Selma Blair will not continue competing on this season of “Dancing with the Stars” due to health concerns, the actress said Monday night.
Blair, who first shared she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018, has competed strongly on the series over the past five weeks. Her body, however, “has taken a hit,” she said.
“I’ve been monitored … I had MRIs and the results came back, and it all adds up to, I can’t go on with the competition,” Blair revealed to her dance partner Sasha Farber in a taped piece that aired Monday night.
“I’ve pushed as far as I could. With a chronic illness, you do have special considerations, and my body has taken a hit. It’s way too much for the safety of my bones. I could do extensive damage that I, of course, do not want,” the actress continued.
Blair completed a final Waltz dance with Farber to “What the World Needs Now Is Love.”
“This is a dance for everyone that has tried and hoped they could do more, but also, the power in realizing it’s time to walk away. I am so, so grateful to be able to do one last gentle dance,” Blair said.
Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, who co-starred with Blair in the movie “Cruel Intentions,” shared a photo of her and Blair on her Instagram account after the announcement, captioning it with a heartfelt message expressing gratitude and appreciation for their friendship.
“Selma I’ve never been so proud of you (and I’m often proud of you) You make the rest of us believe that we can do anything. That we can never give up,” Gellar wrote. “I will miss getting to watch the happiness radiate from Selma each week as she stepped on stage.”
Multiple sclerosis, known as MS, is an autoimmune disease that impacts the brain and spinal cord that disrupts communication between the brain and other parts of the body, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its exact cause is unknown.
Blair shared her experience with the illness in the documentary “Introducing, Selma Blair,” which premiered in select theaters over the weekend. The film shows the actress undergoing stem-cell treatment, including chemotherapy, revealing the toll the treatment has had on Blair’s body.
Former HBO Max executives say the streaming service has been left with few people of color to oversee its diverse slate of programming as Warner Bros. Discovery continues its ongoing corporate reshuffling.
The platform reportedly laid off close to 70 people this month. That includes the entire teams overseeing unscripted, kids and family, and international content, according to two former HBO Max execs who asked not to be named.
Those three divisions, responsible for buying shows from production companies and creators and working closely with them during production, are now completely gone.
One former employee says as many as 13 people of color previously in charge of developing shows like The Gordita Chronicles and the Spanish-language docuseries Menudo: Forever Young have been let go, likely influencing the types of shows and movies that are greenlit moving forward. Among those laid off are Jen Kim, an Asian woman who served as the senior vice president of the international team, and Kaela Barnes, a Black woman who worked under Kim.
“I don’t think anyone knows just how white the staff is,” one former executive told The Daily Beast.
Former HBO Max staffers say there are barely any non-white people left in the upper ranks of content, with one naming Joey Chavez, an executive vice president of drama, as one of the few people of color still there. Because HBO Max and the original HBO channel operate somewhat independently, one former executive conceded that “there may be one Black woman on the HBO side. Maybe.”
The layoffs have “amplified the lack of diversity at HBO,” another former executive told The Daily Beast. “HBO is the most homogenous part of this umbrella. Instead of trying to figure out how to integrate some of the [Max] executives into HBO, they just made this sweeping cut of three divisions: kids, family, and international. A lot of Black and brown people lost their jobs.”
Ever since parent company Warner Bros. merged with Discovery earlier this year, employees at Warner have grappled with the changing values of the newly created company. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was charged with helping Warner crawl out of a $50 billion hole. He came in like a wrecking ball, tearing up CNN’s $300 million streaming service CNN+ and vowing to pull the Warner-owned news channel away from “advocacy” journalism.
More changes have come in the past couple of weeks.
Earlier this month, it was announced that Batgirl, the $90 million film planned for HBO Max starring Afro-Latina actress Leslie Grace, would be shelved completely in favor of a tax write-off. Over the weekend, CNN media correspondent and host Brian Stelter, a frequent target of right-wing criticism, was fired from the network.
Former Warner employees believe these changes are just as much about business as they are about reshaping the ideological perception of Warner properties. It all points to the same end, they say: A rejection of left-wing or highly diverse content in favor of more homogenous, Middle America-friendly fare. The lack of diversity in content staff might just make that goal easier.
“HBO is the most homogenous part of this umbrella. Instead of trying to figure out how to integrate some of the [Max] executives into HBO, they just made this sweeping cut of three divisions: kids, family, and international. A lot of Black and brown people lost their jobs.”
