In a single episode of Big Drive, the 45-year-old comedian, media mogul, and host of The Masked Singer called the Democratic Party “the party of the KKK,” expressed admiration for President Donald Trump, and then quoted one of the most revered Black intellectuals in American history to explain why he doesn’t actually trust either party.

It is, to put it mildly, a lot to unpack.

What Happened on Big Drive

Cannon was joined on his show by model Amber Rose — a self-described former liberal Democrat who has publicly shifted toward conservative politics — when the conversation turned to race, party loyalty, and American political history.

Rose laid out her position plainly: “Democrats don’t care about Black people, and they don’t care about people of color, and the Republicans do, and that’s the misconception.”

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Cannon didn’t hesitate. “I agree with you 100 percent,” he replied. “People don’t know that the Democrats are the party of the KKK. People don’t know that the Republicans are the party that freed the slaves.”

The clip spread almost instantly — and the internet has been loudly divided about it ever since.

‘I Don’t Subscribe to Either Party’

What makes Cannon’s comments more complex than a simple political endorsement is what came next. Despite the fire-and-brimstone framing of the KKK line, he was careful to distance himself from the idea that he’s simply become a Republican.

“I mean, both of you and I have some conservative views. You’re just a little bit more outspoken than I am,” he told Rose. “And honestly, I don’t subscribe to either party. I rock with W.E.B. Du Bois, when he said there’s no such thing as two parties. It’s just one evil party with two different names.”

That’s a striking move — invoking Du Bois, the towering Black scholar, civil rights activist, and co-founder of the NAACP, in the same breath as a claim that feels tailor-made for a MAGA rally. Whether you agree with Cannon or not, you can’t accuse him of not having thought about this.

And Then There Was Trump

When the conversation shifted to President Donald Trump‘s second term, Cannon was enthusiastic: “Motherfucker’s cleaning house,” he said. “He’s doing what he said he was gonna do.” Variety

He expanded with a metaphor that is equal parts sharp and absurd: “We got the Gulf of America now. He’s like the club. He’s charging a $5 million bottle service fee to get into the country. I f*** with Trump.” Yakima Herald

Love it or hate it, there’s something very Nick Cannon about that framing — wrapping a geopolitical observation inside a nightclub analogy and delivering it with a straight face.

What the History Actually Says

Because this is the kind of story where the facts matter, it’s worth being precise about what Cannon got right, what he oversimplified, and what historians actually say.

Cannon is correct that Democrats in the Reconstruction-era South had strong ties to the Ku Klux Klan and opposed racial equality through the 1950s. However, Democrats did not found the KKK — despite an oft-repeated claim to the contrary.

According to PolitiFact, which has previously examined this claim, the white supremacist group was founded as a social fraternity by Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee, and quickly became a violent organization — but it was more of a grassroots movement than a party-sponsored one.

And then there’s the historical wrinkle that Cannon’s framing leaves out entirely: in the 1960s, Southern Democrats — known as “Dixiecrats” — largely left the Democratic Party, realigning politically in ways that fundamentally shifted both parties’ identities. The Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party of today are not the same political animal, a point that historians make consistently and that Cannon’s argument skips over.

As Lizzo noted months ago in a since-deleted video, anticipating exactly this kind of moment: “You’re about to see an influx of people who see that it is more profitable and more beneficial to join that side. You’re gonna see it. It’s already started, and it’s gonna continue.”

She wasn’t wrong.

A Growing Pattern Among Black Celebrities

Cannon’s comments don’t exist in a vacuum. He joins a growing — and loudly discussed — group of Black celebrities including Rose and Nicki Minaj who have been openly supporting Trump, creating a visible and contentious shift in the cultural conversation about Black political identity in America.

Whether this represents a genuine ideological realignment, a reaction against the Democratic Party’s perceived failures, or something more complicated and personal — it’s clearly not a blip. It’s a pattern. And Nick Cannon, whether intentionally or not, just made himself one of its loudest voices.

The question now isn’t just whether he’s right about history. It’s whether this moment marks something bigger about where Black America’s political conversation is actually heading — and who gets to shape that narrative next.

There’s a quiet revolution happening in the way people plan their vacations — and Hollywood is the one pulling the strings. Whether you’ve binge-watched a series set in the Scottish Highlands or swooned over a rom-com filmed in Tuscany, chances are your travel wishlist didn’t form itself. Someone in Los Angeles wrote a script for it.

This month, The Hollywood Reporter — the century-old bible of the entertainment industry — released something it has never done before: a full, dedicated Travel Issue. And it’s not just a glossy feature. It is, by every measure, a cultural map of where the world is headed next.

