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Following the news that “Kylo” is one of the fastest rising baby names in the U.S., the “Star Wars” franchise is jumping on the baby naming bandwagon.

On Wednesday, the official “Star Wars” Twitter account tweeted a hilarious graphic with more baby name ideas from the franchise.  

The “Star Wars” name suggestions include Sebulba, Snoke, Bor Gullet and URoRRuR’R’R.

Though it’s unlikely those names will be dominating preschool classrooms anytime soon, many other characters have influenced parents’ choices lately.

In addition to Kylo (the name of 238 boys and seven girls born in 2016), Anakin was a relatively popular choice (going to 303 boys and seven girls), as was Leia (1,005 baby girls), Rey (63 girls and 254 boys) and Ren (113 boys and 28 girls).

Luke also remains at large as the 29th most popular baby name for boys in the U.S., though the biblical name’s popularity can’t totally be attributed to “Star Wars.”

So what will be the next big movie franchise name? Only time will tell.

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“Grey’s Anatomy” lost yet another cast member following the Season 13 finale on Thursday night. 

Although Jerrika Hinton’s character, Dr. Stephanie Edwards, did not die in the explosion that kicked off the episode, the trauma and burns she endured ― coupled with her past childhood illness ― led her to the decision to leave her job and the medical field for good. 

In the final scene of “Ring of Fire,” Edwards tells Dr. Webber (James Pickens. Jr.) that she needs to start living her life outside of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.

“I spent my whole life in hospitals. My whole life,” Edwards says through tears in a hospital bed. “And I think I need to see everything that’s not the inside of a hospital. I need to travel and explore and hike and breathe ... I want to breathe it all in, away from the monitors and the blood and the sterile gowns, away from saving other people’s lives. I want my own.” 

Hinton, who joined the show in Season 9, later took to Instagram to thank “Grey’s” fans and showrunner Shonda Rhimes for giving her the opportunity of a lifetime: 

I am eternally thankful for five seasons of #GreysAnatomy and a graceful departure that underscores the courage it takes to choose yourself. That Stephanie literally walks through fire to reach freedom — her freedom — inspires me. It also makes me curious: What does freedom look like for you, dear viewer? After all, it’s not only the heroics that make her brave, it’s her finally seeing (and seeking) a better path. #onlyfreakingsuperheroes #takeyourpastandfindyourpath You fans and viewers are some of the most devoted folks I’ve ever met. Thank you for your endless energy. Bosslady Shonda, Queen Debbie, and entire the Grey’s Anatomy cast and crew forever remain in my heart. The #Shondaland family is a mighty, winding forest. I look forward to seeing you all in another clearing.  

The actress also spoke with Variety about her exit, which comes a year after Sara Ramirez’s (Callie Torres) departure from the long-running ABC series. Hinton said she doesn’t think Edwards will be back on “Grey’s” anytime soon, but that she’ll miss playing the “wonderful” character.

“Shonda and I met almost a year ago now, and we had a very lengthy and gratifying and really splendid conversation about work and creative process,” Hinton told Variety of her decision to leave. “She was immensely supportive of my wishes, and she’s really lovely, Shonda. Every private conversation I’ve had with her has left with me feeling just heard and seen and respected as a human being and as an artist, and I really appreciate that.” 

Hinton will next be seen in a role on Alan Ball’s upcoming untitled HBO drama. 

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What would you do if you stumbled upon a pile of money?

An artist and her friend were eager to find out — and their curiosity has sparked a viral social experiment.

Lana Mesic, a 29-year-old freelance photographer from the Netherlands, found herself in the odd predicament on Wednesday.

While in London for an artist residency, she came into possession of 15,000 twopence coins. Mesic had built a tower out of the coins in order explore how value is created for a project related to the residency. But, when the project was over, she had no idea how she would transport 235 pounds’ worth of coins back to Holland.

She was so perplexed by the problem that she enlisted the help of Jamahl McMurran, her 24-year-old Airbnb host who she had been staying with during her residency. The two were having drinks on McMurran’s balcony, throwing around a few ideas, when he looked over at a neighboring canal and said, “Hey, why don’t you just put them on the street [by the] canal and see what happens,” McMurran recalled to HuffPost. “I said it pretty flippantly, as a joke.”

