The 2024 Oscars had the highest ratings in four years! I hope that means the Oscars will start at 7 pm from now on. [JustJared]
Da’Vine Joy Randolph looked amazing at the VF Oscar party! [RCFA]
Thoughts on the five-presenter format for the Oscar acting categories… I like the format, but clearly, it’s awkward for the winners. [LaineyGossip]
Speaker Mike Johnson won’t protect IVF. [Jezebel]
I was sort of fine with Al Pacino’s weird Best Picture announcement. [Pajiba]
American ingredients which are difficult to find overseas. [Buzzfeed]
Who was the best-dressed at the Oscars? [Socialite Life]
More photos from the VF Oscar party. [Hollywood Life]
Lenny Kravitz & Rita Moreno: hot new couple? [Seriously OMG]
The children are doing competitive runway! [OMG Blog]

Like many of you, I too was disappointed that President Biden didn’t address the decline in American gum chewing during his State of the Union speech. For a minute I thought he actually might go there, once he started talking about half-filled snack bags and even name dropped Snickers. But no mention of gum. And so it falls to us to start this conversation on the pressing issue tearing our economy apart. The pandemic killed gum chewing, y’all! Who cares about bad breath when you’re social distancing and wearing masks?! And even though we’re (mainly) not doing that anymore, gum sales have not recovered. AP News spoke to gum industry insiders for insight on this developing crisis:

Bubbles bursting: The number of packages of gum sold dropped by nearly a third in the United States in 2020, according to Circana, a market research firm. Consumer demand has picked up only slightly since then. Last year, U.S. chewing gum sales rose less than 1% to 1.2 billion units, which was still 32% fewer than in 2018. Although sales in dollars are back to pre-pandemic levels, that’s mostly due to inflation; the average pack of gum cost $2.71 last year, $1.01 more than it did in 2018, Circana said.

Chewing gum relieves stress? Mars Inc., which owns the 133-year-old Wrigley brand, thinks it may have an answer: repositioning gum as an instant stress reliever rather than an occasional breath freshener. In January, the company launched a global ad campaign promoting its top-selling Orbit, Extra, Freedent and Yida brands as tools for mental well-being.

The ‘Aha!’ moment: Alyona Fedorchenko, vice president for global gum and mints in Mars’ snacking division, said the idea stuck in the summer of 2020, when the company was frantically researching ways to revive sales. Fedorchechenko remembered talking to a nurse in a hospital COVID-19 ward who chewed gum to calm herself even though she always wore a mask. The nurse’s habit meshed with studies by Mars that showed half of chewers reached for gum to relieve stress or boost concentration. “That, for us, was the big ‘Aha!’” Fedorchenko said. “We’ve had a century of legacy of fresh breath, and that is still very important. Don’t get me wrong. But there is so much more this category can be.” Emphasizing wellness is part of a multi-year effort to attract 10 million new U.S. chewers by 2030, she said.

Chewing leads to swallowing leads to bloating: But not everyone finds gum enhances well-being. Kylie Faildo, a pelvic floor physical therapist in Denver, thinks artificial sweeteners and swallowing air while chewing made her bloating symptoms worse. She gave up gum two years ago and doesn’t plan to go back, even though she misses the ease of popping a piece into her mouth before meeting a client. “I use mouthwash a lot more now,” Faildo said.

Time for innovation! Caron Proschan, the founder and CEO of the natural gum brand Simply, said she thinks U.S. gum sales slowed due to a shortage of innovation. Young customers have little disposable income and many distractions, she said, so gum needs to be compelling. Simply — which makes gum from a type of tree sap called chicle instead of synthetic ingredients — has seen its sales double every year since 2021 without raising prices, Proschan said. “Consumers today care about ingredients. They care about quality. The chewing gum category was not evolving to meet the needs of this consumer,” she said.

[From AP News]

First of all, I hope Ms. Fedorchenko of Mars Inc. has business cards printed with her title of Vice President for Global Gum and Mints, Snacking Division. It’s such a fun title! But how do we feel about gum as a stress reliever? I get it, but personally I’ve always found that gum chewing just becomes nervous energy of a different kind. I’ll enjoy the initial burst of flavor (peppermint or spearmint, for me) and then will be chain-chewing to keep getting a fresh hit, and to keep the physical activity going. Basically, the tension just relocates to my jaw. And of all the things to spend money on, it’s hard to get jazzed about buying gum. Instead I took that money and purchased NUMBER REDACTED boxes of thin mint cookies from girl scouts selling their wares out in the rain, thankyouverymuch.

