The daily gossip: June 29, 2020

(Image credit: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

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1. A Colin Kaepernick drama series from Ava DuVernay is in the works at Netflix
2. Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli resign from fancy country club, lest it become known as a 'refuge' for felons
3. Maren Morris is totally amused that Chris Janson blocked her on Twitter
4. Katy Perry says 'gratitude' saved her life during 2017 split from Orlando Bloom
5. Michelle Obama honors Beyoncé at politics-filled BET Awards

published 29 June 2020

1. A Colin Kaepernick drama series from Ava DuVernay is in the works at Netflix

Colin Kaepernick is getting the Hollywood treatment from Selma director Ava DuVernay, who is working on a six-episode Netflix limited drama series about the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback. The show will be titled Colin in Black & White and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, will "examine Kaepernick's adolescent life, focusing on his high school years and the acts and experiences that led him to become the activist he is today." Kaepernick, who kickstarted the movement to kneel during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice, will produce and serve as narrator for the show. "It's an honor to bring these stories to life in collaboration with Ava for the world to see," Kaepernick said.

Break out the world's smallest, saddest violin for Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, who have "voluntarily resigned" from the Bel-Air Country Club in the wake of their plea deal in the college admissions scandal. Loughlin and Giannulli reportedly "felt like they had no choice" but to resign from the exclusive club — which has a $150,000 initiation fee — after a former club president wrote to the board claiming that merely suspending the couple's membership until after they served their time would make the Bel-Air a "laughingstock" and establish it as "a place of refuge and comfort for known felons." As an insider told People, Loughlin and Giannulli "didn't want to resign, but also felt they didn't want to be a part of drama and hostility."

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Maren Morris has been blocked by her former tourmate, Chris Janson, after retweeting criticism of the fellow country singer for playing a packed concert in Idaho in the midst of the pandemic. "Ummmmmm what did I DO?!" Morris tweeted Sunday night along with a series of laughing-crying emojis (Morris and Janson toured together in 2017, serving as opening acts for Sam Hunt). Morris had previously retweeted a photo of the packed and largely unmasked crowd at Janson's concert, and a message from the band the Mountain Goats that said "the people in this audience, along with the presenters of this show, are assuring that conscientious musicians won't be able to work their jobs for a while … and to be blunt, that f---ing sucks."

Katy Perry isn't sure she'd be alive today if it weren't for her "gratitude." Speaking to CBC Radio, Perry described a period in 2017, during her months-long breakup from her now-fiancé Orlando Bloom, when "I was excited about flying high off the next record." But the album, Witness, got mixed reviews and "the validation did not make me high, and so I just crashed … I had given so much out, and it literally like broke me in half." Perry went on to say that "gratitude is probably the thing that saved my life, because if I didn't find that I would have wallowed in my own sadness and probably just jumped." She added: "My hope is that something bigger than me created me for a purpose."

Former first lady Michelle Obama and Beyoncé might not have shared a physical stage during the virtual BET Awards on Sunday night, but their segment during the show will still give you chills. "I am here to talk about The Queen, you know the one," Obama said by way of introduction for Beyoncé, who was receiving the 2020 Humanitarian Award. Obama went on to praise the singer as someone whose music "gives voice to Black joy and Black pain" and whose activism "demands justice for Black lives." Beyoncé dedicated her award to those "marching and fighting for change" after the police killing of George Floyd, adding: "Your voices are being heard, and you're proving to our ancestors that their struggles were not in vain."

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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.