The daily gossip: Ariana DeBose leaves Twitter after being brutally mocked for BAFTAs rap, Da Brat is expecting her 1st child at age 48, and more

1. Ariana DeBose leaves Twitter after being brutally mocked for BAFTAs rap

She wants to be in America, but on Twitter? Not so much. Ariana DeBose has been getting brutally mocked on social media after opening the BAFTAs with a cringeworthy rap. The West Side Story star sang about her love for the nominated women at the awards show, but not only did she sound out of breath while performing to a crowd that didn't appear super into it, but the lyrics were absurdly low effort, including the now infamous words "Angela Bassett did the thing." As a clip of the rap was widely dunked on, DeBose reportedly deactivated her Twitter account. BAFTAs producer Nick Bullen, meanwhile, defended the actress to Variety, calling the criticism of her performance "incredibly unfair." But he also inadvertently threw her under the bus by revealing that DeBose and her team "put the whole piece together." Gee, thanks dude! DeBose is now facing a five-year ban from musical theater for the crime of rhyming "genius" with "all of us."

Variety

2. Da Brat is expecting her 1st child at age 48

Prepare to meet Da Baby. Da Brat has revealed she's expecting her first child at age 48. The "Funkdafied" rapper and her wife, Jesseca "Judy" Harris-Dupart, shared the news with People. The two got married last year, and Harris-Dupart told People that when they decided to have kids together, they "had a little tug-o-war in the beginning" about the possibility of Da Brat carrying the child, but "I felt like she should have the experience." Harris-Dupart already has three kids. Considering her age, Da Brat, who previously suffered a miscarriage, noted she "never thought" she would have children and "felt like, because I didn't get pregnant earlier on, then it just wasn't going to happen for me." But "there's a lot of stuff we learned about women over the age of 40," she said. She may not have revealed her baby bump at the Super Bowl like Rihanna, but participating in a "gangster-inspired pregnancy photoshoot" for People is pretty good too.

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People

3. Jeremy Strong experienced '15 minutes of shame' after 'New Yorker' profile

Don't look now, but another Jeremy Strong profile has dropped — and he has some thoughts on that other profile. The Succession star chatted with GQ more than a year after an infamous New Yorker profile, which examined Strong's method acting process in a way that some of his famous friends felt unfairly made him sound ridiculous or unreasonable. Strong told GQ that this was his "15 minutes of shame," noting he "hadn't felt judged like that in a very long time." But he also vowed not to "adjust or compromise the way that I've worked my whole life" because of the reaction to the piece. Succession star Brian Cox previously questioned Strong's intense method acting process, though Strong doesn't sound bothered, telling GQ his co-star has "earned the right to say whatever the f--k he wants." Coincidentally, Town & Country published its own interview with Cox on Tuesday, in which he declares that working with someone who's always in character is "f--king annoying."

GQ Town & Country

4. Liam Neeson 'wasn't impressed' by his interview on 'The View'

It doesn't sound like Liam Neeson was taken with the ladies of The View during a recent appearance. Speaking with Rolling Stone, the actor said he found his interview on the talk show last week "just a bit embarrassing." A surprisingly substantial portion of the appearance was devoted to noting that Joy Behar has a crush on Neeson, and the show even played a montage of her repeatedly bringing him up over the years. Before the segment, Neeson recalled watching the hosts talk about "gun violence in America," so when he came out, "I was congratulating them on this discussion." But he told Rolling Stone he was disappointed when his segment started and it was "just all this BS with Joy [Behar] and Liam Neeson and having a crush, and I've known Whoopi for years and Joy a little bit, but I just wasn't impressed." Fake smiling his way through awkward interviews just isn't in his very particular set of skills.

Rolling Stone

5. The Oscars will now have a 'crisis team' in case another slap happens

Will we get a slap sequel next month? If so, the Academy insists it will actually know what to do this time. In an interview with Time, Academy CEO Bill Kramer revealed the organization has assembled a "whole crisis team" in case something like Will Smith's slap of Chris Rock occurs again at the 2023 Oscars. "We've run many scenarios," he said. "So it is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now but that we're planning for just in case it does happen." This crisis team is "something we've never had before," he noted. Kramer didn't provide details about what the team looks like, but we're assuming it's a group of Minority Report-style precogs who can identify would-be slappers in the audience — though in addition to unpredictable disasters, the group may want to also brace for the inevitable yearly disasters of the Academy's own making.

Time