MSNBC host angrily throws script while reacting to Trump calling out judge’s daughter
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace angrily threw her script off to the side during her live show on Friday while discussing former President Trump’s calling out a judge’s daughter on social media.
“So, you know, it’s time to do something different,” Wallace said as she tossed her script to the side. “Like, we’re not going to have this conversation again! I have come on the air with breaking news about requests for gag orders because of threats for judges and their kids more times than I could count today before I got ready.”
Wallace, who was joined by former federal Judge Michael Luttig, MSNBC’s John Heilman, Lisa Rubin and Glenn Kirschner, raged at the former president and said he enlisted the “highest court in the land” to delay “every federal criminal trial.”
“Donald Trump brazenly and repeatedly attacks not just judges,” she said. “Judges don’t have Secret Service protecting them.”
TRUMP SLAMS BRAGG AFTER PLEADING NOT GUILTY: ‘I NEVER THOUGHT ANYTHING LIKE THIS COULD HAPPEN IN AMERICA’
“What are we going to do different, because Donald Trump sure as hell isn’t changing,” Wallace added.
Luttig argued Trump’s objective was to “delegitimize” courts so that when and if they ruled against him, Americans would dismiss the rulings.
“We all have to understand that from the first time that the former president began his attacks — vicious attacks — on the federal courts and the state courts and their judges, his objective was to delegitimize those courts so that when and if they ruled against him in the various matters that he’s been charged with, then at least his followers, if not a good part of the nation, would dismiss those rulings against him as having been politically inspired and motivated,” he said.
Manhattan prosecutors asked a judge to clarify a gag order on Friday imposed on Trump following social media posts by the former commander-in-chief that criticized the judge’s daughter.
MANHATTAN DA BRAGG REQUESTS JUDGE IMPOSE GAG ORDER ON TRUMP DURING HUSH MONEY CASE
He suggested New York Judge Juan Merchan was kowtowing to his daughter’s interests as a Democratic political consultant. Trump claimed the judge’s daughter, Loren Merchan, whose firm has worked on campaigns for President Joe Biden and other Democrats, had recently posted a photo on social media depicting her “obvious goal” of seeing him jailed.
“Judge Juan Merchan is totally compromised, and should be removed from this TRUMP Non-Case immediately,” Trump wrote Thursday. “His Daughter, Loren, is a Rabid Trump Hater, who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me, and yet he gagged me.”
Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump in the hush money case on March 26 and pointed to the former president’s “prior extrajudicial statements,” saying they establish “a sufficient risk to the administration of justice.”
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Merchan ordered that Trump cannot make or direct others to make public statements about witnesses concerning their potential participation, or about counsel in the case — other than Bragg — or about court staff, DA staff or family members of staff.
Fox News’ Luis Casiano, Brooke Singman and Maria Paronich contributed to this report.
Historian schools AOC and liberals portraying Christ as a Palestinian
A biblical scholar accused left-wing politicians and media figures of using Jesus to send a “historically false” and “inflammatory” political message about the war in Gaza this Holy Week.
“This Easter, let’s not try to pretend Jesus was a ‘Palestinian Jew,'” historian and Aurelio Professor of Scripture emerita at Boston University Paula Fredriksen implored in her scathing op-ed for the Washington Post.
At Christmas, liberal figures, including Democratic “Squad” members, drew backlash for likening Jesus to a “Palestinian Jew” living in an “occupied” country.
“So caught up were these advocates in their own spin that they mischaracterized reality,” Fredriksen reacted.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., seized on the trend in a social media post on Christmas Day.
“In the story of Christmas, Christ was born in modern-day Palestine under the threat of a government engaged in a massacre of innocents,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote, referencing Jews who lived in the land over 2,000 years ago under Roman control. “He was part of a targeted population being indiscriminately killed to protect an unjust leader’s power.”
