International pop star Madonna has been confirmed for the Eurovision Grand Finale in Tel Aviv on May 18.
The Jerusalem Postreports that Madge asked for $1 million to perform two songs – one catalogue hit and one new track from her upcoming album – at the international music event.
Sylvan Adams, an Israeli-Canadian billionaire, offered to cover the cost telling the Post, “I saw the importance of bringing the iconic singer to Tel Aviv and creating a memorable historic performance.
Adams told reporters at the INTV conference that he sees the opportunity as a way to boost tourism to Israel.
“I think the more people we bring here, the more people see our true nature, and the true beauty of our country and our people, and the freedom and openness and tolerance and safety of our country,” said Adams.
Traveling with an entourage of 60 people, the 60-year-old pop icon will arrive four days before the live performance.
Madonna’s last performance in Israel was in 2012 when she launched her world tour in Tel Aviv.
Her appearance comes at a complicated time for the LGBTQ community in Israel.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of LGBTQ activists that he would not promise to promote LGBTQ equality.
In February, the Association for LGBTQ Equality sent a report to Israel’s President Rivlin which documented a 54% jump from 2017 to 2018 in homophobic incidents.
Everyone is talking about the sudden departure of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen this past weekend.
She showed up for a meeting at the White House with Donald Trump on Sunday, and before she could even make her resignation public, Trump beat her via Twitter.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service….
….I am pleased to announce that Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, will become Acting Secretary for @DHSgov. I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!
“I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside,” Ms. Nielsen said in a resignation letter. “I hope that the next secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure America’s borders and which have contributed to discord in our nation’s discourse.”
Ms. Nielsen had requested the meeting to plan “a way forward” at the border, in part thinking she could have a reasoned conversation with Mr. Trump about the role, according to three people familiar with the meeting. She came prepared with a list of things that needed to change to improve the relationship with the president.
Mr. Trump in recent weeks had asked Ms. Nielsen to close the ports of entry along the border and to stop accepting asylum seekers, which Ms. Nielsen found ineffective and inappropriate. While the 30-minute meeting was cordial, Mr. Trump was determined to ask for her resignation. After the meeting, she submitted it.
This morning, folks believe Nielsen’s tenure in the Trump administration could be a “reputation killer.”
“Kirstjen Nielsen I think is a great example of what happens when you go to work for Donald Trump,” said CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin. “He is the great reputation killer. Here is this woman who was a reasonably admired bureaucrat. For the rest of her life people will look at her and think, ‘Oh, that’s the woman who put children in cages. That’s the woman who broke up families across the border.’ You know what? They’ll be right.”
.@JeffreyToobin calls President Trump “the great reputation killer.”
Kirstjen Nielsen “was a reasonably admired bureaucrat. For the rest of her life people will look at her and think, ‘Oh, that’s the woman who put children in cages.'” https://t.co/fDKX7RtHY0pic.twitter.com/LxuMjpog39
The NY Times also notes that Trump reportedly urged Nielsen to take illegal actions to tamp down what he saw as the immigration ’emergency.”
The president called Ms. Nielsen at home early in the mornings to demand that she take action to stop migrants from entering the country, including doing things that were clearly illegal, such as blocking all migrants from seeking asylum.
She repeatedly noted the limitations imposed on her department by federal laws, court settlements and international obligations.
Those responses only infuriated Mr. Trump further.
.@SecNielsen separated mamas from their babies and locked little children in cages.
I’m not sorry to see her go. I only wish she’d been fired long ago, before she ever had a chance to resign.
I have repeatedly called for Kirstjen Nielsen’s resignation for her lies in service of @realDonaldTrump’s abhorrent immigration policies, and I welcome her decision today. History will not judge her or the president kindly.
As Kingsman star Taron Egerton prepares for the release of his latest cinematic adventure – playing Elton John in the upcoming musical fantasy biopic Rocketman – the handsome actor makes an unexpected admission.
“Without ever wishing to seem ungrateful for the Kingsmanthing,” he tells GQ UK’s Chris Mandle for this month’s cover story, “as much as I love the films, especially the first, I will always feel like something of an imposter in that world.”