But Mesic was intrigued. They continued to talk and decided to leave the coins on the sidewalk by the canal and film how passersby responded. The next morning, the two woke up early, took a train to Mesic’s studio, bagged up the coins and headed to the canal.

McMurran said that by 9 a.m., the coins were placed in a pile by the canal. While the two sat in McMurran’s balcony and waited, McMurran decided to live-tweet their experiment.

Not long after, a few kids came across the pile and treated it like a sandbox.

One kid decided to fill a bag with the coins and the struggle to carry it was real.

Though some people grabbed just a few coins while on the go.

This dude just put his umbrella in the middle of the pile and took a random photo.

While this man responded to the pile in the most magical — and viral — way and made it rain.

Yet, a little after noon, the experiment neared its demise when these guys showed up. 

They pretty much cleared the sidewalk.

McMurran said that all the coins were gone by 12:40 p.m.

Mesic told HuffPost that it’s easy to look at this experiment as something that’s just weird or funny, but what she found more interesting were the motivations behind people’s responses. Especially since she feels people in the U.K. regard a twopence coin, which is two one-hundredths of a pound, as “nuisances and annoying,” much like Americans regard pennies.

She also wonders if people would have responded differently if they knew how much money was actually in the pile of coins.

“If you knew it was £300 on the floor, your behavior may change,” Mesic told HuffPost.

On the other side of the coin, however, McMurran found the experiment to be a whole lot of fun.

“I was excited to see how many different behaviors this could bring out in people,” he said.

As were we all.

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Matthew Perry might have missed last year’s epic “Friends” reunion, but it was only a matter of time before he ended up across from host Andy Cohen being grilled about which cast member he may or may not have had sex with. 

That’s what happened when the actor stopped by “Watch What Happens Live” on Thursday night, as he took the hot seat for a round of “Plead the Fifth.” Perry denied that he got physical with any of his famous “Friends,” but he did reveal which storyline from the long-running sitcom absolutely jumped the shark. 

“There was a storyline on ‘Friends’ where Chandler went to a male strip joint because he really liked the sandwiches,” Perry revealed. “I called up and said, ‘Let’s not do this one.’”

The NBC powers that be apparently acquiesced and nixed the storyline, but now we can’t help but imagine Chandler and Joey (Matt LeBlanc) (you know he’d be game) strutting their stuff onstage, while Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) DJs and the rest of the gang makes it rain. 

Cohen also asked Perry to play “Marry, Shag Kill” with “Friends” co-stars Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox, to which he very smartly pleaded the fifth. 

Watch a clip from Perry’s interview below. 

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The ladies of Twitter never fail to brighten our days with their brilliant ― but succinct ― wisdom. Each week, HuffPost Women rounds up hilarious 140-character musings. For this week’s great tweets from women, scroll through the list below. Then visit our Funniest Tweets From Women page for our past collections.

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The most talked-about episode of the new season of “Master of None” doesn’t revolve around the show’s main character, played by Aziz Ansari. Instead, it’s episode 8, “Thanksgiving,” in which we watch Denise, played by Lena Waithe, navigate coming out to her mother. 

It’s a beautifully crafted episode, one that teases out the nuance and complexities of a black queer woman’s relationship with her mom. How often have we gotten to see a story like Denise’s? It’s a rarity in TV and film, a rarity in pop culture, and smack dab in the middle of one of Netflix’s most popular shows is an episode that feels authentic, honest and real in a way that few coming-out stories on TV ever do. 

That’s what most of the praise for this episode has hinged on ― the deft way in which it chronicles, through a series of holiday dinners, Denise’s evolution from a young, closeted tomboy, to a college grad coming to terms with her sexuality, to a woman trying to get her mother, aunt and grandmother to fully acknowledge who she is. 

Directed by Melina Matsoukas (best known for her work on “Lemonade”) and co-written by Waithe, the episode is one of the first portrayals in recent memory (aside from Dee Rees’ 2013 film “Pariah”) that deals specifically with the coming out of a black lesbian. 

So here we have “Master of None,” a TV show created by and centered around Ansari, an Indian-American comic, with a standout episode that just happens to be directed, written by and starring black women. The success of the show and the “Thanksgiving” episode is a testament to one important thing: the potential for people of color to create spaces and platforms for each other that white gatekeepers and creators otherwise wouldn’t. 

