The Rock comes to Hulk’s defense
Dwayne Johnson says he was disappointed when he heard about a tape of Hulk Hogan using racial slurs.
Johnson, also a former pro wrestler, told a TV critics’ meeting Thursday that the remarks didn’t match his personal history with Hogan.
“I’ve known Terry for a lot of years, and my dad helped train him in Florida in the ’70s when he was breaking into the business. I come from a very long line of lineage of professional wrestlers. I had not known the man to be racist,” said the star of HBO series Ballers, set in Miami.
Johnson acknowledged: “We’ve all talked trash, you know, especially in private. He said what he said, and he’s paying the price.”
The 61-year-old Hogan has suffered backlash despite apologizing in a statement for using “offensive language.” World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. severed ties with him last week. A judge set a March trial date for a lawsuit brought by Hogan against Gawker Media for releasing a sex tape that contained the comments.
READY TO WED
Former Miami radio personality Michael Yo went big for his proposal to former beauty queen girlfriend Claire Schreiner.
The current co-host of CBS’ The Insider made sure everything was just so for the romantic moment that went down at Malibu Family Wines vineyard in sunny Southern California last week. Yo even had photography business Paparazzi Proposals (as seen on Shark Tank), stop by, the TV personality/stand-up comedian wrote on Instagram.
Other witnesses were the couple’s French bull dog, Paul, and Kendall Jenner, who happened to be at the winery. She’s only 19, so we are so sure she wasn’t consuming alcohol. Kendall and Yo go way back, thanks to a Kardashian connection: The teenage model knows the Texas native, 40, from back in the day when he appeared in her half sister’s reality show, Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami, producing the Y100 radio show Khloe After Dark. Remember that?
LEA’S WORLD
Lea Thompson has starred in so many classic films (Red Dawn, All the Right Moves, Some Kind of Wonderful, Howard the Duck, The Little Rascals) that even the unpopular ones are a part of pop-culture history. But most fans surely remember her most iconic role, Lorraine Baines in the Back to the Future franchise.
Her appearance Saturday at the 2015 Tampa Bay Comic Con was her first visit to Tampa — even though she had family members who worked for the Tampa Ballet. “I just never got down there when they were there,” she told Tampa Bay Times.
The Switched at Birth star was happy to be working the event: “You know, I just love meeting the fans. I really, really do. It sounds weird, but I’m so grateful I’ve had people who love my movies and are happy to meet me.”
Also appearing at the convention, which goes through Sunday, are Carrie Fisher and Linda Hamilton.
“That’s exciting. Oh my God! That’s so awesome. I love those ladies. They are great ladies, not at all standoffish. We’re all nice.”
This story was originally published July 31, 2015 at 5:06 PM with the headline "The Rock comes to Hulk’s defense."