One of the coolest stories in country music in 2023 was that Luke Combs covered Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” and the cover became the biggest country-crossover hits of the year. Luke’s version was everywhere, not just country radio – pop stations played it endlessly, and his cover sparked a renewed interest in Chapman’s music. While there was some drama, Chapman actually made a rare public statement in support of Combs, congratulating him on his success and his cover. Chapman got paid in a big way because of Combs’ cover – she is the sole author of “Fast Car,” which means that she got (easily) $500K in royalties just from Combs’ cover alone. Well, now it looks like Luke Combs managed to do the impossible: he’s getting Tracy Chapman to leave her house and perform on stage with him at the Grammys.

Tracy Chapman, who has not performed in public in years, will return into the spotlight to perform a duet of “Fast Car” with Luke Combs at the Grammys on Sunday night, sources tell Variety.

Combs, who had a massive hit with his cover version of “Fast Car” last year, was already announced as a performer on the show. Chapman’s appearance comes as a significant surprise, as she has only performed for the cameras three times since wrapping up her last tour in 2009, and the singer had thus far resisted the popular demand to take advantage of the resurgence of “Fast Car” as an international phenomenon.

Representatives for the Recording Academy could not be reached for comment.

Combs’ version of “Fast Car” was ranked as the fifth biggest song of the year in the U.S. for 2023 when Variety published its annual Hitmakers list in late November, coming in ahead of smashes like Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero.” It was a multi-format crossover hit for the country superstar, topping Billboard’s Radio Songs chart for four weeks, making it to No. 1 on the adult pop and country formats for two weeks each, and topping out at an impressive No. 6 at Top 40 radio and No. 2 on the Hot 100.

Chapman’s original version came out in 1988 and peaked at No. 6 on the Hot 100, not really a reflection of how massive it was across demographics at the time. It reached the top 5 in the U.K. twice, once in 1988 and then again 23 years later in 2011.

[From Variety]

Ordinarily, I don’t look forward to the Grammys in general, and most Grammy collabs feel awkward and uncomfortable. But this is very cool and I genuinely can’t wait to see Tracy on stage. You know people in the room will be so happy to see her and I hope they honor her properly. From what I’ve seen, Luke always treated Chapman and her song with the utmost respect (he didn’t even change the “checkout girl” lyric) and I hope he knows what a big deal this is! He got Chapman on stage for the first time in fifteen years!!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

I’ve been steadily falling for Jamie Dornan ever since he admitted to kissing a horse, knowing full well he was highly allergic. It’s like some reverse Pepé Le Pew moment where he was smitten with the repellent partner. Then my emotions kicked up a notch when we learned he had to be hospitalized after being bitten by toxic Portuguese caterpillars during a golfing vacation. So while the rest of the world may be hung up on his heartthrob status or (underrated) acting chops, I’m waiting for word of Jamie’s next close encounter with the animal kind.

One aspect Jamie might appreciate about my peculiar focus on him is that I come to the table with no opinion on his role in the Fifty Shades franchise. Christian Grey seems to haunt him, as the part is addressed in basically every interview he gives. For those who need the refresher, the film came out in 2015. Jamie just appeared on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs podcast, and this time he talked about hiding out in the country when the bad movie reviews started pouring in:

During an episode of BBC Radio 4’s “Desert Island Discs” published Sunday, the actor revealed he “hid” as “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the film adaptation of E.L. James’ popular romance novel, was receiving an onslaught of negative reviews in 2015. Critics largely panned the movie, which earned a 25% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Amid this negativity, Dornan weathered the storm at director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s house.

“We went to Sam Taylor-Johnson and Aaron (Taylor-Johnson), her husband, their place, and they weren’t there,” he said. “They let us have their place in the country, and we sort of hid there for a while and shut ourselves off from the world for a bit.”

Despite the poor reviews, “Fifty Shades of Grey” was a hit at the box office, grossing over $500 million worldwide and leading to two sequels, released in 2017 and 2018. Dornan recalled it was a strange sensation for him to receive so much mockery for a movie that was also wildly successful.

“Then you’re like, ‘Alright, there’s a bit of ridicule here, and I’m now contractually doing two more of them,’” he said with a laugh. “And knowing that there’ll be much more of that damnation to come.”