“Thousands of years later, right-wing forces are violently occupying Bethlehem as similar stories unfold for today’s Palestinians, so much so that the Christian community in Bethlehem has canceled this year’s Christmas Eve celebrations out of both [fear for their] safety and respect,” she added.
Fredriksen fact-checked the congresswoman’s claims by pointing out that Christ’s birthplace has been under Palestinian rule for decades.
“But Bethlehem has been administered by the Palestinian Authority since 1995. Once a significant majority there, the Christian population plunged from 86 percent in 1950 to less than 12 percent in 2016,” she wrote.
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Moreover, modern-day Gaza is “extremely hostile” to Christians, she argued, pointing to harassment and persecution against the dwindling Christian population in the region.
The historian said the term “Palestine” derived from Rome a full century after Christ’s death. Thus, the attempts to appropriate Jesus as a Palestinian to attack Israel was not just “inflammatory” but also “historically false,” she argued.
“For two millennia, Jews have been blamed for Jesus’ execution by the Romans; casting him as a Palestinian just stokes the fires of hate, using Jesus against Jews once again,” Fredriksen wrote.
“It is, further, an act of cultural and political appropriation — and a clever rhetorical move. It rips Jesus out of his Jewish context. And it rips 1st-century Jews — and 21st-century Israeli Jews — out of their ancestral homeland, turning them into interlopers. This is polemic masquerading as history,” she slammed.
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AOC wasn’t the only one making this argument most recently. Catholic priest Father Edward Beck also made a similar comparison on CNN on Christmas Day.
“I think the message of Christmas is that God enters into it with us and we’re not alone in it,” Beck said. “What I’m so struck by is that the story of Christmas is about a Palestinian Jew- how often do you find those words put together? A Palestinian Jew born into a time when his country was occupied, right? They can’t find a place for her to even give birth, his mother. They’re homeless. They eventually have to flee as refugees into Egypt, no less. I mean, you can’t make up the parallels to our current world situation right now.”
Fox News’ Peter Aitken and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
WATCH: Sinkhole swallows woman after floor collapses under mall
Video captured the moment last weekend when a woman casually shopping in a Chinese department store disappeared as a possible sinkhole swallowed a portion of the floor.
A construction worker on the first floor of a shopping mall in the city of Zhenjiang in Jiangsu, China, told local outlets a sinkhole opened up, trapping him and causing the floor above to collapse.
In the video, a woman was walking around on the second story of a shopping mall in Zhenjiang when the floor caved in, toppling two clothing racks as the woman fell through the hole. A second woman, wearing a yellow jacket, ran away from the hole before stopping to go back and check on the other woman, according to Newsflare.
Mr. Huang, a representative of the mall, told reporters both people suffered only minor injuries. Emergency crews and firefighters responded immediately and helped rescue both of the victims before cleaning up the damage.
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“As they are our customers, we, as the responsible party, have been actively handling the aftermath and providing necessary assistance,” Huang said.
The construction worker suffered a leg injury from falling debris, while the shopper suffered fractures, Australian news outlet ABC reported.
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City officials have launched an investigation into the incident to determine what caused the damage.
China is no stranger to sinkholes. A giant one opened once up in an ancient forest in Guangxi Zhuang. The hole measured 1,000 feet in length, 490 feet in width and nearly 630 feet in depth. Experts determined the sinkhole had three cave entrances.
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The sinkhole’s bottom is lined with a “well-preserved primitive forest,” according to the local news agency.
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Sinkholes can form when the ground is worn away, either due to composition — such as limestone, a porous rock that easily dissolves in water — from a loss of groundwater that causes air pockets to form or from acid rainwater eating away at bedrock.
Blue state fails to learn from White House backlash, mirrors move to erase Easter
The state of New York will have 13 landmarks lit in celebration of Transgender Day of Visibility Sunday, joining the White House in observation of the day.
One World Trade Center, the Empire State Plaza and Niagara Falls are just a few of the locations that “will be lit light pink, white and light blue,” a press release from the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul states.
