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'SNL' Tore Into Donald Trump Over Puerto Rico Response



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Saturday Night Live kicked off its 43rd season last night and—as usual—the writers had enough real-life material to draw from. The Emmy-winning Alec Baldwin was back as the President in the series’ cold open, and the show tried to highlight as many ridiculous Trump moments as possible since the last season ended in May. The most recent: his deplorable approach to hurricane disaster relief in Puerto Rico.

In the first few minutes of the sketch, Baldwin speaks with Puerto Rico’s mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, played by Melissa Villasenor, on the phone. While he arrogantly thinks she’s going to tell him “what a great job I’m doing,” she instead begs him for more disaster funding after the island was left without power and ravaged by Hurricane Maria.

“We want to help you, but we have to take care of America first,” Baldwin as Trump said. To which Villasenor replied, “You do know we’re a US territory, don’t you?” Baldwin’s jaw drops, he promptly hangs up, and says, “that woman was so nasty.”

Baldwin’s words, in the video below, were inspired by real-life recent Trump tweets; Cruz begged Trump to “take charge and save lives.” But Trump, both IRL and played by Baldwin, totally dismissed her cry for help. Instead, he Trump accused her of being a poor leader in a series of September 30 tweets.

Baldwin as Trump also touched on the recent NFL national anthem protests, his threats against North Korea and Kim Jung Un aka “Rocket Man”, and his tumultuous relationships with Congressman Chuck Schumer and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Given how political this season premiere was, it’s safe to say season 43 is going to be chock full of Trump moments like this one.

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Rihanna Begs Trump to Send Aid to Puerto Rico

Reese Witherspoon Finally Reacted to Donald Trump Stealing That ‘Legally Blonde’ Speech



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Reese Witherspoon Reacted to This Connection Between Donald Trump and 'Legally Blonde'


PHOTO: Jeff Kravitz/Getty

Back in May, President Donald Trump made a commencement speech at Liberty University’s graduation ceremony. Besides having a few somewhat awkward moments, it got a fair amount of media attention thanks to a brilliant connection made by one of Jimmy Fallon’s writers between the President’s speech and one of the most iconic speeches of all time—Elle Woods’ Harvard Law graduation speech from Legally Blonde. On Friday Reese Witherspoon finally got the chance to address the situation and she had a pretty perfect reaction.

Witherspoon appeared on The Graham Norton Show alongside Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, and Margot Robbie, and when Norton brought the speech up, saying it bared a strong resemblance to Witherspoon’s character, Elle’s, speech from the 2001 movie, the Big Little Lies actress smiled and laughed saying, “It did.”

Morton played a clip of the two speeches edited together, taking the bits that sound eerily similar. Citing phrases like, “We take our next steps into the world” and “It is with passion, courage of conviction, and strong sense of self…” as well as Elle’s, “We did it!” compared to Trump’s, “I did it.”

When Norton’s guests finished watching the video, they were all in shock except for Witherspoon, who just laughed. “It’s true, he is better when he sticks to the script,” Harrison Ford said.

When Norton asked if Witherspoon knew how Trump’s speech ended up sounding like her’s and she just shrugged saying, “I’m sure he’s just a big fan.”

Check out the clip below:

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It looks like Trump might’ve been taking notes the last time he caught an all-day Legally Blonde marathon on TV. We don’t blame him, it’s a pretty inspiring speech.

Maybe this is a sign that the star should think about running for office? She did tell us she might do it one day, or at least run the campaigns for a few of her friends. She’d be great up there at the podium.

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Amber Rose on Ending Slut-Shaming in the Age of Donald Trump


Amber Rose loves a good celebration, but she’s ready to get down to business. On the eve of her third annual Amber Rose SlutWalk in downtown Los Angeles, she says she’s “hyped up more than ever” to spread her message to more than 20,000 men and women that victim-shaming must stop now.

