Melissa McCarthy is On The Cover of InStyle Magazine!
After a year of isolation and division, Melissa McCarthy is more determined than ever to make us laugh. Gracing the cover of InStyle’s April issue, the iconic actress opens up on her latest projects, quarantine life and finding a home away from home in Australia.
On being a comedian in a year of hardships: “You don’t have to like what I do, or you don’t have to like comedy. But you need to be able to laugh at something. Ben and I talk about it a lot from the perspective of ‘Will this make somebody happy? Can somebody at the end of an 18-hour ER shift just check out and laugh for, you know, an hour?’ It’s the one thing we can try to do, and we try to do our best. I’m not smart enough to know how to purify the water, but I can throw myself down a flight of stairs and hope that it lets someone forget their troubles.”
On why she sees violence and hate as a real virus: “I know COVID-19 is the virus, but the real virus is the violence and the hatred. If anything’s going to extinguish us as a species, it’s that. If somebody said, ‘All you have to do is wear this headwrap and you can cure cancer,’ people would be like, ‘Oh my god, that’s amazing. We would do anything for that.’ And we’re saying, ‘There’s up to an 80 percent chance for this disease to decrease if you just wear this little 3-by-5-inch piece of fabric until we figure it out.’ Somehow that’s become an infringement on someone’s rights.” “I think the scariest thing about all of this more so than even COVID is that I truly didn’t think people hated each other that much or hated the idea of people who they don’t even know. I always wonder, ‘Do racists know anyone of a different color?’ People who are homophobic: ‘Do you know anyone gay or bi or trans? Do you know these people, or is it the great unknown?’ I think the next 10 years of our lives have to be spent figuring out why people are so angry and also checking on mental illness.”
On living in Australia: “It has changed my entire concept of being. Everything can feel like home. I am connected to Australia in a way that I didn’t anticipate. I could very easily live here for the rest of my life. I’m in love with it. Everyone is so chatty. I’m a Midwestern gal who lives in L.A., where no one wants to talk to you. And here I’ll be in the grocery store, and I can’t go down a single aisle without talking to somebody. It’s wonderful. I come home, and I will have had 15 conversations.”
On the 10-year anniversary of Bridesmaids: “That film instilled the best lesson of you just have to let things be what they are, because it wasn’t supposed to work like that. Annie [Mumolo] and Kristen wrote it, and they had never written anything before. And it was like, ‘We’re going to let your weirdness ride.’ And people on set were laughing and crying full-out in almost every scene because everybody felt so free and there wasn’t a lot of pressure. Certainly, nobody thought it was going to be a game changer. The fit was just perfect.”
The April issue of InStyle is available on newsstands and digital now.
#RHOA: Kandi speaks on About LaToya Ali’s “Night and Day” Difference in New Orleans!
The ladies kicked off a visit to New Orleans on the March 28 episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, and although some things seemed to stay the same as they always do on a girls’ trip (such as finding creative ways to choose rooms), there seemed to be one major difference for one of the women.
During The Real Housewives of Atlanta After Show, Kandi Burruss explained the change she saw in LaToya Ali after she decided not to drink during the trip. “LaToya was night and day different,” Kandi explained in the above clip, available to Bravo Insiders. “Like normally, she’s like, ‘Turn up!’ You know, like the life of the party. But this time she was just very chill, very mellow, she wasn’t talking a lot. Like, ‘What? Who are you? I don’t know you?’”
Although Porsha Williams explained that LaToya had “had private conversations with a couple of us about her drinking a little bit less,” adding that “it was one thing we can all agree on is that we will cheer a bitch on who is trying to do better,” the RHOA friend was hesitant to share her reasoning with the entire group.
“I didn’t want to share the whole journey with everybody. I just felt it was something I was going through privately,” LaToya explained.
Eventually, Drew Sidora prompted LaToya to share her reason with the rest of the ladies at dinner, even though she admitted she already knew the answer. To hear why Drew questioned LaToya at the table, as well as to get LaToya’s side of the story and the logic behind her decision not to drink, check out the Bravo Insider video above.
Want more RHOA? New episodes air Sundays at 8/7c
#MusicNews: Steve Harvey to host Earth, Wind and Fire, Isley Brothers Verzuz!
