Mariah Carey clarifies she called Meghan Markle a “diva” in an “empowering” way

Courtesy Spotify

Mariah Carey is the guest on the latest episode of Meghan Markle‘s podcast Archetypes, and a good part of their conversation has to do with the word “diva.” Mariah says being called a “diva” is a compliment and a criticism, noting that for her, it’s both. Now, she wants to clarify that when she used that word to describe Meghan in the podcast, she meant it only in the most positive way.

In the episode, when Meghan said she doesn’t “connect to” the “diva thing,” Mariah playfully teased her, “You give us diva moments sometimes, Meghan,” the singer said. “Don’t even act like [you don’t].” Meghan starts to sputter and stammer and cries, “What kind of diva moments do I give you?”

“It’s the visual. It’s the visual,” Mariah quickly explains, saying that Megan’s beauty and her “gorgeous ensembles” make it seem like she’s “giving” us “diva.” “Oh, it’s the look,” says a relieved Meghan.

After the interview portion concludes, Meghan then reveals that when Mariah said that, she started to sweat and squirm in her chair, and her mind was “spinning” at the idea that the singer would ever use that word to define her.

Now, Mariah has tweeted further clarification. “Really enjoyed talking to Duchess and Diva Meghan Markle about ‘The Duality of Diva,” she writes. “Yes! I called her a diva, in the most fabulous, gorgeous, and empowering meaning of the word!!!”

Earlier in the podcast, Mariah and Meghan discussed the evolution of the term “diva,” which originally meant a prodigiously talented female performer and now, more often than not, has the connotation of, as Mariah puts it, “a b***h.”

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Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears sued for child molestation; both comedians deny accusations

ABC/Eric McCandless

Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears are being sued for allegedly sexually molesting a child in Los Angeles. Both comedians are denying the accusations.

A woman identified as Jane Doe sued Haddish and Spears in California’s Superior Court for Los Angeles County on behalf of a minor identified as John Doe, People reports. Haddish’s attorney says the complaint has no merit.

“Plaintiff’s mother, Trizah Morris, has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years,” Haddish’s lawyer said in a statement. “Every attorney who has initially taken on her case — and there were several — ultimately dropped the matter once it became clear that the claims were meritless and Ms. Haddish would not be shaken down.”

In a separate statement, Spears’ lawyer said that he “isn’t going to fall for any shakedown.”

The lawsuit alleges that John Doe was molested by Spears in 2014 when he was 7 years old.

Court documents claim that Haddish told him he would be taping a reel for Nickelodeon at Spears’ home. She then witnessed the alleged incident “and aided, abetted, and watched Spears sexually molest a child,” according to the filing.

Haddish and Spears are being sued for intentional infliction of emotional distress, gross negligence, sexual battery, sexual harassment and sexual abuse of a minor.

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Houston Texans surprise Uvalde football team ahead of first home game

Todd Wawrychuk/ABC

(UVALDE, Texas) — After a summer plagued with grief, anxiety and anger, Uvalde gets an escape, celebrating the high school’s first home football game of the season.

Residents will descend on the Honey Bowl Stadium on Friday night to watch the Uvalde High School Coyotes take on the C.C. Winn High School Mavericks. Uvalde’s stadium is just 2.4 miles from Robb Elementary School, where 19 elementary students and two teachers were killed on May 24.

Senior Uvalde linebacker Justyn Rendon was selected by his coaches and peers for the honor of wearing the No. 21 jersey this season, commemorating the 21 victims killed.

“I automatically started crying,” his mom, Venessa Rendon, said when she learned the news. “I was proud. It was a very humbling moment.”

Justyn Rendon said nearly everyone in town was impacted by the massacre, including his own family. His youngest brother was at Robb that day and survived.

“I was devastated, I couldn’t get here fast enough. All the ‘what ifs?’ started playing through my mind,” said his father, San Antonio police officer Eluterio Rendon.

Now football is “like a therapy,” Justyn Rendon told ABC News.

At practice “everybody didn’t have to feel the sadness and the sorrow. They just were able to feel the comfort of the family that we have,” the 18-year-old said.

As the team gathered for a pre-game dinner Thursday night, they were greeted by surprise visitors: Houston Texans coach Lovie Smith and Texans linebackers Christian Kirksey and Kamu Grugier-Hill.

“Whenever you have the opportunity to be of help, to be of inspiration, or just to be a person that can get, you know, things of these young men’s minds. You can talk ball with, or talk life with, you just want to be there,” Texans linebacker Christian Kirksey told ABC News. “I think that we have a job not just playing football, but to be role models and to be a helping hand.”

“I think it’s awesome,” Uvalde coach Wade Miller said of the NFL visit. “It makes us feel the love that we’re getting from around the world and especially the state of Texas. And to have those guys here and keeping up with us, makes our kids feel really special.”

The surprises kept coming on Good Morning America Friday. The Texans are gifting Uvalde with new uniforms and equipment for the season, and will honor the team with “Uvalde strong” stickers on their helmets at their first home game on Sept. 11.

“We’ll always be in you corner, we’ll always have your back,” Kirksey said.

The Texans are also hosting a football clinic for the Uvalde community on Friday.

“The guys just enjoy giving back,” Texans owner Cal McNair told ABC News. “All these guys have really embraced that as what they do and what they believe in.”

The special NFL visit was made possible by the Texans’ athletic trainer, Roland Ramirez, who is a Uvalde native.

“It’s been tough. Some really close friends have lost loves ones … so it hits home for me,” he said.