“I’m a former slut-shamer and I had to take the steps to change,” she admits to Glamour. Going through a divorce (with ex-husband and rapper Wiz Khalifa) made her realize that the blame was unfairly being put on her from outside sources, and she was done feeling like a victim. “I didn’t even ask for fame,” she confides of those earlier years in the spotlight. “I didn’t even want this life and how I got it, and I’m just trying to figure out what to do with it.” That led to the start of the Amber Rose SlutWalk, and now, the first annual OPENed Women’s Conference, also happening this weekend.

“If you’re going through extreme slut-shaming, or if you’re a rape survivor, or have been sexually assaulted, the SlutWalk is a safe place to tell your story and talk to other people who have been through the same thing,” she says. “You don’t want to feel alone. We have counselors, HIV/AIDS testing, and workshops. We want you to feel that everything is going to be OK.”

But the road to feeling “OK” wasn’t an easy one, especially over the last year when the man that bragged he used to “grab [women] by the pussy” was elected to the highest office in the land. So what has Rose been motivated to do about it? And what is she teaching her four-year-old son as he grows up? Here, she shares the highs and lows of her journey to being a more informed feminist.

PHOTO: Paul Archuleta/Getty Images

Glamour: How have you changed since you began the Amber Rose weekend and started your own SlutWalk?

Amber Rose: I constantly learn new things. I wouldn’t say that I’m a seasoned feminist. I became a feminist probably after my divorce which was a little over three years ago. I completely changed my life. I’m a former slut-shamer. Society has taught me to be a certain way, and I had to take steps to change that. And so even with the women’s conference, I’m going to be there all day, getting educated as well. I don’t feel like I have all the answers. I feel like I grow every year and learn new things.

Glamour: Earlier this week, Robert Redford was on Megyn Kelly Today, and said that he wasn’t a feminist, but he loves seeing a female drive the story in film. It made no sense. How can you be vocal about wanting to see women get equal opportunities, but then actually say you’re not a feminist?

Amber: Because that’s just what guys say, like ‘boys will be boys.’ It’s all bullshit. It’s not out of the norm. But the really f-cked up part about it is a lot of straight guys think that being a male feminist is like you’re gay. It’s just so stupid. It’s really, really stupid. That’s why we need to continue to educate. And especially the guys—our sons, our dads, our uncles—and people that have been on earth a long time that have been taught by society that that’s all they know.

Glamour: When someone asks you what feminism means to you, how do you respond?

Amber: I just say equality. It’s really very simple. I just want equality. That’s it.

Glamour: How have you changed since Donald Trump was elected?

Amber: The thing with Trump is that guys have always said things like that. For me, it’s not really like, ‘Oh wow, he said that?’ I mean, guys say that all the time. So now, what steps are we going to take to say that’s not OK? It’s not ‘boys will be boys’ or ‘locker room talk.’ There’s so many powerful men out there that sexually assault women every day, and the woman feels like she doesn’t have a voice. So you sit there with guilt and shame your entire life and men know that. They know that the women are not going to say anything because no one would ever believe them. SlutWalk is giving women a voice and an opportunity to come and tell your story.

Glamour: SlutWalk is extremely timely this year because our education secretary, Betsy DeVos, just killed Obama’s campus sexual assault guidelines, which makes it so much harder for victims to get the justice they are looking for. For those that don’t understand how detrimental this will be for sexual assault victims, how do you get people to change their way of thinking?

