By Wonderwall.com Editors
5:30pm PDT, Jul 18, 2023
Homophobic rant fallout
Dog the Bounty Hunter's daughters have apologized for the homophobic and transphobic comments their father made in an interview with Christian televangelist Sharell Barrera earlier this month. Dog, aka Duane Chapman, spoke in violent terms about "rebuking" those who don't defend what he believes to be Christian values and threatened to assault TikTok star and activist Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender woman whose Bud Light partnership sparked widespread controversy in March.
"People playing church all led to Bud Light. Is that right?" Dog said in the Facebook Live video, which also featured his wife, Francie Fane. "Get that punk down. Rebuke Satan out of him and just give him a couple black eyes. If I ever see him, I'm dropping him." Targeting Pride Month celebrations, Dog said, "There's two ways to rebuke (homosexual individuals): in Jesus's name and then physically." Dog later acknowledged he has a family member, daughter Lyssa Chapman, who is gay and whom he loves.
Lyssa quickly distanced herself from her dad and his vicious tirade, apologizing to the LGBTQ+ community and to Dylan, who briefly fled the country because she felt unsafe at home. "I'm honestly embarrassed to be mentioned on this hateful, disgusting, trash spewing out of my father's mouth," Lyssa wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, July 11. "You all know I'm a daddy's girl and I love my father. However, this crosses a line. I was not raised by this man, he was not this way until recently." Citing an interview with Lyssa on Wednesday, TMZ reported she "would like to send her apologies to Dylan and the trans community as a whole" and said she worries her father is "watching too much cable news."
Her sister, Bonnie Chapman, also addressed Dog's remarks on social media. "Jesus loves everyone and would strongly denounce this non-accepting rhetoric," she wrote in part. "It is utterly repulsive to advocate violence against our transgender community, and it is equally repulsive to invoke Jesus's name in vain to support such views."
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On fatherhood, family and moving on
After spending the last few years off the radar in Pennsylvania, the notoriously private singer Zayn Malik recently gave his first interview in six years, making rare comments about his split from One Direction and his supermodel ex, Gigi Hadid. He even went a step further, sharing a glimpse at his current relationships with Gigi and their 2-year-old daughter, Khai, whom he said inspired his burst of personal sharing. "Co-parenting is good, yeah, we have a really good relationship for Khai. She is the main importance. It's going well, I think," Zayn, 30, said on the latest edition of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast. "She didn't choose [fame], that's why we live here. I'm not shielding her from it because she's going to get to an age where she has a certain amount of awareness and will know what's going on," he said.
Zayn also addressed the alleged 2021 altercation he had with Gigi's mom, Yolanda Hadid, just before he and Gigi called it quits, saying he opted not to contest Yolanda's harassment charges in the interest of protecting Khai. "Any sort of narrative online where my daughter was going to look back and read that and be able to read into it and it would just be something that was… There was no point. I believe I dealt with it in the best way. In an amicable, respectful way, and that's all that needs to be said," he explained.
And while the close, constant time spent with his 1D bandmates before their 2015 split left the singer feeling the band's relationships had kind of run their course — "we got sick of each other," he admitted — Zayn said fatherhood has done the opposite. "I have [her] 50% of the time and that time is so important," he mused. "She is growing up so fast. When I'm with her, I don't work. I spend the full day with her doing things she wants to do like painting, park, the zoo, and having fun. As an adult things go gray, and she has bought the color back for me, for sure."
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Emmys debut
And all it took was a Scandoval. "Vanderpump Rules" earned its first-ever Emmy nominations on Wednesday, July 12, snagging nods for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program and Outstanding Picture Editing For An Unstructured Reality Program for its Scandoval season, the first two nominations the series has seen in its decade-long tenure, according to Deadline. After the nominations were announced Wednesday, Bravo exec Andy Cohen cheered for the Vanderpump fam on Threads before reminding fans the show's signature reality series has yet to be recognized by the Television Academy. "So pumped for Vanderpump Rules' Emmy nomination… and tbh a little befuddled that the Housewives haven't ever gotten one in all these years!" he wrote.
Lisa Vanderpump, meanwhile, gushed on Instagram, "Congratulations to everyone who has poured their heart and soul into this show for the past decade!"
Other surprise nominations included lots of love for "Daisy Jones & The Six," while snubs for the likes of "Yellowstone" and "Only Murders in the Building" stars Selena Gomez and Steve Martin were unexpected in many critics' books. Coming out way ahead of the pack was "Succession" with 27 nominations, "The Last of Us" with 24 nominations, "The White Lotus" with 23 nominations and "Ted Lasso" with 21 nominations. The 2023 Emmy Awards are scheduled to air on Sept. 18.
Mental health reveal
"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" star Rob McElhenney announced this week he's been diagnosed with "a host of neurodevelopmental disorders," telling fans he'll share details including his prognosis on a new edition of the "Always Sunny" podcast he hosts with his co-stars Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton. The actor, writer and producer shared the news on Twitter on Tuesday, July 11. "I was recently diagnosed with a host of neurodevelopmental disorders and learning disabilities! At 46!" tweeted Rob, who's now 48. "It's not something I would normally talk about publicly but I figured there are others who struggle with similar things and I wanted to remind you that you're not alone. You're not stupid. You're not 'bad,'" he continued. "It might feel that way sometimes. But it's not true."
Neurodevelopmental disorders encompass a wide range of conditions including autism spectrum disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders and more. Symptoms usually show up before a child "enters grade school," according to the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5, and involve "developmental deficits that produce impairments of personal, social, academic, or occupational functioning." Rob — whose "occupational functioning" has included writing, directing, producing and starring in his Emmy-nominated show — said the podcast episode "drops in 2 weeks."
Will verdict
Nearly five years after Aretha Franklin's death in 2018, a verdict in Michigan is poised to settle questions around her children's battle over her estate. On July 11, a jury decided that handwritten notes from 2014 discovered in the Queen of Soul's couch after her death do, in fact, constitute a valid will. The "Chain of Fools" singer left no formal will behind when she died at age 76, according to the Associated Press. A 2010 will was found in a cabinet in her home after her death. Her sons Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin argued the 2014 notes should "override" the validity of the 2010 will, while her son Ted White II maintained the 2010 document was the only one that could be valid, the AP reported. The judge called for a status conference to be held at a later date as details including who will be named executor of the estate get hashed out.
