Ben Affleck spent Thanksgiving with his first ex-wife and not his currently estranged wife (who is divorcing him). Jennifer Lopez posted a photo of her Thanksgiving from her kitchen, presumably in LA. Meanwhile, Ben and Jennifer Garner volunteered at the Midnight Mission to feed homeless people for Thanksgiving. The photos are pretty exclusive, but you can see them here:

Ben Affleck cozies up to ex-wife Jennifer Garner on Thanksgiving amid Jennifer Lopez divorce: ‘He’s very happy’ https://t.co/snMC0Wd7C9 pic.twitter.com/VHrfqZJALG

— New York Post (@nypost) November 29, 2024

The “he’s very happy” line came from a People Mag report about how Ben is doing generally: “He’s very happy with life. He enjoys working. He’ll spend Thanksgiving with his kids.” He’s been working a lot this year and he has been spending a lot of time with his kids, and a lot of time with J-Garner. The photos of Garner and Affleck together at the Mission certainly show that he’s trying to charm her or something. From everything I’ve heard, Garner is still very much with John Miller.

Anyway, I hope J.Lo is well and truly over it. Posting beauty pics with a great turkey certainly helps. I f–king love her sweater in that pic too.

Ben Affleck puts on cozy display with ex-wife Jennifer Garner on Thanksgiving amid Jennifer Lopez divorce https://t.co/lg7q0UMwEo pic.twitter.com/F13XH9W1pj

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) November 28, 2024

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A post shared by Jennifer Lopez (@jlo)

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

Happy Thanksgiving, if you celebrate. We’ll be off for Thanksgiving but we’ll have some posts on Friday! We hope everyone has a happy & safe holiday.

Brett Goldstein confirms that there are tons of Wizard of Oz references in Ted Lasso (with Ted as Dorothy, get it, because they’re both from Kansas). [Just Jared]
The history of Thanksgiving! [Hollywood Life]
Adele completed her Vegas residency. [Socialite Life]
Review of Pablo Larrain’s Maria. [LaineyGossip]
Hugh Grant rebuffed LuAnn de Lesseps. [Pajiba]
Latto is being poorly served by this dress. [Go Fug Yourself]
A treasure of “drunk faces in inanimate objects” photos. [OMG Blog]
Does Taylor Russell have an ambassadorship with Tiffany & Co? [RCFA]
Michael Bolton is releasing a coffee-table book. [Seriously OMG]
Jackson Duggar is about to announce his courtship. [Starcasm]
Non-Americans are confused about Thanksgiving. [Buzzfeed]

Prince Andrew has been in the royal news a lot lately because King Charles was doing the most to evict Andrew from Royal Lodge, and then Andrew mysteriously found enough money to stay put. Andrew hasn’t done much since his mother passed away – he’s turned up at a few public events (the coronation, King Constantine’s memorial service), but most of the time, he just keeps to himself in Windsor. He goes riding, he spends time with Fergie (who still lives in Royal Lodge as well) and he spends time with his daughters. According to Hello, Beatrice and Eugenie visit their father consistently, and they’re allowing him to spend lots of time with their kids.

Five years on from the fateful Newsnight interview that spelled the end of his public life, the Duke of York is taking solace in his grandchildren. Prince Andrew, who largely spends his days at Royal Lodge, his 30-bedroom home on the Windsor Estate, has been seen driving three-year-old Sienna Mapelli-Mozzi through the park and helping her to take the reins as she learns to ride. It’s a tradition that royal children have followed over the decades since Queen Elizabeth first sat on a pony at the same age. But it also gives a rare insight into how the Duke is keeping himself occupied, with the support of his “loyal and protective” daughters.

Hello! understands Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie have been taking turns to spend weekends with their father, taking their children along to boost his spirits.

A source tells HELLO! “The girls take the grandchildren to visit him most weekends. They are spending far more time with him now than they have done in recent years. They are quite close to their father; they seem to be quite protective towards him.”

Both Princesses are said to have hosted friends for shoots on the estate in recent weeks, keeping another tradition held by their grandmother the late Queen Elizabeth, who would put on the gatherings for her grandchildren.

The Duke still plays golf and is often seen on horseback in the grounds of Windsor Castle and when his former wife Sarah, Duchess of York, is at home they walk their five Norfolk Terriers and two of the late Queen’s Corgis in the 98 acres of land around Royal Lodge and in the gardens at Frogmore.

