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After Candace Cameron Bure’s latest interview, JoJo Siwa is calling out the Full House actress’ comments as nothing more than a straight flush.
In an Instagram post on Tuesday (Nov. 15), Siwa slammed Bure’s comments in a Wall Street Journal interview where the Fuller House star said she wouldn’t include LGBTQ couples in upcoming Christmas films on her conservative-leaning network, Great American Family. “Honestly, I can’t believe after everything that went down just a few months ago, that she would not only create a movie with intention of excluding LGBTQIA+, but then also talk about it in the press,” Siwa wrote. “This is rude and hurtful to a whole community of people.”
In her interview with the Journal, Bure spoke about her new executive role with Great American Media, in which she will produce and star in a series of Hallmark-style Christmas films. When asked in the interview about whether she would include LGBTQ characters in her work — as Hallmark did for the first time earlier this year — she said, “I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core.”
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Siwa was not the only person to call Bure out on her exclusionary comments. GLAAD issued a statement from their president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, in which she called out Bure’s intentional ignorance. “It’s irresponsible and hurtful for Candace Cameron Bure to use tradition as a guise for exclusion,” she wrote. “If GAF’s plan is to intentionally exclude stories about LGBTQ couples, then actors, advertisers, cable and streaming platforms, and production companies should take note and seriously consider whether they want to be associated with a network that holds exclusion as one of its values.”
Ellis also added that she was open to having a conversation with Bure on the topic. “I’d love to have a conversation with Bure about my wife, our kids, and our family’s traditions,” she said. “Bure is out of sync with a growing majority of people of faith, including LGBTQ people of faith, who know that LGBTQ couples and families are deserving of love and visibility.”
Siwa was also joined by actress Hilarie Burton, who called both Great American Family and Bure “disgusting” for their anti-LGBTQ comments. “Now they’re just openly admitting their bigotry,” she wrote. “I called this s–t out years ago when [CEO Bill] Abbott was at Hallmark. Glad they dumped him. Being LGBTQ isn’t a ‘trend’ … There is nothing untraditional about same-sex couples.”
This is far from the first time that Siwa and Bure have had words in public — earlier this year, the former Dance Moms star claimed that Bure was the “rudest” celebrity she’d ever met in a viral TikTok, with Bure later explaining that she had declined to take a photo with a then-11-year-old Siwa.
Check out Siwa’s Instagram post below.
Mariah Carey might be the “Queen of Christmas,” but a new legal ruling means she won’t be able to stop others from using the same name.
In a decision issued Tuesday, a tribunal at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected Carey’s application to register the royal title as a federal trademark. The decision went in favor of Elizabeth Chan, another singer who says she’s used the same name for years.
Chan filed a legal case against Carey in August, arguing that “Christmas is big enough for more than one Queen.” After that, Carey never responded to the case or defended her applications for the trademarks, prompting the Trademark Office to rule in favor of Chan by default.
“We are pleased with the victory, and delighted that we were able to help Elizabeth fight back against Carey’s overreaching trademark registrations,” said Tompros, an attorney at the law firm WilmerHale.
In the same statement, Chan herself added: “Christmas is a season of giving, not the season of taking, and it is wrong for an individual to attempt to own and monopolize a nickname like Queen of Christmas for the purposes of abject materialism.”
Carey’s attorney did not return a request for comment on the decision.
In a statement, Chan’s lawyer Louis Tompros called Carey’s efforts to secure legal protection over the “Queen” name “a classic case of trademark bullying” – a term used to criticize overly-aggressive trademark protection by big brands.
Likely playing on her perennial smash hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” Carey’s company (Lotion LLC) applied last year to register the “Queen” name as an exclusive brand name for a variety of different goods and services, ranging from music to alcohol to fragrances.
Trademarks are different than copyrights, and they do not give someone blanket ownership over particular words. If Carey had won the registrations and wanted to sue someone, she still would have needed to prove that consumers had confused the two brand names – not always an easy task, particularly with a fairly unoriginal name like “Queen of Christmas.”
But such registrations are still important, and would have empowered Carey’s company to start threatening litigation and crowding out others from using it in similar commercial contexts. That potentially would include Chan, who calls her self “pop music’s only full-time Christmas singer” and says she’s also been repeatedly dubbed the “Queen of Christmas.”