In a statement to The Daily Beast, HBO highlighted shows like Euphoria, Rap Sh!t, A Black Lady Sketch Show and Los Espookys, all of which are led by diverse characters.
“HBO and HBO Max have always shown a commitment to diverse programming and storytellers, and always will,” the company said.
An internal graphic comparing the audiences of Discovery+ and HBO Max showed a stark demographic difference between the two streamers. Where HBO Max is popular with diverse groups, single people, and drivers of hybrid cars, Discovery+ is popular with white, married people who drive SUVs, minivans, and “traveling buses.” HBO Max viewers are on TikTok and Instagram, while Discovery+ viewers use social media platforms Facebook and Twitter, with the added caveat, “if any.” HBO Max viewers have no kids. Discovery+ viewers are either “empty nesters” or have grandchildren. Discovery may be trying to pull HBO into its orbit as it focuses on what it does best.
HBO Max’s reality offerings presented an obvious sticking point for the new bosses. Where Discovery properties like TLC and HGTV send camera crews out to film what they can find, HBO Max’s offerings are more carefully crafted. They’re sometimes buoyed by stars like Selena Gomez or Steph Curry, who have the power to command big paychecks, and they’re noticeably sleeker, with smoother edits and more complicated camera set-ups adding to their budgets.
One former exec describes Discovery+ as a “more general audience platform that doesn’t have the specificity that HBO Max was tailored to. I think Discovery is just a very ‘all’ audience, [they] don’t wanna make things that are political, topical, alienate Middle America—more Chip and Joanna,” they said, referring to the home renovation show Fixer Upper: Welcome Home hosted by Chip and Joanna Gaines.
“If David Zaslav had his wish, he would just program Chip and Joanna all day long,” the executive said. “There was just a massive, ‘We don’t need you. You’re not offering the things we’re focused on.’”
The change in perspective could also partly explain why so many titles have recently disappeared from HBO Max’s platform. Our sources agree that the removals are mostly related to money. The company can claim a tax break for the costs associated with certain shows as long as it promises to stop profiting off them, which means taking them down altogether.
“They’re canceling a lens of perspective that I don’t think exists when you look at Discovery-branded shows,” one former staffer said.
Speaking of the company’s plans to combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into one giant streaming service in the near future, the laid-off exec said: “Don’t be surprised if there’s a new name for the platform.”
Overall, there’s a sense that HBO Max’s executives of color were just another casualty in the company’s quest to get itself out of debt, content quality be damned.
“In terms of people seeing themselves reflected, whether it’s ethnic or LGBTQ, when you have people who are diverse, the lens with which they evaluate [content] factors in things that I think my white colleagues just don’t think about,” one former executive said.
“It’s deep,” said another. “What are they going to do with this disproportionate amount of people of color that were let go? They need to replace them in some capacity. Or do they not care? That’s what we’ve been told, that they just don’t care.”
Kailia Posey, the child pageant star of Toddlers & Tiaras, died by suicide, her family has said.
On Monday, it was reported that Posey, who turned 16 last month, had been found dead in a car at a Birch Bay State Park, in Washington state, but no cause of death was given.
On Tuesday, Posey’s deeply religious family told TMZ that she had taken her own life, saying in a statement, “Although she was an accomplished teenager with a bright future ahead of her, unfortunately in one impetuous moment, she made the rash decision to end her earthly life.”
The family added, “She won countless crowns & trophies after competing on the pageant circuit her entire life… Her highly acclaimed talent as a contortionist had already led to professional touring job offers, and she had recently been selected to be a cheerleader at her high school next fall.”
The family have now set up the Kailia Posey Teen Crisis Intervention Fund, which will aim to get “much needed resources to students in crisis.”
In pictures posted on Facebook over the weekend, Posey, the breakout star of the TLC series on child beauty pageants, which ran from 2009 to 2013, thanks in part to her cheeky grin, was smiling and apparently happy with her friends as she attended her high-school prom.
Just last week her mother, Marcy Posey Gatterman, also posted that she had been selected for her school cheerleading team, Lynden High School in Washington. Her mother wrote that the family were “screaming around this house” after receiving the news.
Washington State Police confirmed to DailyMail.com that authorities were investigating a juvenile death at Birch Bay State Park, in Blaine.
Friends and fans of Posey have been recalling memories online and offering condolences to the family.
“Can’t even believe this has happened. I’m praying for you guys to get through this. She always was so kind to all of us. Rest In Peace,” America’s Got Talent magician Kadan Rockett wrote on Instagram.