But Andrew’s daily life is worlds away from the one he enjoyed before stepping away from public life in 2019, in the aftermath of his doomed friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. His diary, once filled with outings, engagements and global travel now lies empty, which is why, royal watchers believe, he has clung on to Royal Lodge as a constant in his life.

“He’s got nothing else, he’s got no public life, he has no public role,” royal author Robert Hardman tells HELLO!’s Right Royal Podcast. “He is clearly devoted to this home and he likes being there, so if he can make it work, he’s going to try.”

[From Hello]

Andrew’s plan – which has been spelled out repeatedly by “sources” – is that he will leave his Royal Lodge lease to Beatrice and Eugenie. He absolutely wants his daughters to eventually live there, and he is only 21 years into a 75-year lease agreement which he’s just proven cannot be broken by the monarch. I’m not sure if I really believe that Beatrice and Eugenie dote on their father, or that they’re particularly attentive to him. I would imagine that they’re bringing their kids over mostly to spend time with Fergie, right? Fergie seems like she wants to be super-involved with her grandkids. Anyway… I’m glad that Eugenie has one foot out the door in this situation.

Photos courtesy of Instagram, Backgrid, Avalon Red.

Sharon Stone was invited to the Torino Film Festival this week. They gave her a Stella della Mole lifetime achievement award (just like Angelina Jolie). Sharon goes to these kinds of film festivals and international film events all the time – she shows up to the opening of an envelope, especially if that envelope is in Europe. As part of her award, Sharon did a press conference at the festival, and she was asked specifically about the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. I repeat: she was not asked directly about Donald Trump, she was asked specifically about violence against women. It just so happens that Trump is an adjudicated rapist and that a half-dozen of his cabinet-level nominees are predators, rapists, degenerates and whatever Matt Gaetz is. As you can imagine, Sharon’s thoughts on the issue of “violence against women” are influenced by the realities of the incoming Trump administration.

“This question about the question of violence against women is– is a big one. And I think we have to really stop and think about things. And we have to stop and think about who we choose for government. And if, in fact, we are actually choosing our government or if the government is choosing itself.

You know, Italy has seen fascism. Italy has seen these things. You guys. And you understand what happens. You have seen this before. My country is in the midst of adolescence. Adolescence is very arrogant. Adolescence thinks it knows everything. Adolescence is naive and ignorant and arrogant. And we are in our ignorant, arrogant adolescence.

We haven’t seen this before in our country. So Americans who don’t travel, who 80% don’t have a passport, who are uneducated, are in their extraordinary naivete. What I would say is that the only way that we can help with these issues is to help each other.

Now, we can’t just say women should help women because that’s the only way we have survived so far. We must say that good men must help good men and those good men must be very aware that a lot of their friends are not good men. And we can’t continue to pretend that your friends are good men when they’re not good men. And you must be very clear minded and understand that your friends who are not not good men are dangerous violent men. And you have to keep them away from your daughters, your wives and your girlfriends, because this is the time when we can no longer look away, when bad men are bad.

I was watching a comedian the other night and he said, I asked a woman to dinner and she said yes. And it was such a brave thing for her to do because the only real thing, the number one killer of. In the world today is men. For men, the number one killer is heart disease. The number one killer for women is men! It is very important to remember that. It’s very important to remember that. Thank you.

[From Mediaite]

On a scale of zero to Dixie Chicks, this is pretty middle-of-the-road to me? She doesn’t even say Trump’s name, but yeah, she makes not-so-oblique references to the arrogance and ignorance of millions of Americans who voted for Trump. MAGAts are crying because they think Sharon called them dumb, uneducated losers who never travel. But… she’s right? One of the big postmortems on the election was the dumbest people in America voted for Trump and they all cited some of the dumbest reasons why they voted that way.

The whole section about “good men have to look out for women”… men had their chance to look out for women and they voted for Trump in large numbers. The majority of white women also chose this violent fascism. So it is what it is. What’s also interesting is that in 2022, Stone made some interesting comments post-Dobbs, in which she basically said that Trump, Dobbs, and the sort of new cultural acceptance of violent misogyny was all a backlash to Me Too. I don’t believe that, but I think her 2022 comments were more interesting than whatever this was.