And it’s not just black queer stories that are being brought to the forefront on the show. Episode 6 in the second season of “Master of None” also delves into the lives of working-class people of color, including a group of African immigrants and a deaf black store clerk ― all characters who would normally just be in the background, but here, get the spotlight shined on them. 

There’s truly something to be said for solidarity among POC, especially in the entertainment world, which so often seeks to tokenize minorities, shining a light on one “it” person of color at a time. Ansari is the “it” South Asian on TV right now thanks to this show ― before him, it was Mindy Kaling.

But through this show he’s making a point about the larger sense of connectivity among people of color, the fact that although our lives and struggles may be different, we share the same desire for deeper representation ― representation that doesn’t cater solely to the white gaze. 

Shows like “Dear White People,” “Fresh Off the Boat” and “Being Mary Jane”― a predominantly black show that often takes moments to go into the backstory of Mary Jane’s Latina producer and best friend, Lisa ― are examples of the potential of creating space for telling other POC stories. 

This doesn’t mean that different people of color shouldn’t focus on centering stories on our own experiences. But we should consider what kind of dialogue could be opened when we examine the experiences of others. 

The “Master of None” model is one that many shows could learn from ― not only taking the time to explore a supporting character, but actually allowing that story to be told by someone who relates to and understands that point of view. As we create space for ourselves, we can create space for each other. 

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This week was too much. But if you’ve had a recent feeling that reality no longer makes sense, this isn’t going to help.

Amid everything else that happened over the last few days, Seth Meyers devoted a long segment of “Late Night” to a sketch that involved the green ogre Shrek. More specifically, the segment was an ode to the seven-year anniversary of “Shrek Forever After: The Final Chapter 3D,” the fourth “Shrek” movie.

Although not mentioned in the sketch, it should be pointed out that the tagline for that movie was, “It ain’t ogre... til it’s ogre.”

This wasn’t entirely a random choice by Meyers, as the show has a recurring sketch featuring writer Conner O’Malley as “Anniversary Guy.” This character heckles Meyers from the crowd to insist mentioning obscure anniversaries. In the past, O’Malley has dressed as The Mask and Darth Maul, but his Shrek is a whole new level of commitment.

After Meyers feigned annoyance that this Shrek was interrupting his show, O’Malley started bantering back and forth with the host, expressing immense enthusiasm for Shrek with lines like, “I don’t understand why Congress can’t get off of their asses and get some more Shrek movies out there!”

To close out the sketch, O’Malley stood up to twinkling music and delivered an impassioned speech about the profound merits of Shrek. Somehow, Paul Ryan was involved. 

Meyers eventually asked him how much longer this speech would last, to which O’Malley responded, “Uhh... I haven’t even gotten to the part about Shrek’s penis.” With that, the skit ended. 

On Twitter, O’Malley later reiterated, “SHREK IS IMPORTANT.”

Although Meyers has been doing a great job focusing on the politics of the day on “Late Night,” it’s welcome to see that a sketch that doesn’t reference Donald Trump or involve a huge celebrity can still be successful.

And if you’re not going to talk about Trump, might as well spend that airtime doing something really, really bizarre, right?

Of course, as readers who recognize the reference in this headline already know, this is far from the strangest Shrek-related joke that’s ever been made. Still, this Meyers and O’Malley sketch was a respite in a week that never seemed like it was going to end. And now it’s finally ogre.

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Jean-Michel Basquiat, hailed as the first black art star to break through New York’s predominantly white gallery world, made history on Thursday when his untitled painting sold for a heart-stopping $110.5 million. After the record Sotheby’s sale, the late Basquiat ― who died at age 27 in August 1998, in the midst of a meteoric career ― officially became the highest selling American artist at auction.

Born in Brooklyn in 1960, Basquiat has often been described in terms of what he was and what he managed to become ― long before he dethroned Andy Warhol as America’s most expensive maker of art. “How did a young graffiti rebel go from selling drawings for $50 in 1980 to having a painting come up for auction this week at a staggering $60 million?” The New York Times asked ahead of the May 17 sale.

Even when he was alive, critics gawked at his rise from homelessness and unemployment to unfathomable celebrity status, selling single paintings for five figures when he was just 24 years old. The artist himself spoke openly of his fractured past, of the domestic abuse he experienced as a child at the hands of his Haitian father or the bouts of mental illness suffered by his Puerto Rican mother. He was exposed to art and foreign languages at a young age (he was famously fluent in French, Spanish and English), excelling at both, but as a teen he ran away from home and dropped out of high school.