The risk of such litigation prompted Chan to file her August case at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, a court-like body within the USPTO that decides disputes over who is entitled to register particular trademarks. Repped by Tompros, she argued that no single singer or company should be able to lock up the title.
“Ms. Carey can call herself whatever she wants, but she shouldn’t have the ability to block others from doing the same,” Tompros said at the time.
It’s unclear exactly what motivated Carey and her lawyers (from the elite trademark law firm Fross Zelnick) to file the applications, particularly after she gave an interview in December in which she seemed to disclaim the title: “To me, Mary is the Queen of Christmas.”
The dispute over the “Queen” title prompted some fun wrangling among other Christmas “queens.” Darlene Love jokingly urged Carey to “call my lawyer,” noting that David Letterman had “officially declared me the Queen of Christmas 29 years ago.” And just last week, Dolly Parton quickly conceded the title to Carey after an interviewer suggested that Parton might be “the new Queen of Christmas.”
“Now, don’t you say that! I’m not going to compete with Mariah,” Parton said in the interview with Better Homes and Gardens. “I love her. You think of Christmas, you think of Mariah.”
“Is it true that Mariah Carey trademarked ‘Queen of Christmas?’ What does that mean that I can’t use that title?” Love asked in the post. “At 81 years of age I’m NOT changing anything. I’ve been in the business for 52 years, have earned it and can still hit those notes! If Mariah has a problem call David or my lawyer!!”
Just like snow flurries and seasonal Starbucks cups, a sure sign of the holiday season is GRiZ‘s annual week of holiday giving, 12 Days of GRiZMAS.
The jam-packed charity initiative returns to Detroit Nov. 29 for its ninth year, and just like always, includes 12 days worth of wholesome fun for a great cause. 2022 GRiZMAS programming will feature painting, karaoke, a dodgeball tournament, yoga, ice skating, rollerskating and — in keeping with holiday tradition — will close with a pair of GRiZ concerts at Detroit’s Masonic Temple happening Dec. 9 and 10.
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These shows will feature Dirtysnatcha B2B Carbin, Canabliss, Khiva, fellow Michigander Wreckno, and of course the event’s namesake producer. Tickets for all 12 days worth of events are currently available online.
GRiZMAS’ hub is the GRIZMAS Workshop located in downtown Detroit at 1265 Griswold Street. This space will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily during the 10 Days, and will host workshops, offer GRiZMAS merch and generally serve as the event’s nexus of good cheer.
Proceeds from GRiZMAS go to Seven Mile Music, a Detroit-based nonprofit that raises awareness and money for music, art and coding programs for the inner city youth of Detroit.
“We ended up working with Seven Mile music because their founder was living in [Detroit neighborhood] Brightmoor for three years and giving music lessons himself,” GRiZ, the Detroit native born Grant Kwiecinski, told Billboard in 2021. “He was working in the community, working with community leaders and going door to door giving piano lessons. Seven Mile did the work to understand what the community needed. That’s exactly the kind of energy we want to align with.”
Since launching in 2014, GRiZMAS has raised more than $400,000 for Detroit charities. 2022 donations can also be made online.
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The Offspring is exchanging their brand of rock for something a little more festive for the holidays. On Friday (Nov. 11), the group — which currently consists of vocalist Dexter Holland, guitarist Noodles and bassist Todd Morse — shared a cover of Charles Brown‘s version of “Bells Will Be Ringing (Please Come Home for Christmas).”
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Speaking of their decision to cover the classic Christmas track, the band wrote on Instagram, “We’ve always loved the classic Charles Brown version of this song and think it’s really underappreciated. We thought it would be the perfect follow up to ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ which we recorded last year, and continuing on the coming home for Christmas theme.”
The post contained a snippet of the track and animated bells wrapped in a red bow, and, of course, adorned with the band’s fiery skull logo.
Brown’s version of the track — which is actually titled “Please Come Home For Christmas” but largely goes by its incipit — debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1961, and peaked at No. 76 in January the following year. The song was covered in 1978 by the Eagles, whose version of the tune would peak at No. 18 on the Hot 100. The track also received a cover by Bon Jovi in 1992.
Currently, The Offspring is on its Let the Bad Times Roll tour in Canada with support from Simple Plan. Stops earlier in the month included Montreal, Québec City and Toronto; the band has stops left in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and more before concluding the trek on Nov. 27.
