Six years ago, a few months after my younger son was born, I got my first IUD (Mirena). The ob-gyn who inserted it wasn’t my regular one, but happened to be the one who ended up delivering him and coaching me through an unexpected complication that made it too dangerous for me to get an epidural. Anyway, she said I would feel a pinch and then experience cramping for 24-48 hours. Well, that pinch felt like someone had taken a wrench and tightened my uterus causing painful back cramps for two days and spotting for six months.

I wasn’t alone in my experience. Thousands of women across the US have also experienced pain during and after their IUD placement. For decades, their pain has been brushed aside, with women basically being told sh-t like “It’s not that bad,” “Take some ibuprofen,” and “Suck it up.” Those days are hopefully no more. The CDC issued guidelines last week that advised practitioners to properly warn women about how much insertion and removal will hurt. They’re also supposed to give them better options to manage any pain and discomfort afterwards.

Women started documenting their painful IUD insertions: Earlier this year, The Washington Post reported that numerous women were using their smartphones to document their screams, tears and distress during the IUD insertion process. In social media posts, patients who have experienced IUD pain have described the procedure in graphic terms, including as an “explosion of cramps,” a sensation of “pulling, pushing and slicing” or being “cut or ripped open inside.”

Women’s pain is not taken seriously: Many of these patients said they were not warned of the potential for pain or given adequate options to manage it. Local anesthetics, sedation and other options are available for IUD placement, but many clinicians do not readily offer them. Research also shows that physicians and other providers underestimate pain during IUD insertions. In a study of 200 women, most of whom had given birth, the women reported an average maximum pain score of nearly 65 on a scale of 0 to 100. The providers, however, rated the women’s pain at about 35.

One size Advil fits all: Physicians have said that determining the best pain control can be difficult because patient’s preferences and experiences vary, and there are not enough effective options or guidelines on when to use them. Often, over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications such as Ibuprofen are the only options recommended to help manage IUD pain, despite the fact that research shows they are largely ineffective. The CDC said health-care providers can use the recommendations, which were updated after a review of available scientific evidence in January 2023, “to support person-centered contraceptive counseling and remove unnecessary medical barriers to accessing and using contraception.”

Let’s try this again: In its previous recommendations in 2016, the CDC outlined medications “to ease IUD insertion,” suggesting the advice was aimed, at least in part, at helping the provider complete the procedure. The updated version uses more patient-centered language. The new guidance states that before placing an IUD, “all patients should be counseled on potential pain during placement as well as the risks, benefits and alternatives of different options for pain management. A person-centered plan for IUD placement and pain management should be made based on patient preference.”

The new guidance for pain control: The advice also broadens pain control options to include topical lidocaine, which may include a numbing gel or spray. The previous guidance mentioned only lidocaine injections given in the cervix called a paracervical block. Some studies show paracervical blocks can help with pain, while others have shown they do not. Although the CDC said lidocaine “might be useful for reducing patient pain,” the agency did not specifically advise clinicians to use it. The new guidance also states that misoprostol, a medication that helps soften the cervix, is not recommended for routine IUD insertions but may be useful in certain circumstances such as in cases in which previous insertions have been unsuccessful.

There’s no magic bullet: Physicians say the new guidance emphasizes that there is no one-sized-fits-all approach to pain control. “Shared decision-making is necessary to arrive at an individualized plan reflecting each patient’s unique context, values and preferences,” Monica Dragoman, system director of the complex family planning division at Mount Sinai Health System, said in an email. Lauren Kus, a complex family planning fellow at Mount Sinai Hospital, added that while the recommendations can “optimize and individualize” pain management plans, “admittedly, none of these interventions are a magic bullet to eliminate IUD insertion pain, so continued research into additional effective strategies is critical.”

[From WaPo]

Well, it’s about f-cking time this was addressed, especially since more and more women are considering IUDs in a post-Roe world where Republicans’ war on women will surely try to come for birth control. Women are often told to suck it up or deal with levels of pain and discomfort that men are simply not expected to tolerate. While I know that there are thousands of women out there that have had good experiences with their IUD in general, a lot of them also have stories about how painful the insertion was. For all they’re worth when it comes to the effectiveness of reproductive health, no one really prepares us for the side effects that come with insertion or when your body is getting used to it. The comments under the post about this story on WaPo’s Instagram account are full of testimonials.

