George Clooney pens open letter… Anna Faris trends on Twitter… A viral petition… Kanye West dating model… and Travis Scott hit with lawsuit over deadly crowd surge

Listen to “Showbiz – Nov 8, 2021” on Spreaker.

Add George Clooney to the list of celebrities begging tabloids to stop publishing pictures of their children. George wrote a letter to Britain’s “Daily Mail,” explaining that posting pictures of his children puts their lives at risk. George wrote that because his wife Amal works as a human rights attorney, it often involves “confronting and putting on trial terrorist groups.” This would make his children potential targets for international terrorists! George wrote, “I am a public figure and accept the oftentimes intrusive photos as part of the price to pay for doing my job. Our children have made no such commitment. We take as much precaution as we can to keep our family safe. We cannot protect our children if any publication puts their faces on their cover. We have never sold a picture of our kids, we are not on social media and never post pictures because to do so would put their lives in jeopardy. Not paranoid jeopardy but real-world issues, with real-world consequences. We hope that you would agree that the need to sell advertisement isn’t greater than the need to keep innocent children from being targeted.”

In an open letter, George Clooney addressed the Daily Mail and other publications to request that they “refrain from putting our children’s faces” in their publications.https://t.co/RPZEmpDl2E— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) November 5, 2021

Chris Pratt was dragged on social media last week and over the weekend after he posted a picture of him and his wife Katherine Schwarzenegger and captioned it with a happy birthday message. In the caption, Chris said, “…She’s given me an amazing life, a gorgeous healthy daughter….” And that’s what sent people over the edge. While Chris shares 1-year-old Lyla with Katherine, he also has a 9-year-old son with his former wife Anna Faris. Jack was born prematurely and continues to have health issues. Trolls were slamming Chris for highlighting using the world “healthy” to describe his daughter. Chris took the comments hard, posting on his IG Story that he was depressed so he went for a run listening to Christian music to help him get out of it. His mother-in-law Maria Shriver commented, “I love you Chris, keep being your wonderful self. Rise above the noise your kids love your family loves you your wife loves you what a beautiful life I’m proud of you xo.”

Chris Pratt went to bed ‘upset’ and ‘depressed’ following social media backlash https://t.co/vrmbN2vFqu pic.twitter.com/P87kE0fTFy— Yahoo Entertainment (@YahooEnt) November 6, 2021

A fan of “Wicked” started a Change.org petition called “Keep James Corden Out of Wicked the Movie.” His goal is to hit 35K, and that goal should be reached by the end of the day today. Apparently, James isn’t forgiven for his recent performances in two other Broadway musical adaptations — “Cats” and “The Prom.” In fact, in his effort to get us all to sign the petition, the creator wrote, “James Corden in no way shape or form should be in or near the production of Wicked the movie. that’s pretty much it.”

A viral petition to keep James Corden out of Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of ‘Wicked’ has amassed over 10,000 signatures in just two days. pic.twitter.com/gNwVGWYGDs— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 7, 2021

Kanye West brought a 22-year-old Instagram model named Venetria to his Donda Academy’s debut basketball game in Minneapolis over the weekend, but sources told Page Six that these two have been “hooking up” for a while now. Right after Kim Kardashian hosted SNL, Kanye did an interview with “Drink Champs” and said that SNL forced Kim to say she’d already divorced him when he hasn’t seen any papers. He also said he and his kids want them to save their marriage. But Page Six said Venetria was with Kanye in Miami when he did that interview! She was also with Kanye at his Sunday Service last weekend, before his interview was made public. But this basketball game is the first time he made his relationship with Venetria public.

Kanye West dating model Vinetria https://t.co/cczx5L3apU pic.twitter.com/pWsmrVKsNj— Page Six (@PageSix) November 7, 2021

Eight people ranging in age from 14 to 27 died and more than 300 others were injured during Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston on Friday night. It was supposed to be a two-day event, but Saturday’s show was canceled. Travis took the stage around 9pm and around 15 minutes later, people started to panic, causing the crown to surge forward. At 9:38pm, the concert was considered a “mass casualty event” and Live Nation made the call to shut down the show. People also began chanting for Travis to stop, but he did not. In fact, there’s video of him looking down at medics trying to resuscitate a fan but he kept on performing until 10:15pm. There were a number of problems before the show even began. Fans crashed the gates and trampled over each other to get into the venue. There wasn’t enough staff or security to handle the sold-out crowd of 50K. The crowd didn’t have access to safe exits. Authorities are trying to determine what led to that initial panicked surge. There were rumors that someone was poking people with needles. The Houston Fire Chief confirmed that a security guard was pricked in his neck, causing him to collapse. He had to be revived with Narcan, an emergency treatment fo opioid overdoses, like heroin and fentanyl. Others at the concert were also treated with Narcan and at least 11 of the 25 people taken to area hospitals were in cardiac arrest. Travis posted a video saying he had no idea what was happening, and Kylie posted the same. She said she and Travis “weren’t aware of any fatalities until the news came out after and in no world would have continued filming or performing” if they had known. As of now, the first of what will be many lawsuits has been filed. One injured concertgoer is seeking at least $1M in damages and is asking for a temporary restraining order to prevent any destruction of evidence from Friday night’s concert.