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    Rachel Lindsay Details Her Racist Experience on 'The Bachelorette'

    ABC

    In a new interview on ‘Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen’, the 35-year-old lawyer and former ‘Bachelorette’ reveals that she got ‘a lot of nasty messages trolling’ from the audience.’
    Jun 19, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Rachel Lindsay may be the first black people to lead a season of “The Bachelorette”. However, that doesn’t mean she escaped a “nasty” racist experience while appearing on the show. In a recent interview on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen”, Rachel revealed that she got “a lot of nasty messages trolling” from the audience.”
    “I definitely experienced it when it came to picking the men. My husband [Bryan Abasolo] is Colombian so I got a lot of racism towards the fact that we were in an interracial relationship,” the 35-year-old lawyer explained.
    She also addressed one racist contestant, Lee Garrett, who was later removed from her season two weeks into production. “I did have a racist contestant on my season,” Rachel said. “They said they hadn’t done a good job of vetting out that he was racist or had done racist things in the past — but I would hope in the future it would never happen again. They received a lot of heat from that.”
    “One of the things that I’m fighting for with Matt James as the first Black Bachelor is for them to do a better job of vetting contestants. You need a person of color in the decision room so that doesn’t happen to them,” the Texas native said of Matt, who was previously announced to be the next leading man of “The Bachelor”.
    While the franchise made a history by appointing a black male to be the next Bachelor, Rachel admitted that she couldn’t help but question the timing. “It does seem like a reaction to what’s happening in our country. Did a man have to die in such a public way on a national stage for you to say ‘now is the time to have a Black Bachelor?’ ” she asked, referring to George Floyd, who was murdered by a Minneapolis cop.
    “That’s what I hate — it’s taking away from this moment. What I wanted was some acknowledgement and some recognition that they’ve been wrong in part of the problem and that they’re going to vow to take the necessary changes to bring diversity internally and to more contestants of color on the show,” she continued.
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    Of producers and ABC, Rachel said, “They told me that they heard me. And that they are wanting to do more and make changes. And they actually did release a statement after they announced [Matt James], and that they’re vowing to make changes internally and to have more contestants of color.”

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    New Sitcom 'Young Rock' Based on Dwayne Johnson's Childhood Scheduled for Fall Premiere

    Instagram

    A television series based on The Rock’s younger years is expected to premiere on NBC this coming fall with the wrestler-turned-actor as an executive producer.
    Jun 19, 2020
    AceShowbiz – A sitcom based on Dwayne Johnson’s early years is set to air in America this autumn 2020.
    The “Jumanji: The Next Level” star, also known by his wrestling name The Rock, announced the project, “Young Rock”, earlier this year 2020. The comedy, which will debut on NBC, will focus on the early life of the action man. Johnson will serve as an executive producer and also appear on the show.
    “For the first time ever I’m bringing you along with me to experience my insanely unbelievable childhood, teenage years and adolescence,” Johnson said as he first shared news of the series in a January 2020 Instagram post, before comparing his story to that of the 1994 film “Forrest Gump”.
    “My close friends refer to me as the big, brown tattooed Forrest Gump because of everyone and everything that has weaved in and out of my surreal life,” he added, revealing the series will feature the harsh realities of his rise to fame, including “success, failure, homelessness, evictions, suicide attempts, arrests, hard times, good times, low times, high times… (and) all this s**t happened to me by the time I turned 21.”
    An exact premiere date has not yet been set.

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    NeNe Leakes Laughs Off Rumors of Her Being Fired From 'RHOA'

    Instagram

    Speculations that NeNe is fired from the Bravo reality TV show start to circulate online after NeNe writes in a now-deleted tweet, ‘You are NOT going to get away with this! I promise.’
    Jun 19, 2020
    AceShowbiz – NeNe Leakes has broken her silence on rumors about her being let go from “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”. The Bravo personality made use her social media accounts to laugh off the rumors.
    In a Wednesday, June 17 post on Instagram, NeNe shared a meme of herself laughing which seemed to be serving as her response to the rumors. “I can’t chileeeeeeee,” so she wrote in the caption. She also tweeted several laughing emojis on her Twitter page.
    While NeNe didn’t directly shut down the rumors, fans were hoping there wasn’t truth in the rumors. “I hope the rumors aren’t true. RHOA needs you,” a fan wrote in an Instagram comment. “Team Leakes she is the show,” another supportive fan added.
    “And we know you not goin NOWHERE,” said one user. Meanwhile, someone else stated, “You’re face when the haters finds out you got that season 13 contract.”
    Speculations that NeNe was fired from the Bravo reality TV show started to circulate online after NeNe wrote in a now-deleted tweet, “You are NOT going to get away with this! I promise.” That prompted people to think that the 52-year-old was permanently removed from the show.
    Further fueling the rumors was famed blogger B. Scott who shared an exclusive report of NeNe’s alleged firing. The blogger claimed that the producers of the show didn’t ask NeNe to return for the next season. Additionally, the report said NeNe’s rep asked the blogger to take down the story but refused.
    This arrives just one day after Eva Marcille announced her departure from “RHOA”. “I appreciate the bond of friendship that I have made with several of my cast mates and the strong personal relationships I have with numerous executives and producers at the Bravo and Truly Entertainment companies,” she said in a statement.
    Eva went on saying, “I am thankful for the opportunity I was provided, however, after speaking with my family and representatives, I believe that what I hope to accomplish for the culture and community will be better served by focusing on other opportunities.”

