By Wonderwall.com Editors
5:46am PST, Feb 27, 2021
Travis Scott and his foundation are distributing 50,000 meals to Houstonians following deep freeze
Travis Scott and his Cactus Jack Foundation are stepping up to feed residents of the rapper's hometown of Houston after Winter Storm Uri left people across Texas without power, heat or clean water for days amid record low temperatures. Working alongside Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, the City of Houston and the Houston Health Foundation, Travis and his nonprofit are working to get approximately 50,000 hot meals to Houstonians who need them most, based on high-priority zip codes identified by the city. According to People, Cactus Jack began distributing food last week. Per TMZ, deliveries of food and bottled water continued to go out all day on Friday, Feb. 26. Travis has made Houston a priority in assistance programs created through his foundation. In addition to the massive toy drive he held over the holidays in his hometown, the rapper recently announced a Cactus Jack scholarship program to support teens there.
Keep reading for new details about Kanye West's presidential campaign and more …
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Kanye West spent nearly $12.5M of his own money on presidential campaign
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West's divorce is on track to be resolved with relatively little drama, thanks to their reported prenups and agreement on joint custody of their four kids. That's especially good news for Kanye. It turns out the Yeezy designer spent nearly $12.5 million of his own money on his failed 2020 presidential campaign, his final Federal Election Commission report shows. The campaign ultimately cost about $13.2 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter, including about $2 million raised from outside donations. 'Ye reportedly spent the bulk of the money — $7.5 million — on costs associated with trying to get his name on the ballots in different states. In the end, only a dozen states included the rapper, who ran as a member of "The Birthday Party." The next biggest chunk of cash — $918,130 — appears to have gone towards the cost of creating and marketing campaign apparel. The two-page ad 'Ye's team took out in the New York Times one week before the election also ate up a lot of Kanye's funding, $210,544, to be exact. After entering the race in early July, Kanye ended up getting about 66,000 votes, nationwide, THR reports.
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Lady Gaga's pets recovered two days after her dog walker was shot and her Frenchies were taken
On Feb. 26 — two days after two beloved pets were stolen in a violent robbery that left a dog walker hospitalized after being shot on a Los Angeles street — Lady Gaga's two French bulldogs were brought to the LAPD's Olympic Community Police Station by a woman a police captain said appears to be "uninvolved and unassociated" with their theft. The joyful recovery came hours after Gaga, who's been working in Italy, spoke out for the first time after her dog walker was shot and French bulldogs dogs were kidnapped on Feb. 24. The singer-actress told her social media followers she was "praying" for "act of kindness" as police continued to investigate the incident. "My beloved dogs Koji and Gustav were taken in Hollywood two nights ago. My heart is sick and I am praying my family will be whole again with an act of kindness. I will pay $500,000 for their safe return. If you bought or found them unknowingly, the reward is the same," Gaga shared. She then thanked the friend who was shot while walking her pets. "I continue to love you Ryan Fischer, you risked your life to fight for our family. You're forever a hero," she wrote. Ryan is reportedly expected to make a full recovery. While TMZ's sources believe the attack was related to a bid for ransom, The Sun is reporting that the FBI has gotten involved in case the incident was politically motivated, given Gaga's performance at President Joe Biden's inauguration. After asking an FBI rep to comment, Entertainment Weekly was referred to the LAPD, whose rep said they had "nothing new to add."
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Prince Harry admits he's watched 'The Crown,' says the British press was 'destroying' his mental health
Prince Harry gave a rare and extensive televised interview to James Corden on "The Late Late Show" on Thursday, Feb. 25. And while much of the tone was light and fun — we learned Duchess Meghan's pet name for her hubby, for example — Harry also spoke candidly about more serious matters. Asked if he watches the award-winning Netflix series, "The Crown," Harry admitted he has seen it and explained why he was OK with his family being cast as characters in a hit show. "They don't pretend to be news," he said. "It's fictional. But it's loosely based on the truth. Of course it's not strictly accurate, but loosely… it gives you a rough idea about what that lifestyle, what the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else, what can come from that." He went on to say he's "way more comfortable with 'The Crown'" than he with reading about himself and his family in the press because whereas "The Crown" is "obviously fiction," media coverage of his life, "is being reported on as fact because you're supposedly news." In fact, Harry said it was the press that made him want to change his relationship with the royal family. "It was never walking away. It was stepping back rather than stepping down," he said. "It was a really difficult environment, as I think a lot of people saw. We all know what the British press can be like and it was destroying my mental health. I was like, this is toxic. So I did what any husband and what any father would do, [it was] like, I need to get my family out of here. But we never walked away."
John Legend, Gwen Stefani, Pink earn their first ACM Awards nominations
John Legend and his "Voice" co-star Gwen Stefani both earned their first-ever ACM Award nominations on Friday, Feb. 26, when the Academy of Country Music revealed who would be competing for this year's prizes. John's artists up for Video of the Year courtesy of "Hallelujah," his collaboration with Carrie Underwood. He's one of four Black artists nominated this year, a record for the ACM Awards, according to the Tennessean. Mickey Guyton and Jimmie Allen are nominated for Best New Artist, Female and Male, respectively, while Kane Brown's "Mixtape Vol. 1" is up for Album of the Year. Gwen's nod also came out of a collab; she and fiancee Blake Shelton's "Nobody But You" recording is nominated for Music Event of the Year. Another ACM newbie pop star, Pink, will compete for her first ACM Award as well, via "One Too Many," which she recorded with Keith Urban. Leading the nominations overall, meanwhile, are Maren Morris and Chris Stapleton, with six nods each. In addition to scoring noms for Female Artist, Single and Song of the year, Maren will compete with John and Carrie for Video of the Year, her contender being the Black Lives Matter-inspired protest song, "Better Than We Found It." The 56th annual ACM Awards air April 18.
