The war came to the Equatoria Region, where Diria lived, in 2016. That area sits at the bottom tip of South Sudan, and Diria resided in a village called Lasu Payam. When the fighting broke out, she, her four children, her sister-in-law, and some other women in the community hired two vehicles to drive them to the Ugandan border. Diria sat with about seven other people, including her sister-in-law. Her children were in the car ahead. She recalls to Glamour that the group had been driving for three days, inching past checkpoints, when soldiers blocked the path around Mugo Payam, about 50 miles from Uganda, directing their guns at the vehicle transporting her. It was early afternoon.
The soldiers’ faces were covered. They told everyone to get out of the car. Then the men were taken. Diria hasn’t seen them since. The soldiers separated the women into two groups. As she remembers it, the soldiers took the women to the bush and hit them with their guns. Diria still has back pain from the abuse. She heard shouting in Arabic, commands directed toward her to lie down. All the women were gang raped. Her sister-in-law, killed. After Diria had been sexually violated by five men, there was a cascade of shooting and the soldiers ran. Diria and three other women struggled back to the roadside and saw the driver of their car, shot. They managed to wave down a driver in another car headed for the border who let them hitch a ride. It took another two days to cross into Uganda.
In Keri, the transit center where refugees stay for days or weeks for processing before getting settled in one of 11 areas allocated to South Sudanese refugees in Uganda, Diria started throwing up. She went to the health center and took a pregnancy test. It was positive. The doctor offered to sell her a pill that he said would make the baby “go away” for 200,000 Ugandan Shillings (about $54), but she couldn’t afford that price. She tried drinking two cups of herbs she mixed together, hoping the cocktail would make her bleed. Nothing happened. She told her husband. He beat her. He went back to South Sudan. Now, he’s blocked her from calling him. Twice she almost hung herself. Then, she figured that after giving birth, she’d kill the child.
But when Abraham was born, he went to her to nurse. After he drank from her breast, she says couldn’t bring herself to kill him. Three months later he started to smile. That’s when she says she started to love him. During the first of three interviews with Glamour, Abraham toddles over to his mother and throws himself in her lap, face down, little arms splayed across her thighs. She looks down and the corners of her mouth tick up; her face is thick with affection. At church she holds him close throughout the entire service.
2019 was off to a very adorable start from the beginning of the year, with stars like Carrie Underwood, Andy Cohen, and Lily Aldridge among the first of the year to welcome tiny additions to their families. We always welcome some new celebrity babies, and we certainly have a lot more to look forward to this year: Meghan Markle, Kim Kardashian, Amy Schumer, Jessica Jones star Krysten Ritter, and Jessica Simpson are all expecting little ones over the course of the year as well.
We’ve rounded up all the celebrity babies born in 2019 (so far, at least) below. Scroll down for a whole lot of A-list-worthy cuteness.
Jacob Bryan Fisher
Country superstar Carrie Underwood and her husband, Mike Fisher, welcomed their second son on January 21. Little Jacob Bryan Fisher joins big brother Isaiah, age 3. “Our hearts are full, our eyes are tired and our lives are forever changed,” Underwood wrote on Instagram. “Life is good.”
Winston Roy Followill
Robert Kamau/GC Images
Victoria’s Secret model Lily Aldridge and her Kings of Leon musician husband, Caleb Followill, added a new member to their family on January 29: Winston Roy Followill. He is the couple’s second child and joins their daughter, Dixie.
Story Grey Jeter
Michael Owens/Getty Images
Baseball legend Derek Jeter and his wife, Hannah, might not have officially announced their second pregnancy. However, Jeter’s company, The Players’ Tribune, did confirm the couple’s Jan. 31 arrival via Twitter: “Congratulations Derek and Hannah on the birth of your second baby girl, Story Grey Jeter. Welcome to the family, #2.” The Jeters also have a daughter named Bella, who was born in 2017.
Benjamin Allen Cohen
Andy Cohen welcomed his first child, born via surrogate, on Feb. 4. Benjamin Allen, measuring 9 lbs., 2oz. and 20 inches long, arrived at 6:35 P.M. PT. “WOW! This is my son, Benjamin Allen Cohen,” he wrote on Instagram. “… He is named after my grandfather Ben Allen. I’m in love. And speechless. And eternally grateful to an incredible surrogate. And I’m a dad. Wow. ♥️?”