“I am proud of the strength transgender New Yorkers display every day and want to make one thing clear: You are always welcome in New York. You are loved,” Hochul said.
Events scheduled around the world include panels and speakers in Cincinnati and Atlanta, marches in Melbourne and Philadelphia and an inclusive roller derby league game on New York’s Long Island. A picnic is planned in the English town of Hitchin.
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Perhaps the highest-profile U.S. event is a rally scheduled for Sunday on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
President Biden was slammed on social media Saturday after marking Easter Sunday, the most solemn Christian holiday, “Transgender Day of Visibility.”
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While March 31 has been designated to honor the transgender movement in the U.S. since Biden took office and internationally since 2009, this year it falls on Easter Sunday, one of the most important days for Christians celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“On Transgender Day of Visibility, we honor the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans and reaffirm our Nation’s commitment to forming a more perfect Union — where all people are created equal and treated equally throughout their lives,” a statement released by the White House said.
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“Transgender persons deserve to live authentically, safely and with dignity,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement released Easter Sunday.
International Transgender Day of Visibility was first organized in 2009 by Rachel Crandall-Crocker, the executive director and co-founder of Transgender Michigan, according to The Associated Press.
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“I think that once a person understands us, it’s hard to discriminate against us,” she said in an interview. “I created it because I wanted a time that we don’t have to be so lonely. I wanted a day that we’re all together all over the world as one community. And that’s exactly what we are.”
Fox News’ Haley Chi-Sing, Anders Hagstrom and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Netanyahu set to pass Israel’s reins to deputy prime minister, but the handover will be brief
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was diagnosed with a hernia and will undergo surgery Sunday night, the prime minister’s office said.
The hernia was diagnosed during a routine checkup Saturday night, Netanyahu’s office revealed. After Netanyahu consulted with his doctors, it was decided the best way forward was to surgically repair the hernia at a hospital Sunday night.
The operation will be performed under full anesthesia, and Netanyahu will be unconscious during the procedure, the office said. During this time, Yariv Levin, deputy prime minister and minister of justice, will be the acting prime minister of Israel.
No further details about Netanyahu’s diagnosis were immediately provided.
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Doctors for the 74-year-old have said he is in good health, and he has kept a full schedule throughout Israel’s nearly six-month war against Hamas. Last year, Netanyahu underwent surgery to have a pacemaker implanted following a health scare.
Last week, Netanyahu canceled a delegation of top Israeli officials’ trip to Washington after President Biden’s administration did not veto a U.N. resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and setting a condition that Hamas release all hostages first.
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The Israeli leader issued an ultimatum to the U.S., warning that he would cancel the meeting if the U.S. did not veto Monday’s U.N. resolution. The U.S. abstained rather than vetoing, allowing the resolution to pass.
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The Biden administration insists its support for Israel has not changed since the Hamas terror attack Oct. 7.
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
US homeowners handed victory in fight over green energy building codes
An international group that develops building codes adopted by a wide swath of U.S. cities and counties abruptly pared back a plan to force new homes to be more climate-friendly.
The International Code Council (ICC) – a Washington, D.C.-based group that regularly issues more than a dozen codes regulating new construction and impacting tens of millions of people nationwide – recently announced that its board of directors ultimately rejected climate provisions that industry experts argued would lead to higher costs. By completing the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), it addressed criticisms that the original draft excessively prioritized climate initiatives at the expense of energy efficiency.
In its announcement, the organization said the 2024 IECC would still achieve energy efficiency gains of 7% in residential buildings and 10% for commercial construction, though jurisdictions would have the option to adopt more aggressive green measures.
“The ICC Board of Directors made the right decision for the United States to be more energy efficient in removing these deeply problematic provisions from the code base,” Karen Harbert, the president and CEO of the American Gas Association (AGA), said in a statement.
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“This is further confirmation of how natural gas and our delivery system are fundamental to protecting America’s energy security and achieving our environmental goals and economic prosperity.”
