The daily gossip: June 17, 2020

(Image credit: Manny Carabel/Getty Images for Kendra Scott)

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1. Becca Kufrin doesn't know about her future with Garrett Yrigoyen anymore
2. Kristen Stewart to play Princess Diana in a movie from the director of Jackie
3. 12-year-old This Is Us star Lonnie Chavis powerfully explains what it's like to be black in America
4. Lil Nas X reveals why he's kept his love of Nicki Minaj so secret
5. Madison Beer apologizes after saying she 'romanticizes' Lolita

published 17 June 2020

1. Becca Kufrin doesn't know about her future with Garrett Yrigoyen anymore

Another day, another news cycle about Becca Kufrin being on the defensive after her fiancé, Garrett Yrigoyen, said something offensive. The former Bachelorette told the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast on Tuesday that "for those who are curious about my relationship with Garrett at this point, all I can say right now is I don't know" after Yrigoyen felt compelled to share his support of the police amid the Black Lives Matter protests. Season 13 Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay has rightly pointed out to Kufrin that Yrigoyen's "Blue Lives Matter" post isn't "an isolated incident." And as Kurfrin confirmed to fans this week, "It's something that we are trying to work through and discuss and do work on at home at this time."

Could this be the role that lands Kristen Stewart an Academy Award nomination? The Twilight star has been cast as Princess Diana in Spencer, a new film from Jackie director Pablo Larraín. The movie takes place over three days around Christmas in the early 1990s, following Diana as she "decided her marriage to Prince Charles wasn't working, and that she needed to veer from a path that put her in line to one day be queen," Deadline writes. As far as casting Stewart as the lead, Larraín praised her as "one of the great actors around today" and someone who "can be very mysterious and very fragile an ultimately very strong as well, which is what we need."

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Twelve-year-old This Is Us star Lonnie Chavis published a powerful essay about his experiences with racism in People on Wednesday. In it, Chavis recalled how he once cried on set during a scene with a racist grandmother character. "The director … told me that they didn't need me to cry for the scene," Chavis wrote. "However, it was hard for me not to cry as I witnessed what I had just learned was my reality. I wasn't acting, I was crying for me." He also recalled being accused in a restaurant of trying to steal tips from a tip jar before a fan recognized him and set the cashier straight. Said Chavis, "I knew by experience that this nation will never take it easy on me."

On Tuesday night, a fan asked Lil Nas X why he's never admitted to being a part of the "Barbz," the name for Nicki Minaj's fanbase. "I didn't want people to know i was gay tbh," Lil Nas X wrote back, adding that "people will assume if you had an entire fan page dedicated to nicki u are gay. and the rap/music industry ain't exactly built or accepting of gay men yet." In addition to confirming the rumor that he is behind the fan account @nasmaraj, Lil Nas X earned a reply from Nicki herself. "It was a bit of a sting when you denied being a barb, but I understand," she replied on Wednesday. "Congratulations on building up your confidence to speak your truth."

Singer Madison Beer is apologizing after claiming earlier this week that she "romanticizes" Vladimir Nobokov's 1955 novel Lolita, in which a middle-aged professor abducts, and becomes sexually involved with, a 12-year-old girl. "It's … fake … Lolita is literally just a book I like," Beer tweeted after fans became upset, adding: "I was mainly kidding and I just love the book." Beer extended her apology, saying she does not "condone or romanticize a pedophilic relationship" and that she just happens to like "dark stories." Later, Beer issued an even further apology, saying she was "too flippant" the first time around, that she realizes now that the book is "triggering for some people," and that she plans to revisit Nobokov's novel "through a new lens."

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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.