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On Tuesday, Precious and Empire star Gabourey Sidibe took to Instagram to announce that she is engaged to Brandon Frankel. While announcing the news, the actor also gave viewers a glance at the stunning engagement ring.

Sidibe started the caption, which was posted alongside a video and a photo of the couple, by writing that people thought they were married. “It’s weird,” she wrote, “but I guess our hearts and intentions for each other are just that clear to see.”

She continued, “My BFF proposed and now I get to hold him forever. The funniest man I’ve ever met. The sweetest human to exist.” The post concluded with Sidibe saying she feels “grateful and excited to learn more about the entire world with him by my side.”

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A post shared by Gabby Sidibe 👸🏿 (@gabby3shabby)

The head of strategic partnerships in music at Cameo popped the question with an elegant ring featuring a round center diamond on a delicate white gold, pavé band. According to Brilliant Earth’s SVP of Merchandising and Retail Expansion, Kathryn Money, it appears to be a 1.5-to-2-carat diamond. “Depending on the quality and specific characteristics of the center stone, we estimate the cost of the engagement ring between approximately $15,000 to $40,000.”

With her engagement, Sidibe joins a long list of celebrities boasting a round diamond on their ring fingers. This year alone, The Royals star Alexandra Park added one — on a white gold band — to her jewelry box courtesy of One Tree Hill alum James Lafferty. Glee star-turned-producer Jenna Ushkowitz‘s boyfriend David Stanley also proposed with a round diamond ring set on a yellow gold band.

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As a treat, on the day before Thanksgiving, members of the Trump administration planned to head to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for a hearing on unproven election fraud claims. President Trump was reported to be joining his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani — the now infamous host of Four Seasons-gate — who seeks to continue leading the unsuccessful legal charge and prove that Democrats “stole” the Presidential election. However, on Wednesday morning, it was announced that Boris Epshteyn, who was with Giuliani at a presser last week, had tested positive for coronavirus, raising questions about whether Giuliani would be able to travel to the hearing.

The hearing is currently scheduled to be held by the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee at the request of Republican Senator Doug Mastriano and is being labeled a “public hearing,” despite most reports listing it as just a press conference. “Pennsylvanians have lost faith in the electoral system” as a result of “issues experienced at the polls, irregularities with the mail-in voting system and concerns whether their vote was counted,” Mastriano said in a press statement. He added that he had heard complaints from “thousands of Pennsylvanians,” though it was unclear who, why, or when.

In case this meeting of the minds needed to be any more theatrical, it’s scheduled to be held at the Wyndham Hotel in Gettysburg — which Google, Expedia, and Hotels.com list as a 3.5-star hotel. In Gettysburg. The fact that this hearing is being held in Gettysburg is an ironic and horrifying twist, as it is the site of the gruesome Civil War battle. This was not lost on observers, who suggested that Trump and the Republicans were once again trying to undermine democracy and galvanize their voter base to believe the election results are somehow fraudulent. “White supremacists want to lose at Gettysburg AGAIN?” tweeted CNN analyst Joan Walsh. “MAGA indeed.”

This is also not the first time Trump has tried to hold an event in Gettysburg. In August, the outgoing president and former reality star suggested the Pennsylvania town as a site for his party nomination acceptance speech, which also incurred the wrath of Twitter and other pundits, though it’s of little surprise that he would attempt this again.

If the event does happen and Trump still attends, it would be his first trip out of the Washington, D.C. area since the November 3 election. Since the election, Giuliani and Trump have been working hard to push the narrative — for which they have yet to produce compelling evidence — that President-elect Joe Biden’s victory is illegitimate. Trump’s legal team has filed a series of lawsuits that continue to be dismissed and eviscerated by judges across the country. “It’s beyond an embarrassment,” lawyer Glenn Kirschner told NBC News of Giuliani and Trump’s legal efforts to overturn the election results. “It’s both really poor lawyering and it has the worst possible motive behind it.”

Many lawyers have asked to be removed from Trump’s legal cases related to the election, including a lawsuit in Pennsylvania, which Giuliani personally argued in court after the rest of the attorneys dropped out of the case. Giuliani’s argument was riddled with errors, including forgetting the name of the judge who was hearing the case. In his opinion dismissing the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann wrote that Trump’s legal team presented “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations” that were not supported by any evidence. Mr. Giuliani has pledged to appeal and continue the legal fight.

While Trump seems to be (finally) coming to terms with the fact that he lost the election, he is still using mouthpieces — like Giuliani, and his Large Adult Sons — to suggest otherwise. Here’s to hoping the event is canceled and we can avoid yet another gruesome press conference with Rudy at center stage.

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A little over a year ago, Meghan Markle was asked if she was okay by a reporter. It sounds like a standard question, but it’s one the Duchess of Sussex hadn’t heard throughout multiple media interviews. “Thank you for asking,” Markle said at the time, detailing her struggle to transition to royal life and the media scrutiny of becoming a new mother. “Not many people have asked if I’m OK.”