Ramirez said he’s glad the Texans can extend support and encouragement to the high schoolers — and he’s especially excited to watch his alma mater take the field Friday night.

Uvalde football ended last season 2-8. But already this year is off to a new start.

The season began last Friday with an away game. Uvalde beat the Carrizo Springs Wildcats, scoring a total of 21 points — a poignant and powerful reminder of the 21 lives lost.

“It was just a sign that the 21 angels are looking down at this community, and saying that they’re here, that they’re still present, and that they will remain present. So that was a pretty, pretty special moment,” Eluterio Rendon said.

Defensive end Jonathan Elizondo, 17, said the tragedy has brought the team together and that they’re mentally stronger now.

Elizondo transferred to Uvalde in the wake of the shooting to lend support to his family. He has cousins who attended Robb.

“I just don’t want them to see this as, like, a tragic town, you know? I want there to be positivity again,” he said.

Football “brings everybody together” in Uvalde, and Justyn Rendon said he’s excited to “bring the joy back to this town” at Friday’s home opener.

“It’s gonna mean a lot more this season. … It’s gonna be very emotional, very exciting,” he said. “And hopefully those little kids get to come out and watch us win. And that they don’t have to feel like scared, or have to be sad, but they get to feel the joy of being around their friends, their families.”

“This team means a lot to me,” added 16-year-old quarterback Brodie Carnes.

Carnes said Friday night’s game is “gonna be packed. Our community is kinda down … we’re gonna go out there and play for them.”

“It took us a while to be able to smile again without feeling guilty,” Eluterio Rendon said. “I believe that football will hopefully bring the community out … find a reason to smile, by enjoying watching our kids do what they love to do.”

ABC News’ Olivia Osteen, Jenny Wagnon Courts, Katie Conway and Kat Caulderwood contributed to this report.

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Kendrick Lamar drops short film for “We Cry Together,” with Taylour Paige

Jason Koerner/Getty Images

The visual for Kendrick Lamar‘s “We Cry Together” has arrived, in the form of a short film starring Lamar and actress Taylour Paige

The short film dropped on Thursday and is an all-out reenactment of the track, which is from Lamar’s recently released Mr. Morale & the High Steppers album. It begins with Paige getting ready for work as Lamar sits at a kitchen table, smoking. As the fight escalates, the pair get in each other’s faces on occasion, exchanging the chorus’ explicit lyrics.

At one point, Lamar takes the car keys and locks himself in the bathroom. However, Paige enters through another door and gets the keys back. The two continue to argue around the apartment before reconciling in a graphic sexual act on the living sofa as the camera zooms out, exposing the set. 

Lamar released two versions of the short film, one censored and one not. 

“We Cry Together,” which was recorded live on March 15, 2020, is eligible for Best Live Action Short category at the 2023 Academy Awards. Eligibility does not equal nomination. 

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Serena Williams, Venus Williams walk off court in likely last doubles match together

COREY SIPKIN/AFP via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Venus Williams and Serena Williams, a pair who first walked onto the national stage of professional tennis in the 1990s, have most likely walked off the court together for the last time.

The legendary sister act likely came to a close on Thursday night after the pair lost 7-6(5), 6-4, to the Czech team of Linda Noskova and Lucie Hradecka.

The first-round game marked, most likely, the final time Serena Williams and her older sister Venus Williams would play in a Grand Slam doubles tournament together. Serena Williams had announced that she was “evolving away” from tennis in a personal essay in Vogue in August.

Venus Williams had told reporters earlier in the week that the idea to play together was her sister’s.

“She’s the boss so I do whatever she tells me to do,” she had said while smiling.

The two sisters have dominated the tennis world for nearly three decades, ending their go as a pair on the same court they had won their first U.S. Open Doubles title in 1999. The duo would go on to win 22 titles, 14 Grand Slams and three Olympic gold medals while playing together.

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'She-Hulk' and the Hottie: How Megan Thee Stallion's surprise cameo came about

She-Hulk: Marvel Studios; Megan Thee Stallion: Matthew Baker/Getty Images

Spoiler alert! If you caught Thursday’s new episode of the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, then you saw Megan Thee Stallion make a cameo as herself — and twerk with the show’s star, Tatiana Maslany.

The episode plot involves one of She-Hulk’s former colleagues who gets catfished by a shape-shifting elf who’s pretending to be the rap superstar. Megan appears as herself in a courtroom scene; in a post-credits scene, she’s shown twerking with Maslany, who plays attorney Jessica Walters/She-Hulk.

“What we needed for that story and that joke to work was, we just needed a famous, beautiful, female celebrity,” She-Hulk creator Jessica Gao tells ABC Audio about casting Megan. “And we went through so many different names, so many different possibilities.” 

But Gao says cast member Jameela Jamil, who knew Megan from working with her on the show Legendary, is the one who came up with the idea.

“We all froze in our tracks and we said, ‘Wait, is that real? Could you actually make that happen?'” Gao laughs. “And Tatiana is a gigantic Megan fan. So, for so many of us, but especially for Tatiana, it was just a dream come true.”

Director Kat Coiro says Megan was “amazing … awesome and professional and knew exactly what she was doing.”

And, Coiro adds, “She brought out more excitement in Tatiana than I had ever seen!” In fact, Coiro says the post-credits scene where the two dance together was “written at the very last minute, to fulfill Tatiana’s dream of twerking with Megan Thee Stallion.”

Maslany calls the scene “a total dream come true,” adding, “It’s a bizarre visual. And it was so much fun to do!”

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