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741
Michelle Young’s Bachelorette season has been relatively tame in the drama department, largely because Michelle is an expert at avoiding red flags. Monday’s “The Men Tell All” reunion dredged up all of this season’s most heinous and bizarre drama. A highlight: Michelle confronting this season’s villain, Jamie Skaar, about his manipulative tendencies.
Another Most Dramatic Moment of the night, however, came when former Bachelorette and host Tayshia Adams addressed her recent split from her season’s winner, addiction recovery specialist Zac Clark.
The connection Tayshia and Zac shared on screen last year was the kind that keeps The Bachelorette running. Details like Tayshia’s decision to replace her champagne with apple cider during the show’s traditional toasts once she knew she was serious about Zac, who is sober, spoke to a relationship highlighted above all, it seemed, by sincere care. Last month, however, news broke that the two had broken up.
“All I have to say is that I’m heartbroken, but we tried really hard,” Tayshia told her co-host Kaitlyn Bristowe on stage during the reunion. (The two have been filling in as Bachelorette hosts in the absence of Chris Harrison; TK will host The Bachelor when it returns next year.)
“I still love him very much,” Tayshia said of Zac, “and I’m not sure what the future holds. I mean, you know how it is. It’s really tough.”
“I sadly do know how it is,” Kaitlyn replied. “It’s really hard, but obviously we’re all here for you, and we want you to be happy. The two shared a hug, but as they transitioned to the next segment, Tayshia needed to take a beat. As she walked off the stage, Kaitlyn told the audience, “We’re gonna let Tayshia have a minute.”
By the time the show returned from its next commercial break, Tayshia was back and as composed as she was when the episode began. Holiday season break-ups are the world’s crappiest gift, but what better place to recover than in a room full of people discussing their own public splits?
This post contains spoilers for The Bachelorette finale.
Things got tense the minute Katie Thurston arrived on stage during The Bachelorette’s three-hour finale. Her ex, Greg Grippo, had just finished his interview with co-hosts Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe; as Katie sat down, she pointedly refused to hug him.
Greg had been the frontrunner throughout this season but sent himself home last week after a perfect “Hometown” date took a sharp left turn. It was a colossal breakdown in communication: Greg needed Katie to tell him exactly how she felt, but rather than say so he released a passionate declaration of love and immediately got upset when she did not reciprocate. Katie, meanwhile, had told producers that she was “falling in love with” Greg but refused to tell him so—even as he told her he couldn’t stay unless she told him something “real.”
Speaking with Tayshia and Kaitlyn before Katie came to the stage, Greg said, “Saying what I said to her on that couch, I haven’t opened up to anybody like that in my entire life, and I felt like I was giving her my everything, and I wanted at least some of it back in that moment.”
When asked if he would do anything differently, Greg replied, “No, I truly believe that everything happens for a reason—everything makes you stronger. And she found her person, and I’m grateful for her, honestly.”
But Katie was not having it. When she arrived on stage, she did not hesitate before challenging Greg’s narrative. “I never felt that you actually intended to probably ever get engaged during our journey together,” she said.
By giving Greg the First Impression Rose, multiple one-on-one dates, and more, Katie said, she had validated him throughout the process. “For that Hometown to go as perfectly as it did until the very end, and for you to do a 180, I feel like you were looking for the perfect opportunity to escape,” Katie added. “Because you were never ready for an engagement.”
Greg seemed blindsided. As he stammered, Katie pointed out that despite telling her that she filled a hole in his heart, he’d spoken down to her during their breakup and didn’t even bother to say goodbye. She accused him of using her to get exposure for his acting career. “I mean, it was pretty good,” she said, “until the end when you fucked it up and ran away.”
When Greg denied the accusation by saying he’s no Meryl Streep, Katie shot back, “Oh, we know. We know.”
Fans have discussed Greg’s acting background throughout the season. In reference to the online discussion, Katie said that since the season wrapped, she’s “been hearing is that Greg’s not this shy-guy act that he was doin on the show—that he’s actually this very confident and cocky guy from Jersey who knows that he’s hot shit.”
Eventually, Greg apologized “if you feel like I was talking down to you.”
Katie did not miss a beat: “Gaslighting, I think, is probably a better word.” Last week after their breakup aired and some fans began suggesting that Greg’s speech seemed manipulative or at least pushy, she shared a post about gaslighting on her Instagram story. But it’s troubling that when asked to define gaslighting, Katie replied with, “Gaslighting is when you try to make someone else feel like it’s their fault.” (That’s… not quite it.)