Amber: I’ll tell you, when I go speak at colleges, a lot of boys will show up in addition to girls, and usually after they’re like, ‘You know I came here because you’re f-cking Amber Rose and you’re hot, and I wanted to see you,’ but then they’re enlightened. I’m not really a cookie cutter type of girl. I’m going to tell you how it is. I’m going to make you feel uncomfortable, and people like to think I’m controversial, but I’m just being me. I literally tell them, ‘Think of the act that it took your mother to have you, because when she was turned on and she was horny and she was begging for your dad, she was a sexual being. Your mother is a sexual being. Your mother has had sex, and guess what? If you have brothers and sisters from your mom with different fathers, then your mom is a slut by society’s standards. By society’s standards, your mom is a ho.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh my God, I have three brothers from different dads,’ and society would say that there mom is a ho. But they don’t ever think of their mother’s when they use these derogatory labels towards other women or other girls. I always say, ‘Everyone is someone’s daughter. Everyone is someone’s sister. Or mother.’ We don’t want to judge our own family members because we love them so much, so let’s try to apply that to people in our everyday life. And they’re like, ‘Oh wow.’

Glamour: You have a four-year-old son. What do you teach him about supporting feminism and equal rights?

Amber: I mean, he’s grown up in a house with me, so it’s not going to be a sit down, serious conversation. It’s going to be years of growing up with a feminist mother. He’s going to know. This isn’t just SlutWalk time, this is my everyday life. This is my passion, this is my calling. I try to find the means to help women find lawyers, and give them a voice and an opportunity to get justice. Those are the behind-the-scenes things that I do and don’t put on social media. I don’t want a pat on the back for it, but it’s just what I do.

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PHOTO: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images

Glamour: You said earlier that your divorce prompted you to change your way of thinking, but what prompted you to take action?

Amber: I would say that I was being extremely slut-shamed, for literally getting divorced. I was getting slut-shamed for going through a divorce, like it was my fault, it had to be me, [because] I’m the one that’s an ex-stripper so it must have been something that I did or didn’t do right in my marriage. I got the blame for everything and it was one of the worst times of my life. I saw this picture of a girl online with pasties on that said, ‘Still not asking for it.’ I was like, ‘Man, I’m not even asking for this shit.’ I didn’t even ask for fame. I didn’t even want this life and how I got it, and I’m just trying to figure out what to do with it. As I did more research, I found out what a SlutWalk is, and what it was about. I called my team and was like, ‘I’m going to have a SlutWalk this year and I don’t care what you guys say, I’m going to do it.’ And I just started it, and the process of raising money and getting my friends to support the cause. [But I] couldn’t get any interviews, no companies would work with me, everyone thought I was crazy, and yet I stuck to it. People said change the name [of SlutWalk] and you’ll be more successful, and I said, ‘No, I’m not. I’m not changing the name. They’re going to jump on board because I’m going to make it huge.’ The first year we had 2,500 people come, and the second year we had 11,000 people come, and this year already we have sold over 18,000 tickets on our website alone, not including who is just going to show up that is in downtown L.A. I worked really hard and believed in it.

Glamour: Lastly, what do you hope to have a better understanding of following this weekend? What do you want to be more educated about?

Amber: One thing that I want to be more educated on is knowing my full rights as far as the legal side of everything. I’m not a lawyer, so I’m really interested to sit with Lisa Bloom and her workshop to really know the ins and outs of the law for women. I’m really interested to find out.

The OPENed: The Women’s Conference by the Amber Rose Power Foundation is this weekend in Los Angeles. For more information, click here.



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Rihanna Begs Trump to Send Aid to Puerto Rico


PHOTO: Gabriel Maseda/NurPhoto/Getty Images

For more than a week, Puerto Rico has suffered the effects of Hurricane Maria, a category 4 storm that has left the entire U.S. territory without power potentially for months, without additional aid from other countries. That changed earlier today, when President Donald Trump finally waived the Jones Act, a 1920 shipping law that would prevent non-U.S. vessels from transporting goods between U.S. ports, after immense pressure from the nation, Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rossello, and other public figures. One of them was Rihanna, who on Twitter early Thursday morning urged the president to send aid to the 3.5 million American citizens who reside on the island.

The singer tweeted a cover of Wednesday’s New York Daily News, which superimposed the headline “American Tragedy” in large block letters and “No food, no water, no power, no medical care for the dying … Puerto Rico needs more help, Mr. President!” over a photo of victims of Hurricane Maria. For the caption, Rihanna wrote, “Dear @realDonaldTrump I know you’ve probably already seen this, but I just wanted to make sure! Don’t let your people die like this.”