Timbaland and Swizz Beatz’s popular virtual music series Verzuz, which was recently sold to Triller, has revealed the lineup for the next three battles.
First up, the Isley Brothers and Earth, Wind & Fire will face off on April 4 — Easter Sunday, and the livestream event will be hosted by Steve Harvey.
“@IAmSteveHarvey will be hosting #VERZUZ, this Sunday with The Isley Brothers and Earth, Wind & Fire!,” Verzuz announced on Instagram and Twitter on Tuesday (March 30). The post was shared by Swizz Beatz, Timbaland, and Earth, Wind and Fire.
As previously reported, Verzuz, the popular live stream music event, has become a music industry staple since the pandemic began. Beginning as a way to share and celebrate musical legacies with fans, what started as Instagram Live events has become a huge live streaming platform that Triller Network has now acquired.
Verzuz was created by music legends in their own right, Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, who are now shareholders in Triller.
The Isley Brothers versus Earth, Wind and Fire will go down on Sunday (April 4) at 8PM ET/5 PM PT on Instagram and the Triller app.
#HipHopNews: 21 Savage Announces Soundtrack To Samuel L. Jackson + Chris Rock-Led ‘Saw’ Reboot!
Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Rock’s Saw iteration Spiral: From The Book Of Saw arrives on May 14, and they’ve tapped none other than 21 Savage for the soundtrack’s lead single – and perhaps even more.
In a post on Monday (March 29), the Atlanta-based rhymer shared a photo with his face in a spiral to announce the single “Spiral,” tagging both Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Rock. The following day, he shared a trailer for the film which features brief snippets of the song, and the caption seemed to allude to him doing the full soundtrack.
“‘Spiral’ In Theaters May 14 @saw Soundtrack By Me,” he wrote, adding sunglasses emojis and his signature dagger.
Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, Spiral is the ninth installment in the long-standing Saw film series, starring Jackson as an “esteemed police veteran” and Rock as “brash” detective Zeke Banks who ends up at the center of the killer’s game.
It’s a big year for 21 Savage, who earlier this month was tapped as the face of Louis Vuitton’s men’s summer capsule collection campaign. He also fixed his grill, showing off his pearly whites in a post that ended up racking up over one million likes.
The Male Suspect Who attacked an Asian American woman in NYC Has been ARRESTED!
A parolee convicted of killing his mother nearly two decades ago was arrested on charges including felony assault as a hate crime for attacking an Asian American woman near New York City’s Times Square, police said early Wednesday.
Police said Brandon Elliot, 38, is the man seen on video kicking and stomping the woman on Monday. They said Elliot was living at a hotel that serves as a homeless shelter a few blocks from the scene of the attack.
Elliot, who is Black, was convicted of stabbing his mother to death in the Bronx in 2002, when he was 19. He was released from prison in 2019 and is on lifetime parole.
He faces charges of assault as a hate crime, attempted assault as a hate crime, assault and attempted assault in Monday’s attack, police said. It wasn’t immediately known whether he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
The victim was identified as Vilma Kari, a 65-year-old woman who immigrated from the Philippines, her daughter told The New York Times; the newspaper did not identify Kari’s daughter.
Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Jose Manuel Romualdez said the victim is Filipino American.
The country’s foreign secretary, Teodoro Locsin Jr., condemned the attack in a Twitter post, saying “This is gravely noted and will influence Philippine foreign policy.”
Locsin did not elaborate how the attack could influence Philippine policy toward the United States. The countries are longtime treaty allies and the Philippine leader, Rodrigo Duterte, is a vocal critic of U.S. security policies who has moved to terminate a key agreement that allows largescale military exercises with American forces in the Philippines.
“I might as well say it, so no one on the other side can say, `We didn’t know you took racial brutality against Filipinos at all seriously.’ We do,” Locsin said.
Kari was walking to church in midtown Manhattan when police said a man kicked her in the stomach, knocked her to the ground, stomped on her face, shouted anti-Asian slurs and told her, “you don’t belong here” before casually walking away.
She was discharged from the hospital Tuesday after being treated for serious injuries, a hospital spokesperson said.
