JANELLE MONAE

Janelle Monáe Reckons The Grinch Ought To Have An Illegitimate Child In A New Movie Reboot

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Janelle Monae 2022
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When it comes to Halloween, Janelle Monáe is one of the best to ever put on a costume. Her high-effort looks wow every year, like when she came through with a Fifth Element-inspired get-up this past October. Monáe sat down for an interview on Late Night yesterday (December 14) and Seth Meyers went through some of her best costumes, including her pitch-perfect The Grinch from 2021. Here’s that in case you need a refresher:

Meyers brought that up and Monáe referred to it as “Johnny Grinch,” then revealing that she had an idea for a Grinch reboot movie. After Meyers’ prompting, she explained, “If you go on my page, you’ll see the Johnny Grinch is, like, this sort of hipster. Like, you know, vegan and green eggs and ham… or wait, not really a good vegan. Anyway, forget that, forget that, forget that, I’m off course. But the pitch is: What if the Grinch had an illegitimate child? Like, he didn’t know that he had Johnny and she somehow brings him back.”

The host, ever the writer, had some valid concerns about plot logistics, like when he noted, “I also want to hear this story about how he’s like, ‘I had no idea.’ I’m like, ‘Alright, Grinch. You lived alone in a cave and you’re like, ‘I don’t know how I’m a dad.’ You know.”

Check out the full interview above.

Austin Butler ‘Danced And Danced And Danced’ At A Janelle Monáe Concert, He Admits

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The 17th season of Variety‘s “Actors On Actors” series has already included the likes of Viola Davis and Jennifer Lawrence and has fans impatiently awaiting the episode with Joe Alwyn and Paul Mescal. The latest installment dropped on Sunday, featuring Austin Butler with Janelle Monáe. The crux of the conversation was Butler’s leading man turn in Elvis and Monáe’s standout performance in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. But there was room for Butler to make an endearing admission.

At one point Butler asked Monáe about their upbringing in the Baptist church, and Monáe noted they appreciated that Elvis made clear that its titular icon borrowed heavily from Black artists. Butler then shared that he went with director Baz Luhrmann to a Nashville church after he was cast to observe gospel singers, which taught him about “what movement means in music when you can’t help but move because your spirit is being moved.”

“I’ve only had a couple moments before filming Elvis where I danced in public because I was very, very shy. I’d always be a wallflower at party,” Butler told Monáe. “One of them was at that gospel church, and another was at one of your shows. You moved me in such a way that I couldn’t help but move. [I was with] some of my friends, they said, ‘Austin, I didn’t know you could dance.’”

He continued, “But you were up on stage and I was in the audience, and I just couldn’t help but dance. It was so beautiful.”

Monáe was visibly flattered and asked which of their shows Butler had attended. After coyly calling Coachella “the music festival that shan’t be named,” Butler said it was Coachella and recalled, “I danced and danced and danced. I couldn’t stop.”

Monáe played Coachella’s main stage in 2019 as part of their Dirty Computer Tour. The acclaimed set featured a twerk-off with Lizzo.

Watch Butler and Monáe’s full “Actors On Actors” above and see outtakes below.

Janelle Monáe Had A Completely Topless Birthday Party And Has Now Explained The NSFW Video On ‘Kimmel’

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Janelle Monáe dropped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! to dish on their appearance in Netflix’s upcoming blockbuster, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery… as well as the backstory behind a video of them posing topless at a friend’s birthday party.

Much like the mystery in the movie, this friend takes Monáe on a secret vacation destination each year, with past places including Jamaica and Las Vegas. This year’s party spot was Mexico — and each night of the trip had a different theme.

The first night of Monáe’s birthday trip was “Intergalactic,” where they channeled an extraterrestrial in a pink wig and lots of fluorescent sparkles. From there, the friends organized a “hot sexy tea party” (with a lingerie dress code) and a murder mystery party night. (It’s unclear if Monáe won this game, considering their recent experience in the genre.)

However, Monáe decided to let their creativity shine when the friends organized a “wine night where […] your clothes need to match your favorite white wine or your favorite red wine.” They opted for neither.

“Earlier in the day they had told me the theme and I was like, you know what, it’s my birthday, I just want to be free!” they explained. “I want to be, like, so free and I want to let it all hang out. So they were all dressed and I was topless.”

Monáe uploaded a video from that night to Instagram, where they are dancing around in just a skirt as a band plays and fireworks set off from the beach. “Still floating. Thank you all for the bday love. This is just a small glimpse of how I spent it,” the caption read. “Fully honoring the present. Thank you to my loved ones for planning such a magical experience + each of them adorning my body with temp tats so I could have a bday suit that matched how i felt.”

