Chiefs heir Gracie Hunt backs rival Super Bowl half-time show over Bad Bunny
Gracie Hunt, the daughter of Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, is throwing her support behind Turning Point USA’s plan to stage an alternative Super Bowl half-time show, a direct counter to the NFL’s decision to feature Bad Bunny at Super Bowl LX.Hunt said in an appearance on Fox News Channel’s The Will Cain Show on Tuesday that she “most definitely” backs Turning Point’s counter-programming effort, spearheaded by Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk.The NFL’s choice of Bad Bunny for the half-time show has attracted strong pushback from many on the right, who object to his criticism of Donald Trump and US immigration enforcement.“I really respect Erika for all that she’s done, especially with creating a half-time show for America,” she said.“You know, children are young, they’re impressionable.
Young women, young men and everyone, they just need someone to look up to.”Hunt framed her position through the legacy of her grandfather Lamar Hunt, one of the modern NFL’s founding fathers who coined the Super Bowl name.She said the game was designed to be accessible to fans of all demographics.“When my grandfather named the Super Bowl, he intended it to be something children and families of all ages could come together and watch,” she said.“That football is the attraction and that it didn’t need to compromise its character or rely on cheap appeal to draw an audience.
”She argued that the league has a responsibility to choose performers who reflect its long-standing identity.“Football is becoming the world sport, but, at its heart, it’s America’s sport built around family,” she said.“The NFL honors women, the military, this country, celebrates communities.So I think that whoever they select going forward for the half-time show needs to reflect those values more closely.”Turning Point USA, the influential rightwing college organization co-founded by Charlie Kirk, announced in October that it would stage an “All American Halftime Show” during next year’s NFL championship game.
The idea quickly gained traction among conservatives who objected to Bad Bunny’s presence at the game.Hunt also floated who she’d like to see on future half-time stages.“An artist like [country music star] Jason Aldean might make sense,” she said, adding: “I’d love to see Miss Taylor Swift up there sometime once Travis [Kelce] is retired.”Her comments arrive as the league faces an escalating political dispute over its 2026 half-time headliner.Bad Bunny – a Puerto Rican superstar and US citizen who has been vocal in his criticism of aggressive immigration enforcement – addressed the uproar during his Saturday Night Live monologue last month, joking that everyone seemed thrilled about the booking, “even Fox News”.
He also highlighted Latino contributions to the US and told viewers that if they didn’t understand his Spanish remarks, they had “four months to learn”,The backlash intensified after homeland security secretary Kristi Noem warned that immigration agents “will be all over” next year’s Super Bowl and said only Americans should attend,Bad Bunny has said fears of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids influenced his decision to exclude the mainland US from his recent world tour,The NFL, despite the conservative outrage, made clear last month it will not reconsider its selection,Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league is standing by its decision despite criticism from Trump and his supporters.
The process, he said, is “carefully thought through”, and “I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism,It’s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching,”Trump dismissed the performer in an interview on Newsmax, saying he had “never heard of” Bad Bunny and calling it an “absolutely ridiculous” pick by the NFL,But Goodell said the league chose him because of his extraordinary reach,“He’s one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world,” he said.
“That’s what we try to achieve.It’s an important stage for us.It’s an important element to the entertainment value.” He added that the NFL is “confident it’s going to be a great show”, calling it “a united moment”.Hunt closed her appearance Tuesday by describing what she sees as a broader cultural shift among young Americans.
“I think our generation gets a bad rap, but I am so excited by this movement I’ve seen within this younger generation,” she said.“They are hungry for a deeper ‘why’.They are hungry for Jesus.November is global Bible month, and Bible sales are up.“And I’m just seeing this massive resurgence in young women, in young men, across college campuses getting baptized, sharing the Gospel and wanting to leave this world a better place.
”Super Bowl LX will take place on 8 February at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Why don’t Conservatives get credit for culture funding? | Letter
Helen Marriage, a hugely respected cultural leader, writes that “there is no political party that will commit to the kind of investment needed to keep a living art and culture ecology alive” (Durham’s Lumiere festival was a beacon of hope and togetherness – we cannot let the lights go out on the rest of the arts, 11 November). But she also places the responsibility on all of us. She wants the culture sector to make a better case. But can it?As commissioner for culture in the last government, I remain surprised that large funding decisions directed at culture have been forgotten, devalued and ignored, perhaps because the sources were then from a Conservative government.During Covid, culture was the only economic sector to receive its own rapid, specially designed, comprehensive rescue package
Jon Stewart on Trump’s Epstein files flip-flop: ‘This dude is flailing’
Late-night hosts tore into the next chapter of Donald Trump’s never-ending Jeffrey Epstein scandal.Jon Stewart ripped into Trump on Monday evening after the president abruptly changed tack and called on House Republicans to authorize the justice department’s release of files related to Epstein, a convicted sex offender – files which Trump himself could order to be released.“If he had nothing to hide, he could have declassified and released these files himself at any time,” the Daily Show host explained. “How do I know this? A legal expert named Donald Jurisprudence Trump said so.”Stewart then played footage of Trump from 2022 in which he insisted that the president can declassify anything, at any time, just by saying so or “even by thinking about it”
North by Northwest: Hitchcock’s funniest, most ambitious film
Imagine: you’re a handsome and relatively successful ad man in idyllic 50s New York. You’re having a delicious mid-afternoon snack in the lobby of the Plaza hotel, which presumably cost all of $2.50, when suddenly you are abducted in broad daylight at gunpoint by two polite and well-dressed men. You don’t put up a fight. You merely walk with them to their car, trying to object in the only way you know how: asking nicely for them to stop
David Nicholls to adapt The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ for BBC
A writing team led by the One Day author, David Nicholls, and that includes Caitlin Moran is bringing Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ to the small screen in a 10-part BBC One adaptation of the classic tale of teenage life in British suburbia.Nicholls, who described the book as “a classic piece of comic writing and an incredible piece of ventriloquism on Sue Townsend’s part”, will adapt the book that produced one of the best-known literary creations of the 1980s.Known for Mole’s comically dramatic assessments of his life in a Midlands cul-de-sac – “I feel like a character in a Russian novel half the time” – the book sold 20m copies worldwide and was translated into 30 languages.The BBC said: “With only a multi-coloured ballpoint pen as his guide, Adrian worries about his spots, his parents’ divorce, the torment of first love and the fact he’s never seen a female nipple.”None of the cast has been revealed, and producers say “a nationwide … search is currently underway to find Adrian”
‘People still blame me for their perforated eardrums’: how we made the Tango ads
‘Gil Scott-Heron did the closing voiceover. He was giggling away, saying, “You English guys are crazy!”’My creative partner Al Young and I had been on the dole for 18 months when we landed our dream jobs at Howell Henry ad agency. We had to prove ourselves fast. Tango’s brief was basically to get talked about. They told us: “We want Coca-Cola to be afraid of this little British brand
Memoirs, myths and Midnight’s Children: Salman Rushdie’s 10 best books – ranked!
As the author publishes a new story collection, we rate the work that made his name – from his dazzling Booker winner to an account of the 2022 attack that nearly killed him “It makes me want to hide behind the furniture,” Rushdie now says of his debut. It’s a science fiction story, more or less, but also indicative of the sort of writer Rushdie would become: garrulous, playful, energetic. The tale of an immortal Indian who travels to a mysterious island, it’s messy but charming, and the sense of writing as performance is already here. (Rushdie’s first choice of career was acting, and he honed his skill in snappy lines when working in an advertising agency.) Not a great book, but one that shows a great writer finding his voice, and a fascinating beginning to a stellar career
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