The AGA is the nation’s largest trade association representing natural gas service providers, along with other energy industry associations, housing groups and the ICC’s own northeast regional branch. It filed an appeal in early January challenging the original version of the 2024 energy conservation code.
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The groups argued in separate filings that the ICC had violated due process requirements when developing its IECC and said the green provisions in the code would harm consumers and businesses alike. However, the ICC’s appeals board recommended earlier this month that those appeals be rejected, leaving the group’s board of directors with the final decision.
Among the provisions opposed, the draft IECC, which had been in development for years, would have required new one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses to install electrical infrastructure for home electric vehicle chargers. It also would have mandated that new homes are equipped with the electrical wiring needed for a solar panel system and all-electric appliances.
According to the AGA, those measures and other provisions were largely included in the IECC as part of an omnibus package in September 2022 after rejection through the normal process. The Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI), an appliance manufacturer trade group that also appealed the draft IECC, had further warned that the proposed code could lead to legal challenges.
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“While AHRI and its member companies are committed to energy efficiency and indeed produce the most energy efficient heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration and water heating equipment in the world, if provisions in the IECC increase the likelihood of legal action because of preemption issues or reduce the likelihood that certain states and localities will adopt it, less overall energy will be saved,” said AHRI President and CEO Stephen Yurek.
In addition to AGA and AHRI, the American Public Gas Association, the Building Owners and Managers Association, the National Multifamily Housing Council, and the ICC’s own Northeast regional branch also filed appeals.
Overall, jurisdictions across 48 states and representing more than 119 million Americans administer the IECC. ICC CEO Dominic Sims said late last year that the code is an essential tool for “achieving energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction goals.”
“The IECC, (like all the International Codes) is a model code, the adoption and amendment of which is at the option of state and local governments,” ICC Senior Vice President of Government Relations Gabe Maser told Fox News Digital in a statement.
“This inherent flexibility, combined with the menu of choices the latest IECC provides, allows local governments the ability to determine the best ways to address the goals of their unique communities.”
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The Biden administration has separately announced that it would divert $1 billion in grants earmarked under the Inflation Reduction Act to help more jurisdictions implement the ICC’s IECC.
Chiefs star who became one of Mahomes’ top guys in Super Bowl run being hunted by police
Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice is reportedly wanted in connection with a “major” crash that occurred in Dallas Saturday night.
Law enforcement officials told The Dallas Morning News Sunday a vehicle either registered or leased to the Super Bowl champion was involved in a crash on the North Central Expressway at around 6:20 p.m. local time.
Rice’s alleged involvement in the crash wasn’t clear. He didn’t appear in Dallas County Jail records as of 10:20 a.m. ET Sunday morning.
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Dallas Police told Fox News Digital that officers were called to a multi-vehicle accident on the expressway. Police said a preliminary investigation determined two drivers — one in a Corvette and one in a Lamborghini — were speeding in the left lane.
The drivers lost control of their vehicles, and the Lamborghini traveled onto the shoulder and hit the center median wall, causing a chain-reaction collision involving four other vehicles, six in total, police said.
The occupants in the Lamborghini and Corvette fled without stopping to see whether anyone needed help or providing information, police said. Two drivers involved in the crash were treated, and two others were taken to a hospital for minor injuries.
Police were still investigating the crash.
It was unclear which vehicle Rice was in.
The 23-year-old was born in Philadelphia but grew up in North Richland Hills in Texas. He played high school football in Richland and attended SMU, where he played four years. He recorded 1,355 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns in 12 games during his senior year in 2022.
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Kansas City selected Rice in the third round of the 2023 draft, and he quickly became a top target for the Patrick Mahomes-led offense his rookie season.
He had 79 catches for 938 yards and seven touchdowns and helped the Chiefs win their second consecutive Super Bowl title in February.
In the 25-22 Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers, Rice had six catches for 39 yards.
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Neither the Chiefs nor Rice’s representative responded to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
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One of the world’s ‘leading infectious disease killers’ is on the rise in the US: What to know
The number of U.S. tuberculosis cases in 2023 was the highest in a decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced.
