Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former Attorney testified today and had a TON of things to say that aren’t to flattering in regards to Trump’s legal and business dealings. CNN Live Coverage: Here are some very interesting things that have come to light so far in the testimony: 1. Cohen says Trump inflated his assets to be on the Forbes list of richest people. 2. Cohen says Trump threatened former High school and universities so they would not release his transcripts and grades during the election. 3. Cohen presented a copy of the check that was paid Cohen, to keep his dealings with Trump’s porn star mistress. 4. Cohen admits he practiced “catch and kill” tactic for Trump Michael Cohen said he practiced the tactic of “catch and kill” — where a publication buys the rights to a story and then buries the story as a favor to someone — for President Trump. 5. Cohen calls Trump a racist and in private he is even worse!
For those of you who live under a rock and somehow missed Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s 2019 Oscar performance, please watch it below. It is a powerful display of the award-winning song Shallow from A Star Is Born , taking us back to the tragic love story of Ally and Jackson Maine. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper Sing “Shallow,” Get All of America Pregnant It is also a performance saturated with sex eyes and cheek-to-cheek singing , swaying fans to believe that the stars are totally in love. Or just 100% into character for a movie that wrapped over a year ago. The passionate number took place in front of Hollywood’s most notable stars, including Bradley’s supermodel girlfriend and baby mama, Irina Shayk. Awkward. And after millions tuned in to watch the raw performance, fans immediately began speculating that Gaga and Cooper’s natural chemistry is too real to be just ‘professional’. Insinuating that the two are deeply in love and should date already! And while their attraction for each other is undeniable, the Joanne singer assures everyone that it is just a friendly relationship. Fans freaked out after reading Lady Gaga’s latest Instagram post that read “Nothing could be more special than sharing this moment at the Oscars with a true friend and artistic genius.” The subtle word “friend” stuck out to her followers like a sore thumb. Some fans took the news as Gaga covering up her true feelings. I mean at the end of the day she still shared a picture with her head on Bradley’s shoulder with his arm around her waist. One user commented “If this ain’t love, NOTHING is,” while another commented “True lover**.” Fans aren’t buying her words for one second and refuse to give up on the idea that the two are soulmates. The other, more practical, set of fans argue that Gaga and Bradley were just in character for their performance from their Oscar-nominated movie. “They were giving the audience Ally and Jackson!” wrote a user. If anything, Gaga is probably thrilled that her method acting training paid off. One fan even compared their relationship to another popular friendship saying, “Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton have that same chemistry, they have had a long standing loving friendship for many years. Same wonderful rare relationship happening here,” the fan said. Another use wrote, “When your acting is on point and the world is convinced ya really in love.” A fan also defended the current couple in the comments, saying “People really need to stop taking everything so personal. This is a business matter and it’s great PR for their movie/song.” “I think the connection they have is beautiful and if Irina had anything to say about this performance I’m sure she did before the event happened.” Irina also stood up after their performance, beaming with pride and applauding, she also gave Gaga a hug during the show so I think it is safe to say that she approves of their act . Irina and Bradley are in a longterm, committed relationship and the two even share a child! “Brad likes to discuss and share his ideas with Irina and she appreciates knowing everything he has going on,” reported HollywoodLife . He and Gaga are on the same page too. Another source shared with HollywoodLife that “they both find the relationship rumors funny.” “Both Gaga and Bradley Cooper find it sweet and laughable at the same time that fans are saying they will get married someday, especially since Gaga announced the end of her engagement this week , the source said. As for Gaga, the only man she needs in her life is the one on the Oscar trophy. And for the fans who still believe that the two are secret lovers, just remember that the singer friend zoned all of the madness this morning. The Oscar performance of Shallow is available to play on repeat if you are suffering from the difficult news brought to you by reality. View Slideshow: 2019 Oscars Red Carpet: Who Wore It Craziest? (The Answer is #20)
Chile More than 70 percent of Americans believe a woman should change her surname to her husband’s after getting married, and approximately half of all Americans believe it should be a government requirement. A 2017 study in Gender Issues arrived at those numbers. According to Portland State University sociology professor Emily Fitzgibbons Shafer “The most common reason given by individuals who advocated women’s name change was the belief that women should prioritize their marriage and their family ahead of themselves.” More than 1,200 people were surveyed for the study. The study used a fictional scenario by using the same woman, married to Bill Cook, but with three different last names: Carol Sherman, Carol Sherman-Cook, or Carol Cook. “Carol has been spending a lot of extra hours at her office job hoping for a promotion,” the study stated. “Bill is starting to feel burdened by her absence, as he is picking up her slack in housework.” People taking the survey were then asked to rate how committed Carol was to being a wife. The survey then asked how many late work days from Carol that Bill should be okay with, and rating how justified Bill would be in divorcing her. “ Among women and highly educated men, women’s surname choice seems to have little effect on their perceptions of women as a wife or the standards to which she is held in marriage.” Low-educated men, however, thought a woman who chose a different last name from her husband’s was less committed to the marriage and that her husband would be more justified in filing for a divorce “for her perceived neglect of the marriage (as measured through repeated lateness).”
