The women who traveled to space aboard the Blue Origin capsule earlier in April have since faced relentless criticism of the trip: It’s been called tone-deaf, a waste of money and worse. But at the TIME100 gala in New York City on April 24, mission member Gayle King told reporters she’ll never get sick of answering questions about it because she thinks the trip had a positive impact.
“I’ll never be tired of it. I feel so proud. I feel so brave. I know the message that it’s sending to young women and girls and boys, too, of all ages,” King insisted. She then spoke about meeting a little girl during Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day on Thursday.
“She had on a NASA T-shirt that she wore just for me,” King shared. “Because, she said, ‘I saw you and you look so afraid and you did it anyway. And it made me think it’s OK to do stuff that scares you.'”
“I know the difference it made,” she asserted. “So I focus on the positivity.”
King added that while the focus has been on the more famous members of the crew, like Katy Perry and Lauren Sanchez, it was more than just celebrities in space.
“To me, Amanda Nguyen, Aisha Bowe, Kerianne Flynn, these women who were rocket scientists and astrophysicists and filmmakers and all their backstories … it was such a bonding experience for all of us,” King said of the crew. “We’ll never forget it.”
In fact, King shared that all six women are now planning their next excursion.
“We were on a text chain today saying, ‘We need to all go to Katy’s concert! Which city can we go and when?’ That’s our next group activity.”
Hulu released the official trailer for the sixth and final season of the hit drama series on Wednesday.
Season 6, which stars Elisabeth Moss, premieres on April 8 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. The first three episodes drop that night, followed by a weekly one-episode drop each week through the finale on May 27.
Moss is back as June in the new season. The trailer finds June leading a resistance against Gilead after the dystopian nation introduces a war against the revolutionaries.
“For years, we’ve been afraid of them. Now it’s time for them to be afraid of us,” Moss’ June says in the trailer.
In the sixth season, “June’s unyielding spirit and determination pull her back into the fight to take down Gilead. Luke and Moira join the resistance. Serena tries to reform Gilead while Commander Lawrence and Aunt Lydia reckon with what they wrought, and Nick faces challenging tests of character,” according to its official synopsis. “This final chapter of June’s journey highlights the importance of hope, courage, solidarity and resilience in the pursuit of justice and freedom.”
The Handmaid’s Tale returns more than two years after the season 5 finale aired in November 2022.
Bradley Whitford, Ann Dowd, Samira Wiley, Madeline Brewer, Amanda Brugel, Sam Jaeger, Ever Carradine and JoshCharles also star.
Disney/Scott Kirkland, Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Image, Disney/Randy Holmes
When H.E.R.‘s song “Fight For You” from Judas and the Black Messiah won the Oscar for best original song in 2021, she credited her win in part to the days she spent listening to artists like Curtis Mayfield. That quote and her knowledge of the singer’s discography have since “paid off,” earning her the title of director of the documentary The Makings of Curtis Mayfield, which is about the impact of his music on artists of this generation.
“As I was sitting down with people, the common thing that I recognized the most within the conversations was impact,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “His nickname is ‘a gentle genius,’ and I had no idea what that meant until I was listening to how many people were students of his. … No matter how versed you are in who he is, his presence was so felt and his genius was so felt. People give the credit to Marvin Gaye, and they give some credit to Stevie [Wonder] and there’s a lot of people who spoke politically to Sly [Stone], but [Mayfield] came before a lot of those people.”
The Makings of Curtis Mayfield, which premiered at SXSW, features interviews with famous musicians — but not just anyone made the cut. H.E.R. says her focus was on recruiting “people who had a connection” or “visceral reaction” to Curtis, noting her chat with Dr. Dre was “really special.”
“We were in his space [Dr. Dre’s home studio], and he knew so much about Curtis,” H.E.R. says. “He had these child-like reactions to the music in real time. When people experience Dr. Dre’s love for Curtis in this doc, they get a different Dr. Dre. I think that is so powerful. In that interview, you get to see how he influenced hip hop.”