Sharon Stone says Trump won because Americans ‘don’t travel & are uneducated.’
“Keep them away from your daughters, your wives, & your girlfriends.” pic.twitter.com/GyTvoiisi8

— AlexandruC4 (@AlexandruC4) November 26, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

I know we’ve all probably done this at some point, but I have to ask, so here goes: Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and asked, “Wow, where did all of those new gray hairs suddenly come from?” Or, and I’m totally pulling this scenario out of thin air, but have you ever spent an entire Sunday taking heavy boxes of Christmas decorations out of storage and then crouching on your knees for hours while putting up Christmas lights only to wake up the next morning to find that, for the first time ever, your arms and legs are super sore?

According to a new study done by Stanford researchers, there’s a reason why we suddenly seem to notice or feel our aging all at once. In a study involving 108 people ages 25 to 75, researchers tracked “thousands of different molecules.” The results revealed that we age in “dramatic bursts” at specific ages. The first aging burst happens around 44 and the second one is around 60.

Somewhere in your mid-40s, you start noticing obvious signs of aging that seem to arrive overnight. You assume it was a gradual process that you just hadn’t noticed, but it sure as heck felt like it happened really fast. New research indicates that may very well be the case. A study from researchers at Stanford tracked thousands of different molecules in people age 25 to 75 and found that people tend to make two big leaps in aging—one around age 44 and another around age 60. These findings indicate that aging can actually happen in bursts.

“We’re not just changing gradually over time. There are some really dramatic changes,” said senior study author Michael Snyder, Ph.D, geneticist and director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford University. “It turns out the mid-40s is a time of dramatic change, as is the early 60s. And that’s true no matter what class of molecules you look at.”

The researchers assumed the mid-40s changes would be attributed to menopausal or perimenopausal changes in women influencing the overall numbers, but when they separated the results by sex they saw similar changes in men in their 40s.

“This suggests that while menopause or perimenopause may contribute to the changes observed in women in their mid-40s, there are likely other, more significant factors influencing these changes in both men and women. Identifying and studying these factors should be a priority for future research,” said study author Xiaotao Shen, PhD, a former Stanford Medicine postdoctoral scholar who now teaches at Nanyang Technological University Singapore.

The study included 108 participants who submitted blood and other samples every few months for several years. The scientists tracked age-related changes in 135,000 different molecules—nearly 250 billion distinct data points—to see how aging occurs.

The study may shed light on the reasons for jumps in certain diseases and maladies at certain ages. For the 40-somethings, scientists found significant changes in molecules related to alcohol, caffeine and lipid metabolism; cardiovascular disease; and skin and muscle. For those in their 60s, changes related to carbohydrate and caffeine metabolism, immune regulation, kidney function, cardiovascular disease, and skin and muscle were found.

The study authors did note that lifestyle might play a role in some of these changes. For instance, alcohol metabolism may be influenced by people drinking more heavily in their 40s, which tends to be a period of higher stress for many people. However, the researchers added that these bursts of aging in the mid-40s and early 60s indicate that people may want to pay closer attention to their health around those ages and make lifestyle changes that support greater overall health, such as increasing exercise or limiting alcohol.

The research team plans to study the drivers of these aging bursts to find out why they happen at these ages, but whatever the reasons, it’s nice to know that the seemingly sudden onset of age-related woes isn’t just in our imaginations.

[From Upworthy]

I was talking about this study with two of my girlfriends last week. We all turned 40 within a few months of one another and all year, we’ve been comparing all of the pesky ways our bodies are changing and what not. Two of us are February babies and we have been pretty consistent in our experiences, from new aches and pains to middle-of-the-night anxiety to unannounced hairs that show up in new locations, and a whole new form of exhaustion. We all agreed that while having data like this come out makes us feel our mortality a bit more, it’s also somewhat comforting to know that there’s a biological reason for certain big aging milestones. It’s also nice to know that everyone else our age is going through the same changes at around the same time, which means we’re all in this together. All of this said, it really is so interesting to know just how much basic biology contributes.

