The daily gossip: Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker are engaged, Adele to sit down with Oprah Winfrey, and more

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1. It's happening: Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker are engaged
2. Adele will sit down with Oprah to discuss '30,' weight loss, and life after divorce
3. 'Succession' star Sarah Snook secretly got married to her best friend
4. L.A. County wants Vanessa Bryant to take a psychiatric exam in lawsuit
5. GOP spokesman encourages Cardi B to keep speaking her mind

published 18 October 2021

1. It's happening: Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker are engaged

Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker have pledged to make us slightly uncomfortable with their PDA forever. On Sunday, TMZ shared pictures of the Blink-182 drummer popping the question to Kourtney "at a beachside hotel in Montecito" surrounded by roses, candles, and people walking their dog. Kourtney later confirmed the news on her Instagram ("forever @travisbarker") where many of the comments proceeded to speculate about how Kourt's ex of nine years, Scott Disick, is taking the news (though Kourtney and Scott were never engaged, Scott did pick out a wedding ring in 2011 only for Kourtney to brush off his proposal). Travis, 45, has been dating Kourtney, 42, since January, Page Six reports, noting that they've "been friends and neighbors for many years."

Clear your schedule: The next can't miss Oprah interview drops on Nov. 14. Scheduled for five days before the release of Adele's highly-anticipated next album 30, Adele One Night Only is set to air on CBS and will include the singer's sit-down with Oprah Winfrey as well as performances of some of her new songs off her forthcoming album. Like the famous interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the interview portion will be an intimate conversation in Oprah's rose garden and mark "Adele's first televised wide-ranging conversation about her new album, the stories behind the songs, life after divorce, weight loss, and raising her son," the announcement says. The rest of the two-hour special will feature Adele's performances in Los Angeles. Hello, yes.

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It might have been a disappointing weekend for Team Shiv — she's still not CEO of Waystar Royco! — but a great one for fans of the actress who plays her on Succession, Sarah Snook. The 33-year-old Australian actress revealed to Vogue that she secretly got married this winter. "At the beginning of the pandemic last year, I got locked down in Melbourne with one of my best mates and we fell in love," she said, referring to Australian comedian Dave Lawson. "We've been friends since 2014, lived together, traveled together, always excited to see each other, but totally platonic. We've just never been single at the same time," she went on. "I proposed and we got married in February in my backyard." Snook's Succession co-star Ash Zukerman (who plays Nate, with whom Shiv has an affair on the show) served as one of the witnesses. "We had matching Blunnies," she gushed of she and Dave — for Americans, that means "Blundstones."

In response to Vanessa Bryant's lawsuit against Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department over photos taken at the site of the helicopter crash that killed her husband, Kobe Bryant, daughter Gianna, and seven others, the county has requested that she undergo an independent psychiatric evaluation. Yes, really. Bryant filed her lawsuit in September 2020, eight months after the accident; the suit claims that Bryant was assured that the crash site was secure and no unauthorized photos would get out, but that deputies "showed off" the pictures they took, causing Bryant severe emotional distress. On Friday, Los Angeles County filed a motion that Bryant go through the psychiatric evaluation to prove that it was the leak of the photos that caused her distress, rather than the death of her husband and daughter. Bryant's attorneys rightly pushed back, calling the demand "scorched earth discovery tactics" meant to scare Bryant into dropping her lawsuit.

The Republican Party apparently wants Cardi B to keep talking politics. Last week, the rapper claimed that she'd stopped speaking out publicly about her beliefs because "I was tired of getting bullied by the Republicans and also getting bashed by the same people I was standing up for." Cardi B was a registered Republican for four years but switched parties in 2014, according to Board of Elections records obtained by the New York Daily News; she's previously endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders and suggested she might run to "be a part of Congress herself" since "I deada-- have sooo much ideas that make sense." Over the weekend, Paris Dennard, a GOP spokesman, told TMZ that Cardi "should continue talking politics because if she stops, young people will see this and also become scared to express themselves for fear of backlash from Democrats and Republicans alike." He added, according to TMZ, that backlash shouldn't silence her "because having an influencer like herself sets an example for others."

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.