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On Sunday night, as the Oscars were happening, royalists were slowly melting down and tweeting through it as major news agencies killed the “manipulated” Mother’s Day photo from Kensington Palace. It was incredible to watch in real time as even true-blue sycophants clutched their pearls and dared to question the lies they were getting from KP. And now, Richard Kay at the Mail has entered the chat. Kay is a royalist and, even more than that, he’s now closely aligned with KP and Prince William specifically. Kay gets a call when William needs to do clean up on one of his messes (famously, the Rose Hanbury affair story). So it’s interesting to watch Kay really question everything about the series of boneheaded moves from William and his staff right now. Some highlights from Kay’s latest Daily Mail column:

Kay does not believe the palace’s lies: As recriminations flew over the photograph, which cast a deep shadow over the Commonwealth Day service of celebration at Westminster Abbey, royal insiders were privately insisting that there had been no professional manipulation but merely a little tidying up of a picture which captured a private moment. But that explanation simply won’t do. This was no snapshot destined for a family photo album but an image that was going to be shared with the world in a bid to crush the speculation about Kate’s health once and for all. How foolish such expectations look now.

No one believes Kate’s apology either: Palace minders must have hoped that Kate’s mea culpa would head off this dangerous and unforeseen crisis. But far from ‘killing’ the story, her statement breathed new life into it. It quoted her blandly saying that ‘like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing’. She also apologised for ‘any confusion the family photograph caused’. And that was all. There was no explanation as to why she wanted to alter the picture or what it was she hoped to modify. What was the touching up all about?

The rumormill: A widely seen TikTok video suggested that the picture was taken last November and the clothing of the children and the Princess were changed by ‘Photoshop’ manipulation. Perhaps the biggest mystery of all is the most obvious one — the absence of Kate’s wedding and engagement rings. This must surely have raised alarm bells with the Kensington Palace communications team, which was responsible for distributing the image. The Princess’s sapphire engagement ring was Princess Diana’s and is probably the most famous piece of jewellery in the world. The fact that it wasn’t there was bound to arouse curiosity.

Why is KP making Kate take the fall for everything? Kate’s apology is obviously heartfelt but her explanation is partial. It does seem unfair that the woman whose health and welfare has been at the centre of this baffling episode should be the one saying sorry. It is entirely fitting to ask why the couple’s well-paid communications staff didn’t flag up the discrepancies in the picture before its release. But, then again, perhaps they did. By offering her apology, the Princess appears to be taking full responsibility which, for someone still convalescing from major surgery, does seem grossly unfair.

The Waleses’ biggest flaw: William and Kate are bright, personable and intelligent. They are down to earth and unshowy — the very qualities that have made them the biggest draw of our Royal Family. But it is this desire for ordinariness which conceals one significant flaw: a near obsessive need for secrecy. Neither the reason for Kate’s surgery nor the nature of her complaint has been disclosed. Perhaps in years gone by — before social media — such a position could be sustained, but these days it is virtually impossible.

The Waleses are insular & cut off: The couple have erected a towering wall around their family life which rightly screens them from prying eyes. But at a cost: it has contributed to a sense that they can be insular and rather remote. Similarly, their decision to relocate from London to the middle of Windsor Great Park, while terrific for George, Charlotte and Louis’s schooling, has added to the idea that they are slightly cut off. Never was this more apparent than in William’s decision not to attend ex-King Constantine’s memorial service last month. No explanation has ever been offered, but in an institution like the Royal Family, where presentation is fundamental, it looks like an error. An error compounded by the fiasco over the photograph.

No one believes Will & Kate anymore: Some will dismiss media criticism about the manipulated photograph as a storm in a teacup. But there are precious commodities at stake here: trust and integrity. If pictures can be digitally altered, what else can be twisted? The British public adore the Royal Family but that adoration rests on them being told the truth.

