Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Taylor Swift
endorses Kamala Harris for president after debate ends
WASHINGTON | Taylor Swift, one of the music industry’s biggest stars, endorsed Kamala Harris for president shortly after the presidential debate ended.
“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Swift wrote late Tuesday in an Instagram post, which included a link to a voter registration website.
Swift has a dedicated following among young women, a key demographic in the November election, and her latest tour has generated more than $1 billion in ticket sales. In a half hour, the post received more than 2.3 million likes.
She included a picture of herself holding her cat Benjamin Button, and she signed the message “Childless Cat Lady.” The remark is a reference to three-year-old comments made by JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, about women without children not having an equal stake in the country’s future.
A Harris senior campaign official said the endorsement was not coordinated with the campaign. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, appeared to learn about the endorsement in the middle of a live interview on MSNBC. As Rachel Maddow read the text, Walz broke into a smile and patted his chest.
“That was eloquent. And it was clear,” Walz said. “And that’s the kind of courage we need in America to stand up.”
Swift wrote that her endorsement was partially prompted by Trump’s decision to post artificial intelligence-generated pictures suggesting that she had endorsed him. One showed Swift dressed as Uncle Sam, and the text said “Taylor wants YOU to VOTE for DONALD TRUMP.”
Trump’s posts “brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter,” Swift wrote. She added that “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice.”
Trump said Wednesday that Swift’s move “was just a question of time.” He told “Fox & Friends” that Swift is “a very liberal person” who “seems to always endorse a Democrat and she’ll probably pay a price in the marketplace.”
In 2020, she supported Democrat Joe Biden, and she cheered for Harris in her debate against then-Vice President Mike Pence. She also was openly critical of Trump, saying he had stoked “the fires of white supremacy and racism.”
Swift is a popular figure nationwide, but especially among Democrats. An October 2023 Fox News poll found that 55% of voters overall, including 68% of Democrats, said they had a favorable view of Swift. Republicans were divided, with 43% having a favorable opinion and 45% an unfavorable one.
AP VoteCast suggests that a partisan divide on Swift was apparent as early as 2018. That’s the year Swift made her first political endorsement, supporting Tennessee Democrat Phil Bredesen for Senate over Republican Marsha Blackburn.
VoteCast found that among Tennessee voters that year, 55% of Democrats and just 19% of Republicans said they had a favorable opinion of Swift. Blackburn won by a comfortable margin in the deep red state.
Swift is the leading nominee at Wednesday’s MTV Video Music Awards. While it’s unclear whether Swift will attend the show in New York, she could use any acceptance speeches to elaborate on her support of Harris.
The event was shifted a day later to accommodate Tuesday’s debate. MTV has a long history of encouraging voter participation.
Joe Jonas and
Sophie Turner are divorced and single
A Florida judge has declared Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner divorced and single, signing off on a confidential agreement reached between the two.
The Miami-Dade County judge approved the agreement on Friday, one year after the 35-year-old Jonas Brothers singer filed to divorce the 28-year-old “Game of Thrones” and “X Men” actor and five years after the two were married.
The split brought a quiet and relatively quick end to a divorce that briefly became acrimonious and looked headed for a long and ugly custody fight.
The documents said that moderated negotiations led to an agreement on splitting assets, spousal support and custody of their two daughters, 4-year-old Willa and 2-year-old Delphine.
Judge Gina Beovides declared that the marriage was “irretrievably broken,” and that the couple’s agreement, especially their parenting plan, was in the best interest of the family.
A representative for Turner declined comment. An email seeking comment from a representative for Jonas was not immediately answered.
The couple met through Instagram messages and began dating in 2016. They married in a secretive ceremony at a Las Vegas wedding chapel in May of 2019 after the Billboard Music Awards. Country duo Dan + Shay performed at the wedding.
Jonas filed for divorce in September of 2023. In the filing he sought joint custody and said the two had a pre-nuptial agreement.
The following day the two posted an identical amicable statement to each of their Instagram accounts.
But the split turned into a serious dispute within weeks when Turner sued to force Jonas to turn over the girls’ passports so they could join her in her native England.
The daughters, who were born in the U.S. but have dual citizenship, were with Joe Jonas in New York, where he was on tour, according to court documents, in which Turner said they had been planning on raising the girls together in England when their marriage fell apart. Turner said she learned of Jonas’ divorce filing through the media, while Jonas said the two had had multiple conversations about it.
The custody fight was dropped in January, a sign that the two were on a path to a settlement.
Turner, who is from Northampton, England, played Sansa Stark for eight seasons on HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and played Jean Grey in 2016’s “X-Men: Apocalypse” and 2019’s “Dark Phoenix.”
The Arizona-born Jonas came to fame with brothers Nick and Kevin in a band starting in 2005 and subsequent Disney Channel series. Last year, they released their sixth studio album and toured U.S. stadiums.
Justin Timberlake reaches plea deal to resolve drunken driving case
NEW YORK | Justin Timberlake is scheduled to enter a new plea Friday in his drunken driving case in New York’s Hamptons, prosecutors said. Details of the plea weren’t disclosed, but a person with knowledge of the deal said Timberlake has agreed to plead guilty to a less serious offense than the original charge of driving while intoxicated.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
Timberlake’s attorney, Edward Burke, declined to comment.
The pop singer is set to appear in person on Friday in Sag Harbor Village Court to enter a plea, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office confirmed Wednesday.
Timberlake was arrested in the village of Sag Harbor, on the eastern end of Long Island, on June 18 after police said he ran a stop sign in the village center, veered out of his lane and got out of his BMW smelling of alcohol. The 43-year-old Tennessee native pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor drunken driving charge.
At a hearing last month, a judge suspended Timberlake’s right to drive in New York.
His lawyer, Burke, has maintained that Timberlake was not drunk and that the case should be dropped.
Timberlake was pulled over after leaving a Sag Harbor hotel around 12:30 a.m., according to police.
“His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath, he was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,” police said in a court filing.
Timberlake told the officer he had had one martini and was following some friends home, according to police. He was arrested and spent the night in custody at a police station.
The boy band singer-turned-solo star and actor’s agent and other representatives didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday.
A 10-time Grammy winner, Timberlake began performing as a young Disney Mouseketeer, rose to fame as part of the boy band NSYNC and embarked on a solo recording career in the early 2000s.
Sag Harbor is a one-time whaling village mentioned in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby-Dick” that’s nestled amid the Hamptons, around 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of New York City.
—From AP reports