Oh, and that IUD insertion that caused pain and months of spotting? Well, seven months later, I started having intense, targeted pain in different areas of my stomach. As it turned out, the IUD was placed while my cervix was still too soft, so it slipped through and migrated up into my stomach. (This is what I was told.) A very crazy x-ray showed it near my left rib cage. I had to have laparoscopic surgery to remove it, and it was in a completely different location when they went in, four days later. I still preferred that over the pill, so I ended up getting a new Mirena IUD put in six months later, this time by my longtime gyno. After just a day of crampy pain, I had no issues after that. Women really are expected to treat all experiences as though they affect us all in the exact same way, every time we feel them. Here’s to validating and addressing more of our experiences moving forward.

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Photos credit: Alex Green, Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition on Unsplash and via Instagram/Dr. Jen Gunter

It’s equal parts horrifying and fascinating to watch the New York Times bet big on Donald Trump winning reelection, but slowly realizing that he’s f–king up all of their plans. I can feel the fury coming from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan in their latest piece, “Inside the Worst Three Weeks of Donald Trump’s 2024 Campaign.” They are so deeply embedded in Team Trump, they really convinced themselves that Trump had this thing locked down and now the crazy old man can’t land the plane. The only good thing Haberman’s access to Trump gives us at this point is juicy political and personal gossip. Haberman and Swan reveal that Trump is too senile to listen to advisors; that he’s referred to Kamala Harris as a “bitch” in multiple conversations; and that Trump thinks JD Vance is a weirdo too. Some highlights:

Trump showed no regret for attacking Harris’s race: “I think I was right,” he told the rattled donors that Friday night. [Donors] asked how Mr. Trump planned to take the narrative back from Democrats, and what his positive vision for the country would be. It appeared to be a request for reassurance. Mr. Trump provided none. Instead, he criticized Ms. Harris on a range of fronts, before adding: “I am who I am.”

One of the rockiest period of Mr. Trump’s campaign: [It is] easily the worst since a late 2022 spree in which he mused about terminating parts of the Constitution and dined at Mar-a-Lago with a white supremacist and an outspoken antisemite. As Ms. Harris — long ridiculed and underestimated — has transformed the contest, campaigning energetically and drawing roughly even with Mr. Trump in many polls, Mr. Trump has responded with one unforced error after another while struggling to land on an effective and consistent argument against her.

A foul mood: Indeed, Mr. Trump has often been in a foul mood the past few weeks. He has ranted about Ms. Harris. He has called her “nasty,” on “Fox & Friends,” and a “bitch,” repeatedly, in private, according to two people who heard the remark on different occasions. (“That is not language President Trump has used to describe Kamala, and it’s not how the campaign would characterize her,” Mr. Cheung said.)

The “weird” problem with JD Vance: Over the past two weeks, Mr. Trump has fielded complaints from donors about his running mate, JD Vance, as news coverage exploring Mr. Vance’s past statements unearthed — and then exhaustively critiqued — remarks including a lament that America was run by “childless cat ladies.” Mr. Trump dismissed out of hand donors’ suggestions that he replace Mr. Vance on the ticket. But Mr. Trump privately asked his advisers whether they had known about Mr. Vance’s comments about childless women before Mr. Trump chose him. And, at the Aug. 2 fund-raiser, according to two people with knowledge of what took place, when a donor at the round-table discussion asked about Democrats trying to paint the Republican ticket as “weird,” Mr. Trump replied: “Not about me. They’re saying that about JD.”

He’s mad that Kamala Harris is getting more attention & her crowds are bigger: Also unsettling to him: For the first time in Mr. Trump’s political life, his opponent has received more sustained news coverage than he has, beating him at the game of “earned media,” the kind that costs campaigns nothing to produce. Moreover, the coverage of Ms. Harris has overwhelmingly been positive. Ms. Harris “has gotten the equivalent of the largest in-kind contribution of free media I think I have ever seen in all the years I’ve been doing presidential campaigns,” said Tony Fabrizio, the Trump campaign’s chief pollster.

Trump’s internal polling is hilariously bad too: He has also peppered his advisers with questions about whether Ms. Harris can sustain her momentum, constantly asking what new polling shows. Others are more concerned about what they are seeing in private polling. Two private polls conducted in Ohio recently by Republican pollsters — which Mr. Trump carried in 2020 with 53 percent of the vote — showed him receiving less than 50 percent of the vote against Ms. Harris in the state, according to a person with direct knowledge of the data.

[From The NY Times]

“Not about me. They’re saying that about JD.” LMAO. Vance is definitely the reason why the “weird” attack is landing so well. Vance is a weirdo. He’s a creep, he’s a stalker, he’s awkward and a charisma vacuum. He also says terrible things and he has a long history of saying offensive things about women. It anything, the “weird” label is being kind. But it lands so well because Trump is also a f–king weirdo and a creep. Like attracts like, birds of a feather. Trump’s weird orange makeup, his weird obsession with crowd sizes, his lies, his sexual predations, he’s just a very weird and gross old man. His selection of Vance just highlights all of that.