He was reportedly selling T-shirts and postcards on the street shortly before he and a friend adopted the shared pseudonym SAMO, spreading their graffiti tag across SoHo ― a neighborhood flush with the galleries and gallerists they needed to take notice. This technique was how Basquiat rose: by making his work impossible to miss.

Basquiat painted his $110.5 million painting when he was just 22 years old. By then, he’d already scrawled “SAMO IS DEAD” on a wall in lower Manhattan, announcing the end of the collaboration that first brought him to New York’s attention. He’d already gone to lengths to rub elbows with artists, writers and other fixtures of the era ― Warhol, “TV Party” host Glenn O’Brien, Blondie, David Bowie, art dealer Larry Gagosian. He’d already brought his explosive body of work ― a punkish blend of Neo-expressionism and primitivism that involved wild colors, manic brushstrokes and skeleton-like faces and bodies ― into galleries for critically acclaimed solo shows. His art (thousands of paintings and drawings), his words, his body, even his hair, soon became part of the very bedrock of pop culture at the time.

O’Brien, who wrote the film, “Downtown 81,” starring Basquiat, put his popularity in perspective: “Basquiat’s got fans like Bob Marley’s got fans.”

His ascent to art stardom was swift, but decades after his death, Basquiat’s legacy is much grander; the undeniable impact he had on the art world is more impressive than his quick ability to infiltrate it. He worked tirelessly in those few years, performing and networking and making art, to ensure that his vision was acknowledged ― a vision that involved bright condemnations of America’s racist past and its history of police brutality, as well as celebrations of black heroes and events otherwise missing from gallery walls. He used reclaimed materials and graffiti techniques to wedge politics into these pristine spaces.

One work in particular, “Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart),” memorialized the death of a black graffiti artist who was beaten to death by New York City police. “It could have been me,” Basquiat said, in a phrase that reverberates now. “It could have been me.”

Before he died of a heroin overdose, Basquiat maintained complicated relationships with the segregated art world illuminated in his obituaries. “Ultimately, Basquiat would be the only black artist to survive the graffiti label, and find a permanent place as a black painter in a white art world,” one reads. Today, his place in that world is often used as a prism through which we can view the contemporary art establishment ― how it’s changed and how it hasn’t.

“There was no not seeing Basquiat. He was everywhere and made sure everyone saw him,” Jordan Casteel told The Guardian. “Today it is going to be the same, there is no not seeing. You will see us. We as black artists will continue to fight for that visibility, and we can do that, but, it is also going to mean that the ‘mainstream’ art world has to accept that there are more than a few and there is some true talent out there.”

Nearly 30 years after his death, Basquiat’s work, and his work ethic, are far from being forgotten. He’s bested Warhol, posthumously exceeding the auction prices of other “quintessentially American” (read: white and male) artists like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Robert Rauschenberg. While Warhol’s pop art embraced the sheen of consumerism, allowing wealthy buyers to feel like they were in on his jokes, Basquiat’s violent canvases critiqued power, colonialism and class conflict, rarely letting viewers who really looked off the hook.

The art market and the institutions that support it have a long way to go in terms of inclusion ― and, in many ways, they provide a fun-house reflection of the U.S. and its slow work toward the same thing. But it the meantime, the market has crowned Basquiat as the ultimate American artist, and for that, we’re thankful. 

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Lin-Manuel Miranda is a Renaissance man with an already impressive resume ― and it’s about to get even longer.

Disney just announced that Miranda will join the voice cast of “Duck Tales” on DisneyXD.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of “Hamilton” will voice Duckburg hero Gizmoduck, also known as Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera. The character is an intern with Scrooge McDuck’s mad scientist, Gyro Gearloose. 

Of Miranda’s addition to the team, “DuckTales” co-producer and story editor Francisco Angones said they wanted Gizmoduck to have “Latin-inspired roots.”

“Growing up as a Cuban-American comics enthusiast, I was always hungry for a Latino hero to call my own,” he said in a press release. “In developing the new series, Matt and I leapt at the opportunity to adapt ‘DuckTales’’ marquee hero into a young scientist character with Latin-inspired roots.”

 Fans are also very excited that Miranda is involved with the project:

“DuckTales” is expected to air this summer.

