Peter Phillips gave an exclusive interview to Sky News Australia, all to “represent the International Foundation for Arts and Culture.” Meaning… I think this was done for charity, perhaps, rather than Peter “serving his paymasters” with some tacky foreign sponsorship. That’s how the British media writes about the Sussexes, so they should write about Peter the same way, correct? Especially given that Peter will take any kind of paycheck, even if it’s shilling “royal-branded” milk in China. Anyway, Peter ended up going on the record about all of the medical dramas within the royal family:

On King Charles’s frustration: “I think ultimately he’s hugely frustrated. He’s frustrated that he can’t get on and do everything that he wants to be able to do. But he is very pragmatic, he understands that there’s a period of time that he really needs to focus on himself. But at the same time he is always pushing his staff and everybody – his doctors and nurses – to be able to say ‘actually can I do this, can I do that?’ I think the overriding message would be that he’s obviously very keen to get back to a form of normality and is probably frustrated that recovery is taking a little longer than probably he would want it to.”

On the Princess of Wales: Peter described the “outpouring of support” for King Charles and Princess Kate amid their health news in recent months as “hugely heartening” and praised Princess Kate as “remarkable in herself.” “Without any question, she is. Her and William make a fantastic team together. Their kids are great, and they have the balance of public life and trying to be parents to three young children, which is always difficult. I think they’ve got it pretty right, because you know, as history as taught us, and anyone knows, you want to be there for your children when they are of a certain age. You want to be able to drop them off at school, and pick them up from school, and watch their matches, be part of their school lives. I think that balance of doing the family life and also the public life, I think that they’ve pretty much got that bang on.”

On his mother, Princess Anne: “I think in the past she has not always been the media’s favourite so to speak. But she’s never really let that bother her. She just keeps her head down the whole time and keeps working away and leaves others to worry about column inches.”

His mother & father’s work ethic: “Both of them are incredibly hard-working and both in their 70s they’re still working a lot harder than either of them probably expected. But then as my mother always says – from that perspective, they had pretty good role models from my grandparents who were still working in their 90s. So everyone has a huge amount to live up to and ultimately they all live by example.”

[From The Telegraph & People]

Just going from memory, Anne (his mother) has never been the media’s “favorite,” but she’s always been well-liked and respected. Like, no one attacks Anne, no one smears her, no one harasses her. At this point, Anne is pretty much untouchable and bulletproof – the “steady hand” behind the throne. As for what he says about Charles… yeah, I believe that. Charles likes to keep busy and before cancer, he could knock out 500-plus events a year. I believe he wants to do more, but I also believe that the chemotherapy has kicked his ass. As for what Peter says about the Waleses… the fakakta school run, oh my god. Will and Kate always leave the impression that they think they’re the only parents balancing a school schedule with a “work” schedule.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Frankie Muniz (@frankiemuniz4)

Frankie Muniz is now 38 years old, which I find kinda wild. I’ve always thought he was like 10 years younger than me, not two. Gah, now I’m having a moment! Anyway, Frankie’s got a pretty large nest egg and never has to work again, but he’s currently living it up as a NASCAR driver. He’s also appeared in a couple of celebrity-based reality TV shows. Frankie is probably one of the rare lucky child star success stories. He’s not been without drama, but he is now happily married with a three-year-old son, Mauz. While doing press for the Australian version of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here, he shared that he would never let Mauz go into showbiz.

Frankie Muniz, once one of the most popular child stars, does not want his own kid following in his footsteps. Speaking before he entered the jungle set of Australia’s I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here reality show, the star of FOX’s hit early aughts sitcom Malcolm in the Middle explained why isn’t keen on the idea of his son Mauz, 3, pursuing acting.

“I would never let my kid go into the business,” the 38-year-old told Australian outlet PEDESTRIAN.TV in a video released March 24. “And not that I had a negative experience, because to be honest, my experience was 100 percent positive. But I know so many people, friends that were close to me, that had such insanely negative experiences.”

The former child star, who shares his son with wife Paige, continued, “And I just think it’s an ugly world in general. I never cared about rejection, but there’s a ton of rejection.”

Muniz, who still works as an actor and is also a NASCAR driver, made his comments days after Investigation Discovery released its docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which detailed alleged inappropriate behavior on the sets of several Nickelodeon shows in the ’90s and aughts. It features interviews with a few former child and teen actors who appeared on the programs.