My friends gave me side-eye when I told them I was seeing A Star Is Born for a second time in theaters, so you can imagine their reactions when screening number eight came around. Yes, you read that correctly: eight. I saw A Star Is Born—last fall’s emotional juggernaut starring Bradley Cooper and Our Lord and Savior, Lady Gaga—eight times in movie theaters, and I have no qualms about it.
For context: I’m a writer who lives in New York City, so excess funds are limited. In no way should I have spent $109.49 on A Star Is Born tickets, but when the urge to watch Gaga sing “La Vie En Rose” at a drag bar kicked in, I caved. Every time. “You’re insane,” my roommate told me when I left for a fourth screening in mid-October, but I was too giddy about the impending performance of “Shallow” to care. By screening number five, it was official: I was off the deep end, and no one wanted to watch me dive in.
Well, one person did: my best friend, whom I’ll call “Blake.” (Just because I’m cool telling the world I sacrificed dinner on several occasions to watch Gaga belt the lyrics “Why’d you come around me with an ass like that?” doesn’t mean he is.) Blake loves Gaga just as much as I do, and six of my eight A Star Is Born screenings were with him. Even after our last viewing together, we said the same thing: “I can’t wait to see this movie again.”
My reasoning for that was twofold. Lady Gaga is up there with my mother in terms of people I care about, so, hypothetically, any movie she made would excite me. Especially one with a 90 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. If your favorite singer was suddenly in a buzzy Oscar film that included original songs, you’d empty your bank account too.
PHOTO: Warner Bros.
But that’s only touching the surface—or shallow, as Gaga’s character, Ally, would say. If Gaga starred in a Bridesmaids sequel, I don’t think it’d have the same arresting effect on me that A Star Is Born did. She got me in the door, but what kept me in was the movie’s cathartic narrative: A weathered country singer (Cooper) takes a promising young talent (Gaga) under his wing, they fall in love, and he crumbles as her fame eclipses his. Their melodramatic romance ends in trauma, and what’s left is a cautionary tale about celebrity, love, and addiction. Mix in the fact Gaga delivers several live music performances throughout the movie, and you have something that put me on the floor.
This catharsis, naturally, led to tears. Lots of them. I cried during “La Vie En Rose.” I cried when Gaga and Cooper sang “Shallow,” and again when she performed “Always Remember Us This Way.” Of course, I cried at the end—who didn’t?—but I also cried when Gaga appeared on screen for the first time. That’s where the movie differed for me. A Star Is Born moved many people, but my adoration for Gaga sent my viewing experience to another stratosphere. The film became more than a form of catharsis but actual rejuvenation, the kind people typically receive from exercise, face masks, or a long soak in the tub.
The way my friends talk about how they feel leaving spa sessions or workouts is basically how I felt after watching A Star Is Born. In my case, though, I put my emotions through the ringer instead of my muscles. When I left that first screening, I felt lighter. My stress was gone. My head was clear. Even my face appeared cleaner. (Does crying help with that? Does Lady Gaga’s voice?) I was exhausted, but in the best way possible. The second the film’s credits started rolling, I knew I had to see it again. That emotional soreness was just too good.
PHOTO: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Every screening I took in of A Star Is Born ended like this. I left feeling like my heart had run a half-marathon—and so did my friend, Blake. We started chasing this high together, like friends signing up for joint SoulCycle classes. Each viewing led to the same euphoria, but we always discovered something different about ourselves too. Following one showing, for example, I realized the argument I had the night before with my sister was ridiculous, so I called her and apologized. A Star Is Born literally gave me mental clarity. (A movie about—spoiler alert—someone tragically dying will do that.)
I’ll admit: The judgmental comments I received from loved ones about my new self-care routine stung. A Star Is Born invigorated my soul and mind in ways I can barely describe. That sounds hokey, but it’s the truth. Every trip to the theater was a sacred ritual, and not many people in my life understood that. “Make sure you can pay your rent,” one friend texted me playfully but with some shade. Mind you, this person spends his money on activities I don’t quite understand, either—like sports—but I’ve never judged him for it.
And that’s exactly my point: I don’t splurge on fancy exercise classes or expensive clothes, but I’d never judge someone who does. Everything is fine on my watch so long as it’s not hurting anyone. If you want to drop $100 on a diamond facial, go right ahead. You earned your money. You have every right to spend it exactly how you want—in the way that fuels you the most.
