Lea Michele announces arrival of second child: “Our hearts are so full”
Glee alumna Lea Michele and her husband Zandy Reich shared the news on Sunday that they’ve welcomed their second child, a girl named Emery Sol Reich.
“Our hearts are so full,” Instagrammed Michele, bracketing the baby’s name in a heart emoji. The post included a photo of the newborn’s foot surrounded by three hands, one of which is a child’s hand.
Michele first announced her pregnancy in March via an Instagram post, featuring photos from a maternity shoot.
“Mommy, Daddy and Ever are overjoyed,” she captioned the post.
In May, Michele indicated she was carrying a girl with a Mother’s Day Instagram post. “The most beautiful Mother’s Day today, holding my son who made me a mama…and carrying my daughter,” she wrote.
Michele and Reich are already parents to a 4-year-old son, Ever Leo, whom they welcomed in August 2020. The couple have been married since March 2019.
Michele starred as Rachel Berry on Glee from 2009 to 2015 and since emerged as a Broadway star, playing the role of Fanny Brice in the show Funny Girl from 2022 to 2023.
The 76th Emmy Awards, which aired Sunday night on ABC, had quite a few memorable moments — but perhaps none as memorable as the acceptance speech centered around a dead dog.
While accepting the Emmy for Outstanding Scripted Variety Series for Last Week Tonight, John Oliver thanked the usual people and then shifted gears, paying tribute to his family’s “fantastic” dog, who’d recently passed away. She was at our wedding and she got us through the pandemic. She was with us for two pregnancies,” he said. At that point, the “playoff” music started, indicating that Oliver should wrap it up, but he wasn’t having it.
“Perfect choice of music,” he noted. He then continued, “I feel like Sarah McLachlan right now. She was an amazing dog.” The music continued, to which Oliver shouted, “F*** you! This isn’t just for her. This is for all the dogs! All dogs, you are all very good girls. You are very good boys. You all deserve a treat. Play me off now!”
Some other memorable moments:
—Murphy Brown star Candice Bergen, a presenter, took a shot at J.D. Vance by recalling that during the show’s heyday, then-Vice President Dan Quayle attacked her character for having a baby and raising it as a single mother. “Oh, how far we’ve come,” she said sarcastically. “Today, a Republican candidate for vice president would never attack a woman for having kids. So as they say, my work here is done.” She then added, “Meow.”
–One of the many TV reunion segments during the evening brought together Ron Howard and Henry Winkler to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Happy Days. Speaking from a replica of the show’s hangout, Arnold’s, Howard complained that they didn’t have any theme music introducing them. After some encouragement, Winkler adopted his “Fonz” persona from the show, went over to the jukebox and wrapped it with his fist, causing the Happy Days theme to start up.
–Will Smith accepted the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for Slow Horses. No, not THAT Will Smith, as the British showrunner acknowledged. Taking the podium, he said, “First of all, relax. Despite my name, I come in peace.”
—The Bear’sLiza Colón-Zayas became the first Latina to win the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and she recognized that moment by saying, “To all the Latinas who are looking at me? Keep believing. And vote. Vote for your rights.”
—John Leguizamo did a lengthy monologue about diversity in Hollywood, noting that he didn’t see a lot of Latinx representation on TV and movies growing up. “Everybody played us but us,” he noted. Then, he praised the diversity of this year’s nominees, saying it made him “almost happy and certainly less angry.”
–Along those same lines, presenter Diego Luna announced the nominees for Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series in Spanish, directly addressing the “more than 50 million Spanish speakers in this country.”
— A number of actors from The West Wing, including Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Dulé Hilland Richard Schiff, reunited to present the Emmy for Best Drama Series and joked about modern politics. Schiff noted that today, interesting storylines could be “plucked right off the news — storylines that writers would have deemed a bit far-fetched, if not utterly ridiculous, 25 years ago.”
–Baby Reindeer‘s Richard Gadd had a message for the entertainment industry. At the podium to accept the Emmy for Best Limited or Anthology Series, he said, “If Baby Reindeer has proved anything, it’s that there’s no set formula to this — that you don’t need big stars, proven IP, long-running series, catch-all storytelling to have a hit. The only constant across any success in television is good storytelling that speaks to our times. So take risks, push boundaries, explore the uncomfortable. Dare to fail in order to achieve.”
We’re all guilty of misunderstanding the lyrics to popular songs — there are many website postings dedicated to it, in fact, but here’s one you may not have thought about and could have trouble hearing it any other way.
Haliey Welch, better known as the “Hawk Tuah” girl for her viral, onomatopoetic take on an oral sex practice, sat down with Bill Maher on his Club Random podcast and the topic turned to music.
While the 22-year-old said she prefers “old rap” to newer stuff, she’s certainly “heard of older” rappers like Tupac and Jay-Z, though she confesses she “doesn’t listen to them that often.”
Except that one song from Hova, she says, singing, “‘Concrete jungle-wet dream-tomato,’ you know, about New York.” For the record, the actual lyrics are “Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,” as sung by Alicia Keys in the hit.
“‘Wet dream tomato’?” Maher asked.
Her interpretation may just be her second viral moment, with one Facebook user clipping it and interspersing it with the real song. “Now I can’t unhear it,” the user said with “crying laughing” emoji.
Maher said he wanted to “mentor” Welch on how best to use her “chip” — that is her “sudden” fame — to “move past” her “origin story.”
He likened her to the Kardashians, who have become household names “from a sex tape.”
“That’s why it’s important to figure out your next step,” Maher warned. “America gets tired of s*** quick.”
Paramount+ with Showtime has dropped a teaser to Dexter: Original Sin, a prequel series based on the hit avenging serial killer series that starred Michael C. Hall.
À la Young Sheldon — but far darker — Hall will serve as a narrator of the show, which serves as an origin story with Patrick Gibson playing the younger version of Dexter Morgan.
“I’m a killer but I wasn’t born this way; I was made,” Hall intones. “I was made by my history, by the people around me. They say it takes a village to raise a killer.”
Among those are Christian Slater as Dexter’s dad, who helps him adopt “a Code designed to help him find and kill people who deserve to be eliminated from society without getting on law enforcement’s radar.”
The ’90s-set series sees the younger Dexter interning in the forensics department of the Miami Metro Police Department — a gig the adult Dexter kept, which helped keep the police off his trail as he dispatched all manner of bad people over the original show’s eight-season run that ended in 2013.
Dexter: Original Sin also stars Patrick Dempsey, Christina Milian and Sarah Michelle Gellar. It debuts on Dec. 13 for subscribers of Paramount+ with Showtime.
For Showtime subscribers, the series launches on Dec. 15.