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Hallmark Apologizes After Backlash for Pulling an Ad That Featured Two Brides Kissing


This past weekend, there was a lot of controversy around the Hallmark Channel—right in the middle of the network’s jam-packed “Countdown to Christmas” season.

In case you missed it, here’s what went down. Zola, a wedding planning website, aired a number of ads on the channel including some that featured same-sex couples. The conservative group One Million Moms took issue with a particular ad featuring two brides (briefly) kissing and started a petition to have it removed. “The Hallmark Channel has always been known for its family friendly movies. Even its commercials are usually safe for family viewing. But unfortunately, that is not the case anymore,” the petition reads. “Recently, One Million Moms received concerns about Hallmark airing a commercial from Zola.com in which two lesbians are shown kissing at the end of their wedding ceremony. Similar concerns from regular viewers are posted on an online complaint board for the Hallmark Channel.”

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Initially, Hallmark decided to pull four of the six ads from the Zola campaign. “The decision not to air overt public displays of affection in our sponsored advertisement, regardless of the participants, is in line with our current policy, which includes not featuring political advertisements, offensive language, R-rated movie content and many other categories,” a Hallmark spokesman told the New York Times on Friday, December 13. However, one ad that featured a bride and groom kissing was not pulled.

The online backlash to this was swift.

Now, Hallmark reps have announced that the network is reversing the decision. “We are truly sorry for the hurt and disappointment this has caused,” Hallmark CEO Mike Perry said in a statement. “Across our brand, we will continue to look for ways to be more inclusive and celebrate our differences.” He also said “Hallmark Channel will be reaching out to Zola to reestablish our partnership and reinstate the commercials.”



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TLC’s New Show ‘Hot and Heavy’ Is Receiving Immediate Backlash


In a reality-TV landscape full of revenge bodies and weight-loss challenges, few shows capture the nuance of what it’s really like to be a fat woman in America today—even fewer if you consider dating shows. TLC’s My Big Fat Fabulous Life is one of the few that actually subverts shallow, reductive tropes, but the network just announced a new show that feels like a thousand steps backward.

I woke up this morning to the Twitter-sphere ablaze over an upcoming TLC show called Hot and Heavy. The title made me think I was getting some steamy makeout show. But as I began to read the tweets and show description, my pervy excitement quickly morphed into anger. Hot and Heavy, I learned, is a reality show about hot guys dating fat girls in what the show calls “mixed-weight” relationships.

I, like many others on the internet, immediately felt disgusted. What the hell is a mixed-weight relationship? The term itself is highly problematic. It suggests that all romantic partners are the same weight with identical body types, which is obviously absurd. Aren’t all relationships mixed-weight relationships? Why do we feel the need to specifically highlight a show about fat bodies and thin bodies? Are we as entertained by tall people dating short people? Or brunette people dating blond people? No. We don’t make television shows about the trials and tribulations of someone who is 5’5″ dating someone who is 6’1″. So why are we endlessly obsessed with the dynamic of fat women actually being loved?

I was particularly horrified by portions of the trailer featuring the characters Joy and Chris. Their relationship is introduced with Chris saying, “I love every inch of Joy,” and then quickly adding, ”There’s lot of inches to love,” while he laughs—making an expression of love a joke at her expense. She awkwardly laughs, gives him a side-eye, and under her breath says, “Ew, what?” It’s followed by a clip of Chris’s friend berating the couple asking, “Is it a sexual thing?” implying that Joy could only be loved if she was being fetishized. But the worst part was the camera crew following along as Chris’s friends bring him to a strip club to “try and persuade him to like other girls.”

“He could get any girl he wants and ends up being with Joy,” his friend says in shock.



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The 'Game of Thrones' Cast Got Super-Candid About the Final Season's Backlash


This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones. Consider yourself warned.

Can you believe it’s actually only been two months since HBO aired the final episode of Game of Thrones?