For me, that happened to be eight screenings of A Star Is Born. (Full disclosure: My parents did pay for one of them. Thanks, mom and dad!) This movie was how I reset and recharged for two straight months. It transformed me in the most beautiful way. Thankfully, A Star Is Born hits streaming platforms January 15, so I’ll only have to buy it one more time. But I have zero regrets about how much money I blew on it. You can keep your essential oils and your bath bombs, thank you very much. Just let me keep “Hair Body Face.”
Christopher Rosa is the staff entertainment writer for Glamour.
I’ve seen A Star Is Born in theaters seven times and, at this point, can quote the movie by heart. I’m also a colossal Britney Spears fan. So you can imagine my elation at a connection between ASIB and Spears’ movie Crossroads that the Internet unearthed this week. No, you didn’t miss Gaga singing “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” when you went to the bathroom during ASIB or anything like that. The Easter egg these two masterpieces share is so deeply hidden that I don’t blame you for missing it.
Drum roll, please, Little Monsters and members of the Britney Army: Crossroads and A Star Is Born each have scenes at the same grocery store. What’s that? A frozen food aisle connection is born? Who would’ve thought?!
It turns out the Super-A Foods grocery store on Division Street in Los Angeles had the pleasure of two pop queens filming in its parking lot. The food emporium serves as the backdrop for one of the most crucial scenes in A Star Is Born. Ally (Lady Gaga) and Jackson (Bradley Cooper) find themselves there late on the night they met, and she sings “Shallow” for him the first time. It’s a hard scene to forget:
[embedded content]
The Crossroads scene, however, is briefer and less important. Midway through the movie, Lucy (Spears), Kit (Zoe Saldana), Mimi (Taryn Manning), and Ben (Anson Mount) pull into the same Super-A Foods for a snack run while on their road trip to Los Angeles. At this point in the film, the girls think Ben actually murdered someone—so Kit isn’t exactly thrilled when Lucy and Mimi leave her in the car with him, alone, to get food. She runs after them within seconds, screaming, “Y’all! Wait for me!” It’s iconic. Click here to see a photo of the store.
This is quite literally a Britney Spears-Lady Gaga crossroad. I guess this means they have to record a duet, right? They can film their music video at this grocery store.
One of the most surprising moments in A Star Is Born has nothing to do with the core storyline. It’s a small moment in which Bradley Cooper’s character, alcoholic rock star Jackson Maine, autographs the fake breasts of a drag queen named Emerald, played by RuPaul’s Drag Race vet Willam.
For context: Jackson had stumbled into the gay bar looking for his next drink, but doesn’t leave when he realizes a drag show is taking place. Instead, he sticks around and sees—and hears—Ally (Lady Gaga) for the first time. What follows is an electric conversation, made even more dynamic by Emerald and the other fabulous drag queens who surround them.
What stuck out to me was how Jackson is unfazed by the queens. He chats and bonds with them in a seemingly authentic way, which brings me back to his exchange with Emerald. It’s witty and bombastic, but also important. Rarely in pop culture do we see straight men—let alone weathered country singers—be so comfortable with queerness. Think about how the football players on Glee treated Kurt (Chris Colfer) when he showed up to school in women’s clothes, or the mocking comments Chandler (Matthew Perry) made about his drag queen father on Friends for just two examples.
PHOTO: Warner Bros.
Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) in A Star Is Born
But his “wokeness” goes far beyond just tolerance. Jackson also isn’t afraid to indulge in a little flamboyancy himself. At the beginning of the film, for example, he’s enamored with the Edith Piaf-inspired eyebrows Ally wears to perform “La Vie En Rose.” So enamored, in fact, that Ally later tapes them onto him while they canoodle in the bathtub. (She also paints his nails, and then they have sex.) This may seem minuscule, but it’s still novel to see such a guy’s-guy be at ease wearing makeup. These scenes are incredibly liberating and say something significant about Jackson: Yes, he’s masculine, but he’s certainly not toxic.
That’s a critical distinction to make because up until this point, all the male leads in the A Star Is Born films have been. “Jackson Maine” has essentially been played three times in the past: by Kris Kristofferson in 1976, by James Mason in 1954, and by Fredric March in 1937. It’s difficult to say how these characters would have behaved in queer settings because there aren’t openly LGBTQ+ characters in the older movies. However, their toxic masculinity flares up in a completely different capacity.
