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You can’t travel better if you don’t know what’s going on in the world around you. That’s why each week, ESSENCE will bring you the latest in trending travel news to keep you informed, discover new adventures, and provide you with useful tips that will help you journey deeper and cheaper.

This week, we’re on the hunt for mysterious towns, enjoying next-level luxury and planning amazing 2020 travel adventures. Basically, summer may be winding down, but our travel game is just heating up. Thank us later!

Check out our weekly round-up of what’s trending in travel right now.

NEWS

• This German City Will Give $1.1 Million to Anybody Who Can Prove It Doesn’t Exist
  Do you know anybody who has ever been to Bielefeld?
• This 80-meter yacht is a private island you can sail
  Take luxury on-demand to a whole new level.
• United Airlines Announces New International Destinations
  Escape to Nice, Palermo, and Curacao in 2020.
• TSA Continues Push to Warn Passengers to Get Real ID
  Avoid surprises at the airport by making sure your ID is current.

DEALS

• FLIGHT DEAL: Hawaiian Air – $548: New York – Maui, Hawaii (and vice versa). Roundtrip, including all Taxes
• FLIGHT DEAL: Asiana – $657: San Francisco – Sapporo, Japan. Roundtrip, including all Taxes
• FLIGHT DEAL: Miami to Mumbai, India for only $628 roundtrip
• FLIGHT DEAL: Chicago to Stockholm, Sweden for only $380 roundtrip

The post Trending In Travel: Million Dollar Mysteries, A Private Island Yacht, $400 Flights To Europe, And More! appeared first on Essence.

Former President Obama has blessed us with the music playlist that he and Michelle have been grooving to all summer.

The eclectic list of 44 songs includes “some new, some old, some fast, some slow,” Obama said in a tweet announcing the list.

The playlist release has become somewhat of an annual tradition from the former president.

The list included the likes of John Legend, Jill Scott, Anthony Hamilton, Maggie Rogers, H.E.R, Daniel Caeser, Beyonce, Childish Gambino and many more.

And it was the response of some of the artists on the list that had us rolling. Many couldn’t believe they were even in the purview of the former first couple.

I’M NOT OKAY,” Lizzo responded to news that her song “Juice” had made the list.

“Wow!!! Gratitude really is a must,” Jamaican star Koffee said in response to her hit “Toast”.

Have you had a listen to the playlist?

The post Artists Respond To Appearing On Obama’s Summer Playlist! appeared first on Essence.

There’s no shortage of news coming out of the D23 Expo, but we’re pretty excited about the first image from Disney’s upcoming Cruella. Emma Stone will play a young version of the villainous fur enthusiast from 101 Dalmatians in the upcoming origin story. Stone takes over for Glenn Close, who previously played the role in the 1996 live action film.

Here’s your first look at Emma Stone as Cruella de Vil in Disney's Cruella. The film, also starring Emma Thompson, Paul Walter Hauser, and Joel Fry, comes to theaters May 28, 2021. #D23Expo pic.twitter.com/KqxJ0yMYQ3

— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) August 24, 2019

The film follows young Cruella as she makes her way through London during the punk scene of the 1970s. The film also stars Emma Thompson, Paul Walter Hauser and Joel Fry, and is directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya). A shameless cash grab from Disney? Surely. But Stone is rocking that wig.

(via Variety, image: Disney)

• Dwayne Johnon and Emily Blunt set sail on Disney’s Jungle Cruise movie. (via Hero Complex)
• Tom Holland and Kevin Feige weigh in on the Spideypocalypse. (via io9)
• John Carpenter talks the future of the Halloween franchise. (via Syfy Wire)
• Disney’s Lady and the Tramp gets its first trailer, and man are those rescue doggos cute:

Every day could be an adventure. Watch the new trailer for Lady and the Tramp, a reimagining of a timeless classic. Start streaming November 12, only on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/YW3vtXzvJy

— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) August 23, 2019

• Always be yourself … unless you can be Patrick Swayze in Road House. (via Pajiba)
• Shout out to one of the originals, Princess Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2. (via Kotaku)
• Rolling into the weekend like these tumbling air mattresses:

MOVIE NIGHT FAIL: A movie night under the stars took a turn in Denver, Colorado on Saturday. Air mattresses laid out for ticket holders blew away in a strong wind. According to Robb Manes, who shot the video, the blow-up beds were on the loose for about 30 minutes. pic.twitter.com/MpQKa7yob6

— Nate Larsen (@NateLarsenKBOI) August 20, 2019

How are you spending this Saturday, Mary Suevians?

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Wendy Williams has always been a lightning rod for strong opinions—some good, some full-on foul. But when it comes to measuring her success, even her staunchest critics have to give Williams her due. After leveraging 20 years on the rise as a shameless radio shock-jock into an odds-defying decade as host of her eponymous hit talk show, Williams is an undisputed mogul.

With a net worth of at least $40 million (including an annual TV show salary of $10 million), according to Celebrity Net Worth, Williams’ mega-brand is built on a big personality that’s unafraid to express what she thinks and expose who she wants, while making no excuses along the way. Love her or hate her, there’s no one else like her, and her unapologetic authenticity has won her legions of rabid fans.

