The daily gossip: The Hallmark Channel will have a Christmas movie about a same-sex couple this year, Dolly Parton has a beehive tattoo, and more

(Image credit: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images)

Jump to category:

1. The Hallmark Channel is making a Christmas movie about a same-sex couple
2. Dolly Parton has tattoos, but doesn't identify as a 'tattoo girl'
3. Derek Jeter helped inspire Mariah Carey to leave her first husband
4. Jennifer Garner has a very tall child
5. Gabrielle Union hosts all-Black Friends table read to encourage people to vote

published 23 September 2020

1. The Hallmark Channel is making a Christmas movie about a same-sex couple

The Hallmark Channel does not exactly have a reputation for being audacious in its programming. "Hallmark specializes in movies about single women who find love at Christmas, or families who reunite at Christmas, or families of single women who reunite and find love at Christmas," Vox has written. "The characters in these movies tend to be white … If you're of a progressive political bent, it's easy to feel vaguely discomfited by all of it." But this season is going to be different: The Christmas House, which premieres Nov. 22, will feature a same-sex couple. Mean Girls' Jonathan Bennett stars as Brandon, who visits his parents during the holidays with his husband, Jake, as they wait to hear about "the adoption of their first child." Get your tissues ready!

Dolly Parton has a way of turning rain into rainbows. And ribbons and bows and butterflies. The singer revealed to People that she has several "artful" tattoos, which she got to cover her scars, rather than to make a statement. "I like to make positives out of negatives," she said. In addition to the bows and butterflies, Parton has a tattoo of a yellow and brown beehive topped with a tiny bee, and is open to getting more ink. Though she doesn't have husband Carl Dean's name tattooed on her arm yet, she says "he's tattooed on my heart." Swoon.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Derek Jeter was the "catalyst" for Mariah Carey to leave her husband of five years, Tommy Mottola, in the late 1990s, the singer revealed in a teaser clip for The Oprah Conversation, which will air in full on Thursday. "He was a catalyst that helped me get out of that relationship because I believed that there was somebody else," said Carey, 50, who famously had a fling with the New York Yankee before going on to marry her second husband, Nick Cannon, in 2008. She added: "Honestly, I don't think it was like, 'Oh my gosh, he was the love of my life.' … But he was a catalyst. And I think that it was beautiful." Carey also confirmed to Oprah that Jeter "got a few songs," too.

Kids! They grow up — and up — so fast. New paparazzi photos reveal that Jennifer Garner's oldest child, 14-year-old Violet, is "already towering over her famous mom," Hollywood Life writes. While that is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration — Violet Affleck looks to be approximately the same height as her 5'8" mother — she does seem to have gotten her 6'4" dad's genes in the height department. The good news for Garner, 48, at least, is that she still has some inches left on children Samuel, 8, and Seraphina, 11 (as well as on their cat, who also joins the family on their oft-photographed walks, and won't be making any gains soon).

Content is king of quarantine, and Hollywood has left us with no shortage of virtual table reads to enjoy. In the latest Zoom Where it Happens, an initiative launched by Black women to encourage Americans to vote, Gabrielle Union narrated a Friends table read featuring an all-Black cast. Sterling K. Brown and his wife Ryan Michelle Bathe were the real-life Ross and Rachel of our dreams, and Cynthia Erivo performed a stunning a capella rendition of "I'll Be There For You," which we need available to download ASAP. The group read the episode "The One Where No One's Ready," but Aisha Hinds, who read as Monica, noted she has never been more ready to vote. "I will be voting super duper early ... So I can't wait."

Explore More

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.