Source: Hannah Turner-Harts / Getty On February 26th 2019, Solange Knowles , one of the most prolific artists of our generation, leveraged her platform to breathe life back into one of the first homes for Black people on the web, BlackPlanet. By visiting blackplanet.com/solange , fans can explore the latest artistic venture from the Grammy award winning star from the comfort of a platform we all feel nostalgic for. Source: Max Hirschberger / Solange Over a year ago, I penned a piece on HelloBeautiful, How Black Hollywood Is Failing The Black Press , exploring how the difficulties of working as a Black journalist becomes exasperated by the prejudice we face on red carpets and the propensity for Black talent to trust white outlets with their stories and breaking news over us. The article went viral, sparking industry wide conversations about the importance of Black press in preserving our narratives. The moment made its way to the eyes and ears of some of Hollywood’s A-Listers, with BlackTreeTV journalist Jaleesa Lashay asking actor Sterling K Brown about the invisibility of Black journalists in the press room for the Sag Awards. Actor and comedian Lil Rel also tackled the issue head on, telling audiences at the MTV Movie Awards that he would always look to speak to Black journalists first on the red carpets he attends to bridge the discrimination gap. With numerous examples of Black stars coming forward to express their support and dedication for the Black Press over the past couple of months, Solange’s partnership with BlackPlanet is a build up of a year’s worth of momentum. BlackPlanet was launched in 2001 when the Internet was still infantile and computers weren’t pocket sized or convenient. Within the realm of endless possibilities for content, creator Omar Wasow sought to carve out a unique space for Black voices and Black connections online. Keep in mind, Wasow’s stroke of genius precludes the mammoth social media era kicked off by MySpace (2003) and Facebook (2004.). As always, Black people were ahead of the trend, forecasting that one day we would all look to create little webpage extensions of our personalities and lives on the web. In the height of BlackPlanet’s reign, we all immediately became web designers before we even knew the career existed—creatively using copy and paste HTML code to customize our pages with our favorite songs, patterns and designs. Beyond our personalized content, BlackPlanet formed its own online community, chock-full of opportunities to share news and gossip, build friendships, and most importantly, make love connections with a stranger. As social networking exploded into an Internet phenomenon, fickle audiences migrated to mainstream platforms, forgetting the sacred temple we had built for our memories and conversations in our own online tribe. This is why Solange’s desire to collaborate with BlackPlanet, the Black owned digital arm of the Urban One family, is such a pivotal industry shift. For once, mainstream outlets had to flock to a Black owned URL to find the latest project from a Black star. In a normal news cycle we are chasing the latest Twitter Trend, today, Black folks owned the conversation first. If this triumphant moment is a any indication to how Black celebs X Black press can work in tandem to drive the culture forward, the future looks bright and gorgeous AF. Keyaira Kelly is a writer, producer and professional talker for iOne Digital. You can find her work at @keyairakelly on Instagram & Twitter and at KeyairaKelly.com RELATED STORIES: Solange Just Brought Back BlackPlanet & Black Twitter Is Scrambling To Find Their Logins [ione_media_gallery src=”https://hellobeautiful.com” id=”3023863″ overlay=”true”]
Jordyn Woods might be starting to think she can move on from her affair with Tristan Thompson and put the whole ugly mess behind her. Then again, she’s known the Kardashians long enough to realize that these women know how to hold a grudge, and they’re big believers in the power of revenge. As you’ve likely heard by now, Jordyn slept with Tristan Thompson after the two of them got flirty at a February 17 house party. This made major waves within the Kard clan, as Jordyn was Kylie Jenner’s best friend, and Tristan was dating Khloe Kardashian at the time. Obviously, as soon as word got out, Khloe dumped Tristan and Kylie kicked Jordyn out of her guesthouse . And that was the end of that, right? Well, not entirely. For obvious reasons, Jordyn