Relationships Talk

Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green, 70, is the loudest voice in Congress calling for President Donald Trump’s impeachment. He talks to HOH about bad dating advice from a friend and who in the House he would leave a million dollars with.

Q: Compared to when you first came to Congress almost 15 years ago, what has changed?

A: When I first arrived — I’m on Financial Services, and if I had posed the question that I posed [this month] about invidious discrimination, the answer would been, it exists but I’m not engaged in that practice. And this was posed to people from lending. They would have said it exists, but our bank doesn’t do that. [This month] I posed the same question … and the answer was it doesn’t exist. There is no invidious discrimination. I think that’s quite a change since I got here, and that’s not a change for the better. I hope that that was just one of those circumstances where three people who happened to be on the panel agreed, but if we had three other people, they could not have had the same opinion.

 [Take Five: Jenniffer González-Colón]

Q: Did you ever expect that you’d be pushing for impeachment of a president?

A: No. When the president fired the [FBI] director, Mr. Comey, and then he went on national TV at prime time and confessed that he did it because of the Russia thing, that was the point that sort of tipped the scales. I decided at that point that we should at least have a record and let people know that this is unacceptable and unconstitutional.

 [Take Five: Tom Garrett]Q: What do you think is the worst advice you’ve ever received?

A: I didn’t take the advice, but I think it wasn’t that good. It was advice given to me by a friend. Well, in a sense I did take it. But anyway, it was a friend who told me that I probably shouldn’t date a certain person and I think he married her.

Q: If you could have any other job, what would it be?

A: I’d like to be about 6’11” and I’d like to be ambidextrous and I’d like to play for the Houston Rockets and get them beyond the Golden State Warriors. I’d like to be the star of the Houston Rockets.

 [Take Five: Jamie Raskin]Q: Tell me something about your district that people in D.C. might not know.

A: That it is very diverse. The ballot is printed in four languages: English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese. And that diversity is appreciated, celebrated and, quite frankly, something that makes us who we are in the district. It’s a district that has a diversity of cultures. We start celebrating the new year as early as November sometimes, and we go through February. We enjoy the culture and the food — especially enjoy the food. I measure holidays in pounds [eaten]. If it’s a five-pounder, that was a good holiday.

  [Take Five: Darren Soto]

Quick hits

Last book read: “The Case for Impeachment” by Allan Lichtman and “To End a Presidency” by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz.

Pet peeve: It’s something that in Texas, we “fix” to do things. We say, I’m fixing to go to town. I’ve heard it enough to think that maybe I’ve heard enough fixing and you just have to go ahead and do it.

Cats or dogs: I have to say dogs because my friends have dogs.

If you could have dinner with one person, living or dead: I would probably say Dr. [Martin Luther] King. Probably my favorite book is his book “Strength to Love.”

Closest friend across the aisle: He’s the kind of guy if I had a million dollars in unmarked bills … and I had to leave town in a hurry … I would say that Jeb Hensarling would be the guy I would leave that million in unmarked bills with because I’m confident that when I returned, I would have at least a million dollars because he would have invested it. [And] Ted Poe and I have been friends since I started practicing law. 

Welcome to You Know What I Heard, the Cut’s weekly celebrity gossip column about the peregrinations of the rich and famous.

Truly, none of this matters, but Chris Pratt might have a new girlfriend. Last night, photos surfaced of him taking Katherine Schwarzenegger on a romantic picnic date on Sunday in Santa Barbara, California. The timing and location of the date suggest some level of seriousness: Pratt and Schwarzenegger both live in L.A., and Sunday was, uh, Father’s Day. So far, neither of them has commented on their relationship, but they look pretty happy in the photos.

Schwarzenegger, for those not familiar, is the 28-year-old daughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver. She is a lifestyle blogger and the author of two advice books. (One of them is titled, Rock What You Got.) Though she is not a star, per se, she grew up in Hollywood, and her younger brother, Patrick Schwarzenegger, dated Miley Cyrus. So, while the Schwarzenegger-Pratt match may seem unexpected, it’s not crazy. Chris Pratt dating a lifestyle blogger? That makes sense to me.

And it definitely makes sense that the paparazzi photos were released yesterday, four days before the premiere of Pratt’s new movie Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and just a couple of hours before he accepted the Generation Award at the MTV Movie & TV Awards. This is Pratt’s time to sell tickets, and having a wholesome new girlfriend in the tabloids will only help him.

Pratt’s ex-wife, Anna Faris, meanwhile, is in Italy with her boyfriend, cinematographer Michael Barrett. Photos of them making out on a boat in Portofino came out about 20 minutes after the Pratt-Schwarzenegger pics. Coincidence?

Remember Neri Oxman? The beautiful architect and MIT professor who was supposedly dating Brad Pitt? Well, she might not be anymore. “Page Six” reported last week that Oxman was seen in Paris with her old boyfriend, billionaire hedge funder Bill Ackman. Ackman was reportedly in the picture when we first started hearing about Oxman and Pitt in April, and now, he wants you to know that Pitt can’t compete with him. The “Page Six” story is all about how Oxman watched Ackman compete in some kind of rich-guy tennis match (?) and how Pitt can’t play tennis or be a billionaire, etc.

Personally, I think being proficient at tennis is boring, and having a billion dollars is immoral, but no one’s asking me. We’ll just have to wait and see if Oxman gives multimillionaire Pitt another chance. In the meantime, it seems Pitt is preoccupied with his ongoing custody battle with Angelina Jolie.

