Idina Menzel, AIDS Vaccines, Zambia, Bacon, Albino Alligator, Melania Trump, Shawn Mendes: HOT LINKS

IMPEACHMENT. White House refuses to participate in first House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. ‘The committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday titled “The Impeachment Inquiry into President Donald J. Trump: Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment.” The panel will hear from legal scholars as Democrats weigh whether the evidence turned up in their weeks-long impeachment inquiry warrants the drafting of articles aimed at removing the president from office.’

AMAZON. Leonardo DiCaprio responds after Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro accuses him of paying to have the rainforest burned.

HER TURF. New biography of Melania Trump’s discontent with Ivanka as well as “that she sleeps in a separate bed from the president, that she doesn’t really care about her “Be Best” anti-bullying campaign, and that her hospitalization for kidney problems in May 2018 was much more serious than the media had first reported.”

BE BEST. No blood red trees in Melania Trump’s White House decorations this year.

AIDS VACCINE? Three ongoing vaccine trials offer hope: “While any of these three late-stage HIV vaccine trials — known as HVTN 702, Imbokodo and Mosaico — could fail, scientists say they are more hopeful than at any time since 1984, when Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler raised hopes by predicting that there would be a test-worthy HIV vaccine within two years.”

ZAMBIA. U.S. Ambassador to Zambia blasts high court ruling sentencing two men to 15 years in prison for homosexuality: “I was personally horrified to read yesterday about the sentencing of two men, who had a consensual relationship, which hurt absolutely no one, to 15 years imprisonment,” he said in an emailed statement Friday. “Decisions like this oppressive sentencing do untold damage to Zambia’s international reputation by demonstrating that human rights in Zambia” are “not a universal guarantee.”

A NUMBER OF THINGS. Gayle King grills Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about meeting with Trump kept quiet by White House.

Q: What was the nature of your meeting with Trump? Can you say?

ZUCKERBERG: “Ah, sure, I mean, we talked about, ahm, a number of things that were on his mind, and, um, some of the topics that you’d read about in the news around, around, um, our work.” pic.twitter.com/b2rqHoZrn7

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 2, 2019

JOHN MCWHORTER. The woke attack on Pete Buttigieg: “Pique of this heat in this situation seems totally unjustified, unless you perceive Buttigieg’s comments as a form of blasphemy. It is as if Buttigieg gave a Christian sermon without mentioning God or Jesus, or listed only five Commandments. It’s one thing to observe that someone’s analysis is incomplete. It’s another to read that incompleteness as a kind of willful denial, sit in fury, and tar someone as a lying MF guilty of negligent homicide. As I’ve said before, this sort of response is more religious than rational; it bypasses the bounds of logic into the realm of imposed liturgy, of ritual: We are less to think than to pose and follow.”

ALABAMA. Rosa Parks statue unveiled: “This depiction will inspire future generations to make the pilgrimage to our city, to push toward the path of righteousness, strength, courage and equality,” said Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, who took office as the first African-American mayor of the city last month.

BRAZIL. Woman sentenced to 25 years for killing gay son: “Tatiana Ferreira Lozano Pereira is accused of stabbing her 17-year-old son, Itaberli Lozano, to death in Sao Paulo when hitmen failed to do the job in December 2016.”

DON’T CRY FOR ME. Shawn Mendes pulls an Evita in his underwear.

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Swipe for a BIG surprise To this team that has welcomed me with open arms, to Ryan for trusting this lil queer actor from Ohio with the role of a lifetime, to my team in New York cheering me on, and to my mom, for believing in me when I was just learning to believe in myself. Let’s GOOOOO!!!!

A post shared by Jo Ellen Pellman (@jellpell) on Nov 25, 2019 at 1:08pm PST

CASTING. Ryan Murphy casts queer actress Jo Ellen Pellman for lead role in The Prom: “Pellman will star as Emma, a high school senior in Indiana who is banned from taking her girlfriend to the prom. Following the controversial decision, four Broadway stars (Streep, Corden, Kidman, and Rannells), in an attempt to champion a good cause and not-so-coincidentally rehabilitate their careers, head to the small town to support Emma.”

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Pool days are great! #spa

A post shared by Stefan Petrov (@stefanpetrov) on Nov 30, 2019 at 7:31am PST

MALE MODEL MONDAY. Stefan Petrov, Chase Mattson, Armando Smith, Rafael Miller and more.

BATH OF THE DAY. NC’s albino alligator.

ICYMI: Albino alligator gets a good scrub in North Carolina pic.twitter.com/YgOddmB43m

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 1, 2019

CHRISTMAS VIDEO OF THE DAY. Idina Menzel and Billy Porter “I Got My Love To Keep Me Warm”.

BACON STUDY OF THE DAY. A look at the link between processed meat and cancer.

MONDAY MUSCLE. Zach Graves.

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set a goal to finish my new script by the end of this weekend. smashed that sh!t. dad’s finally free to leave my apartment now. what’s good? #jkgoingtobed

A post shared by zach g. (@zach_graves) on Dec 1, 2019 at 7:08pm PST

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Idina Menzel, AIDS Vaccines, Zambia, Bacon, Albino Alligator, Melania Trump, Shawn Mendes: HOT LINKS