The daily gossip: Actor Elliot Page shares he's transgender, Cher helps save the world's loneliest elephant, and more

1. Oscar-nominated Juno star Elliot Page announces he's transgender

Oscar-nominated actor Elliot Page shared with his fans on Tuesday that he is transgender. "I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life," he wrote, adding that "the more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I dream, the more my heart grows and the more I thrive." Page was previously credited as Ellen Page for his work in Juno, which earned him an Academy Award nomination, and more recently Netflix's The Umbrella Academy. "I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey," he added in his letter. "I can't begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self."

Variety Instagram

2. Cher helps save the world's loneliest elephant

Cher jetted to Pakistan over the weekend to meet Kaavan, the world's loneliest elephant. Kaavan spent 35 years in a meager half-acre enclosure at a zoo in Pakistan, and has been alone since he lost his female companion elephant in 2012, contributing to the deterioration of his mental and physical health. Cher advocated for Kaavan's release and helped make it happen by paying for his relocation through her charity, Free the Wild. Kaavan's nightmare ended with a lullaby from Cher, as she serenaded him with Cinderella's "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" and fed him before he hopped on a plane to Cambodia, where he will meet three female elephants and have 25,000 acres to roam, living happily ever after.

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3. Mary-Kate Olsen and Olivier Sarkozy probably regret the writing on their ceiling

Mary-Kate Olsen and Olivier Sarkozy are in the process of getting divorced, which involves selling their $13.5 million Manhattan townhouse. Like most divorces, it is sad to see a relationship come to an end: Olsen and Sarkozy — who is 20 years her senior — had been a couple for eight years and married for five. But it's all the more regretful when the house at the center of the reportedly "bitter" divorce proceedings features ceiling panels with messages that take on "a different meaning now that [the couple has] broken up," The Daily Mail reports. One panel, in French, reads, "Go away, go, go, worry, care and melancholia," while a Spanish panel says, "Those who lose today will win tomorrow." Well, that's one way to think about your pre-nup?

The Daily Mail Tatler

4. Los Angeles mayor confirms the She's All That remake isn't actually more important than COVID-19 testing

For about nine hours on Monday, it appeared that the COVID-19 testing site at Union Station in Los Angeles was going to be closed on Tuesday in order to accommodate shooting the She's All That remake starring TikTok celeb Addison Rae. The disruption meant that the 504 people who were scheduled for a test on Tuesday at the site needed to find an alternate location to get tested. "If you wrote this (hopefully, exceedingly minor) subplot into a YA series about the pandemic, everyone would think it was too stupid to be real," observed Indiewire's Kate Erbland. Eventually Mayor Eric Garcetti announced he'd arranged for the site to stay open on Tuesday, thereby confirming that no, the show doesn't always have to go on.

Deadline Indiewire

5. Obama admits he messed up in not giving Dolly Parton the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Barack Obama was the President of the United States for eight years, and somehow never got around to giving Dolly Parton a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Obama admitted to Stephen Colbert on the Late Show that this was a mistake. "That was a screw-up. I'm surprised. I think I assumed that she had already got one, and that was incorrect. She deserves one," Obama said. In the time since he's left office, Parton has only done more good for the world, namely funding a coronavirus vaccine and donating one million books per month to children around the world. Don't worry, this is one wrong Obama is working to right: "I'll call Biden," he said.

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