Another first for Lizzo
Grammy winner Lizzo triumphed Thursday in being the first big Black woman to be on the cover of Vogue — a good-as-hell career highlight that came just a day after she lamented the Kentucky grandjury decision not to charge any officers in the death of Breonna Taylor.
“I am the first big black woman on the cover of @voguemagazine. The first black anything feels overdue. But our time has come. To all my black girls, if someone like you hasn’t done it yet — BE THE FIRST,” she wrote Thursday of the fashion bible’s October cover.
The directive seemed to be a rebound from her grief Wednesday, illustrating the exhausting resilience often expected of Black women in the framework of systemic racism.
Lizzo, whose real name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, added: “A lot of times I feel like we get distracted by the veneer of things. If things appear to be better, but they’re not actually better, we lose our sense of protest,” she said, making sure to mention Taylor, Sandra Bland and the women who often get dropped from the conversation.
— Los Angeles Times
FAA: Ford can still fly
The Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday that it has cleared Harrison Ford to continue flying, after the actor completed remedial training prompted by an incident in April when he had crossed a runway by accident.
Ford’s representatives said that on April 24, he had “crossed the airport’s only runway in his aircraft after he misheard a radio instruction” from the control tower. “He immediately acknowledged the mistake and apologized for the error,” the representatives said in a statement.
The agency said it closed the case after Ford, 78, completed “a remedial runway incursion training course.” Under agency rules, Ford was allowed to keep piloting during the investigation. In August, he flew his son Liam from California to Massachusetts for his return to Amherst College.
— New York Times
Doobies may sue Bill Murray
A lawyer for the Doobie Brothers is demanding that actor Bill Murray pay up for using one of the group’s hits in a commercial for his William Murray line of golf clothing.
“We’d almost be OK with it if the shirts weren’t so damn ugly,” the lawyer, Peter T. Paterno, wrote in a letter sent to Murray on Wednesday.
Murray, a regular participant in the annual pro-am tournament at the Pebble Beach Golf Links in California, started the business with his brothers in 2017.
On behalf of the Doobie Brothers, Paterno accused Murray of using the song “Listen to the Music,” an upbeat call for world peace that peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard chart in 1972, in an ad for a $50 polo called Zero Hucks Given.
The lawyer also said William Murray had used songs owned by other clients without permission.
“It seems like the only person who uses our clients’ music without permission more than you do is Donald Trump,” Paterno wrote.
— New York Times