As for Trump calling Harris a “bitch” and the campaign saying no, he would never – there’s already a video of Trump’s fat ass slumped in a golf cart, calling Harris a “f–king bitch.” A lot of people are making the bold (?) prediction that before Election Day, Trump is probably going to call her the n-word. Probably at one of the debates?

Trump calling Kamala Harris a “fucking bitch” is hilarious because that’s going to be his nickname in prison pic.twitter.com/zATECzbJww

— I Smoked RFK Jr’s Bear (@BlackKnight10k) August 10, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

Last week, It Ends With Us had major premiere events in New York and London. Blake Lively has also been blitzing the media with TV appearances, interviews and pap strolls. She’s hustling for this film really hard. It’s her first major role in years, and she’s an executive producer on it too. With Blake’s promotion specifically, it does feel like there’s a cult of silence around what it’s actually about: domestic violence. That’s the whole point of “it ends with us.” Only Blake seems to think she’s promoting a ditzy romance full of cute scenes involving fashion, flowers and jewelry. Meanwhile, her costar and director Justin Baldoni has been doing the most to talk about DV and be respectful of the actual subject matter. TikTok caught on that Justin and Blake seem to be promoting IEWU in completely different ways. TikTok also caught on that Blake and Justin have had some kind of falling out and they are not promoting the film together whatsoever. It’s gotten so bad that even the trade papers are following TikTokers’ leads:

As It Ends With Us sails toward a strong opening weekend at the box office, the movie is facing unexpected — and likely unwanted — attention on social media. TikTok has been flooded with speculation about a rift between star-producer Blake Lively and her co-star Justin Baldoni, who also directed the adaptation of Colleen Hoover‘s beloved book.

Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that there was a fracture among the filmmakers in the postproduction process, wherein two different cuts of the movie emerged.

The It Ends With Us sleuthing on TikTok stemmed from Baldoni’s notable absence from joint press events; the lack of group photos of Lively and Baldoni together at Tuesday’s New York premiere; and the fact that neither Lively, Hoover, nor the rest of the cast, follow Baldoni on Instagram (though he follows them). This raised eyebrows, as during the development of the movie, Hoover and Baldoni appeared together on each other’s Instagrams multiple times.

Social media users also began speculating that Lively brought in her husband, Ryan Reynolds, to help take over creative control of the film. This theory was stoked when Lively revealed at the film’s world premiere that Reynolds wrote a key rooftop scene toward the beginning of the movie. “We help each other. He works on everything I do. I work on everything he does. So his wins, his celebrations are mine and mine are his,” she said. The film has a script from Christy Hall.

Reynolds did write a large chunk of dialogue for the scene, multiple insiders tell THR, but not the entire scene. Beyond that, he would have had no time to focus on his wife’s film since he and director Shawn Levy were working 24/7 on Deadpool & Wolverine from the time they were able to resume production in early November 2023 after the SAG-AFTRA strike — and through the laborious postproduction process before embarking on a global publicity tour.

Lively, however, did have a strong say in the film’s creative direction as she was also a producer on the feature on top of being its star. That seemed to extend to having the power to make her own version of the movie. According to multiple sources, Lively commissioned a cut of the movie from editor Shane Reid, who was an editor on Deadpool & Wolverine, and who cut the Lively-directed music video for Taylor Swift’s “I Bet You Think About Me.” It’s unclear if any of this cut was ultimately used in the final project, which was credited to editors Oona Flaherty and Robb Sullivan. One insider played down any friction, noting that it is not uncommon for a film to have several cuts emerge during post, adding that the team was in agreement on the final cut.

[From THR]

I absolutely believe the theory that Ryan Reynolds is a controlling a–hole and he put his stink all over Blake’s big comeback project, and that was a problem with Baldoni and screenwriter Christy Hall. Speaking of, Baldoni was the one who got the rights to the book and he brought in Hall to adapt the script. But the reason why Blake and Ryan kept getting their way was because they’re tight with Colleen Hoover. Basically, THR makes it sound like a mess of big egos and competing agendas. But! Page Six has a much more pro-Blake piece:

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni clashed on the set of “It Ends With Us,” with multiple sources telling Page Six he made her feel “uncomfortable.” One industry source claimed that Baldoni, who also directed the movie, created an “extremely difficult” atmosphere behind the scenes for the entire cast. And another industry insider said there were a few moments on set that made Lively, who is a producer on the project, feel “uncomfortable” about her postpartum body.

