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By Essence ·November 18, 2020November 18, 2020
Ben Watkins, a former competitor on the cooking competition show MasterChef Junior, passed away a year and a half after being diagnosed with a rare cancer.
The news of Watkins’s death was first shared via a GoFundMe page that was launched by his maternal grandmother Donna Edwards. The original goal of the campaign was to raise money for Watkins’s cancer treatments and his future education.
“Our Ben went home to be with his mother Monday afternoon after a year-and-a-half-long battle with cancer,” Edwards and Watkins’s uncle Anthony Edwards wrote in joint statement. “After losing both of his parents in September 2017, we have marveled at Ben’s strength, courage and love for life. He never, ever complained. Ben was and will always be the strongest person we know.”
According to his GoFundMe page, Watkins was diagnosed with a rare cancer called Angiomatoid Fibrous Histiocytoma just after his 13th birthday. He was one of only six people in the entire world diagnosed with this particular disease. Watkins had been undergoing treatment at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and was considering pursuing a future in engineering.
Watkins was a contestant on the sixth season of MasterChef Junior, famously hosted by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. He was 11 years old at the time and placed in the top 18. Between the filming and airing of his season, Watkins lost both of his parents to a murder-suicide.
Both Ramsay and MasterChef have released statements in the wake of Watkins’s passing.
A post shared by Masterchef Junior (@masterchefjunior)
A post shared by Gordon Ramsay (@gordongram)
We send our condolences to Watkins’s family.
TOPICS: Ben Watkins MasterChef JuniorThe post ‘MasterChef Junior’ Star Ben Watkins Dies From Cancer At Age 14 appeared first on Essence.
There’s nothing sexier than being funny, which is why it’s extremely right and perfect that Schitt’s Creek star and writer Dan Levy has earned a spot in People magazine’s 2020 Sexiest Man Alive issue. Now, he’s not the Sexiest Man alive, but one of them. The cover guy will be revealed tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and I can only assume that with the way 2020 has been going it will be either Anthony Fauci or a murder hornet.
But we’re here to talk about Dan, who was interviewed and did a photo shoot embodying the “sexiest man in quarantine.” “This form of sexy is a niche market,” Levy quipped. But it’s great to hear that Levy’s quarantine was about as frustrating as most of ours, including many cooking failures. “I did a banana bread recipe that a friend swore by, and then I made it, and it wasn’t quite as good. And then, I did a sourdough bread that turned out like a really heavy, dense brick.”
That sounds about right, though I can’t quite relate to his frustration with puzzles.
Yay, David! Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy makes his #SexiestManAlive debut in this year’s issue, putting a sexy spin on some of the most popular quarantine activities. 🍞📚 Watch the full special on PeopleTV: https://t.co/9PZLJFJ2JE pic.twitter.com/APASvCYyGV
— People (@people) November 17, 2020
But what makes Levy truly sexy and truly great isn’t just that he’s handsome and the best thing to happen to eyebrows since Frida Kahlo, it’s that he’s a person who cares about the world and is trying to make it better in so many ways. One of my favorites? How vocal Dan has been about something he’s really been devoting his time to in recent months: taking an Indigenous Studies course through the University of Alberta. And now he’s raising money for the faculty!
I have spent the past 13 weeks taking the Indigenous Studies course through the faculty of @UANativeStudies at U of A. The weekly discussions we had were nothing short of transformational. Help me support the faculty by donating here: https://t.co/yCInZbwqeF pic.twitter.com/VXACgYfnW3
— dan levy (@danjlevy) November 15, 2020
Caring about history and indigenous communities, creating some of the best and most positive representation of sexuality on TV, while also being one of the funniest men on the planet? Now that’s sexy.
(via: People, image: Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
Here are the other things we saw today.
- Spike Lee is making a musical! … about VIAGRA? Excuse me? (via Deadline)
- Democratic sheriffs in South Carolina and Georgia have vowed to cut ties with ICE. Good! (via Vox)
- So, you watched the crown and want to play Ibble Dibble … (via HuffPost)
- NOT THIS AGAIN.
These impossibly realistic fruit-shaped cakes reminding us that absolutely anything can be cake pic.twitter.com/C7eE3dNfba
— Mashable (@mashable) November 17, 2020
- Good news for us all: season two of Gentleman Jack has started shooting. (via Deadline)
- Did you know that crows have funerals? And they sound wild. (via Audubon Society)
- Look back at some of Supernatural‘s best musical moments before the finale. (via TVLine)
- As the kids might say: Mood.
The 2020 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree looks like 2020 feels. pic.twitter.com/rOrbV4sv4V
— Phillip Henry (@MajorPhilebrity) November 17, 2020
What did you see today?
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The post Things We Saw Today: People Acknowledges Dan Levy as One of the Sexiest Men Alive first appeared on The Mary Sue.
Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/VF20/WireImage By Essence ·November 18, 2020November 18, 2020
It’s official! PEOPLE magazine has announced who the Sexiest Man Alive of 2020 is, and the honor goes to actor Michael B. Jordan.
Jordan, 33, has been lovingly nicknamed Michael “Bae” Jordan by fans for years, so this will likely come as a welcomed surprise to the actors’ die-hard fan base. The screen king who’s next to star in Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, tells PEOPLE that the women in his family “are definitely proud of this one.” We bet.
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Despite the many A-list big screen roles he’s nabbed, Jordan admits he never thought he’d actually get to claim this title.
“It’s a cool feeling,” he tells PEOPLE. “You know, everybody always made that joke, like, ‘Mike, this is the one thing you’re probably not going to get.’ But it’s a good club to be a part of.”
In the cover story, Jordan also shared that his family has followed PEOPLE’s iconic list for years. “When my grandmother was alive, it was something that she collected, and then my mom naturally reads it a lot and my aunts as well,” the Black Panther star told PEOPLE. “This is one that they’re definitely going to have a special place for.”
And speaking of, Jordan won over the hearts of his fans by meticulously selecting one scene-stealing leading role after another, including his turn as Adonis, in 2015’s Creed and villain Erik Killmonger in the record-smashing Marvel hit Black Panther. In between roles he’s also lent his voice to politics and encouraging fans to get out in vote in their local elections.
It’s hard to imagine how someone whose had as much fame and success as the Fruitvale Station star has by 33 could remain humble, but the actor revealed that his path to peace began with letting go. Jordan told PEOPLE the secret to his personal confidence came in “fully realizing that you can’t make everybody happy.”
“You could have all the good intentions in the world, and you’ll still get controversy or some type of negativity thrown your way,” he said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to trust the universe, you know? You’ve got to just believe in yourself and do what you feel is really right. I think that adds up.”
Black leading men are really taking over this list—Idris Elba took home the illustrious title in 2018 and John Legend held the honor down last year.
TOPICS: Michael B. JordanThe post Michael B. Jordan Is PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive 2020, Ya’ll! appeared first on Essence.