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Dua Lipa was, no joke, one of my favorite people on the Grammys red carpet last night. She looked amazing! She wore a custom Courreges and some incredible pieces from Tiffany & Co, a diamond alligator set which really looked great with the plated chainmail dress. Dua opened the show and it was a great performance too!

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Billie Eilish wore vintage reworked Chrome Hearts on the red carpet, and then she performed in a Barbie cosplay look. People were raving about her performance and while the song is nice… I don’t really get it. I’m a curmudgeon though. Finneas was her date, and he wore Givenchy.

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Bebe Rexha wore Robert Wun. CB loves her makeup! She looked really good, honestly.

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

Last Friday, the Mail’s royal rota reporter Becky English revealed exclusively that she “thought” that Prince William would return to royal work by the end of this week. Looks like she was right! LOL. She absolutely got an exclusive briefing from Kensington Palace, and she got the briefing right after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirmed that they would spend three days in Canada, Feb. 14-16. Before the Sussexes’ confirmed their plans, Kensington Palace insiders were soft-launching the idea that William would be “off” until April as well. Now KP is confirming that William will do an investiture on Wednesday and do a gala event that evening too.

The Prince of Wales is to return to work this week, with the Princess of Wales settled at home following her abdominal surgery. The Prince, who has been off public duty since January 16 when his wife went into hospital, will undertake an investiture on Wednesday at Windsor Castle, just down the road from home at Adelaide Cottage. Later that evening, he will attend the London Air Ambulance annual big fundraising Gala in Central London.

He has been patron of London’s Air Ambulance since March 2020, after supporting the charity’s 30th anniversary in 2019. He also flew with the crew to launch the 30 Years Saving Lives campaign and met staff and patients from the service at a number of fundraising events.

The Prince’s decision to go back to work suggests that the Princess of Wales is doing well in her recovery from planned surgery. He had said he would only return when she was settled and comfortable. She is due to be out of the public eye until Easter, and will work from home on her Early Years project when she is able.

[From The Telegraph]

In a “this is how the sausage is made” way, it’s interesting that KP officials are seemingly capable of organizing briefings about William’s schedule, yet they can’t manage their way out of a paper bag when it comes to damage control around the rampant conspiracies and speculation about Kate’s health. Anyway, I assume the same thing as the Telegraph – if William is back to doing public events, that must mean that Kate is recovering okay, that she’s not in any kind of mortal danger. I got that from the way Charles and Camilla were treating the situation too – Camilla wouldn’t have been wandering around England with a Cheshire-cat grin if Kate was at death’s door. In any case, I hope Kate really does have good nurses and medical help around her. And I hope William stops competing with his brother at some point but that’s probably not going to happen.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.

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I’m not going to act like I watched the Grammys past 10 pm last night. Sleep is rather precious to me. Celine Dion made an appearance toward the end that I’m sad to have missed live though! She presented Album of The Year, which of course went to Taylor Swift. (Ask Jay-Z about that.) Kaiser covered Taylor’s win here, including the fact that Taylor didn’t acknowledge Celine on stage, but did pose with her backstage. So many people were thrilled to see Celine. We’ve been worried about her after she retired from performing due to stiff person syndrome. Celine came out supported by her son, René-Charles, 23 (how is he that old already?!).

Access Hollywood reported that Celine is filming a documentary for Amazon Prime called “I am Celine Dion.” I look forward to seeing that. Celine was in Valentino and I love her cozy jacket.

Queen! I love her hair.

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Lainey Wilson won Best Country Album, for Bell Bottom Country. She looked super comfortable and cute in a Balmain tuxedo suit – with bell bottoms!

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Kelly Clarkson looked glam in a white off the shoulder structural Jason Wu gown. She brought her seven-year-old son, Remington Alexander, with her as her date! Look at his little velvet suit.

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Niecy Nash was in a plunging gold Marc Bouwer gown. Niecy and her musician wife, Jessica Betts, are goals. I love seeing them together!