Photos credit: Ala J Graczyk, Kampus Production and RDNE Stock project via Pexels

All of the long-time Angelina Jolie fans have watched Brad Pitt’s machinations for years, as his team consistently runs to Page Six, the Daily Mail and TMZ to introduce various “Angelina Jolie is the worst because of this and that” stories. Weirdly, in recent years, TMZ has kind of gotten tired of being a Brad Pitt defender, so that just leaves the Mail and the NY Post. Last week, the Mail started running some very fishy exclusives about how Angelina’s six kids have not had any contact with Brad’s parents or extended family since the 2016 plane incident. At first, it was just “the kids haven’t seen Bill and Jane Pitt for eight years.” Then the Mail ran a follow-up exclusive with suspicious “private photos” of the Jolie-Pitt kids when they were a lot younger, hanging out with their Pitt cousins and various Pitt relations. Did the Pitt family send those photos to the Mail? Did they get paid for the pics? From the Mail:

Now, insiders have shed light on how the lack of contact has been felt by members of Brad’s wider family, including his nieces and nephews, who are also mourning the close bond they once shared with their cousins.

‘When it went down with Brad, his family was hyper focused on him getting help for his alcoholism,’ an insider told DailyMail.com. ‘The Pitt’s tried their best to keep in touch with the children but some members of his family struggled to contain their frustration with the fallout and as a result, Angelina cut the kids off. The kids were young, so any contact had to go through their mom. And now, almost nine years later, they have no relationship.’

For William, also known as Bill, 83, and Jane, 84, all their attempts to try and maintain a relationship with their beloved grandchildren has so far been in vain. ‘His parents still send cards at Christmas and for birthdays even though they get no response,’ the insider continued.

[From The Daily Mail]

The Mail published this four days ago, and I guess Brad’s team worried that it wasn’t getting enough coverage, because they ran to People Magazine with the same “Mean Angelina has blocked the kids from their Pitt relatives” storyline. Only People Mag contacted Angelina’s people, and they including Team Jolie’s response:

Brad Pitt’s six children have not spent much time with his parents in recent years, a source close to Pitt’s family tells PEOPLE. The insider notes that his six kids with ex Angelina Jolie have not spent “extensive time” with Pitt’s parents in over five years. Their kids have extremely limited contact with the grandparents, cousins and relatives on Pitt’s side, adds the source.

The actor, 60, shares six kids with Jolie: Maddox, 23 Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16. Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, and the former couple has since undergone a contentious legal battle over finances and custody of their kids,

In response to these claims, a Jolie source tells PEOPLE, “Angelina has not blocked any communications or relationships; rather she encourages them to be in touch with their grandparents.”

“The kids send cards and gifts to their grandparents every year for their birthdays and Christmas,” says the source.

[From People]

Just so we’re clear, Brad has spent the past eight years fighting a PR war for his reputation (not his children) while simultaneously continuing his financial and emotional abuse of Angelina. He has never prioritized the kids’ health and safety, and has spent a lot of time and resources smearing his children’s mother. And yet, according to Angelina’s side, Angelina has still encouraged the kids to speak to Brad’s parents and the extended Pitt family. And it’s taken eight years for Brad to try this attack line: mean Angelina has kept the kids away from the whole Pitt family! It’s also bizarre that they ran to People Magazine after few American outlets picked up the Pitts’ leaks to the Mail.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

A few weeks ago, Brad Pitt scored a minor “victory” in his years-long battle with Angelina Jolie. Jolie sold her half of Chateau Miraval – a company called Nouvel – to Tenute del Mondo in 2022. Brad sued her over the sale, and Angelina countersued him. Angelina has been consistently racking up victories in the pre-trial hearings and legal filings, because Brad’s lawsuit is based on “we had a secret, unwritten agreement that she was only going to sell Nouvel to me!” Brad’s victory, a few weeks ago, was that the judge dismissed three of Angelina’s demurrers and the lawsuit is still headed for trial eventually. As Angelina’s lawyer said at the time, this just means that the judge said that Brad has to prove his case in court now. Well, now Angelina has scored a victory in the pre-trial motions. A judge is now ordering Brad to disclose all of his communications with his crisis managers and publicists regarding Brad’s abuse of Angelina and the kids, and the subsequent years-long cover-up.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s winery battle continues with a move that could delve deeper into claims that Pitt was abusive. In a decision made Monday, Nov. 25, a judge ruled that Pitt, 60, must disclose documents that Paul Murphy, a lawyer for Jolie, 49, says will prove “communications concerning abuse, lies to authorities, and years of cover up” on Pitt’s part.