The tweet has since gone viral with over 50,000 retweets and 116,000 likes, bringing much needed attention to the amount of international aid that would have been denied by Trump’s refusal to temporarily waive the Jones Act. Before that, the singer had twice tweeted at the president, quoting a CBS News video of San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz saying, “I know that leaders aren’t supposed to cry…but we are having a humanitarian crisis here,” and posting a link to a video from The Shade Room calling for relief efforts.

On Wednesday, the President told reporters he based his decision on business interests, saying “a lot of people that work in the shipping industry…don’t want the Jones Act lifted,” reported Newsweek. The singer has yet to comment on the President’s announcement to backtrack on his initial statement, but she did send another tweet praising former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush for their fundraising efforts.

“Round of APPLAUSE to these gentlemen for taking control of this devastating situation!!! #CaribbeanGirl #OneLove,” wrote the singer, who is from Barbados.

Rihanna is not the only celebrity who has publically called for increased aid to Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands affected by Hurricane Maria. On Sunday, Jennifer Lopez, who is of Puerto Rican descent as well as cochair of the Empire State Relief & Recovery Effort, announced she would donate $1 million to relief efforts. Earlier, she had posted a video on Instagram urging fans to donate to Puerto Rico First Lady Beatriz Areizaga’s relief fund.

While social media is a good way to spread the word, here are some other ways you can contribute to the Puerto Rico relief effort.



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The NFL Protests Are About Racism. Don't Let Trump Distract You


Colin Kaepernick’s protest began silently in 2016 and went largely unnoticed. In fact, it wasn’t until a post-game interview when a news outlet asked him why he didn’t stand during the national anthem that everyone became aware he was even protesting. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick said. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

To be honest, I didn’t have much of a reaction to Kaepernick when I first heard his statement beyond thinking, “Good for him.” It was only in retrospect that I understood how his choice of protest was like shooting an arrow into the American consciousness and hitting the bullseye. The National Football League is, after all, arguably the closest thing the United States has to a state-sponsored religion. Worship services take place all over the nation with at least three live broadcasts on major networks every Sunday. The pre-game national anthem has become a religious ceremony unto itself, with the US military paying advertising dollars to the NFL in efforts to recruit soldiers via highly coordinated displays of a certain kind of patriotism. NFL games reflect the mythos of American meritocracy: a racially diverse group of players on a level playing field battling it out until the best one wins. By taking a knee, Kaepernick disrupted this narrative, forcing the audience into awareness that many of the players were Black and that the playing field in which they lived was not, in fact, a level one.

Like many Black Americans who have protested racism in America, Kaepernick has suffered serious consequences for speaking up. Rosa Parks was fired from her job as a seamstress after refusing to stand and give her bus seat to a white man, and Kaepernick, after refusing to stand for the national anthem in protest of racism, has been blackballed by the NFL. If the NFL’s hope was that the matter would fade quietly after Kaepernick was pushed out of the league, that has decidedly backfired. Protests have grown exponentially to include not only the issue of police brutality, but the NFL’s infringement upon Kaepernick’s right to protest according to his political beliefs. Through it all, Kaepernick has remained mostly silent, seemingly focused primarily on putting his money where his politics are, donating $1 million to various poverty relief efforts.

Trump has insisted the central issue isn’t race as he seeks to reframe the protests to be an issue of patriotism and showing proper respect for the flag. However, he’s now used harsher language in speaking of Black athletes protesting racism than he’s used in speaking of the white supremacist who murdered Heather Heyer in Charlottesville. Given that Trump referred to former POW John McCain as being a loser for getting captured in Vietnam and attacked the Muslim family of a slain U.S. soldier, no serious minded person can believe that his recent targeting of the NFL—a sport where roughly two-thirds of the players are Black—is about patriotism and not racism. The fact that the majority of players protesting have been Black, and that Trump used racially loaded language in referring to them, only makes it clearer.