At first Greg brushed off his hissy fit with a simple, “I was passionate in that moment.” When pressed, however, he got a bit more contrite: “I wish I could go back and change how I communicated my feelings,” he said. “In that moment, my head was just in a million places at once… I got scared by the terminology you were using; I felt like you were playing the Bachelorette role with me instead of just being Katie.”
The back-and-forth between Katie and Greg was not the only intense interaction Monday night, either. There was also the moment that Katie’s family met the man she would eventually, yes, get engaged to: Blake Moynes, who has now competed for three Bachelorettes’ hearts—including host Tayshia’s. How romantic!
Katie’s family gave Blake the grilling he deserved—although one could argue that Aunt Lindsey, at least, took things a little too far when she told the sentient jawline before her, “You ultimately mean nothing. Like, hate to break it to you, but you better be secure as fuck coming into our family. Because at the end of the day, you’re here because we want you here—not because we need you here.”
On one hand, I want Aunt Lindsey to be my best friend. On the other, who talks like that?!
Some other bangers from Aunt Lindz:
Regarding Blake’s apparent addiction to televised dating: “So, what made you want to go on this season after you flunked out on the last one?”
In response to Blake’s vague insistence that he and Katie had agreed to do whatever it takes to make their relationship work: “I mean, cute, but ultimately that’s not how anything works.”
In response to Blake saying he’d learned from watching his parents’ dysfunctional marriage: “Watching a train wreck isn’t the same thing as being in one.” (Lindsey!!!)
“For a moment it seemed like Lindsey might have scared Blake off—at least, producers clearly wanted us to think this might be the case. ”
For a moment it seemed like Lindsey might have scared Blake off—at least, producers clearly wanted us to think this might be the case. But after several half-hearted fake-outs, Katie and Blake made out over the traditional Neil Lane ring and flashed their goobery smiles during an after-show interview in which they confirmed, yes, they’re still together.
A lot was riding on Katie’s season; it had to go well, or at least not blow up with a major off-screen controversy. Katie seems to have had a little more control than usual over casting this season—or casting directors just really stepped up their game. After the disaster that was Matt James’s Bachelor season and Chris Harrison’s abrupt departure from the franchise, one imagines that any prospective lead would need some reassurance.
For most of its run, Katie’s season has felt like what the franchise needed—a meeting of several emotionally nuanced, vulnerable people who seem genuinely invested in finding love. It’s been not just good Bachelorette, but good television. Unfortunately, the premiere nonetheless marked an all-time ratings low and viewership has not grown since. Even worse, as the season wrapped the exchanges began to feel increasingly two-dimensional.
“Let’s face the facts,” Greg told Katie before he left. “If it was me, you would have stopped me. And I knew that.”
“You’re right,” Katie said. “I didn’t leave for you. My person was not Greg, and when he left, so did everything I felt for him.”
In the end, Greg told Katie, “I wish you nothing but the best.” Her face tightened as she replied, “I wish you nothing but the best.” His final words: “Appreciate it.”
There’s a scene early in the new documentary Roadrunner that feels inconceivable to anyone who has spent the past couple of decades watching Anthony Bourdain travel the world.
Hot off the blockbuster success of Kitchen Confidential, his tell-all book about the restaurant industry, Bourdain has been granted his first shot at the type of television show that would ultimately make him a star. But he has no clue what to do.
Seated on the floor of a private room in a traditional Japanese restaurant, Bourdain silently eats his meal as the two women serving it to him nod awkwardly. All he can think to say is, “Oh, wow, spectacular,” and keep chewing. It is a distant cry from the affable, engaged Bourdain who delighted viewers of his later programs, especially No Reservations and Parts Unknown.
Given the opportunity to make his first travel show, called A Cook’s Tour, for Food Network in the early 2000s, Bourdain could have started off with a relatively easy jaunt to Europe. But since he wasn’t sure he’d ever have the chance to do this type of television again, he went all-in on the two places he’d always wanted to visit: Japan and Vietnam.
“It became immediately clear he had never traveled,” longtime producer Lydia Tenaglia says of her first meeting with Bourdain in the film, directed by Oscar winner Morgan Neville. Her creative and romantic partner Chris Collins adds, “His travels were in his head.”
“We didn’t know what we were doing,” Tenaglia admits. “He definitely didn’t know what he was doing. And Tony immediately became uncomfortable and awkward.” They quickly discovered that Bourdain was actually quite shy around new people. He had to be encouraged to interact with strangers.