These include emails, texts and other written communications, but nothing between him and his attorneys or therapists.

Pitt’s legal team previously sought for her motion to be denied, calling the actress’ requests “wide-ranging and intrusive,” as well as a “sensationalist fishing expedition.”

Murphy claims the documentation they’re seeking to bring to light is “crucial evidence” that Pitt has “fought for years to hide.” He adds in a statement Nov. 26, “His actions harmed Angelina and their children and are central to this case.”

“But I want to again emphasize that Angelina never wanted any of this,” continued Murphy. “She never pressed charges, she left all their properties, and she is the one who tried to sell him the business in the first place. To this day, Mr. Pitt has never been held accountable for his actions and has at all times controlled Miraval and the winery, yet he still demands more. She wants this to end, the children want this to end, and Mr. Pitt should focus on healing their family, not pursuing lawsuits.”

“If he does not,” the lawyer added, “Angelina will defend herself in court by presenting the evidence necessary to demonstrate that Pitt’s allegations are demonstrably false.”

[From People]

Paul Murphy also told Us Weekly: “We are gratified that the court ruled in Angelina’s favor. After Mr. Pitt fought for years to hide this crucial evidence, he must now produce documents and communications concerning abuse, lies to authorities, and years of cover-up. His actions harmed Angelina and their children and are central to this case.” I still remember, right after the 2016 plane incident, Angelina immediately filed for divorce and took the kids away to protect them. At the same time, Brad was hiring crisis managers and publicists to begin what would be a years-long smear campaign against Angelina. She was always a battered woman protecting herself and her children, and now her lawyers are going to get all of Brad’s emails and texts showing the extent of it.

Top 7 stories about the Jolie-Pitt children dropping ‘Pitt’ as a last name

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s children have systematically dropped ‘Pitt’ from their last names and are going by Jolie, both informally and legally. Get the top 7 stories about this when you subscribe to our mailing list!

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Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Over the weekend, the documentary Queen Camilla: The Wicked Stepmother aired in the UK. I have no idea if it was billed as any kind of thorough exploration of Camilla’s decades of manipulation and melodramas, but it apparently didn’t deliver much beyond some lukewarm tea and a history lesson. The part which most people focused on were the very credible claims that Charles’s then-PR-guru Mark Bolland, who was hand-picked by Camilla, regularly fed Prince Harry and William to the tabloids as a way to make Charles and Camilla look better by comparison. Did the documentary also explore Camilla’s longtime friendships within the media, including her dear friends Piers Morgan and Jeremy Clarkson? I don’t know. Well, all of this is now part of a weird new piece at A.N. Wilson at the Daily Mail. Wilson was tasked with defending Camilla’s horsey honor and Wilson argues that Camilla never, ever was part of a briefing campaign against the Duchess of Sussex. Huh. Some highlights:

Camilla doesn’t deserve this documentary: Now Channel 4 has a new documentary, Queen Camilla: The Wicked Stepmother? – a title that surely would not have existed without the Duke of Sussex’s paranoid accusations. Predictably, it airs his grievances about the Queen and, in a synopsis, poses the questions: ‘How did Camilla Parker Bowles ascend from most hated woman in Britain to Queen Camilla, national treasure? And was her transformation at Prince Harry’s expense?’ Poor Camilla, is what I say. She doesn’t deserve this kind of treatment.

The “Kate made Meghan cry” story: The programme presents itself as fair, and the ‘talking-head’ journalists in it were, on the whole, either on Camilla’s side or, at the very least, anxious to point out that there was not a scintilla of evidence to substantiate the view that she had been briefing the Press against his wife. Much was made of a pre-wedding squabble between the two sisters-in-law, Kate and Meghan, which supposedly ended with Meghan in tears. In the Sussex’s version of events, there was no possibility of this story becoming public, had not either Kate or the Wicked Stepmother’s aides leaked it to the Press. But as all the journalists in the programme pointed out, there were plenty of people who would have either witnessed the row between the two women, or who could have listened at the doors.

