Tina Knowles-Lawson slams Beyonce’s critics amid Tiffany ‘blood diamond’ controversy

Earlier this week, Beyonce launched Tiffany & Co.’s “About Love” campaign with JAY-Z in a stunning series of photos that show the singer wearing the jewelry brand’s iconic, 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond. The campaign marks the first time a Black woman has worn the unique yellow jewel — the same piece Audrey Hepburn made famous in 1961’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” — while Beyonce is now just the fourth person to ever put the sparkler on at all. Not everyone was impressed, however. As the Mason Poole-shot photos emerged on Aug. 23, so did a wave of outrage from critics who pointed out that the diamond came from a colonial mine in South Africa, a country whose “conflict-ridden mining industry paved the way for apartheid,” per The Washington Post’s op-ed on the ads and Beyonce’s starring role in them. As the debate over whether Beyonce wrong to wear “a blood diamond” intensified, the singer’s mom, Tina Knowles-Lawson finally weighed in to defend her daughter. “How many of you socially conscious activist own diamonds ? I thought so ! Well guess what did you go to try to check to see where the diamond came from? Probably not,” she snapped in the comments on Tiffany’s Instagram post. “So when you guys get engaged you won’t have a diamond you gonna put on a sterling silver band,” she continued (via the Daily Mail), “… And you better check out where it came from …” She went on to challenge critics on weather they also wear leather in her lengthy rant. As of Aug. 26, Beyonce had not weighed in.

RELATED: Stars are nothing like us: Beyonce edition

Zoe Kravitz’s divorce finalized amid Channing Tatum dating rumors

Zoe Kravitz is officially single – at least on paper. ET reports the “Big Little Lies” star’s marriage to her now ex-husband, Karl Glusman, was finalized earlier this week in New York City. Zoe, meanwhile, was upstate with Channing Tatum when the judgment on her divorce was entered on Aug. 23. Photos published by Page Six show the 32-year-old actress — carrying bouquets of flowers — and 41-year-old “Magic Mike” alum leaving a grocery store north of the Big Apple just days after they were seen packing luggage into an SUV last week and heading out of town together. The trip followed a few shared strolls and bike rides in NYC’s East Village. Channing and Zoe’s recent hangouts have fueled a new wave of romance rumors about the two after a handful of outlets linked them in January. It’s unclear if they knew each other previously, but Channing also stars in Zoe’s upcoming directorial debut.

RELATED: The truth about those Bennifer engagement rumors, plus more celeb love life updates

Prince Harry, Duchess Meghan considered naming royal who allegedly made racist comments about their son, book claims

A revised edition of Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand’s “Finding Freedom,” an unauthorized 2020 biography on Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan, features new details about the Sussexes and the state of their relationship with the royal family. In the update, due out Aug. 31, the authors claim Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan seriously considered revealing which royal they say reached out to Harry during Meghan’s first pregnancy with “concerns and conversations about how dark [the baby’s] skin might be when he was born,” a story the two shared with Oprah Winfrey in their bombshell interview earlier this year. In the interview, Oprah asked Harry directly who made the remarks, but he didn’t divulge that information other than to say it was neither Queen Elizabeth nor Prince Philip. According to Page Six’s report on the book update, the authors say it was Meghan, who identifies as biracial, who opted out of revealing the name of the person, allegedly telling Oprah, “I think it would be very damaging to them.” The revised version of the biography also includes updates on the well-documented rift between Harry and his brother, Prince William, citing sources who claim the two are back in touch. “Both brothers are deeply devoted to carrying on their mother’s legacy and no amount of hurt feelings would ever get in the way of that,” a source close to Harry is quoted as saying. “It is an absolute priority and even amidst this other stuff, they simply wouldn’t proceed without one another together.” 

RELATED: Succession to the British throne: The top 29 royals in line

Gwen Stefani shares a peek at her ‘honeymoon tour’ with Blake Shelton

Newlyweds Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton are enjoying a little “honeymoon tour” this week. That’s according to Gwen, who shared photos and video on her Instagram on Aug. 25 from the Bash on the Bay festival in Ohio, where Blake was one of the headliners. “#honeymoon tour w my @blakeshelton,” she captioned the images and footage, adding hashtags for Ohio and the duets Gwen joined her man for onstage, “Happy Anywhere” and “Nobody But You.” In addition to a few ageless selfies, Gwen showed off video of Blake performing shot from backstage. The happy couple tied the knot on July 3 at Blake’s ranch in Oklahoma, with Gwen decked out in a pair of gorgeously gauzy Vera Wang dresses, complete with white stiletto boots for the shorter reception look. Their “Voice” costar Carson Daly served as the officiant.