The attack Monday was among the latest in a national spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, and happened just weeks after a mass shooting in Atlanta that left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent. The surge in violence has been linked in part to misplaced blame for the coronavirus pandemic and former President Donald Trump’s use of racially charged terms like “Chinese virus.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called Monday’s attack “absolutely disgusting and outrageous.” He said it was “absolutely unacceptable” that witnesses did not intervene.
“I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what you do, you’ve got to help your fellow New Yorker,” de Blasio said Tuesday.
The attack happened late Monday morning outside a luxury apartment building two blocks from Times Square.
Two workers inside the building who appeared to be security guards were seen on surveillance video witnessing the attack but failing to come to the woman’s aid. One of them was seen closing the building door as the woman was on the ground. The attacker was able to casually walk away while onlookers watched, the video showed.
The building’s management company said they were suspended pending an investigation. The workers’ union said they called for help immediately.
Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, said the victim “could easily have been my mother.” He too criticized the bystanders, saying their inaction was “exactly the opposite of what we need here in New York City.”
This year in New York City, there have been 33 hate crimes with an Asian victim as of Sunday, police said. There were 11 such attacks by the same time last year.
On Friday, in the same neighborhood as Monday’s attack, a 65-year-old Asian American woman was accosted by a man waving an unknown object and shouting anti-Asian insults. A 48-year-old man was arrested the next day and charged with menacing. He is not suspected in Monday’s attack.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced last week that the department would increase outreach and patrols in predominantly Asian communities, including the use of undercover officers to prevent and disrupt attacks.
The neighborhood where Monday’s attack occurred, Hell’s Kitchen, is predominantly white, with an Asian population of less than 20%, according to city demographic data.
Jeezy And Jeannie Mai Apply For Marriage License!
Wedding bells are in the near future for Jeezy and Jeannie Mai. The rapper, 43, and “Real” host, 42, have reportedly obtained a marriage license, and a wedding could be imminent. According to TMZ, the couple went to the Fulton County Court Clerk in Georgia on Monday to get the documents required to become husband and wife.
The license is valid for six months, so the two will have to tie the knot sometime this year unless they decide to re-apply.
Jeezy and Jeannie announced their engagement in April 2020. Jeezy proposed to his girlfriend during a romantic date night at home after the pandemic forced them to cancel their previously-scheduled trip to Vietnam.
The couple began dating in November 2018 after meeting on set of “The Real.” They went public with their relationship in August 2019, when they stepped out arm-in-arm to Jeezy’s SnoBall charity event.
“Getting to know him has been one of the most beautiful experiences of my life,” Mai said of Jeezy. “He’s introspective, he’s passionate, he’s incredibly deep, he’s a visionary, he’s a great leader, he’s an amazing servant to his community.”
This will be the first marriage for Jeezy, who was previously engaged to Mahi, the mother of his daughter, Amra Nor. Mai was married to Freddy Harteis for 10 years before filing for divorce in 2017.
Britney Spears was embarrassed by the light she was put me in from that Documentary. Says she cried for 2 weeks!
Britney Spears didn't watch all of the much buzzed about documentary Framing Britney Spears, but she was hurt by it.
On Tuesday, the singer mentioned the show for the first time while talking about being judged, insulted and embarrassed by the media for much of her life. "I didn't watch the documentary but from what I did see of it I was embarrassed by the light they put me in ... I cried for two weeks and well .... I still cry sometimes !!!!" she said alongside a video post of her dancing to the Aerosmith song "Crazy." The caption also explained that Spears keeps her sanity by dancing.
The documentary premiered on Feb. 5, as part of The New York Times Presents series. The journalists chronicled the star's conservatorship over the last 13 years, the oddities of the arrangement — Spears has to pay for lawyers for her conservator, her father Jamie, when she challenges him in court — and the #FreeBritney movement.
Since it was released, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge overruled Jamie's objections to having a third party, financial company Bessemer Trust, serve as a co-conservator to Britney's estate. She's also filed a petition requesting that Jodi Montgomery, who served as her temporary conservator when Jamie stepped away for health issues, become the permanent conservator of her person. She's requesting that her father resign from the position. The next hearing in the case is set for April.
A lawyer for Jamie told CNN earlier this month that he "would love nothing more than to see Britney not need a conservatorship."
Michael Strahan Says Goodbye To The Signature Gap In His Teeth!