[From The Daily Mail]

Kay also went off on a tangent, explaining that Will and Kate are so secretive because the Sussexes will “weaponize” anything and everything against the Waleses… which is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard, and I’m embarrassed for Kay that he even halfheartedly attempted that. William and Kate are secretive because they have secrets and because they’re arrogant and ignorant and they don’t want to “serve” in any way. They do not understand public service or the idea that they should be subject to regular accountability, nor do they feel like they need to disclose anything about their lives, their living arrangements, their health or their marriage. Kay knows all of this. And he’s very publicly telling them to get their house in order.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Sunday, March 10 was Prince Edward’s 60th birthday. He was out in Leeds two days prior, with his wife Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh. They attended the Community Sport and Recreation Awards 2024 at Headingley Stadium, and Edward was presented with a birthday cake (which delighted him). Edward has been doing more youth-oriented events recently, probably because of his inherited patronage of the DofE Awards.

Edward is the youngest of QEII and Prince Philip’s children, so he’s leaning hard into the “spring chicken” vibe for the working royals, especially with Prince William and Kate largely MIA this year. That was the (soft) focus of several birthday-keenery pieces in various media outlets. The Daily Beast’s Royalist column claimed that Edward “might finally be about to get his big break,” and sources insist that Edward “has dedicated much of his life to public service and charitable work. He has always been very clear about his role which is to support the monarchy. Previously that meant doing what his mother asked, now it means doing what his brother asks. He has always been loyal and Charles likes him enormously and is very grateful to him.” Sources also say that there’s little tension between Charles and Edward because Edward isn’t a showboat, nor does he seek the limelight and “He is content to be a thread in the tapestry.” Edward also made some on-the-record comments to Becky English at the Mail:

Edward on his support system: ‘Well, you need a really good supportive network in this and family is incredibly important. I am just very, very lucky that Sophie is a brilliant, brilliant person in her own right,’ he tells me, smiling from ear to ear. It’s worth noting that he is the only one of the late Queen’s children never to have divorced.

Edward travels by foot when he can: Although the prince drives during our day together, he is one of the few royals who often travels by foot – and even the Tube – to work. A friend who has holidayed with the Edinburghs tells me the couple happily go down to the local Co-op to get supplies.

His favorite hobbies: Edward’s favourite pastime is walking alone in the countryside with his beloved spaniel, Mole.But he is also, I am also told, a ‘demon’ BBQ-er, and can often be found outside in the dark at parties wearing a head torch and creating ‘truly amazing’ culinary delights – a talent inherited from his late father.

On his weight loss: I remark to another friend that the duke has lost a notable amount of weight, and wonder if he has embraced a new fitness regime as he approaches his 60s. ‘I hate to bore you, but he’s just remarkably disciplined. He is not a big eater or drinker and certainly not a smoker. He just isn’t a pudding man,’ they say.

Edward on the king’s health: When we meet, I ask Edward about his brother the King’s health. He smiles wanly, understandably emotional given how raw the news is. ‘We were all hugely grateful for the extraordinary support from everyone. I know he has been very touched by it all. He’s doing well, we are keeping our fingers crossed that it all goes very well,’ he says.

[From The Daily Mail]

Some people naturally thin out as they get older and some people put on weight as they get older. It does seem strange that rather suddenly, over the course of about two years in his late 50s, Edward suddenly lost a noticeable amount of weight. “He’s just remarkably disciplined. He is not a big eater or drinker and certainly not a smoker. He just isn’t a pudding man.” Like, I’ll buy that – he’s disciplined about fitness and diet, etc. But most people don’t suddenly drop that kind of weight if they’ve always been “disciplined.” Something has changed and maybe it’s just something as simple as “no snacking, no more cocktails,” but it seems bizarrely squirrelly to refuse to just say that.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

When Kensington Palace has lost the Daily Mail, they really have nothing left. The Mail represents Prince William and Kate’s power base: older, conservative, reactionary, anti-woke, anti-immigrant, racist. If those people are not on Will and Kate’s side, no one is. So I’ve been watching the Mail’s coverage of the Mother’s Day photo scandal and it is fascinating. They’re calling out the Waleses pretty thoroughly and in some interesting ways. Several of the Mail’s columnists have suggested or said outright that Kate’s “apology” for the photo-editing is bullsh-t and it’s just the palace throwing Kate under the bus for their cockup. Several of those columnists are basically begging the Kensington Palace clownshow to tighten their operations because they all look like complete fools. One of my favorite pieces was the Mail’s Liz Jones basically having a come-to-Jesus revelation that everything around Will and Kate is a lie. Some highlights:

Liz Jones saw the problems with the Mother’s Day photo immediately: “I rushed home to study the photo of Kate and her children, released to show the world that she is doing well and on the mend. But then…Hmm. I went outside to stare at trees. Blossom, yes, but no leaves. Another look at the snap. Her expression was a bit off. A bit too bland and a bit too happy. I would have expected, after a couple of months off and reams of speculation, a half-smile, something slightly wry. And why was Louis in a Christmas jumper? Didn’t the floor seem rather shabby?”

WTF was William thinking? “Ordinary people, worried and wondering why, if the photo has indeed been doctored, William couldn’t just take a bloody normal family snap on his phone and post it! We all do it, many times a day. We didn’t want or expect a perfectly posed shot, just a little something to stop us worrying. And we had been worrying ever since that woman was papped in a car, driven by Kate’s mother, last week? I for one got no sleep at all.”

It’s like watching Bambi learn to walk: “Given what is possible with AI and digital trickery today, isn’t it even more important for the Royal Family and its minions to be authentic and transparent in all their dealings with the public and Press, given we all pay for their palaces and their privacy? It is such a blunder, so catastrophic for our faith in the monarchy and I believe that, yet again, Kate has been badly let down by the Palace media operation and advisers.”

The lack of statements from KP about Kate’s health: “No updates beyond the bland and meaningless, allowing the distasteful speculation about her health and the state of her marriage to proliferate on social media and in the foreign press – New York Times and American Vogue – to ponder. Why could they not have simply released a photo for Mother’s Day of Kate from the Coronation, say, with a small note from her? That would have been fine. We don’t expect her to put on make-up during her hiatus.

Was it all a lie?? “Now we are thinking: did she even write the message that accompanied the controversial snap? And more. Why were there as many as 16 anomalies on the photo? Was the photo an old Christmas one, simply repurposed? The children certainly look as hysterical and excited as they would have done on Christmas Day. Why wasn’t an accredited photographer with decades of professional standing sent in to do the shot? Was she too ill for that? The Palace clearly can no longer be trusted, given what transpired on Monday morning when, finally, an official tweet from Kensington Palace arrived.

Kate’s statement: ‘Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I want to express my apologies for any confusion…’ It is signed with a ‘C’. What??!! But Kate is not an ‘amateur’, she is an experienced photographer (She is, after all, patron of the Royal Photographic Society). And it was William who took it! She is a perfectionist and would never do a bad job with anything! Now, I don’t want to accuse KP of lying. But I think the Palace, not the Princess, treats the general public with disdain. The Palace thinks we are all stupid, and will never question anything the Waleses say.

Kate would never bungle this so badly: “I am certain that Kate, as a young, media savvy, empathetic person, who never puts a foot wrong, is never caught with the wrong expression, or wearing something that doesn’t quite fit or is creased, would not make a mistake like this. I believe she had no hand in this photo, or any mistakes made after. What we do know is that this debacle is fuelling even more speculation – even that she is refusing to co-operate with the Palace. Whatever is going on, I can only imagine Kate’s distress, her shock, her anger. And whoever is responsible needs to be sacked. Today.

[From The Daily Mail]

Such a rich tapestry of shenanigans, and I cannot believe I’m saying this, but Liz Jones is making some points! I also believe that Kate’s apology and signature were forged. I also believe that Kate was not the one creating a Frankenstein image composite. I also believe that William and his staff think that the public is too stupid to see what they’re doing. We’ll see if the Mail keeps this kind of energy for long, but it does feel like something has been irrevocably broken here.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Kensington Palace.

Here are more photos of Prince William attending the Commonwealth service on Monday, after which he attended an Earthshot event. Surprisingly, William didn’t look overwhelmed or like he had been in a blind panic for the previous 24 hours. Probably because he had settled on a course of action after he f–ked up so thoroughly with the “Mother’s Day photo” debacle. His solution? Blame everything on his wife, blame Kate for editing the photo and send out courtiers to provide a false narrative about what happened behind the scenes to create an intricate web of lies which could easily collapse under close scrutiny. Behold, the Times of London’s palace-approved narrative of how KATE screwed up so badly.