Camilla never would have leaked that particular story: The Royal Households are full of people, including large numbers of staff, and the institution of royal courts is leaky. No one has ever presented a shred of evidence that, after Kate and Meghan had a row, Camilla’s side immediately leaked the story. It would have been very surprising if she had done so….Yet taking up Harry’s cause, the programme commentary went on seamlessly to say that ‘the negative press against Meghan continued’. The unstated but unmistakable message suggested that Camilla had in fact briefed against Meghan.

Camilla the royal racist?? They showed the clip, yet again, of Prince Harry saying that his family failed to protect him and his wife from Press intrusion. A voice-over reminded us that there had been accusations against the Royal Family of racism, and this voice-over would not have been included in the programme if it did not want you to think that one of the ‘racists’ concerned had been Camilla. Again, there is simply no evidence for this.

Camilla is so hard-working!! The programme tried insidiously to suggest that there is still such bad blood between Harry and Camilla that the Royal Family’s reputation is irreparably marred. It gave almost no space to Camilla’s hard work, especially during the King’s illness and cancer treatment, during which she wore herself out doing public duties. The truth is Camilla is the best thing that has happened to the Royal Family since the Queen Mother.

Wilson’s thoughts on Diana: Diana was a wonderful person – but she was, as she said herself, a Queen of Hearts, a one-off superstar and not a natural royal consort. She had genuine empathy, and knew how to charm the public. It is perfectly understandable that we all cherish her memory. She did immense good and she was rightly loved. Of course, Harry remains traumatised by the horrible way in which she died. So is Prince William, and that tragedy will scar the Royal Family for the next generation. But Diana was not cut out to be the kind of wife that Charles desperately needed – one who loved him unreservedly; who had enough humour and maturity to laugh him out of his self-pity and touchiness; and one who was not trying to steal his thunder. Diana was herself a vulnerable, paranoid person who came from a broken home. She lacked some of Camilla’s solid qualities of common sense and humour.

Camilla rebuilt Charles’s self-confidence! When Prince Charles’s marriage to Diana was breaking up, Camilla was described as the most hated woman in Britain. Twenty-five years have passed since then and even the most fervent Diana fans can now see she has helped rebuild not only Charles’s self-confidence but also the plausibility of the monarchy. It is Harry, not her, who today is the despised outcast. Whatever Channel 4 may wish us to believe.

[From The Daily Mail]

People: Camilla was one part of a widespread attack on Meghan
AN Wilson: How dare you suggest that Camilla briefed the press about Kate making Meghan cry and reversing the victim and aggressor! Staffers did that!

So, yeah, this is a really weird defense of Camilla. Personally, I don’t believe that Camilla was part of the whole “Meghan made Kate cry” storyline – Camilla wasn’t there and it’s always been pretty clear that this was a special lie created by Kate and the Middletons, who were running their own little comms office out of Middleton Manor. But beyond that, Camilla absolutely was part of the widespread press attacks on both Harry and Meghan. It had been one of her special projects for years, to drive a wedge between Harry and William, and when Harry and Meghan got together, she absolutely stoked William and Kate’s jealousy and paranoia. Camilla got everything she wanted.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.

As we discussed, Drake has filed some kind of legal action – not a lawsuit, but it’s basically a pre-lawsuit – against his label, Universal Music Group. UMG is also the label which distributes Kendrick Lamar’s music, through Kendrick’s own indie label pgLang and Interscope. Drake is arguing that Universal engaged in payola, bribery and bots to amplify Kendrick Lamar’s diss tracks against Drake this past spring. Drake’s accusations are widely believed to be confessions, considering many people within the music industry believe that Drake’s music has been amplified by similar methods – bots, paid influencers, bribery, payola. That was one of the reasons why Metro Boomin had beef with Drake in the first place (Future had beef with Drake for a different reason, allegedly). Well, if you weren’t convinced that Drake is the biggest Canadian Karen ever, please enjoy this: the dude is now accusing Universal of defaming him when they did nothing to stop Kendrick Lamar from releasing the diss tracks which Drake begged Kendrick to drop.

Drake has launched a second bombshell legal action against Universal Music Group over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” accusing the music giant of defamation and claiming it could have halted the release of a song “falsely accusing him of being a sex offender.”