Michael Strahan is a whole new man. The “Good Morning America” host, 49, shocked fans on Tuesday when he seemingly closed the famous gap in his front teeth.
In a video posted on Instagram, Strahan showed the process of his mouth makeover with Smile Design Manhattan. “I did it. #GoodbyeGap,” he captioned the clip.
Strahan knew he would get some backlash for the decision, and even listed all the people he expected would disapprove — including his followers, friends, business partners and family.
But ultimately, the former NFL player said, “I gotta do what I wanna do for myself.”
Revealing the final result, which he said was “50 years in the making,” the footballer was left nearly speechless.
“I love it, holy f—k!,” he exclaimed, laughing giddily.
Strahan previously revealed that he has considered altering his smile in the past, telling Elle in 2012 that he once had a dentist show him mock-ups when he was in his twenties, but ultimately decided against it.
“There’s so much pressure to be perfect. You can fix everything now. For me, I made the conscious effort to say, ‘This is who I am.’ I’m not perfect. I don’t want to try to be perfect,” he said at the time.
“At this point, I don’t think my kids would recognize me without it. They’d be like, ‘Who is this stranger in the house? Call 911!'”
Longtime fans immediately took to Twitter to vent their frustrations. “This man just lost all his super powers,” one person said. Another wrote, “This is definitely one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. Strahan’s gap is iconic. It’s like Robert De Niro’s mole or Tom Selleck’s mustache. You don’t just get rid of that nonchalantly.”
While there were fans who lamented the change in Strahan’s comments, fellow player Troy Aikman said, “Good for you!” and “Jersey Shore” star Jenni Farley wrote, “Whatever makes you happy.”
However, the big news could be nothing more than an elaborate prank: As former Giants player Justin Tuck (among others) pointed out, April Fools’ Day is coming up on Thursday.
‘Real Housewives' Star Charged in Massive Fraud, Money Laundering Scheme!
"Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" star Jen Shah was arrested Tuesday on a federal indictment out of Manhattan
Prosecutors allege Shah ran a years-long telemarketing scheme to defraud hundreds of people, many over 55
Shah faces up to 30 years in prison on the wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges
"Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" star Jennifer Shah is facing federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a purported long-running telemarketing scam, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Shah was arrested earlier Tuesday in Salt Lake City on the indictment out of Manhattan federal court. Stuart Smith, who appeared with Shah on "Real Housewives," was also indicted in the alleged scheme.
"Jennifer Shah, who portrays herself as a wealthy and successful businessperson on ‘reality’ television, and Stuart Smith, who is portrayed as Shah’s ‘first assistant,’ allegedly generated and sold ‘lead lists’ of innocent individuals for other members of their scheme to repeatedly scam. In actual reality and as alleged, the so-called business opportunities pushed on the victims by Shah, Smith, and their co-conspirators were just fraudulent schemes, motivated by greed, to steal victims’ money," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement.
The NYPD alleged that Shah and Smith have "hundreds" of victims. According to the indictment against them, their alleged scam ran for at least nine years, from 2012 until this month.
Her "Real Housewives" bio describes Shah as "queen of her house and her businesses as the CEO of three marketing companies."
But prosecutors allege that Shah and Smith instead ran a complicated scheme to generate lists of potential victims, many over age 55, and sell those leads to telemarketing companies that would in turn try to sell business services to the victims.
Shah and Smith would then purportedly receive a share of the allegedly fraudulent revenue those telemarketers generated.
The fraud conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Megan Thee Stallion Donates $50,000 Following Atlanta Spa Shootings!
Megan The Stallion has teamed up with Fashion Nova and activist May Lee to donate $50,000 to the Atlanta chapter of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, following the deadly March 16 shooting spree in Atlanta, in which a gunman targeted Asian Americans who worked in spas.
"I am heartbroken by the loss of eight individuals taken from their families on March 16 in a senseless, violent attack against Asian Americans," Megan wrote on social media. "To honor the memory of these victims,@FashionNova and I have partnered with the journalist and Asian activist @mayleeshow on a $50,000 donation to @advancing_justice_atl who work tirelessly to protect the civil and human rights of Asian Americans in Georgia and the Southeast."