Lively, 36, joined “It Ends With Us” soon after giving birth to her fourth child with Ryan Reynolds, son Olin. As photos leaked at the start of production, fans called out Lively’s “frumpy” costumes for her character, Lily Bloom — prompting Lively to delve into her own wardrobe for some of the looks, borrowing clothes from BFF Gigi Hadid and husband Ryan Reynolds and wearing her own jewelry. Sources who have worked with Baldoni were quick to say the father of two would never intentionally set out to make any of his actors feel unsupported. By the end of filming, however, there was apparently no love lost between the cast.

“It’s not just Blake,” added the industry source. “None of the cast enjoyed working with Justin …They certainly didn’t talk to him at the premiere.”

[From Page Six]

Wait, are they saying that Baldoni said something about her postpartum body AND he made her wear frumpy clothes? Sigh… I mean, it’s a good way to attack him, even if I think it sounds like bullsh-t straight from Ryan and Blake. Also: Baldoni wants no part of the sequel, if a sequel gets greenlighted. He told People Mag that if the sequel happens, Blake should direct it. I doubt Ryan would allow that.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Joaquin Phoenix will soon be in Venice, promoting Joker: Folie à Deux with Lady Gaga. That was supposed to be his big thing this year: promoting the Joker sequel, his return to a role which won him an Oscar (which I still loathe). But it looks like Joaquin had something else on his schedule this summer. He was supposed to begin filming on a “gay romance” directed by Todd Haynes. Joaquin pulled out just five days before he was due on set. This is a huge catastrophe and people are going to lose millions of dollars just because Joaquin changed his mind about a story HE brought to Haynes and HE developed with Haynes.

Joaquin Phoenix has dropped out of Todd Haynes‘ untitled gay romance film, just five days before filming was set to begin in Mexico, Variety has confirmed. Phoenix had developed the screenplay for the detective love story with Haynes and Jon Raymond. A source close to the production tells Variety the actor got “cold feet.” Entire sets had been built in Guadalajara before Phoenix made the last-minute decision to exit the film.

Hinged on Phoenix’s casting, the movie, produced by Killer Films and backed by sales agent MK2 Film, had already sold to international distributors ahead of production. Sources tell Variety the project is in peril, indicating that Phoenix’s role cannot be recast. The crew is now out of work, and stakeholders in the film still need to be paid. Losses could exceed seven figures.

“Top Gun: Maverick” star Danny Ramirez joined the cast in July as Phoenix’s love interest. In 2023, Haynes teased the project in an interview with Variety as a “love story between two men set in the ’30s that has explicit sexual content.” The film was said to be rated NC-17 and feature a relationship that will “challenge” audiences.

Speculation among the crew is that Phoenix’s exit had to do with the graphic nature of the film’s sex scenes. But that theory is confusing to some sources, who reiterate that it was Phoenix who brought the project — and its NC-17 concept — to Haynes in the first place. Haynes told Variety in September 2023 that the film started with “fragments of ideas” from Phoenix, which the director formulated into “an actual narrative” before bringing Raymond on board.

“Basically it was just this wonderful, organic way to create the script,” Haynes said. “And Joaquin was pushing it further into more dangerous territory, sexually.”

[From Variety]

This is… legitimately bonkers. Bonkers from a legal perspective too, because why wasn’t Joaquin locked in contractually? You can say “oh, the Oscar winner had cold feet,” but if he has a contract, dude has to show up on set in Mexico and get it on with Danny Ramirez. Was this all being done on a handshake deal?? A producer on the film, Christine Vachon, wrote this on her Facebook page:

“A version of this did happen. It has been a nightmare….And PLEASE — if you are tempted to finger wag or admonish us that “that’s what you get for casting a straight actor” –DON’T. This was HIS project that he brought to US– and Killer’s record on working with LGBTQ actors/crew/directors speaks for itself. (and for those of you who HAVE– know that you are making a terrible situation even worse).”

[Via People]

Yeah, I already saw some people arguing “this is why Joaquin should never have been cast as a gay man.” But as Vachon points out, again, this was Joaquin bringing a story to Todd Haynes. This was Joaquin putting together a graphic gay romance AS HIS OWN STAR VEHICLE and then just days before he was due in Mexico, he was just like “nah, I can’t.” Rooney Mara, come get your man.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

President Biden dropped out of his reelection campaign and endorsed Kamala Harris on July 21. Within 48 hours, VP Harris had raised $250 million and locked down enough delegates to become the Democratic nominee. Hilariously, one of the first things the new Harris campaign did was lock down Beyonce’s “Freedom” as their go-to campaign song for rallies and ads. Beyonce personally authorized VP Harris the use of the song and we should absolutely take that as Beyonce endorsing VP Harris. The campaign has also already gotten Bon Iver to perform at a rally, and Tim Walz apparently loves Bruce Springsteen, so his rally song is “Born to Run.” I assume the Boss authorized that as well.

