year in Alaska, don’t worry. They’re both losing. So you don’t even need to keep them straight.

You can watch the full clip above, beginning around the 4:05 mark.

Christina Aguilera is getting real (but will hopefully stay “dirrty”) for a documentary film. One of the biggest trends these days is pop girlie documentaries, which are more accurately propaganda films that make a very famous woman who sings look good while showing their darkest, rawest footage (or at least the version they’re okay with people seeing). Subjects include the likes of Selena Gomez, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, and more.

Deadline reports that Aguilera, who rose to fame in the late 90s with her pop hit “Genie in a Bottle,” is the subject of a documentary that’s been filmed over the past 18 months. In Aguilera’s defense, unlike some of the other pop girlies, she has been in the business for decades and long enough to see a lot of changes in the music industry. She has released nine studio albums and has gone on multiple world tours. Ting Poo is directing the doc for Time Studios and Roc Nation. Poo co-directed Val, a documentary about actor Val Kilmer. The project is the second from Time Studios and Roc Nation, following a Megan Thee Stallion docuseries announced earlier this year.

According to Deadline, the doc offers “unprecedented access to her life story, opening up her personal archive for a look into the past and present, from her early days as a pre-teen Disney star to her current recognition as an international icon with one of music’s most celebrated voices.”

“We are beyond excited to extend our creative partnership with Roc Nation through this film,” Time Studios’ Co-Head of Documentary Loren Hammonds said in a statement. “Christina has been such an enduring talent and inimitable entertainer throughout the years. Hers is truly one of the great voices of our time, and this is the perfect moment for her story to be told. We are incredibly honored that she has chosen to work with Time Studios and Roc Nation to finally share her truth with the world.”

“Christina Aguilera is one of the most iconic artists of our time, whose music has inspired millions of people around the world,” director Ting Poo said in a statement. “I am truly honored to tell the story of the person behind the music because I know it will equally inspire.”

(Via Deadline)

A Twitter hypothetical has fans wondering which member of the 2016 XXL Freshman Class would win in a Verzuz hit battle — and one, in particular, has garnered a lot of attention for saying he’d take it outright. Over the weekend, 21 Savage, who recently released the joint album Her Loss with Drake, participated in a fan chat on Clubhouse, where he asserted that he’d beat every other member of the 2016 Freshman Class — which included members like Anderson .Paak, Denzel Curry, Lil Dicky, Lil Uzi Vert, and Lil Yachty — in a hits battle.

Then, in another chat on the game-streaming app Twitch, Savage stuck to his guns when he was asked about the viral response to his controversial statement. When the host, streamer Kai Cenat, challenged him by naming Kodak Black specifically (fair, considering Kodak’s run of hits including “No Flockin’,” “Super Gremlin,” and “Zeze,” despite Kodak’s many, many transgressions against basic human decency), Savage didn’t hesitate. “I’m smoking Kodak,” he said. “He be acting like I aint got the shit. That what be the problem. N****s be forgetting. I don’t know what n****s be thinking. Before all this Drake sh*t, I been having hits. I been had diamond songs. I’m probably the only n*** of this generation to go platinum with no features.”

Be that as it may — and it’s more accurate than not, thanks to tracks like “A Lot,” “Bank Account,” “Rockstar,” and “X,” among others — Kodak wasn’t too happy about the assertion, firing back during an Instagram Live stream. “21 don’t want the smokes,” he said. “That n**** ain’t say nothing yet. I done DM’d that n****… I done hit Verzuz. Don’t be capping on this internet… 21 don’t want the smokes.”

Lorde has spent much of 2022 on tour in support of her latest album, Solar Power. She has a few music festival performances remaining before finishing off the tour in 2023. And for all of the triumphs that have been documented on this run of concerts (from unexpected songs to using her platform to spread awareness of important causes) her successful tour hasn’t come without its challenges. Namely, in April, the tour was briefly postponed as the “Green Light” singer dealt with laryngitis.