When Tuscany Becomes the Co-Star

Gracing the cover of this landmark issue are two of Hollywood’s most magnetic faces right now — Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page. The pair sat down with THR during a cover shoot in Napa, speaking openly about their new film You, Me & Tuscany — and how making it completely changed the way they think about travel.

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And it makes sense. Bailey, Page, and director Kat Coiro flew halfway around the world to make a romantic comedy — and, as the story goes, Italy had the romantic part covered before the cameras even rolled.That’s the magic of set-jetting, a term that has gone from travel-industry buzzword to full-blown global phenomenon. When you watch a film set somewhere beautiful, a part of your brain quietly files a flight reservation.

100 Places the Screen Sent Us — Whether We Knew It or Not

Perhaps the most jaw-dropping feature in THR’s inaugural travel issue is its exhaustive list of 100 travel destinations made famous by film and television. Some of them you’ll recognize instantly. Others will make you wonder how you’ve never booked a ticket.

The iconic storybook village of Shere in Surrey, England, became a tourist magnet after The Holiday — the beloved romantic comedy starring Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet — swept through it on screen Meanwhile, at the corner of 15 Rue Lepic in Paris’s Montmartre district, the bistro with the bright red awnings where Amélie‘s quirky protagonist worked has been drawing devoted tourists ever since the film’s release.

Some of the most talked-about entries on the list:

• Dubrovnik, Croatia — immortalized as the filming location for Game of Thrones‘ Old Town, now one of Europe’s most visited cities 106.3 The Groove
• Hobbiton in Matamata, New Zealand — brought to life by The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies 106.3 The Groove
• Chief Joseph Ranch in Darby, Montana — the real-world backdrop for Yellowstone, drawing fans of the Dutton family empire from across the globe 106.3 The Groove
• Kualoa Ranch in Oahu, Hawaii — where dinosaurs once roamed the silver screen in Jurassic Park and Jurassic World 106.3 The Groove
• Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands — now synonymous with the hit reality show The Traitors 106.3 The Groove

And while set-jetting may feel like a modern obsession, THR’s list makes clear it is hardly a new phenomenon — the effect stretches back to classics like Roman Holiday, La Dolce Vita, Blue Hawaii, and The Sound of Music. The itinerary, in other words, has been building for a very long time.

The New Hotspot Formula: Smaller, Sleeker, Exclusive

Hollywood’s most well-traveled insiders aren’t just following scripts to their next destination — they’re also rewriting the rules of luxury travel itself.

High-end hospitality brands like Aman, Four Seasons, The Ritz-Carlton, and Orient Express are now betting that travelers who despise traditional cruises will happily climb aboard their smaller, sleeker, and far more exclusive vessels. It’s the anti-cruise cruise — intimate, cinematic, and carefully curated.

And with Southern Europe temperatures expected to crack 100 degrees this summer, savvy Hollywood travelers are quietly pivoting to the Alps, Scandinavia, and Scotland for their warm-weather escapes.

The Anti-Fame Getaway: Where Stars Go to Disappear

There’s another thread running through THR’s travel issue — one that’s perhaps more fascinating than any five-star resort: the quiet art of going off-grid.

Entertainment’s most well-traveled are ditching the Cabo-Amalfi circuit for destinations where no one knows their name — and that is precisely the point. The Hollywood Reporter St. Barts is out. Privacy is in.

Ontario’s Muskoka region — long known as the Hamptons of the North and a magnet for celebrities including Justin Bieber, the Beckhams, Tom Hanks, and Mark Wahlberg — has recently exploded onto the global radar after the streaming romance Heated Rivalry filmed there. In February, Airbnb reported that searches for Muskoka properties surged 40 percent following the show’s late-December finale, which was filmed at a real-life three-bedroom glass-and-timber cottage.

That one show. Forty percent. That’s the power of the screen.

Where Does This Leave the Rest of Us?

What THR’s inaugural Travel Issue makes abundantly clear is that the line between the entertainment industry and the travel industry has not just blurred — it has vanished entirely. A show gets greenlit in a writers’ room in Burbank. Months later, a village in rural Scotland is fully booked for summer.

And for the rest of us — the ones who don’t travel on studio budgets or private jets — there’s still something deeply exciting about this. Because for the first time in history, the world’s greatest travel agents aren’t sitting behind a desk. They’re sitting in a director’s chair.

So the next time you fall in love with a backdrop in a movie, don’t just pause and admire it. Open a new tab. Look it up. Book it.

Hollywood has been quietly planning your trip for decades. You just didn’t know it yet.