Teyana Taylor has emergency surgery to remove lumps in breasts

Singer Teyana Taylor has revealed she underwent emergency surgery to have lumps removed from her breasts while filming her reality show, “We Got Love Teyana & Iman.” On the latest episode, Teyana, 30, learns she has lumps that in her “dense” breast tissue that need to come out and be biopsied. Following what her doctor describes as a “complicated” procedure, Teyana is told the lumps are not cancerous, but the invasive procedure will take some time to recover from. “I just want this to be the last time I go through this. Cancer runs through my family, so it’s a scary thing both for me and [husband] Iman,” Teyana says at one point (via People). When she asks doctors, “When will I be able to hold my babies again?” she’s told her body needs at least six weeks to recover from the surgery before she can resume picking up her two young daughters. “It’s tough. I’m definitely overwhelmed because I miss my kids so much, I miss [my husband] Iman so much,” she tells the camera. “I think that’s probably the longest I’ve been away from them.My number one priority is to hurry up and get back home, but I know I need to take care of what I need to take care of as well.” Dense breast tissue is common, especially among women with lower body mass indexes, among other factors. Having dense breast tissue also makes it harder for doctors to see cancers on mammograms, according to breastcancer.org, which also states “women with breasts have a higher risk of developing breast cancer compared with women who don’t.”

Why Jonah Hill ‘hit pause’ on his Hollywood career

In a body-positive Instagram post earlier this month, Jonah Hill showed off a new tattoo that reads “body love.” It was a play on the surf brand Body Glove’s logo, and along with his newly blonde hair, his tan and his fit physique, the look gave off nothing but mellow California surfer vibes. But as the actor and writer, 37, explains in a new interview with GQ Style, he had to “hit pause” on his Hollywood career for a good chunk of time to find the inner peace he exudes in pics like this one. Reflecting on his “overnight” success story with director Adam McKay, Jonah says that after “Superbad,” he and costar Michael Cera found that “one day life was one way, and then one day life was a different way.” From there, he jumped into writing for “Bruno” with Sacha Baron Cohen, he was asked to host “Saturday Night Live” at 23 — and he really just wanted to be writing. “I was a kid. I had probably too much power for a young person, and too much autonomy, and not enough life skills,” he said. “I dropped out of college, and I used to not get why people would go to college. Because if you’re ambitious, why would you spend four years just idling? And then I didn’t realize until I turned 30 that what those four years gave all my friends was this wobbling period of how to be a person.” Jonah went on to recall that he was “was really advanced professionally but really behind personally … And I hit Pause. I took three or four years to reshape things. I was like,’ I could just do this for 10 more years and I’m not going to evolve as a person.'” Today, the “Mid’90s” filmmaker says he’s “still a workaholic …but then I also surf every day.” He muses, “I don’t know if dropping out is kind of the accurate word, but I kind of dropped out a little bit. I still love my creativity and my work. But I definitely live a very quiet lifestyle, where I surf, hang with my dog, hang with my nephews. Just keep it mellow.”

Spike Lee is ‘re-editing’ 9/11 doc that features 9/11 truthers

Spike Lee has asked audiences to reserve their judgement of his 9/11 docuseries until they see the last installment — an apparently updated version of what was sent to press as a screener before the four-part HBO special, “NYC EPICENTERS 9/11-2021½,” began last weekend. That original cut prominently featured interviews with so-called “9/11 truthers,” including members of the conspiracy group Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Asked why he included “their perspective,” Spike told the New York Times in a Q&A published Aug. 23 that he still has “questions” about how and why the Twin Towers fell. After the Times piece ran, Spike announced he was re-editing the last edition of the film. “I’m Back In The Editing Room And Looking At The Eighth And Final Chapter Of ‘NYC EPICENTERS 9/11-2021½,'” he said in a statement released by HBO to Variety. “I Respectfully Ask You To Hold Your Judgement Until You See The FINAL CUT,” he added. Speaking to the Times, Spike elaborated on his questions about the official explanations given for the attacks in 2001. “The amount of heat that it takes to make steel melt, that temperature’s not reached,” he claimed. “And then the juxtaposition of the way Building 7 fell to the ground — when you put it next to other building collapses that were demolitions, it’s like you’re looking at the same thing. But people going to make up their own mind. My approach is put the information in the movie and let people decide for themselves. I respect the intelligence of the audience.

Source: Read Full Article