But she’s been incredibly communicative with fans via her newsletter and today, was extremely candid once again in documenting her broad look at the concert touring industry. While she acknowledged that she’s personally doing well financially on tour, her breakdown of the challenges that most other artists — and the industry in general— face, was heartfelt and insightful. “I’m lucky. But for pretty much every artist selling fewer tickets than I am, touring has become a demented struggle to break even or face debt,” she said.

Her post was very detailed and well-reasoned. “Let’s start with three years of shows happening in one,” she began, before embarking on a breakdown of how much more expensive it is to tour in a post-pandemic world. “To freight a stage set across the world can cost up to three times the pre-pandemic price right now…Ticket prices would have to increase to start accommodating even a little of this, but absolutely no one wants to charge their harried and extremely-compassionate-and-flexible audience any more f*cking money.” She cheekily acknowledged that artists are, “…a collection of the world’s most sensitive flowers who also spent the last two years inside.” But was frank in saying that, “All we want to do is play for you.”

Check out more from her newsletter post below.

“I don’t know how much you’ve been following the live music industry conversation, but lemme hit you with a five minute explainer, cause I think it’s interesting, and good to know about if you’re going to concerts at the moment. Basically, for artists, promoters and crews, things are at an almost unprecedented level of difficulty. It’s a storm of factors. Let’s start with three years’ worth of shows happening in one. Add global economic downturn, and then add the totally understandable wariness for concertgoers around health risks. On the logistical side there’s things like immense crew shortages (here’s an article from last week about this in New Zealand), extremely overbooked trucks and tour buses and venues, inflated flight and accommodation costs, ongoing general COVID costs, and truly. mindboggling. freight costs. To freight a stage set across the world can cost up to three times the pre-pandemic price right now. I don’t know sh*t about money, but I know enough to understand that no industry has a profit margin that high. Ticket prices would have to increase to start accommodating even a little of this, but absolutely no one wants to charge their harried and extremely-compassionate-and-flexible audience any more f*cking money. Nearly every tour has been besieged with cancellations and postponements and promises and letdowns, and audiences have shown such understanding and such faith, that between that and the post-COVID wariness about getting out there at all, scaring people away by charging the true cost ain’t an option. All we want to do is play for you.

Profits being down across the board is fine for an artist like me. I’m lucky. But for pretty much every artist selling less tickets than I am, touring has become a demented struggle to break even or face debt. For some, touring is completely out of the question, even if they were to sell the whole thing out! The math doesn’t make sense. Understandably, all of this takes a toll — on crews, on promoters, and on artists. You’ll notice a ton of artists cancelling shows citing mental health concerns in the past year, and I really think the stress of this stuff is a factor — we’re a collection of the world’s most sensitive flowers who also spent the last two years inside, and maybe the task of creating a space where people’s pain and grief and jubilation can be held night after night with a razor thin profit margin and dozens of people to pay is feeling like a teeny bit much. Me personally? I’m doing pretty good. You guys have come to the shows in such mammoth numbers (we sold almost 20,000 tickets in London, like what the hell) and not having crippling stage fright hanging over me for the first time is such a fucking blessing that you could tell me I had to cycle from city to city and I’d still be loving it. But I’m not immune to the stress — just a month ago I was looking at a show that was pretty undersold and panicking, only for it to sell the remaining 2000 tickets in ten days. Wild stuff.

I wanted to put all of this in your minds to illustrate that nothing’s simple when it comes to touring at the moment, and if your faves are confusing you with their erratic moves, some of this could be playing a part.”

Now that Elon Musk has turned a nightmare into reality by actually purchasing the social media platform Twitter, he is running it like a Westerosi king in that his narcissism and ignorance are leading to absolute chaos. One of the many changes Mr. Musk has implemented since his purchase of the site includes the verification system as part of his little passion project, Twitter Blue.

Once meant for public figures including celebrities, journalists, companies, and politicians, being verified on Twitter (aka having a “blue check”) meant that the user has verified their identity and is, in fact, the real person they claim to be on Twitter. Identities online can easily be impersonated, so this clears that up, especially when it comes to public figures. In order to get verified, users were required to prove their identity with verification such as a driver’s license, along with reasons why they should be verified. Per NPR, the verified check mark has existed since 2009. The site launched in 2007.