Justin Theroux is still spending a lot of time with his “friend” Emma Stone. The two were spotted together last week at a dinner party at Jennifer Lawrence’s New York apartment. (Lawrence is reportedly dating the art gallerist Cooke Maroney, but he wasn’t there.) According to E! News, Theroux and Stone hung out together on the roof and took selfies. Then Theroux left alone, around midnight, with his new dog, Kuma. What do you think is happening here?

One small blessing from this week:

Christie Brinkley’s model daughter Sailor Brinkley Cook is apparently dating a surfer called Balaram Stack.

And here’s an interesting blind item this week, from Enty at Crazy Days and Nights:

“This B- list actress/writer/celebrity offspring of an A- list actor/writer was recently hit on by this former A+ list singer who she says gives off dirty old man creepy vibes. Hey, but she is still talking to him, so yeah.”

Hmmm.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this photo of Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Kristen Stewart, and her girlfriend, Stella Maxwell, in Milan. Hang in there, everybody.

Thanks so much for gossiping this week. If you’d like to get this column in your in-box every week, subscribe in the box up top, and don’t forget to send me a message on Twitter or contact me on Signal, if you’d like to chat.

On the June 19 episode of MBC’s “Video Star,” Nam Tae Hyun personally shut down any remaining dating rumors about him with Jung Ryeo Won and Son Dambi.

See Also: Ravi Reveals Which VIXX Member He Wouldn’t Want His Sister To Date

He said, “I want to make this clear before we move on. [Jung Ryeo Won and Son Dambi] are just really close friends.”

After meeting through the introduction of a mutual acquaintance, Nam Tae Hyun became close to Son Dambi through a shared interest in art.

Regarding a photo of Nam Tae Hyun and Son Dambi with Son Dambi’s arm thrown around his neck, which had spurred dating rumors, Nam Tae Hyun said, “[If I were someone else] I would’ve thought we were dating, too. My [older female friends] just think of me as a comfortable friend. I’m the type that women say they’re comfortable around. Son Dambi is older than me, but we give each other dating advice. We’re just close friends.” He added, “She’s not my style, and I might not be her style, either.”

In order to get Son Dambi’s side of things, Nam Tae Hyun called her, and when she heard that he had strongly denied that they are dating, Son Dambi said, “Who is he to deny anything? You’re not my style either.” She went on to say that they’re drinking buddies, and they talk about music a lot.

After the dating rumors began, Nam Tae Hyun stopped contacting her. Son Dambi said, “I just accepted it. I think this is our first time talking since the dating rumors. Call me sometimes,” to which Nam Tae Hyun responded, “I thought [contacting you] would put you in a bad position, so I was trying to be considerate.”

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Diving into dating is tricky enough but it can be even more daunting when you’re older and you have kids in the mix.

Author, columnist and mum-of-three Kerri Sackville found herself in that situation when her 17-year marriage ended.

“I had absolutely no clue,” Sackville tells Deborah Knight on this week’s Honey Mums podcast.

“It was terrifying, and it was also baffling, because the kinds of behaviours I saw was so bizarre and perplexing and so different to the dating scene that I’d been in when I was dating first time round — which was in my teens.”

(Instagram/kerrisackville)

She’s written a book, Out There: A Survival Guide for Dating in Midlife, about her experiences.

“I had been in back to back relationships since I was 17, so I literally had not been a single person ever in my adult life,” Sackville tells Knight.

“I was 44 when we broke up, and for a while I was reeling from the trauma of being divorced, because it is a trauma.

On this week’s Honey Mums podcast Deborah Knight speaks with guest Kerri Sackville, who had a marriage breakdown after 17 years and is now back on the dating scene, Jo Abi talks about teaching the kids to look after themselves and our favourite psychologist Sandy Rea discusses how many scheduled activities our kids should be committed to.

“It really does feel like your whole world is shaking up around you, and I say to anybody who is separating after a long relationship the first year out is really, really tough because everything changes.”

At the time her children were aged 14, 12 and five.

“I actually didn’t wait until I was ready [to start dating],” she says, revealing, “I fell almost immediately into a relationship and it was, on so many levels, not a smart thing to do.”

She decided to try online dating after a night at home, alone, when her children were with their dad.

“It was so confronting and so overwhelming that after about 20 minutes I shut the whole thing down and tried to pretend the whole thing never happened,” Sackville says.

(Instagram/kerrisackville)

“The next day I woke up and thought, ‘I’m going to load Tinder’ and downloaded the app and then I was swiping.

“It was this parade of men, photo after photo after photo and I’m swiping left, I’m swiping right.

“I had an amazing first experience with online dating and I think that gave me an overly optimistic view of what online dating would be.

“So many of my experiences after that were catastrophically bad.”

The types of men Sackville met included the one who said he was separated but still lived in the marital home.

While another lied about his age by more than 10 years.

And then there was the very recently separated man who wept about his wife on their first date.

“There were the parade of men who were enraged at their exes and spent the first date talking about ‘the bitch’ ‘they’re all psycho bitches’ – it’s amazing how many men had ‘psycho bitch’ exes.”

(Getty)

But Sackville, who is single now, hasn’t given up on men just yet.

“I have much better luck with dating now because I have insight into what the scene is like, I know how to screen people,” she says in the podcast.

“I missed male company. I missed getting out and getting dressed.

“Something that you find as a single mother, when you come out of a long relationship, you lose a big part of your social life.

“There is a misconception that single mums, when they are not with their kids, are out partying and meeting people and dating.

“For most of us that happens occasionally but we’re spending a lot of time alone.”

For Kerri’s advice to women who are embarking on the dating scene, listen to her full interview with Deborah Knight on the Honey Mums podcast below.

https://omny.fm/shows/9honey-super-mums/dkmumspodcast4/embed?style=cover