The CDC said on its website Thursday that “overall, cases increased from 8,320 in 2022 to 9,615 in 2023, an increase of 1,295 cases”
“The rate also increased from 2.5 per 100,000 persons in 2022 to 2.9 in 2023,” it added, noting that numbers were up among all age groups. Data from the agency shows nearly 10,000 infections in 2013.
CDC officials expected TB numbers would rise, but the 2023 count “was a little more than was expected,” Dr. Philip LoBue, director of the agency’s Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, told The Associated Press.
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The new CDC statistics are not a count of how many people were newly infected in 2023, but rather of how many people developed a cough or other symptoms and were diagnosed.
An estimated 85% of the people counted in 2023 were infected at least a year or two earlier and had what’s called latent TB, when the bacterium enters the body and hibernates in the lungs or other parts of the body. Experts estimate as many as 13 million Americans have latent TB and are not contagious.
“Although TB incidence in the United States is among the lowest in the world and most U.S. residents are at minimal risk, TB continues to cause substantial global morbidity and mortality,” the CDC says, calling it “one of the world’s leading infectious disease killers.”
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The CDC says tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium called “Mycobacterium tuberculosis” that usually targets the lungs but can also attack other parts of the body such as the kidney, spine and brain.
Symptoms of TB disease in the lungs include chest pains and a prolonged cough, sometimes with blood.
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Other symptoms include weakness or fatigue, weight loss, fever and loss of appetite.
Cases declined sharply at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, but have been rising since.
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“This post-pandemic increase in U.S. cases highlights the importance of continuing to engage communities with higher TB rates and their medical providers in TB elimination efforts and strengthening the capacity in public health programs to carry out critical disease control and prevention strategies,” the CDC said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Nickelodeon child star-turned-Playboy model poses in Sally Field’s bunny suit
When Madisyn Shipman hopped into her latest photo shoot for Playboy, she was in for a surprise.
The former child star, who played Kenzie Bell in Nickelodeon’s “Game Shakers,” is a content creator for the outlet’s online platform.
Fans on the digital hub can pay their favorite creators for exclusive access to photos, video calls and other messaging features. It encourages creators to “express themselves, their creativity and their sexualities unapologetically.”
According to the 21-year-old, she was debating between modeling a red or black bunny suit when someone at the Playboy office found a mysterious pink vintage suit in the basement.
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“No one knew whose suit it was,” Shipman explained to Fox News Digital. “We thought it was just a one-off. … I tried it on, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is beautiful.’ It’s got beautiful wings on it. The structure, the way that this suit was created, it took me back to a time … I was thinking late ‘80s, early ‘90s,maybe early 2000s. But we were just guessing around.”
Two days before Shipman transformed herself into Cupid, she came across a photo on Facebook. It was Sally Field modeling the same suit.
After some digging, Playboy verified that the costume was the same one worn by the Oscar winner.
“The fact that I have her suit, and I’ve been wearing it, and it’s been tailored to my body was wild,” Shipman shared. “It was a whole fiasco of whether I could even wear the suit for these photos. It was kind of a rushed experience of what was going to happen with this suit. Can I take photos? Can I not? Does this need to go into [the] archives? How does this work?”
“It got cleared,” the pinup pointed out. “I got to do my shoot, and it was truly just the most beautiful experience of my life.”
Playboy confirmed to Fox News Digital that Field, 77, was poised to wear the curve-hugging costume for her 1986 cover. However, she wore a black bunny suit instead. The original photos of Field in the pink suit were never published by the magazine.
“There’s so much honor that I have and … respect that I have for Sally Field,” said Shipman. “I’m so beyond grateful that I have the honor of wearing [her suit]. It was perfectly made for her. … It’s only been worn by her and me, which is crazy.”