But Dornan stressed that he doesn’t regret taking on the role of Christian Grey opposite Dakota Johnson, although he bemoaned that the role is still often brought up, even when he’s receiving positive reviews for other projects. “A lot of reviews are like, ‘He’s great, but lest we forget when he wasn’t great here,’” he joked.

Since the “Fifty Shades” trilogy ended, Dornan has gone on to star in numerous acclaimed projects, including Kenneth Branagh’s 2021 romantic drama “Belfast,” which was nominated for seven Academy Awards. He received a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor in 2022. In 2023, Dornan reunited with Branagh on the mystery “A Haunting in Venice,” which received mostly positive reviews.

[From USA Today]

I can’t tell if interviewers simply won’t stop bringing up Fifty Shades, or if it’s Jamie who feels compelled to apologize for it. For the rest of his life, it would seem. But he shouldn’t feel the need to go into witness protection for a film character! He’s said in the past that he’s still “paying penance” for playing Christian Grey, and to still be talking about it nearly 10 years later… Honey, stop punishing yourself! You need all your strength for when you cross paths with a moose who gives you hives! (I’m just spitballing here, surprise me with the next creature confrontation.) But Jamie has been candid lately about his self-doubt, and in another part of this podcast he said “I’m happier with my self-doubt because it always gives you something to try to prove.” Is this a sensible pep talk, or not giving yourself a break?

Side note: when the book Fifty Shades of Grey first came out my aunt warned us against it right away. “Not because of the p0rn. Because of the prose!”

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Emma Stone lives in New York, but she was seemingly in town this week just for a quick promotional blitz, and then she jetted off… somewhere? Maybe to London, because the Cruella sequel is in pre-production. (Incidentally, I loved the first Cruella film and I’m so glad a sequel is coming.) Emma appeared on Good Morning America, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and probably several other shows. I’ve never been crazy about Emma’s style, but I really love her sad-beige outfit in these photos. It’s very ‘70s, very Ralph Lauren. The tuxedo dress is meh, and her airport outfit looks like my winter uniform, minus the red loafers.

Emma’s still talking about Poor Things, for which she’s nominated as an actress and producer. This is also Oscar-campaigning for her, by the way. Poor Things made a surge at just the right moment. I don’t know if her late surge will translate into any Oscar statues though. While Emma is beloved by Oscar voters, I think the Best Actress Oscar is Lily Gladstone’s to lose. Now, could I see a situation where Emma gets a surprise win because Lily and Sandra Huller split the vote? Perhaps. But Emma is not “campaigning” like a frontrunner, she’s just hustling to promote the movie in general, which is probably the smartest way to campaign.

Meanwhile, Emma did a cute Jeopardy thing on The Late Show. She talked before about how much she wants to appear on regular Jeopardy.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Hey Swifties, has Taylor Swift ever attended the Grammys with any of her boyfriends? Going purely from memory, I don’t think she has. Let me look through some photos archives…Joe Alwyn never walked a red carpet with Taylor, but he did sit with her at 2020 Golden Globes. Also: the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, where Taylor sat with Calvin Harris and they were clearly together throughout the show. But they never also walked a carpet together either. It’s not like Taylor is J.Lo, with a constant stream of red carpets with various boyfriends and husbands. All of which to say, I didn’t expect Travis Kelce to show up at the Grammys this weekend, and TMZ confirmed his absence:

Taylor Swift’s been showing up to her boo Travis Kelce’s games to cheer him on … but he won’t be returning the favor during her big night at the Grammys — but for good reason.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … the Kansas City Chiefs tight end will actually be arriving in Vegas the same weekend as music’s biggest night … where he and the team will be on a strict schedule ahead of squaring up to the 49ers for the Super Bowl.

This kills any hope from Swifties that TK would show up as Taylor’s plus-one at the Grammys — as they all realized his spot in the SB meant he’d no longer play in the Pro Bowl the same day … and would therefore technically be free to hit up the Grammys with Tay Tay.

Alas, it ain’t gonna happen — our sources say there’s no chance Travis shows up in L.A. this weekend. So, it looks like Taylor’s gotta find company elsewhere or even ride solo for the glam evening this weekend. … where she’s up for 6 awards.