Six of the eight individuals killed in the shootings were Asian women. The victims have been identified as Soon Chung Park, 74, Hyun Jung Grant, 51, Suncha Kim, 69, Yong Ae Yue, 63, Delaina Ashley Yuan, 33, Paul Andre Michels, 54, Xiaojie Yan, 49, and Daoyou Feng, 44.
The suspect, Robert Aaron Long, has been charged with eight counts of murder and one count of assault in connection with the shooting.
"We stand in solidarity with all Asian Americans in saying that enough is enough.#StopAsianHate#StandWithAANHPICommunity," Megan concluded her statement.
Dionne Warwick Dismisses Chet Hanks’ White Boy Summer In Favor Of ‘Black Woman Summer’!
Ever since Megan Thee Stallion declared the warmer months of 2019 “Hot Girl Summer,” all sorts of public figures have rushed to lay claim to the beach season with their own campaigns — she even updated it to “quarantine summer” herself last year. Saweetie once declared December “Icy Girl Winter” and has already put in a bid to name summer 2021 “Pretty B*tch Summer” after her upcoming debut album, Pretty B*tch Music.
But one celebrity’s option has put off more people than its beguiled; Chet Hanks, of over-the-top patois and “being Tom Hanks’ son” fame, said he felt a “White Boy Summer” is in the works with him and Jack Harlow, and some folks on Twitter aren’t having it. Included among those opting out of Hanks’ fantasy summer is Dionne Warwick. The new queen of Black Twitter was mystified upon being informed of Chet Hanks’ crusade, wondering “What foolishness did I just see?” and predicting instead, “I will be having a Black Woman Summer.”
Ms. Warwick isn’t the only one who seems undone by Hanks’ tomfoolery. For the past few days, Twitter has been alight with posts roasting Tom’s offspring. The jokes range from imagining Jon B and Jack Harlow’s responses to being pulled into the discussion to wondering just how Chet Hanks turned out the way he has with an Oscar-winning father and all the privilege in the world (I think the answer’s in the question). In any case, it looks like “White Boy Summer” is probably not becoming a thing, insomuch as it already was for the last 400 summers or so, and it’s been terrible for everybody else.
President Biden is Ready to Nominate His First Slate of Diverse Federal Judges!
President Biden confirmed plans to appoint 11 federal judges, including D.C. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who will succeed former D.C. Circuit Court Judge Merrick Garland, who is now the United States Attorney General.
According to the White House, the nominees include three Black women who, if confirmed, would include the first Muslim federal judge in the country’s history, the first AAPI woman to serve on the D.C. District Court, and the first woman of color to serve as a federal judge in Maryland.
The White House wrote in a news release that the appointments “reflect the president’s deeply held conviction that the federal bench should reflect the full diversity of the American people.”
Other nominees:
Zahid N. Quraishi, a magistrate judge, and nominee for the New Jersey District Court, would be the first Muslim American to serve on the federal bench.
Tiffany Cunningham, a patent litigator in Chicago, was nominated to the Federal Circuit Appeals Court. She would be the first Black woman to serve on that court.
Florence Y. Pan, a D.C. Superior Court judge, is nominated to replace Jackson on the D.C. District Court. She would be the first Asian American woman on the court.
Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, who has served as a federal public defender for the last decade, is a nominee for the Seventh Circuit Appeals Court. She would be the only Black woman on that court’s bench.
Other nominations include:
Magistrate Judge Deborah Boardman and Federal Claims Court Judge Lydia Griggsby for the Maryland District Court.
Julien Neals, a county council and acting county administrator in New Jersey, to serve on New Jersey’s District Court.
Civil rights and criminal lawyer Margaret Strickland for the New Mexico District Court.
Former federal prosecutor Regina Rodriguez for the Colorado District Court.
Biden said, “This trailblazing slate of candidates draws from the very best and brightest minds in the American legal profession.” Adding that “Each is deeply qualified and prepared to deliver justice faithfully under our Constitution and impartially to the American people — and together they represent the broad diversity of background, experience, and perspective that makes our nation strong.”
In the release, The White House stated, “none of the last four administrations had nominated more than two candidates by this point in their presidency.”
Lizzo Calls Out 'Fake Doctors' Who Misdiagnose 'Fat Girls Who Eat Healthy'!