The Wendy Williams Show, now in its 11th season, averages more than 2.4 million daily viewers, making Williams rival Ellen DeGeneres as the No. 1 female host on daytime TV. Both the show and host have received multiple Emmy nominations and Williams was a 2009 inductee into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

Her empire has included production deals with Lifetime TV; fashion, jewelry, and wig lines; a book publishing company; and a philanthropic arm created to assist those struggling with addiction, as Williams openly admits she has. She is also the author of several books including “Wendy’s Got the Heat,” a 2003 memoir that made the coveted New York Times best-seller list.

Despite her notoriously strong personality, dogged work ethic, and unbridled ambition, toward the end of her autobiography, Williams pointedly advised women readers to “Know Your Place.” Summarizing her relationship with her then husband/manager Kevin Hunter, she wrote: “…my job is to make the house run smoothly. His job ultimately is to make me feel safe and protected. He is the man and that’s his primary job. I am the little woman.”

Williams has been called lots of things through the years but “little woman” has never been one of them.

After news of their marital split broke in April, it became clear that Williams had ceded decades of control to her man. Now 54, she’s facing a major transition—not just from wife to divorcee after 21 years, but from “show pony,” as she called herself in a June interview with TMZ, to power broker or—as her next memoir might couch it—from “little woman” to bad ass boss.

Fans to Williams: How You Doin’?

Used to spilling the tea surrounding other celebrities’ lives for her own professional gain, Williams hasn’t shied away from owning her own mess in the press. The news that Hunter was not only unfaithful but had possibly fathered a child with a mistress caused Williams to move from the couple’s New Jersey home to a sober house and triggered daily headlines that made her life and career look as if they were careening out of control. Emotional appearances on TMZ didn’t help. Nor did the fact that, with her TV show on hiatus, Williams didn’t have a chance to set the record straight daily and directly for her concerned fans.

Those fans were soon wondering if she could keep her business life thriving when her personal life was in shreds. Especially since Hunter was not just her primary and most trusted adviser, he was executive producer of “The Wendy Williams Show.”

No sooner did Williams file for divorce than Hunter was fired by Debmar-Mercury, the majority stakeholder of the show in which, Williams is quick to point out, she also owns a stake—and now executive produces. The decision was then made to close Hunter Publishing Co. as well as the Hunter Foundation.

Her new manager, Bernie Young, is unfazed by the closures, calling them necessary steps on the road to stabilizing Williams’ brand so it can grow from a stronger base.

Williams moved quickly to personally hire Young, a seasoned pro with a stellar track record. A former New York City detective, he launched a second career managing comics and wound up executive producing Rosie O’Donnell’s and Martha Stewart’s TV shows at their height. He had a candid two-hour phone interview with Williams before which, Young admits, he knew little beyond who she was.

“She surprised me,” Young says. “The conversation was all about her life and what she wanted to do, the things that started and failed, the dreams that came true and didn’t. She’s very smart, she understands where she is, and she has very definite ideas about where she wants to go.”

While they are in the midst of forging a very different type of manager-client relationship, the transition was clearly needed and Young says it’s going well. “We check in every day to make sure, are we speaking the same language? Can we look each other in the eye? Can we tell each other the truth and hear it? I always say, the truth can hurt but it doesn’t last,” Young says. “If we can survive that, there’s no limit to what she can do.”

Big Platform, New Partnerships, Untold Potential

Without criticizing her soon-to-be ex, Williams was as defiant as ever when she addressed an audience of entrepreneurs at Black Enterprise’s FWD conference in Charlotte in June.

“We had to clean the slate and start over,” Williams said of Hunter’s ouster. She proudly added that, at age 29, when she met Hunter, “I was already a property owner, I was already a radio star, I was already the boss of my own life … so, it’s not new. I’m just returning to that life but with a bigger platform—and I love it.”

Despite some personal fits and starts, within six weeks of hiring Young, Williams had already cut a new deal with Lifetime TV. While the specifics of the partnership are still being finalized, she and Young confirmed that she will executive produce a series of projects for the women’s network.

On July 27, Williams begins an eight-city tour called, “Wendy Williams and Friends Presents For the Record.” The show, which launches in Oakland, California, and ends in Atlanta in September, will feature several up-and-coming comedians. Williams will host and, between their sets, will take the stage to set the record straight about her year in the headlines, says Young.

“She’s got a story to tell and this tour allows her to tell her story, her way. I want the public to see this person for who she is. She’s funny, she’s real—sometimes a little too real—but she’ll tell hers as good as she’ll tell yours, and that’s what makes people relate to her and want to bring her into their homes every day” via their TVs.

Young hopes to get the comedy tour picked up by a network to air as a special, or kick off a new series.

“The goal is not to dwell on what she’s losing but on what she wants to build,” Young says. “She has a lot of talent and a lot of vision. My job is to listen and bring structure and organization to that vision so she can achieve what she sees.

“She surprises me every day,” says Young. “I think other people are going to be surprised too.”

-Editors’ note: This article originally appeared in the Summer 2019 edition of Black Enterprise Magazine. Order the magazine today.