By Wonderwall.com Editors
2:09pm PDT, Jul 13, 2023
On willpower, Wahlberg and more
For the most part, Jessica Simpson is still an "open book" three years after publishing her bombshell memoir of the same name. She proves as much in a far-reaching profile for Bustle published Thursday, July 6, where the 42-year-old fashion entrepreneur addresses everything from speculation she's used the diabetes drug Ozempic for weight loss to the claim Mark Wahlberg was the unnamed ex who made her "feel like a call girl," according to her 2023 Amazon essay, "Movie Star."
Asked about social media commenters who've claimed she's gotten "too skinny" or was "taking Ozempic" after her latest weight loss, Jessica shrugged off the response. "Oh Lord. I mean, it is not [Ozempic], it's willpower," she said. "I'm like, 'Do people want me to be drinking again?' Because that's when I was heavier. Or they want me to be having another baby? My body can't do it." She added that while she's "too connected" to herself to "let the negativity derail" her at 42, "it doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt."
The former "Newlyweds" star was more guarded about that movie star romance she detailed for Amazon. Asked "if she's heard from [Mark] Wahlberg since the story came out," Jessica reportedly laughed uproariously, then refused to confirm who the "Movie Star" was, saying only, "There's a lot of Catholics out there."
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Cause of death revealed
Robert De Niro's daughter, Drena De Niro, says her 19-year-old son, Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez, died after buying pills laced with fentanyl on Sunday, July 2. Drena and Robert initially announced the teenaged actor's death on Monday on Instagram. "It is with immeasurable shock and and sadness that we say goodbye to our beloved son Leo. We thank you for the outpouring of love and support and ask that we are given privacy at this time to process this inconsolable grief," Drena wrote. Among the many comments was a question from a user that read, "OMG, why? How?" In a reply to the comment, Drena wrote, in part, "Someone sold him fentanyl laced pills that they knew were laced yet still sold them to him." As of Thursday, the New York City Medical Examiner had not yet confirmed the cause of death, according to CBS News. A powerful synthetic opioid that's now also made and sold illegally, fentanyl has been a major contributor to what the National Institute on Drug Abuse brands a "dramatic rise in drug overdose deaths in the United States" in the last decade.
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Conflicted about Kanye
In October 2022, Kanye West's antisemitic tirades got him temporarily barred from Twitter and permanently dropped by multiple brands he'd been working with. At the time, his ex, Kim Kardashian, stayed largely silent on his behavior, though she did condemn hate speech in a post that expressed her solidarity "with the Jewish community." On latest edition of "The Kardashians," however, Kim reveals she was privately struggling to understand how the man she married became such a different person so quickly. She was also deeply conflicted about whether she should have called him out at all, given his role as the father of her children.
"It sucks when someone doesn't see how different they are," Kim says in a confessional in the Hulu show's July 6 episode. "It's really confusing for me. It's so different than the person that I married because that's who I loved and that's who I remember." Speaking to her sister Khloe Kardashian in an emotional scene apparently filmed the day Ye's business partners cut ties with him, Kim says she feels "guilty" that she shared her support for the Jewish community, then "people dropped" Ye. "I'm like, 'Is that my fault that like, I posted that? And did that like, push them, and I should have just kept quiet?' But I'm vocal about everything else, and it's like, I never know what to do," she explains.
"The whole situation is sad, and I don't know how to emotionally manage it," Kim says. "I'm conflicted because I don't ever want to jump in and be a part of a downfall for the father of my kids."
Playboy marriage memoir
In a forthcoming memoir about her life and marriage to the late Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner, Crystal Hefner is set to detail the "dark side" of Playboy's "toxic culture" and the "objectification and misogyny" she endured in her life at the Playboy Mansion, according to excerpts published by the Daily Mail on Thursday, July 6. Due out in January 2024, "Only Say Good Things" reportedly traces Crystal's relationship with Hef from her first Playboy Mansion party at age 21 to their wedding in 2012 and beyond. Sixty years her senior, Hugh is said to have "governed the lives of his girlfriends with strict rules on everything from their looks to curfew," according to the Mail. The former model will reportedly describe how she felt her own identity and "self-worth" erode over the course of her time with Hugh, who died of natural causes at age 91 in 2017.
"My relationship and marriage to Hugh Hefner was a very complicated one," Crystal, now 37, tells the Mail. "It was one where, no matter how I was treated, I always felt like I had to protect him, which is why I have not shared my story until now."
Stars check out so-called 'Twitter killer'
Meta's new "Twitter killer" app, Threads, officially launched on Wednesday, July 5, boasting early famous users like Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Will Smith, Gordon Ramsay and Oprah Winfrey, according to NBC News. "Well, hello Threads," Shakira wrote in her first post. Gordon, meanwhile, seemingly teased users about the controversial TikTok he posted in 2022 about choosing a cute, live lamb for, well, dinner. "Is this where I find the lamb sauce??" he wrote. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's first post simply read, "Let's do this. Welcome to Threads." He's told multiple outlets about 10 million users signed up in the platform's first seven hours.
The launch comes after an extended online feud between the Meta exec and Twitter CEO, Elon Musk. And with its scrolling posts — each of which is limited to 500 characters, plus photo and video add options — the new platform does work like Twitter in many ways, though its data resembles that of uses' Instagram accounts, since the new platform leans on Instagram for usernames and verifications. Instagram accounts that have been blocked are similarly blocked on Threads, according to NBC. Other stars who've surfaced on Threads so far include most of the Kardashian sisters, Zayn Malik, Karlie Kloss, Liam Payne, Ellie Goulding and the Dalai Lama.
$50M music deal?
Nelly, the singer and rapper whose hits like "Hot in Herre" earned him three Grammys and two Super Bowl Halftime Show performances in the early aughts, has reportedly inked a $50 million deal to share the ownership of his music catalog with HarbourView Equity Partners. The asset management company confirmed its new partnership with Nelly "to purchase select" recordings by the star on Wednesday, July 5, according to Variety. TMZ, meanwhile, reported the deal was worth $50 million and amounts to HarbourView Equity getting ownership of 50 percent of Nelly's "entire catalog," though the company has yet to confirm those numbers publicly as of Thursday. In addition to the No. 1 single, "Hot in Herre," the deal reportedly covers tracks like "Ride Wit Me" and "Dilemma" featuring Kelly Rowland.