Muniz is not one of them. The actor has, however, worked on Nickelodeon shows in the past—he voiced a character on the animated series The Fairly OddParents, and hosted the 2000 Kids’ Choice Awards and two episodes of All That.

[From ET Online]

It’s really refreshing to hear that Frankie had such a positive experience. I’d like to think that any set that Bryan Cranston is a major part of is going to be professional. But it also sounds like Frankie knows that he’s one of the lucky ones. He’s seen a lot in his life and knows that just because his experience as a child star was good, most kids did not have it the same as he did. That said, is anyone watching the Quiet on Set documentary series? I know that what was going on with those Nickelodeon sets has been talked about for years, but my goodness, what they went through was awful. I don’t blame Frankie for wanting to protect his son.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Frankie Muniz (@frankiemuniz4)

Embed from Getty Images

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Frankie Muniz (@frankiemuniz4)

Photos via Instagram and credit Getty

Gisele Bundchen says that she did not cheat on Tom Brady. She calls those rumors a “lie.” I believe her, I guess. [Socialite Life]
Will Ayo Edebiri & Paul Mescal make a rom-com together? [JustJared]
Ariana Madix’s post-split success – she just bought a house! [LaineyGossip]
Please go look at this hilarious-looking Russian kitty named Fedja. [OMG Blog]
NBC hired Ronna McDaniel and all hell broke loose. [Jezebel]
Review of Immaculate (the latest Sydney Sweeney movie). [Pajiba]
Turning-celebrities-into-Muppets is the only thing AI is good for. [Buzzfeed]
I actually didn’t know that Sean Combs has seven kids? [Hollywood Life]
Flavor Flav was thrilled to meet Bruce Springsteen. [Seriously OMG]
Trendspotting: menswear is going back to wide trousers. [RCFA]

I forgot that these cursed images exist! In 2007, Prince William and Prince Harry hosted the “Concert for Diana,” in which many different artists performed. These pics are from the after-party, where Harry and William both posed for photos with Sean Combs and Kanye West. We now have photo evidence that William and Harry BOTH associated with a Nazi (West) and a sexual abuser and human trafficker (Combs and Prince Andrew). Well, you would think that both princes would get prominent mentions in all of Sean Combs’ ongoing legal and criminal dramas, correct? No. You would be wrong. Prince Harry is the only prince most people know, even if it’s just a mention from the music producer suing Combs for harassment:

Prince Harry’s party days with Sean “Diddy” Combs could be coming back to haunt him after he was named in court documents filed against the rapper, who is facing a litany of shocking sexual assault allegations in a case being brought by one of his former producers Rodney Jones. While Harry is not accused of any wrongdoing, being named in the suit by Jones as a friend of Combs will be an unwelcome reminder for Harry of his former association with the rapper.

Jones says in the suit that Diddy’s co-defendants were rewarded “for participating in and facilitating Combs’ sex trafficking venture” by getting “affiliation and access to Mr Combs’ popularity.” Jones says: “Mr Combs was known for throwing the ‘best’ parties. Affiliation with, and or sponsorship of Mr Combs’ sex-trafficking parties garnered legitimacy and access to celebrities such as famous athletes, political figures, artists, musicians and international dignitaries like British royal, Prince Harry.”

While it can be argued it is deeply unfair for Harry to be singled out by name when he has not done anything wrong and others are not named, his naming in the suit exposes the particular need for members of the British royal family to be cautious about whom they associate with and under what conditions. In 2007, William and Harry posed for photos alongside Kanye West and Diddy after they played at the “Concert for Diana.” The four greeted each other warmly with Harry putting his arm over Diddy’s shoulder.

Harry, who complained in his book that he was often left to carry the can for both him and William, may well wonder how he, once again, is the one being dragged into controversy, not his brother. The answer may lie in a seemingly innocuous remark made by Diddy in 2012, when he said: “I really can’t wait to get to the U.K. as London is one of my favourite cities. I’m also hoping I’ll get to catch up with Prince Harry while I’m there. He’s such a cool guy and it’s about time we hung out. I need him to take me to some of those wild Mayfair clubs.”