Like many others, I took to Twitter this weekend to continually drive this point home: that while Trump claims to be defending the honor of the U.S. flag, he’s really just continuing his agenda of white nationalism and voicing opposition to those who protest racism and police brutality, both things he has openly advocated.

Yet, while they may bristle at Trump’s comments, many in the NFL seem more comfortable with Trump being made the central issue instead of racism. Several teams chose to link arms during Sunday’s pregame shows in what they described as displays of unity in the face of Trump’s divisive statements. Though Kaepernick’s protest began over an issue he deemed “bigger than football,” by Monday, discussion had shifted from Kaepernick being sidelined for protesting police brutality to the feud that now existed between the President of the United States and the owners of the NFL.

That issue, it appears, is more comfortable for both the NFL and mainstream media outlets to digest than the core issue of America’s problem with racism. It’s more comfortable to discuss how protests of police brutality impact ratings and profits for the NFL than to discuss the topic of police brutality itself. It’s easier to talk about whether players should kneel or stand during the anthem than to talk about Seattle Seahawks’ player Michael Bennett being racially profiled and held at gunpoint by Las Vegas police. But regardless of where our comfort lies, the core issue remains unchanged. It was the same issue when Muhammad Ali was stripped of his boxing titles for protesting racism and war in 1966 and when white baseball players threatened to strike as Jackie Robinson integrated major league baseball in 1947.

The issue is racism. And until this nation address that issue in earnest, until the NFL and every major American institution addresses how racism manifests in its day-to-day operations, there is no amount of deflection or superficial displays of unity that will resolve it. The protest that Kaepernick began by himself in silence has now grown to a deafening roar with thousands joining him in solidarity. The issue of racism cannot be silenced, it can only be ignored—at the nation’s peril.

Bree Newsome is an artist who drew national attention in 2015 when she climbed the flagpole in front of the South Carolina Capitol building and lowered the confederate battle flag following the murder of nine black parishioners by a white supremacist at Mother Emanuel AME in Charleston.



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Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Took a Knee on the Floor of the House to Protest Donald Trump


PHOTO: Bill Clark/Getty Images

After Donald Trump spent the weekend insulting NFL players who protest racial injustice and police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem, anger and frustration over the President’s remarks rocketed throughout the country—even reaching the floors of Congress.

Yes, on Monday evening Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee stood before the House of Representatives and criticized Trump for his recent comments. In case you missed it, the controversy started last Friday when Trump brought up the NFL player protests during a campaign rally in Alabama. ” “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now—out, he’s fired,” he told the crowd before spending the weekend (and well into Monday) tweeting about this issue.

“There is no basis in the First Amendment that says you cannot kneel on the national anthem or in front of the flag,” Jackson Lee said. “There is no regulation that says that these young men cannot stand against the dishonoring of their mothers by you calling them, ‘fire the son of a b,’ You tell me which of those children’s mothers are a son of a b. That is racism. You cannot deny it, you cannot run for it, and I kneel in honor of them.”

The Texas Democrat then dropped down on one knee to show solidarity with the NFL players—and forcefully reproach the President.

“I kneel in front of the flag and on this floor. I kneel in honor of the First Amendment,” Jackson Lee continued. “I kneel because the flag is a symbol for freedom. I kneel because I’m going to stand against racism. I kneel because I will stand with those young men, and I’ll stand with our soldiers, and I’ll stand with America because I kneel.”

Jackson Lee is not the only member of Congress to speak out against Trump’s recent outburst. Fellow Congressional Black Caucus member John Lewis (D-Ga.) shared a similar sentiment on Twitter, saying that the NFL players are following “a long tradition.”

Related: MLK’s Daughter Had the Perfect Response to Critics of the NFL National Anthem Protests



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