Markle’s raw and honest response was something we rarely see from the famously buttoned-up royal family. And now, Markle is breaking from tradition and sharing her truth once again — this time about the devastating pregnancy loss she and Prince Harry experienced in July.

In an essay for The New York Times published this morning, Markle writes about the moment she knew she was losing her second child while holding her son, Archie. “Hours later, I lay in a hospital bed, holding my husband’s hand,” she writes. “I felt the clamminess of his palm and kissed his knuckles, wet from both our tears. Staring at the cold white walls, my eyes glazed over. I tried to imagine how we’d heal.”

Markle wrote that she hoped sharing her loss would encourage the many families who have also experienced this pain, citing a study from the Mayo Clinic that 10 to 20 percent of pregnancies result in miscarriage. “Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few,” Markle writes. “Yet despite the staggering commonality of this pain, the conversation remains taboo, riddled with (unwarranted) shame, and perpetuating a cycle of solitary mourning.”

Markle thanked those who have also shared their stories, including a wave of public figures like Chrissy Teigen, Kate Beckinsale, Beyoncé, Kate Mara, and Hope Solo. “They have opened the door, knowing that when one person speaks truth, it gives license for all of us to do the same,” Markle wrote. “We have learned that when people ask how any of us are doing, and when they really listen to the answer, with an open heart and mind, the load of grief often becomes lighter — for all of us. In being invited to share our pain, together we take the first steps toward healing.”

Sharing in grief can be incredibly powerful, and remind people that they don’t have to suffer alone. “Everyone shares and grieves differently, but being open and sharing your story makes you realize how many others have been in the same or similar situations,” Lilli Dash Zimmerman, MD, fertility specialist at Columbia University Fertility Center, previously told Refinery29.

Markle notes that along with pregnancy loss, there are many other traumas people are grappling with this year, including the hundreds of thousands of lives lost to COVID-19, the anxiety and isolation of a global pandemic, racial injustice and the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd at the hands of police, and widespread political unrest. “In places where there was once community, there is now division,” she writes.

Markle encouraged readers to take a moment, this Thanksgiving and beyond, to start asking each other if we’re okay and really listening to the answer. A small gesture, and a seemingly small question, can go much further than we think. And with a year as isolating as this one, it sounds like a good start.

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If there’s one thing Twitter is gonna do, it’s get mad over Grammy nominations. I am including myself in the royal “we” of the bird app because minutes after the 2021 Grammy nominations dropped, I, too, was yelling into the void about how wrong certain categories were.

No women in the Best R&B Album category? How dare you, Recording Academy!

Completely shutting out Canadian King Abel Tesfaye (better known as The Weeknd)? The nerve!

And even when the award show does something I agree with, like nominate Beyoncé for the most Grammys this year (nine in total) making her the most nominated female artist of all time, I remember how little they actually reward Queen Bey (she has yet to win the coveted Album of the Year) and get mad all over again. 

This happens every year. 

The Grammys’ women problem is notorious and well documented. Even worse, though, is its Black women problem. The awards have a terrible track record when it comes to recognizing rap music and the Black artists who make it (remember when Macklemore beat Kendrick Lamar for Best Rap Album? #NeverForget). They also love relegating Black stars to the “urban” categories. One theory about why The Weeknd was shut out is that voters couldn’t decide if he was Pop or R&B. He’s also expressed in the past that the Grammy groupings are “not fair” to Black artists. So yeah, the show that is supposed to recognize the best in music also has wildly confusing classifications that make it even harder for us to win. 

The outrage over the 2021 Best R&B Album category is warranted (John Legend, Luke James, Gregory Porter, Giveon, and Ant Clemons make up the all male nominees), but in the Best Progressive R&B Album category — again, whatever that means — Chloe x Halle and Jhené Aiko each got nods. Beyoncé and H.E.R are also inexplicably represented in another R&B grouping (Best R&B song), but not the others. In a year when Black women dominated the charts, Aiko is still the only Black female artist nominated for the general category of Album of the Year. Culture writer Ivie Ani has also noted how frustrating and archaic the term “World Music” is (they recently changed it to “Global Music” so, um, same). To recap: the Grammys are saddled with silly categorizations, plagued with years of winners that do not hold up, and consistently trap us in an outrage cycle every time they announce their nominations. So, why do we care again? 

The R&B girls carrrrried this past year & to not see it reflect in the nominations is a little weird.

— Nij (@amnija_) November 24, 2020

The Grammy nominations used to really matter to me. The 1996 Grammy nominees album was very important to my adolescent development as a pre-teen pop music junkie. I dare you to go down that track list and not find an eternal bop (“Waterfalls!” “Gangsta’s Paradise!” “You Oughta Know!”), but we also didn’t have Twitter back then (I can just imagine the discourse over the inclusion of Hootie & The Blowfish). We also didn’t specifically have the necessary chorus of Black Twitter to hold white institutions accountable for their love of misogynoir and their obsession with sleepy albums by white dudes (Nicki Minaj has entered the chat).