Listen to The Offspring’s cover of “Bells Will Be Ringing (Please Come Home For Christmas)” below.
Merry Christmas, Mariah Carey doesn’t want to fight tonight. Though MC has a legit claim to the title of Christmas Queen, she said on Thursday (Nov. 10) that she’s more than happy to share the spotlight with another member of holiday royalty. “Dolly, let’s settle this one,” Carey wrote to Dolly Parton after the country legend was asked in an interview with Better Homes & Gardens whether she considers herself worthy of the title over Mariah.
“Now, don’t you say that!” Parton said. “I’m not going to compete with Mariah. I love her. You think of Christmas, you think of Mariah. I’m happy to be second in line to her.”
Mariah wasn’t having it, though. “You are the Queen of Everything!” Carey tweeted at Parton in response. “The Queen of the World, the Queen of Christmas, the Queen of Mine!! I Love You!!!!” Parton, 76, is getting into the holiday season by re-releasing her A Holly Dolly Christmas album with four additional songs, including a duet with goddaughter Miley Cyrus, as well as the new holiday movie Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas. She’s also teamed up with Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon for the new yuletide classic, “Almost Too Early For Christmas.”
Carey, of course, is gearing up for the most wonderful time of the year, when her perennial cold weather chart-topper, “All I Want For Christmas Is You, makes its run to the top. The singer will also star in a new two-hour prime-time special, Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All!, which will air on CBS and Paramount+ on Dec. 20.
Check out Carey’s tweet below.
Mariah Carey is bringing her Christmas cheer directly into your house this season. The singer announced on Thursday (Nov. 10) that she will sled through all her holiday favorites on Dec. 20 during an all-new two-hour primetime special, Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All!, slated to air on CBS and Paramount+.
The announcement came during an appearance on CBS Mornings on Thursday, where MC dropped by to promote her first-ever yuletide picture book, The Christmas Princess, as well to explain why she just can’t get enough of mistletoe and eggnog season. The special will be filmed at Carey’s upcoming two-night “Merry Christmas to All!” stand at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Dec. 13 and 16; she will also bring the show to Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Dec. 9 and 11.
With one of the most enduring modern Christmas classics of all time in “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” Mariah was asked if she feels like she has to continually up her holiday game in order to retain her Christmas Queen crown and whether she thinks the slow-rolling retail cheer creep is getting out of hand. “It is too early! Tell that to the stores,” she said about the slow Santa slide that finds some big box outlets pre-stocking jingle trinkets before the Halloween haunts even have left stores.
“Honestly, I think we need to get through Thanksgiving,” Carey added about when she thinks it’s appropriate to rev up our Rudolph game. And not for nothing she noted, her signature “it’s time” tweets were not originally her doing, but American Idol host Ryan Seacrest’s. “It was Ryan Seacrest, I believe, tweeted me and he said, ‘Hey Mariah, I wanna get festive, I wanna get into the holiday spirit. Do you think it’s time?,’” she recalled. “And I thought it was really funny, and I’m like, ‘not yet.’ So then we just started filming people asking me, or I’d be in the dentist chair [and they’d ask] ‘should we put Christmas music on for you?’”
Carey said she was super proud that her first announced “Merry Christmas To All!” show at MSG sold out in an hour. “I have no words,” she said, teasing that there will be a few “new sections” of the show she last performed in 2019, including fan requests of songs she hasn’t performed in the holiday showcase yet.
Check out Mariah’s announcement and interview below.
Martha Stewart went on The Today Show Thursday morning (Nov. 3) to make a very important plea to Christmas Queen Mariah Carey to slow her jingle roll and let Thanksgiving get some shine before she dives right into the yuletide season. “Mariah, you know me. I’m a traditionalist with a twist and you cannot give up Thanksgiving just ‘case you don’t like turkey,” Stewart told the morning show. “I love turkey and many, many other people love turkey. So do not think that we are going to give up Thanksgiving just because you say so.”
Buckshots fired!
In case you missed it, the reason Martha’s gizzards were seemingly in a twist is because earlier this week MC posted a video in which she seamlessly made the transition from the end of Halloween to the kick-off of Christmas season while appearing to glide right over gobble time. As the calendar flipped to Nov. 1, Mariah let us know what time it was by posting the visual in which she sits on a stationary bike dressed as a witch surrounded by jack o’lanterns and CG bats before squealing “it’s time!” as the scene flips to a winter wonderland and her signature snowy hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You” rings out.