[From TMZ]

Yeah… he’s busy, she’s busy and they both understand that. It’s one of the best parts of their relationship, if you ask me. They respect each other’s careers and they give each other space to work. Another thing I enjoy about Traylor is that she hasn’t spent the past two months camped out in Kansas City, waiting around for him. Sure, she travels to see his games, but she flies back to New York or LA during the week to do her work or see her friends. The dynamic will change again post-Super Bowl, during Travis’s off-season, and I hope he travels around to spend time with her then.

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Queen Camilla really is glowing these days, lmao!!! She looks so happy, she’s looked happy for the past two weeks. For the past two weeks, she’s been the only senior royal out and about, doing events and being photographed. King Charles was dealing with his prostate issue – which will see him out of public view for the next month – and Prince William and Kate will be out of public view for an unknown length of time. Today, Camilla opened a new cancer support center at a London hospital. While she was there, she answered some questions about how Charles is doing.

Queen Camilla stepped out for a second solo engagement as King Charles and Kate Middleton rest up after surgery. On Wednesday morning, the Queen, 76, visited Maggie’s Royal Free to officially open the new cancer support center at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

And asked how Charles was doing in his recuperation, Camilla said, “He’s getting on, doing his best,” royal correspondent Richard Palmer reported on X/Twitter.

The outing came ahead of World Cancer Day on Sunday, Feb. 4, and marked Queen Camilla’s 17th visit to a Maggie’s center in the U.K. As the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla became patron of Maggie’s Centres in 2008, shining a light on the hubs that provide free support and expert care to anyone navigating cancer.

The Queen was welcomed to the new space by Maggie’s executives Dame Laura Lee and Stuart Gulliver, architect Daniel Libeskind and Royal Free London representatives, and moved to meet the architectural team who brought the new space to life.

Maggie’s Centres are designed to be safe and welcoming havens on the grounds of the National Health Service hospitals for people to connect or take a quiet moment, and Maggie’s Royal Free becomes the charity’s 24th center in the U.K. The organization opened its first center in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1996, and has provided resources to support anyone with cancer, and their loved ones, ever since.

[From People]

The event itself is great and important – those centers are enormously helpful for family members of patients. It’s exactly the kind of bread-and-butter event royals should do. Camilla knows that too. I’ve said before, but I really have so much hate-respect for the way Camilla continues to play the royal game. She’s come out ahead for decades now. Now the visual is: Camilla is the last one standing.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Several days ago, the trailer for the remake of Road House came out. The remake stars Jake Gyllenhaal and I still haven’t watched the trailer because… I really can’t stand Jake anymore. Maybe he’s a great actor, but his general vibe is so sleazy, plus I’ve never been able to look at him the same way after Domenica Feraud’s story. Plus Jake’s own comments about how he doesn’t bathe. All combined, I’m left feeling slightly nauseated whenever I think about Jake. Well, here’s another horrible story about him. People in the French film industry have started talking about how Jake completely torpedoed a film production in 2021.

Whether it’s Val Kilmer’s antics on the set of The Island Of Doctor Moreau or Sly Stallone demanding last-minute changes during the filming of Rambo 3, cinema history is littered with stories of star power gone wild. According to a report in France’s Technikart magazine (and spotted by World of Reel) we can add the Jake Gyllenhaal-starring survival drama Suddenly to the list.

The film – essentially a two-hander about a pair of lovers trapped on an inhospitably cold island – was originally due to begin filming in the autumn of 2021. It was to be directed by Thomas Bidegain, with the script co-written by newcomer Valentine Monteil. For Bidegain, known for writing such films as A Prophet and Rust And Bone, it would have been his first step into Hollywood filmmaking, with Jake Gyllenhaal starring alongside Vanessa Kirby (Margot Robbie, Ana De Armas and Jodie Comer all passed). With the script written, everything seemed to be on track, with locations already chosen in a quiet part of Iceland and construction set to begin on an expensive set – some sort of whaling facility – on the nearby coast.

It was when Gyllenhaal – who’d also signed on as producer for the $26m film – arrived in Iceland that things began to go awry. Technikart’s report – which includes extensive quotes from Bidegain – describes some distinctly erratic behaviour from Gyllenhaal, including demands that the script be rewritten to a curious moment in which he stripped down to his underwear and jumped in the freezing cold sea in front of the whole crew. The magazine even has a candid photograph, appearing to show Gyllenhaal wading into the icy waters. “When I see the sea, I swim in the sea,” the star reportedly said.