[From The Daily Beast]

LMAO this is actually a reminder that people always wanted to party with Harry… and never William. Harry seems like a good time, William seems like the kind of wet blanket who gets too drunk and starts dad-dancing and groping whoever is closest (there’s photo evidence of all of that). Anyway, the British royal reporters are making a meal out of this mention of Harry, but again – Harry didn’t do anything but party with some celebrities in his 20s.

Update: The Sussexes work fast! In the Telegraph’s coverage, where they note that at no point in the lawsuit does anyone suggest that Harry knew of Combs’ behavior. The Telegraph also notes: “The Duke has only met Combs once, The Telegraph understands, and has never attended any of his parties or concerts.” Boom.

Prince Harry has been named in one of a number of civil lawsuits involving Sean “Diddy” Combs, the rapper facing accusations of sex trafficking and sexual abuse. But the Duke of Sussex is not accused of any wrongdoing. See page 63 para q of this New York case. pic.twitter.com/njyzqe3S5S

— Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) March 26, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Did you realize that Prince Edward and Sophie were in Scotland last week? I barely saw anything about it, but they were in Kincardineshire, Scotland last Friday, the same day the Princess of Wales announced her cancer and chemotherapy treatment. Which is probably why Edward and Sophie’s trip barely got any attention. While they are now the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, they go by the Earl and Countess of Forfar when in Scotland. Which is also weird! You would think their Edinburgh titles would be their Scottish titles. They visited the Bogenraith Equestrian Centre and touched some horses. Edward is reportedly uncomfortable with physical contact, but he was really putting his paws on those horses (and the horses seemed into it). Meanwhile, did you know that Edward is the monarchy’s new secret weapon?? Usually that designation is saved for his wife, but now Edward is getting some of that attention. He is truly the last prince standing! From this dumb Telegraph column about how Edward is a big manly man because he shoots deer.

A completely different picture is emerging of Prince Edward, who seems destined to be the Royal Family’s new “leading man” – albeit temporarily – thanks to both the King and Prince William curtailing their public duties. Although some eyebrows may have been raised over him abandoning his training as a Royal Marine and for embarrassing the Royal family through dabbling in show business, I heard from a man who had a different view entirely of the youngest of the late Queen’s four children.

“He was a really tough bloke,” said a former Balmoral gamekeeper, who took Edward deer stalking in the hills around his mother’s Highland home.

With King Charles suspending his list of public engagements while he is treated for cancer and now William, the Prince of Wales, expected to do the same at least until the middle of next month while his wife, too, receives treatment, Prince Edward may now become an even more central figure in the nation’s life. Edward will be the senior male involved in royal engagements, although his older sister Anne, the Princess Royal, is already heavily involved in supporting the monarchy through this incredibly difficult period. Edward, who recently celebrated his 60th birthday, was third in line to the throne when he was born after his elder brothers Charles and Andrew. He has now slipped to 14th.

One person who always thought highly of him was Sandy Masson, the former head stalker on the royal estate at Balmoral. To this hard as nails countryman, Edward was “the best of them all”. Nicknamed “Massacre Masson”, by Edward’s father, the late Duke of Edinburgh, because of the number of stags the stalker shot in the estate’s annual cull, Masson regularly took members of the Royal family stalking. He was in no doubt about which of them he respected most.

Of the three senior Royal princes – Charles, Andrew and Edward – Masson declared to anyone who’d listen in the Climbers’ Bar at the Glen Clova Hotel: “Edward was easily the toughest of all the princes. Nothing was too much for him.”

Asked how he explained the Prince’s decision to quit his Royal Marine training, which is renowned for its toughness and for the “beasting” endured by recruits, he replied: ‘That’s easy – he didn’t want to waste people’s time. He didn’t want to be a Marine. Simple as that.”

Masson, who died several years ago, introduced several generations of the Royal family to this sometimes controversial sport – earning some unflattering headlines years later when he “blooded” the then teenage Prince William after he’d shot his first stag.

I had met Masson several times when he had a cottage on the edge of the Balmoral estate and as is typical of gamekeepers and stalkers everywhere there was no ‘them and us’ in the relationship with the Royal family. To Masson, the man who’s now King Charles but was then Prince of Wales, was simply “Wales” but it was clear from these conversations over a dram that he had a special regard for Prince Edward.