Paris Hilton says Britney Spears 'is being treated like a child' under conservatorship
Paris Hilton is the latest celeb to weigh in on Britney Spears' ongoing conservatorship battle in the wake of the premiere of "Framing Britney Spears." Paris, 40, and Britney, 39, became close friends shortly before the 2007 meltdown that led Britney to be placed under the conservatorship-control of her father, Jamie Spears. Although Paris has yet to see the documentary, she knows plenty about the story directly from Britney, who was not involved in the making of the film, and she remains firmly on Team #FreeBritney. "I haven't spoken to her in a few months. I haven't even watched the film yet, because I've been so busy," Paris, who's been advocating for stricter oversight of treatment centers for troubled teens, said on this week's edition of her "This Is Paris" podcast (per Yahoo). "But I heard it's just a really sad movie. It makes me really feel for her, because she's such a sweet girl and has such a big heart and I just can't imagine being controlled like that. You know, when you're an adult and you've worked your whole life for building this empire and then just to be treated like a child, it's just not fair," Paris continued. "I've been reading all of these articles coming out where they were just saying, like, Britney, Paris and just like, a group of us were just were treated so unfairly and just like, this really misogynistic view and just being very cruel and mean and making fun of us. It made me think a lot this week …" Despite Britney's request to have Jamie removed from his co-conservatorship post, her dad remains in control of many aspects of her life, duties he now shares with the financial group, Bessemer Trust, the other co-conservator. The current arrangement expires in September. Another hearing is slated for March 17.
Sofia Vergara moves to prevent ex Nick Loeb's attorney from practicing in Louisiana after his latest embryos suit defeat
Sofia Vergara's ex, Nick Loeb, lost the most recent appeal in his ongoing pursuit of custody of the former couple's frozen embryos, with the court ruling Nick and his lawyer's Louisiana filing amounted to "blatant forum shopping," given his lack of connection to the state. At the time, Nick's attorney, Jalesia McQueen, told Page Six they'd "be appealing to the Louisiana Supreme Court." That might be harder to do, however, if Sofia's granted her latest request in the case. Page Six reports the "Modern Family" star's lawyers have asked the court to block Nick's attorney from practicing in Louisiana. It seems Jalesia is actually based in St. Louis and only had a "pro hac vice" or "this time only" green light to argue the case in Louisiana. Further, Sofia's legal team alleges in the new filing that Nick and Jalesia "made false statements in pleadings," claiming Nick lived in the New Orleans metropolitan area, when they both "knew the statements to be false." That argument seems well aligned with the opinion handed down when Nick's recent appeal was tossed. Filing suit in Louisiana for improper reasons, the judge wrote earlier this year, "brings disrepute to and makes a mockery of the Louisiana legal system … and is abhorrent." Nick and Sofia were both living in California when they created the pre-embryos in 2013. Sofia called off their engagement in May 2014, the same month she began filming "Hot Pursuit" in New Orleans.
Billie Eilish doc shows singer's regular teenager side, boyfriend drama, driver's test and all
Don't let that pile of Grammy Awards fool you — Billie Eilish is, as we were reminded in her new AppleTV+ doc, very much still a normal, American teenager, albeit a seriously talented one. In "Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry," which premiered on Friday, Feb. 26, we see the now 19-year-old singer doing a whole lot of common teenage things, like getting her driver's license and coming to terms with a breakup. Except those things happen a little differently for Billie than they do for most teens. Before getting her license, the singer's family surprises her with her very own black Dodge Challenger — at a photo shoot for her album, "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" And before she splits from her then-secret boyfriend, hip-hop artist Brandon "Q" Adams, he commits a pretty serious boyfriend crime — he doesn't go see her after her Coachella performance, in spite of her admission she's upset about having forgotten some lyrics. After the two call it quits, Billie shares with the camera her mature-beyond-her-years take on what went wrong. "I don't think you should be in a relationship, super excited about certain things that the other person couldn't care less about. I don't think that's fair to you. I didn't think it was fair to him," she says, (per Vulture). "And there was just a lack of effort, I think. I literally was just like, 'Dude, you don't even have enough love to love yourself, you can't love me, and you don't.'" The documentary also features Billie's candid reflections on the challenges of fame and touring, her Tourette's Syndrome, her struggles with depression and more.
Chrissy Teigen is working on her own line of robes
Chrissy Teigen's wearing a new hat! The model turned cookbook author and TV personality told fans on Instagram this week that she's in the process of launching her own line of robes. "Ok before everyone gets mad, I am in NO way a designer! I am so painfully aware of this!" she wrote on the 'Gram on Thursday, Feb. 25, sharing a photo of herself holding a hot pink feather boa while surrounded by patterned fabrics. "I can't draw, my sewing is on par with a life of my mom working at FabricLand, a child who dabbled in making pillows and puppets. But I am finding a lot of joy bringing *intense* color into my life and maybe yours!" she continued. "Robes are so fun – they don't have many rules when it comes to patterns…I appreciate their inability to be caged like myself! Anyhow now that book 3 is done, I'm taking a dive into this world." She added, "Please don't tell me I'll never be so and so, I know and I don't want to be!" It didn't take long for a number of her famous pals, from Rachel Zoe to Jesse Tyler Ferguson, to chime in with their support in the comments. Quipped Lisa Rinna: "I am ready for my next Chrissy Robe Dance."
