The daily gossip: Mindy Kaling had a secret baby, city approves renaming its waste-treatment facility after John Oliver, and more

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1. Mindy Kaling had a secret baby with a secret father
2. City council votes in favor of renaming its waste-treatment facility after John Oliver
3. Actor Édgar Ramírez tells Nicole Kidman about the time he was kidnaped
4. Christina Anstead bought a giant post-divorce yacht called Aftermath
5. At least 1 probably real person has now voted for Kanye West

published 9 October 2020

1. Mindy Kaling had a secret baby with a secret father

Mindy Kaling took "having a secret baby" to the next level, by having a secret baby with a secret father. On Thursday's episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Mindy Project star revealed she gave birth to a son, Spencer, on Sept. 3, having not told anyone she was pregnant (turns out quarantine does have an upside, since "no one saw me," she explained). Spencer joins older sister Katherine, 3, whose father is also unknown. Jezebel 's Megan Reynolds is sourcing speculation, writing that "obviously Mindy is entitled to her privacy," but that "I have my theories [about who the father is], but they are likely the same as your theories, so I want to hear some NEW names that do not rhyme with Sneejay Blovak."

The city council of Danbury, Connecticut, voted "overwhelmingly" to rename its sewage plant after John Oliver as part of an ongoing good-natured feud with the Last Week Tonight host. In August, Oliver had joked during a segment, "if you're going to forget a town in Connecticut, why not forget Danbury? Because, and this is true, f--k Danbury!" Oliver picked the wrong mayor to mess with, though; Danbury's Mark Boughton retaliated by announcing the city would rename its waste-treatment facility the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant "because it's full of crap, just like you, John." Now it's a done deal: "Congratulations, Mr. Oliver," the mayor said after the city council vote. "You now have a poop plant named after you."

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Speaking with Nicole Kidman for Interview Magazine, Venezuela-born actor Édgar Ramírez revealed that he was kidnaped while he was living in Bogotá. Ramírez, who stars with Kidman in HBO's The Undoing, said it was "like in a movie," with his captors wielding "submachine guns." "It was for about three hours," Ramírez recalled. "But then they let me go. At the time, though, when they found out that it was me, that I was an actor — well, it was a flipped coin. Thankfully … they said, 'No, this guy's too big for us to hide him, so let's just let him go." Ramírez added "the worst thing" wasn't "the violence or the fear of getting killed, it's the arrogance … That's why I don't take anything for granted."

4. Christina Anstead bought a giant post-divorce yacht called Aftermath

Christina Anstead knows there are other fish in the sea, and she's setting off to find them. The 37-year-old HGTV star revealed this week that she has bought an enormous boat — aptly named Aftermath — following her announcement last month that she is splitting from her husband of two years, Ant Anstead. Christina celebrated the purchase of the 52-foot luxury vessel on Instagram, posing with two bottles of champagne. As she's explained previously, "Instead of getting stuck in these 'setbacks,' I choose to look at these challenges as opportunities to grow." Fair winds and following seas, Christina!

Kanye West's wildly unrealistic presidential bid has been called everything from a publicity stunt to a mental health crisis to a ploy to help Donald Trump win re-election. But at least one person is apparently on board with it! On Twitter, the rapper shared a photo of a ballot with a filled-in bubble next to his hand-written name. "Friends writing me in," he captioned the picture. We'll go ahead and give West the benefit of the doubt and assume by "friends" he means actual real people, not like that girlfriend you have in Canada or the friends who are just out of frame, laughing too. And definitely not, uh, himself!

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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.