Monday Update: Morgan Wallan Didn’t Mean Racial Slur In A ‘Derogatory Manner,’ Sean Penn Won’t Return To New Series Until Vaccines Are Mandatory, R. Kelly Charged With Sexually Abusing Minor Boy

We’re tracking the conservative culture clash with woke Hollywood hypocrites to keep you up to date on who’s winning and who we hate. 

 Here’s what happened today:

Regret

Country star Morgan Wallen discussed the N-word scandal that torpedoed his music career for the first time in an interview with Michael Strahan on “Good Morning America” Friday.

He admitted that the leaked video of him using the racial slur wasn’t the first time he’s said it, but that he doesn’t mean it in a hateful way towards Black people.

“I wouldn’t say [I’ve used it] frequently. No, no, not frequently. It was just around this certain group of friends,” the “Whiskey Glasses” singer said. “In our minds, it’s playful, you know?” he said. “I don’t know if that sounds ignorant, but that’s really where it came from. It’s wrong. … I didn’t mean it in any derogatory manner at all.”

Wallan acknowledged that he was clearly drunk, and admitted to being on a 72-hour bender” with friends that led to him saying some “dumb stuff.” 

“I spent some time out in San Diego, California, you know, just trying to figure it out,” he remarked. “Why am I acting this way? Do I have an alcohol problem? Do I have a deeper issue?”

After the scandal broke he checked into a rehab facility for a month, he also said that he donated “around $500,000” to organizations such as the Black Music Action Coalition to repent for his actions.  

Recovering

Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington, 69, who is the last original member still performing with the band, underwent emergency heart surgery over the weekend and is recovering after missing Friday night’s North Dakota show and several others.  

Rossington has had multiple heart issues in the past, including a heart attack and surgery in 2015, and a valve repair in 2019. The band released a statement that he is convalescing at home with his family, and wants fans to know that he is doing well and expects to make a “full recovery.” 

New Charges

The federal prosecutors on R. Kelly’s sex trafficking case have filed distrubing new charges against the embattled R&B singer. A Friday court filing alleges that Kelly abused a 17-year-old boy he met at a Chicago area McDonald’s in 2006.  

He reportedly brought the boy back to his music studio, asked the minor what he would do to succeed in the music industry, then proposed and had sexual contact with him. He is further accused of forcing his female sexual partners, one of whom was a minor, to perform sexual acts with the boy, which he filmed. 

Prosecutors also purported that years later, the singer had a sexual relationship with another boy who was introduced to him by his 17-year-old male victim, who was by then an adult. Kelly’s trial begins on August 9, in New York.  

Apology

“Top Chef” season 18 winner Gabe Erales issued an apology after his championship was tarnished by controversy when news broke the married head chef was fired from his position at Austin, TX restaurant Comedor in December when he retaliated against the co-worker that he had an affair with by cutting her shifts. 

“The last three weeks have been a trying time of reflection and personal growth. I have been silent not because I thought it would go away, but because I needed time with my family to start the healing process before making a public statement,” he wrote on Instagram.

Erales said the relationship was “consensual” and he engaged in it without his wife’s knowledge. He claimed that the affair and his decision to cut the woman’s hours was “a poor judgment call and led to my termination.” He also noted that his firing occurred after he had already won “Top Chef.”

“I was suddenly at the lowest point in my life – potentially losing my family while I had already lost my job. I am deeply and sincerely sorry for the impact that my poor decisions had on those involved. My personal growth will be a perpetual apology in seeking forgiveness,” Erales stated.

New Name

The Cleveland Indians will reinvent the team as the MLB’s Cleveland Guardians at the end of the 2021 season, after years of public outcry over “Indians” being perceived as racist against Native Americans. 

After the name change was announced on Friday, critics lashed out at the switch to Guardians.  Former MLB player Aubrey Huff posted that he’s “So sick of watching everyone cave to this crybaby generation,” Huff wrote on Twitter. “So disgraceful @Indians. This isn’t woke….it’s a lack of balls. No fight in anyone anymore! Sad.”

“Cleveland’s awful new baseball nickname and logo, and the video introducing it all, are so comical they’re almost offensive,” said Sports website Outkick.  

Pundit Comfortably Smug wrote, “Cleveland Guardians is a garbage name for a garbage team from a garbage town.”

Together, we are all… pic.twitter.com/R5FnT4kv1I

— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) July 23, 2021

Out

Minnesota Vikings assistant coach Rick Dennison refused to get vaccinated per the NFL’s requirements and is now without a job. New league protocols require all Tier 1 staff, which includes coaches, front-office execs, and scouts, to get the jab unless they have a valid medical excuse or religious reason.  

Dennison is the first coach in the NFL to lose his job for refusing to get inoculated. ESPN’s Michael Eaves commented, “You’re going to see more of this happening. You’re going to see more coaches refusing to get the vaccine, and that’s a choice and a consequence.”

An Iowa Racetrack announcer was fired from The Kossuth County Speedway for going on a rant against the NFL’s kneeling policy during his broadcast.

“I’ve got four words for you: Find a different country if you won’t do it,” said announcer Lon Oelke. “Get the hell out of dodge!”

“Now they’re gonna have another national anthem, for those folks, I guess the darker toned skin color, I’ll just say, Blacks,” he continued. “They want a different national anthem and the NFL is thinking about doing it,” he added. “So, I just say shut the TVs off and let them play in front of nobody.”

Refusal

Actor Sean Penn announced that he won’t return to Watergate series “Gaslit,” which he stars in beside Julia Roberts, until everyone working on the production has been vaccinated. 

Last week the series’ production company NBCUniversal announced mandatory vaccinations for “Zone A” employees, which includes the cast of their productions and anyone who comes into close contact with them, but that was not satisfactory enough for Penn.

Though he only has weeks left of filming, he will hold up shooting if his conditions are not met, potentially costing the show a huge amount of cash for the delay.  

Penn has offered to facilitate the inoculations that he has deemed “mandatory,” through his nonprofit CORE, which set up vaccination sites in California during the pandemic.    

Marie Finn