Well, far be it from Mariah to diss a domestic doyenne. On Thursday night (Nov. 3) MC responded to Martha with a generous offer to break some turkey leg with her. “Dearest Martha!! NEVER will I give up Thanksgiving!! But we can still start getting into the festive spirit now!,” Carey tweeted before adding a tantalizing, teasing invite.
“P.S I’d love to have you at my Thanksgiving dinner although I’ve yet to be invited to your Thanksgiving extravaganza!,” Mariah noted adding Stewart’s always-stoned TV cooking pal to the mix. “And THAT is MAJOR! Esp if Snoop’s coming!”
See the tweets below.
Dearest Martha!! NEVER will I give up Thanksgiving!! But we can still start getting into the festive spirit now! 💕 P.S I’d love to have you at my Thanksgiving dinner although I’ve yet to be invited to your Thanksgiving extravaganza! And THAT is MAJOR! Esp if Snoop’s coming! 🥳🎄 https://t.co/zrTNaevTTM— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) November 3, 2022
It’s time, dahhlings. After officially announcing the start of the holiday season, Mariah Carey sat down for a wide-ranging interview Tuesday (Nov. 1) about her love for Christmas, the upcoming TV adaptation of her memoir and more.
“When I’m not onstage and I’m in holiday mode, there are rules that I set,” the Queen of Christmas dished to USA Today. “I don’t care who it is – the kids, if I have guests, whatever – nobody is allowed to play or watch anything other than a Christmas-related thing. If I wake up in the middle of the night and walk into the living room, and the music isn’t playing and the lights aren’t on, I just can’t handle it.”
While her past Christmas festivities have included Apple TV+ specials, themed McDonald’s menus and more, this year Mimi is gearing up for four holiday concerts in New York City and Toronto in the wake of releasing her new children’s book, The Christmas Princess.
“I’m trying to make [these shows] as magical as possible,” she said of the series of “Merry Christmas to All!” concerts at Madison Square Garden and Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena in mid-December. “Oftentimes as a child, or even throughout earlier parts of my career, I did not feel loved. I certainly never felt unconditional love, and that’s what I have with my fans: that connection. So I’m extremely excited.”
Another project the icon has in the works is a TV series inspired by her 2020 memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey. Working in collaboration with Lee Daniels, she told the outlet what she’s looking for when it comes to who will eventually be playing her younger self onscreen.
“I don’t think it’s about ‘cast the girl who sings the Mariah Carey style,’ whatever that is,” she teased. “It’s about casting a great actress with a somewhat similar look and just making sure the acting is there. Because we have the music – they can sing along to it.”
During the interview, the Elusive Chanteuse also teased the possibility of a live Butterfly show in honor of the landmark album’s recent 25th anniversary, as well as a documentary using the 175 hours of footage she has from her Butterfly Lounge sessions.
Read Mariah’s full interview with USA Today here.
Mariah Carey is going to make your holidays twice as nice. After announcing a pair of one-off “Merry Christmas to All!” shows at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena (Dec. 11) and New York’s Madison Square Garden (Dec. 13), the undisputed Christmas queen revealed on Thursday (Oct. 27) that she’s got room in her sleigh for two more gigs.
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“New Yoooork!! The demand has been so nice, we’ve decided to do it twice! I’m adding a 2ND Madison Square Garden show on Friday, December 16th!,” she tweeted of the double-down, with tix for both shows going on sale today (Oct. 28) at 10 a.m. ET. “Can’t wait to celebrate Christmas with you all!”
And don’t worry Torontonians, she has more love for you, too. Carey also added a second Scotiabank gig for her Canadian lambs on Dec. 9; tickets for both Canadian shows also go on sale today at 10 a.m. ET.
According to a release, these will be Mariah’s only Christmas concerts this yuletide season and fans purchase a ticket will also get a chance to buy an exclusive t-shirt and a copy of the singer’s illustrated holiday fairytale book, The Christmas Princess, which is due out on Nov. 1.
The shows are nice, but as any jingle junkie knows the most exciting part of the seasons is the annual chart watch to see if Carey’s perennial Christmas classic, “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” will hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a fourth year in a row.
Check out Mariah’s announcements below.