[From The Telegraph]

This is where we are. Not just the endgame for the monarchy, but an endgame for British masculinity. Like, one of the few things I actually like about Edward is that he seemed arty and a bit sensitive – now they’re trying to butch up his image and pretend that he’s secretly been the “toughest” of all QEII’s sons. Notice I didn’t say “all of QEII’s children,” because everyone knows Anne is the toughest one. Anne is not arty or sensitive or squeamish or delicate. Anne would slice out a beating heart and squish it and then go to her next three events. But Edward? No. I don’t believe it. And I’m appalled that they’re applying these toxic-masculinity standards to poor Edward. Just let him do his artsy theater stuff, please.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

As we discussed, the Princess of Wales’s cancer-announcement video was apparently shot two days before it was released. Kensington Palace reportedly brought in a crew from BBC Studios – and not BBC News – to film Kate in Windsor last Wednesday, March 20. Around the same time that Kensington Palace stood silently by as everyone debated that Sun/TMZ video of “Kate and William” at the Windsor Farm Store. BBC Studios confirmed, on the record, that they “filmed a message from the Princess of Wales at Windsor this week,” but they left it to anonymous BBC insiders to refute the claim that the video had been edited or manipulated. The whole point of bringing in an outside crew to film the video should have been about the BBC lending their credibility to a palace awash with accusations of manipulated photos and videos. The fact that no one from the BBC will say on the record, as a named source, that the video had not been edited, manipulated or made use of any AI technology, is actually quite concerning. Speaking of:

Conspiracy theories and misinformation are leaving people unable to determine the truth, BBC Director-General Tim Davie will warn, following outlandish online speculation over the Princess of Wales. In a major speech setting out the corporation’s future, Mr Davie will argue that the BBC’s “impartial” news and verification techniques will play a vital role in challenging digital forces that threaten to undermine democracy itself.

“Misinformation is weakening our shared understanding of the world, undermining trust in our society and our democratic processes,” Mr Davie will tell the Royal Television Society on Tuesday. “It leaves many of us wondering who and what we can believe, and even questioning the concept of ‘truth’.”

The BBC will “pursue truth with no agenda, by reporting fearlessly and fairly”, Mr Davie promises.

Kensington Palace chose BBC Studios, the corporation’s commercial wing, to shoot the Princess of Wales’s video announcement that she is being treated for cancer, in part because the broadcaster’s involvement would prevent any wild speculation about its veracity.

The BBC has created a new ‘Verify’ unit designed to combat AI-created “fake video”, which assesses the authenticity of videos and images and explains to audiences how the BBC reaches its editorial decisions. However, BBC Verify itself contributed to the whirl of stories surrounding the Princess of Wales when the unit was tasked with investigating how Kate’s Mother’s Day photo might have been digitally altered.

[From i News]

“…In part because the broadcaster’s involvement would prevent any wild speculation about its veracity.” I get that – someone at Kensington Palace finally understood that they had created a HUGE credibility problem for themselves and Kate’s message would end up compounding the lack of credibility, given everything said and done by the palace for the previous two months. But still, the squirreliness around this BBC Studio-produced video is also leaving people with a lot of questions. The Times and the Guardian have both written stories about the TikTok conspiracies regarding the cancer announcement video, with most of the conspiracies centered around concerns that the whole thing is AI. Again, I don’t blame people for wondering – the palace has zero credibility and it’s starting to bug me that the BBC won’t officially confirm that there are no edits or manipulations with the video. As I mentioned yesterday, I believe that the video is authentic. Still, the palace and the BBC are choosing to dismiss questions about the video by calling them conspiracies instead of being upfront about any filters or editing that was used.

Screencaps courtesy of KP’s video.

In case you missed it, once the Princess of Wales’s cancer-announcement video dropped last Friday, Kensington Palace basically authorized yet another full-throttle hate campaign against the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. KP has been in the trenches for two months, trying desperately to change the subject or deflect from their clownery and mismanagement. This is their big inflection point: Kate is being treated for cancer, and oh by the way, William and Kate still “f–king hate” Harry and Meghan and here are all the reasons why. Of course Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast got yet another exclusive from KP’s perspective.

