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Carlsey Bibb and Caden Mills went viral this week for taking their engagement photos in front of an Olive Garden in Cookeville, Tennessee, pretending it was Italy. The photos turned out gorgeous and fooled some folks, while many of those who got the joke saw it as a statement against the social pressure to be perfect for Instagram.

The photo shoot was the brainchild of photographer Shea Cravens. “A little over a year ago I had the idea of doing a session at Olive Garden. I mentioned it to some friends but never got around to doing it,” Cravens wrote in an Instagram caption. “Fast forward to today, it finally happened and I am so happy with the outcome.”

Most importantly, the couple was over the moon with the tongue-in-cheek photos. “They were way better than we could’ve ever imagined,” Carlsey told BuzzFeed. “We’ve never been to Italy so I didn’t know what to expect from the pictures, but when we got them back we loved them,” she added.

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A video of the couple on TikTok has more than 260,000 views.

@hunterlasheaphotography

tennessee but with Italy Vibes✨ #engagementphotos #engagementphotoshoot #engagementpictures #bride #weddingtiktok

The couple was even mentioned in “The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon’s monologue.

@hunterlasheaphotography

I AM SLIGHTLY FREAKING OUT. @jimmyfallon YOU MADE MY YEAR🙌🏼 MY PHOTOS GOT PUT ON TV. LIKE WHATTTTT. #thetonightshowstarringjimmyfallon #jimmyfallon #jimmyfallontonightshow #olivegarden

One of the reasons for the couple taking their photos at Olive Garden is they haven’t had a lot of time to plan their wedding. They got engaged in July and their wedding is in October. “We’ve had three months to do everything,” Carsley told Good Morning America while standing in front of the Olive Garden in Cookeville, Tennessee, adding that they “have just about everything done, but still trying to plan a honeymoon.”

“We’ve been pretty busy with everything else, so we’re just waiting around, trying to see the best time for everything for both of us so that’s where we’re at right now,” Caden told Good Morning America.

Then Good Morning America host Michael Strahan surprised them with the ultimate gift, an all-expenses-paid honeymoon in Italy.

“We want to help make memories in actual Italy, not just an Italian restaurant,” Strahan told the couple. “I love the Olive Garden, and they love you so much they’re sending you on an all-expenses paid trip to Italy for your honeymoon.”

“Wow, that’s great,” Caden exclaimed. “Thank you guys.”

u201cCarlsey Bibb and Caden Miller’s engagement photos in front of an Olive Garden went viral u2014 so we surprised the couple with a trip to ITALY! ud83cuddeeud83cuddf9 https://t.co/kWY5S6wpLCu201d

— Good Morning America (@Good Morning America)
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Obviously, the couple’s viral photoshoot was great publicity for the folks at Olive Garden so it makes sense for them to give them the trip. The shots show that the restaurant has made a nice attempt to give people the feeling of being in Italy with its Tuscan farmhouse-inspired facade. But the couple deserves the trip as well. They took engagement photos that were out of the box and thumbed their nose at a current-day Instagram culture that pressures everyone to be perfect.

They also gave a lot of people a good laugh.

Carlsey and Caden had a bright future together as a married couple because they already know what matters most—it’s not status or keeping up with the Joneses—but loving one another in their own unique way, regardless of what anyone thinks. It’s also about breadsticks and all-you-can-eat salad.

This article originally appeared on 04.15.16

What are women up to when no one is watching?

Artwork courtesy of Sally Nixon, used with permission.

Well, take a look at Sally Nixon’s illustrations and you’ll see.

The subjects in her artwork aren’t aware we’re looking at them.

And that’s the point. They’re living in a world free from the pressures that exist in the real one.

“I like drawing girls doing their everyday routine — just hanging out, not worried about what others are thinking,” Nixon told Upworthy. “They’re usually alone or with other girls. Their guard is down.”

Editor’s note: An image below contains partial nudity.

Capturing her subjects in this liberated light wasn’t intentional at first, she explained.