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America Ferrera wants to keep the activist momentum going in the United States.

And with her new organization, Harness, the actress is hoping to turn many citizens’ interest in various social justice issues into action. The group hosted an #ActivismIRL event with Cosmopolitan.com and Twitter on Thursday in an attempt to turn hashtag activism into real change. 

At the event, the star moderated a panel with Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors; Sophie Sarah Flicker, the national organizer for the Women’s March; and Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, the executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.

Before the panel, Ferrera sat down with Amy Odell, the editor of Cosmopolitan.com, for a fireside chat. During their conversation, Ferrera described Harness’ mission and why she decided to launch the organization in February alongside her husband Ryan Piers Williams and actor Wilmer Valderrama.

“We do realize that this is a moment in our history of heightened awareness, heightened engagement and we want to harness that energy, that opportunity that’s arising right now to give people a sustainable way to engage in these issues,” Ferrera said during the event held at Twitter’s New York City headquarters and live-streamed via Periscope. “We want to shift culture beyond the administration that is currently in the White House. And really we want to shift culture beyond any given president, because it’s not enough to have the power as the people [every] four years and then go back to sleep. We have to change what in our culture has led us to this moment.” 

"It’s not enough to have the power as the people [every] four years and then go back to sleep. We have to change what in our culture has led us to this moment."
America Ferrera

Ferrera said the organization is meant to connect individuals to activists who are working “on the front lines doing the work day in and day out” and to those who are victims of certain issues.

“They’re going to have the best answers on how we can show up to support them,” she said. “This isn’t about us sweeping in and being the heroes. Our most vulnerable communities have been facing the issues that are all of a sudden front page news for decades and generations. They know better than any of us what they need. We need to show up and listen.”

During the chat, Odell also asked the actress if she had ever considered running for office. Ferrera said that she’s asked that question nearly every day.

“I guess if you are engaged and you care and you go out there and you speak on behalf of people there’s a natural tendency to imagine that person in politics,” she said. “For me I think leadership comes in all forms and we need leaders beyond government. We need leaders beyond the White House. We need cultural leaders, we need social leaders, we need leaders in business, tech, fashion. So for me I’m most interested in being a leader in my space, my circles, my community right now. Who knows what’s ahead?”

“I mean it’s an easy slogan, right?,” Ferrera quipped.  

America for America 2020? Maybe. 

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Rachel Lindsay’s season of “The Bachelorette” has been tacitly cast as a new step toward diversity for the franchise. So how do her suitors stack up? Will she be meeting 31 clones, or men from all backgrounds? 

The cast, at first glance, actually promises to offer a more varied one than usual ― more non-white men, fewer fitness trainers, and some real quirky options. Here’s a quick breakdown of Rachel’s dudes by the numbers:

Men of color: 14 

Not bad!

Gelled pompadours: 12

They’re rocking those Jordan Rodgers haircuts.

V-neck T-shirts: 15

Sigh. 

Personal trainers: 1

Fewer than usual, actually!

ER doctors: 2

Keeping the mansion safe since 2017.

Lawyers: 2

Three, counting Rachel!

Tickle monsters: 1

We’re hoping this isn’t code for “molester.”

Whabooms: 1

Sure.

Fans of The Rock: 3

And every red-blooded straight woman in America.

Fans of Matthew McConaughey: 2

All right all right all right.

Haters of Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino: 2

What did he ever do to these dudes?

Dudes who admit to getting boners at work: 2

No shame, guys. No shame.

Guy who admits he’s not there for the right reasons: 1

In response to “What do you hope to get out of participating in this television show?” Milton shamelessly says: “Real answer? Discovered. Everyone tells me I’m made for TV/movies.”

With 31 men appearing on the season, there’s simply too much bio goodness to fully process at one read. Jamey says he doesn’t have any female friends (um, rude); Lucas, the whaboom, once had a threesome at a wedding; and Anthony is our Haruki Murakami-reading crush. We can’t wait to get this season started.

For more cast bio analysis, check out HuffPost’s Here to Make Friends podcast: 

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With the “Twin Peaks” countdown nearing its final hours, we still know almost nothing about what the revival of the eccentric ‘90s classic will entail. Neither does Naomi Watts, and she’s in the damn thing.