Friends of Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton have told The Daily Beast that they would not welcome the “drama” a visit by Prince Harry would entail, and said Kate and William are focused on protecting their privacy as she receives treatment for and recovers from cancer. The comments add to a sense that while Harry and Meghan Markle appear keen to paint themselves as eager to reconcile with the royals after over two years of very public attacks on them—indeed, Harry said before his furious attacks in Spare had even been published that he wanted his father and brother “back” as “a family, not an institution”—William and Kate remain uninterested in the prospect, both privately and publicly.

William and Kate have notably not responded to a series of semi-public overtures aimed at restoring fraternal relations initiated by Harry. They were devastated and enraged by Harry’s decisions to, as they saw it, sell intimate family secrets in his memoir, Spare. Friends of William, a famously obstinate man, have previously told The Daily Beast he “f–king hates” Harry and sees no chance of reconciliation.

The Sussexes were not informed of Kate’s diagnosis before the news was made public, which clearly shows that they are not considered part of Kate and William’s trusted circle. They issued a public statement wishing “health and healing for Kate and the family” after the news was made public, and ITV News Royal Editor Chris Ship subsequently reported they had “reached out privately” to Kate and William.

Kate’s office refused to make any comment on the claims, and did not respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast about whether William would agree to see Harry in May, when he is due to visit the U.K. to attend a church service commemorating the ten year anniversary of the Invictus Games. Friends of the couple were more forthcoming, with the answer being a hard no.

One friend of William and Kate’s said: “Catherine and William have been very clear they want peace and quiet for them and the kids. A visit from Harry, with all the drama that would bring, would be the opposite of that.”

Another friend said: “They have come to terms with the estrangement from Harry, and are content to let sleeping dogs lie.”

Asked if they had responded to the private messages from Harry and Meghan, which were also reported by the Telegraph, or if William wanted an apology from Harry for his attacks on him and his wife in his memoir Spare and his Netflix documentary, the second friend said: “They have bigger things to worry about.”

It is notable how resolute William and Kate’s camp are being when it comes to rejecting the notion of responding to overtures from Harry and Meghan. When Harry visited Charles after his cancer diagnosis and his camp suggested he would take a meeting with William if it was offered, William’s camp quickly said there were “no plans for them to meet.”

Royal commentator Duncan Larcombe, former royal editor at the Sun, told The Daily Beast: “Harry and Meghan have got some sense so they know it is important to be seen to be extending the olive branch, especially given that global sympathy is with Kate right now. But William and Kate don’t need long memories to recall that not too far back they were being subjected to very harmful allegations, to which, incidentally, it was impossible for them to come back and answer and have their say. So it’s not very surprising that Harry doesn’t really matter to them right now. A cancer diagnosis puts things in perspective.”

[From The Daily Beast]

“The Sussexes were not informed of Kate’s diagnosis before the news was made public, which clearly shows that they are not considered part of Kate and William’s trusted circle.” Many outlets keep repeating variations of this, like it’s a very big deal that the Sussexes weren’t informed about Kate’s medical situation in advance, but after watching KP’s activities this year, it’s not clear to me that Kensington Palace’s senior staff even had any idea about the cancer diagnosis, or anything about Kate’s situation for two months. It doesn’t even seem like Buckingham Palace knew anything until last week. The story is actually that KP was disorganized and everything was amateurish, not that the Sussexes were somehow being “snubbed” by not being told in advance.

Besides that, the coldness between the couples is from both sides – I doubt the Sussexes expected to be told about Kate’s issues, and they released a brief statement of support and got on with their lives. Will and Kate are the ones running around, screaming, crying and throwing up about how they’re too immature and racist to even speak to the Sussexes.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Let’s be real: the behavior of the Middletons added to the conspiracies and weirdness around the Princess of Wales for two months before Kate’s video announcement about her cancer. Even back when we were told that Kate had abdominal surgery and it was noncancerous, we didn’t see the Middletons visit Kate in the London Clinic, nor were there any sightings of William or Kate in Bucklebury. Even weirder was the fact that Carole’s Bucklebury HQ went radio silent – there were zero briefings about how of course Carole, Pippa and James were all rallying around Kate. Instead, Pippa went to St. Bart’s and paraded around in a different bikini every day for like two weeks. James Middleton went on a ski holiday and then announced his memoir around the same time Kate was being diagnosed with cancer and starting chemotherapy. Well, now that everyone is on the same page with Kate’s announcement, only now are we getting those “the Middletons are rallying around Will & Kate” stories. Where were these stories two months ago??