The image was the first time the princess had been formally photographed since her surgery in January. However, PA, Getty Images, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Shutterstock, Reuters and the Press Association “killed” the image from their databases, noting an “inconsistency in alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand”.

Yet none were spotted by aides before its release and information regarding the editing process was not believed to have been shared by the princess with her team before it became public. It had initially been greeted with praise by courtiers.

The first red flag might have been that the seemingly perfect image was shot in just a 40-minute window on Friday in Windsor, a source said. Time constraints meant that the picture had to happen once the children were back from school and once Prince William was back from London, where he had been attending an Earthshot event at the Oval cricket ground. There was only a limited amount of time because the family was also due to fly off to their home of Anmer Hall in Sandringham for the weekend.

The following day, Kate circulated the image to her team. At no point did anyone realise that it had been subject to an unfortunately clumsy attempt at editing. Looking back, alarm bells might also have started ringing when courtiers realised that it was William, not necessarily known for his camera skills, who had taken the picture. The time frame in which the image was taken would also suggest that, without editing, the Waleses had been extremely lucky for an amateur like William to capture such an engaging picture.

A PR plan was put into place for the image and its corresponding message to go out at 9am on Sunday morning. Within hours, theories were circulating online that the photo had been doctored. A shocked Palace assessed the situation and went back to the Prince and Princess of Wales. Kate confirmed that it was her and is understood to have thought that “honesty is the best policy”. She wanted to “own up” and acknowledge the mistake.

A Palace insider said that she felt “awful” about it and said that she had just “tried to make it the best it could be” because she knew how important it was for it to be “a nice picture”. They added that she was also thinking of her own children, hoping that they looked good for their own sakes. The princess released a new statement, apologising for “any confusion” over the picture. Kensington Palace refused to go further and explain what software was used in the editing of the picture or the way in which it was changed.

However, Sky News said a technician at the broadcaster had analysed the photo’s metadata to reveal that it was saved in Adobe Photoshop twice on an Apple Mac on Friday and Saturday and the picture was taken on a Canon 5D mark IV, which retails at £2,929.99 and used a Canon 50mm lens, priced at £1,629.99. The first save was made at 9.54pm on Friday and the second was at 9.39am on Saturday. It is not clear if the two saves were on the same device. Quite how it could have ended up to be such a PR disaster for the princess can, in part, be explained by the changes under way in the Wales household.

William and Kate’s Palace team is in a state of transition after restructuring. It has advertised for a chief executive but is yet to announce a successful candidate. The widely respected Jean-Christophe Gray, a civil servant and former spokesperson for David Cameron while he was prime minister, was private secretary to Prince William until he recently transferred back to government.

Instead, both William and Kate have new private secretaries, both well respected but new to their roles. Ian Patrick joined the household for the Prince of Wales last month as Gray’s successor. A former private secretary to Lord Ashdown, Patrick has an exemplary track record and sits on the board of trustees for the charity Chron’s & Colitis UK. Kate, meanwhile, has hired Lieutenant Colonel Tom White, filling a role which had been vacant for at least a year following the departure of Hannah Cockburn-Logie.

[From The Times]

As you can see, the new-to-the-job palace officials are thoroughly briefing the Times about Kate’s screwup and putting it all on her shoulders, but the Times can’t even keep up the facade of pretending to believe that no one in the palace “saw” the mistakes, or that everyone really believed the photo had been taken on Friday, or that the photo was taken by William. Lie on top of lie on top of lie. You’ve got to wonder how Kate feels about being thrown under the bus this way. Man, that actually does make me feel sorry for her – for more than a decade, the palace machinery has done the most to protect and coddle Kate, and now… they’re not.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, KP.

The color scheme for this year’s Vanity Fair Oscar party backdrop was so weird and dated this year – basically a mustard-orange and a muted red. Basically, people who wore white really “popped,” and everyone else kind of clashed. Speaking of, Kim Kardashian wore a surprisingly great Balenciaga gown to this year’s VF Oscar party. I love the neckline, don’t hate me. Her styling is good as well – a sort of brunette Veronica Lake, with decent makeup.