In all three earlier versions of A Star Is Born, the rock-star character grows to resent the success of the woman he helps break into showbiz. That resentment is only fueled by his addictions, leading to devastating and destructive outbursts. This happens in the latest iteration of A Star Is Born too, but the source of Jackson’s resentment isn’t that Ally is eclipsing him: It’s that she’s losing her identity—or so he thinks.
As Ally’s music stardom rises, a record executive swoops in and revamps her entire image, dyeing her hair and swapping her soulful ballads for generic dance-pop. It’s a nuanced transition, though: Ally does put her foot down in some instances, proving she has some degree of autonomy over the changes in her career. But there are definitely compromises she makes, and that’s what pushes Jackson over the edge. He genuinely believes in Ally and what she has to say.
[embedded content]
“The difference between Jack and the other guys [from the A Star Is Born movies] is he doesn’t resent her success whatsoever,” Bill Gerber, one of the producers of the new A Star Is Born, tells Vanity Fair. “He’s upset that she’s not being true to her voice, and what he fell in love with, and the kind of music she wanted to create. It’s her pop turn that starts the rift between them, not her success.”
The other A Star Is Born men want their female partners to be successful, sure, but not at the expense of their own egos. Cooper’s Jackson Maine doesn’t have one, though. He’s comfortable, even encouraging, of Ally having the spotlight, which is a refreshing update to this age-old story. Also refreshing—albeit heartbreaking—is how Jackson only begins his downfall when he feels like Ally is selling out. All he wants to do is amplify her voice; that’s a very poignant thing to show on screen, especially now.
Too often in our current climate we see women shamed for having a voice—or worse, pressured into silence. The music industry, in its own subversive way, tries to do this to Ally, and it infuriates Jackson. She’s completely capable of standing on her own, as evidenced by the final scene, but it still feels satisfying to watch a man fight this hard for a woman to use (and keep) her voice.
PHOTO: Warner Bros.
Ally (Lady Gaga) and her friend Ramon (Anthony Ramos) in A Star Is Born.
Is Jackson a flawed character? Absolutely. He breaks Ally’s heart and trust multiple times in the movie, but he’s never anything but supportive of her dreams. That’s crucial. Ultimately, Jackson’s alcoholism is his downfall—not the fact that he can’t deal with Ally’s supersonic success. It’s sad, but it’s not misogynistic.
That lack of ego is why A Star Is Born is so exciting to watch, and a welcome reprieve from the adaptations that came before it. The movie is a triumph, full stop. Cooper and Gaga give powerful, skilled performances; the music is thrilling; and there’s a central narrative that captivates you from beginning to end. But interwoven between the thrills is a sharp commentary on masculinity. We can certainly learn something from Cooper’s Jackson Maine: a tragic hero with horrible vices but a warm, open heart. “Maybe it’s time to let the old ways die,” he sings at one point in the movie—and everyone, men in particular, should heed that advice.
Christopher Rosa is the staff entertainment writer for Glamour.
Fans knew from Lady Gaga’s incredible vocal runs on “Shallow” that the full soundtrack for A Star Is Born would be incredible. Well, it dropped at midnight on Friday (October 5) to coincide with the movie’s nationwide premiere, and, yes, the rumors are true: It’s an Oscar-contending work of art, and Twitter will never be the same.
Actually, the hype began in the wee hours leading up to the album drop. Little Monsters swarmed Twitter, declaring the A Sound Is Born soundtrack the greatest album of the past three years before it even came out. But fans’ pre-release excitement had nothing on their reactions to the album itself. If tweets are to be believed, literally everyone has been streaming this soundtrack on repeat since midnight. How fans are listening to the soundtrack varies, though: A few have only been listening to “I’ll Never Love Again,” while one user said they’ve listened to everything but “I’ll Never Love Again,” so that they can experience it for the first time in theaters.
That’s not the only song that has fans absolutely losing it. It looks like the intentionally over-manufactured pop tune “Hair Body Face” is a surprise hit, which only proves that Lady Gaga achieves perfection even when she’s trying to do the exact opposite.
If you haven’t heard it yet (which begs the question, um, why the hell not?), it’s available on all major streaming services. You can also experience it the way it’s intended to be, in theaters everywhere.
.jpeg)