Musk decided to throw all that out the window with Twitter Blue, which allows any user to get the blue check by paying a measly, pathetic $7.99 per month. This option launched on November 9. This means, essentially, that anyone who has a blue check mark gets to keep it, but anyone who wants one can get one, for a price. For a brief period on Tuesday, November 8, some verified users were double verified, which meant that they had “Official” badges on their profile indicating that . . . they are more verified than other people, apparently? The badges were killed after three hours. In addition to a (kind of fake?) blue check mark, Twitter Blue comes with access to an edit button. For already verified users such as Doja Cat, there is a catch. While they get to keep their verification badge, they cannot change their display names, meaning Doja Cat might forever be known as “christmas.”

“Far too many legacy ‘verified’ checkmarks were handed out, often arbitrarily, so in reality they are *not* verified,” Musk wrote on Twitter on November 5 with absolutely no evidence to justify the claim. “You can buy as many as you want right now with a Google search. Piggybacking off payment system plus Apple/Android is a much better way to ensure verification.” As Nathan Fielder would say, “Okay.”

Twitter Blue is, predictably, already going not according to Musk’s plan. Accounts can easily pretend to be people they are not, which is exactly what the existing verification process successfully prevented. Here are some amusing examples:

pic.twitter.com/90GyPyHW6g

— Andrew Male (@Andr6wMale) November 10, 2022

Millie Bobby Brown is promoting her new Netflix movie, Enola Holmes 2, which naturally, is going to involve some questions about her other prominent role at the streaming giant. The actress took part in one of Vanity Fair‘s lie detector test features, which had some unfortunate results for her Stranger Things co-star Finn Wolfhard.

On the hit Netflix series, Wolfhard and Brown play Mike and Eleven, who’ve had a romance that charts all the way back to the very first season when Stranger Things became a pop culture juggernaut. That romance has involved plenty of on-screen kisses, which apparently are not the best experience for Brown. Our apologies to Wolfhard for what comes next.

Via The Wrap:

“You exclaimed ‘kissing sucks’ after your first kiss with Finn Wolfhard,” Millie’s inquisitor began around five minutes into the segment. “Is Finn just a lousy kisser?”

“He is,” Brown answered, pretty straight-faced.

The technician confirmed that she told the truth.

“So he hasn’t gotten better,” the questioner prompted matter-of-factly, to which Brown responded, “Not with me. No.”

Oof. That’s gotta sting. After realizing she threw Wolfhard under the bus, Brown tried her best to defend co-star Noah Schnapp’s bowl cut, but it didn’t work. When asked if the bowl cut looks good, Brown replied, “I love him. Yes, I do,” but the technician flagged her response. Realizing she was made, Brown humorously declared, “Get the picture out of here.”

Welp, it sure sounds like it’ll be a neat and totally not awkward reunion on the Stranger Things 5 set. You kids have fun.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Last month, when Chris Rock stopped in London on his stand-up tour, he addressed the thing from earlier this year that you all probably know about but tried oh so hard to forget. “People expect me to talk about the bullsh*t, I’m not going to talk about it right now,” he said, adding “I’ll get to it eventually, on Netflix.” As it turns out, he was not just spewing things for the heck of it, he really is running to Netflix to be the first comedian to be live-streamed on the app.

Even though Netflix won’t be trying out any weekly release schedules (yet) they are dipping their toes into the big wide world of live streaming. The streamer announced that early next year, Rock will be the first comedian to perform live on Netflix. This will be his second stand-up special on the site, behind his 2018 special and 2021 extended cut (all, famously, before The Big Thing).

As we know from the dangerous world of HBO, live content can be a big challenge for streamers, especially when there are a lot of viewers tuning in, as they probably will be once the general public gets word that they can once again debate The Event. Hopefully, Netflix will have figured that out by then because we truly cannot afford another live television confrontation. The celebrities just won’t make it through that again.

