Names and faces
Former Today co-host Billy Bush says he’s a better man and ready to get back into television seven months after being fired from his job as co-host of NBC’s Today show after the release of a videotape in which he can be heard engaging in lewd talk with Donald Trump. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bush said the past months have “been a roller coaster” that included an apology to his three daughters. Bush said his then-15-year-old daughter Mary called him in tears from her boarding school when the news broke, and asked him why he could be heard laughing at the things Trump was saying on the old tape. “It hit really hard, and I stopped for a second, and I said, ‘I have no answer for that that’s any good. I am really sorry. That was Dad in a bad moment a long time ago,’” Bush said. The 2005 tape featuring Trump’s vulgar and sexually charged comments emerged a month before the November elections. In a videotaped apology, Trump declared he was wrong but also dismissed the revelations as “nothing more than a distraction,” later dismissing his words as locker room talk. Bush said he’s done a lot of soul searching, adding, “I’ve come out of this with a deeper understanding of how women can connect to the feeling of having to fight extra hard for an even playing field.”
A teen Instagram sensation has gone from online to on-air dancing after singer Katy Perry invited him to show off his moves during her Saturday Night Live performance last weekend. Russell Horning, 15, took the stage during Perry’s performance of her new single “Swish Swish.” He wore his trademark backpack and did his signature move of quickly swaying his hands around his waist. The “backpack kid” became a hit on Twitter. The Lawrenceville, Ga., teen told USA Today the collaboration came about after Perry noticed him on Instagram. But it looks like Horning wasn’t too impressed with Perry’s dancing. His caption on a video of her trying to imitate his moves backstage at SNL read: “When your mom tries to look cool.”
U.S. President Donald Trump cannot stop the climate movement despite the president’s efforts to roll back environmental protections, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said Monday. Gore painted a hopeful picture for environmentalists at the Cannes Film Festival, claiming that new regulations and clean-energy solutions are speeding ahead at the state level. “We now know after four months of the Trump administration that no one person can stop the climate movement, not even the president,” said Gore, who was in Cannes to promote the sequel to his Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.