Other curious moments described in the feature include Gyllenhaal specifying what colour his hire car should be (“neither red nor white”), Gyllenhaal and Kirby reading the script aloud in mock French accents like Pepe Le Pew, and Gyllenhaal arguing that the script should be rewritten to make his character an ex-soldier.

“For a scene on a boat, [Gyllenhaal] sells us the idea that he slaps a fish,” one passage reads.

Eventually, matters came to a head on day four of the project, with Gyllenhaal still demanding changes to the script and even – allegedly – saying that the production’s set builders had to sleep in their cars in order to prevent the spread of Covid. When producer Alain Attal dug his heels in and refused to change the script, the entire project fell apart.

“I’m going to talk to Jake and we agree that there’s no point in persisting, our visions diverge too much,” Bidegain told the producer. Weeks after the project came to an abrupt end, Vanessa Kirby reportedly tried to buy the script off Bidegain so she could embark on another attempt to make the film with Gyllenhaal – but without Bidegain. Bidegain and his producer refused.

The story does have a happy ending, of sorts: Bidegain rewrote the script in French, and cast actors Gilles Lellouche and Melanie Laurent in the lead roles once occupied by Gyllenhaal and Kirby. Now called Suddenly Alone, it sounds as though production on the new iteration of the story went much more smoothly the second time around – the completed film is due for release in December.

[From Film Stories]

The original stories/reports are in French, but English-language outlets are picking up the stories – World of Reel had more coverage, but it looks like they’ve got the same basic facts as Film Stories. As for Jake’s behavior… yeah, I believe this story. I believe that he behaved this way and I believe that his behavior has been problematic and unprofessional on other sets too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

In the years before QEII passed away, then-Prince Charles would often brief the media about his big plans once he was in charge. In 2021, Charles even unveiled his plans to do a big real estate shuffle as king, and one of his notable suggestions was that he would downsize his own portfolio and basically “give” Windsor Castle to Prince William and Kate. Then QEII passed away and suddenly all of those plans fell by the wayside. Not even a full year into his reign and his aides were telling the royalist media that Charles is newly committed to never giving up any of his twelve castles and palaces. William and Kate received no real estate upgrade, although William now has access to the vast Duchy of Cornwall real estate empire, so god knows where William even lives now, but it’s certainly not Windsor Castle! Well, now that King Charles, the Princess of Wales and Prince William are all taking steps back from work for a while, all of the palace/castle staffers are like “wait, what are we supposed to do now?”

Staffers are at loose ends: While the royals are expected to continue working behind the scenes, perhaps even holding some private audiences, it seems inevitable that many of the vast army of people who work in the various royal households will be at a looser end than they might otherwise have been in the weeks ahead. Charles is likely to remain publicly invisible for up to another month, having already taken ten days off frontline duties for treatment for an enlarged prostate. William and Kate are likely to be out of action for a staggering three further months as they focus on her recovery and attending to their family, having already been out of sight for two weeks.

William has been seen! Kate is likely to have been ordered to try and stay in bed as much as possible following her planned abdominal surgery. William is taking time off his royal duties to care for her and their three children, and has been spotted doing the school run in recent weeks, sources have told The Daily Beast. Courtiers have said they expect the Waleses to be largely out of the public eye until after Easter.

One former courtier told The Daily Beast: “Serving the royals can be a precarious business, as Queen Elizabeth’s staff found out when she died. (Royal staff) are not exactly twiddling their thumbs, but there is never going to be the usual volume of business to attend to if your principals can’t do royal jobs. For instance, it takes dozens of people to plan and execute a foreign tour, and those have all been canceled. (Courtiers) devote their lives to serving these people, and one does assume it will just carry on forever. But of course, it doesn’t, and hiatuses like this come as a very stark reminder of the extremely contingent nature of their roles.”

A friend of the king’s however, said: “It really is nonsense to suggest that everyone is going to be at a loose end. The public engagements are a huge part of the job, but much, much more happens behind the scenes, and that won’t stop. The king’s people are kept incredibly busy and I suspect if they only have a chance to catch up they will be jolly happy.”

Kate & William aren’t in a rush: Kate, however, took a different approach to her father-in-law. Not for her the public wave on the hospital steps. Instead, she left hospital quietly and without fanfare, slipping out without getting photographed by the waiting media. This perhaps points to a difference in how the two offices intend to handle their respective principals’ time off in the days ahead. A friend of William’s and Kate’s said, “I think they have made it very clear that the next few months are about the family. They are taking time off and no-one begrudges them that. I’m sure the office will be a bit quiet over the next few weeks; that is kind of the whole point.”