Back then, the Recording Academy told us what to like. It was back when the Grammys actually maybe had an impact on charts. If they did in 2020, first-time nominees BTS wouldn’t be the biggest boyband in the world. So, we know that the Grammys are waning in cultural relevance and that the show has even been heavily criticized for its voting practices (there have been strong arguments for its winners being rigged, which The Grammys deny), most recently by The Weeknd himself in reaction to his album After Hours being snubbed. There are rumors the shutout has to do with The Grammys forcing him to choose between performing at their show or the Super Bowl. (The Grammy Chief denies any corruption, while reps from Super Bowl have not yet commented.) If true, the Grammys gave a Black artist an ultimatum and then blocked him from accolades he deserves. It’s shocking, but also not surprising.

The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…

— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) November 25, 2020

If we know all this, why do we — music critics, general fans of pop culture — still get all riled up when the Recording Academy shows up and shows us who they are over and over again? 

Is it because the artists still clearly care — a lot? Watching Megan Thee Stallion giddily find out about her noms during the nomination livestream was so heartwarming I may have teared up a little. And while Kehlani took the high road with her now-deleted tweets about her snubs, Justin Bieber took the opposite approach. 

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A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber)

Bieber really cares that, even though he nabbed four noms, he was shut out of the genre he has been expertly appropriating for years. His now viral statement is hilarious for many reasons. First of all, someone needs to tell Bieber that “Yummy” is definitely a pop song and second, that his best R&B album was actually Journals, not current nominee Changes. Mostly, someone should tell Bieber that in a year that saw women dominate R&B — Kehlani, Jhené Aiko, Teyana Taylor, and Summer Walker are literally on this month’s cover of Billboard being hailed as “powering an R&B renaissance” — that he should step aside and let Black artists be great in the Grammy categories that actually acknowledge them. That said, there’s a solid case for the fact that Black artists shouldn’t have to wait around for a historically racist institution to give them crumbs when most of these genres they shut us out of were created by Black musicians in the first place (see the origin stories of country, techno and rock). For the lesser known Black artists who did get noms this year, we shouldn’t be waiting for white gatekeepers to validate them. If we all tapped out, the Recording Academy wouldn’t have the power it does. So, again, why don’t we? Aside from the Twitter rage, maybe the answer is that we already have. 

New York Times music reporter Joe Coscarelli tweeted a theory about why the Grammys don’t have the same cache as The Oscars: 

my only generalized theory is that active music obsessives tend to be Young (and the Grammys are bad at that) while active movie obsessives tend to be Old (and the Oscars are better at that)

— Joe Coscarelli (@joecoscarelli) November 24, 2020

I think he’s onto something, but I would add that “music obsessives” are not only young, but they are also Black. And how long can you love something that refuses to love you back? At this point, maybe the thing the Grammys are best at is providing us with the annual comforting tradition of all-caps yelling on social media about all the ways they messed up — again— and that’s it. 

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Rounding into month nine of quarantine, chances are your hair looks different than it did last winter. Maybe you've quit the salon altogether and leaned into long hair, pulling it up in a claw-clip chignon for your Zoom calls. Or maybe the time at home has inspired you to get creative, experimenting with a new blow-out technique or getting braids for the first time.

However your relationship with your hair has changed, and whatever its current status, you'll feel inspired by one of the budding hairstyle trends rolling out of the safely-reopened salons in New York and L.A this winter. From a new accessory to wear to your next Q4 planning meeting to a simple ponytail upgrade that will impress everyone in your Trader Joe's line, find a five-part winter hairstyling guide, ahead.

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Sadhguru joins Nikki to discover the limitless exuberance of joy, uncover the ecstasy beneath mental suffering and tackle the problem of modern-day anxiety.

An internationally renowned speaker and author of the New York Times Bestseller Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide To Joy, Sadhguru has been an influential voice at major global forums including the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, addressing issues as diverse as socioeconomic development, leadership and spirituality. He has also been invited to speak at leading educational institutions, including Oxford, London Business School, IMD, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Wharton and MIT. Sadhguru was the recipient of the Padma Vibhushan Award by the Government of India, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service. More info: Sadhguru.org

 

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Defining Joy: Limitless Exuberance

How can our definition of joy effect our relationship to it? Instead of seeing joy as an elusive spiritual goal to achieve, Sadhguru and Nikki help redefine joy as an innate, base, blissful exuberance in our lives. Viewing joy through this lens of subjective exuberance, it cannot be identified objectively as a practice, philosophy, ideology, or a Godsend; but rather an intrinsic backdrop to the human experience – an experience marked by the longing to expand beyond limits.

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CURLYNIKKI, Khareem Sudlow