January 21, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC News/Steve Iervolino(LOS ANGELES) — Priyanka Chopra Jonas is opening up about the racist bullying she endured while enrolled at an American high school.  The actress reveals that the abuse and harassment was so severe, she returned to India when she was 15 years old.

Speaking to People about her upcoming tell-all memoir Unfinished, which arrives next month, Chopra Jonas revealed it was nearly impossible to ignore her bullies.

“I took it very personally. Deep inside, it starts gnawing at you,” the 38-year-old Quantico alum admitted. “I went into a shell. I was like, ‘Don’t look at me. I just want to be invisible.'”

Chopra Jonas explained how the persistent torment affected her mental health, furthering, “My confidence was stripped. I’ve always considered myself a confident person, but I was very unsure of where I stood, of who I was.”

Priyanka, who recently celebrated her two-year wedding anniversary with husband Nick Jonas, says she moved to the U.S. from India when she was 12 and stayed with relatives in New York City, Indianapolis and, finally, Newtown, Massachusetts.

Living on the East Coast, she says, was when she was met with outright racist aggression from her fellow classmates.

Chopra Jonas, providing an excerpt of her upcoming memoir, detailed what her classmates would shout at her as she walked down the hall, such as “Brownie, go back to your country!” and “Go back on the elephant you came on.”

The Citadel star says she tried to overcome the bullying, but the persistent abuse made her “[break] up with America” and move back to India.  She does not regret the decision.

“I was so blessed that when I went back to India, I was surrounded by so much love,” said Chopra Jonas, who went onto win Miss World. “Going back to India healed me.”

By Megan Stone
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

January 21, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Patrick Semansky-Pool/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Amanda Gorman said she feels “amazing” after making history Wednesday as the youngest poet in recent history to perform at a presidential inauguration.

“It’s not often that you wake up on a morning feeling like this,” Gorman, 22, said Thursday on Good Morning America in her first live TV interview since President Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Gorman, a Los Angeles native, became the breakout star of the inauguration with her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” which she finished writing on the night of Jan. 6, hours after rioters took siege on Capitol Hill.

Gorman’s Hamilton references in her inaugural poem caught the eye of Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the Tony-winning Broadway musical, who tweeted to Gorman on Wednesday that she was “perfect.”

On Thursday, Miranda surprised Gorman with a special message delivered on GMA, saying, “The right words in the right order can change the world, and you proved that yesterday with your brilliant piece. I’m so incredibly proud of you and I can’t wait to see what’s next. You smashed it.”

“I almost fell out of my chair,” Gorman said in reaction to Miranda’s praise. “That’s amazing.”

Gorman also received praise for her poem from the likes of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey, who gifted her with Maya Angelou-inspired jewelry for the inauguration.

Amid all of the attention she received at the inauguration and in the 24 hours since, Gorman said she was especially touched by meeting Lady Gaga, who sang the Star-Spangled banner on Wednesday.

“It was so incredible meeting Lady Gaga. I mean I’m gaga for Gaga, literally,” she said, adding, “It was just such a great moment because what she does with music I aspire to do with poetry so it was great to have that woman to woman camaraderie.”

By Katie Kindelan
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

January 21, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/Craig Sjodin(LOS ANGELES) — Sarah Trott’s abrupt exit from The Bachelor on Monday was something nobody saw coming, and on Wednesday, the 24-year-old former journalist explained her decision.

Sarah, who appeared to be one of the frontrunners for Matt James’ heart, says several factors drove her decision, including her inability to stay in touch with her father, who suffers from ALS.

“A couple of people told me that I would be able to talk with family,” Trott tells Entertainment Tonight.  ”I thought I would be able to communicate with my parents and have access to a phone and talk with them, but some of those things turned out differently once I got there.”

Another factor was her rapidly deteriorating relationship with the other women, who saw her fainting spell at the rose ceremony, interrupting a group date to speak to Matt and isolating herself from the group as a ploy to get his attention.

Sarah told fellow contestant Katie that she was going to leave to be with her dad, but as fans discovered during her emotional goodbye to Matt, Trott cited the women as her reason for leaving, accusing them of being “cruel and malicious.”

As for her future plans, Sarah tells ET she’s currently focusing on “being a caregiver to her father, working as a freelance journalist and splitting her time between Los Angeles and San Diego.”

The Bachelor airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

By George Costantino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

January 21, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

ABC/Craig Sjodin(LOS ANGELES) — Kristen Bell wants to be open and honest about her life and, on Wednesday, revealed that she and husband Dax Shepard sought counseling amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking with People, the Frozen 2 star said quarantine did bring her and her husband closer together, but it also exposed that the two needed “a little therapy brush-up.”

“Dax and I, when we started this pandemic, were at a point in our marriage where we definitely needed [it,]” said Bell, who views therapy as a way to strengthen her marriage.

“Every couple of years, we’re like, ‘We’re being very antagonistic towards each other,’ and we don’t want that.  We go back to therapy and figure out what I’m not doing that’s best for you and what you’re not doing that’s best for me, and how we can serve this team goal better,” the 40-year-old Golden Globe winner noted. 

Bell, who is outwardly pro-therapy, says seeing a counselor with Shepard has “been incredibly helpful.”

Besides a successful marriage, The Good Place actress admits she has had a hard time adjusting to the new normal brought on by the pandemic, which she says makes her restless. 

In a separate Instagram post, the Emmy-nominee opened up about a decline in her mental health and confessed Wednesday, “I’ve been struggling the last 2 weeks, for who-knows-why-slash-ALL-the-reasons.”

“Today I finally got back on the tredmill [sic,] figuratively and literally. And I’m proud. ‘Good job, kb.’ I said to myself,” the actress continued, who shared the vulnerable post in order to tell her 14.6 million followers that they’re not alone.

“To anyone who’s been feeling the same, you can do it. Just do the next right thing,” said Bell, who signed off with “I love u.”

By Megan Stone
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

January 21, 2021 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Netflix(LOS ANGELES) — It wouldn’t take the show’s gossip maven, Lady Whistledown, to have predicted this, but Netflix has renewed its hit bodice-ripping drama Bridgerton for a second season. 

The short version of the announcement was posted on the show’s official Twitter. But the news was also shared in an email image of one of Whistledown’s articles: according to the show, she spills the Earl Grey on all the hot couplings in 1800s London.

“The incomparable cast … will return to production in the Spring of 2021,” the note reads. “This author has been reliably informed that Lord Anthony Bridgerton intends to dominate the social season. I will have my pen ready to report on any and all of his romantic activities.”

Based on Julia Quinn’s beloved book series, the latest hit from Shonda Rhimes centers on Phoebe Dynevor’s character, Daphne Bridgerton, and her arranged marriage to the Duke of Hastings, played by heartthrob Regé-Jean Page.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.