Collins’ assessment after the first day of shooting was, “We’re fucked.”
The rest, of course, is history as Bourdain became one of the most charismatic TV hosts of all time, figuring things out as he went along. One revelation that we see him make in the early part of the documentary is that travel shows could be just as cinematic as his favorite films, finding inspiration in Apocalypse Now for his episode about the Mekong River.
ROADRUNNER (2021)
Anthony Bourdain in Morgan Neville’s documentary, Roadrunner.
Courtesy of Dmitri Kasterine / Focus Features
There is much joy to be found in Roadrunner as we watch Bourdain gain confidence and reach new creative heights, but there is also a pervading darkness just around the corner as the film makes its way through its two-hour running time. We know that time is running out for the man who took his own life at the age of 61 three years ago this June.
Throughout the film, we hear from dozens of people who knew Bourdain intimately. There are interviews with his closest friends like chef Eric Ripert, who discovered his body in that French hotel room, as well as the producers, directors, cinematographers and camera people who spent decades collaborating on his TV projects. There’s even a sit-down with his ex-wife and mother of his only child, Ottavia Busia, who says this is the last time she will ever speak publicly about him.
But there is one person notably absent from the interviews: Asia Argento. Bourdain’s final romantic partner dominates the last act of the documentary just as the film suggests she overtook his life near the end.
We first meet Argento seated across from Bourdain at a small family restaurant in Rome during a scene for Parts Unknown’s eighth season finale. The people in his life could see that he was falling in love and developing what seemed to be a singular focus on the Italian actress.
The musician Josh Homme says Bourdain was actively searching for something “feral and wild.” His close friend Alison Mosshart, who fronts The Kills, reveals that Bourdain wrote to her in an email that he knew the relationship would “end very, very badly.”
At a certain point, Bourdain decided he was done making Parts Unknown. “I can’t live my life like this anymore,” he told his producers. “I’m done. I’m done with this, I’m done with you people. Every band comes to an end. It’s time for us to break up and go our separate ways.”
After essentially destroying the family he had with his ex-wife and daughter, he told his team that he wanted to make sure he didn’t ruin things with Argento as well. They gave him their blessing to move on from the show, but ultimately he couldn’t give it up.
It wasn’t long after that when the crew went to Hong Kong to shoot what ended up being the episode that broke Parts Unknown.
The show’s longtime director got sick at the last moment and Bourdain saw an opportunity. Argento would direct the episode. His usual crew had no choice but to go along with it, but very quickly everything started to fall apart as she upended the process they had been perfecting for years.
“His usual crew had no choice but to go along with it, but very quickly everything started to fall apart as she upended the process they had been perfecting for years.”
We see Argento call “cut” as Bourdain is interviewing a pair of asylum-seekers over a late-night meal. They reset and shoot the scene again as if it’s take two of a fictional movie and not the type of real, heartfelt conversation for which the show was known. “He would have never, ever done that,” producer Helen Cho recalls with a combination of disappointment and disgust.
On top of hiring his girlfriend to direct, the host decided to fire his veteran cinematographer Zach Zamboni—who won three Emmy Awards for his work with Bourdain—after he clashed with Argento about the shoot. He brought in the legendary Wong Kar-wai collaborator Christopher Doyle to replace him. “When Tony fired Zach, it was a huge red flag,” Cho says. “Because if he’s going to do that to someone like him, anyone in the inner circle is essentially disposable.”
It seems Bourdain was burning bridges left and right during this time. “He said some shit to me that really fucking pissed me off,” his friend and mentee David Chang says, before hesitating. “You know, fuck it, Tony said I would never be a good dad,” he reveals, tearing up. “That fucking hurt.” He acknowledges that Bourdain was probably “projecting” and that deep down he was upset with himself for not being the “romantic idea” of what a father should be for his own young daughter.
The implication of the film is that Bourdain became “addicted” to Argento in the same way he was hooked on heroin earlier in his life. He would do anything for her, from admirable pursuits like becoming an outspoken advocate for the Time’s Up movement after she accused Harvey Weinstein of rape or destructive ones like allowing her to completely transform the show he had spent his career building. CNN ultimately pulled Argento’s episodes of the show after she was accused of sexually assaulting a minor herself.
“You don’t want his legacy to become some who succumbed to this darkness,” Tenaglia says. “That wasn’t him. He created something that was so important. That was the legacy of his life, not the stupid bullshit he did at the end.”