Anybody who follows Lizzo on TikTok knows the popstar enjoys sharing videos about her workout routines, what she likes to eat and body positivity. Unfortunately, though, she ends up getting hit with rude comments about her weight from trolls. In a recent video, Lizzo called out the "fake doctors" who are always trying to diagnose her with something because she isn't losing weight.
"I just wanted to say, I've seen a few of these videos about fat girls who eat healthy and stay active but can't seem to lose weight," Lizzo says in the video. "I think these kinds of videos are important, whether they intend to lose weight or don't want to lose weight, just to show that every single body is different, and how it functions is different."
"What really bothers me are the fake doctors in the comments saying, 'Oh, you have this,' or 'You might have this condition.' No. What if I'm just fat? What if this is just my body?" the singer continued. "Bodies are not all designed to be slim with a six-pack. You know what I mean?"
Lizzo, of course, ended her TikTok on a positive note for her followers, telling them: "if you're feeling down on yourself today, just remember that your body is YOUR body. Nobody's got your body. So enjoy that b***h!"
This isn't the first time Lizzo has addressed people's fascination with her weight on the social media app, either. The 'Truth Hurts' singer faced backlash in December from some members of her fanbase when she shared she underwent a juice cleanse. They believed this decision was contradictory to Lizzo's body positivity message.
"I've spent so much time in this body and I am no different than you — still struggling to find balance, still trying to mend my relationship with food, my anxiety, my back fat," Lizzo said in a video addressing. "It gets easier. I've spent my hardest days trying to love me."
Still facing criticism, Lizzo released a second video on the subject. "I detoxed my body and I'm still fat. I love my body and I'm still fat. I'm beautiful and I'm still fat. These things are not mutually exclusive," she reminded her followers. "To the people who look to me, please do not starve yourselves. I did not starve myself. I fed myself greens and water and fruit and protein and sunlight. You don't have to do that to be beautiful or healthy. That was my way. You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does...DO WHAT YOU WANT WITH YOUR BODY!"
A Woman Was Arrested Outside Drake’s Mansion For Allegedly Hitting A Security Guard With A Metal!
Drake experienced a close call at his Toronto mansion on Tuesday evening. According to varying reports from multiple publications, a woman was arrested near his home following a failed attempt to broke into the rapper’s house. The Toronto Sun and New York Daily News report that the unnamed woman was put under arrest after a call was placed due to a disturbance she caused in the area. The Toronto Sun added that law enforcement sources told them she was armed with a knife and allegedly hit one of the security guards with a metal pipe. “The perpetrator did not get anywhere near Drake,” the insider claimed. “In fact, the intruder did not make it past the front gate.”
However, the reports that the woman was carrying a knife or caused any injury to individuals in the area were denied by both Global News and TMZ. The former confirmed that an arrest was made around 5 PM on Tuesday evening around Drake’ mansion, which is located around the Bayview and Lawrence avenues, but that they were notified by officers that there was no attempt to trespass on the rapper’s property nor were any injuries reported. It’s also unknown if Drake himself was home at the time of the incident.
'The Handmaid's Tale' Season 4 is BACK! Watch a Preview!
Under his eye...assuming he gets to keep those? On Tuesday, Hulu finally dropped a trailer for The Handmaid's Tale Season 4, and it looks like this dystopian hellscape has become even more intense since we left it in 2019. In the jam-packed two and a half minutes, which shows every one of the show's most beloved characters, we see June on the run, Aunt Lydia pledging revenge, Serena chilling in prison, Janine looking like a superhero, Nick being completely useless, Waterford, y'know, Waterfording-ing, and, oh yeah, torture. Lots of torture.
Without context (well, maybe even with context), it's a lot to take in. But the main message, it seems, gets delivered by June herself: "I made a promise to hurt them. The way we hurt." Assuming she keeps that promise, viewers are in for one very bloody return to Gilead. Praise be?
WATCH HERE
The Handmaid's Tale Season 4 debuts April 28 on Hulu.
G. Gordon Liddy, unrepentant Watergate burglar who became talk show host, dies!
G. Gordon Liddy, the tough-guy Watergate operative who went to prison rather than testify and later turned his Nixon-era infamy into a successful television and talk show career, has died at age 90.
Liddy died Tuesday at his daughter's house in Virginia, his son Thomas P. Liddy told the Associated Press. He did not give a cause of death.