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Royal biographer Ingrid Seward has a new book out called My Mother And I, which is not about C-Word’s own relationship with her mother. The “my” in this case is C-Word assuming King Charles’s voice, and the book is supposedly a description of Charles and QEII’s relationship. Why then are the first excerpts all about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex? Wait, don’t tell me, I know. Much like Robert Hardman’s recent royal biography, it looks like King Charles’s court is full of busy little bees, dropping all kinds of revisionist history to royal biographers these days. Hardman’s book led to a weeks-long mess where Hardman had to rollback his bizarre claims that QEII was incandescent with rage over her great-granddaughter’s name (Princess Lilibet). Will C-Word have to roll back claims that Prince Philip hated Meghan on-sight and that QEII was judgmental about Meghan’s wedding gown?

From their very first meeting, over tea at Buckingham Palace, the Queen approved of Meghan Markle. Not only did she like her, she had high hopes for what the American actress might be able to achieve with Harry for the youth of the Commonwealth. Soon the country as a whole seemed to take to Meghan with equally genuine delight. One of the few wary of succumbing to her charm offensive, however, was Prince Philip. While the Queen continued to champion Harry’s new love, he warned his wife to be cautious. It was uncanny, he told her, how much Meghan reminded him of the Duchess of Windsor.

He wasn’t simply referring to the fact that both were pencil-slim, dark-haired and glamorous American divorcees. There was a wealth of subtext in his barbed remark. As one who had lived through this tumultuous period of royal history, and been directly affected by it, Queen Elizabeth II was perfectly aware what Philip meant when he drew parallels between Meghan and Wallis. Indeed, much later, she would remark in her clipped way that perhaps Harry had been ‘too in love’ with the American actress.

As for Prince Philip, he never appeared to change his mind about Meghan. From the moment he detected her apparent similarity to Wallis, he referred to her as DoW (short for Duchess of Windsor).

Queen Elizabeth II never voiced her true opinion about Harry’s wife except to her very closest confidantes, such as Lady Elizabeth Anson, or Liza as she was known to her friends. A cousin of the Queen, she used to speak on the telephone to the monarch on a daily basis. Lady Elizabeth told me that the Queen had made only one remark to her about Meghan and Harry’s wedding, which was that the bride’s Givenchy wedding gown was ‘too white’. In the monarch’s view, it was not appropriate for a divorcee getting remarried in church to look quite so flamboyantly virginal.

Nor was the Queen comfortable with the Prince of Wales’s decision to stand in for Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, and walk her down the aisle. She was also concerned about 96-year-old Prince Philip’s decision to hobble down the aisle without a stick, despite having had a hip replacement just five weeks before.

Then there was the service itself. Like many others in the congregation, she was startled by the impassioned outpourings of the American Archbishop Michael Curry, who spoke for more than 14 minutes. Both the Queen and Prince Philip, who hate long sermons, were desperate for him to finish. They must also have been aware that some of those around them were stifling their laughter. One can only speculate about what they thought when Curry, who admitted he didn’t know either Harry or Meghan, later said he’d felt the presence of the slaves from whom he was descended in the chapel, which he felt to be a ‘sign of hope’.

[From The Daily Mail]

This is most likely going to end up just like Robert Hardman’s Lilibet claims – a week of outrage, a week of “of course Philip was brilliant for hating a Black woman as soon as he saw her,” a week of “it was just awful for Harry and Meghan to invite a Black archbishop to church,” a week of “how dare Meghan wear white at her wedding,” and then C-Word will start rolling back all of these claims. You know why? Because King Charles’s biographers keep making QEII and Philip look horrible. The aim is to wound Harry and Meghan, to insult them, to belittle them, but they don’t have any ammo other than “Harry’s beloved grandparents hated his wife!!”

Also: the old-guard royalists have been trying to make “Meghan is the new Wallis Simpson” for almost eight years. They’ve yet to come up with one compelling reason why Meghan and Wallis are in any way alike (other than they’re both American and have dark hair, which was apparently enough for Philip). Anyway, I believed Meghan when she said she was cool with QEII and Philip. Philip was largely absent from family and palace life at that point, so Meghan probably only met him a handful of times anyway. And let’s be honest, Philip was in no condition to suddenly decide to beef with Harry’s bride.