But when she started a 365-day challenge last April to create one art piece a day, the work started reflecting the nuances of her own life away from prying eyes — “I was kind of like, ‘Oh, I’m brushing my teeth, so I’ll draw that.'” — and a theme began to form.Her illustrations show how women look, away from the exhausting world where they’re often judged more harshly than men.

You also might notice none of the girls in her illustrations are smiling.

According to Nixon, that’s a deliberate choice.

“I don’t sit around smiling to myself,” Nixon said, noting the double standard that exists in thinking women should always appear cheerful.

“I’ve been told, ‘You need to smile more.’ It’s so infuriating. I wanted to show the way girls actually look, comfortably.”

The theme of friendship is also an important one in Nixon’s drawings.

“I have four older sisters, so female friendship has always been a big part of my life,” Nixon told The Huffington Post. “You gotta have someone to talk about periods with, and dudes just don’t get it.”

Creating relatable scenes was key to Nixon, too — from the details of women’s lives to the physical shapes of their bodies.

“It’s important that the women I draw aren’t rail thin with huge boobs,” Nixon said. “I think there are enough images of bodies like that out in the world. The ladies I draw typically have small-ish, droopy breasts and thick thighs. They’re kind of lumpy but in an attractive way. Just like real people.”

The women in Nixon’s work aren’t real, but she hopes their stories are.

“One of my absolute favorite comments [on my work] is, ‘Oh my God, it’s me!'” she explained of the depictions.

“There’s a little bit of beauty in [everyday life] and I wanted to bring that out.”

You can view more of Nixon’s artwork on her website and check out her prints for purchase on Etsy.

The artist best known as Christine And The Queens has been in the midst of change lately. Chris, as he is also known, announced Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles, his first album as Redcar, in July. Chris also noted he’s now using he/him pronouns (which is currently reflected on his social media pages) and has expanded more on that in a recent TikTok video.

In the clip, Chris speaks in his native French and as Billboard notes, he notes he has identified as a man for some time now. He says, “I’ve been a man for a year now — a little more officially in my family and in my relationship. It is a long process.”

In a New York Times interview from earlier this year, Chris also noted, “My journey with gender has always been tumultuous. It’s raging right now, as I’m just exploring what is beyond this. A way to express it could be switching between ‘they’ and ‘she.’ I kind of want to tear down that system that made us label genders in such a strict way. I remember talking about being pansexual in France in 2014 — it was a conversation that few opened up, and I was advised in, like, offices to maybe tone it down. I’m really trying to address it the right way now, and I’ve been sometimes pressured to give an answer. But I think the answer is to be flickery, fluid, escaping.”

Every series could use Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a guest star. He stole the show on the final season of The Good Wife, he became a fan favorite on Supernatural, and who could forget how whirlwind romance with Katherine Heigl on season two of Grey’s Anatomy? Now, Morgan has achieved the world’s highest honor: a recurring guest star slot on the upcoming season of The Boys.

Morgan will reunite with Supernatural creator Erik Kripke for the upcoming fourth season of the superhero series The Boys on Amazon Prime, which just began filming this week. His character remains under wraps but rumors of a guest appearance have been swirling for some time now, as Morgan has been an outspoken fan of the show.

Earlier this year, Kripke admitted that Morgan was in talks to join the series for the upcoming season. He told E! News, “[Morgan] is a superfan of the show, so he and I are talking. We’re trying to figure out something for season four. Nothing finalized yet, but he and I are chatting and e-mailing and seeing it we can make it work with his busy schedule. So, stay tuned on that.” Clearly, begging and waiting works!

After spending the last five years on The Walking Dead, Morgan is set to star in the upcoming spinoff Dead City sometime in 2023. This guy is busy!

(Via Deadline)

Earlier this year, Megan Thee Stallion sued her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment. Despite having a very successful career to date, the Houston rapper had previously expressed discontent with her record deal after hiring Roc Nation management.

According to Megan, there were a number of terms in the contract that she felt gave 1501 profits from her music the company didn’t deserve — including from such peripheral revenue streams as merch and touring. Things came to a head in March when Megan filed her lawsuit, asking a court to rule that her 2021 release, Something For Thee Hotties, had fulfilled the terms of her contract. In short, she wants to be released from 1501 ASAP.