While others swept up in the Watergate scandal offered contrition or squirmed in the glare of televised congressional hearings, Liddy seemed to wear the crime like a badge of courage, saying he only regretted that the mission to break into the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters had been a failure.
He drove around Washington in a Volvo with license plates reading H2OGATE, openly discussed the botched burglary on talk radio and late-night TV, took villainous television roles that seemed to trade on his soiled reputation and mocked his fellow Watergate operatives as bumblers.
“I was serving the president of the United States and I would do a Watergate again — but with a much better crew,” he said.
Tight-lipped, Liddy refused to testify at either the Watergate hearings or at his own criminal trial, accepting his fate and a 20-year prison term. “My father didn’t raise a snitch or a rat,” he explained to the Los Angeles Times in 2001.
But when his sentence was commuted by President Carter and he was freed after 52 months in prison, Liddy couldn’t stop talking.
He became a sought-after public speaker, a far-right radio talk show host who called himself the “G Man” — “This is Radio Free D.C., and I’m G. Gordon Liddy” — and a prolific writer. He also fit comfortably into the skin of TV villains, playing a recurring bad guy role on “Miami Vice” and similar characters on “MacGyver” and “Airwolf.”
“I played only villains, and that way, as Mrs. Liddy says, I don’t have to act. I just go there and play myself,” he told Playboy magazine in a 1995 interview.
He was born George Gordon Liddy in Hoboken, N.J., on Nov. 30, 1930. He recalled an overwhelming sense of fear and dread as a child — the hulking dirigibles that flew silently over his house, the rats that skittered along the electrical lines, the nuns who would berate him at school. He claimed that the first reassuring voice he heard was that of Hitler.
“Hitler’s sheer animal confidence and power of will entranced me,” he recalled in a 2004 interview. “He sent an electric current through my body.”
Liddy would often cite the nearly sadistic tests and challenges he claimed he put himself through to toughen his will, some straining the boundaries of credibility: standing in front on an ongoing train and jumping from the tracks at the last minute or climbing a tree during an electrical storm to see if he would be struck . Later, he would famously describe how he won the confidence of his Watergate associates by holding his palm over a candle flame until his skin burned.
He joined the Marines but never fulfilled his dream to fight in the Korean War. Instead he went to law school, became an FBI agent and then a prosecutor. When he ran for a New York congressional seat, one of his favorite campaign ploys was to peel off his jacket before he spoke, revealing the shoulder holster he was fond of wearing. He lost the campaign and joined the Treasury Department, where he was remembered as a troublesome employee and ultimately let go.
That led Liddy to the White House and a clandestine unit known as "the plumbers," whose first assignment was to discredit former defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg, who had leaked the so-called Pentagon Papers, leaving President Nixon smarting. Hoping to find something that would undermine Ellsberg’s credibility, Liddy and the others broke into the office of a Beverly Hills psychiatrist who had been treating Ellsberg. They came away empty-handed, though undetected.
From the start, Liddy seemed eager to do what was needed to get Nixon reelected. In “Will,” his 1991 autobiography, Liddy explains that in meetings with the plumbers he came up with an assortment of potential plans to bolster the president — break-ins, wire-tap jobs, counterdemonstrations and even a scheme he called “Sapphire,” in which escorts would be hired to lure powerful Democrats to a rented houseboat in Miami Beach where their intimate conversations and actions could be recorded.
Liddy said that as he shared his plans with Nixon’s associates, the idea that quickly gained traction was to break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate in Washington and tap the phones, review files and photograph revealing documents. The first burglary was a success, but when the team returned to adjust microphones and add additional listening devices, it all unraveled.
A security guard noticed that someone had put tape over a self-locking door at the office and residential complex, and five people were arrested at the scene. Liddy, who had kept his distance from the actual dirty work, was later indicted as the mastermind of the scheme.
After his conviction, Liddy said he alternately worked on his autobiography and on staying alive during his five years behind bars. He told the Washington Post in 1979 that for protection he armed himself with an ax handle attached to a jagged piece of steel and a sharp-edged steel bar.
“I don’t believe in being a victim,” he said.