Imposter? What you talking about, Taron?
“The ‘guy’, the ‘bro’, the ‘stunt guy’,” says the 29-year-old actor, highlighting the phrases with air quotes. “I’ve never been that guy. I’m just not. I’m the guy who was playing Seymour in Little Shop Of Horrors when he was 17.”
When Mandle points out that it’s all acting anyway, Egerton conceded – a bit.
“Maybe,” said the handsome actor. “But I always felt more at home in a gay club than at a football match, far more at home.”
(photo: Gavin Bond)
And speaking of “gay,” Egerton addresses the reports about a certain sex scene that was rumored to have been excised from the film, but then wasn’t.
“Well, the stuff we shot was pretty explicit,” Egerton shares. “I mean, that’s why I made the film. Those scenes are desperately -important when you have an icon of that magnitude, who means so much to one community.”
Calling Elton John “a standard bearer” for the LGBTQ community, Egerton felt it his responsibility to live up to that.
“For me, especially as a heterosexual actor, not to push the envelope as far as I can or try to make it a wholehearted celebration of being a gay man would be wrong,” he told GQ.
The Welsh actor has heard the stories about Bohemian Rhapsody being “straight-washed” for other countries where overt gay-isms don’t go over so well. He says banking box office bucks shouldn’t trump a film’s cinematic integrity.
“It’s a studio movie. It’s Elton John. We’ve got to own that. I don’t care how well the film does in Russia. It doesn’t matter. It can’t matter. What’s an extra $25 million at the box office? What are you willing to do for that? Sacrifice sleeping at night because you watered the whole thing down?”
What Egerton won’t ‘water down’ is the small amount of his life he shares on social media. Taron is going to be Taron.
Still somewhat new to Instagram, he posted a photo of a longtime friend last October, with the caption “Cutie. My boy.” Egerton learned how quickly people will read into a post and assume he was attempting to come out.
He clarified the situation in an interview, saying he’s straight, but shares the background of the post with GQ UK.
“I’ve known that guy since I was eleven,” he explained. “And he is a cutie. I call all my friend stuff like that. Anyone can tell you. [But] it doesn’t mean I want to f*ck any of them.”
In fact, Egerton isn’t all that fond of labels when it comes to how we view each other.
“I’m not someone who really subscribes to this binary view of male and female archetypes or ways of behaving,” he says. “And it’s only going to happen more and more. The lines are blurring. People are identifying and expressing themselves more fluidly. Our concept of what a straight man or gay man looks like or is expected to behave in 20 years will be nothing like it is now.”
Egerton’s GQ UK cover story (with gorgeous photography by Gavin Bond) is on newsstands now.
In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-Ind.) talks to Chuck Todd about his 2020 presidential bid and why he believes Democrats are looking for generational change.
A devout Episcopalian, Buttigieg says at one point that the president “acts in a way” that is inconsistent with the scripture he hears in church.
“It’s something that really frustrates me because the hypocrisy is unbelievable,” he said during the interview. “Here you have somebody who not only acts in a way that is not consistent with anything that I hear in scripture or in church, where it’s about lifting up the least among us and taking care of strangers, which is another word for immigrants, and making sure that you’re focusing your effort on the poor.”
“But also personally how you’re supposed to conduct yourself,” he added, saying that much of Christianity calls for “humbling yourself before others.”
I see folks on Twitter getting crunchy about Buttigieg getting an inordinate amount of attention these days, but I disagree.
He’s got folks getting him on talk shows like MTP, The View and GMA, so more power to him.
I don’t hear anyone coming away, after listening to him share his positions, thinking he’s not worthy of the attention.
I think he’s moved beyond the ‘niche’ thing as the ‘gay candidate’ to impressing a lot of people with his commonsense approach to governance. Two terms as an executive leader, and years as a military veteran, make a solid base for this guy.
Chasten Buttigieg, husband to Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, made a splash last night speaking at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner in Houston, Texas.
“So, I’ve had a busy couple months,” began Buttigieg. “Never underestimate what can happen when you agree to go on a date with a cute guy from South Bend, Indiana.”
