Good morning folks,

Before we move on to the news, I want to introduce you to the new COURIER Texas political editor, Brian McManus. Brian started with us at the beginning of April and has been writing state-wide political stories and editing our DFW and Houston political reporters.

Brian is a born-and-raised Houstonian who’s also lived in Philadelphia, New York City, and, for a hot second, Dallas. He’s worked for publications like Vice and The Village Voice. He even had a career as a professional chef and appeared on an episode of Gordon Ramsey’s “Kitchen Nightmares.” He currently lives in Houston with his wife and two sons.

As promised last week, here’s the 4-year-old Chihuahua Dachshund mix Brian rescued from his local SPCA the week he started working here. His son named her Orange McLaren since he’s in a car phase. 🤣 They call her cLare (with the lowercase “c” and everything) for short.

You’ve already seen a few of Brian’s articles, including his piece on the slowdown in Texas construction, Cornyn and Paxton’s battle for the Senate seat, and how tariffs and immigration policy are contributing to the closure of Texas restaurants. But if you have topics you’d love to see Brian tackle, write in and let me know.

A new book outlines the meteoric rise of Texas’s Mary Kay. (OlesyaPogosskaya/Shutterstock)

By Sam Cohen

Texas native Mary Kay Ash became a household name when her cosmetics company, Mary Kay, skyrocketed to fame in the 1960s-1980s. Before she was a mogul, she was just Mary Kathryn Wagner, a young girl born in Hot Wells to Lula Hastings and Alexander Wagner. Her story has been recounted in numerous articles, interviews, and word-of-mouth recollections, but now it has been forever immortalized by author Mary Lisa Gavenas in the new book, “Selling Opportunity: The Story of Mary Kay.” 

Gavenas said the 448-page biography is “a Texan tall tale of second chances and self-invention.” If you know anything about Mary Kay’s story, you’ll understand how accurate this description is. She worked her way up from Houston’s Sixth Ward during the Depression until she became the owner of a Fortune 500 company with over $1.2 billion in sales revenue. By the time she died in 2001, Mary Kay had amassed a $98 million fortune and transformed the landscape of multilevel marketing forever.

Beyoncé attends the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4, 2026, in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/MG26/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)

Monday’s Met Gala was another star-studded event with its usual parade of equally gorgeous and confusing fashion choices by Hollywood’s A-listers. But the backstory seems to be about all of the stars who didn’t attend, including supermodel and Fort Worth resident Bella Hadid—and word on the street is it’s about the Jeff Bezos connection. 

Amazon CEO Bezos has been a major sponsor of the annual party since 2012. The Friday before the Gala—one she attended in the five years prior—Hadid liked an Instagram post captioned, “I love the ICE out pins but you can’t wear them to the @jeffbezos backed Met Gala!” It refers to Amazon supplying the software that allows ICE to track and detain immigrants, specifically through facial recognition. Activists have consistently called Bezos out for this and asked him to cut ties, but he hasn’t responded.

It’s speculated that this conflict of interest is the reason several familiar faces were missing from Monday night’s red carpet, including Zendaya, Lady Gaga, Taraji P. Henson, and North Texan Selena Gomez.

My question for you is: Should celebrities consider how these events align with their values, or do you see Hollywood events as neutral ground? Take the poll below or write in if you have more to say on this.

Click here to check out a list of celebrities who’ve denounced the Met Gala or been completely banned from it.

Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Joi Louviere with reporting by Sam Cohen and editing by Paula Solis.

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