What’s also hilarious is that no artist wants their music played at Donald Trump’s rallies. At all. This was an issue in 2016 and 2020. Even Adele – an artist beloved by Trump – had to come out and say, absolutely not, stop using my music at your rallies. Well, the latest artist to send a cease & desist is Celine Dion. First, please enjoy the Trump campaign using “My Heart Will Go On” at their Montana rally on Friday:

Is Trump’s campaign being trolled from within? Someone on his staff decided to play Celine Dion singing “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic at his Montana rally. Many consider Titanic a metaphor for Trump’s sinking campaign. pic.twitter.com/dVbNjVylel

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) August 10, 2024

The Trump Titanic, sinking into the icy waters, hypothermia setting in, with all of the fascists going down with the ship. “My Heart Will Go On” is Celine Dion’s biggest song, it won an Oscar and sold millions. Celine was not happy, and her team released this statement:

Today, Celine Dion’s management team and her record label, Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., became aware of the unauthorized usage of the video, recording, musical performance, and likeness of Celine Dion singing “My Heart Will Go On” at a Donald Trump / JD Vance campaign… pic.twitter.com/28CYLFvgER

— Celine Dion (@celinedion) August 10, 2024

LMAO. I was going to say “Celine should come to the DNC” but I looked it up and apparently Celine never became a naturalized American citizen. So probably not. She’s just a Canadian horrified by Trump.

Speaking of the DNC and big-name celebrities… there are rumors that Beyonce will attend and perform at the Democratic National Convention. I mean… she performed at President Obama’s inauguration ball. And Beyonce does seem to be big on reclaiming everything Americana these days. The more I think about it… the more I believe that Beyonce might actually do this. Oh, and the Daily Beast claims that John Legend, Kerry Washington and several other celebrities will attend the DNC. I’ve also heard that rumor that Trump is terrified that Taylor Swift will attend some Harris rallies and he’s considering bringing out Kid Rock to combat the Swifties and Beyhive.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty, Backgrid.

Is Katy Perry’s latest single another flop? It just sounds so basic, like, I’m sure this will get radio play, but it sounds like it was made by a committee. [Seriously OMG]
Reese Witherspoon & her son Deacon supported Zoe Kravitz. [Just Jared]
I love that some winter Olympic figure-skaters went to Paris to pick up their long-awaited gold medals. It’s a complicated but cool story! [Go Fug Yourself]
I love Cate Blanchett’s premiere look. [Socialite Life]
Idris Elba hates the latest TikTok trend, and so do I. [Buzzfeed]
Who’s on the come-up in Young Hollywood? [LaineyGossip]
They’re already attacking Tim Walz’s military record. [Pajiba]
This underwear concept is gross. [OMG Blog]
Isabela Ferrer has lovely style. [RCFA]
Who’s the new Summer House cast member? [Starcasm]
I can’t believe they made swimmers get into the Seine. [Hollywood Life]

It’s become a thing this week, where the mainstream political press has suddenly decided that it’s okay to write about how Donald Trump is flailing around and Republicans don’t know what to do. Maybe it started with Trump’s racist tirade at the NABJ conference last week, when he claimed that Kamala Harris “turned Black” all of a sudden for a political advantage (??). Maybe it was the fact that Trump spent ten days in a blind, pants-sh-tting panic in Mar-a-Lago instead of campaigning with less than 100 days until the election. Maybe it was Trump test-driving childish new nicknames for Harris on his Nazi social media. Whatever it is, there are suddenly so many articles devoted to “wow, Republicans wish Donald Trump would get it together and stop being such a deranged weirdo.” Some highlights from a NYT piece:

It’s almost as if the Times is providing Trump with a roadmap: The way Republicans see it, it should not be hard for Mr. Trump to pivot from President Biden to this new Democratic ticket. All he has to do is hammer Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz for things they have said and done, to paint them as out-of-step from most Americans, on everything including policing, immigration and transgender policies. But lately Mr. Trump keeps getting tangled up in distractions of his own making. He has gone on tangents about Ms. Harris’s biracial identity. He has picked fights with fellow Republicans. He has fantasized that Mr. Biden might somehow snatch back the nomination. Many in Mr. Trump’s party find this all to be counterproductive, to say the least.