That “stupid bullshit” came to a head in Strasbourg, France, where Bourdain and Ripert were filming an episode of Parts Unknown that would never air. According to the crew members who were there with him, he was furious over tabloid photos that implied Argento was cheating on him with a French reporter. Five days later, he took his own life in his hotel room.
Anthony Bourdain in Roadrunner
Focus Features
“How does a storyteller check out without leaving a note?” the artist John Lurie wonders aloud.
But as the producer Cho posits, his last message may have existed in the form of his final Instagram story where he shared the title sequence music by Ennio Morricone from the 1970 film Violent City, a revenge film that opens with paparazzi photos of a woman cheating on her husband. “I mean, it’s all there,” she says.
Roadrunner stops just short of blaming Argento for Bourdain’s death. Even those who were closest to him still can’t fathom how he got to the point of ending it all.
The simplest explanation comes from Michael Steed, who directed the final episode of Parts Unknown. After Bourdain’s death, he says he told his 7-year-old son, “I think Tony, at the end, felt alone and felt he couldn’t talk to anybody about the pain that was going on inside of him.”
Claudia Conway, like everyone else who auditioned on Sunday’s American Idol premiere, wants a golden ticket to Hollywood—but unlike most of her peers, everyone already knows who this teenager is.
Kellyanne and George Conway’s daughter first announced she’d auditioned for the singing competition series in November on TikTok, where she’s gained a massive following over the past year. Claudia’s social media presence has exposed strife within her family, especially between her and her mother, including allegations of abuse. Perhaps that’s why judge Katy Perry asked immediately upon Claudia’s arrival, “Are you okay?”
“No,” Claudia replied. “No but yes.”
When judge and country singer Luke Bryan asked what he was missing, Claudia replied, “My parents are high profile political figures. My mother is Kellyanne Conway. She worked for Trump. And my dad’s George Conway. He worked against Trump.”
“It’s a lot,” Claudia said. “But you know, I only want to spread love, and I love a compromise, and I do disagree with my mom and dad… I had to move to Washington, D.C. when I was 12 and I hated it. When your mom is working for the President of the United States, who you very much disagree with, it’s really hard.”
Claudia’s American Idol visit is a complicated proposition. Given the platform television has already begun to provide former Trump associates to start their rebrands, it seems more than fair to feel conflicted as Claudia takes center stage on ABC. While her association with her parents is not her fault, her presence on the show nonetheless also grants her mother a branding opportunity that reminds us all what got her there in the first place.
Although Katy Perry gets in a few gentle digs at Kellyanne Conway’s expense—like, by asking her daughter, “Does she still hug you?”—Conway also appears on screen as she and Claudia speak virtually ahead of the audition. And in this moment, she plays the warm, cuddly, doting mother.
“This is your time to shine,” Conway tells her daughter. “But remember, honey—winners are people who are willing to lose.”
It’s almost enough to make you forget the oft-worrisome conflicts Claudia has posted to her TikTok.
The Conways appear to be presenting a more united front these days. As People notes, Claudia said in a TikTok video last month of her relationship with her mother, “We fight like mothers and daughters, but we also love like mothers and daughters, and I do love her.”
During her American Idol audition Claudia added, “She loves me; I love her. I just feel like our relationship is a little iffy. Most of my life, my feelings have been suppressed. So then I got on social media, and I was like, ‘Well damn, now my voice is being heard.’ You know?”
George Conway, meanwhile, spent his daughter’s American Idol audition alternately beaming and crying.
Claudia, meanwhile, told the judges that by appearing on the show, she wants to “get out of the controversy, get out of the drama, get out of the politics… and let people know that I am a singer, and this is what I want to do.”
““You dad’s your dad, and your mom’s your mom,” Perry said. “Who is Claudia?””
The first song Claudia tried out on judges: “Love on the Brain” by Rihanna, which fell flat. But she had also prepared “When We Were Young” by Adele—which she sang only after Perry instructed her to sing it “like you lost your youth because you weren’t able to experience it on your own with all the noise.” Subtle!
“You dad’s your dad, and your mom’s your mom,” Perry said. “Who is Claudia?”
After Claudia’s second take, Luke Bryan said he thought her voice was limited due to her young age, and voted “No.” Perry and Lionel Ritchie, however, both voted “yes,” granting Claudia her shot.
“There’s a lot of noise in your life,” Perry told Claudia. “You have to calm the storm that is around you. Meaning, before you sing, you need to get off your phone. You need to stop reading your comments. Push it aside. Because if not, you may not ever rise above your dad or your mom. It’s your choice.”