Carly Rae Jepsen, The Arctic, Antoni Porowski, Kamala Harris, George and Amal Clooney, SPLC, Ben Affleck: HOT LINKS<\/b><\/p>\n
KAMALA HARRIS<\/strong>. On Mike Pence<\/a>: \u201cI disagree with most of what the vice president stands for when he makes decisions about our LGBTQ community in a way that doesn\u2019t understand they should be entitled to full equality and rights under the law as any other American. I disagree with him when he suggests it\u2019s not possible to have meetings with women<\/a> alone by himself. I think that\u2019s ridiculous \u2014 the idea that you would deny a professional woman<\/a> the opportunity to have a meeting with the vice president of the United States is outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n RICK GATES<\/strong>. Mueller postpones sentencing due to<\/a> \u201d several ongoing investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n BETO O\u2019ROURKE<\/strong>. Former teenage hacker<\/a>: \u201cMembers of the group have protected O\u2019Rourke\u2019s secret for decades, reluctant to compromise his political viability. Now, in a series of interviews, CDC members have acknowledged O\u2019Rourke as one of their own. In all, more than a dozen members of the group agreed to be named for the first time in a book about the hacking group by this reporter that is scheduled to be published in June by Public Affairs. O\u2019Rourke was interviewed early in his run for the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n CORY BOOKER<\/strong>. Is dating Rosario Dawson<\/a>: \u201cIt didn\u2019t take much prodding before Dawson said it was true and began gushing over her man<\/a>, calling him an amazing human being and saying their relationship is a wonderful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n AS PREDICTED<\/strong>. Tumblr lost more than 100 million views since instituting draconian porn policy<\/a>. \u201cAccording to data from web analytics firm SimilarWeb, Tumblr\u2019s problems started, predictably, with its adult content ban. In December, it was flying high, with approximately 521 million pageviews that month. 30 days later, that had dropped to just 437 million.\u201d<\/p>\n CLOONEY FOUNDATION FOR JUSTICE<\/strong>. George and Amal Clooney put \u00a0women, children, LGBTQ people, religious minorities and journalists as focus of their international charity<\/a>.<\/p>\n RICHARD BLUMENTHAL<\/strong>. Trump\u2019s rhetoric a factor in New Zealand massacre<\/a>. \u201cWords have consequences like saying we have an invasion on our border and talking about people as though they were different in some fatal way. I think that the public discourse from the president on down is a factor in some of these actions.\u201d<\/p>\n THINGS ARE COOKING<\/strong>. For Antoni Porowski\u2019s cookbook<\/a>.<\/p>\n VARSITY BLUES<\/strong>. Lori Loughlin fired from all Hallmark Channel projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n USC<\/strong>. Gay athletic director fired after being indicted in Varsity Blues college admission scandal<\/a>: \u201cThe university on Tuesday fired senior associate athletic director Donna Heinel, one of the leaders of USC\u2019s LGBT Athletic committee, along with a long-serving coach, following the announcement of the indictments, according to the\u00a0Los Angeles Times.<\/a>The FBI arrested Heinel and USC water polo coach Jovan Vavic earlier on Tuesday. Heinel had been in charge of USC\u2019s athlete admissions for more than a decade and reportedly worked closely with several of the indicted current and former Trojans coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n TERMINATION<\/strong>. Southern Poverty Law Center fires chief litigator Morris Dees<\/a>: \u201cDees, 82, was terminated on Wednesday after he failed to meet the organization\u2019s standards, said Richard Cohen, the president of the Montgomery, Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), in a statement.\u201d<\/p>\n INEVITABLE<\/strong>. The arctic is warming at an extreme rate<\/a>: \u201cWinter temperatures at the north pole are likely to rise by at least 3C above pre-industrial levels by mid-century, and there could be further rises to between 5C and 9C above the recent average for the region, according to the UN.\u201d<\/p>\n ON THE RAG<\/strong>. This week on the gay magazines<\/a>.<\/p>\n PHOENIX RISING (FROM THE ASS)<\/strong>. Ben Affleck loves his massive back tattoo<\/a>.<\/p>\n KARAMO BROWN<\/strong>. Excited to go back to the Trump White House<\/a>: \u2018In the past three months, I\u2019ve worked with President Barack Obama twice. I visited the Trump White House [last year] and I met with Karen Pence\u2019s chief of staff with\u00a0Creative Coalition<\/a> [an arts advocacy nonprofit]. I\u2019m actually excited to go back to the Trump White House, because even though I didn\u2019t vote for them, I think it\u2019s important for us to find a space where we can talk to those who are different from us. That\u2019s what we do on \u201cQueer Eye.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n TRAILER OF THE DAY<\/strong>. Booksmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY<\/strong>. Carly Rae Jepsen \u201cNow That I Found You\u201d.<\/p>\n FRIDAY FACE<\/strong>. Arnaud Valois by Julien Mignot.<\/p>\n\n