In a statement, Robbie Praw, Netflix VP of Stand-up and Comedy Formats said, “Chris Rock is one of the most iconic and important comedic voices of our generation. We’re thrilled the entire world will be able to experience a live Chris Rock comedy event and be a part of Netflix history. This will be an unforgettable moment and we’re so honored that Chris is carrying this torch.” Maybe mentioning Chris Rock and a weapon in the same sentence is a bad thought! This man has been traumatized! He won’t let us forget it!

(Via Deadline)

This article originally appeared on 12.06.16

When the attack on Pearl Harbor began, Doris “Dorie” Miller was working laundry duty on the USS West Virginia.

He’d enlisted in the Navy at age 19 to explore life outside of Waco, Texas, and to make some extra money for his family. But the Navy was segregated at the time, so Miller, an African-American, and other sailors of color like him weren’t allowed to serve in combat positions. Instead, they worked as cooks, stewards, cabin boys, and mess attendants. They received no weapons training and were prohibited from firing guns.

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As the first torpedoes fell, Dorie Miller had an impossible choice: follow the rules or help defend the ship?

For Miller, the choice was obvious.

First, he reportedly carried wounded sailors to safety, including his own captain. But there was more to be done.

In the heat of the aerial attack, Miller saw an abandoned Browning .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine gun on deck and immediately decided to fly in the face of segregation and military rules to help defend his ship and country.

Though he had no training, he manned the weapon and shot at the enemy aircraft until his gun ran out of ammunition, potentially downing as many as six Japanese planes. In the melee, even Miller himself didn’t know his effort was successful.

“It wasn’t hard,” he said after the battle. “I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about 15 minutes. I think I got one of those [Japanese] planes. They were diving pretty close to us.”

Original newspaper reports heralded a hero “Negro messman” at Pearl Harbor, but no one knew who Miller was.

The Pittsburgh Courier, an African-American paper in wide circulation, sent a reporter to track down and identify the brave sailor, but it took months of digging to uncover the messman’s identity.

Eventually, Miller was identified. He was called a hero by Americans of all stripes and colors. He appeared on radio shows and became a celebrity in his own right.

Miller’s heroism and bravery didn’t go unnoticed in Washington, D.C., either.

In March 1942, Rep. John Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, introduced a bill authorizing the president to present Miller with the Congressional Medal of Honor. Sen. James Mead introduced a similar measure in the Senate. While Miller did not receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, he became the first African-American sailor to receive the Navy Cross.

“This marks the first time in this conflict that such high tribute has been made in the Pacific Fleet to a member of his race, and I’m sure that the future will see others similarly honored for brave acts,” said Pacific Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz following Miller’s pinning ceremony.

Following a brief tour of the country, giving speeches and pushing war bonds, Miller returned to Navy life.

In May 1943, Miller reported for duty on the Liscome Bay, an escort carrier.

On Nov. 24, during Operation Galvanic, a Japanese torpedo struck the Liscome Bay, sinking the ship. 644 men were presumed dead. 272 survived. Miller did not.

On Dec. 7, 1943, two years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Millers’ parents received word of their son’s death.

Doris “Dorie” Miller gave his life for a country that didn’t always love him back.

Miller posthumously received a Purple Heart, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the American Defense Service Medal, Fleet Clasp, and the World War II Victory Medal. There is also a frigate and a neighborhood on the U.S. Naval Base in Pearl Harbor named in his honor.

Though his Navy Cross was never elevated to a Congressional Medal of Honor, as recently as 2014, the Congressional Black Caucus moved to waive the statute of limitations to make it possible.

While there are medals, movies, and statues celebrating Miller, it’s important to remember and honor the man himself — a 22-year-old black sailor who set aside the rules to do what’s right.

Poet Gwendolyn Brooks wrote a poem from Miller’s perspective, the conclusion of which perfectly captures the young hero’s courage in the face of bigotry and uncertainty:

Naturally, the important thing is, I helped to save them,
them and a part of their democracy,
Even if I had to kick their law into their teeth in order to do that for them.
And I am feeling well and settled in myself because I believe it was a good job,
Despite this possible horror: that they might prefer the
Preservation of their law in all its sick dignity and their knives
To the continuation of their creed
And their lives.