does not want to lose her friendship with the woman who will soon be the world’s youngest billionaire. And so, she’s working hard to justify her actions. Two events are central to Jordyn’s version of events — it was a one-time mistake, and she was hammered. In fact, Jordyn claims she was so drunk that she doesn’t even remember hooking up with Tristan. Unfortunately for her, the Kards aren’t buying it. “Khloe doesn’t believe that it was a one-time thing, and neither do the rest of the Kardashians,” a source close to the situation tells Radar Online. “She hired a PI to find out how long they had been having an affair,” the insider adds. “If it turns out that it was an ongoing thing, Khloe is going to use this on the upcoming season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians.” Basically, it sounds like Khloe wants to dig up enough dirt to justify banning Jordyn from the Kardashians’ inner circle for good. “As far as Jordyn goes, Khloe and Kylie have already gotten their revenge because Jordyn has been blacklisted by the entire family,” says the source. “No one wants anything to do with her, and if it turns out that she was having an ongoing affair with Tristan, there will be serious hell to pay.” Something tells us Jordyn’s not out of the woods quite yet. View Slideshow: Jordyn Woods & Tristan Thompson Hooked Up For a MONTH Before Getting Caught?!
Whoa! Did you see that, readers?!? A bunch of pigs just went flying by! And a group of cows just arrived home. And Hell? Wow. It just froze over. We don’t mean any of these things literally, of course. They are simply are way of saying that Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna are actually getting very well at the moment, saying nice things about each other on social media and everything. This isn’t something we expected to ever see, not after recent reports claimed Rob thought Chyna was an unfit mother who was placing his daughter in danger. According to various outlets, however, the former lover and co-reality-stars have reached a custody agreement when it comes to their child, two-year old Dream. A few months ago, we reported on Rob looking to lower his monthly child support payments of $20,000 because he makes far less in salary these days than he did back when he was a regular on Keeping Up with the Kardashians. TMZ writes that Rob has successfully accomplished this goal, although it’s unclear just what he’ll now be shelling out to his ex. The same website reports that Kardashian and Chyna have agreed to split custody of Dream, 50/50. It appeared for awhile that Rob would ask a judge to grant him primary custody of the toddler because Chyna had been spiraling out of control. There were allegations that she went MIA when it was her turn to care for the child, and then police in Hawaii were called last month after Chyna and her then-boyfriend got into a physical altercation. But all water now looks to be far under the bridge. So say Rob and Chyna themselves. “Robert and I only concern is what’s in the best interest of our daughter that we both equally love. Additionally, Robert is a wonderful father to our Dreamy!” Tweeted Chyna after a court helped the celebrities settle their dispute. She wrote this in response to Rob writing the following on his own account: “Angela and I are both actively co-parenting and there are no pending or active custody cases.” For all the ugly fireworks exchanged between Rob and Chyna over the years, this actually does hold true. They’ve never really put Dream in the middle. Heck, even back when Rob went all revenge porn on Chyna and released naked pictures of her online… she never threatened to take Dream away or anything. Gotta give these two credit for that, at least. It was only two weeks ago that Chyna absolutely went off on Rob, Tyga AND her mom, arguing online that she cared for herself and her kids on her own and her critics could basically suck it. “Ya know what’s so wild to me is that I never asked Tyga for child support, Rob for child support or whatever and then we just went to court, or whatnot, and I tried to squash it, which I did,” the model said in an Instagram model in mid-February, adding: “I got f-cking ridiculed by everybody. Toni, Tyga, Rob. It is like toxic. If you like me, you like me. If you don’t, I don’t give a f-ck. I’m a real bitch. “Say whatever the f-ck y’all want to. I own a house, own a bunch of cars and guess what? I’m a multi-millionaire by myself.”