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According to Playboy, Shipman is one of its leading content creators. On the anniversary of the original Chicago club’s opening — Leap Day 1960 — the online platform rebranded itself as “The Playboy Club.” Its creators, including Shipman, are “Bunnies.”
The first issue of Playboy, a men’s lifestyle magazine, was published in 1953. The outlet, which featured Marilyn Monroe as its first cover girl, promised “humor, sophistication and spice.” By the 1970s, the outlet had more than 7 million readers, and it inspired raunchier imitations such as Penthouse and Hustler.
Competition and the internet reduced circulation, and the number of issues published annually was cut. In 2015, Playboy ceased publishing images of naked women, citing the proliferation of nudity on the internet. The publication restored traditional risqué images in 2017, but the magazine was ultimately shuttered in 2020.
In December 2021, Playboy launched “Centerfold” with Cardi B as its spokesperson as a place “for creative freedom, artistic expression and sex positivity.” The name was eventually dropped as Playboy integrated the platform into its overall brand.
Shipman said Playboy has given her the outlet to freely express her sexuality.
“It’s been truly everything and more than I could have asked for,” Shipman explained. “Going from Nickelodeon to Playboy is a whole 180. I’m sure a lot of people didn’t see that coming. But, for me, this was my chance to reclaim my sexuality. I’ve had some hardships in life in terms of my sexuality and how I see myself. This has been a way for me to reclaim my power and say, ‘I’m proud of what I have. I’m grateful. I love my body. I’m so confident in myself.’
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“I’ve been able to do that with Playboy,” she continued. “I feel like if I had done this with a different company behind me, I don’t think it would’ve been the same experience. I have so much love around me at all times. I know that I can reach out to anyone in that office any time of the day, and they have my best interest at heart. And that’s the biggest thing when you’re working with such an iconic brand, that they have their creator’s best interest at heart. I’m so grateful to be part of such a legacy brand.”
Since Shipman has announced her involvement with Playboy, she’s received plenty of praise — and backlash. She described being told “everything under the sun” on social media.
“I feel like people in this day and age are so angry,” said Shipman. “I just let people talk. … I don’t partake in it just because it’s not worth my time. It’s not worth my energy. I’m not going to give someone the satisfaction of knocking me down whenever they’re behind a screen. … No one’s ever going to be 100% satisfied.
“People are entitled to their own opinions,” she reflected. “But my biggest thing is, if you don’t like what I post, unfollow me. Don’t look. Why would you take time out of your busy day to go and comment on someone’s page and be negative? … I don’t understand it, but to each their own. I’m not going to let it affect me. I’m just going to keep on my merry way and be happy and focus on what’s good in my life.”
Shipman has gotten numerous requests from her followers. And they’ve gotten more unique.
“One person wanted me to sit on cakes,” she chuckled. “I really don’t understand why other than cake on cake, maybe, but I don’t know. There are some funny requests, but there’s good energy behind it. It’s nothing crazy or overly sexual. The people that I do chat with on my account know that I’m not an overly sexual person. … These people are supportive of me and don’t try to push back on my boundaries. At the end of the day, I want it to be a healthy relationship where I’m not overthinking the situation.
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“I haven’t done the cake-sitting video,” she said. “Maybe I should. I don’t know.”
Shipman said she isn’t comfortable doing nudity. The platform leaves that decision up to its creators.
“I think, with everything, you’re going to be more comfortable the longer you do it,” she said. “And I feel like, with certain people, I do have a connection with them. I do show a little bit more to some people. But at the end of the day, I’m not pushing back on my boundaries just because it’s not what I’m comfortable with. … But that’s one of the great things about Playboy. You aren’t forced to do something you’re not comfortable doing. … You’re showing your body, but you also want it to be a safe space.”
Since launching her content, Shipman has been able to self-fund her music career. She’s looking forward to releasing more songs for fans who grew up with her, as well as curious listeners alike.
“I’m planning for a mid-summer release,” she gushed. “That’s kind of where my head’s at. But I wouldn’t have had the luxury to do that if it wasn’t for Playboy.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.