LMAO: “The Harris-Walz ticket is the furthest left ticket in American history. They are a target-rich environment,” said Ben Shapiro, the right-wing media warrior. “All he has to do is focus the attack, to dump the war chest he’s accrued on this extremist ticket, to stick to a simple point: You were better off in 2019 than you are in 2024.”

Trump can’t move on from Biden: At times, it seems as though Mr. Trump has not even accepted his new political reality — that he is no longer in a race against Mr. Biden. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump wondered aloud in a post on Truth Social if there were any chance that Mr. Biden “CRASHES the Democrat National Convention and tries to take back the Nomination.” “He spent four years preparing for a run against Joe Biden,” Mr. Newhouse said, “and it’s naturally tough to regain your footing.” He said that Mr. Trump was now trying to do so “on the fly, with less than a hundred days left, and that’s an extraordinarily challenging effort.”

The nickname: Adding to the sense that Mr. Trump is flailing about, this week he has been testing out a new mocking nickname for his opponent, referring to Ms. Harris as “Kamabla.” It is a departure from the previous epithet he had chosen (“Laffin’ Kamala”), and nobody seems quite sure how to decipher it. Asked if he understood what Mr. Trump meant by “Kamabla,” Mr. Kingston replied, “No.” As for the attacks on her racial identity? “I would stick to the price of groceries,” he said.

Ann Coulter speaks: “All Trump has to do is talk about his positions, like he did in 2016,” said Ann Coulter, the conservative commentator who broke with Mr. Trump some years back, largely because of his inability to focus on the issues she cared about. “But, no, he’s going to spend the first 20 minutes of every rally attacking the popular Republican governor of Georgia or trying out stupid nicknames for Kamala.” Ms. Coulter added that “Republicans who expected Trump to run a smart, disciplined campaign are going to be sorely disappointed.”

[From The New York Times]

Trump is doing so poorly that the New York Times is basically giving him a list and blatantly telling him: just repeat all of this and we’ll amplify for the next three months, don’t worry, hang in there, Nazi kitten! Anyway, I don’t really care what part of this is performative pearl-clutching from the face-eating leopard party and what part of this is a streak of genuine panic from Republicans. I find it notable that all of the party elders have been culled by Trump and his supporters – there’s no John Boehner to step in and clean up Trump’s mess. There’s no George W. Bush to remind everyone that they’re all loyal Republicans. There is Mitch McConnell, but he keeps having mini-strokes whenever he’s on camera. So… it’s the party of Trump. I hope they all go down with the ship.

Speaking of, Trump was seen yesterday at MAL. He threw a deranged press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, his first in weeks, timed specifically for 8/8 (you know what that means). He ranted and raved about Kamala Harris, he said he agreed to three debates, he said he’s more than open to banning mifepristone, he said the everyone wanted to see Roe overturned, he refused to say whether or not he would peacefully concede the election if he lost, and of course, he ranted about crowd size. He claimed that his crowd sizes were bigger than Martin Luther King Jr.’s crowds.

Trump claims his crowds are larger than Martin Luther King Jr.’s pic.twitter.com/fuGPWZW66P

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 8, 2024

Screengrabs courtesy of MSNBC, The Times.

A few months ago, we heard an interesting story which I believed at the time and still believe now. Apparently, Leah Remini, one of Jennifer Lopez’s oldest friends and closest friends, was never a fan of Ben Affleck. Leah is Leah – of course she’s going to speak her mind, and she told Jennifer Lopez that Ben is an a–hole who would break her heart again. Instead of taking that advice to heart, J.Lo cut off Leah and married Ben (and Leah wasn’t invited to the wedding). Crash cut to this year, J.Lo and Leah are friendly again after Leah was like “I told you so” and J.Lo was like “give me a break, Leah, I get it now.” Apparently, there were a lot of people in J.Lo’s inner circle who felt the same way as Leah too. People like Benny Medina, Jennifer’s long-time manager, advisor and Svengali.

Ben Affleck was never a favorite within Jennifer Lopez’s trusted inner circle — but they went along with the relationship anyway — including the “Argo” star’s once-most vocal critic, Benny Medina. Lopez’s longtime manager’s disdain for Affleck dates back to the star couple’s failed engagement in the aughts, we hear.

“The two of them can’t stand each other. They don’t get along and there’s still bad blood,” a source told Page Six.

Medina was instrumental in making Lopez — who famously began her career as a dancer on ’90s sketch show “In Living Color” — an A-list global superstar. But she parted ways with him in 2003. Sources told us Affleck was a factor in that decision at the time. Lopez then rehired Medina a few years after she and Affleck called off their engagement in 2004, and the showbiz whiz has been one of her most trusted confidantes ever since. However, he’s apparently been mum on Bennifer 2.0. Another source told us that this time around, Medina “kept his mouth shut” about their rekindled romance and marriage.