A Wisconsin teacher was recently placed on administrative leave after he allegedly ripped several braids from an 11-year-old student’s scalp. According to WISC-TV , the young girl’s mother, Mikiea Price, claims the assault happened on Feb. 13 by the hands of Madison Metropolitan School District’s acting principal and positive behavior support coach Rob Mueller-Owens. Price states that the incident happened when Mueller-Owens got upset when her daughter and a friend that sprayed some perfume in class. When the girls did not listen to him to stop, they were instructed to leave the class. “When he came in, he asked (my daughter) to step out and she didn’t listen, and didn’t step out and as he walked toward her, she said she went toward the window and just wasn’t following direction, and he told her in front of the whole class, to the teacher, ‘Take the class somewhere else,’” Price told Madison365 . “And (my daughter) said, ‘No, that’s fine. They can stay, I’ll go.’ As the girl was walking out of the classroom, Price said, Mueller-Owens began pushing her out. Soon after, she fell into a row of lockers, where the teacher lost his balance and fell on top of her. It’s believed that somewhere in this scuffle, three of her braids got ripped out. The incident was caught on tape and is currently being reviewed by the Madison police and the school district. The video has yet to be released to the public. A Madison teacher is on leave after a student said he pushed her and pulled out three of her braids (In the photo you can see where those used to be). I spoke with her mom today, who said her daughter is still traumatized and has not been able to return to school. #News3Now pic.twitter.com/iASs6UtZt8 — Amy Reid (@amyreidreports) February 21, 2019 Price, who is also a substitute teacher, says she was never called by the school after the incident and that her daughter never received any medical attention at school. Now, her child is too afraid to come back to class. “Just the whole experience is just traumatic and devastating and just confusing,” Price told WISC-TV. She added, “I’m just disgusted at this whole incident. You know I send my kid to school to learn, and that’s a place where mothers send their kids to be comfortable in. I just feel violated in so many ways that … this even happened to her.” Price is also disappointed because Mueller-Owen is an expert on restorative discipline practices, which focuses on getting to the root of behavioral problems with positive techniques. “That’s the devastating part about it,” Price said. “That’s the disgusting part about it. To have that much education and that much training and that much knowledge, to be certified with kids and not follow protocol, I think that’s the part that hurt me the most and disappointed me the most.” The Madison Metropolitan School District released the following statement: “As a District, we take any situation of this nature very seriously. All of our students need to be safe and supported in school, and we have a thorough investigation process and protocol that we follow. While we cannot talk about the details of a specific student or personnel situation, it is our responsibility to consider all of the facts of the situation and determine the right next steps. The staff person was put on leave while the situation was investigated. Based on that investigation, the staff person will not return to Whitehorse Middle School, and we are determining next steps. In addition, our team is coming together to create a full support plan to ensure that students is safe and fully supported at school.” RELATED NEWS: Christian School Apologizes After Teacher Wore Blackface During African History Lesson #JusticeForTamlaHorsford: Why And How Did This Mother Of Five Really Die At An Adult Sleepover? Houston Teacher Under Fire After Parents Say Children’s Grades Were Based On Race [ione_media_gallery src=”https://hellobeautiful.com” id=”3022350″ overlay=”true”]
Colton Underwood went up against his greatest obstacle to date on The Bachelor this week. No, not a woman’s bra clasp. We’re talking about the fathers of his potential wives, as Colton traveled to the hometowns of his final four and met their loved ones on this intense installment. “I didn’t have a strong initial opinion of Colton because I don’t like to draw judgment to quickly,” Matt said, adding: “I could tell Colton was being affectionate with Cassie. I don’t know if that’s what he does with all the girls he goes out with. We don’t know him. He seemed like a … guy.” That much is true. We can verify. Things only get more uncomfortable when Cassie sits down with her father and he questioned the romance. “I’m not dumb! You have to know I’m being smart about this whole thing,” she said. “I just want you to trust me.” Later, when Colton asked for permission to propose… he was REJECTED. “I think that a lifelong commitment, that’s big and shouldn’t be taken at all lightly because it is forever in my opinion,” the very well-reasoned father said. “Too often I think it’s done without enough thought. As far as the hand in marriage, that would be a premature blessing.”