There are moments at award shows that nobody really prepares for — the kind that creep past the glitter and the scripted speeches and hit you somewhere real. Sunday night in Hamilton, Ontario, was one of those moments.

Joni Mitchell — 82 years old, six decades of music behind her, a brain aneurysm survived, and still one of the most quietly powerful voices on the planet — walked onto the stage of the 2026 Juno Awards to a thunderous standing ovation. She wasn’t just receiving a trophy. She was coming home.

And when she spoke, Canada listened.

‘I’m Living in the States — and You Know What’s Happening There’

Taking the stage to a crowd that had been on its feet before she even reached the microphone, Mitchell told the audience she was “so happy to be in Canada” — and then, with the kind of bluntness that only someone who has lived through everything she’s lived through can pull off, she added: “I’m living in the States, and you know what’s happening there.” Rocky Mountain Outlook

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The room knew exactly what she meant. No further explanation was needed.

She then turned her attention to the man standing beside her on stage — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney — and said simply: “This man is a blessing. You guys are so fortunate.” The Hollywood Reporter

It wasn’t a political rally. It wasn’t a protest. It was just an old woman, born in Fort Macleod, Alberta, telling the truth the way she always has — through feeling, without armour.

A Prime Minister Who Showed Up

There was something genuinely moving about Prime Minister Mark Carney being there at all. In the middle of a federal election campaign, with Canada navigating one of its most politically charged moments in recent memory, Carney stepped onto that stage and delivered a tribute that felt earned rather than performative.

“Joni’s music didn’t just provide the soundtrack to our lives,” Carney told the audience. “She shifted culture, inspired generations and redefined what songwriting could be.” Rocky Mountain Outlook

He closed with something quietly poetic: “During a career spanning six decades, Joni drew a map of Canada. Oh Canada.” The Hollywood Reporter

For a man more associated with economic policy than pop culture, it was a surprisingly graceful moment. And the crowd — and Mitchell herself — felt it.

The Aneurysm, the Comeback, and What It All Means

What made Mitchell’s appearance even more remarkable was the context. While on stage, she recalled a decade earlier when she “had a brain aneurysm, which changed my life.” The Hollywood Reporter The fact that she is standing — performing, speaking, being celebrated — is itself a kind of miracle that many in that Hamilton arena were acutely aware of.

Sunday night marked Mitchell’s first performance since 2024 stalbertgazette, and she did not waste it. She joined a full musical tribute to her body of work, performing alongside Canadian icons including Sarah McLachlan, Allison Russell, and Jully Black — a generation of artists whose careers exist, in part, because Mitchell made the path. The Globe and Mail

A Night Soaked in Canadian Pride

Mitchell’s moment was the emotional centrepiece of an evening that pulsed with something you don’t often see at music award shows: genuine national identity.

Host Mae Martin — the non-binary comedian and actor who created and stars in Netflix‘s Wayward series — set the tone early, welcoming the audience with a line that drew enormous laughter and even more knowing nods: “Coming back to Canada after living in the U.S., it feels like seeing your old friends after you’ve been in a toxic relationship that you just got out.” The Hollywood Reporter

The crowd roared.

Elsewhere, Drake — in a video message that reportedly moved her to tears — paid tribute to Nelly Furtado, who was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Furtado told the audience: “I’m just really proud to be Canadian. I live in Canada. I make my music in Canada. And I work with Canadian musicians, songwriters and producers because I totally believe in the Canadian dream. Please believe in it, too.” The Globe and Mail

And in what may be the night’s most nostalgic surprise, legendary rock band Rush opened the ceremony — their first performance at an awards show since 1978 — playing “Finding My Way,” the very first song from their very first album, now with new drummer Anika Nilles filling the irreplaceable role left by the late Neil Peart, who passed away in 2020. The Globe and Mail

Frontman Geddy Lee quipped backstage: “Neil is irreplaceable, and if he had something to say to us right now, he’d probably say, ‘You guys are idiots.'” The Globe and Mail The room laughed. But they also wiped their eyes.

Why This Moment Matters Beyond the Trophies

It would be easy to file Sunday night under “nice awards show, moving speech, Canadian pride, moving on.” But something larger was happening in that arena in Hamilton.

Canada is, right now, in the middle of working out who it is — economically, politically, culturally — in relation to a neighbouring country that has grown louder, more unpredictable, and harder to stand next to without flinching. And into that tension walked an 82-year-old woman who has spent her entire life writing about complicated feelings, and she said the quiet part out loud.

She looked at her country. She looked at her prime minister. And she said: you are fortunate.

Coming from Joni Mitchell — a woman who has never once said anything she didn’t mean — that lands differently than a talking point. It lands like a song.