When his sentence was commuted and he became a free man, Liddy repackaged himself as a showman. He did radio and he did television, he spoke on college campuses with LSD guru Timothy Leary, and he pitched corporate chiefs on the value of hiring the commando-style security team Hurricane Force he planned to form.
Brash, pointed, funny and brimming with stories — some believable, others less so, he earned up to $12,000 an appearance. He told listeners he still admired Nixon, thought liberals were ruining the country, didn’t regret Watergate, approved of group sex and believed it fair that he went to prison.
“I broke the law,” he told the crowd during a speech at George Washington University. “I took a risk and lost.”
In 1992, Liddy became the host of "The G. Gordon Liddy Show," four hours of radio talk fare in which the host swung from a matter-of-fact reading of the daily news to bombastic outbursts. He told listeners he had used photos of Bill and Hillary Clinton for target practice to improve his aim and spoke firmly about the need to be skilled with weaponry for self-protection.
“I love my home so much,” a caller on WJFK told him, expressing concern about being burglarized.
“Then protect it. Get a shotgun,” he advised. “After you kill him, say a little prayer for his soul. You won’t want to be brutal.”
For his occasional role on “Miami Vice,” Liddy shaved off what hair he had but kept his bushy dark mustache. The look was properly sinister. But the hair never returned, the mustache turned white, and his short, stocky frame eventually gave way to a stooped, frail figure.
Liddy also tried to change the Watergate narrative.
The accepted version of the break-in — from Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s “All the President’s Men” to the national archival material at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library — put the blame directly on the White House, where some of Nixon’s most trusted signed off on a plot to slip into the Democratic headquarters and plant the necessary devices to listen in as their opponents drew up election game plans.
Liddy initially said he went to prison accepting that version, too.
But later, the Watergate mastermind said he began subscribing to a theory that has been advanced by a far lesser known pair of journalists, Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin, the authors of “Silent Coup.” The book, published in 1991, shifted the blame, putting it squarely on former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean.
The burglary, Liddy began telling listeners on his radio show, was motivated by Dean’s feverish concern that the Democrats had evidence that his girlfriend and future wife had a connection to a woman who was running a call-girl ring.
The book was dismissed by scholars as revisionism. Woodward brushed it off as fiction. “A scandalous fabrication,” said Alexander Haig, Nixon’s former chief of staff. “Garbage,” Dean said.
Dean, whose testimony during the Watergate hearings helped bring down the president, sued for defamation, as did a Louisiana schoolteacher who briefly worked as a secretary at the Democratic Committee headquarters at the Watergate hotel. The book suggested she helped arrange dates between visiting Democrats and escorts.
The trial in Baltimore became a fresh battleground to settle old scores.
“This,” Liddy testified, “was a John Dean op.”
During the trial, nearly every brick in Liddy’s account of Watergate was chipped away. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2001 that one of the sources who had provided information to the book’s authors acknowledged that he had mental disabilities, took a variety of medications and had a drinking problem. He testified he had little memory of the details of Watergate and no memory of the secretary who’d been linked to the supposed call-girl operation.
But both suits were dismissed and the book’s publishers reached an out-of-court settlement with Dean.
But under all the brass, there could be a softer side to the person Nixon once described as “the most dangerous man in America.” A Washington Post reporter who spent a late afternoon in 1992 at Liddy’s home on the Potomac found him to be just another grandfather, someone who dutifully rearranged the cars in the driveway when his wife came home, cheerfully discussed plans for finding a painter for their house and bantered about with the grandkids.
In a 1997 appearance on "Late Night with Conan O’Brien," Liddy — there to pitch a wall calendar of barely clad women armed with high-powered weaponry — seems jovial and light, even as he demonstrates on fellow guest Don Rickles how he could quickly and effectively kill someone with nothing more than a pencil.
Colodny, the journalist and author, was unsure whether Liddy was fully satisfied with his post-Watergate life.
“I think he would have liked to have done something more serious with his life," he said.
Liddy is survived by five children and 12 grandchildren. His wife of 53 years, Frances, died in 2010.
AND FINALLY FROM “THE CRAZY PEOPLE SHOPPING AT WALMART” FILES
‘DOUBLE UP’
This is a defensive coordinator’s worst nightmare. You’ve got double coverage and you still can’t cover him up. Shameful.
HAVE A GREAT DAY ALL!!!
EFREM
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