[From The Daily Beast]

Let’s be real – Kensington Palace is used to a more “genteel pace,” as we were told repeatedly during the “Hurricane Meghan” years. KP staffers regularly wept in closets because they had to work eight-hour days when Harry and Meghan were around. It was often said, separately from the Sussex stuff, that KP was a nice place to work because there was nothing to do and no expectations. Look no further than what KP did for William and Kate in the years before Kate’s health drama – idiotic busywork and word-salad speeches, William proclaiming to be the savior of homeless people, and W&K’s belief that they both had to be “out of the office” for twenty weeks a year during their kids’ school holidays. Kate once went a full eleven weeks without being seen or photographed or doing one stitch of work (that was in 2021).

Now, it’s different for the king – he made such a big deal about how he was going to spend time in all of his palaces and castles, and I bet you anything he’s just recuperating in Highgrove right now. I also think they’ll end up saying that Charles needs an “easier” schedule when he does come back. Oh well!

I’m trying not to take this onslaught of celebrities sharing how much they get done between 3-7am personally, but the struggle is real. I understand that people tend to fall into one of two camps, early bird or night owl, and I’m also aware that some studies say there are people who simply need less sleep. I grew up with one of those people, an early bird who functioned on fairly little sleep. My father, like Dolly Parton (first time I’ve uttered that statement), would wake up in the wee hours and pretty much get a whole day’s work in by the time my mother and I, night owls, would be rising for the day. It was hard not to feel like a schlub by comparison. Rachael Ray is among that anointed, productive crowd, as she described to People Mag while chatting up a new partnership with A&E:

Rachael Ray has been cooking up something big.

Ray’s production company, Free Food Studios, formed a partnership with A&E Networks. The deal will bring “in the kitchen” content and various new shows from both Ray and other talent over the next two years.

The project means Ray, 55, is having a hard time finding a moment to relax — but she’s just fine with that.

“I’m not really good with downtime. I love to work. I love it. I love to have my brain very active, and if I’m not writing shows, I’m drawing ‘foodles’ I call them — recipes on paper — and writing books and things,” the iconic television cook tells PEOPLE. “I don’t like being idle. I’ve never been good at it.”

She even jokes that she wrote “120 pages” of one of her cookbooks on her honeymoon. “I really am bad at doing nothing!” she says proudly.

Ray says she starts as early as 3 a.m.

“I can’t sleep. I wake up at three or four in the morning, and I just start working because I can’t stop thinking about it,” she says. “I’m not very good at sleep. I never have been. Even when I was a little girl. My nickname was Little Hoot because I was a night owl.”

Her husband of over 20 years, John Cusimano, prefers a little more R and R. “He loves to sleep. Unfortunately, once I get up and turn all the lights on and start typing and turn the coffee on, he’s forced to get up pretty early, too,” Ray quips. “He’s usually up between five and six…The other morning he said, ‘You realize it’s three o’clock in the morning, right?’”

Another main reason Ray likes to stay hyperactive is that she’s always curious about trying out new things and taking on reimagined business ventures.

“I’m always game for anything, and I’m a person who’s over 50 years old. I’m trying to still remain relevant, which is an honor,” she says. “It’s cool to be over 50 and get new opportunities that keep getting thrown at me.”

[From People]

Real question here: do Rachael and her husband live in a studio apartment now? Why is she turning on the lights in the bedroom if he’s still sleeping? At the very least she could flip them on for getting dressed and then turn them back off when she’s done. And is the coffee being made in the bedroom?! Why must he be forced to wake up at the same time?! My vehemence stems from empathy!! Rachael may start her day before daybreak, but she should leave the hubby to his own circadian rhythm. Also, is it me or was that quip about her honeymoon a little rough? Not working doesn’t necessarily mean doing nothing. Rachael and John have been married for nearly 20 years, though, so if they butt heads I’m sure they’ll have one of their signature vents and move on. As for her new A&E shows, she’s working on one where she’ll be cooking from her home in Italy. I’m gonna need several boxes of pasta handy when that airs.

