The daily gossip: June 9, 2020

(Image credit: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)

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1. Bravo fires 4 Vanderpump Rules stars
2. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves make their long-awaited return as Bill and Ted
3. Natalie Portman's 'first reaction' to #DefundThePolice 'was fear'
4. Katy Perry accidentally blurted out that she was pregnant to Harry Styles before it was public
5. Daniel Radcliffe addresses Harry Potter fans whose love of the books was 'tarnished' by J.K. Rowling

published 9 June 2020

1. Bravo fires 4 Vanderpump Rules stars

A little spring cleaning is happening over at Vanderpump Rules! On Tuesday, Bravo confirmed that original cast members Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute will not be returning to the show after their former co-star Faith Stowers — Vanderpump Rules' only black cast member to date — claimed the pair once called the police on her. Faith alleged Stassi and Kristen targeted her over her affair with Jax Taylor, "calling me names, saying my hair was nappy," as well as telling the police Faith looked like a local robbery suspect. Bravo additionally confirmed that new cast members Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni will not be returning to the show due to their previously-unearthed racist tweets (and despite Lisa Vanderpump refusing to fire them after their apologies).

Excellent! The first trailer for the long-awaited third Bill & Ted movie, Bill & Ted Face the Music, dropped on Tuesday, giving us a look at Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter back in the roles almost 30 years after the last film. The sequel picks up all that time later to see Bill and Ted tasked with writing a song to save the universe. In the trailer, the friends devise a brilliant plan: travel to the future to steal the song from themselves after they've already written it. Whoa. If a summer release date turns out to be possible, you'll be able to party on with Bill and Ted for the first time since the early '90s — albeit in a limited-capacity theater, and hopefully masked up — on August 21.

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Like lots of people, Natalie Portman was confused by what it means to "defund the police." "I have to admit, my first reaction was fear," the actress wrote on Instagram. "My whole life, police have made me feel safe." But as Portman explained, "that's exactly the center of my white privilege: the police make me as a white woman feel safe, while my black friends, family, and neighbors feel the opposite: police make them feel terror." Portman's lengthy post went on to ask followers to imagine the world if we "invested in nourishing people … rather than putting all our money into punishment." As she emphasized, "this concept initially made me uncomfortable because I was wrong. Because the system that makes me feel comfortable is wrong."

Speaking on BBC Radio 1 on Tuesday, Katy Perry admitted that she accidentally told Harry Styles the news about her pregnancy before it was even public. "We were having a conversation [on an airplane] and I was like, 'Yeah, and I'm pregnant,' just off the cuff — 'cause I was like, 'What else do you say?'" Perry recalled. "I was crouching down by his seat on the plane and once I had told him that, he got up out of his seat and he's like, 'Here, sit in my seat.' And I was like, 'No! I'll just go and sit in my own seat, which is right across the way' … But he's a complete gentleman." Perry's daughter with her fiancé, Orlando Bloom, is expected later this summer.

Recent transphobic tweets from J.K. Rowling have now drawn pushback from the boy who lived himself. Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter in the movies, added his voice to the chorus, writing for The Trevor Project that "transgender women are women" and "any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people." Radcliffe also acknowledged fans who say Rowling's comments have "tarnished or diminished" their experience with the series. "If you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred," he wrote. "And in my opinion nobody can touch that."

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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.