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    A Robert Kirkman Surprise: A New Walking Dead Story

    Fans of the Walking Dead comic book, which came to a surprise end last July, are getting something unexpected next month: a new story. Robert Kirkman, the creator and writer of the series, is teaming up with the artist Charlie Adlard to present Negan Lives! — an issue that focuses on a big villain of the comic.Kirkman is giving comic book retailers something else: The new issue will be free. In a statement, Kirkman said that it was part of his support of a #backthecomeback campaign for stores that were disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.“The retailer community does backbreaking work to get comics into the hands of our loving fans,” he said. “We should all be doing more in these trying times to show them how appreciated they are.” To further entice fans to return to comic shops, the issue will not be available in a digital format.Negan Lives!, which arrives in stores on July 1, will give details on what has happened to the character since his last appearance. More

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    Bette Midler and Issa Rae Join Cast of Virtual Comedy Special 'Coastal Elites'

    WENN

    The HBO venture, which teams up director Jay Roach and writer Paul Rudnick, will focus on how the characters’ lives in New York and Los Angeles have been altered by the coronavirus pandemic.
    Jun 18, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Bette Midler and Issa Rae are set to star in a new virtual comedy special set during the coronavirus pandemic.
    The star-studded cast, also including Dan Levy and Sarah Paulson, will team with director Jay Roach and writer Paul Rudnick for the HBO venture, titled “Coastal Elites”. The event will center on characters from New York and Los Angeles and focus on how their lives have been altered by the pandemic.
    “Paul Rudnick and Jay Roach bring their razor-sharp perspective and wit to HBO,” said HBO Programming president Casey Bloys. “We are thrilled to partner with them in telling this story, which is uniquely resonant for these times.”
    The venture, which will premiere in September, joins other coronavirus-themed scripted shows that are being developed during the lockdown, including the filmed-from-home mystery “The Agoraphobics Detective Society”, starring Brian Cox.

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    Michael Keaton Secures First TV Starring Role in 'Dopesick'

    WENN

    Inspired by Beth Macy’s 2018 novel of the same name, this Hulu series will explore the opioid epidemic in the country through the stories of young addicts, drug dealers and medical professionals.
    Jun 18, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Michael Keaton is set to take on his first starring role on a TV series for the small screen adaptation of the bestseller “Dopesick”.
    Inspired by Beth Macy’s 2018 novel of the same name, the Hulu show explores the U.S. opioid epidemic through the stories of young addicts, drug dealers and medical professionals.
    Keaton, who portrays a doctor at the center of a pharmaceutical scandal, will also serve as executive producer, while Barry Levinson will direct “Empire” screenwriter Danny Strong’s script.
    “I’m so thrilled to tell this story with a company as bold and as daring as Hulu,” said Strong in a statement. “The opioid crisis is one of the most important stories of our time and I’m honored to not only pay tribute to its victims but to shine a light on the heroes that fought back. Laws were broken and many lies were told. The system failed us and ‘Dopesick’ is going to show everyone how it all happened.”

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    Mama June Admits Her Excessive Drug Use Has Left Her Broke More

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    Mama June Admits Her Excessive Drug Use Has Left Her Broke