Remember that stupid story about the Rolls Royce used by Doria and Meghan for H&M’s wedding? It transported Wallis Simpson at one point. There were absolutely people within the palace trying to force the Wallis connection, but I seriously doubt Philip was one of them.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

Well, well. King Charles and Queen Camilla stepped out for a walk to church on Sunday at Sandringham. This is the first time Charles has been seen since he walked out of the front door at the London Clinic on January 29th, allegedly just hours after the Princess of Wales was discharged from the same hospital (and not seen by anyone). Charles seemed to be using his umbrella as a makeshift walking stick, but he made a point of waving to the photographers and showing that he appears to be doing just fine. I’m actually a little bit surprised that he decided to recuperate at Sandringham and not Windsor Castle or Highgrove. His mother used to prefer Sandringham at this time of year – she would stay in Sandringham from Christmas through mid-February. Maybe Charles is trying to emulate that a bit.

I would also imagine that Charles wanted to step out and be photographed for a variety of reasons – assuring the public that the head of state is recovering, absolutely, but Charles was also probably a bit jealous of all of the sycophantic press his wife has been getting in the past week, including some particularly wild claims that Camilla is “practically ruling solo” and she’s “the last one standing.” This weekend was full of even more stories about how Camilla has won over hearts and minds after thirty years and the Times even published a piece called “Charles who? Camilla takes over the royal show.” CHARLES WHO??? Please, Charles always wanted Camilla to be accepted, but he has always preferred Camilla particularly because she would never overshadow him or be more popular than him. Joke’s on both of them because a lot of people still despise them!

Meanwhile, both Charles and Camilla are so much better at this than the heir. It’s been weeks and I’m still downright shocked that Prince William hasn’t done something like this, a proof of life pap stroll. He could have arranged to be photographed in the car, taking his kids to school. He could have arranged some explanatory briefings about what’s going on behind the scenes, like Charles and Camilla have clearly authorized about Charles’s health. It wouldn’t have to be a clinic briefing, just general updates so the media isn’t spinning its wheels. But he can’t or won’t. And it’s getting so weird.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

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Last year, Luke Combs got to #1 on the country music charts with his cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” His cover became a crossover hit as well – pop stations still play his cover constantly, and I’d say he helped new audiences and younger audiences learn about Tracy Chapman. Last year, Tracy even made a very rare public statement, congratulating Luke on his success with her song. Last week, we heard that Tracy would leave her house and actually perform at the Grammys, her first live performance in over a decade. Well, it happened. And it was SO well-done.

Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs – Fast Car#GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/WWztcov2tJ

— Craig R. Brittain (@RealBrittain) February 5, 2024

The only bad thing I have to say about this is that it came so early in the Grammy telecast that no one paid attention to what came afterwards for like an hour. It was wonderful! There was some drama and angst about Luke covering “Fast Car” before last night, like why did he do it, why is trying to countrify Tracy’s iconic song, etc, but you could see that he was just in awe of her, in awe of being on stage with her. He treated Tracy and her music with the utmost respect and his cover earned Tracy a lot of money (because she owns the publishing rights). The way the audience reacted too, it was so special. People were so excited to see her at the venue, and they got a massive standing ovation after the performance. You know what? The duet actually sounded good too. They harmonized with each other very well.

Award shows are tedious and crass, but the smile on Tracy Chapman’s face when the auditorium goes nuts for her before she takes everyone to school with no lip sync, no auto-tune and no in-ear monitors is a pretty sweet moment to capture live. pic.twitter.com/YZGbWgMmHJ

— Sean Armstrong (@manatee73) February 5, 2024

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

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No joke, I was surprised by the love for Miley Cyrus at last night’s Grammys. While her most recent album was pretty good, Miley is still Miley. Miley ended up winning her first-ever Grammy for “Flowers” and she also performed the song on stage (the performance was awful). She showed respect for Mariah Carey, who presented her with her first Grammy as well. On the red carpet, Miley wore this Maison Margiela dress which… well, it was a look. The styling was insane and Miley’s hair/wigs just kept getting worse and worse throughout the night. The more weight she loses, the bigger her wigs. She performed in a vintage Bob Mackie look!

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Meanwhile, Paris Jackson looked kind of boring in Celine, with her tattoos covered with makeup.

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Kelly Osbourne was there with her partner, Sid Wilson of Slipknot, who was nominated for Metal Performance. She wore Christian Siriano.