“Over the years, we have climbed many mountains together. As a family, we will climb this one with you too,” James Middleton wrote in the hours after his sister, the Princess of Wales, made the announcement about her diagnosis. It was an expression of quite how close the Middletons are. The family has banded together to support Kate as she undergoes a course of preventive chemotherapy after cancer was found following abdominal surgery.

The family live very close to each other, with Kate’s parents Carole and Michael Middleton in Bucklebury, a 40-minute drive from the Waleses in Windsor, while Pippa, her husband James Matthews and their three children live close by in Berkshire. It was to the Bucklebury manor house that Kate went after giving birth to George, now ten, in 2013 and her parents regularly have the children to stay.

Since Kate, 42, had surgery in January, the Middletons have been supporting her, William and their three children. Carole, who has always been a hands-on grandmother, has stepped up her help looking after George, Charlotte, eight, and Louis, five. This month some media outlets published a photograph of Carole and Kate taken near Windsor returning from the school run, with Carole driving.

Her siblings, James and Pippa, will also be offering emotional support. Pippa and Kate are so close that they shared a flat in Chelsea before she joined the royal family.

The Middleton family will be supporting William, too, as he tries to take the burden off his wife. Before he and Kate married, the Middleton family had long given William normality, a refuge from the pressures of being second in line to the throne, in a loving world imbued with middle England values. A happy family, with the marriage of Carole and Michael at its heart, it was a home that could provide the stability and warmth he craved after the death of his mother.

They welcomed William into their close-knit family. When Kate and William briefly broke up, Carole reportedly encouraged her daughter to resist showing him how hurt she was and to put on a brave face. After their wedding, William would see the Middletons more often than his own father and he even sometimes calls Michael “Dad”.

Even though invitations to the King’s coronation were strictly policed, William ensured that the whole Middleton clan was there. And the Middletons have been equally welcoming to James’s wife, who wore Carole’s dress from her 1980 wedding to Michael when she married James in September 2021.

[From The Times]

Again, two months too late! One of my little side-theories is that one of the palace’s biggest lies was about the “planned” part of Kate’s January surgery. Whatever happened in that time frame, it was sudden and it caught everyone off-guard, even the Middletons. That would also explain why Kensington Palace was making all of these plans for Kate and William to travel and do a tour in Italy in December and early January – something happened suddenly. Now, I’ll also believe that Pippa and James’s separate vacations happened before they knew their sister has cancer. As for Carole… we haven’t seen the whole picture yet. We will in time.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Just one week ago, social media was all abuzz that Buckingham Palace was about to make some big, terrible announcement, that the BBC had been called in to break the news about something. Then Russian media began amplifying claims that King Charles had died on St. Patrick’s Day. Buckingham Palace was able to shut down the rumor mill within 24 hours – Charles made sure he was photographed a few times and the palace issued some simple statements. The whole thing had the feel of a psyop, but it also felt like it was yet another example of the Windsors inability to control the messaging around Charles and the Princess of Wales’s health. Well, now that Princess Kate has informed everyone about her cancer and chemotherapy, it looks like that has just fueled even more misinformation and disinformation. This, according to the British government:

China, Russia and Iran are fuelling disinformation about the Princess of Wales to destabilise the nation, Whitehall sources believe. Senior Government figures fear that hostile states are behind the spread of wild conspiracy theories and online rumours surrounding the Princess’s health.

After the Princess announced her cancer diagnosis on Friday evening, Rishi Sunak led the condemnation of social media trolls for targeting her online in recent weeks. But his intervention did not deter further frenzied commentary, with a disinformation chief saying on Sunday that the Princess had been “revictimised” by trolls criticising her for not publicly revealing her diagnosis sooner.

On Sunday, it emerged that there was growing concern in Whitehall that hostile state actors could be involved in whipping up the frenzied social media attacks on the Princess. A government source told The Telegraph: “Part of the modus operandi of hostile states is to destabilise things – whether that is undermining the legitimacy of our elections or other institutions.”

It comes as Downing Street is preparing to announce fresh sanctions on China as soon as Monday, after a wave of state-backed cyber attacks against a group of senior MPs and peers.

