Celeb superlatives: Grace, grit, and advice taken and not taken
Paste BN's Maria Puente digs through the latest celebrity news for highlights ... and lowlights. Think high-school yearbook superlatives — if Charlotte Church and Marie Osmond were classmates.
Best display of grace under pressure: Billie Lourd
First, her irrepressible mother, Carrie Fisher, died suddenly last month at age 60. Then her irrepressible grandmother, Debbie Reynolds, 84, followed Fisher the next day. Who would blame Billie Lourd, 24, for curling up in a ball to mourn? Instead, she's been grace itself through the two-day goodbye ceremonies and in her Instagram posts the following week. The Scream Queens actress posted a picture of herself as a child in the back seat of a car being hugged by her smiling mom, whose name she spelled out in emojis in tribute (Fisher loved emojis). As Fisher said in her one-woman Broadway show Wishful Drinking, she was always aware of the funny side of her tragic-comic life. Lourd's touching caption: "Finding the funny might take a while but I learned from the best and her voice will forever be in my head and in my heart."
Most unpersuasive Michael Jackson impersonator: Joseph Fiennes
The Joseph Fiennes-as-Michael Jackson comedy trailer arrived, and it wasn't pretty. No one was especially happy that a white British actor would play black American King of Pop when the news came out last year, but members of Jackson's family were especially ticked off when the trailer dropped Tuesday. Fiennes' prosthetics-heavy face did not remotely resemble Jackson's. Daughter Paris Jackson posted on Twitter she was "so incredibly offended" she wanted to vomit. Nephew Taj Jackson also was turned off. "Unfortunately this is what my family has to deal with. No words could express the blatant disrespect," he said on Twitter. The social media backlash worked: Britain’s Sky TV announced it will not air the episode of Urban Myths (the U.K. answer to Drunk History) featuring Fiennes. Sky tweeted Friday the decision to drop the episode "in light of the concerns expressed by Michael Jackson's immediate family," and Fiennes "fully supports our decision.”
The best and worst ways to turn down a Trump invitation: Charlotte Church vs. Marie Osmond vs. Jennifer Holliday
When President-elect Donald Trump's inaugural committee approached Church, the Welsh classical/pop singer, about singing at his swearing-in on Jan. 20, she tweeted back, wondering why they bothered. "A simple Internet search would show I think you're a tyrant. Bye." That was followed by poop emojis. Cue Osmond. No, thanks, she said. "I try to stay out of politics. I'm an entertainer. ... (I) simply tried to be nice and promote a message of love, not hate." But Holliday took the prize for indecision. On Friday, Trump tweeted the Dreamgirls star (and Hillary Clinton supporter) would sing at a pre-inaugural concert. Then her publicist told Paste BN it wasn't a done deal. Then her agent said it was almost a done deal. Friday night, she told the media she would sing. Then the pushback came on Twitter from her gay fans. By Saturday, she changed her mind, calling her initial acceptance a "lapse in judgment." She thought her voice could be a "healing and unifying force" for hope, she said in a statement. She had overlooked the possibility that singing for Trump would be taken as "a political act against my own personal beliefs and be mistaken for support" of Trump.
Best White House transition custom: Bush twins' letters to Malia and Sasha Obama
Presidents sometimes leave notes to their successors in the Oval Office, but in 2009, President Bush's twins, Jenna and Barbara, now 35, added a sweet new custom: They wrote a letter to their young successors, Sasha and Malia Obama, about how to enjoy their new life as children in the White House. A week before the new inauguration, the Bush twins wrote again to the Obama girls, in a letter posted on Time, about how to enjoy life as members of "another rarified club, one of former First Children." Take heart, the twins said, there's so much to look forward to, including college, exploring their passions and making mistakes. "You will be writing the story of your lives, beyond the shadow of your famous parents, yet you will always carry with you the experiences of the past eight years."
Riskiest celebrity show-off move: Jennifer Lopez and Drake
Kim Kardashian's Paris armed robbery was only a few months ago and already some over-sharers seem to have forgotten one of its lessons: Posting pictures of your bling on social media might be tempting to the wrong people. This reminder comes after People and E! confirmed that Drake gave his new love, Jennifer Lopez, a diamond necklace. Could it be the very necklace she sported in a recent Instagram post? It sure looks like the one on Tiffany's website, the one that costs $100,000. "Looking at 2017 like... mmmhmmm u gonna get it...," JLo captioned the photo. Whether the picture shows a Drake gift or not, it certainly shows a sparkly necklace, and no one wants jewel thieves to start casing her digs.
Latest disheartening diversity statistics on Hollywood
Women still struggle to gain access to the top jobs in the entertainment industry, and it's getting worse. A new study released Thursday found that just 7% of the 250 highest-grossing films of 2016 were directed by women. The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University also found the rate of female directors was down 2% from last year. In fact, the 2016 statistics are on par with those of ...1998? And this after last year's federal investigation of possible discrimination against female directors in film and TV, plus increased attention to diversity in recent years? Recent efforts to improve the numbers, such as the mentoring and shadowing programs, are "simply too meager," said Martha Lauzen, executive director of the center and author of the report, The Celluloid Ceiling. As acclaimed director Ava DuVernay said late last year: "(Hollywood) is a patriarchy, headed by men and built for men. To pretend like Hollywood is anything other than that is disingenuous."