“His attitude was, ‘I’m gonna say nothing.’ [There] was no, ‘Good for you,’ but also, [he] wasn’t negative,” the source claimed. “He knows her and he knew she was going to marry him no matter what, so what’s the point?” the source told us.

Bennifer 2.0 did, however, fracture Lopez’s friendship with longtime bestie Leah Remini, whom she met via her ex-husband Marc Anthony. A source previously told us that Remini encouraged Lopez to think about the reason they broke up in the first place before she jumped back on the love boat with the “Gone Girl” star.

“Because he is selfish and not fully committed as a partner. J.Lo was so mad she cut off all ties,” they claimed. (Lopez did not invite Remini to the wedding). The two reconnected this year, with Remini offering support amid Lopez and Affleck’s alleged marital woes according to the source.

“No one, except [Lopez’s] mother, likes Ben Affleck. He’s a triple-A a–hole,” the second source said.

The insider pointed to the couple’s current situation. Sources recently told us “The Town” star has been holding off filing for divorce from Lopez so as to not humiliate her further, but it’s too little too late. “She’s furious. He has humiliated her. He was the one who initiated getting back together,” a source previously told us. Our second source added, “This was definitely not on her bingo card. She would’ve scratched someone’s eyes out if they told her [they’re] splitting up less than two years in.”

[From Page Six]

I seem to remember some vintage gossip that Marc Anthony didn’t like Medina either, but that was mostly about Marc wanting to “manage” Jennifer’s career himself. Those were some really dark years for Jennifer professionally, and when she got back with Medina, he spent years getting her career back on track. I also wonder if Medina was skeptical of Jennifer’s involvement with Ben’s Artists Equity. As in, Medina probably didn’t like or appreciate that Ben was getting more involved in Jennifer’s career. Anyway… yeah, I absolutely believe that Jen’s inner circle despises Ben, especially nowadays.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images, Instagram.

Here are some photos of Blake Lively and Isabela Ferrer at the photocall and premiere for It Ends With Us in London on Thursday. Blake’s white suit at the photocall was Stella McCartney… which makes sense (awful sense). For the premiere, Blake wore Tamara Ralph Couture, and Isabela wore Burberry. I think it’s interesting that Blake chose Tamara Ralph (formerly of Ralph & Russo) – Blake doesn’t have one go-to designer for every carpet, but usually she goes for bigger name labels or designers. That being said, the dress is blandly pretty, so much so that I thought this was Elie Saab or Monique Lhuillier. The furry coat/cape.stole is interesting but not with this dress. At least Blake’s hair looks good?

Meanwhile, it appears that Justin Baldoni did not make the trip to London to promote the movie. That’s weird – he was in New York and he attended the NYC premiere a few days ago. He didn’t pose with anyone from the film though. In case you’re wondering, Baldoni plays the domestic-abuser husband in the film AND Baldoni also directed this mess, with Blake and Colleen Hoover stepping in as co-executive producers. Since IEWU’s promotion ramped up, people have been noticing that Blake and Justin are not interacting on the promo tour at all, not even to pose together on a red carpet.

Social media users are convinced that It Ends With Us costars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have become embroiled in a fierce feud – after they noticed some suspicious behavior between the two cast members. The highly-anticipated movie, based off Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name, is set to hit theaters on Friday, August 9. But some fans believe Blake, 36, has beef with Justin, 40 – who on top of acting in the film, also directed it – after claiming they spotted some tension between the stars at the New York City premiere earlier this week.

Blake and Justin didn’t pose for any pictures together at the event, despite playing the two main characters and love interests in the flick. She happily took photos with her other costars like Jenny Slate and Brandon Sklenar, but not Justin. Two days later, Blake attended a photo call in London for the film with some of the other stars – but Justin was mysteriously absent.

In addition, the two haven’t done any press together in the weeks leading up to the film’s release. Instead, Blake sat down for an interview with her costar, Brandon, last month; she and Brandon also participated in a promotional video with It Ends With Us stars Alex Neustaedter and Isabela Ferrer, but Justin had no part in it.

Eagle-eyed social media users also noticed that both Blake and author Colleen unfollowed Justin on Instagram recently. Between their lack of interactions and the social media move, many people on the web are wondering if there was drama between Blake and Justin on set.