A Shoutout To LGBTQ+ Artists Who Are Thriving In Honor Of Pride Month

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Cardi B

As Pride Month begins to draw to a close, here’s a round-up of all our Queer Black artists in all their glory as well as all the ways that they are currently thriving.  Cardi B  Bisexual baddie Cardi B is currently dominating the industry and has proven herself to be unstoppable at this rate.  The […]

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Single Ladies: Ella Mai’s “Heart On My Sleeve” Album, Beyonce’s Emmy Nod, New Video From MonaLeo, Doja Cat Drops, Jhene Aiko Honored, Plus More!

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Single Ladies

Ladies are out here making iconic moves – let’s shine a light on their latest projects. Ella Mai Drops New Album After slowly but surely making a comeback, singer-songwriter Ella Mai’s sophomore album ‘Heart On My Sleeve’ is finally out now. She came back swinging and switched it up, but it’s still her style. Fans […]

The post Single Ladies: Ella Mai’s “Heart On My Sleeve” Album, Beyonce’s Emmy Nod, New Video From MonaLeo, Doja Cat Drops, Jhene Aiko Honored, Plus More! appeared first on SOHH.com.

Janelle Monae Has Been Cast As Josephine Baker In The A24 TV Series ‘De La Resistance’

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Janelle Monae Josephine Baker
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A24 is producing a new television series about iconic Black entertainer Josephine Baker and her role as a freedom fighter against the Nazis. It’s called De La Resistance, and according to Deadline, the show has already found its star in a burgeoning modern icon, Janelle Monae. Monae will portray Baker as the show follows her exploits as a spy in the French resistance during World War II, as well as her adventures as one of the most celebrated performers of the early 20th century.

Monae is also billed as a producer for the series via her Wondaland Pictures imprint, through which the singer has a first-look production deal with Universal Pictures. Monae’s previous acting credits include roles in Harriet, Hidden Figures, and Moonlight, and will also appear in the upcoming sequel to Knives Out. Monae’s new book, Memory Librarian, is also out now. The showrunner is Jennifer Yale, who previously worked on outstanding television dramas such as See, Outlander, and Underground.

They’ve certainly chosen an intriguing figure, whose real-life exploits sound like excellent fodder for a film or TV series. After refusing to perform to segregated audiences in the US, Baker emigrated to Paris, where her racy revue became a worldwide phenomenon and left behind some truly iconic imagery (which Monae recently paid homage to at the 2022 Met Gala). After the Nazis occupied France, Baker became a spy for the Allies, earning The National Order of the Legion of Honour, the highest French order of merit, both military and civil.

Janelle Monae Confirms Gender Identity: “If I Am From God, I Am Everything.”

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Janelle Monae

In a recent interview on Jada Pinkett Smith’s “Red Table Talk,” singer Janelle Monae let the world know how she identifies and why she feels this is the perfect time to share her truth. Coming Out In a Wednesday episode of “Red Table Talk,” singer Janelle Monae came out, confirming that she is nonbinary — […]

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Janelle Monáe Comes Out As Non-Binary: ‘I Just Don’t See Myself As A Woman, Solely’

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Janelle Monae 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party
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In 2020, it looked like Janelle Monáe had come out as non-binary after tweeting “#IAmNonBinary.” They later clarified in an interview, though, “I tweeted the #IAmNonbinary hashtag in support of Nonbinary Day and to bring more awareness to the community. I retweeted the Steven Universe meme, ‘Are you a boy or a girl? I’m an experience,’ because it resonated with me, especially as someone who has pushed boundaries of gender since the beginning of my career. I feel my feminine energy, my masculine energy, and energy I can’t even explain.”

However, now, Monáe has gone ahead and declared as directly as possible that they are in fact non-binary: In a new Red Table Talk interview (as Billboard notes), Monáe told Jada Pinkett Smith, “I’m non-binary, so I just don’t see myself as a woman, solely. I feel like God is so much bigger than the ‘he’ or the ‘she,’ and if I am from God, I am everything.”

Monáe continued, “I will always, always stand with women. I will always stand with Black women, but I just see everything that I am, beyond the binary.”

Monáe also discussed why they decided to come out now, saying, “Somebody said, ‘If you don’t work out the things that you need to work out first before sharing it with the world, then you’re going to be working it out with the world.’ That’s what I didn’t want to do.”

Watch the full Red Table Talk episode here.