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

Issa Rae covers the current issue of Time Magazine, and the cover story is all about the racial wealth gap, and for Issa, it’s about Hollywood’s declines in employing Black creators and greenlighting shows written by, produced by and starring Black talent. Issa is one of the biggest Black creators working in Hollywood today – Time lists all of her companies and I was shocked to see how much she has going on (per Time): “Rae’s growing portfolio includes a production company (Hoorae), an indie music label (Raedio), a management company (Color Creative), a marketing agency (Fête), a prosecco line (Viarae), a hair-care brand (Sienna Naturals), and a stake in the U.S. SailGP Team.” AND she also owns an independent coffee shop in Inglewood. She’s not only a major creator, she’s a major employer, she is her own economy. Some highlights from Time:

Witnessing Hollywood backsliding on pledges to increase representation and diversity post-strikes. “I’ve never seen Hollywood this scared and clueless, and at the mercy of Wall Street.”

She doesn’t want to just create, she has to create successful projects: “I recognize that I have to do well economically to be able to make change. That’s frustrating, that’s ugly. But I recognize that money moves things faster—and so much of what I do is with the intention to help make those moves.”

Post-strike, so many projects disappeared: “But there was the frustration of, ‘Oh, my gosh, this project that I’ve been working on for five years just disappeared,’” she says. Rap Sh!t would not have been greenlit by WarnerMedia today, as all executives seem to want, she says, is safe, “universal” stories. Its cancellation is just one example of what Rae sees as a larger withering of promises Hollywood executives made in 2020 toward increasing diversity and representation, both on- and off-screen. “There is a bitterness of just like, who suffers from you guys pulling back? People of color always do,” she says.

On the current leaders of Hollywood. “I’m sorry, but there aren’t a lot of smart executives anymore. And a lot of them have aged out and are holding on to their positions and refusing to let young blood get in.” In prior eras, Rae says, the money-making suits mostly stayed away from creative choices. “Now these conglomerate leaders are also making the decisions about Hollywood. Y’all aren’t creative people. Stick to the money. The people that are taking chances are on platforms like TikTok: that’s what’s getting the eyeballs of the youth. So you’re killing your own industry.”

Questioning the feasibility of “smaller, quieter projects.” “When you have all of these streaming services that are competing with each other, it means they’re also moving the goalposts of what success looks like and what their brand is. It’s all mush. I know what my brand identity is and what I want to make. But if that doesn’t align with who’s paying me to make stuff, then that’s complex. We are malleable, but only to an extent.”

She doesn’t want her own blockbuster franchise. “I’m just excited to create and see what I can do in this space where everything is asking for those big, IP-driven things…I know what drives me and I know what brought me in—and I remember when they were telling me that they didn’t want to make my types of stories. So I’m still optimistic in that way.”

[From Time Magazine]

“Where everything is asking for those big, IP-driven things” – the thing is, Rae would likely never even step one foot in those meetings because the IPs aren’t there for Black women. No one is saying “let’s make the Black Barbie movie” or “we need to cast Issa as Wonder Woman.” That being said, I hope that she continues to dip her toe in those larger projects – she was wonderful in Barbie, and I hope she made lifelong allies in Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie. Robbie was similar to Rae when Margot created her production company, LuckyChap – the idea was to create more movies by and for women, and do it smaller. Then Margot asked to pitch for Mattel executives and the rest is history.

As for what Rae says about how the executives are scared, dumb and old… yeah, I believe that. We saw that play out during the SAG strike too – executives were truly saying the dumbest sh-t ever, and we saw Hollywood management slowly realize that they can’t actually treat their creators like garbage 24-7. She’s right about TikTok as well – executives are so far behind.

Cover courtesy of Time, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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Jay-Z received an honorary Grammy last night, the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, and y’all know the Recording Academy was nervous about platforming Jay-Z and giving him the time to say whatever he wanted. They let him have the time though, and he stood on that stage and called them out – for failing to televise the Rap categories, for marginalizing “urban” music and for failing to recognize his wife in the major categories like Album of the Year.

Jay-Z used his acceptance speech at the 2024 Grammys to call out the organization that honored him with a special award. While accepting the 2nd annual Dr. Dre Global Impact Award — in recognition of his musical legacy — the hip-hop artist, 54, questioned the process behind the voted categories.