[From The Daily Mail]

Two things make me believe the beef is real: not posing together on the red carpet in NYC AND Lively and Hoover unfollowing him. Even when costars hate each other, producers will convince them to pose together (however briefly) at the premiere, even if it’s part of a larger group. There was none of that at the NYC premiere, and obviously, he didn’t even come to the London leg of the promotion. Something absolutely went down. I’ve seen some people theorizing that Baldoni didn’t appreciate Blake trying to whitewash the domestic violence storyline? There are rumors about Ryan Reynolds getting too involved in the production too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

The reason Nancy Pelosi has been making TV appearances and giving interviews this week is because she’s shilling for her latest book, The Art of Power. Almost no one gives a f–k about this book, and yet Pelosi is still on a really high-profile promotional tour. That’s because everyone knows that Pelosi publicly and privately shanked President Biden in the back after his awful debate performance in June and everyone’s dying for the gossip. It wasn’t just her public statements and her lack of discretion when discussing the state of play within the Dem caucus – it’s that she didn’t even have a plan for what came next, other than “open mini-primary in July/August” and “throw Kamala Harris out with Biden.” What went down was political malpractice from Pelosi and many Democrats, and while everyone is on the Kamala Harris bandwagon now, it could have easily blown up into something really awful. All of which to say, Pelosi is still talking, this time to the New Yorker. Some highlights:

Before Biden’s debate, she was supportive: “In fact, earlier in the day, when I was with the members, they were, like, Oh, how’s it going to be? ‘Trump will be so awful,’ I said. ‘Don’t worry about it. The Joe Biden of the State of the Union is going to show up. It’s going to be great.’ In fact, I didn’t even want him to be in a debate. . . . I said, [Trump’s] doggy doo-doo. You’re going to get doggy doo-doo on your shoe. It’s not a good thing. You can’t. We’re just talking shorthand here, right? You can’t do that. But [Biden] was going to do it. He felt great. And I had confidence in him. I didn’t think it wouldn’t be good. I just didn’t want him to be seen with that guy. And then that happened, and I think everybody was stunned. It was stunning.”

What she said on Morning Joe which changed everything: “It’s up to the President to decide if he’s going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision, because time is running short. . . . He’s beloved, he’s respected, and people want him to make that decision. I want him to do whatever he decides to do, and that’s the way it is. Whatever he decides, we go with.”

She loves Joe Biden: “Here’s the thing: I’ve known Joe Biden for over forty years, since I was chair of the California Democratic Party, and I love him so much. I think he’s been a really fantastic President of the United States. I really wanted him to make a decision for a better campaign, because they were not facing the fact of what was happening…. We couldn’t see it go down the drain, because Trump was going to be President and then he was going to take the House. Imagine! Imagine how that would be! Well, we don’t have to imagine. We saw.”

She hated Joe Biden’s political operation: “I’ve never been that impressed with his political operation. They won the White House. Bravo. But my concern was: this ain’t happening, and we have to make a decision for this to happen. The President has to make the decision for that to happen. People were calling. I never called one person. I kept true to my word. Any conversation I had, it was just going to be with him. I never made one call. They said I was burning up the lines, I was talking to Chuck [Schumer]. I didn’t talk to Chuck at all. I never called one person, but people were calling me saying that there was a challenge there. So there had to be a change in the leadership of the campaign, or what would come next.” Her goal, she added, was simple: “That Donald Trump would never set foot in the White House again.”

Whether she thinks her relationship with Biden will survive this: “I hope so. I pray so. I cry so. I lose sleep on it, yeah.” Do you think he’s angry at you? “I don’t know. We haven’t had a conversation. But . . .I think he’s in a good state. I mean, I think he did a remarkable thing, bringing home all these prisoners. Oh, my God, that was so masterful. . . . But my understanding is that he’s good. And the thing is that his legacy will go right down the drain if what’s-his-name ever [returns to] the White House. Whether it’s the planet, whether it’s fairness in our economy, whether it’s the safety of our children . . .”

[From The New Yorker]

“I think he did a remarkable thing, bringing home all these prisoners,” which he was negotiating and masterminding while Pelosi was going on TV to knife him in the back. She also says that she told Democrats to wait until the NATO Summit was over… only she did not wait and neither did Democrats. As for this: “I’ve never been that impressed with his political operation. They won the White House. Bravo.” Like… the Biden-Harris ticket won the most votes in American history in 2020. They created an effective plan to bring Rust Belt voters back into the party, shoring up Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. They won GEORGIA. The campaign’s outreach to the Latin-American community shored up Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. What did she not find impressive about Biden’s political operation? She was mad that his poll numbers were down after weeks of his own party publicly attacking him? What’s especially crazy about her disrespect for Biden’s political operation is that the exact same operation now belongs to Kamala Harris. Kamala is surrounded by Biden’s campaign staffers and the Biden apparatus. How long before Pelosi gets the urge to do political malpractice again?

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.