However, 1501 countersued, arguing that Something For Thee Hotties should not count as an album, because it was not made up of all original material. Meg says that shouldn’t matter because it fulfills the length requirements set forth in the contract and should count as her fourth album, satisfying the five-album term of the contract. Even without it, she feels the recently released Traumazine would also count. After Traumazine‘s release, Megan amended her lawsuit, adding a request for $1 million from 1501, saying that the label hadn’t given her all the royalties she was owed for the albums she created in her time there.

On Twitter, Megan defended her lawsuit reasoning, asserting that her success was self-made and that 1501 did not have as great a hand in her career as its founder, Carl Crawford, has said. If the two sides can’t come to an agreement — which doesn’t seem likely, considering this dispute has been going on since 2020 — it’ll likely come down to a judge to determine whether Megan gets off 1501, 1501 gets a cut of Meg’s merch profits, or Meg gets $1 million from 1501.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Whitney announced their new album Spark in June, the follow-up to 2020’s Candid. The lead single “Real Love” showcased the duo moving in a poppier direction, and “Twirl” and “Blue” ventured further into that sonic palette. Today, they’re back with “Memory” and “County Lines.”

The tracks continue to emanate a colorful pop aura, retaining an infectious groove and catchy melodies despite their dark subject matter, such as mortality and loss.

“The lyrics of ‘Memory’ illustrate someone processing and eventually accepting their fear of death,” the band explained in a statement. “Halfway through writing the song our bandmate Will Miller sent along the chords for what would become the outro of the song without ever hearing ‘Memory.’ It was one of those harmonious moments where two separate ideas somehow fit together immediately. The final third speaking to the afterlife in a way we wouldn’t have been able to match with words.”

They’re set to head out on a tour this fall; they recently announced a North American run spanning from late September to late October, and they’ll definitely be bringing these new tunes to fans.

Listen to “Memory” above and “County Lines” below.

Spark is out 9/16 via Secretly Canadian. Pre-order it here.

Is Warner Brothers/Discovery going to discover that there are consequences to shelving projects that dozens and dozens of people worked on for months, even years just to save not even that much money? Probably not. In these times, it’s hard to be an optimist, but people involved are speaking out.

In Batgirl, which the studio shelved after it was already made, Aquino plays Alysia Yeoh, Barbara Gordon’s trans roommate. The character was introduced in the “Batgirl” comics in 2011, and the film marked the first time a trans character would appear in a DC film. Earlier this week, there were reports of secret Batgirl screenings on the Warner Brothers studio lot. A source told The Hollywood Reporter that the film would be locked in a vault after these “funeral screenings.” In an open letter shared on her personal Twitter account addressed to Discovery head David Zaslav, Aquino asked for the film to see the light of day.

“As much as I’ve tried my best to be strong these past few weeks, I’d find myself crying, for lack of a better term, from grief, and tonight was one of those nights. As much as Batgirl has been labeled a woke film, it simply came together that way because of writing that reflects the world we live in.” Aquino wrote. “I’ve found myself not being able to talk about this ordeal with anyone. I realized that no one, apart from those involved with the film, would truly understand what we’re feeling. And talking about it with my castmates, I feel, might be akin to rubbing salt on a still-open wound,” she continued.

Aquino shared that the film, which was a father-daughter story, was important to her because her father passed away shortly before she was cast in the film. She also thanked the cast and crew of Batgirl, including it star Leslie Grace, and closed the letter with a more direct message to Zaslav. “I do hope you get to read this letter. Consider releasing Batgirl. She’s always been an underdog and has nowhere to go but up.”

Even if you don’t agree with Joe Biden’s decision to offer a modest amount of student loan forgiveness to millions of Americans who need it — some of them desperately — “disgusting” probably isn’t the first word that comes to mind when describing the president’s benevolent financial act. After all, the government has been bailing far less deserving people and entities out of debt for years. But “disgusting” is exactly the word Judge Jeanine Pirro used to describe it, which probably isn’t all that shocking.