“We want y’all to get it right. At least getting close to right. And obviously it’s subjective. Y’all don’t gotta clap at everything. Obviously it’s subjective because, you know, it’s music and it’s opinion-based,” the artist started. “But, you know, some things — I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about that. The most Grammys, never won album of the year. That doesn’t work.”

While he didn’t mention the “young lady” by name, he appeared to be referring to his wife Beyoncé, who has been nominated for album of the year four times and never won. Beyoncé was up for best new artist in 2010 (losing to Taylor Swift), 2015 (losing to Beck), 2017 (losing to Adele) and 2023 (losing to Harry Styles).

“You know, some of you gonna go home tonight and feel like you’ve been robbed. Some of you may get robbed. Some of you don’t belong in a category. No, when I get nervous I tell the truth,” he added. JAY-Z’s latest comments echoed ones he made at last year’s Grammys. “The truth is, we grew up wanting to be on the Grammys, and it was our goal. We just want them to get it right. That’s what we want,” JAY-Z said in 2023 of Beyoncé’s Renaissance album, which lost to Styles.

He then called out his daughter, Blue Ivy, who joined him on stage for the award.

“Outside of that, you know, we got to keep showing up and forget the Grammys for a second. Just in life. As my daughter just sits and stares at me nervous as I am. Just in life, you got to keep showing up. Just keep showing up. Forget the Grammys you got to keep showing up until they give you all those accolades you feel you deserve. Until they call you Chairman, until they call you a genius until they call you the greatest of all time,” he concluded. “You feel me?”

[From People]

You could say that Jay-Z is at a point in his career where he can say these things and not be “punished” by the music powers-that-be, but that’s not really the point. The point is that however ass-backwards, however blatantly racist, however blatantly sexist, the Recording Academy and Grammys are still the biggest awards in music and they confer “legitimacy.” Jay walked the line between calling them out and acknowledging that he still wants them to do better for Black artists, because the Grammys actually do matter. It IS ridiculous that Beyonce has never won Album of the Year (she should have won it in 2017, for Lemonade).

Blue is so grown up!! And Beyonce looked like she didn’t even want to be there. That cowboy hat, LMAO!!

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

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Last night’s Grammys were a lot! I appreciate the celebrities who showed up early, revealed their dress designers, and gave us plenty of photos on the red carpet. Victoria Monet was one of my early favorites in a formfitting brown Versace corset gown. She was there with her boyfriend, John Hayes, and their two-year-old daughter, Hazel. Her family is beautiful. I don’t keep up with music as much as I should but of course I know On My Mama, it’s a fabulous song and such a smooth twist on the original. Victoria won Best R&B Album for Jaguar II in the pre-ceremony. She also won Best New Artist during the live show! Also I’m a sucker for the Bulgari snake necklace, that never goes out of style.

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Coco Jones was another early standout on the red carpet in a phenomenal Celia Kritharioti cornflower crystal gown with a deep v-neck. She won Best R&B performance for ICU. Coco stars on Bel-Air and she’s only 26. We’re going to see a lot more of her. Coco told Laverne Cox she was wearing Skims under her gown!

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Gracie Abrams, nominated in the Best New Artist category, was in a black Chanel look with a tube top and tiered skirt. During her red carpet interview she said she didn’t want to take up space and Laverne told her never to worry about that. For real. Gracie looked pretty and it’s the Grammys, some nominees want to be comfortable. Maybe glam is not her thing.

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Coi Leray was one of the fun early looks in a 2019 Yves Saint Laurent bodysuit look with a lime green muppet coat! She was having so much fun that it really showed. Coi was nominated for Best Rap Performance, for Players. That song is so much fun! Coi lost to Killer Mike in the pre-ceremony and she congratulated him during her red carpet interview. (Incidentally, there was so much drama with Killer Mike in the non-aired part of the Grammys. Embed from Getty Images

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E! red carpet host Laverne Cox was in a red Comme des Garçons dress from her own archive. She said the theme was “blood and roses” and I like how she had an answer to her own “what story are you telling?” question on the red carpet. Laverne got so many compliments on this edgy dress and it was perfect for the Grammys.

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photos credit: Getty