    WE tv

    In a new episode of WE tv’s ‘Mama June: Family Crisis’, the Shannon matriarch comes clean about her history of drug use during a tearful reunion with her daughter Lauryn ‘Pumpkin’ Shannon.
    Jun 18, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Mama June a.k.a. June Shannon is one step closer to getting her life back on track after she went through a downward spiral in the past year. In the latest episode of “Mama June: Family Crisis”, the reality TV star came clean about her past and present drug use that has left her financially broke during a tearful reunion with her daughter Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon.
    The 40-year-old matriarch revealed she and her boyfriend Geno Doak would spend $2,500 a day on various kinds of drugs, which included Fioricet, a prescription pain medicine used to treat the symptoms of tension headache, and Xanax, a benzodiazepine medication used to treat anxiety and panic disorders. “The only reason I sold the house, we was dead f***ing broke,” she said on the show.
    “Because you know at that point we was doing quite a bit,” June admitted her problem that left her broke. “I mean, it was a couple ounces a day.” She added of her methamphetamine usage, “Our habit was $2,500 a day, if not more.”
    On how she started doing drugs, June said that she “got high because I wanted to.” She went on telling her daughter Pumpkin, “It wasn’t something that just started, and oh my God, I started using drugs, you found out that I got busted. It wasn’t. I got high because I wanted to. It’s not the first time I’ve ever done drugs, and you know that.”
    Despite June’s claim that it wasn’t the first time for her to use drugs, it apparently still came as a shock for Pumpkin, who said, “It’s been the first time since we’ve been older that you’ve ever been strung out.” Sharing her frustration, the 20-year-old continued, “The thing is like, you can’t get clean and then Geno not get f***ing clean.”
    Pumpkin clearly still objects to June’s relationship with Geno, confessing, “I’m at the point of like I’m kind of done with him. I don’t like the way that he has treated you.” She added, “I don’t even understand quite honestly why you are still with him. He has done you dirty, like he came into the house and then it was like he was pushing me out.”
    June tried to convince her daughter that they have changed for the better. “I promise you, for the last couple months we have been, I would say, 90 percent good,” she argued. “If this was four or five months ago, I would have been high as f**k when I came up in here.”
    June’s relationship with her daughters has been strained since she was arrested in March 2019 on possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia charges after she allegedly had crack cocaine and a crack pipe on her. Geno was also arrested and charged with third-degree domestic violence, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
    Due to June’s drug use, her younger daughter Alana Thompson a.k.a. Honey Boo Boo has been living with her sister Pumpkin. The mom of four, however, recently checked into rehab after testing positive for cocaine as the cumulative result of her cold medication abuse.

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    'This Is Us' Child Star Lonnie Chavis Can't Stop Crying on Set as He's Triggered by 'Racist' Scene

    WENN

    The 12-year-old actor recalls sobbing on set when he listened to a co-star acting out a racist character and recounts being accused of stealing tip money.
    Jun 18, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Young “This Is Us” star Lonnie Chavis struggled to hold back tears as he listened to a racist grandmother on the hit show, because it brought back awful memories from his real life.
    The 12 year old, who plays Randall Pearce in the TV drama, recalls the show’s director and writers trying to calm him down as he became emotional during the scene, admitting he had no way of explaining what was going on in his mind.
    “I started crying listening to an actor portray a racist grandmother toward my character,” he writes in a new essay for People magazine. “The director and writers told me that they didn’t need me to cry for the scene. However, it was hard for me not to cry as I witnessed what I had just learned was my reality. I wasn’t acting, I was crying for me.
    “Can you imagine having to explain to a room full of white people why I couldn’t hold back my real tears while experiencing the pain of racism…?”
    Lonnie also reveals he was racially profiled at a restaurant in San Diego, California, while visiting one of his young black co-stars.
    “Her black cousins and I were accused by a young white girl working the cash register of trying to steal the few tips in her tip cup,” he adds. “It was a huge ordeal that almost led to police being called on us while we were with our parents.”
    A white fan of the show came to the family’s rescue and explained Lonnie was “a professional actor on two television series currently airing” and added he “doubted I would need to steal her few dollars.”
    “My mother never played the ‘he’s an actor’ card,” Chavis explains. “She definitely knew and argued that we were being targeted merely because we were a group of young black children. Can you imagine someone thinking you are a thief just because of the colour of your skin? I can.”
    The young star also opens up about the drama that went down on his 10th birthday in 2018 when his father was detained by police for a traffic ticket.
    “After coming home late with my family from my birthday party, a Long Beach police officer twisted my dad’s arm behind his back and pulled him from our doorstep with the door opened…,” Lonnie recounts in the essay. “My mother ran to my room and told me with fear in her eyes to go into my little brother’s room and stay away from the windows. She put my new baby brother in my arms and told me that no matter what I hear from our front yard to not come to the door.”
    “I held my baby brother and cried as I could hear my mother yelling outside of our home. I thought my parents were for sure going to die going up against the police. By the grace of God, they are both still with me, and that racially motivated harassment against my father was dismissed. Can you imagine holding on to your three little brothers while thinking that you are all going to be orphans? I can.”
    The actor concludes the essay by writing, “Change has got to happen for unarmed Black citizens to not live in fear of being murdered. Can you imagine being me in 2020 and wondering what the future holds?”

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