It might feel like a lifetime since the finale wrapped up, deciding the fate of the show’s (remaining) characters: Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) took over ruling Westeros while Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) became Queen in the North, and the youngest Stark, Arya (Maisie Williams), took off on a ship for parts unknown. But not everyone was pleased with the series finale—or the entirety of the eighth season—and the cast of the hit show hasn’t forgotten the backlash. Fans were upset with everything from Cersei and Jamie’s final moments and Dany’s turn as the Mad Queen to the choice of who took the Iron Throne and Jon’s banishment to the Wall.

There was even a fan petition requesting that showrunners reshoot the final season, which Turner (and Riverdale actress, Lili Reinhart) spoke out against earlier this year. “All of these petitions and things like that—I think it’s disrespectful to the crew, and the writers, and the filmmakers who have worked tirelessly over 10 years, and for 11 months shooting the last season,” Turner told the New York Times in May. “Like, 50-something night shoots. So many people worked so, so hard on it, and for people to just rubbish it because it’s not what they want to see is just disrespectful.”

Now some of her other cast members are sounding off, as well. “It was surprising the level of absurdity of the the online petition,” Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who played Jamie Lannister) said at Comic-Con on Friday, per Vulture. “Of course HBO’s going to change the whole thing. Because that’s the power of the internet! Every season, we had huge controversies. From Ned Stark being killed—‘I’m never going to watch that piece of shit show again!’ And then there was the Red Wedding. And obviously, the end. “

Members of the Game of Thrones cast at Comic-Con on Friday.Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

“I feel so lucky to have met so may fans of the show, and to realize this show has brought so many people together. Watching it, loving it,” he continued. “So obviously, It comes to an end, it’s going to piss you off no matter what. It’s the end! But at the end of the day, it’s absolutely fine. If you hated the ending, if you loved it, that’s great. Just don’t call people names.”



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Meghan Markle Is Getting Backlash After Her Team Asked Fans to Not Take Her Photo


While everyone in America was grilling burgers poolside on July 4th, Meghan Markle had a V.I.P. seat to her good friend Serena Williams’s match at Wimbledon. The duchess appeared in good spirits, laughing and smiling with friends—and sporting a very chic blazer—but of course some drama has stemmed from the outing. A new report from the Daily Telegraph claims that Markle’s staff asked people not to take photos of her at Wimbledon because she was there in “a private capacity.”

Specifically, a woman named Sally Jones, 64, was reportedly asked by a royal protection officer to abstain from snapping pics of Markle. Jones wasn’t here for the request, branding it “another example of silly control freakery.”

“I think this royal protection officer was quite embarrassed,” Jones told the Daily Telegraph, per the Express. “He appeared a bit mystified as to why he was being asked to make such a request.”

Meghan Markle chatting with a young fan at Wimbledon

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A palace source who spoke to the Daily Telegraph defended this call, saying, “It’s not unusual for people accompanying Members of the Royal Family at private, or public, events to ask members of the public not to take photographs. It is to enable Members of the Royal Family to engage with people and events.”

Unsurprisingly, a debate is brewing online about whether or not it’s reasonable for royals to ask fans not to take photos of them in public. Piers Morgan went on a bit of a rant over this on Good Morning Britain, saying, “You’re public people…stop your squealing about privacy. If you want to be private, go back to America. [If] she doesn’t want to be a British public figure in the Royal Family, go back to America.”

The Daily Mail‘s Rebecca English took a similar stance, albeit less antagonistic. “The Royal Family occupy a very privileged position,” she tweeted. “That doesn’t mean they aren’t entitled to some privacy. But not at a global sporting event.”

And here are a few more reactions from fans who think the same thing:

Some people came to Markle’s defense, though, with one fan writing, “She’s entitled to some privacy in public and people should respect that.” Another person added, “I guess when you are Meghan Markle and married into the Royal Family you have no right to privacy.”

Markle’s request for privacy at Wimbledon isn’t that outrageous, in my opinion. If you saw a celebrity eating dinner at a crowded restaurant, it’d be a bit intrusive to barge up to them and demand a photo. The same principle applies here. Markle is incredibly friendly and warm when she’s at formal engagements⁠—we’ve seen that time and time again. I don’t think it’s too much to ask of fans to keep a distance when she’s off the clock⁠—whether that’s at home or in a sports arena.