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Last June, the wheels came off the Middleton bus. Carole and Michael Middleton’s business, Party Pieces, went bankrupt, leaving a trail of financial destruction in its wake. The Middletons owed creditors more than $3 million, but they sold off the Party Pieces name and stock to a British entrepreneur, who actually came out and said that the Middletons were broke-ass and they never had the kind of money they pretended to have. Carole and Mike have only been seen once since all of that went down, but it’s still incredibly strange that they were not seen or photographed anywhere near the London Clinic for two weeks while the Princess of Wales was being treated. Well, today is Carole’s birthday, and the Mail published a pretty brutal piece about how the past year has been Carole’s “annus horribilis” and “The Middletons are reeling from a series of blows to family and reputation.” Oof. Some highlights:

Carole’s birthday: All thoughts in the Middleton household will be on their daughter, Catherine, as she continues her recovery from abdominal surgery. And that will apply even today, the birthday of Carole Middleton. In previous years, she has celebrated abroad – and memorably so for her 60th, which she spent on the private Caribbean island of Mustique with pink champagne, grenadine cocktails, a jazz band and fireworks. Today’s 69th birthday will be a quieter affair, and not just because the eldest of her three children, the Princess of Wales, has been unwell.

Annus horribilis: For the past 12 months have been something of an annus horribilis for the Middletons, and Carole in particular. Kate’s mother has only been seen in public once since her business Party Pieces collapsed last June owing £2.6 million. That was at her daughter’s Together at Christmas Carol Service at Westminster Abbey before Christmas. Carole avoided the Wimbledon tennis championships and Royal Ascot, both regular fixtures in her diary.

Party Pieces went bust: In May, Prince William’s in-laws were given pride of place at the Coronation, seated in row seven of Westminster Abbey, immediately behind the Royal family and next to world leaders.But it all exploded the following month when it was announced that her company had fallen into administration with debts of £2.6 million, misery compounded by a malicious campaign seemingly from embittered creditors, a cruel depiction in the Netflix series The Crown, and her daughter’s surgery.

The Middletons’ debt: While Party Pieces was bought for £180,000 by entrepreneur James Sinclair, who describes himself as the ‘Millionaire Clown’, there was no money to pay the creditors. Not only did the company owe the taxman £613,000 in unpaid VAT, and RBS £219,000 for a Covid loan, a string of family businesses was left out of pocket with some £456,000 due. Disgruntled supplier Sultani Gas, which was owned more than £20,430 by Party Pieces for helium for balloons, accused Carole of ‘betrayal’. ‘What hurt me the most was that I trusted her as the mother-in-law of the future King,’ a spokesman said, ‘and she just betrayed me. It is absolutely unacceptable.’ The firm’s landlord, Lord Iliffe, on whose Yattendon estate the company was based, was also owed £57,480 in unpaid rent and faced ‘severe financial consequences’. Other creditors, according to the report, included Portuguese gas canister maker Amtrol Alfa, which was owed £82,872, and party decorations firm Ginger Ray, due £52,304.

Carole’s portrayal in The Crown: The latest – and final – series of the Netflix blockbuster The Crown, hardly helped. Carole was lampooned and portrayed as an ambitious match maker who had engineered the marriage between William and Kate. Speaking on an episode of the hit Mail podcast, The Crown: Fact or Fiction, her brother Gary Goldsmith attacked the show for misrepresenting his family. ‘Carole isn’t that manipulative evil person, coming up with ways by which she can force her way into the Royal Family,’ he said. ‘First and foremost, Kate did brilliantly well to get into St Andrews. She’s an amazing girl, but that wasn’t noted. It was all to do with: “Kate you’ve got to be doing these things, you’ve got to be showing your legs”. It’s just not my family. It’s not the way Carole operates.’

How the Middletons will spend the day: It is not known whether Kate, 42, will be well enough to see her parents or her siblings Pippa Matthews, 40, and James Middleton, 36 today. While in other circumstances, Mike and Carole would celebrate abroad or perhaps at their £4.7 million Grade II listed home in Berkshire, for the moment they have cleared their diaries to help Prince William look after their three grandchildren George, ten, Charlotte, eight, and Louis, five. The princess is expected to recover at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Great Park, which is a 40-minute drive from her parents.