“I now live in a world where people take photos of me in the deodorant aisle at the grocery store,” he continued. “But, it is not lost on me that I was able to marry the man I love by the grace of one Supreme Court vote.”
.@Chas10Buttigieg brought down the house in Houston tonight with a powerful call for each of us to fight for an America where every person can live their truth and be their authentic selves. pic.twitter.com/UG2Evf4SRU
Buttigieg also joked about the possible history he could be a part of. “I could be the first man in history to pick out the White House china.”
Buttigieg spoke at one point about the importance of passing the Equality Act, which would add LGBTQ protections to the Constitution under existing civil rights laws, and praised HRC for the work it has done over the years.
“We need someone in the White House who will sign the Equality Act into law,” he added. “And luckily, I know a guy.”
As I’ve reported before, Mayor Pete has quickly gone from what some might have pegged as a “niche candidate” for president to a mainstream contender. And Chasten is part of that whole equation.
Here’s Chasten’s full speech at the HRC dinner in Houston, Texas.
A man suspected of being a rhino poacher was killed last week by an elephant and his remains devoured by a pride of lions at a South African park, officials said.
Rangers at Kruger National Park and other searchers found only a human skull and a pair of pants, the park said in a statement dated Friday.
Four of the dead man’s accomplices were arrested, the authorities said.
The man’s accomplices told his relatives that they had been in the park to poach rhinos on Tuesday night when he was killed by an elephant, according to the local authorities.
Since 2008, more than 7,000 rhinos have been hunted illegally, with 1,028 killed in 2017, according to the South African Department of Environmental Affairs.
“an angry elephant surprised them as they stalked endangered rhino and stamped their friend to death giving them a chance to run for safety.” https://t.co/mRCwW4UfN1 You don’t have to run faster than the elephant, just faster than your fellow poacher.
LGBTQ activists in Israel are angry after meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his residence Sunday where he reportedly told them he could not promise to promote LGBTQ equality after the upcoming elections on Tuesday.
It was Netanyahu’s first meeting with LGBTQ leaders in ten years.
According to The Times of Israel, Netanyahu said “opposition from religious and ultra-Orthodox parties blocked him from meeting their demands.”
In a statement from the group following the meeting, the representatives said, “The prime minister refused to commit himself to promoting equality of rights as a condition for the establishment of the coalition and expressed concern about the opposition of the religious factions in any coalition that will be established.”
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) April 7, 2019
With the final polls showing Netanyahu’s Likud party neck and neck with his opponent’s Blue and White party, some political pundits say the Prime Minister took the meeting for the photo op knowing he wouldn’t act on behalf of Israel’s LGBTQ community.
With that in mind, it’s no wonder the estimated 500,000 LGBTQ voters in Israel aren’t leaning in Netanyahu’s direction.
A recent poll showed only 6% of LGBTQ voters in Israel plan to cast their ballot for Likud, in the upcoming election on April 9, while 31% say they favor the Blue and White party.
LGBTQ leaders in Israel are concerned as anti-gay rhetoric has grown more intense in recent years.
In February, the Association for LGBTQ Equality sent a report to Israel’s President Rivlin which documented a 54% jump from 2017 to 2018 in homophobic incidents.
CNN Tonight anchor Don Lemon announced he is engaged to boyfriend Tim Malone after the real estate agent popped the question while celebrating his birthday.
The 53-year-old anchor shared the news on his social media with a photo of their two dogs’ collars asking “Daddy Will You Marry Papa?” Lemon added the caption, “He gave me a present on his birthday. How could I say no?”
During an appearance on state TV this morning, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Fox News Sunday that Democrats will never get their hands on President Trump’s tax returns, calling the request is “a political stunt.”
Mulvaney says House Dems will “never” get Trump tax returns. “That’s an issue that was already litigated during the election,” he said on Fox
On Wednesday this week, House Ways and Means Committee chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) formally asked the IRS on Wednesday to turn over 6 years of President Donald Trump’s tax returns citing a little-known IRS code that gives only the chairs of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee the power to request tax documents from anyone.