As Mediaite reports, Pirro and her co-hosts on The Five discussed the matter on Wednesday, with Judge Jeanine leading the proceedings:

This is a giveaway to a group of people the president needs to get elected. The sad part is there’s no talk of responsibility, no talk about contract law, the fact that you went in and you said you wanted to borrow money, you signed on the dotted line, you agreed to pay. You live in an economy, Joe Biden, that you’re bragging about — that’s so terrific that there’s no problem. If you want a job, you can get a job. And yet they’re saying, ‘Look, if you’re in a household of up to $250,000, you know, we’ll give you $10,000 [or] $20,000 if you can’t pay back your student loans.’

What about the senior citizens? What about the veterans? What about the people who really need it?

Pirro — who might be shocked to learn that there are also programs in place to help those very people she claims “need it” — failed to mention that the average American carries approximately $32,731 in student loan debt. And while that may not sound like a lot in the grand scheme of things, it generally takes an individual between 10 and 30 years to fully pay off that debt. For students whose careers depend on post-graduate studies, that number becomes significantly higher. Medical students often graduate trailing $200,000 to $300,000 of debt behind them. But Pirro would never understand the demands that can put on an individual or their family because, as she went on to note: she didn’t have to take out any student loans!

“My heart bleeds for the people who actually went out and paid for their loans, who went without things, whose families said, ‘I’m sorry, we can’t afford to pay for your loans,’” Pirro continued, despite not having the foggiest idea of what she was even talking about. “Look, my family paid for my education. I’m sure they had better things to do with their money. I didn’t have to take out a loan because they paid for it. But they worked hard for their money.” (Hopefully they’re pleased with their return on investment.)

Ultimately, Pirro concluded, “This is a giveaway and it’s disgusting.”

(Via Mediaite)

The MTV VMAs will air live from New Jersey this Sunday, August 28, and just ahead of the show, MTV has announced two more performers who’ll be taking the stage. Rap legends Eminem and Snoop, who recently collaborated on the Curtain Call 2 single “From The D 2 The LBC” after resolving a short-lived feud in 2021, will join previously announced performers like Anitta and J Balvin, Blackpink and Jack Harlow, and Bad Bunny.

Meanwhile, the VMAs are set to be hosted by MCs Jack Harlow, LL Cool J, and Nicki MInaj. Minaj is also listed as a performer and will be receiving a Video Vanguard Award.

The 2022 VMAs will be broadcast live from the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ at 8 pm ET on MTV, BET, The CW, CMT, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, BET Her, TV Land, Nickelodeon, Logo, MTV 2, and VH1. The top nominated artists are Jack Harlow, Kendrick Lamar, and Lil Nas X, who have seven nominations each. The nominees for Video of the Year include Doja Cat’s “Woman,” Drake’s “Way 2 Sexy,” Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers,” Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s “Industry Baby,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “Brutal,” and Taylor Swift’s All Too Well.” The Artist of the Year nominees are Bad Bunny, Drake, Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles, Jack Harlow, Lil Nas X, and Lizzo.

The WNBA announced its rookie awards on Thursday afternoon, and unsurprisingly, Atlanta Dream star Rhyne Howard stands alone as the league’s top first-year player. Howard, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 WNBA Draft out of Kentucky, ran away with the league’s Rookie of the Year Award, securing 53 of a potential 56 votes.

Shakira Austin of the Washington Mystics received two of the remaining three votes for the award, while NaLyssa Smith of the Indiana Fever got the last one. All three of these players — who were the top-3 picks in April’s Draft — were members of the league’s All-Rookie team, along with Queen Egbo, who the Fever selected with the 10th pick in April, and Rebekah Gardner of the Chicago Sky, who debuted in the league this year after spending the start of her professional career overseas.

Howard winning the award and leading the All-Rookie team hardly comes as a surprise, as the former Wildcat standout was the only rookie to earn an All-Star nod this season. She was a 4-time Rookie of the Month selection and averaged 16.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.6 steals in 31.4 minutes per game for the Dream, which went 14-22 this season. Along with Tiffany Hayes, Howard had the distinction of being the team’s leading scorer.