[From The Daily Mail]

Damn, happy birthday to Carole, here’s how your house of cards collapsed in real time. I’m glad the Mail noted the fact that Carole skipped Ascot and Wimbledon, and that she’s only been seen once since PP’s insolvency. It would suck if that’s the reason why Carole didn’t visit Kate in the hospital though – the last thing on my mind (and I’m a hater) would have been “broke ass Carole shouldn’t visit her ill daughter in the hospital!” Of course not – we all know that Carole and Kate are very close, and I believe that Kate would have wanted to see her mom more than anyone. Which is why I still halfway believe that Kate is already recuperating at Middleton Manor, or she soon will be. Anyway, happy birthday to Carole.

Note by CB: Get the Top 10 stories about the Middletons’ shady finances when you sign up for our mailing list! I only send one email a day on weekdays after lunch.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Party Pieces’ IG.

In 2020, Taylor Swift made her general feelings known for months before she formally endorsed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. She was jazzed, that summer, when Biden chose Harris as his running mate, then Taylor did a piece with V Magazine in October 2020 where she spoke about why she was voting for the Biden-Harris ticket. She also baked Biden-Harris cookies and posted the photo on her Insta (and Biden reposted it too). So far, Swift hasn’t been vocal about who she plans to vote for, but I would be willing to bet that – at the very least – Taylor will do another voter-registration drive and she’ll participate in some GOTV efforts in the fall. All of that means that the Republicans are terrified of the power Taylor wields and You-Know-Who has been telling people that he’s more popular than Taylor (he is not).

Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift hasn’t even endorsed President Joe Biden for reelection yet. That hasn’t stopped members of MAGAland’s upper crust from plotting to declare — as one source close to Donald Trump calls it — a “holy war” on the pop mega-star, especially if she ends up publicly backing the Democrats in the 2024 election.

According to three people familiar with the matter, Trump loyalists working on or close to the former president’s campaign, longtime Trump allies in right-wing media, and an array of outside advisers to the ex-president have long taken it as a given that Swift will eventually endorse Biden (as she did in 2020). Indeed, several of these Republicans and conservative media figures have discussed the matter with Trump over the past few months, the sources say.

While Swift has not yet issued an endorsement in the 2024 race, The New York Times reported Monday that Swift is a key name on Biden aides’ “wish lists of potential surrogates.” A potential Swift appearance at Super Bowl LVIII alongside her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, has already prompted the MAGA right’s culture war pugilists into a conspiracy-fueled froth about how this NFL season has been rigged to boost Biden.

Behind the scenes, Trump has reacted to the possibility of Biden and Swift teaming up against him this year not with alarm, but with an instant projection of ego. In recent weeks, the former president has told people in his orbit that no amount of A-list celebrity endorsements will save Biden. Trump has also privately claimed that he is “more popular” than Swift is and that he has more committed fans than she does, a person close to Trump and another source with knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone.

Last month, the source close to Trump adds, the ex-president commented to some confidants that it “obviously” made no sense that he was not named Time magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year — an honor that went to none other than Swift in December.

Meanwhile, as Trump has been having a popularity contest with Swift in his own head, others close to him —including GOP operatives, some of his 2024 staff, and Trumpy media figures — have been brainstorming different ways to go after Swift. Since late last year, these Trump allies have repeatedly discussed how to turn the culture-warrior dial up to 11, if she re-endorses Biden this year, the sources recount.

“It would be more fuel thrown on to the culture-war fires,” says an official working on the Trump reelection efforts. “Another left-wing celebrity who is part of the Democrat elite telling you what to think.”

Publicly, members of Trump’s inner sanctum and social circle are already signaling Swift’s prominent position atop their enemies list — a situation that has reached fever pitch now that Swift’s boyfriend will once again be playing in the Super Bowl.

[From Rolling Stone]

Here’s the thing – I bet Taylor has been wondering what she should do or say about the election too, but by telegraphing their fascist rage at the #1 pop princess in the world, the Republicans are making it that much easier for Taylor to just post a simple Instagram endorsement for Biden. I mean, she’s going to get sh-t no matter what she says or doesn’t say, they’re absolutely making that clear. And if it turns into Trump vs. Taylor, my money is on the Snake Fam. Please, I’m begging the Snake Fam to use their power against the MAGA cult. Also: I don’t believe that the Biden administration wants to use Taylor as a surrogate. Her power and voice would be much better for (as I said before) voter registration drives and GOTV efforts.

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