Kylie Jenner wore Ludovic de Saint Sernin. Call me crazy, but I like this? She looks good. Don’t get me wrong, she looks like she’s already had more plastic surgery than Kim. But she looks okay.

Kendall Jenner wore Maison Margiela Haute Couture. I like this? It’s flattering and it looks like a typical Oscar party dress.

And the matriarch of this wretched clan, Kris Jenner.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Jennifer Lawrence turned up to the VF Oscar party in this vintage (1996) Givenchy Haute Couture dress. Thoughts? I hate it and I can’t believe this is a vintage piece from the ‘90s. You know what it reminds me of? The fact that Jane Austen adaptations were all the rage at the time and several designers pulled inspo from that kind of Austen-esque costume design. J-Law is only 33 years old and whatever she’s doing to her face has her looking ten years older, I swear to god.

Sydney Sweeney in vintage Marc Bouwer. Recognize this? Angelina Jolie wore this to the Oscars in 2004. It’s literally the same dress too – Sydney’s stylist arranged to get it out of archival storage and had to agree not to alter the dress whatsoever. I love that Sydney and her stylist stan La Jolie.

Margot Robbie in vintage Mugler. I’m not into this, nor do I think it looks like a fun party ensemble, but I hope she knocked back a few stiff drinks and partied.

Sandra Huller in Schiaparelli. Bonkers and very fun. She surprised me with some of her fashion choices throughout the season. She’s a bit offbeat.

Greta Lee in Loewe. This is fine? A pretty party dress, nothing more.

Embed from Getty Images

Diane Kruger in Givenchy. What does this remind you of? To me, it’s giving Weimar Republic, it’s giving Cabaret. Hilariously bad and costume-y.

Kylie Minogue, on a sort of victory lap after getting back to #1 on the charts with “Padam Padam” last year. Her dress isn’t good but it’s colorful and fun.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Getty, Cover Images.

I don’t have one coherent theory for exactly what happened with the The Mother’s Day Photo Catastrophe of 2024. I’ve watched some of the TikToks and seen a lot of the tweets, and my best guess is that originally, this was a months-old photo which was recently and poorly edited, and they plopped an even older pic of “Kate’s head” onto the months-old photo to create some kind of Frankenstein’s monster of a Mother’s Day portrait. Then Kensington Palace arrogantly decided that everything looked great and people were too stupid to figure out what was done, and that’s when everything went sideways. One of the most egregious lies, in my opinion, is the insistence that William took the photo last week. Like, KP is still sticking with that as their official story, which is bonkers. In the past 48 hours, photo experts and professional analysts have come out of the woodwork to figure out what the hell happened here. Many of them have settled on the “Kate’s head was plopped onto this photo” theory too.

The digital fingerprint of the Princess of Wales’s family photograph suggests that she merged multiple images using Photoshop. Analysis of data embedded in the image indicates that a copy and paste function was used, most likely in the section featuring her face. The method appears to be confirmed by the clear horizontal line stretching across the Princess’s chest, albeit not exactly in line.

The “metadata” suggests that the photograph was taken on Friday at Adelaide Cottage, the family’s Windsor home. The first edit was made at 9.54pm that evening, with the second at 9.39am on Saturday morning. Data show that the image was saved in photo editing software Adobe Photoshop twice on an Apple Mac.

The photograph was taken on a Canon 5D mark IV, which retails at £2,929, using a Canon 50mm lens, which is priced at £1,629. The Prince of Wales took the photograph.

[From The Telegraph]

Yeah, the “merging multiple photos” or Frankenstein Photo Theory is a popular one and I think it makes sense. It would also explain Kensington Palace’s refusal to release “the original” photo, because their web of lies would unravel quickly, especially if this was based on a photo taken last November(and not by William). CNN got an MIT professor on the case and this guy says it was a Frankenstein image.

There are three types of photo manipulation, according to Ramesh Raskar, an associate professor at MIT Media Lab who’s worked on special photography and images projects for Apple and Facebook over the years: appearance, where the tones or lighting may change; geometric, which involves moving around subjects or objects; and generative AI, a more recent concept that allows users to write text prompts that generate completely new images. He said Kate’s picture appeared to have both appearance and geometric changes, and was likely not AI-generated.