A day after filing an action in New York accusing UMG of illegally boosting Lamar’s track on Spotify, Drake’s company leveled similar claims in Texas court regarding radio giant iHeartRadio. The new filing, filed late Monday and made public on Tuesday, claims UMG potentially “funneled payments” to iHeart as part of a “pay-to-play scheme” to promote the song on radio.

But the filing also offers key new details about Drake’s grievances toward UMG, the label where he has spent his entire career. In it, he says UMG knew that Kendrick’s song “falsely” accused him of being a “certified pedophile” and “predator” but chose to release it anyway.

“UMG … could have refused to release or distribute the song or required the offending material to be edited and/or removed,” Drake’s lawyers write. “But UMG chose to do the opposite. UMG designed, financed and then executed a plan to turn ‘Not Like Us’ into a viral mega-hit with the intent of using the spectacle of harm to Drake and his businesses to drive consumer hysteria and, of course, massive revenues. That plan succeeded, likely beyond UMG’s wildest expectations.”

Like the New York filing on Monday, the new petition isn’t quite a lawsuit. Instead, it’s a so-called pre-action filing aimed taking depositions from key figures at UMG and iHeart in order to obtain more information that might support Drake’s accusations in a future lawsuit. In seeking that information, Drake’s lawyers say they already have enough evidence to pursue a “claim for defamation” against UMG, but that they might also tack on claims of civil fraud and racketeering based on what they discover from the depositions.

UMG and iHeartRadio did not immediately return requests for comment on the new filing. Lamar is not named as a respondent in the filing and is not legally accused of any wrongdoing.

[From Billboard]

Drake is the biggest loser, my god. “UMG designed, financed and then executed a plan to turn ‘Not Like Us’ into a viral mega-hit with the intent of using the spectacle of harm to Drake.” What actually happened is that Drake released “Family Matters” and one hour later, Kendrick released “Meet the Grahams,” a complete evisceration of Drake’s life, persona and character. Then while Drake was still stunned into silence, Kendrick dropped “Not Like Us” not even 24 hours later. The only promotion Kendrick did that weekend was send out two tweets. The fans did the rest. “Not Like Us” was a massive hit right out of the gate.

It’s also worth noting… Drake is arguing that Universal should have somehow stopped Kendrick from making or releasing “Not Like Us” (but not Euphoria or MTG?) but Universal did nothing to stop Drake when he was spinning wild and false accusations about Kendrick – that Kendrick beats his wife, that Whitney slept with Dave Free, that Kendrick isn’t Enoch’s biological father, that Kendrick was molested. Universal did the right thing by just stepping back and letting the rap battle play out, and now that Drake has lost and his career is definitively over, Drake is going out in the saddest way possible.

Some people are already saying that Drake’s endgame is trying to get “Not Like Us” taken down or shelved somehow. Like, no one can put that genie back in the bottle. No one wants to put that genie back in the bottle either. In the wake of Drake’s legal actions, “Not Like Us” reentered the the top 20 charts. The initial YouTube video has 178 million views. The music video has 179 million views. Imagine saying, months later, that Universal should have shut it down!

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instagram. Stills from the ‘Not Like Us’ video.

On Tuesday, Prince William was out for the second day in a row. That man has barely been able to scrape together one event a week for most of the year, so it’s always notable when he’s out of the palace/castle for two days in a row. He was in Salisbury Plain, visiting the Welsh Guards, one of his relatively new military patronages. Last year, Buckingham Palace finally got around to doing a switcheroo – Charles, as Prince of Wales, had all of the Welsh-related patronages, and now Charles is trying to force William into taking all of them. William has refused for the most part, but he did take this one.

Anyway, William wore a Welsh Guards uniform and played with a drone, and watched some other military exercises. The beret helped cover up William’s tragic hair situation (the wispy combover is a catastrophe) but the beard remains. In some of these photos, you can even see that Peg is really trying to cosplay his brother too. What I don’t get is why William thinks this particular beard version (trimmed to look patchy) is his best look. It ages him terribly.

Meanwhile, Kensington Palace lackeys must has screamed at the rota, because several stories popped up about William’s appearance at this engagement. The Daily Express swore that people have been “sent into a frenzy” over “His Royal Hotness.” The Mirror devoted a story to a body language expert who swore that William’s beard and informality indicate “a growing confidence.” Still nothing about his horrible posture, his constant crotch-clasping and his noticeable weight loss, huh?

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.