[From The Telegraph]

Multiple things can be true and are true all at once – Russia and China are absolutely behind disinformation campaigns to destabilize Western institutions, and it would not surprise me in the least if the “Charles is dead” situation one week ago was some kind of dry run for a larger Russian disruption this year. There are absolutely foreign governments and anarchistic forces at play here. But I think all of the “misinformation” is being conflated as the work of dark and sinister forces, when some of it is a matter of FAFO. From what I can see, Kensington Palace has their own bot farm too, a bot farm which they use to amplify their message and attack their enemies. Something else happened over the weekend too, which sidles up alongside this conversation: QAnon-types are now questioning everything about the Windsors as a “Deep State crisis actors” and on and on. It feels like some of that (conspiracist nutjobs in the West) is being conflated with “this too is a Russian psyop.” But what do I know.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, screencaps courtesy of Kensington Palace.

Olivia Colman was a steadily working actress before her Oscar win for The Favourite, but man has she been making hay of that win in the years since! And the world is a better place for it! Since Olivia won Best Actress in 2019 she has turned in award winning and/or nominated performances in The Crown, The Father, The Lost Daughter, Landscapers, and Empire of Light, to name but a few. She’s also been producing with her husband, Ed Sinclair, and one of their coproductions comes out in limited release this week. To promote Wicked Little Letters, a quirky British comedy based on a true story, Olivia appeared on The Amanpour Hour where she did not mince words with host Christiane Amanpour on the pay disparity she experiences even as an Oscar winner. As Olivia put it: “If I was Oliver Colman, I’d be earning a f— of a lot more than I am.” Preach, Oliver!

Olivia Colman is getting candid about the gender pay gap in Hollywood, which even an Oscar winner like her cannot avoid.

Ahead of her latest film, Wicked Little Letters, the actress and producer opened up about the wage disparity that persists throughout the industry during a recent appearance on CNN’s The Amanpour Hour.

“Don’t get me started on the pay disparity, but male actors get paid more because they used to say they drew in the audiences,” The Crown star said. “And actually, that hasn’t been true for decades, but they still like to use that as a reason to not pay women as much as their male counterparts.”

Host Christiane Amanpour then asked Colman if she has experienced pay disparity firsthand, given her status as an acclaimed actress with an Oscar, two Emmys, and four BAFTAs as well as high-profile projects like Wonka, The Favourite, Broadchurch, The Crown, Fleabag, and Heartstopper under her belt. She told Amanpour those accolades do not make her an exception.

“I’m very aware that if I was Oliver Colman, I’d be earning a f— of a lot more than I am,” she replied. “I know of one pay disparity, which is a 12,000 percent difference. Do the maths, I know.”

Colman is the latest Hollywood star to call out gender inequality in wages. Other outspoken advocates include Debra Wilson, who left MADtv in 2003 after discovering a pay disparity between her and the show’s white male cast members, and Jennifer Lawrence who penned an essay on the subject in 2015. Back in 2018, Michelle Williams made headlines after revealing that her costar Mark Wahlberg earned $1.5 million for reshoots of All the Money in the World, while she received less than $1,000.

In December, while promoting The Color Purple, Taraji P. Henson opened up about racial pay disparities when she appeared on Gayle King’s Sirius XM radio show, expressing her frustration and admitting it had made her want to quit acting.

“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost,” Henson said. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired. I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ I have to. The math ain’t mathing.”

[From Entertainment Weekly]

Darn right the math ain’t mathing! This makes me all the more pleased that Olivia was paid for her role in Barbie even though it got cut. Whether it was intentional or not, her comments are even more timely considering we recently passed Equal Pay Day on March 12 — the date women have to work to match what men earned in the year before. Sometimes it’s really hard to believe this is the 21st century. Like Olivia says, whatever old, tired “explanations” are trotted out, there is simply no excuse for gender pay gaps of any kind to still exist, let alone egregious ones. There are allies in the fight — like the late great Chadwick Boseman — but salary negotiations shouldn’t have to fall to costars. So until the gap is closed, I fully support Olivia conducting all business as Oliver Colman in order to bank the pay she deserves. Hey, if accountants can mix up a payment between Tom Holland and Tom Hollander, it’s worth a shot.

Photos credit: Cat Morley/Avalon, James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon, Dave Allocca/Starpix/INSTARimages, Abaca Press/INSTARimages