One of the many “Twin Peaks” rookies who will appear in the 18-episode limited series premiering Sunday on Showtime, Watts wasn’t sent a single script. She had to venture to co-creator David Lynch’s Los Angeles home to read her scenes. Even that was cagey: “If there were five or six lines said before I started speaking, they were crossed out ― blacked out completely,” Watts said Thursday during an interview for next month’s “The Book of Henry.” 

Since she was cast more than a year ago, Watts has had a “difficult” time safeguarding whatever secrets she does know. This was “next-level” confidentiality, but Watts was happy to “protect” Lynch’s “level of privacy.” It’s not her first Lynchian rodeo, after all ― Watts’ breakout moment was the director’s neo-noir psychodrama “Mulholland Drive.” 

The size of Watts’ role is unclear, especially considering how many other A-listers are joining the new season (Laura Dern, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jim Belushi, Michael Cera, Amanda Seyfried, Tim Roth, Ashley Judd, Ernie Hudson). Because Showtime did not release screeners for journalists and critics, all we know is that “Twin Peaks: The Return” picks up 25 years after the original series’ culmination, with Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle McLachlan) and other fixtures returning to deepen (and perhaps clarify?) the lingering mysteries surrounding Laura Palmer’s murder.  

Shooting in small-town Washington and parts of Southern California ― “strange places,” in Watts’ words ― helped avoid paparazzi shots that sometimes leak spoilers from film and television sets. “And it’s part of the fun,” Watts said. “The not knowing makes it fun. And you trust David because he is who he is. He’s unique. You give yourself over. He’s done it so brilliantly time and time again, and you just enjoy his little magical world that he’s creating.”

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Fidget Spinners are driving teachers mad all over the country - much like the dreaded laser pointers from back in my day, although we didn’t try to claim therapeutic effects by way of the distracting red light. The Spinners are claiming to help with anxiety and ADHD, but the evidence is anecdotal at best and BS marketing at worst.

Child psychologists Dr. Dave Anderson, Scott Kollins, and Victoria Prooday have all said that there is no evidence that Fidget Spinners help with ADHD or anxiety, and instead serve as a distraction due to the instant gratification of the toy. In this light, it seems like the perfect toy for our time.

There are tried and tested methods that can help children with ADHD and anxiety relief and these entertainment toys should not be used as an excuse for kids to be disruptive in classrooms. Although, maybe they will help children develop their debating skills as they plead their cases to teachers across the country to keep their toy spinning on their desks. However, as Dr. Anderson notes, one positive about them is they have brought attention to the discussion about what CAN help anxiety and ADHD.

If you don’t understand why people are into spinning pieces of plastic all of a sudden, Michael McCrudden traces the Fidget Spinner’s history back to its 1997 origin in the video above. This is a trend that’s 20 years in the making.

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Samantha Bee can’t get enough of Ivanka Trump’s new self-help book. Well, making fun of it at least.

Bee went to great lengths on “Full Frontal” on May 10 to explain why she wouldn’t be reading Women Who Work: Rewriting The Rules again anytime soon.

Then on Friday, her show posted a 33-second video to YouTube which went even further ― by demonstrating what happened when one of its writers read the book from cover to cover. 

“It was not a good idea,” the clip’s narrator said.

Find out what went down in the clip above.

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For Julie Andrews, being a patron of the arts and an LGBTQ rights advocate go hand in hand. 

In a new interview with The Advocate, the legendary star of “Mary Poppins” and “The Sound of Music” credited her years of working in film and on stage for exposing her to diversity early on. When it comes to queer people specifically, Andrews said she’s “just always” been an ally. 

“Theater, anyway, is such an open community and free,” the Oscar winner said. She went on to note that she was “very aware of bias and bigotry” from a young age, but that she “was raised not to be that way and not to think that way.”

“It always seemed puzzling to me that the world wasn’t just embracing human beings. But it’s never been something that I stumbled on,” she said. “It’s just always been innate, thanks I think to the professions that I am in.” 

Andrews, 81, is back in the spotlight as the host of “Julie’s Greenroom,” a new Netflix series for children that explores different aspects of the performing arts. Her co-stars in the series are the “Greenies,” a cast of original puppets that were created by The Jim Henson Company. One of the “Greenies,” Riley, is depicted as a gender neutral character. “We tried to be as inclusive as we possibly could within the show,” Andrews, who created “Julie’s Greenroom” with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, and Judy Rothman, said. 

