SIMONE BILES actually quit the Team Gymnastics final yesterday, due to mental health issues. She’d been struggling a little coming into the event, and after she kicked it off with an uncharacteristically bad vault, she decided to take herself out of the mix. The rest of the girls stepped up, and ended up with the Silver. Russia won its first Gold since 1992. But the way Simone was feeling, if she’d stayed in the competition, the USA could have finished WORSE. She said, “I was like, ‘I am not in the right headspace.’ I am not going to lose a medal for this country and these girls because they’ve worked way too hard to have me go out there and lose a medal.” It sounds like the pressure of being the world’s greatest gymnast just got to her. She says, “These Olympic Games, I wanted it to be about myself. And I came in and I felt I was still doing it for other people, and it hurts my heart that doing what I love has been taken away from me to please other people.” She also posted a picture of herself and her teammates with their medals, and said, “I’m SO proud of these girls right here. You girls are incredibly brave & talented! “I’ll forever be inspired by your determination to not give up and to fight through adversity! They stepped up when I couldn’t. Thanks for being there for me and having my back! Forever love y’all.” Simone spoke with mental health professionals and took the rest of the day off from training. Since then she’s opted to also withdraw from the individual all-around competition. However she hasn’t decided yet if she’ll compete in any of next week’s four individual finals that she qualified for.
MATT DAMON loves his Boston-area sports teams. But now, it looks like he’s NOT a New England loyalist after all. In an appearance on the “Dan Patrick Show”, he said in a hypothetical Buccaneers vs. Patriots Super Bowl, he’d root for TOM BRADY. He said, “Listen . . . I love that guy. I make no apologies.” And even ended the interview with a “Go Bucs”. Looks like as long as Tom still plays, Matt’s support will follow no matter which team he’s on.
KELLY CLARKSON has to pay her ex-husband $200,000 a month in spousal and child support.
ASHTON KUTCHER and MILA KUNIS don’t bathe very often. And they also don’t make their kids. Ashton says, quote, “If you can see the dirt on them, clean them. Otherwise, there’s no point.”
There’s a WILLIE NELSON docuseries in production that will cover his entire life. It’s called “Willie Nelson and Family” . . . and it’ll be going “deep into the archives of his musical career.” No word when or where it’ll air. Willie is 88.
“Music Mayhem” asked RUSSELL DICKERSON to share some of the things that made him who he is today. He said the first album he ever bought was “Michael Jackson’s Greatest Hits”. His first concert was Hanson, and here’s why: “My cousin came to town, and brought all her cute friends, and I definitely invited myself to the concert to hang out with her cute friends.” His first musical memory goes back when he was four. “I was singing ‘Friends in Low Places’ in my little tighty-whities and cowboy boots into the karaoke machine at my aunt’s house. Singing a drinking song at four years old.” His first celebrity crush? “The Olsen Twins. I had the calendar and everything.” His first job as at a home decor store when he was 15. He also spent time working at Chick-fil-A. And the first song he ever wrote was pretty darn good. “The first song I’ve ever written was ‘Zero to Sixty’, and that was on my first EP.”
Have you seen the “I’m a Survivor” TikTok challenge? People post clips of themselves in challenging, silly, or even boring situations while REBA MCENTIRE’s “I’m a Survivor” plays in the background. It’s the version from her TV series “Reba”. Well, Reba did her own take on it the other day. She hauls two huge buckets of feed over to her two donkeys who are “not the least bit impressed.”
In a recent interview, SAM HUNT compared his days of playing college football to breaking into the music business. They’re both longshots that require hard work, discipline, and tons of patience before any kind of payoff.
Everybody loves Luke Combs. He’s even won over the purists at SavingCountryMusic.com. They don’t adore him, but are happy he’s the face of country music because he has integrity, and his music is good. “Luke Combs is the type of superstar, and the type of leader mainstream country music needs. He’s also the one that the media should be portraying as the current face of country, because that’s what Luke Combs is.”
PARKER MCCOLLUM’s new album “Gold Chain Cowboy” is out Friday. Somebody asked what he hopes his fans will take away after hearing it. He said, “The only thing I can ask is that they believe it. As long as the listener will believe every song when they listen to it, that’s about all I can ask for.”
Elizabeth Berkley is 49. Jessie on “Saved By The Bell” and Nomi in “Showgirls”.
Lori Loughlin is 57.
Sally Struthers is 74.