Source: Frazer Harrison / Getty It’s that time of year again when the post-Oscar buzz either has you on a big high, or it has you highly pissed off. Sadly, when it comes to representation for Black people, the latter usually happens more than the former. At this year’s Oscars, however, there were some notable wins for Black people. Black Panther swept some important technical awards with Ruth E. Carter winning for Best Costume Design and Hannah Beachler winning for Best Production Design, making them the first Black women to win in either category. Regina King also won Best Supporting Actress for her role in If Beale Street Could Talk while Mahershala Ali snagged the gold statue for his supporting role in Green Book. Add a Best Adapted Screenplay win for Spike Lee , and Black people are winning, right?! Meh. When time came around for the Best Picture announcement, many people were surprised or just plain outraged when Green Book took home the gold. A lot of folks took their pain out on Twitter in the most hilarious way. But before we get to that, if you haven’t seen or heard of Green Book, the movie based on real characters has developed quite a notorious reputation. Although Mahershala’s performance in the movie was praised, the flick centers around Bronx-bred racist Tony Lip (played by Viggo Mortensen), who serves as the tour driver for acclaimed musician Dr. Don Shirley (played by Ali). The movie explores race relations on a very shallow level, with Lip being portrayed as a White savior who defends Shirley from Southern White racists and introduces him to things like fried chicken and Little Richard …as if Shirley, a Black musician, couldn’t have possibly had fried chicken or heard of Little Richard. Regardless if certain scenes were true or not, the movie painted Lip as a regular working-class White man who just happened to have some prejudices. More importantly, we should sympathize with him because he’s supposedly less racist than the Southern racist caricatures that we’re all-too familiar with in movies. Many people slammed this one-note approach to race relations with shows like Late Night with Seth Meyers and Desus & Mero making parodies of the movie. The family members of the real-life Dr. Shirley also dragged the film with Shirley’s younger brother Maurice Shirley labeling the movie a “symphony of lies,” according to Shadow and Act . The title of the movie wasn’t even appropriate. The real-life Green Book, “The Negro Motorist Green Book” published by postal worker Victor Hugo Green in 1938, listed priceless info of safe eating establishments and lodging for Black people in the Jim Crow South. The Green Book movie barely covered this important info aside from a scene when Lip was handed a copy of the Green Book by a recording label executive. All of these issues made Green Book ‘s Best Picture win feel like another smack in the face to Black stories. When competing with Black-led films like Black Panther and BlacKkKlansman, the white-washed, White savior narrative won again. Even creatives like Spike Lee couldn’t contain their frustration, considering the BlacKkKlansman director reportedly stormed out his seat when Green Book was announced as Best Picture. Of course, many frustrations were let out on Twitter with White and Black users alike clowning the movie’s shallow take on race. Green Book was not for Black people. It was to make white people feel good about doing little to stop racism beyond the interpersonal. Also, the other movies were better. ALSO, Regina, Ruth, Spike & more amazing Black folks won last night so I’m done talmbout Green a Book. — Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti) February 25, 2019 Because the Internet has no chill, many people also hilariously made fun of Green Book by comparing it to that one White person who tries waaay too hard to prove they’re not racist. Some of Green Book’s best friends are black movies. — Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 25, 2019 Hit the next pages for more spot-on tweets of how Green Book strikingly resembles your allegedly “non-racist” White friend.