In March, Andrews and Hamilton spoke out against President Donald Trump’s “mind-boggling” plan to cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts in an impassioned CNN editorial. True to form, the woman beloved by legions of fans for her iconic role as Maria von Trapp doubled down on that stance in the Advocate interview.

“There’s no doubt that [the arts] help people understand each other and they transcend all barriers, and I cannot think of anything more important,” Andrews said. As far as her suggestion for Trump’s apparent disregard for the arts is concerned, she said, “Talk to anybody that is passionate about them and listen and learn, because I cannot imagine a world without them.” 

For the latest in LGBTQ news, check out the Queer Voices newsletter. 

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"The Bachelorette” doesn’t officially kick off its 13th season until Monday night, but one of the 31 men vying for Rachel Lindsay’s love has already started off on the wrong foot.

ABC posted contestants’ bios to its website this week, and Bryce, a 30-year-old firefighter, has been criticized for how he responded to a certain question: What’s your biggest date fear?” 

“The chick is actually a dude,” Bryce responded, per The Wrap. 

The contestant invited swift backlash from the LGBTQ community, including comments from “Ru Paul’s Drag Race” alum Sharon Needles and transgender actress Jen Richards. 

ABC provided The Wrap with a statement denouncing Bryce’s answer. “This comment does not reflect the views of ABC, Warner Horizon or bachelorette Rachel Lindsay,” a representative stated. The network promptly removed the line from its website.

As Refinery29 points out, Bryce wasn’t the only contestant to display uninformed views about transgender people. Lucas, a man who lists his occupation as “whaboom,” stated that if he could have lunch with any one person, dead or alive, he’d choose Bruce Jenner (”dead”) and Caitlyn Jenner (”alive”). 

“Would be a very interesting convo,” Lucas said.

“Lucas is fetishizing the experience of a trans woman,” Refinery29’s R.A. Farley wrote. “I’d like to think that Lucas wants to talk to Caitlyn Jenner in an effort to understand the trans experience. But I can’t help but think that’s not the case.”

Those missteps aside, Season 13 of “The Bachelorette” has been praised for being the series’ most progressive yet, with a black bachelorette and a more diverse set of contestants than ever before. The series returns to ABC Monday at 9 p.m. ET.

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It takes a lot to upstage Katy Perry, but Backpack Kid managed to do it.

Perry, who channeled Beetlejuice in a black and white striped coat, performed “Swish Swish” ― which is thought to be a Taylor Swift diss track ― on the season finale of “Saturday Night Live” this weekend.

The pop star was flanked by drag queens on both sides of a runway, before she moved aside to let them do their thing. Then a star was born: 

Backpack Kid, as the people of Twitter dubbed him, stepped onto the runway and mesmerized the world with his backpack and the way he moved. (For the record, Backpack Kid’s real name is Russell Horning, he’s 15, and he’s on Instagram.)

People were delighted. They were in awe. They were confused. They had questions. They knew he had stolen the show.  

Will we see more of Backpack Kid? Time will tell. 

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When it comes to “Saturday Night Live” characters, David S. Pumpkins is one of the most bizarre and the most beloved in recent history. 

Played by Tom Hanks, the character ― a man in a pumpkin-print suit accompanied by two dancing skeletons ― was introduced to audiences when Hanks hosted “SNL” in October 2016. 

If you had any questions left unanswered, the return of Hanks as David S. Pumpkins or rather “David S. Pimpkins” in this case, you are unlikely to find them in this weekend’s “Rap Song,” which is a parody of overstuffed hip-hop collaborations.

Actually, we want to know what happened to Pumpkins’ two dancing skeletons. 

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Celine Dion looked and sounded like an angel ― complete with massive wings ― at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night as she performed her smash hit “My Heart Will Go On” from “Titanic” nearly 20 years after the film’s release. 

Dion, who wore a plunging white gown with huge sleeves, sang the ballad while a montage of scenes from the Oscar-winning movie, released in December 1997, played in the background. 

“This song means a lot to me, and it has played such a huge role in my career,” Dion said in a statement when it was announced earlier this month that she would perform the song at the awards. “I’m so grateful to the late James Horner, and to Will Jennings, for writing it and creating the opportunity for me to be part of ‘Titanic,’ an amazing film whose legacy will continue for generations to come.” 

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