Fergie & Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” Enters YouTube’s Billion Views Club

Fergie is celebrating a hump-tastic feat…

The 51-year-old part-Mexican American singer and her fellow Black Eyed Peas members’ “My Humps” is officially a stone-cold 2005 hit has officially entered YouTube’s Billion Views Club as it passes one billion streams.

FergieLifted from the hip-hop act’s fourth studio album Monkey Business, “My Humps” is their third music video to reach the milestone after “Where Is the Love?” and “RITMO,” their collaboration with J Balvin for the Bad Boys for Life soundtrack.

The track was written by the act’s will.i.am and samples lines from Sexual Harassment’s 1983 single, “I Need a Freak,” penned by Lynn Tolliver (real name: David Payton).

Its intended target was initially meant to be the Pussycat Dolls, but the Black Eyed Peas made it their own, with Fergie and will.i.am as the main vocalists.

“My Humps” was the group’s second single to reach the top three on the Billboard Hot 100, after “Don’t Phunk with My Heart” (both peaked at No. 3), and nabbed a Grammy Award for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals.

Although a massive commercial success, “My Humps” was as polarizing as it was popular. Its lyrics, which include the repeated line, “my lovely lady lumps,” was the subject of countless column inches, many of them harsh.

In one analysis published by Slate under the title “Notes on ‘Humps’. A song so awful it hurts the mind,” Hua Hsu writes, “This is what makes ‘My Humps’ such an inscrutable pop moment. It’s not Awesomely Bad; it’s Horrifically Bad.” Other journalist were less kind.

Whatever, “My Humps” was a winner.

Its music video, directed by Fatima Robinson and Malik Hassan Sayeed, and featuring Fergie dancing with backup dancers amongst the luxury items apparently gifted by her many suitors, went on to scoop best hip-hop video at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards.

In May of this year, the Black Eyed Peas reunited publicly onstage for the first time since Fergie split in 2018, for a surprise appearance at the American Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena while accepting the best throwback song award for “Rock That Body.”

Carlos Valdes to Appear in Starz’s Watergate Drama “Gaslit”

Carlos Valdes’ latest project is (gas)lit!

The 32-year-old Colombian actor and singer is set to appear opposite Julia Roberts and Sean Penn in Starz’s Watergate drama Gaslit.

Carlos Valdes

Valdes will appear in a heavily recurring role alongside Patton Oswalt, Nat Faxon, Erinn Hayes, Patrick Walker and Raphael Sbarge.

Also joining in recurring roles are Anne Dudek,  Chris Conner, Brian Geraghty, Nelson Franklin, Reed Diamond, Johnny Berchtold, Adam Ray and Billy Smith.

Based on the first season of the Slate podcast Slow Burn, Gaslit is a modern take on Watergate that focuses on the untold stories and forgotten characters of the scandal – from Richard Nixon’s bumbling, opportunistic subordinates to the deranged zealots aiding and abetting their crimes to the tragic whistleblowers who would eventually bring the whole rotten enterprise crashing down.

The story will center on Martha Mitchell (Roberts). A big personality with an even bigger mouth, Martha is a celebrity Arkansan socialite and wife to Nixon’s loyal Attorney General, John Mitchell (Penn). Despite her party affiliation, she’s the first person to publicly sound the alarm on Nixon’s involvement in Watergate, causing both the presidency and her personal life to unravel. As attorney general, Mitchell is Nixon’s most trusted adviser and best friend. Temperamental, foulmouthed and ruthless – yet hopelessly in love with his famously outspoken wife – he’ll be forced to choose between Martha and the president.

Valdes will portray Paul Magallanes, one of the FBI Agents assigned to the Watergate case. He and his partner, Angelo Lano (Chris Messina), come up against the full force of the White House as they investigate the events of June 1972.

The series is created and executive produced by Robbie Pickering. Matt Ross will direct and executive produce.

Valdez best known for his role as Cisco Ramon / Vibe on The CW television series The Flash and other Arrowverse-related projects.

Bobby Cannavale to Star in the Play “The Lifespan of a Fact” on Broadway

Bobby Cannavale is heading to The Great White Way…

The 48-year-old half-Cuban American actor will return to Broadway next fall to star in the world premiere play The Lifespan of a Fact alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Cherry Jones.

Bobby Cannavale

Based on the critically acclaimed, bestselling 2012 non-fiction book about fact, fiction and blurred lines, Lifespan will be directed by Leigh Silverman, a 2014 Tony Award nominee for her direction of Violet.

The Lifespan of a Fact will begin performances at the Studio 54 on Thursday, September 20, with an opening night of Thursday, October 18. The limited engagement will run for 16 weeks.

Written by Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell, the play is based on the book by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal that detailed their own real-life journalistic investigation into the suicide of a Las Vegas teen.

As described by the production, Lifespan “is based on the stirring true story of John D’Agata’s essay, ‘What Happens There,’ about the Las Vegas suicide of teenager Levi Presley. Jim Fingal, assigned to fact check the piece, ignited a seven-year debate on the blurred lines of what passes for truth in literary nonfiction.”

Some background: In 2003, D’Agata submitted his essay “What Happens There” to Harper’s Magazine, where recent Harvard grad Fingal was assigned to fact-check the piece. Harper’s later pulled the article from publication after Fingal’s research turned up factual errors and inaccuracies.

After seven years of discussion and correspondence between D’Agata and Fingal, the author re-submitted the piece toThe Believer magazine. D’Agata and Fingal co-wrote the 2012 book The Lifespan of a Fact about the experience, a book that includes “What Happens There” in full, complete with Fingal’s red-line comments and correspondence with D’Agata.

The book was named Best Book of the Year by the Huffington Post, a Top 10 Most Crucial Book of the year by Slateand an Editor’s Choice by The New York Times Book Review.

In the new play, Radcliffe will play Fingal, Cannavale will play D’Agata and Jones will play Fingal’s boss. As the production describes, Fingal “has a huge problem: John made up some of his article. Well, a lot of his article. OK, actually, maybe the majority of it? What starts professional quickly becomes profane as one question rises to the surface: Can Jim Fingal ever just shut the fact up?”

The production’s creative team – sets, costumes, lighting, sound and projections – has yet to be announced.

Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire, Vinyl) has extensive stage credits, including Tony-nominated turns in 2007’s Mauritius and 2011’s The Motherf*cker with the Hat.

Tickets for The Lifespan of a Fact go on sale to the general public June 22, with earlier dates for American Express Card Members and Audience Rewards members.