“The manipulation in this image is very unique,” he said, noting changes that impacted the placement of her children’s clothing. “It’s unlikely that it was ever one single image. A photo editing app probably introduced these errors.”

He said he believes the “subtle” edits were done very finely, potentially with a third-party app or editing software such as Photoshop, versus using built-in smartphone tools. He noted that similar errors can occur if a user starts splicing and merging different images together. “It all comes from real pieces of photos, but it’s more like a collage.”

But even Photoshop is becoming less complex to use with the introduction of generative-AI tools being added directly to the software. Although Kate’s errors are apparent, Raskar said it will soon become harder to identify the authenticity of images. Image tools with generative AI will allow so much more than photo manipulation because people will be able to create images from completely new scenarios.

[From CNN]

All of which to say, this really is a f–k up on a global scale. Multiple global news outlets “killing” a palace-issued Frankenstein photo, an international audience analyzing how badly palace employees are at photo-editing, and worse yet, Prince William and his staff are too f–king stupid, incompetent and arrogant to crisis-manage in a real way. They really believed their domestic and international audience would eat this up and no one would question it. Now their credibility is gone. At some point this week, I might create a list of all of the things William has lied about just in the past two years, because it’s A LOT.

Cover courtesy of British Vogue, photos courtesy of Kensington Palace.

Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue was definitely not tight, but it wasn’t a complete catastrophe either. For the sake of the show and pacing, I appreciated that he mostly stood out of the way the rest of the evening. Yes he and John Cena had an extended bit before Best Costumes, but they both committed so fully that it was a slam dunk. I thought Kimmel’s very best moment of the night, however, was at the end. He came out just before Best Picture, with the show actually running on time (please keep the earlier start time, Academy!) to read a negative review of his hosting performance. It quickly became clear who had penned the scathing remarks. Trump ranted in his typical meandering fashion, and Kimmel clapped back in six succinct words:

Oscars host and late night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel on Sunday called out former President Donald Trump on stage after Trump insulted Kimmel and his hosting on social media.

“I was told we have like an extra minute, and I’m really proud of something and I was wondering if I could share it with you. I just got a review,” Kimmel said in the second half of the telecast, before pulling out his phone to read Trump’s Truth Social post out loud — while barely mentioning the former president and presumptive Republican nominee by name.

The post from Trump — which Kimmel read aloud — says, “Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at The Oscars. His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be. Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another washed up, but cheap, ABC “talent,” George Slopanopoulos. He would make everybody on stage look bigger, stronger, and more glamorous.”

“Blah, blah, blah, make America great again,” Kimmel continued. “Ok now, see if you can guess which former president just posted that on Truth Social. Anyone? No?”

“Well, thank you President Trump. Thank you for watching, I’m surprised you’re still — isn’t it past your jail time?” the comedian said, prompting cheers and laughs from the audience.

The evening marked Kimmel’s fourth time hosting the Academy Awards. Ahead of the show, he told CNN in an interview regarding Trump, “One of the most fun parts of my job is knowing that he hates being made fun of and making fun of him.”

“And then, every once in a while, he reminds us that he hates it and he gets mad. So, I love that. I take some pleasure in it.”

[From CNN]

“Isn’t it past your jail time” will live on in infamy, as it should! It was the perfect little soundbite. It was crisp, it had the right rhythm, it said it all. And the moment only got better when the camera cut to Annette Bening and Jodie Foster enthusiastically relishing and applauding the quip. While I generally despair over the likelihood of Trump facing his well-earned jail time, this was just the right zinger to add a little spring in my step (as I ambled around on the first Monday of Daylight Saving trying to remember what time it was). Anyway, well-played Jimmy. Thank goodness he didn’t listen to whoever advised him not to do that bit, as he told Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos after the show. Oh, it was his wife Molly McNearney who tried to stop him! Funny for us, possibly fraught for future marital squabbles. And by the way, Kelly and Mark gifted Kimmel with… a gold Stanley cup! Emblazoned with a caricature of his face! The big dumb cup won’t stop.

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Embed from Getty Images

Photos credit: JKP / Avalon, Avalon.red / Avalon, Getty