Names and faces
Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, are now the parents of two children, making Pete the first openly gay Cabinet secretary to become a parent while in office. “We are delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our family,” Buttigieg, 39, said Saturday on social media, sharing a photo of his daughter and son — the couple seated on a hospital bed, smiling as they each cradle a newborn. Pete Buttigieg surfaced in national politics when he entered the presidential race in 2019 as mayor of South Bend, Ind. This year, he and Chasten, 32, moved to Washington after Pete became transportation secretary, making him the first openly gay Cabinet member to be confirmed by the Senate. Since Buttigieg entered the national spotlight, they have often sought to upend perceptions of gay relationships. “People are accustomed to politics looking a different way, and you’re here to make sure that, you know, it can look a different way,” Chasten Buttigieg has said. He wrote a memoir published in June about growing up gay in the Midwest, and he recently said the couple were navigating the process of starting a family. Activists say the Buttigieges could reshape assumptions of gay fatherhood. “As parents, they will now shine a national spotlight on LGBTQ families, who often face daunting challenges because of outdated policies that narrowly define what families are,” said Annise Parker, president of the Victory Institute, which helps prepare LGBTQ people to run for office.
Tom Cruise won’t be soaring again anytime soon. Paramount Pictures has postponed the release of “Top Gun: Maverick,” sending another of the fall’s top movies out of 2021 because of the resurgent coronavirus. Instead of opening in November, the “Top Gun” sequel will debut Memorial Day weekend next year. Additionally, “Mission: Impossible 7” will be delayed from May to September next year. It’s just the latest setback for Hollywood’s once-hopeful fall movie season as the pandemic upends the industry’s plans for some return to normalcy at multiplexes. The flight of “Maverick” follows delays for Paramount’s “Clifford the Big Red Dog” and “Jackass Forever,” and other studios have followed suit.