Easter at Coachella

On Sunday morning, Kanye West gave the public its first clear picture of what he calls his “Sunday Service,” a weekly invite-only gospel series he has been hosting since January, this time as a grand-scale Easter event at Coachella, pop music’s premier annual event, in Indio, Calif.

The two-hour Easter service drew 50,000 festivalgoers and was live-streamed on YouTube through a peephole camera, revealing a stunning spectacle many are still trying to understand.

A purple-clad West performed only two songs, both new, while fellow collaborators, including Chance the Rapper, Kid Cudi, and Earl “DMX” Simmons, contributed a mixture of gospel hymns, soul music, and West’s songs. Meanwhile, a choir of hundreds draped in dusty rose sang and danced rapturously along a sod-covered hillside outside the Coachella camping area.

Most notably, DMX delivered a guttural two-minute homily, the choir swaying and humming in the background. He prayed, “May you fill the void in our souls and lay our fears to rest. There’s no way we can live for Jesus when we’re living in the flesh.” He also quoted 1 John 2:15: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” West appeared visibly emotional afterward, covering his face with his hands, and at another point dropping to his knees and closing his eyes.

This week, some praised West for his vulnerability and for facilitating a churchlike experience at Coachella. But others noted the irony of the lines outside the “Church Clothes” tent, where West’s “Yeezy” fashion brand debuted “Jesus Walks” socks for $50, “Trust God” T-shirts for $70, and sweatshirts and sweatpants for much more.

Now that West’s Sunday Service is mainstream, many are speculating whether he is genuinely attempting to do God’s work or simply tapping into a glossy evangelical market in an attempt to purify his beleaguered image.

West began hosting his Sunday Services in January at a variety of outdoor venues, always shrouded in secrecy with mostly celebrity attendees who reportedly sign nondisclosure agreements in order to keep the show’s content private. Only snippets of these gatherings have trickled out to the public, mostly through West’s wife Kim Kardashian West’s Instagram account.

West has played with Christian themes throughout his career, routinely blending the sacred and profane. In 2006, he posed as Jesus for the cover of Rolling Stone, and his 2013 album, titled Yeezus, a nickname he adopted for himself, contains the song “I am a God.”

Statements like this have rendered West one of music’s most polarizing figures. Last year he started another firestorm by publicly supporting President Donald Trump, calling him a “brother” and donning a signed “Make America Great Again” hat. West also made off-color statements about slavery and mental health.

At Coachella, though, West was strangely quiet, and the event was uniquely devoid of his usual antics. On the Christian hip-hop news site Rapzilla, rapper James Gardin wrote, “Every time I heard them yell ‘He’s Alive!’ and when they sang ‘Satan We’re Gonna Tear Your Kingdom Down!’ I believed that they really meant it. If we’re honest we saw a beautiful display of boldness.”

But Kardashian West has repeatedly downplayed any theological message. She told late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel that the Sunday Services have “no praying … no sermon … no Word. It’s just music, and it’s just a feeling.” (Her sister Kourtney Kardashian clarified it is “a Christian thing.”) Following Coachella, Kardashian West praised her husband to her 135 million Instagram followers, saying he wanted to start a church “for healing for himself and his close friends and family.”

Jussie Smollett leaves the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago on March 26. Associated Press/Photo by Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times

An ongoing saga

Two brothers who say actor Jussie Smollett paid them to perpetrate a fake attack on him are now suing his attorneys for defamation. Prosecutors in late March said that though they believed Smollett staged the Jan. 29 incident, they decided to drop the 16 felony counts against him. His attorneys subsequently blamed the brothers, Abel and Ola Osundairo, saying they had “led a criminally homophobic, racist, and violent attack against Mr. Smollett.”

The Osundairos, who are of Nigerian descent, told a grand jury Smollett paid them $3,500 to help make it look like he had been attacked by two men who were wearing “Make America Great Again” hats. They contend in their suit that Smollett took advantage of their aspirations to have TV and movie careers.

“Mr. Smollett used his clout as a wealthy actor to influence plaintiffs, who were in a subordinate relationship to him and were aspiring to ‘make it’ in Hollywood,” the lawsuit states.

Meanwhile, the city of Chicago is trying to recoup the cost of investigating what it maintains was a sham attack. The city sued Smollett for about $130,000, which he refuses to pay because he says the assault was real and the investigation necessary. Now that the strength of the case against Smollett is in doubt, he might get to keep his job on Fox series Empire, for which he was paid a reported $125,000 per episode. TMZ reported that Smollett recently had lunch with one of the showrunners, and members of the show’s cast, including stars Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard, wrote a letter last week to network executives asking them to keep Smollett on board. One thing that could derail a possible comeback: The FBI is still investigating a threatening letter Smollett received at work before the attack. Chicago police said he wrote it to himself, but the FBI hasn’t released a definite conclusion. —Lynde Langdon

Jussie Smollett leaves the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago on March 26. Associated Press/Photo by Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times

Game show makeover

Contestant James Holzhauer is rewriting the rules of the quiz show Jeopardy! He has smashed single-game winning records and as of Thursday raked in $1,225,987 over 16 games. He’s on track to best the achievements of Ken Jennings, who in 2004 won 74 games in a row and earned more than $2.5 million.

Holzhauer is a master of trivia and a professional gambler who has his own style of play. Rather than selecting lower-value clues and working through each category, he plays the high-value clues first. He makes big wagers when he can, once betting $60,000 on the category of “20th Century literary figures.” The clue was: “His first name refers to the ancient district in which you’d find the Greek capital; his surname is a bird.” He correctly answered, “Who is Atticus Finch?”

Jeopardy! fans are also watching closely as host Alex Trebek undergoes treatment for stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Trebek, 78, who has been at the helm of the syndicated game show since 1984, revealed last week that he’s “feeling good” after announcing his diagnosis last month. —L.L.

Bible story time

Bible-based soap operas are all the rage in Brazil these days. Edir Macedo, a megachurch founder who owns the second largest TV network in the country, has produced The Ten Commandments and The Promised Land, and he has a series called The Rich Man and Lazarus in the works. Agence France-Presse reported that the country’s growing evangelical Christian population has helped make the shows so successful. —L.L.