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Madonna Just Responded to the Backlash Over Her Aretha Franklin Speech at the VMAs


Madonna caught a lot of heat last night (August 20) at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards after she gave a speech to honor Aretha Frankin—who passed away last week—that was all about herself. The tribute started off strong—”Aretha Louise Franklin changed the course of my life,” she said—but soon descended into a stream-of-consciousness monologue about the early stages of Madonna’s career. The tie she made to Franklin was loose: Madonna explained that during one of her early auditions, she asked to sing “Respect” on the fly because she had nothing else prepared. In fact, if Franklin’s face wasn’t projected onto the screen behind Madonna, this wouldn’t have felt like a tribute at all.

Which is why Franklin’s fans are so upset. Hundreds of people took to Twitter to criticize Madonna’s speech, accusing her of erasure, cultural appropriation, and self-indulgence. Madonna didn’t respond to the backlash last night, but she just took to Instagram this afternoon (August 21) to address it.

“Just to clarify: I was asked to present Video of the Year by MTV,” Madonna captioned a photo of herself and Camila Cabello, who ultimately took home that award. “And then they asked me to share any anecdotes I had in my career connected to Aretha Franklin! I shared a part of my journey and thanked Aretha for inspiring me along the way. I did not intend to do a tribute to her! That would be impossible in 2 minutes with all the noise and tinsel of an award show. I could never do her justice in this context or environment. Unfortunately most people have short attention spans, and are so quick to judge. I love Aretha!”

Check out Madonna’s Instagram post for yourself, below:

That being said, Franklin fans on Twitter still aren’t letting Madonna off the hook. The responses criticizing her speech are still coming in—and they’re pointed:

MTV hasn’t responded to the backlash yet, but stay tuned.

Related Stories:

Celebrities Are Writing Touching Tributes to Aretha Franklin on Social Media

Ariana Grande Honored Aretha Franklin With a Powerful Performance of “A Natural Woman”

18 Powerful Tributes to Aretha Franklin’s Music





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Kim Kardashian Faces Backlash After Claiming She Has 'Nothing Bad to Say' About Donald Trump


Kim Kardashian West turned heads when it was announced she would be meeting with Donald Trump in May to advocate for the release of Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old great-grandmother who had been serving life in prison for a non-violent drug charge. Her efforts worked—Trump commuted Johnson’s sentence, but that hasn’t stopped people from calling out his other policies and the West family’s alignment with the administration.

The backlash continued to pile up on Monday, after Kardashian went on Jimmy Kimmel Live, telling the host she had “nothing bad to say about the president.”

On the show, Kardashian explained she wanted to discuss Johnson’s case with Trump because she “knew there was only one person in power that could make this change and get this woman out of prison.” She added that she has a list of people in prison that she wants to take to Trump, and said she is “very grateful and very hopeful that more good things are going to come out of our conversations.”

She also tried to explain her husband Kanye West’s controversial endorsements of the president. On social media, West has gone on several rants supporting Trump, and his inflammatory tweets have included everything from calling Trump “his brother” to posting pictures of a Make America Great Again hat.

“To make it clear, we’d talk about it and his policies, and he doesn’t necessarily agree with his policies. He likes his personality…and how he made it to be president when everybody really underestimated him,” she said, adding, “He’s not political so he doesn’t dig deep into what’s going on.”

Following the Kimmel interview, Twitter quickly took Kardashian to task, calling her uninformed and pointing out policies the Trump administration has initiated that deserve scrutiny, including the separation of children at the border. Critics also took offense to the tone of the interview—Kardashian laughed and joked that she had been naked when Trump called to tell her he had commuted Johnson’s sentence.

Kardashian’s comments don’t address insults Trump has made about her in the past. In a 2013 interview with Howard Stern, Trump made crude remarks about her physical appearance, saying, “Does she have a good body? No. Does she have a fat ass? Absolutely.”

Others have questioned how committed Kardashian is to prison reform. On social media, many dismissed her initial meeting with Trump as a publicity stunt that benefits both reality show stars.

Related Stories:

Alice Johnson Is Free, But Is the Trump Administration Actually Committed to Criminal Justice Reform?

President Trump Commutes Alice Johnson’s Sentence a Week After Meeting With Kim Kardashian





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